The End Thank you. Thank you. guitar solo Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go ahead and I'll call to order the Lexington Fayette Urban County Council work session. Today is January 16th, 2024, and I welcome the council back from your break. And the first item on the agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. And we have one person signed up. And so here's how this works. When I call your name, if you'll come to the podium here, please. and you'll need to restate your name and your council district for the record, and then you'll have three minutes to speak. So we have Catherine Perkins signed up. Are you here, Catherine? Oh, there you are. Welcome. If you'll state your name and council district for the record, welcome. My name is Catherine Perkins, District 12, 258 Swigert Avenue, 40505. I don't know. I don't think I need to talk because I believe I was just told a public hearing has been scheduled for PLNMAR 2300018. And I can't remember 90% of y'all's names, but I remember that number. So are you, did you want to say you're supportive of a hearing or not? I'm requesting the public hearing, so I am supportive of it. Okay, very good. Thank you very much. That's all I need to do. Okay, thank you. That concludes our public comment for issues on the agenda. And that leads us to the docket, and we have several rezonings. And so I'll ask for a motion to approve the docket. So moved. Second. Council Member Ellinger moves. Council Member Reynolds seconds. And please log in if you have something about the docket. Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. I have two that I wanted to bring before you. The first one is I move to place on the docket item one an ordinance changing the zone from a highway service business B3 zone and single family residential R1B zone to a medium density residential R4 zone. For 5.24 net, 7.71 gross acres for properties located at 2200 Old Paris Road and 2324 Paris Pike. With a public hearing to be heard on February the 13th at 5 PM. So moved. Is there a, all right, Councilmember Gray seconds. And that was February 13th? That is correct. Okay, 5 PM. All right, is there any discussion? If you have discussion, will you raise your hand since people are logged in for the docket? Councilmember Sevigny. Thank you, Mayor. My question to the council member is, because we've been doing a lot of these with a hearing, especially in your district and District 12. And this particular one, I noticed, was a unanimous vote, and the staff recommended it. And I haven't really seen anything yet on this one. I mean, normally we do. I'm just kind of curious as to why you're requesting a hearing. Council Member Plummer. Thank you, Council Member. We did receive, our office received an official ask from the Joyland Neighborhood Association, which is located right down the road from this development area. I know Council Member Denise Gray also received numerous requests for hearing. I do believe that one of the things that was a concern for the neighborhood was the height of the building that was being proposed. And so maybe there's a way to somehow rectify that without going to a hearing. I don't know. But I don't know. Council Member Gray, would you like to add anything? Because you also were contacted. Yes. So, Council Member Savigny, I know in the 6th District, it is immediately one step away from the 6th District. I have had a large outpouring of asks from residents of the 6th District to request a public hearing. I believe that when we have an outpouring of such as what I've been receiving, that we must hear our residents out fully. Thank you. Anything else, Council Member Plumman? I think I'll let my other Council Members speak. Thank you, Mayor. Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Tracy, can you come up and give us a little clarification on a couple things on this particular hearing? So on this item, what was the recommendation of the planning staff? Tracy Wade with the Division of Planning, Planning Services Manager. The recommendation from the staff was for approval of the zone change. Okay, and then the Planning Commission did vote to approve it. What was their vote count? Their recommendation was for approval, and the vote was 9 to 0. 9 to 0, okay. There was one other thing. I was looking through it. There was a recommendation for postponement, like earlier in the document. Can you clarify kind of what that was for, what that was about? Looks like I left that one at my seat. And oftentimes if there is an issue that's not resolved or completely addressed by the applicant's justification or application, then the staff will recommend postponement in order to outline the deficiencies and give the applicant an opportunity to address those concerns. And so I would say about half of the time the staff recommends postponement first to allow for those corrections or issues to be resolved and then makes a more substantial recommendation. So in this instance, there was a recommendation for postponement and there was postponement, is that correct? Or did it go? I believe there was a postponement, yes. And then after that, whatever issues were to their satisfaction, the planning staff recommended for approval? Yes, sir. Is that correct? Okay. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Fogle. Yes, thank you, Mayor. I also wanted to acknowledge that the 1st District had plenty of concerns. Our office has been flooded also wanting a public hearing. So I wanted to acknowledge that on the record so that the 1st District know that the job they sent me here to do, that I'm doing it for them. Thank you. Councilmember Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to state, I think that date was only sent out today, and I have a previous commitment on that day. So if that is the date picked, I might not be able to be present. Thank you. All right. Any others who wish to speak? Mayor. To the motion? Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. You know, as we see it more and more zone changes, I kind of tend to agree with the Vice Mayor. If they're recommended by staff, unanimous approval by the Planning Commission, then I'm more likely to lean towards not having another hearing just because I don't know in how many circumstances we're going to hear new evidence. So, Tracy, can I ask you a couple questions or just ask you one question if you can answer it? In regards to the concern about height, was that conveyed at the public hearing at the Planning Commission? and can you speak to it? I'm sorry. I actually do not recall if that was a major discussion point. And I'm sorry to interrupt. I'd like law to weigh in about whether the council can discuss specifics. I'm not sure since if there is a zone change hearing, it's based on the evidence at that time. Thank you, Mayor. Happy New Year, council members. You know, that is a due process hearing, So I would caution the council about getting too much, too far into the specifics and the facts. I think it's okay to ask about process, but I think as far as specifics and facts about the zone change itself, that that is something that should be left to the hearing. Okay. And I will clarify that I wasn't going to dive into the conversation around height, but if that was a concern that was brought up and evidence was presented to justify height or if not, then that's something that's already been vetted. So we probably need – we may not necessarily have to have another public hearing to discuss and have a conversation about something that's already been discussed. So for now, I'm going to support the motion not to have a public hearing, and I think we have until Thursday before it actually gets docketed and approved to make a decision. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Okay, thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak to the motion? Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. I'm on a different opinion. I think we are the elected officials. If we have objectors and we have people who want to hear this, then I think it's our responsibility to have a hearing. So I am going to support this. And I think when we do have this much e-mails and calls and have objectors, that we need to do our job, and our job is to come here and have these hearings. So I think we need to have the hearing. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Council Member Fogle, second time. Yes, I concur. We have to have this hearing. It's no different than the neighbors that came from Richmond Road or the people who didn't want the soccer field built on Newtown Pike. We heard them. These are the people that we represent, and they have spoken, and just like Councilmember Ellinger said, we represent the city. So I'm in support of the hearing. Thank you. Is there anyone else who wants to comment on the motion? All right. The motion is to have number one set with a public hearing on February 13th at 5 p.m. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? No. Okay. We have two no votes, Vice Mayor Wu and Council Member James Brown. All right. That motion passes. Mayor, I have a second. Okay. I move to approve item four, an ordinance changing the zone from an agricultural urban AU zone to a planned neighborhood residential R3 zone. 13.075 net, 15.479 gross acres for property located at 5447 Tates Creek Road without a public hearing. So moved. Second by Council Member Fred Brown. Any questions about that motion? All right, all those in favor of approval, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Okay, Councilmember Sevigny. Thank you, Mayor. I move to place on the docket item number two, an ordinance changing the zone from a professional P1 zone to a neighborhood business B1 zone for .6130 net 1.04 gross acres for property located at Clay's Mill Road without a public hearing. So moved. Thank you. Vice Mayor Wu seconds. Are there any questions? All right, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Council member Legree. Thanks, Mayor. I move to place on the docket item number five, an ordinance change in the zone from a medium density residential R4 zone to a downtown frame business B2A zone. For 2.143 net, 2.633 gross acres for property located at 201, 207, 209, 211, 215, 221, 225, 227, 231, and 235 East Maxwell Street. And 245, 247, and 251 Stone Avenue. On the docket, without a hearing, so moved. Second. Second by Councilmember Baxter. Any questions? Councilmember Worley. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to note I'd be recusing from this matter due to the involvement of my law firm. Thank you. All right, thank you. Councilmember Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. I always respect what the district person wants to do in their district. However, I have received quite a number of emails and and individuals who have reached out to this one. And as I stated earlier, as an elect official, I think it is our responsibility. We do have a lot of residents that have asked to have a hearing that we try to, if we can, because I understand it was a 9-0 with the Planning Commission, but the Planning Commission is an appointed body. We're elected officials. We represent the residents. why in this situation do you think a hearing is not needed? I have a question for Ms. Wade. I know Director Duncan reviewed this with us, but could you explain kind of the process for what would warrant a hearing and how that decision is reached? Could you explain any of that in general? Sure. KRS 100 establishes the process by which we rezone property. And in every case, a public hearing is held by the Planning Commission, and then they refer their recommendation on to the elected officials in terms of our county. Obviously, that's the Urban County Council. And then the council can elect to have a second public hearing if you so choose as a body. and there's really no criteria by which you have to adhere in terms of deciding on whether or not to schedule a public hearing okay there we go okay anything else council member pluman thank you mayor and along the lines of what council member ellinger just said i too feel like if we get that amount and I have received a lot of input from folks and I think too when we were just listening to council member Legree talk about the many addresses that that piece of development would take up that I think that it is going to be a major development and I think I think it warrants and again like council member Ellinger said we are the liaison and we give access to voice and I think this is a very big decision or very big development for our community. Thank you mayor. Thank you. Vice mayor Wu. Thank you mayor. From my understanding when when these potential hearings come up it's generally speaking has been our practice to be up to the discretion of the council member whose district it's in. And I understand the force and the power of constituent emails and constituent contact. But I think when we make our decisions, and I'm only speaking for myself, we have to consider an array of factors. And for me, when it comes to zone change, we're always talking about some level of infill and redevelopment, some level of land reuse, some level of creating, usually, very often creating more housing for our residents. So I think there are more issues at play beyond constituent requests. And, you know, I always caution myself when I see waves of constituent emails come in to always balance the idea in my head that volume, in terms of loudness or agitation or passion that people have for these issues, doesn't necessarily speak to the majority opinion. and that's something that we have to gauge with doing a lot of engagement with folks, with public input, with talking to our constituents. So I think it's a little more complicated than folks ask us for it, therefore we have to do it. And for me, as somebody who prioritizes infill and redevelopment on these sort of projects, when it's gone through planning staff and an agreement with planning commission, especially either a unanimous or a supermajority vote. I'm inclined to let these go forward without a hearing. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. And kind of in the same tone of the comments that I shared earlier, If it's recommended by the staff, unanimously approved by the commission, and there's no new evidence that's going to be presented, then I'm more than likely going forward going to support not having a public hearing. And I don't want it to come off as not wanting to do my duty or my job as an elected official to sit through zoning hearings, because I've sat through my share. I can probably count on my fingers how many I've missed since I've been on council. So I have no hesitation about doing that. But then I don't want to set unreal expectations to folks in the communities and the neighborhoods that come and present their cases that they've already presented before, and the decision remains the same. So I'm inclined, and today I will support not having a public hearing on its own change. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Anyone else? Councilmember Gray. Thank you, Mayor. I'm just curious, Council Member, do we have any new evidence? Tracy, whoever, I don't know. Do we? Without stating any facts? It would be premature to say whether there would be new evidence because, again, we wouldn't know until we were in the midst of a hearing if new evidence was presented. Okay. Thanks. Thanks. A zone change is supposed to be based on the evidence you hear at the time. And that is why Council Members are discouraged from talking with other people about them ahead of time, because you don't know what evidence may come up. Yes, Council Member Brown. So thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council Member Gray, for the question. You know, not specifically talking about new evidence that someone shared in an email, but I know in the past we have got emails that said I wasn't able to attend the Planning Commission hearing and I wasn't able to share this or something else didn't come to the attention of the Planning Commission and I think this is relevant. That's what I mean by new evidence. If there's no indication of that, then more than likely if folks felt like they had an opportunity to express their opinion, share their concerns, and the Planning Commission and the staff both weighed in and made a decision, I think we should uphold it. So, thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Does anyone else want to speak to the motion? All right, the motion is to set to approve number five without a public hearing and Councilmember Worley will recuse. Okay. All those in favor, please say aye. Is anyone opposed? No. No. Let's do a hand vote, please, or electronic. Can you do the electronic, please? There we go. Just if you'll log in your vote, please. All right, that motion passes 9 to 5. Thank you. Council Member Lynch. Thank you, Mayor. I move to place on the docket item number three, an ordinance changing the zone from a mixed low-density residential R2 zone to a neighborhood business B1 zone for 0.15 net, 0.17 gross acres for properties located at 760 and 762 Florence Avenue without a public hearing. So I move. Thank you. Council Member James Brown seconds. Are there any questions? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Council Member Worley. Thank you, Mayor. With reference to item number six on their ordinances for first reading, an ordinance amending the Lexington Fayette County Zoning Ordinance, this is the Urban Growth Zoning Ordinance text amendment. I would move to remove this from the docket and refer to the General Government and Planning Committee. Second. Second. I heard three seconds, but I heard Council Member James Brown first. So are there any questions? All right. All those in favor of referring to General Government Committee, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Anything else for the docket? No? All right. All those in favor of approval as amended, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Thank you very much. Next up, we have the December 5th Council Work Session Table of Motions. If I could have a motion, please. Council Member Ellinger moves. Council Member Gray seconds. Are there any questions, additions, corrections? All right, all those in favor of approval, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Next up, we have budget amendments starting on page four. If I could have a motion to approve. So moved. Second. Vice Mayor Wu moves. Council Member Plowman seconds. If you have questions, please log in. Council Member Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. If I could have Commissioner Hensley. Is she here? Have her come up. I've got one major question. Welcome. On the second item on there for the $259,000? Yes, sir. And I understand that's an in and out to establish a general fund to cover bond payments. How far back does that go? Quite a way. It's 2014. That far? Yes, sir. What was the reasoning, I guess? So we've had a receivable on the books for quite some time. The library corp no longer functions the way that it was intended at the beginning because they now have their own bonding capacity. And so going back through some of the old transactions, we wanted to make sure we had a really good historical look back. And so we've been spending some time going back through all those records to determine where that funding came from. And so that is a bond payment that we made on behalf of the library corp at the time that we just didn't transfer back over to the general fund from the corp. So we're just trying to clean up those transactions. Well, there's two entries on that. There are. One is of the library corp fund itself, and the other side of it is for the general fund. So is that $259 coming back into the general fund, our general fund? Yes, sir. Okay. Do we have any other items like that that we need to clean up? We are working through it. I would hope so. We can take all the money we can get. And on that same line, I see there's another item there that makes up the General Service District Fund $500,000. That's coming back in. I'm trying to figure out which one. And there's another item on there that's recovery, I think. Because when I look at the summary, request summary, I see general service district fund, $500,000 plus credit, which is addition to the fund balance. Right. So that's actually a combination of a number of things. One is the money from the library court, and then there's additional payroll recovery from a number of grants that will be helping out with the payroll that would have been charged against the general fund. Is this cleanup time? Is that what it is for the first six months? We do have a number of new grants that come on at the beginning of every calendar year, and so that payroll recovery we anticipate, but we never know if we're actually going to get the grant until it comes through. So part of that is grants that's normal activity, but part of it is the cleanup that we've been trying to work through on some of these older So once we get that grant that kind of relieves the budgetary amount that we had set up previously. Yes, sir. Are we anticipating anything else in the next six months? We'll continue to track grants. We actually do that all year long because as you all are aware, we have a number of different grants that come on at different times during the year, so you might see those. But the beginning of the calendar year and the beginning of the fiscal year are two large periods of time where we typically see that. So as they come on, if we have differences or if we get more or less than what we've anticipated, we'll be bringing those to you all as adjustments. So that's not designated funds, going back into general funds, not designated at this point. Right. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Erin, don't go too far. Yep. I was going to bring up the one that he just brought up because you sent us an email and outlined some of the changes that when we were on break. Is there anything else that you want to discuss that was on this email that might be helpful? There are a lot of things on that email. I was trying to kind of help with some of the questions that may be on here. We have three separate schedules this year or this month, I guess, New Year as well. But primarily what we're trying to do is make sure that all of the items that council has intended to occur have a funding source that is tied to them time-wise that's going to work. So as we've been working through some of the ARPA projects, we think that the timelines may not work out. So we're trying to swap funding, if you will, back and forth to make sure all of the council's requests have been met. Because we have certain dates that we have to hit by federal regulations, and if we don't, then what happens to the programs then? That's correct. So the ARPA money has to be completely encumbered by December of 2024, which seemed like it was so far off when we started. But it's coming quickly. But it's going to be here before we know it. And so Coldstream, the Legacy Business Park at Coldstream, was one of those projects. and that's running into some archaeological requirements, just things that take some time and so we were concerned about being able to hit that ARPA deadline. We didn't want there to be any risk that we'd be returning funds. I think this is probably a Jennifer question to follow up though, but December 24 we had to have encumbered and then have to be finished by 26? That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Council Member LeGree. No? Councilmember Sevigny? Councilmember Sevigny? Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner Hensley, I have some questions, thank you. So on the $2 million plus, you're kind of swizzling, reallocating some budgeted funds. It appears it's basically because mostly from unfulfilled positions maybe in the first quarter. Right. So have you done that typically in the past? So we have done smaller one-off allocations as we have found needs in the past, but this is the first large reallocation that we have done outside of the budget. We've been talking about it the last couple of years, and payroll seemed to be one that we know we're not going to harm the operations of the government by reallocating. And when we were taking a look at what our needs are going to be in the next year's budget, that was probably where we felt comfortable going ahead and reallocating at this point. And would we, because I've been doing this for a year, So normally, would that $2 million have kind of sat out there and maybe in and then after six months, there might be $4 million? And would that eventually be dumped down to a fund balance discussion that we would have in October as a council? Right. So it would have become part of the conversation that comes in with the budget. In the last several years, we've been doing a combination of pre-funding and reallocation. And so it would have first been considered for pre-funding for the budget or any balancing that was necessary. But then whatever is left at the end of all of that would have become fund balance. And do you feel like doing it this way, is there an advantage to doing it this way as compared to waiting for even the pre-funding conversation in another three months? I think there's a couple of benefits to looking at it like this. One, we really wanted to address some of the health and safety concerns. If you look down through the list, we have health and safety issues with both staff and for residents. So addressing those as timely as we can I think is important. Another thing that we're running into is the lead time on some of our items that we're ordering, some of the technical equipment. We've seen it in vehicles, a number of different things. And as early as we can kind of get in the queue, if you will, to get those things ordered, I think is beneficial. And so I do think that there's benefit to reallocating during the year. I do think there's benefit to reallocating during the year. Yes, I do. And then lastly, because I kind of went through the list and it's not totally easy for me to understand. Is there anything in there that is a staff position or new positions that were created or anything? Or is it all just stuff? It's all just stuff. Regular expense stuff, okay. Yes, sir. And a lot of them are things that are already running over. So, for example, we have $350,000 for general services building maintenance. Our HVAC costs have been running higher already. Okay. And that was before our cold snap that we just got. So things that we're tracking that are already running over just to continue daily operations are things we tried to address as well. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mayor. Thank you. Any other questions about budget amendments? All right, all those in favor of approval, say aye. Aye. Thank you, anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Next, for your information only, Council, on pages 10 through 14 are the budget adjustments. And next up is new business. Could I have a motion? Second. Second. Council Member Plumman moves, Council Member Sheehan seconds. And please log in with your questions. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to start with letter E for Commissioner Armstrong. This is about clarifying the definition of a vicious dog. I actually had some issues with some dog bites recently in my district, and so I was wondering if you could clarify what the current definition is and then what is the consequence for a vicious dog? Well, I'll try and answer those as best I can. Thank you for the question. With that being said, I actually was contacted by the vice mayor today. There's an, I'll call it an error in the current ordinance where it's actually just missing a simple word of provocation. In other words, an animal would not be considered vicious if it reacted in self-defense if you provocated it in some way. And that puts us more in direct line with state requirements as it applies to that. Chief Bowling with Animal Care and Controls here, I will say this, when it comes to the penalty of having a vicious animal, that somewhat is gauged or can be kind of a tricky question to be honest with you because it's about the severity, the background on it, what the dog is. There's a lot of different things that will be played out with the county attorney as it's prosecuted through the system. I don't know if the... Chief, do you have anything you want to answer? This change was based on a request from the county attorney's office in animal care and control in our ordinance to make it more streamlined. Chief Bowling, good to see you. Welcome. Good to see you, Mayor. I'll try to answer that question as simply as I can. The county attorney's office has been prosecuting our charges for years and years here. This change came along that we revised it, I think, back in 2017, somewhere along. It was basically a typo when it got put back in from somewhere down the line through the law department as they added it in. because this had gotten approval through the Animal Control Advisory Committee. But with this word, it got pointed out to me by the county attorney's office on a case that when they tried to charge or convict them, this would be an easy missed word that could easily overturn the case conviction because it is missing. And it's very specific of without, and it stops in the ordinance. If you've got a copy of the ordinance, it stops any dog that has bitten a human being or an animal, excluding wildlife, without or. So the word's basically just missing. Okay. So, but the county attorney's office caught it during one of our cases. and I'm not sure if the county realizes or the council realizes we do anywhere from 235 to 500 cases of vicious dog and nuisance created by animal cases a year in this county. I figured it was that much, and I know the process can be kind of complicated for the average resident that's trying to navigate it, but hopefully this will make a little bit more. It should help. A little clearer, anyway. Okay, thank you very much to you both. Thank you. Thank you, Council. And then on letter W to CIO Rogers. Welcome. Hello. Hello. I was just curious, when we were talking, these funds are going to the new website, right? These funds are going to the new website. So, yes, what we talked about when the fund balance project was approved to build a new website, this sort of establishes the home for all that nice new stuff to live in. So this would be our supporting infrastructure, servers, network infrastructure to host all of that content. And this will not be – this will be funded for fiscal year 25 because these will not be – these charges will not be realized until that site is live. And this is kind of like set up, or is this the annual? This is the annual return. This is the annual fee. Okay, great. Well, that's very exciting. I'm thrilled. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. Item D as in dog. Segway. D would be the authorization to initiate statement of work. Director George. Somebody give me some information on it. I'm not, maybe it's happened before. I'm not too familiar with that. Having to hire a consultant, I thought that was, is that involved in the union contract or anything? We actually do this with every promotional process. This is the company that we work with that helps us with the testing. Help you with what? Helps us with the testing. The testing? Yes, we do this every promotional process. This is who we get the test from. Okay, I didn't get that from reading that information there, but that's from testing. It has nothing to do with the union or anything, contract or anything like that. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. One other item, Mayor. You, authorization to submit an application. Requesting funding an amount of $150,000 for a West Hickman watershed project. Director. This is in my district right up the street. Yes, it is. Never had any problems whatsoever in drainage there. It's always been mowed. It always looks good. Why are we putting another $100,000 that we're going to have to put in with federal? Why are we doing that, and is there any consequence on maintenance going down the road? There will actually be less maintenance if this grant is funded and once the work is complete because it's going to be converted to more of a natural meander pattern with additional vegetation. And it won't get all of the turf mowing that is currently being done. So that cost will be reduced. And yes, that basin has always worked very well from a flood control perspective. this is to go after that water quality piece that was not a consideration when this basin was originally designed. So it's one of the projects that's in the West Tickman Watershed Management Plan that's been approved by EPA and the state. And so it was it was a high priority, though, is it? As far as that watershed management plan, yes, it's a high priority project. So that gives you some points with the Kentucky with the state or what? Yes. But you're still taking $100,000 out of the budget. Has that already been budgeted? Yes, it's actually, those funds are from a 2017 Water Quality Construction Fund project that's in Environmental Services Department. Your expertise in this area and probably Charlie Martin probably gotten involved in it a little bit, but I do question the fact that sometimes when you got something working, do you want to go and spend $100,000 dollars to improve, you know, to another level. So I trust your judgment on that. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Councilmember Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. And I have a, I have two questions, one on EE and one on GG. They're all about new positions. So I don't know who I need to direct my questions to. So the first is EE and that is the creation of a new position for a lawyer in your department commissioner can you just tell me a little bit about why that position is needed and what the workload is like right now and maybe when the last time we added a lawyer was sure thank you council member baxter currently the law department has 14 total lawyers including the commissioner and we have been at that level of attorneys in at least a decade if not longer as you all know we touch every department and division in the government we represent everyone across the government, we draft all the legislation, we handle all of the litigation. And these past few years, we have seen an unprecedented amount of funding coming in, and number of really big generational projects that we're doing. So like when anybody else in the government, when our clients get busier, we get busier. And in looking at this, I was very concerned about our ability to continue to provide the kind of timely, responsive legal services that you all expect from us. I also want to point out that we're a very small department, particularly budget-wise. It's really just our people. And we have tried to really be mindful about how our budget is structured. Since we work with every department, we are able to allocate the funds across the different funds. So this position will actually have no impact on the general fund. Okay. Okay, great. Thank you for that clarification. And then my second question is about GG and a new administrative specialist position in the mayor's office. Tyler, do you? I'm just curious if this is new responsibilities, an added position. No, let me put all the pieces together here for you. You've received an email from Brad in our office while you're gone. This dials back to a conversation between myself and the CAO, Department of Revenue and Finance. It really has more to do with the implementation of the short-term rental ordinance than anything else. There will be a position requested in the upcoming budget for that position. But with the implementation starting now, what we've come to agree upon was that Brad, with his background and his public policy, let's say high-level capacity, would be an excellent fit to move over there to help with that implementation, research, policymaking, you name it. So we give him a six-month head start on a position over there. But to do that, our position in our office would have to go with him. So, for now, that position that he's currently utilizing will go over to revenue. Therefore, we would need to create a position that we're talking about to backfill him. Once the new budget's in, assuming a new position is created and approved in revenue, the one that Brad took with him would dissolve. It would be competitive, of course. But for now, we need to create this one in the short term in order for revenue to get the bodies they need. Okay. Thank you. That clarifies a lot. I appreciate it. You're welcome. Thank you, Mayor. You're welcome. Council Member Gray. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question regarding letters, FF, Chief Wells. So I have received a question from the mental health court. We're just, and the question was regarding how, what exactly will this position entail? And by the way, Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you. So are you speaking specifically to the peer support specialist? Yes, sir. Okay, perfect. So the peer support specialist, as we've talked about before, is going to be an amazing addition. That is somebody who has lived experience, who will really be able to speak the same languages as the individuals that we're trying to serve. Somebody who has battled through substance use disorder and is kind of on the other side. So we're very, very excited about it. The minimum qualifications for that position are a high school diploma. And then the state actually, I believe it's the Cabinet for Families and Children, has a curriculum. And that person will either be required to have completed that curriculum or complete it as a condition of employment. So it's going to be a great addition for the team. So this will be a position that is on the ground. with, I guess, our team that's located in the 6th District? Yes, so this grant, this actually comes from the COSUP grant, the $1.3 million grant over the course of three years that we got last year. And there's several components to it. We're going to hire two additional social workers, which was part of the discussion with the growth of the community paramedicine team. And then this peer support specialist, it also allows for about 1,500 doses annually of Narcan additionally. It will be part of the expansion of community paramedicine. We're very, very excited about it. And these individuals are specifically for substance use in dealing with that community and how to best serve them, getting the right help to the right person. Thank you, sir. In addition, let me see if I can find their letters. I'm sorry. It was dealing with the town branch. We have several items on the list that are regarding town branch. Additional funds, CC. I guess it's Ms. Preacher. I'm just noticing many additions asked for funds regarding this project. And I just want to make sure that I know it says budget amendment in process. So these funds were not, these are additional funds on top of what we've already, I just need clarification on this. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. These funds that we're talking about for this scope of work is utilizing the Tiger Grant. So the funds are already there. The budget amendment is in order to move them to a different location so it could be utilized for this. Same thing, there's a small portion of this contract, $33,000, is of the Town Branch Commons Fund, again moving it to a different spot so it can be utilized. All previously budgeted for Town Branch. Thank you. That makes perfectly clear. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Most of my questions were answered, but number Q, the litter abatement grant. Welcome back. I served on the corridors and also on the Green Space Trust, and one of the big issues with litter. Could you talk about, and we were looking at sources of how we go about taking care of litter in our community, and I know this is a grant that we've gotten in the past, and here, can you talk about what it does and how it works? Sure. We use these funds that we do get every year to pay our litter contractors who go out and pick up litter based on complaints to LexCol or 311. And then also places that reoccur that we know tend to accumulate litter, we use those funds for the contractors to go out and address those. Now, how is that formula, because it is a kind of unique formula, how we get the money and how it's derived? It's based on the number of road miles that each county has, and that's really the formula is based on just that one piece. And then we get about the same amount of funding every year, give or take a few thousand dollars. Thank you. And then number Y. I couldn't not talk about cycling when we have one that's going to have here. Director Duncan, welcome. Could you talk about the Love to Ride program that we have here? Absolutely. Thank you, Councilman Billinger. This is another outreach program to the community, particularly those who are interested in riding bicycles, but perhaps think that there are impediments to that. So this will be a way of gathering additional information about what are the impediments to biking for some of our community members and what are some of the solutions that we can offer. and that we'll be doing this targeted outreach during bike month and then cycle September, and then there'll be other outreach as well, and then they'll evaluate that information that they get and to see how we can apply that for future changes to the bike plan. Sounds good, and I'm sure we're talking about complete streets later, and that's going to be one aspect of cycling and other modes of transportation. So all this kind of plays into it. So I'm always excited when our purpose is to increase bicycling in Lexington. That's right. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Lucre? Well, Mayor, I waited all this time, so I might as well ask Director Duncan some more questions about Item Y. I was very excited about it, and I was really hopeful that I could be the first one to jump in about it. But I think it's great that so many of us are going to be talking about complete streets and cycling education. All I wanted to say is when the time comes for us to help amplify this, Will you all push it out to us so that we can put in our newsletters, our social media and what not? Yes, we will use our sources and we will be delighted to have you all as partners in sharing that information, yes. Okay, great. Maybe some of us could even participate. That would be fun. So thank you, Director. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. That's it. Thank you. Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question about item O, Director Martin or Commissioner Albright, I guess? So this is about the stormwater quality projects incentive grant to FCPS to increase our tree canopy, which I'm a big fan of, in the amount of $72,000. How do programs like this work, especially as it relates to FCPS? Are they asked to do any sort of match or anything like that with grants like this? Yeah, excuse me, yes. All the water quality management grants have a match component to it. Usually it's like 20%. It may be financial, but it may also be volunteer hours based on an hourly rate that's used as a formula. Who's the 20%? Pardon? Who's the 20%? The grantee. Okay. We're 80% of it. They're usually 20% of it. But sometimes it is more. It depends on the circumstances and stuff. It depends on the type of project it is and stuff. If it's a capital project where they're doing a lot of things that are not necessarily water quality related but are germane to the project, then they have to fund that 100 percent themselves. Does FCPS, in your knowledge, have sort of ongoing projects or programs to increase tree canopy that we're tying into? Or is this, you know, are they doing it because they're getting the grant from us? The tree canopy component of it is fairly new. That was something that was added by the fees board a year or so ago to start funding more tree efforts because that's what the public wanted. Fayette County Public Schools has been an off and on and on again partner in the Water Quality Management Fee Grant Program since its inception. They're actually our second largest rate payer the last time I checked as well. So we fund a lot of their educational stuff and all that. They're a really great partner. But we have done capital improvements on streams at various elementary schools as well. Great. Thank you, Director. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Sheehan? Thank you, Mayor. I would just like to make a note that due to my affiliation with University of Kentucky, I would like to recuse on item DD when it comes to the vote. Thank you. DD? DD. Thank you. All right. Council Member Lynch? Thank you, Mayor. And my question is on item DD. If Mr. Larry Johnson or Tyler Scott could come, doesn't mind to come up to answer my question? Just one. Welcome, Larry. Just one quick question. On our summary page, it says that the funds are budgeted, but in the memorandum, it says the budget amendment is in process. So I just want to know which one it was. The funds are budgeted. We've made the amendment in grants so that the money was already there. We just have the no-cost extension, so we're just taking it from one pot and putting it into another pot so that we can go ahead and get this contract signed. Okay. All right. That's all I needed. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Fogle. Thank you, Mayor. So we are going to talk about X. On deck will be Q. And then just a slight touch with FF, if you all will come to the podium. Commissioner Lanter, is he here? Let's see, Director George is X. And as they're coming up, I just want to say, Director Duncan, I look forward to working with you as well as I'm pretty sure Councilmember Sheehan and Councilmember Gray with the money that's coming in the north end, that 21.7. I'm sure we're going to get some good old bicycle trails over there and improve some traffic flow. Commissioner Lanter, for this position that- Will you restate which item you're on first? X as in Xelophon, Xavier. Will this administrator have duties as direct service provider? This is actually not a new position, it's replacing an existing position. It's just the administrative assistant for the division. So this is just changing the type of position that we have. Once this position is filled, the existing position will be abolished. And it's not a direct service, it's an administrative support position to myself and the others in the office. And the only reason why I'm calling you to the podium is that that's the piece that we're missing. And I want the council to know that if we don't have anyone in your office that does direct services, it's doing an injustice. And I'm just talking about the Hope Village right now. We've been doing a great job, but we need some people to do direct services. We cannot find an outreach program that will help people who are freezing right now after 5 o'clock. And that's when people surface is after 5. So all week long, Council, the Community Action, and myself, and some other volunteers, we've been out in the streets because we can't find that outreach person. So I just wanted to tell you, and I know you've been working well with me and other people, that some position for direct service. It's good to have pie charts and all of that, but if we don't have that direct service person, then we're doing an injustice and we're staying in the same hole and we can't climb out. So that's it. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you. And I think the next one is, who's ready? Q? Q. Okay. Why did I call you up here? Director Carey. I was wondering, is there any vision for community service with the folks inside the jail to help do this litter? I remember that was the top job, was to go out in community service. You had good behavior. You was in a flight risk. And that could take some of the pressure off of cleaning up Lexington and across Kentucky. Is there any plans for that service to come back in effect? To return, not to my knowledge. And I am not aware of why that stopped, why we don't do that any longer. That happened before. I came downtown. So I might need to rely on someone else that has the answer to that. But we can get that to you. Chief Colvin is here. Is Chief here? Chief Colvin is here. Come on down, Chief. Happy New Year. Come on, y'all know my five minutes is ticking. Let's move it. Welcome, Chief. Hey, Chief. Happy New Year. Good afternoon, Council Member Foley. That's the first I'm hearing about this program. I do know that it was pre-COVID the last time that the program was put together, but I don't see a lot of issues with it. I just need to take a look at it. Okay. Thank you so much. I'll be able to see you. We also, don't we also have, I'll ask Jennifer Carey, some community organizations that sponsor parts of our county and they go pick up litter. Is that still operational? We don't sponsor the adopt a spot on our local streets, but the Transportation Cabinet District 7 still has the adopt a highway program. And they're always happy to link up groups who want to adopt part of a state-maintained road. Thank you. Okay, in my last few seconds, because Samara took some of my little seconds, I just wanted to know, you know I always come about diversion and equity with this position, and this is a great position, by the way, the peer support, the language barrier and diversity. Are you all taking a look at that when you hire this peer support person? That's going to be so important. I can assure you that will be a big component of the process. We will definitely look at that, and we're utilizing our partners out in the community to help us get names. Okay, thank you so much. That concludes my questions. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Gray. Sorry. I mean, thank you, Mayor. I'm sorry. I forgot to ask one question. It goes, it's regarding KK, Chief Colvin. I understand. This is asking, this is regarding extension agreement with a tech company for telephone and tablet services for the inmates. So I know you and I, we spoke about, I believe you said the process of visitation, and we were moving away from in-person visitation for families and friends. So is this to support that move? Yes, ma'am, it is. We are at the end of our RFP process. We look to have a blue sheet to you all maybe as early as next week, if not the week after, and get an award the phone contract. It's up for bid. And this has been a process that required a lot of effort and study because the technology in inmate visitation has advanced so rapidly. And so it's taken a while for my staff and me to meet with, vet the vendors, take a look at the visitation technology advances there are and to decide on a good plan. But, yeah, that's what this is, Council Member. Thank you for the clarification. Sorry I failed to ask that during my time. Sorry. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I see no other questions. So all those in favor of approving new business, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? Thank you very much. That passes. We had that one recusal by Councilmember Sheehan on DD. Now on to our continuing business presentations. I'll entertain a motion to approve the capital projects. So moved. Second. Councilmember Fogel, Vice Mayor Wu seconds. Are there any questions? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Now I'll turn the mic over to Council Member Worley with his committee report. Thank you, Mayor. This is the committee report out summary of the General Government Planning Committee October 17, 2023 meeting. First, the September 19 meeting summary was approved unanimously. Second, we had an update from Director Duncan on the expansion master plan. The urban growth management plan from Director Duncan provided an update on the comprehensive plan, Goal 3. He gave an overview of the Planning Commission's recommendations regarding Goal 3. Planning staff engaged the services of TSW planning consultants. The urban growth management master plan should be completed by October 2024. At least that's what was at the time that's getting more aggressive than even the timetable the council gave in the goals and objectives. They will evaluate and address land use, transportation networks, environmentally sensitive lands, open space, infrastructure, utilities, and community facilities. No action was needed or taken on that item. Next, Director Walters presented on the comparison of employee pay by race, ethnicity, and gender. the management advisory group was asked to review and analyze lfucg compensation data for classified and unclassified civil service positions in the unified pay plan to determine if race ethnicity or gender is a factor in salary distribution they found there is no statistical difference in the distribution of salaries by race and ethnicity or gender that cannot be accounted for so while that outcome is favorable this is incredibly complex issue and will need to be a continual process for the government to monitor and look for ways to improve. No action was needed nor taken on that item. Next, we had a presentation from Arthur Lucas on the diversity and inclusion workshop update. In December 2020, Council approved an RFP to hire a consultant to develop and present a diversity and inclusion workshop to LFUCG staff. The focus was to build awareness with common and basic language. A total of 37 70-minute workshops were conducted virtually for over 1,500 employees. Over 700 employees provided workshop feedback. No action was needed or taken on that item. The committee adjourned at 2.46 p.m. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Are there any questions for Council Member Worley on his report? All right. Thank you very much. Next is the presentation of Complete Streets, the action plan. and I think that is Brandy and Kenzie from Planning. Welcome. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. We've got a new clicker here for me. It looks very nice. Just for you. Thank you. It's been a while since I've stood at the podium to present to you. It's been on a Zoom box, I feel like, for so long. So thank you for allowing me to be with you today to provide an update on the Complete Streets program. That was initiated last year. And while the mayor's office has acted as the convener, I must give credit to the real staff experts behind the scenes, which is the MPO. And that's why you have Kenzie Gleason with me today, who will also co-present with me. So during this presentation, we'll walk you through the process, starting with the formation of the advisory committee, share with you our overview of the data collection phase and our engagement with stakeholders in the community. And then we'll provide a snapshot of the final plan as well as what's on the horizon for 2024. So what are complete streets? I think all of you know what they are. Many of you have spoken about them today while we've been here. But because no two streets are the same, no complete street will look exactly like another. So an urban complete street may have wide sidewalks, cafe tables, bike lanes, crosswalks, and comfortable bus stops. But in a suburban area, you may find center medians, sidewalks, wide planting strips, and buffered bike lanes. I give those two examples to say there's a number of ways we can solve these complex roadways in our community as we implement complete streets. But the primary goal remains that complete streets are safe and comfortable for everyone. That includes pedestrians, cyclists, that includes transit riders and drivers. And also, these roadways are considered for all people. Whether you be younger, older, have a disability, whether you can't drive or you choose not to drive, we should be accommodating everyone. As you're aware, as you all approve this, in December 2022, LFUCG adopted our Complete Streets Policy, aimed at making Lexington's transportation system safe, affordable, accessible, and dependable for all. The policy clearly stated that a complete streets advisory committee was to be formed to guide the creation of the action plan, and that should be completed by the end of 2023, which we have successfully completed, and that's why I'm here today. That process would require an emphasis on stakeholder and community input, And I know that that's because we wanted to ensure the community's values were guiding this plan that we were developing. The policy also outlined reporting requirements with descriptions of performance metrics, and those would be reported on every other year, along with annual updates on the action plan that is developed. So Lexington Action Plan is now complete. We emailed that to you right before the holiday break, and it is now live on our Complete Streets page. This plan serves as a foundational step for the success of Complete Streets Program in Lexington. This initiative aligns with our vision for a more accessible, equitable, and sustainable city. The plan's primary goal is to ensure we use every opportunity available to us to plan, design, build, and maintain our streets with safety and comfort of all people in mind. The plan was envisioned as a to-do list for us, for LFUCG, to achieve these complete streets and develop a timeline for completing those actions. This plan describes high-priority initiatives we plan to accomplish in the next three years, but I might note that we anticipate this to be a dynamic and evolving to-do list that we may adjust over time to evolve with our dynamic needs within our community. And, of course, those will be reported as they change on an annual basis. The advisory committee was created to develop this plan and to expertly guide us through the development of this plan. We established that group in early 2023, and that committee included five of you all sitting around this horseshoe today. Thank you for your participation and guidance. It also included numerous community stakeholders such as LexTran, Access Lexington, and the building industry, along with internal LFUCG representatives as identified on this slide. As we've said, the mission of this group was to prepare a completed action plan by the end of 2023. The Complete Streets Advisory Committee explored the steps needed to create a Complete Streets Network and an action plan for Lexington. And so this slide summarizes that process very succinctly, but a lot of work went into getting us to that final product. The committee first met in May of 2023, which launched us into our data gathering phase. We then took 10 weeks after that initial meeting to engage with technical subject matter experts, with external stakeholders, and try to understand what the important areas we should focus on and what this topic should be as we move forward with the development of the action plan. The committee's second meeting was then held in August, and they received an overview of that stakeholder input and were also supportive of the kickoff of a public survey. That survey then launched as the MPO team began drafting the action plan. At meeting number three in October, we were able to present those findings from the feedback received from the community survey, as well as review that initial draft. Following that, we were able to launch or share the draft with our external stakeholders, gain their feedback in order to make the final edits. And then as we've stated in December, you all received that final plan via email right before Christmas. And so as you can see, the plan was developed through numerous collaborative conversations and provides actionable roadmap, creating a transportation system for everyone. Stakeholders were vast. This extensive data collection period was critical for making sure that we were headed in the right direction. Our community members are invaluable partners in this development of this plan. And their insights and aspirations about what our streets should be or what were the foundation for this product, this final plan. Initially, we hosted eight meetings over 10 weeks based on these topics as well as stakeholder focus groups. And again, we engaged them later in the process to review the final draft. The community engagement phase was a lot of fun to see how and make sure that the community, their values aligned with what we were hearing from our stakeholders. And we were very pleasantly surprised that everyone was rallying around the same topics. We had over 1,200 surveys completed. They were made available for two weeks online as well as in person at libraries. And we had a lot of promotion thanks to a lot of partners at the Herald Leader, WKYT, and Civic Lex. So what we heard, they called, and when I say they, I mean stakeholders, subject matter experts, and the community all said about the same story, which is be visionary with your approach. This goes beyond, we need to go beyond the bare minimum. That safety is a reoccurring topic, especially related to improvements to support those with disabilities. Because if those streets are safe for them, they're safe for everyone. We heard that they envision a city where walking and biking are safe anywhere you go. to complete the network throughout our community. We also heard, let's be equitable with how we roll this out, making sure that there's significant input from the community at large, and also that we are investing in spaces that need it the most. Our stakeholders emphasize the need for increased transparency in our design and approval processes and project prioritization process. And they ask that we also continue to invest, sustain investment, ensuring that we have the resources for staff, capital, and maintenance, and public education moving forward. So I'm now going to pass it over to Kenzie so she can dig a little deeper into the action plan. Thank you, Brandi. Welcome, Kenzie. Good afternoon. I'm going to walk you through how the plan is organized and the various components of the plan and its anticipated timeline. So first we have nearly 40 actions that were identified or tasks that were identified through this collaborative process. And we've organized them based on common topics. So looking at how we plan and prioritize our Complete Streets initiatives and projects and how we'll measure progress over time, how we design and construct our streets as well as how we operate and maintain our streets. and then a specific focus area on safety, multimodal safety across our network for all people. So there's a table within the document that I would encourage you to peruse, if you will. It indicates what is the specific task, what are we trying to accomplish, what is the desired outcome, and then identifies a specific deliverable that would be presented as an outcome of that task, as well as a target completion date. We've also identified which LFUC division would be responsible for implementing that task and which divisions need to be involved in supporting them in accomplishing that. We also recognize that a certain number of the tasks will require a lot of external stakeholder input as well from experts in various fields. And there's an expectation that the lead divisions would identify who those were and bring them into the process and the conversation. And as Brandy mentioned, the intent is for this plan to be dynamic, that we can make changes as those needs are identified through the different actions that we are working on over the course of the coming several years. So this is a snapshot of one of the tables within the plan. You can see that they start or the initial deadlines are as soon as June of 2024 or within the next six months and then extending through June of 2026. So about two and a half years from now, and it's pretty ambitious, but I think it's within the realm of possibilities. Especially given the number of people that we will have, or that we expect to have working on these initiatives. We've highlighted in blue just a few of those that we know have already begun work or will be beginning work here in the near future. But the items on this slide sort of represent what you might expect to see over the course of the coming year. those that would be completed by January of 2025. And then here are some more of the midterm tasks. Again, we may be beginning work on some of these. Some tasks may take up to three months or six months. Others may be two year processes, depending on the scope and the complexity of that. And then here you can see that there are also a number of tasks that are identified that don't really have a beginning and end date. They're more something that we would do continually on an annual basis. So, for instance, hosting training opportunities or conducting annual safety campaigns. That's something that we would want to continue to do both now and into the future. So, Brandy and I wanted to end on just some particular things that we know will be coming forward in 2024. One of the first items is to update our street design standards. So, this includes our subdivision regulations as it relates to street standards. our roadway design manual, and our traffic calming management program. So those three will be looked at as part of this process. We just issued an RFP this morning, actually. It'll take us a few months to have someone under contract, and we expect that to be a 12 to 18-month project. We're also working to establish a couple of positions that would focus specifically on safety and on Complete Streets initiatives. The first one, the Vision Zero coordinator, was included in a grant that we submitted to the federal government that was recently awarded. So we do have federal funding for that position for a four to five year period once we have those agreements in place. The Complete Streets Program Manager would report directly to the Commissioner of Environmental Quality and Public Works. They would be responsible for implementing certain aspects of this plan as well as coordinating across all divisions and with external partners like the Transportation Cabinet and the Federal Highway Administration, Lex Tran, etc. to advance Complete Streets projects throughout our community. The funding request for that position will be included in fiscal 25 year budget request. And then we have updated the Complete Streets website. We certainly have a copy of the policy and of the plan there, but we intend to create more of a public facing dashboard that would help explain and share with the public what we're working on, what the initiatives are, what projects are coming, what are the opportunities for public input in those different projects and initiatives. And again, the safety education campaign, we have been spending annual dollars every year for some amount of safety in education, but we included a very robust budget in the same federal grant that I referred to earlier that was awarded. So we should have the ability to have greater reach and impact with that campaign, we hope, over the course of the next five years, which is the period of the grant. And again, we intend to do both training for public and private sector design professionals that work within our community. And finally, we will be back before you, I hope, in January of the coming year to share with you the progress that has been made and any recommendations that we might have in terms of adjustments that might be needed. And with that, I think that Brandy and I are happy to try and answer any questions that you might have. Thank you so much to both of you for that wonderful presentation. And we do have a few council members who have questions. Councilmember Plowman? Thank you, Mayor. That was very informational. There's a lot going on, so I'm looking forward to watch, report out on a regular basis. When you say the RFP is now being issued out, correct? And you say that the initial funds are budgeted, what is that figure? I'm sorry, was the last part you said initial funds are budgeted? It says yes, the initial funds are budgeted. I just wondered what that figure was. We have $300,000 to work with now. 80% of that is federally funded through the MPO and 20% is local match that I think is within this fiscal year's budget. So that has already been budgeted. Based on the scope of work and the proposals that we receive, we will see how much we can accomplish with that amount of money. Okay. We think it's within the realm of possibilities that there may be things that we can't buy for that sum of money that we may wish to expand upon. So if that is the case, we will be before the appropriate people to identify what is the scope of work for any additional funding that is needed and where might that funding come from. Additional federal funds is definitely a possibility through the MPO, but then we would have to identify the additional 20% match that is needed. Yeah, I would imagine there is a lot of federal money out there for projects like this. Yes, this is very supportive from the federal level all the way down. And can you help me understand a little bit on this, the Complete Streets training program, what does that kind of look like at this point, or is that evolving as well? How it's described in the action plan is that we would have at least a major training every two years with smaller ongoing training at least once a year. The goal is to have design professionals, primarily engineering, traffic engineers, planners, etc., go through a program that talks about what is good complete streets design. Because as Brandy mentioned, it's not exactly formulatic. It depends on the context, it depends on all kinds of situations. It's also a very quickly evolving profession, as many cities are experimenting with sort of new and innovative designs. So there's a lot to keep on top of on a regular basis. We would like to bring some training here to Lexington so that our professionals and then people who work do a lot of work for the city could participate in that with a very low barrier to working or attending that training. But we also think it's very important for our design professionals to go to other communities and see how things are being done. I know a lot of people often go to Europe. I'm not suggesting anybody go to Europe. But they come back very inspired and feeling optimistic about our ability to actually make that kind of impactful change. So we would like to send people out. for answering his questions. Look forward to hearing more. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Sheehan. Thank you, Mayor. I first just want to say a humongous thank you to Brandy, to Kenzie, to Chris, to Brad in the corner, and particularly to Scott Thompson. I don't know if he's here today, but I know he had several meetings with Councilmember Legree and I when we first started these discussions and tried to learn more about this and and that is what led to some of the policies that we're working on today and so I appreciate all of the time and work that you have put in and the years of dedication that y'all have had to this before we even got here. So I serve on the Access Lexington Commission and the Senior Services Commission. I'm sorry. I'm also a member of Frontrunners who recently lost a member of our group, Mia, in an accident. So I really see this work as addressing not only a community health issue and a safety issue, but quality of life and equity and environmental issues. All of this work within this complete streets realm is so encompassing and holistic. So I am very excited to see this work move forward and to have been a part of it. I have a couple questions briefly. One of the things that constantly comes up with the Access Lexington Commission and the Senior Services Commission is you know getting around town particularly when you have barriers and one of the things in the action plan is around sidewalk accessibility and that comes up a lot in those groups. Kinsey you know you're in Access Lexington as well and so I know right now with Commissioner Ford's office we have a consultant working on working with us on ADA compliance within our government spaces and our public spaces. That consultant that we're working with had stages of different implementations that we could do with them. And so I'm wondering if there's a partnership that could be had with the work that we're already doing for the ADA compliance. So I just want to mention that piece. And then, you know, as council members, we have this kind of a set structure of how we work through things, where we put items into committee and kind of have presentations. I'm wondering what interaction you would like from council in this as we start to see these things move forward, whether it's working with the mayor's administration, working with these different offices. How would – I know we all have interest in this moving forward, and there's a lot of public interest in it. So how would you like us to engage in this work? That's a helpful and a very big question, and I don't know that I can answer it on the fly. I can say that we have a number of committees where we do some reporting on this, our Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, our Access Lexington Committee, and I would hope that the members of the council who are also on those committees can hear when we're discussing what we're working on and maybe what some of the stumbling points or the barriers are that you will offer your assistance to us. I don't know if an annual report to council is enough to give you the type of interaction or feedback that you're looking for. We will hopefully have a Complete Streets coordinator who will be a liaison that you can come to and confide in and ask questions to. and I see them as being someone who works with the council in many different facets. But I will think on that more. One thing I could offer, too, is I know in some of the other committees, we get four information-only reports. So for Environmental, Quality, and Public Works Committee, I'm the chair of that, and I know we'll have an annual report, but it would be nice because this work is so important for our community to have some updates before then. So I was wondering if it would be possible to get a brief kind of for information only report about like what work has been done in the meantime, like maybe every other meeting. So for our calendar, that would be the May, June, and October meetings. And I don't think it needs to be particularly extensive, but a kind of brief summary of what's happening in the meantime. Councilmember, I think this is great feedback. and as Kenzie has said we won't have an answer today but as we bring on the Vision Zero coordinator the program coordinator for Complete Streets we'll get their input and they'll start to develop that program but I love the energy and think that this is an opportunity for us to touch base more often than annually we'll keep that in consideration thank you my time is up but I have one more question so I'll sign back in okay thank you councilmember Baxter thank you mayor I'm just going to kind of continue on the same path that that Councilmember Sheehan was on. As far as pedestrian safety is concerned, I think it's top of mind for us right now because we've had my office is inundated currently on the heels of deaths and the red light running epidemic that we are currently experiencing. So when I look at our action plan and I see the speed management plan all the way, nearly all the way at the bottom, which I think it maybe started as a conduct targeted enforcement. Did it switch names like throughout the process or? The speed management plan was actually something that was recommended to us by the transportation cabinet. Okay. And they have interest in partnering with us to primarily fund it as well. Okay. We weren't sure of the timeline of that. It was sort of a late addition to the plan. Any planning process generally takes at least a year. and we were also trying to balance what else we have on the table, but most of our pedestrian fatalities are on state routes. So we're very thankful for their support and interest in looking at a speed management plan that would look at all roads but also arterials. So I think that's good input and a good point, and we can reach out to them and see what type of time frame they're thinking about for initiating that. Well, and as you know, Councilman Ruscian asked you how we can help. And so as we look at the items that are maybe further down the list, as far as action items are concerned, you know, would it be helpful for us to put these specific items into committee to where we could start the work so that when we hire the vision, the vision zero coordinator, we would have already started and could give recommendations. I mean, is that something that would be beneficial or we just spin on our wheels? Like, I just feel like the community is really demanding a lot of us right now. And I want to show that we're working really hard now, not in 2026. So as you're thinking about how we can be helpful and beneficial to the process, think about that, too. And just think, like, you know, if we need to put a targeted enforcement plan into committee and study that further, or if we need to, I don't know what it would be, but that's kind of where my mind is right now. If that would be beneficial, please let us know, because I think we all have the interest to kind of break this apart and take different pieces and parts of it and help you all along the way. So as you're thinking, think of that and know that that's me. That's all I have. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Lynch. Thank you, Mayor. And just thank you to my council colleagues who have been working on this already and to the staff for already coming together on this important issue, as well as our community partners for giving voice. And my question is, a quarter in my district, specifically Georgetown Road, I've noticed recently that utility poles are in the middle of the sidewalk and are a barrier. So would this be an issue that could be addressed in this Complete Streets Model program? because I'm still learning about what complete streets are. Yes, one of the tasks specifically talks about utility placement, both how we coordinate that in the future, making sure that they're put in ways that don't impact not just things like pedestrian infrastructure, but things like shade trees that are very important to the pedestrian environment and experience. We do have quite a number of locations across town where there are barriers in the sidewalk, And we do have a task to work with the utility companies to identify some of the highest priority locations and look and see if we can address it. Whether that's through moving the utility or maybe even just through widening the sidewalk or creating a path around that pole. The situation will be, or the solution may be different in each situation and driven by cost and safety. But it is an issue and it is something that we need to address. I think Council Member Sheehan was suggesting we do have a team who is under contract to do some ADA assessments of city properties. Is that something that we could utilize their services for doing like a corridor ADA assessment? Which I think you've actually contacted our office about related to Georgetown Road. So I think that's a good possible opportunity to explore. Yeah, I would love that. My neighbors on the Georgetown Road corridor would love that because there are quite a few areas on that corridor and offshoots from Georgetown Road where the utility poles are smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk. And particularly in the parts of the neighborhood that have a lot of seniors living there. And if they have mobility issues, they have to drive in the road in their scooter in order to traverse through the neighborhood. So I look forward to hearing more about that and helping you all, working with you all on that, because that is an issue that is a priority for me. I would encourage anytime you have a specific location, please send it to Scott Thompson, for instance, in our office. Sometimes feeling like you have to do it on a corridor wide level can feel very overwhelming and a big task. But if there's a specific problem that needs to be addressed, sometimes we can do that through existing channels, working with our companies or other divisions that have budgets that may be able to address things like that. Awesome. And because Georgetown Road is a state road, the state, would they be pulled into this conversation, potentially regarding, besides the utility company? Yes, certainly. Okay, awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member LeGree. Thanks, Mayor. Thank you all. I'm really, really hopeful now that we have this plan in front of us. I think it's a step in the right direction, and I'm proud to be involved, and I'm grateful to everyone who's been working hard behind the scenes to bring it up to this point. It gives us some really good strategy, some checks to check off, and that's a good thing. And I really think this is a pressing need in Lexington. Complete streets and Vision Zero, these are things that I've been talking about, and I'm so glad that we're talking about them on a citywide level. I represent the district with the highest number of cyclists and pedestrians, But ultimately, I think we all want everyone in Lexington to be safe and to be able to move throughout the city at a human pace and not feel scared when they're walking or biking. Scared that they might be taking their lives in their hands. And increasingly, and I know some of my colleagues have heard this, that's a fear that we're having communicated to us across districts. I don't usually like to be personal up on the microphone, but I'm going to take a point of privilege here, if you don't mind, before I get into my questions. I was struck by a large vehicle in my early 20s when I was biking in a bike lane. And suffered some really bad injuries as a result. I experienced a crush injury to my foot and broken bones and I couldn't work for quite some time and had multiple surgeries as a result. And when we talk about complete streets, we're talking about people and keeping them safe and making it so that they're not dying in a preventable way. But I also think that something that we need to talk about is just people being injured. So we see that we have numbers that are very negative when it comes to people passing away in our city. on bike, on foot, but we also don't hear about the stories of people who have been really, really injured. And so I just want us to know that we're preventing a lot of harm in our community when we invest in incomplete streets. And in that vein, I have some questions about Vision Zero. So you all mentioned about $300,000 in funding, and you talked a little bit about federal funds. And as we're reviewing other cities with Vision Zero plans, I spent a lot of time looking at Philadelphia's plan, for example. They have a lot of different modes of funding, federal, state, local. And I know this helps us be more competitive with the Biden infrastructure funding. That's our bipartisan infrastructure funding. And I'm wondering, as we're thinking about some of those applications, is there any additional kind of grant writer position or staff support in addition to the Vision Zero coordinator and Complete Streets coordinator that could assist with meeting some of those financial needs and some of those applications? Is that something that you all have already talked about? I think perhaps, oftentimes those applications are maybe annual or every other year and we often hire consultants to help us prepare those. I do think we have something in here again about funding and strategizing around funding and how we make the most out of every opportunity. So we may have some more specific recommendations related to that. There is a Safe Streets for All fund now through the Transportation Cabinet or the Federal Government that is geared towards, you have to apply for projects on roadways where you've identified they have the most frequent or most common serious injuries and fatalities, because serious injuries, as you say, can be life changing. So we applied for that this year and we were successful in getting that. We have a safety action plan that had to be developed in order to identify those priority corridors and projects. And we have many more projects identified in there that we could advance through the Safe Streets for All program in particular. And I'll add, as we've written the job description for the Complete Streets Program Manager, that is part of their job description, which is to leave that effort to make sure that we are on top of what we're applicable for as far as the large discretionary grants. Of course, we already have our program in place with the MPO for the standard processes with the state and TAP, CMAC, SLX, what have you. But I would say that I would push our grant efforts toward this new position for these larger discretionary grants to let them take the lead on that and utilize, as Kenzie has said, our consultants to really do those really big pushes that happen once a year on those grants. Okay, that's very helpful. And anything that I can help advocate for when it comes to staffing or funding to help them be successful in their applications, I'd love to be of assistance. Thank you. I know I'm out of time. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilmember Sevigny. Thank you, Mayor. Around Christmas, I did have a catalyzing event in my district. It was the same one that Councilmember Sheehan spoke about, where a person was killed basically in a crosswalk stepping out. And one thing that Councilmember Lynch mentioned, and heard about the lining that utility poles in that area make it virtually impossible to see as you're as you're coming out as a person walking in that crosswalk so i'm i'm happy to know that at least the utilities will be are being considered um but it also helped me realize that this is kind of a bigger thing it's a bigger thing than just district 10. this is really a city-wide initiative And I'm really excited that I'm at least able to benefit from the work that was started before I came into this office. I can tell you that my constituents are angry, like angry, mad. I've had so many coffees with, you know, they're like, what are we going to do about people running red lights? What are we going to do about this? So there's a lot of anger around it, which I kind of want to harness because it's making them be very active. So I've got a question for you. What does community engagement look like? Because I really, these folks, I want to harness that energy to have them hold us accountable to get something done. And I don't know what the community engagement piece looks like. I don't know if we're going to rely on our MPO and the bike ped part of the MPO, if we're going to look at the Corridors Commission, or do we create another thing that helps make this become part of our everyday policy? You know what I mean? I think one of the first things that they're doing that's most important is what they're already doing, which is letting their elected officials know how important this is to them. And then oftentimes I'm thankful that we can at least say we have some plans in place that we're working on. And that awareness brings more people to the table and more eagerness for action. I know in Louisville they did establish once they created a Complete Streets Coordinator position and a Vision Zero Coordinator position, they have a specific Vision Zero Safety Committee and a Complete Streets Committee. We currently have a pedestrian safety work group that's more internal, so we may expand that to include all modes. I don't know if we have a specific idea or answer on that structure yet. Maybe it's something that we already have in place that it involves into something bigger. The Bike Pedestrian Advisory Committee, they meet monthly. There are a lot of citizens and advocates that attend that meeting. That is one of the best places to get information on what is in the works, what are we working on, and to bring awareness to a particular location or issue because we don't know about a problem if we don't know about a problem so we can't fix it. So again, not a specific answer, but some of the things we're thinking about. But I definitely think it's something that at least I'm thinking of as an elected official that when I look at all of our boards and commissions, there seems like this could probably use one if it's a big focus. I also wanted to follow up on Councilmember Baxter's kind of like I need some immediate wins. Like I need some things that like people are complaining about the speed on Rosemont Garden all the time. I'm trying to do things with the NTMP process and I know Councilmember Sheehan is interested in that as well. But anything like with speed limits, I know we've been trying to get cameras as a possibility to use cameras for ticketing for red lights. But I know we've got a state issue with that. But I mean, but I don't know if we're activating our lobbyists to try to help us to do anything like that. But those are things that I see as we need some, we could use some immediate wins. And then the last thing I wanted to ask in my 44 seconds, the scale of the budget piece, I was on the committee so I was kind of big about asking about that. I didn't really see anything in the report. And we're planning to do a lot in two years from this June. I don't know if that means we're done or we're done the plan piece. and then we're going to start implementing different things. How much money do we need in the next two years? So we did include anything that we needed funding for in the fiscal year 25 budget. Quite a number of the other tasks, there's some planning and prioritization work that needs to occur before we can give you a specific dollar amount. Say, for instance, if you wanted to have an annual sidewalk retrofit program campaign. So I think we will have more numbers assigned to different tasks within the coming year. Thank you. My time's up, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Gray. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you all for all the work that you've done going forward, and thank you to my colleagues and all who served on the advisory committee. It was very important for me to be part of this. As in my district, the 6th District, we have many roads that do not have sidewalks. We lack in trails. We have many people who are walking in the street or bike lanes, if we do have them, are out of code, where we have people in the right lane in the bike trail on Bryan Station Road who have nearly died because they're out of code and outdated on these state roads. So my question, also walking across New Circle Road, we've had so many injured, so many deaths, which could have been avoided, but I'm thankful for the fact that we have been awarded that grant from the federal government, and thank you for all who have worked to make that happen. So since we have so many pressing, like, immediate issues, particularly on the north side of Lexington, which is severely lacking in sidewalks, what is our – do we have anything in process as what will begin immediately, because I know that my colleague said that her district has the most bike riders, but I can rest assured we would have tons in the sixth district and in the first district if we had sidewalks. So the action plan really talks about what more we need to do from, in some ways, a programmatic standpoint and a policy standpoint and a process standpoint. We have a large number of projects that are in some form of development currently and have for many years. We're investing a lot of funding in multimodal projects. And I think maybe what I'm hearing is it would be helpful if we could at some point in some format or forum share with you kind of that plan. We do have a bike and pedestrian master plan and a greenway master plan that we've been working off of for many, many years. So this was a little bit of a separate effort. That's kind of on a parallel track. And to Council Member Spigny's question, how much money do we need? Well, we make those requests every year as part of our budget. Oftentimes we're maturing federal dollars, one local dollar to four federal dollars for that. So there is a capital improvement plan that is in the process. And it sounds like that's one more thing we'd love to get up on our website, make it real clear and easy for people to understand what is in the works, where's the money going, where's the focus. So I would be happy if at any point you would like us to do that for you, to provide that. Yes. But thank you for all your work. We have a lot more work to do, but I'm so excited for our city that we are finally putting safe streets as a priority and putting our residents who walk, who ride their bikes, their safety on the front lines and in our minds and budgeted. So this is a very exciting time for our city. Thank you. And, Council Member Gray, I know you know this, but just to put a fine point on it, this new $22 million grant on North New Circle Road, that area had, I've forgotten if it's the most fatality, Yeah, I already know. And half of them were bike and pedestrian. And so things like that are going to feed right into this. So it's really good. All right, thank you. Council Member Fogel. Thank you, Mayor. And you and Council Member Gray nailed it for me. Those were some of my comments. I would like to know about who decides the priority, Who decides, as you have heard, it's a devastation across Lexington. For over 15 years that I know, and I don't mean to step in Councilmember Gray's district, but old Paris Pike has never had sidewalks. We had gazillion children out catching the bus to go to Bryan Station or other schools, and they've never had a sidewalk. Shropshire, no sidewalks. I'm just naming some. I have some elderly folks who live off of Dover that has no sidewalks. And these are elderly people that like to jog and walk together and talk about the plants, the birds, the stars, how many chickens is in the backyard, whatever they're talking about. But so I know that the North End has lacked for a long time. I watched Lexington be rebuilt. I was born on West Short Street. and i watched lexington and downtown is beautiful i saw the sidewalks come and the safer sidewalks and everything that has happened downtown and i still watched old paris pike not be attended to so my question is how do we prioritize and and the mayor alluded to it we do have this money coming in on the north side and hopefully that will help address a lot of the problems if anyone goes north of Main Street and you come down Limestone, I hope you got good tires because it's almost like you're on a roller coaster when you ride down Limestone. And that bike lane, I am always afraid that someone is going to get hit. I'm pretty sure that the police department, because they do a really good job, has statistics about how many hit and runs that has occurred in the last six months on Winchester Road that Councilmember Sheehan and Legree and I share and on New Circle Road that Councilmember Gray spoke about. We've had a lot but someone talked about can we can we get something that is a win. I would like to report that of three of the hit and runs, two was fatalities, our cameras caught the person over by Transylvania, they caught the person on Broadway. It took some time but by the time they finished their intel the police department arrested them and so that's a small victory. It doesn't bring the life back but at least we got the perpetrator. So I guess my big question is who prioritizes the work? Who gets to choose if the work starts in the south end, the north end, east, is it the money that dictates it or is it a group of folks that will dictate? So the main plan that we've been working off of thus far is a bicycle and pedestrian master plan. And it does evaluate and rank priority of projects based on a number of criteria. Safety, crashes, the adjacent populations, how many people have access to a vehicle. Is this an area of greater need perhaps? What are local destinations that are nearby? What are population densities? There's a wide variety of things that go into that plan. And then it gives you a general order of priority. And oftentimes it's staff or a council member that brings a particular project forward who says we're ready to move this towards implementation. Because much of this is federally funded, it comes through the Transportation Policy Committee of the MPO, and a number of your council members are on there. There should be a council member who represents your district. I can't say who that is off the top of my head, but I would encourage you to communicate your concerns and priorities to the council members that represent you on the Transportation Policy Committee. The safety action plan very much had a detailed data-driven analysis and prioritization process as well. So that is something that has recently been adopted. That is what the basis of the New Circle Road project was and a plan that we're going to be working from in the coming years. But ultimately, staff does a lot of the work to try and prioritize the projects for you, but then the council and the policymakers decide what projects will advance ultimately. Thank you so much for your hard work. I appreciate you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank each of you for just all the hours you've put in on this for a year. I think a few of us several years ago when I was first on council had the idea that we wanted to do complete streets policy, and we were really naive, and we had no idea that it would take this much work. So I really want to thank you all for putting in the work and for the administration for bringing it forward as well. When we talk, we're talking a lot about pedestrian safety because of what's happened. And I also have a personal connection to someone who passed away a few weeks ago in a hit and run. And it's devastating. When I've traveled and in the states as well, some areas have really good education and culture around respecting bicyclists and pedestrians. They have created that culture. They have worked hard to create it. They have signs everywhere explaining that pedestrians have the right of way in a crosswalk. cars actually slow down instead of speed up or swerve. I've seen all kinds of things in Lexington that are really scary when it comes to pedestrians and bicyclists. How can we, as a part of the complete streets policy, how can we create this culture? How can we do more education and more, I guess, whether it be signage, education, just to try to create that culture. Because ultimately, we can put a crosswalk somewhere, and we know that in Kentucky that doesn't mean that someone's going to actually be safer in the crosswalk. We can create a bike lane, but that doesn't mean that someone's not going to get hit in the bike lane. And we have to slow traffic down, and we have to create a culture of caring about others that are sharing the road. So how can we do that? How can we create that as part of this? I would say that that's threefold. One is just straightforward public education and compelling campaigns that catch people's attention and tug at their heartstrings or whatever that is. Second is getting more people biking and walking themselves, getting them to feel comfortable doing that, making our streets welcoming to do that, because the greatest respect that you tend to gain is from the experience yourself of having felt unsafe or experiencing aggressive driving. So, I mean, I think that there is something about the more people that are biking and walking, they are also drivers, and that begins to build the culture. So in many communities, their rates of biking and walking are perhaps a good bit higher than ours, and that's part of the culture shift. And then the other is to clearly communicate in your streets what is the priority. Is it pedestrian safety or is it vehicle speed? And a lot of our streets communicate this is an easy street to drive quickly on, and the pedestrian environment is a bit more of an afterthought. And that is just a product of the culture of the decision making that was made for many years in the boon of the automobile. And it took decades to create that, and it's going to take some time for us to undo that, too. But I do believe we're taking the right steps in that direction. I don't have a straight forward answer to your question because it is complicated, but I do think it's multifaceted and involves approaching it from all of those angles. infrastructure, encouragement, and education. Thank you. I would really love it if we could as we move forward think of what money might need to be put towards that education piece and things like that. For context we've been spending about $150,000 annual. We have $350,000 annual identified in the grant award. That combined with what we're spending already, we could have up to a $500,000 annual campaign. When we were trying to identify the budget for that, we asked what is a reasonable amount of money to spend on a campaign that can actually have some impact because it has enough penetration into the market and the minds of people. And that was the dollar amount that was suggested to us by our outreach experts. So the total will go to the campaign, not to other parts of the policy? No, that's intended explicitly for public education and outreach relating safe streets. That's great. Well, thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. And as Council Member Reynolds said, this is a long time in coming, and we're slowly moving forward here. I know you worked with Council Member Kern and looked at what was going on in Louisville, and we've slowly moved this forward, and I'm very happy about that. we have in our city a lot of infrastructure barriers just because of the way we're built in the spoken wheel and with I think what's with New Circle Road is going to with that grant is going to be a big help. I thank you all for what you're doing and as an avid cyclist who tries to put more miles on my bike than I do my car every year that I'm not always successful doing that but that's my goal every year trying to get that culture and that multimodal approach where We just don't look at speed of cars, but we look at other ways that we try to have these complete streets, and I'm glad about that. And our goal of Vision Zero, it's kind of a grandiose goal, but it would be a great objective if we do hit it. And I think 2050 is kind of our goal to do that. And I hope that we achieve that because on break, probably the thing that hit me the most was literally what happened right outside my front door is where a person was killed. And I see the flowers looking out my window right now. I use that crosswalk. It's very personal to me. One of my neighbors was killed. And it's classified as an accident. But it could be any one of us. It could be me because I used that crosswalk many times. And as Councilmember Civigni said, it angered me. And it angered a lot of us because of what happened. So I'm hoping that we can change our culture here. We can, by having complete streets, we don't have to have flowers on the side of the road to recognize somebody who was killed. Because one death is too many. And anything that we can do to make it safer, I'm all for. So thank you all. Thank you. Councilmember Sheehan. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to highlight two other things that are important for this conversation. One, our offices get a lot of requests for the Neighborhood Traffic Management Program, and I want to showcase that there is a Step 3.2 in this action plan just to update and review that particular policy. particularly with regard to speed limits. So I am encouraged by that and I think that will, that's one of the programs that we use very heavily within our offices and in our constituents oftentimes have questions about you know well why is this threshold this way or or that so a good review of those requirements is important. And then the second piece I just want to highlight is our police department and I know that we sometimes get emails particularly when things happen in our community about you know red light cameras or enforcement and things like that and I want to highlight that our police department applies for grants and funding and participates in in programs specifically for aggressive driving enforcement and I've had campaigns like we had one last summer and I know there was we for my office we were given some statistics for my area of particularly enforcement efforts that were done there along the Richmond Road corridor so I just want to highlight those enforcement efforts and and encourage the police department to continue that work so thank you and thank you very much Kenzie thank you so much Brandi thank you very much onward All right, now it's time for council reports. If you'll log in, please. Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. It will be so, so brief. I just want to take an opportunity to thank every government employee that's had any responsibility in the response to this last winter storm. I know it took a lot of hours and a lot of manpower to do that, and I just wanted to say we appreciate you. And then also, I wanted to highlight the fact that we received a wonderful gift from the governor, an $850,000 grant for a crisis response team. And I know that we had fire captain Seth Lockhart played a big role in writing that grant. And I wanted to ask Chief Wells if you could just kind of highlight what that means for the fire department and what the next steps are with that grant. Welcome again, Chief. Hello again. Thank you very much for the opportunity. So I'll highlight a couple of things that we know about the grant. I'll highlight a couple of things that we don't yet know about the grant. But first I want to say I'm so excited, and I hope that you all are excited too. This is phenomenal for our community. So this comes as the result of an application that we kind of jointly did, and it comes from the Kentucky Department of Medicaid Services. It's $850,000, $100,000 set up, and then $250,000 per year over the course of three years. And this, as opposed to the one that we spoke about earlier that was focused on substance use disorder, this is focused on behavioral health. And again, same theory, getting the right help to the right person at the right time. So most communities, and in fact our community at this point in time, there's limited options for someone who is having a behavioral health emergency or crisis. And essentially, oftentimes they boil down to jail or the hospital. But that's not necessarily the best approach for that individual or for the community. So this is for a co-response team that's going to allow a behavioral health specialist teamed with a first responder to essentially intercept that run. And what's really, really neat is this is a whole government approach. And while paramedicine obviously is sometimes the poster child, this is going to involve so many different entities in the LFUCG, and we're so excited about that. So it may very well be a police officer and a social worker, somebody, a behavioral health specialist taking the call in E911. So all of our partners are involved in this. And I think in so many ways, this has the opportunity to be the model that the rest of the country can look at and be shooting for themselves. That's great. And kudos to your team and the rest of the grant writing team that got this award for us. And it shows our community that mental health is really important to us. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Lynch. Thank you, Mayor. And I have a few slides, and I'm not sure what order they're in. Awesome. First, I would like to thank you, Mayor, for allowing me to present the proclamation to the Distinguished Young Women of Kentucky program that occurred last Friday at the Singletary Center for the Arts. Those women from around the city of Kentucky, young women from around the city of Kentucky, were extremely impressive and dynamic. And I'm excited to announce that the winner of the pageant was our own Ellen Fye from Fayette here in Lexington. I'm so excited that she won. All of the young men were just totally impressive. And I was also cheering for the representative from Christian County, my hometown. She did excellent as well. So I'm excited that Ellen won. I know she's going to do some great things as she continues to pursue her education and academic career. But all the young women were very impressive. And I'm just honored to be there in their presence to observe their talents and skills on display for all of Kentucky because it was a statewide event. So thank you, Mayor, for allowing me to present that proclamation and congratulations to Ellen. My next slide is about a business collective that I would like to start in the Georgetown Road Corridor. We are blessed in the second district that we have many, many small businesses, many of them housed in the Georgetown Road Corridor. So I'd like to invite all of my small business owners in that corridor to meet me on January 31st at the Black & Williams Center to see if there is interest in starting a small business collective, because we all know there are power in numbers. And so I want to invite all of my small business owners, specifically in the Georgetown Road corridor, to meet me at the Black & Williams Center on the 31st so we can see if there's interest in starting a small business collective. And there will also be additional resources from other small business development centers here in the city they'll provide information and resources about their programs as well. So I'd like to invite my District 2 neighbors out to that at the end of the month. And then lastly, I would like to acknowledge that January is National Stalking Awareness Month. And just some statistics I would like to share, that one in three women experience stalking at some point in their lifetimes. So if you think about myself, Council Member Menardes, and Council Member Baxter, then one of us would be a victim of that stalking. So it's pretty prevalent. and then one in six men experience that in their lifetimes as well. One in five stalkers use weapons to threaten and harm their victims. The most common stalking tactics experienced by victims are unwanted phone calls at 75%, they approach you or show up at 57%, text messages, emails, and other forms of messages, 57%. So it's pretty prevalent. And then who are these people that cause harm? There are often acquaintances, intimate partners, and strangers. So just to bring awareness to the community that January is National Stalking Awareness Month and to make sure that you be armed with this important information so that we can make sure that we are very vigilant in protecting those needs protecting and raising awareness around this is a very important issue. And I think that's it. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Mayor. I'm placing several items into our general government and planning committee, and I just want to go over them real quick and give a little bit of context. In looking at the implementation items of the comprehensive plan, I'm really interested in looking at civic engagement as it pertains to planning, especially coming off the public library's really great undesign the red line campaign and also the recent local attention and action around the books like Color of Law and Just Action and Councilmember Lynch's op-ed about source of income discrimination as well. So I want to kind of take a deeper look at our own city's planning history and working with our planning staff. So therefore, I move to place Theme A, Equity Policies 1 and 2, Continuing Education, into the General Government and Planning Committee. So moved. Is there a second? Councilmember Sheehan? Any questions? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. My second item, I've been following a national trend in the last couple of years of dramatically increasing office vacancy rates. Coupled with our dire need for more housing, I am looking into ideas involving potentially converting office spaces into residential. So therefore, I move to place office conversions into the general government and planning committee. there's council member reynolds seconds are there any questions all those in favor say aye anyone opposed all right that motion passes and lastly kind of following up on the presentation that we just had from brandy and kinsey i know this council is very supportive of our complete streets concept especially in light of uh recent uptick in collisions and deaths i think that pedestrian and cyclist safety is more important than ever. One idea that's been floated in the past is conversion of some of our downtown streets into two-way streets and potentially as a part of a future or upcoming downtown master plan. So I moved to place two-way street conversions into the general government and planning committee. Is there a second? Councilmember Plowman. Are there any questions? Some of us are giggling because this has been discussed many times, and we've had many consultants look at it. Time for our regular review, right? Yes, our regular review. Any questions? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that passes. That's all. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I want to mention that yesterday we had some fabulous festivities. for MLK Day. And I want to thank Council Member Gray and Council Member James Brown for their work on some of that and to Alpha Beta Lambe Chapter, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and the MLK Celebration Day Committee. I am just so impressed with those events as well as the march every year. And I feel like they are powerful and they're challenging and I have heard others say that they really appreciate those events. So I think it's a good way to honor Martin Luther King. And before I get to one more thing, I want to mention that it is Councilmember Baxter's birthday and you all know that I like celebrating things. I like celebrating birthdays, so we need to celebrate her today because it's her special day and we're glad that you're with us. So it's going to be a good year. It's going to be a good year. And now I would like to ask Director Wes Holbrook to come up and give us an update on short-term rentals. So we have some different deadlines going on, and he sent out some correspondence to us earlier about all of that, but I thought it would be nice if he could give a brief update publicly. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. And this came to you all right before your meeting, so you may not have had a chance to see the email yet. Everybody saw the email from Brad or if you hadn't heard about it from Tyler today. So we're excited to have him join us just to provide some additional assistance as we go through this new process in this first year. So as far as the numbers on the licensure front, there were 650 zoning compliance permit applications that we saw completed to planning by the deadline, which was January 11th. so the ordinance is now in effect. We received 400 completed applications that we're working through. Most of those should have their licenses issued in short order. But then looking late last week at one of the short-term rental platforms, there were 850 units listed for rent. So we do still have some work to do to try and get those people registered. They have to go through the Board of Adjustment process now in a lot of instances, so that's going to be a little bit more of a hurdle, but that's something that they'll have to contend with. We're working through a few special cases. As we went through this process, there were just the way that the ordinance is written and the way that some people run their business, there's some unique circumstances that we have to try and work through and figure out, but we're working through those on a case-to-case basis, and we're hoping to have all of the completed applications we received issued as licenses shortly and then we're going to be working on simultaneously the software RFP which we received and are going to be scoring soon and then getting those people that got their zoning compliance permit but haven't submitted an application, try to get them registered and then also be working on this group that didn't get a zoning compliance permit at all. Thank you. And so if somebody missed the deadline, does that mean that now they have to go through the Board of Adjustment, it won't be grandfathered in? It's my understanding that they will not be grandfathered in, even if they were operating prior to the enactment of the ordinance. Because they missed the deadline. Because they didn't take advantage of the six-month period to get their grandfathered in permit. Okay, and are there any strategies that we have to try to reach out to those who have not even started an application yet? Yeah, we're going to work on trying to identify some of those. You know, some of it's hard. I think the group that we have that has gotten their zoning compliance permit but didn't send us anything, we know who the operators are who requested those permits. And the 250 sounds like a lot, but it's fewer operators than you think a lot of those people might have four plus units that they're operating. So, you know, with one letter, we might be able to knock out five or 10 or 15 in some instances. Okay. And you and I had spoken about some challenges that a few people had in trying to go through the process, but you were saying you're working on streamlining that now. Yeah. And I think that in those instances, it's just how they chose to, how they've chosen to operate and then how the ordinance is written doesn't really match up one-to-one and so we're trying to work through that. Okay well thank you so much. I appreciate it. You're welcome. Council members I know that Council Member Ellinger has a question for Wes while he's at the podium. Is that okay with everybody? Yes, Wes. As a super host as all you all know I went through the process and I am one of the 400 that did go through planning and also go through revenue but I'll be honest it was not an easy process and I've talked to Wes when when we were doing this, they were very helpful, but it was not what my expectation of, was maybe have a one page and you pay a registration fee. It is not as easy a process. So I think going forward now that we have in year two, we'll probably to do an annual one, it will be an easier process. But doing this first one, I was not, I don't wanna say disappointed, but I was not as excited as I thought I would be. It took me basically three days to do it. Now I waited towards the end, and it was busy with everybody else trying to get it done by the 11th. But having to go over to revenue, do that, then have to wait, and then have to go over to you all, then have to show a million dollar. I mean, we asked for stuff that we don't really ask for any other businesses that was not as easy a process. But got it done, and you all were very helpful from that standpoint. Thank you very much. And I just want to commend our staff because they really worked to walk people through the process. We had people that walked in with absolutely nothing. We can't provide your insurance certificate. We can't get you your zoning compliance permit, but we printed out documents. We notarized them. In some cases, we've spent hours with people, either on the phone or in person. So our staff really went the extra mile to make sure that people understood what they had to do and when they had to do it by and try to help them as best we could. And I'll contest to that because I was there watching you all help. So you all were very helpful from both planning and revenue. Appreciate that. Thank you, sir. I think the process we set up was not as easy as I had hoped it would be, but I'm glad that it's done. And for those who didn't, it's going to be a much tougher process now going through the Board of Adjustment. And so I'm glad that the 650 did get it done because now I think the others, and we want, I told everybody, the key is we want everybody on board because we want to know it's just that one bad apple. I've had Airbnb for a long time, and I actually have neighbors. I have an email or a text from my neighbor's parents that want to come visit their next-door neighbor and have stayed there many times, and I usually let them stay there for free, and they just pay for cleaning. So I try to be a good neighbor, but there are some that aren't good neighbors, and that's the ones we want to make sure we know that's doing it if we need to weed certain people out. So I hope at some point we get everybody on board here, and thank you because I know it was a tough last week to get everybody done. So thank you all. Yeah, thank you very much. Well, and I know Brad is looking forward to helping with that process. Yes. And I'm going to spill the beans on you. Brad actually said to me, what I want to do is act like I'm applying and see what the process is and where there might be some efficiencies in working with you. And I'd be happy to help. You have an intern right here. But thank you so much. This is, it's good news that it's up and running. It is. And our process, I know the planning process is different, but our process doesn't change. The only difference is now the ordinance is in effect, and so the enforcement and compliance and citation piece. I'm now a sworn citation officer of the government, and so we're prepared to do what's necessary to make sure that the ordinance is enforced for the special license fee. Thank you. I want to follow up, if you don't mind, Mayor. One question. Will you be sending out packages to everybody then that applied or that will show that you got, or just the e-mail that was sent? So we'll have the e-mailed or printed license that's provided, and that's really, you mean for renewal or just this initial registration? Just to let everybody know exactly what they need to have posted and all that. Will you be following up with any of that just to say this needs to have at your each Airbnb that you have to have this printed and all that? Will you be doing that? That was in the signed affidavit that everybody provided as part of their application, but we can certainly follow up with them to make sure that they know. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Wes. Councilmember Plowman. Thank you, Mayor, and I will be very brief. I also just wanted to comment on the Martin Luther King festivities yesterday and acknowledge Councilmember James Brown for his co-chair role and Councilmember Denise Gray for her role. But I'll tell you what, if anyone, the speaker that we had, Dr. Cosby, was, I've gone to so many of these, and by far, he was the very best I've ever heard. profound examples, things that I never even thought of, and just eloquent. So if there's a chance to watch that in archive, please do. It will really make a difference. And then the last thing I wanted to say is I wanted to remind everyone, the Lexed End Homelessness continuum of care still needs volunteers to help with the Lex count, and that's on January the 31st from 10 PM until midnight. And this is where we count the number of individuals and families without a shelter, complete surveys, and facilitate access to an emergency shelter and distribute care packages. So you can contact our Homeless Prevention and Intervention Office to sign up and share that with your constituents. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Gray? Thank you, Mayor. First of all, since we're all talking about the Martin Luther King holiday, I would like to say job well done to the planning committee. I would like to just say their names just to let them know that we see them. We appreciate the work they've done. When I read my name, pretend like I didn't. So we have co-chair James Brown, co-chair Chester Grundy, Jay Alexander, Jonathan Bruneau, Jason Brooks, Brandon Brown, Carrie Thayer-Cardwell, Ryan Gervis, Denise Gray, Stacy Webster Little, Tiffany Mastin, Jamal McDaniel, Dale Morgan, Sharon Murphy, Kendrianna Price, and DeBron Thomas. So thank you, each of you, for the hard work you did. And thank you to the hundreds, I'm going to say hundreds, of you that came out in the cold to march and to remember the mission of Dr. Martin Luther King. Thank you to everyone that came to our program. Also, I did not mention Commissioner Ford. Thank you for stepping up and helping with the event. And all those who I did not name, thank you. We could not have done this without you. It takes a team. It takes a team to make it happen and not one person does it alone. So thank you. Moving on, I would like to move to place the naturalization plan, which is also known as the bring back the bluegrass to the general government and planning committee. And lastly, I would like to say. That's a motion. Oh, thank you. Sorry, I was just going on. Council Member Ellinger seconded. Thank you. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Thank you. I was just trying to speed up so we can get out of here. Sorry about that. Lastly, I would like to say welcome to Inyan Telfar to the 6th District Office as my legislative aide. Inyan joins the 6th District team from working in the Attorney General's office in the Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission. She will be a great asset to the 6th District and to me. So welcome aboard, Inyan. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Fogle. Thank you, Mayor. Not only have I followed Councilmember Craig all night, we've had similar comments. The first comment is when we do the Lex count, I hope that the Hope Village would be a part of that count. Depending on the weather, that's probably where you're going to get a lot of folks. and I don't know if the miracle happened with Shantae and having those this is what I want to say thanks to Charlie Lanter in teams these are photos or just that's just one side of the Hope Village these are all women they're on cots we try to supply blankets and clothing and everything to them but I wanted you all just to take a look at just a few in this we are filled to capacity so there's some angels floating around Lexington that are putting folks in hotels especially families over the weekend I picked up three families with children that were out in the cold So our next step is we have been providing gas cards and putting gas in folks' vehicle. They're sleeping in their vehicles, so we meet them at the gas station and put the gas in their car so that they can stay warm throughout the night. We're at a devastating moment here in Lexington, and this is just over on the north side, but we have picked up from the 11th, from the 12th, not the 10th yet, but just different areas of town. The Compassionate Caravan has been driving around, picking up folks. So this is just some of the ladies that are at Hope Village. Thank you, council members. Because if you guys hadn't allocated the money, they wouldn't even be here at the Hope Village. and they wouldn't be safe and most of them probably would be dead so in this code frigid error so i just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for seeing them and knowing them and i know that we're going to work together and find a solution to so many people and i haven't even the men we i didn't even take photos of the men but it's double the women and we had to give up our cafeterias so they actually eat on their beds because we had to turn the cafeteria into sleeping quarters because we had so many people. So I just wanted to share that and I wanted to thank you at the same time. The other thing is I've been asked over and over and over does Lexington have an active shooter plan? If we have an active shooter in Lexington, do we have a plan as to what will happen to the city, how will it shut down, what will happen. And the reason being, and the most concern is my community out in the Windburn area who's asking for block cameras, they want the safety to happen. We have one way in, Windburn, and we have a new subdivision, and there's only one way in and one way out. So thank you, Commissioner. So the Commissioner and the Chief will answer your question. Well, thank you very much for the question. That's an interesting question in the fact that an active shooter can occur. Hopefully it doesn't, but it can occur anywhere and anytime. It's all downtown. Which is always a concern regardless. So we have contingency plans in place for different scenarios, but specific plans for specific neighborhoods and how you respond, that's not a possibility, to be honest with you. Our police department, our fire department, E-911, emergency management, they all train together at different times, tabletop exercises, about how to best respond there. Now, specifically in active shooters as well, we also have training available for businesses, churches, you know, different entities. Actually, we've done the training with the council and your council members or your council aides at the beginning of this year. So every building is different, so you can't have a coverall. But with that being said, our officers are trained that way, our firefighters, E911 dispatchers. We have a lot of resources thanks to the council that an event, God forbid, something like that were to occur. A perfect example would be our response to the mall, which we've talked about in the past. Whenever we had an incident out at the mall where there was a homicide, we treated it as an active shooter, which technically it was and wasn't. It's a different kind, but our response was exactly how we would hope it would happen. That's also a perfect example of why we had take-home cruisers for officers, because those of you who are around the mall realize we had a lot of officers come in off-duty to assist us there. So there's not a specific game plan, per se, but we do have response-ready thought planning and resources to be able to do that. And I'll let the chief just – I know we kind of ran out of time, but I'll let the chief, if you don't mind, Mayor, for him to speak. Thank you very much. Thank you for that information about churches and training. That is awesome for me to take back. Yeah, he hit on most of it, but I also got to put in there that the University of Kentucky and Fayette County Public Schools also participated in. This year happens to be one of our training years for that. We've got a small training exercise coming up here in a month or so, and then we have a large scale training coming up over just about towards the end of the summer. All of our Fayette County Public Schools practices their lockdown drills twice during the school year. So, and that's pertaining to active shooters, but we don't just practice for active shooters. We practice for eventuality of any type of mass casualty event. So, and we've been doing that for years. I just, I'm fortunate to live in a community where partnership is great. And our federal partners also participate in that and along with the sheriff too. So, and as far as training goes, we don't do like dynamic active shooter training. But we do have officers trained to go out and tell people what to look for, especially the churches and especially the businesses. And one of the things with the Fayette Mall, a lot of the stores had that training. So that helped out too. So we try to stay on top of it and just a couple of weeks ago or right before Christmas, I talked to my staff about going out and talking to some of the stores to see if they needed any updates and try to direct them to some resources where if they wanted that dynamic training they could get it. Thank you, Chief, and thank you, Commissioner. I just wanted you all to know I didn't put this head on for that question. I got a little ear infection and that air started to blow, so I was trying to protect my ear. And I will convey this to, okay, first district, you heard it. There are plans in place, and so we're going to do our best, everybody, to keep everybody safe. Just wanted them to know, because they were going to tune in. And I like that little after five going on underneath the chin. Thank you. Thank you very much. Council member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Chief and Commissioner, I got a question. Yeah, I saw Chief earlier, I can't do a goatee. I think it works well on you. I can't do it. I wish I could, just doesn't work for me. Don't encourage him. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, I told them earlier I thought it looked good. I think the birthday girl, she brought up the issue I wanted to address. A lot happened on break, but one of them was the $850,000 grant. And I guess, could you explain to me how we're going to be able to, how's that going to work when they make the call and how do we determine how we send that individual? Well, Chief Wells spoke a little bit about that. He did? Yeah, that's the grant that Chief Wells was talking about. We are still in the developmental stages of that. There are a couple of different ways that it could be done. We're looking at the possibility, just throwing possibilities out here. Obviously having boots on the ground, mental health specialists that are assigned to officers that respond to certain type of calls or firefighters that respond to certain type of calls. We're also considering utilizing some of that money for someone to take calls at E911 that our E911 dispatchers would transfer them over and be able to put them in touch with the right kind of – now, if that's a dynamic type situation, we'd still have the police and fire go. But if it's a non-dynamic, maybe we can provide them with the right 811 information and put them in touch with somebody that doesn't really require a police or fire response. And I think this is kind of going to be a game changer for us, but I want to make sure that we get the process because I want to make sure that when somebody is having a mental health issue that we send somebody out there to help them. But we also want to make sure that we don't put somebody in harm's way to that. So we have that. If they were to respond, talking about the mental health specialists, there would be a high, high probability that a peace officer or firefighter would respond with them initially. There may be some cases where we have a long historical history, as it were, with these individuals that we wouldn't have to do it. Or it's a mom that's having some issues with kids that maybe they've dealt with in the past. But most of the time, those responses would involve a peace officer being present as well. Well, I'm excited for this grant and look forward to seeing how it's going to be worked out. So thank you all. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. That concludes our council reports. If I could have a motion please to approve the mayor's report. Councilmember Fogle, who gave the second? Councilmember Gray. Any questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. We also have the price contract bid recommendations. If I could have a motion. Councilmember Plowman and Vice Mayor second. Any questions there? All right. All those in favor, say aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. I also wanted to add my thanks. I won't go into detail because I think several of you have gone into detail about the people who were responsible for all of yesterday's wonderful events. There were about 1,300 at breakfast. That's a lot of people. and many who marched and many who stayed for that wonderful program. I wanted to add my thanks to several of our divisions because Commissioner Albright has left, but as you know, she has all of Public Works. And our Public Works folks, you know, it was kind of the worst-case scenario. The storm came just in time for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and they worked non-stop and they worked overnight and I want to just thank all those who worked. It was not just streets and roads, it was water quality, it was parks and rec, it was waste management and also our public safety folks who worked to make these events happen, police, fire. it was a it was an all-out government effort to to make help make the events work but help clear the streets and be sure that the weather was attended to as it should be so thank you to all of those in government who helped with that and finally i wanted to give a personal shout out to Chester Grundy, as Councilmember Gray mentioned, he co-chaired this. He's co-chaired it for 51 years and he announced his retirement and he's done a fabulous job helping our community enjoy these events for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and he has his succession all in place and he just has done a wonderful job so thank you for Chester for his 51 years and just a personal congratulations to divine Karama and his team who received the unity award yesterday at the Martin Luther King jr. event they so much was talked about unity and harmony and non-violence and that is what they are all about so really appreciate them and their work we have no one signed up for public comment for issues not on the agenda so i'll entertain a motion to adjourn thank you all those in favor say aye we are adjourned thank you Thank you.