Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back. Thank you. of my council comment. I'm 9th District Council Member Whitney Elliott Baxter and today I am joined by our Fayette County Clerk Susan Lamb. Thanks for joining me. Thank you for having me. Of course. So there's a lot of really exciting things happening in the County Clerk's Office and I just wanted to share it with the public so that everybody kind of knew what was going on. Well thank you. Yeah so recently we had a presentation. Our docket is public comment for issues on the agenda. And we do not have any speakers at this time. So next up is rezonings and docket. If I could have a motion to approve the docket. Thank you. Council Member Gray, second by Council Member Sheehan. And if you'll log in, please, if you have an amendment or something about the docket. All right. Seeing nothing, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. Now we have our motions from the February 27th, 2023 work session. Could I have a motion to approve? Motion approved. I heard a motion, Council Member Ellinger, second from Council Member Fogel, and lots of other folks who support it. Any questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. At this time, we'll entertain a motion to approve budget amendments. Council Member Plowman moves. Council Member Baxter seconds. Please log in if you have questions about budget amendments. Councilmember Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. It would be on page three, the fifth and seventh ones, the ones that are dealing with the housing system program, the 300,000. Welcome, Commissioner Hensley. Can you tell me how that works on the interest that we've, explain that one to me if you would. Sure. So we had the rental assistance money that we've been spending for the last couple of years. Many, many millions of dollars came through both the state and just direct federal allocation. They were able to earn interest while we had those funds, and so we had about $700,000 that we were allocating. You all had asked Commissioner Lanter to come back to you with an additional recommendation to address some of our most vulnerable population. trying to help them maintain housing security. And so we had committed 300,000 of that 700 for this year to get us through the end of the fiscal year, primarily with our students, our seniors, and Charlie can help me here in a second, I've forgotten the third. But then also, the 400,000 will be included for next year to continue those same endeavors. Yeah, I think the two most important words are compound interest, I guess, is what they said. Yes. So we were able to get $700,000 on interest on, what was it, $50 million plus or something? Right. And that one, because it went out so quickly, it didn't earn as much as some of our others, but not all grants are available to even earn interest. Well, I guess that was my point is how we were able to get interest on the money here, which is a good thing. Yes. Interest rates were up at 4.5%, 5%. I don't know what we were able to. I know we probably have to deal a little different in the government than just T-bills. Right. Okay. It's a lot of money that we're able to. Yeah, it was fantastic. That's not always an opportunity that we have available to us, so it was great to be able to generate a little bit of extra income off of that. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Are there any other questions? All right. All those in favor of approving budget amendments, please say aye. Aye. anyone opposed okay that motion passes council you have for your information only the budget adjustments pages five and six and now I'll entertain a motion to approve new business all right actually I heard vice mayor first on the motion and then the second councilmember Reynolds now please log in if you have questions councilmember Fred Brown thank you mayor first item on would be a either Martin or Albright Charlie just a little bit more background on that you send us a memo out and I've got that here about the property that city wants to buy and a couple of questions there. Has anybody projected out the cost savings or what the payment is and then do you have the money there in the particular sanitary fund? Look, several questions there. First of all, yes, the budget amendment coming from the sewer trust fund is able to handle that to where we're able to pay cash to acquire the property that we're recommending the analysis that we've done is that with the the purchase price the closing costs the fit up costs and the utilities we will be basically in the black in 12 years based on what we say on lease payments so actually are you moving the whole group that's at take takes at take building now it would be All the folks from the Tate Building and then also from the two Enterprise Drive facilities. We'll save rental money there, of course. On all three of those, yes. I noticed 115 employees. Is that pretty much what you got at the Tate Building now? No, that would actually include the people that are in Enterprise. Sewer line maintenance and pump stations operations have been in Enterprise since 2014. We moved them there because the facilities they were on in at Town Branch were torn down to build the first tank that we built as part of the consent decree. The only reason they're at Enterprise is because they were the only property that submitted for us. So they never really worked very well for us anyway. I know some of you have visited them, sewer line maintenance, at their facility, and they don't have locker rooms. They don't have a lot of the things that I feel like are important for an operations group such as them. And so we spent probably almost a year looking around at different properties to try to find a place for them to go to no avail. They have a unique need of space and also land. And so I basically had given up, but then this building came along, and it's like, Eureka, this gave us an opportunity not only to move the Enterprise folks to a better facility, but to bring the Tate people along with us and save money in the end. So I guess my question on looking out to the future, are we still going to have that number of personnel or manpower? Because when the sanitary sewer all get built, supposedly by 2030 or whatever it is, are we still going to need this manpower and this facility, a large facility? Yes. We haven't really staffed up as much as a lot of people might think, especially such as the engineering work and all that. We've farmed all that stuff out to the program management team that's working for us. They don't work. They're not Irving County government employees. But the maintenance personnel operating pump stations, cleaning pipelines, cleaning manholes, all those things, we just increase that number with each time we grow as a community. And the need for maintenance, I think, will always be there, regardless of whether there's a consent decree or not. Thank you, Charlie. The other item I've got here is F&G, Commissioner Finance. I may not have enough time on left, so I'll have to come back. You'll have to come back to me or whatever on the question. You probably. On the F there, you're talking about the $38 million. That's what we put in the budget for 24. Yes, sir. And you're just now getting those out on maybe issuance, I guess? Yes, sir. The annual debt service cost is $4.6 million. Correct. But is that just for one year? Because I noticed in some other information back behind, back other information that you gave that it drops down to 3.2 million after that. We have, our bonds are typically, and Chip and Kelly are also here from Baird. They can also answer whatever questions you may have. But we term the items that are included in our bonds. Some items are 10 years, so our vehicle replacements are things that don't have a useful life that's that long and some are longer. And so there are certain items that are included in the 10-year repayment versus a 20-year, even a 30-year, depending on if we're building a structure. And so each debt issuance that we do looks different depending on the component pieces that are included in that. Well, isn't the $38 million including all of those capital items? It is, but it's a grouping of some 10-year items and some longer-term items. Okay, that was the other question I had. I just saw where there's a 10-year amortization there, but you're talking about going out to 20 or 15 or 20 on some of the 38 million? Right. Some of the components of that bond are longer-term items, things that last. I'm out of time, but I'm not out of questions. You can come back later. Thank you. Okay. Unless you wanted to just finish this one out. Or do you have a lot more? Okay. Well, we'll come back to you. Thank you. And we normally do that, correct? We do. We bundle different lengths of terms. Right. Yep, that's correct. Okay, Councilmember Lynch. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question regarding item R, as in road, if Commissioner Albright is available or someone from her team. Welcome. My name is Richard Dugas. I'm here out of the Environmental Quality and Public Works Office. for Commissioner Albright thank you so much and she just share with me a little bit about this project and converting a temporary private street to a permanent public so at the at the end of innovation drive that last little section was never built out and so both Commerce Lexington and the transportation cabinet are both interested in taking that section it was never built out and actually connect connecting it building it out so Commerce Lexington will be putting in $200,000 to the project and the remaining funds will come from the Transportation Cabinet Grant so there will be no direct cost to LFUCG. So what we're asking for today is approval of the agreement with the Transportation Cabinet, subsequently we'll be requesting approval for the agreement with Commerce Lex which is we're still drafting that up in legal and again there'll be no direct cost to LFUCG on it. I'm excited about this so this will be a public road under our under maintenance the city for the city to maintain correct yes once it's all done this will become a public road and now it Lexington Road yes so paving dollars will come from our pockets just to make sure after that no this project this project this this $600,000 will cover everything into perpetuity yes well no that that'll be the new construction and then yes it would go into the regular paving schedule yes which hopefully if they build it correctly it won't be need to be repaid for a lot of years right thank you so much you answer my questions thank you so much mayor thank you thank you mr. Douglas councilmember Sevigny thank you mayor I also have some questions on items F&G and before I begin I want to thank Commissioner Hensley because I asked some pretty detailed questions on on these two items mostly because this is my first experience at the bond issuance process, okay? At least seeing the whole thing from beginning to end. So I just wanted to start with item G because that's the quicker one. Can you explain the refinance process and the cost savings and at what point we decided to go or a no-go on that? Right. So in our debt management policy, we have a precedent of looking at all of our debt that's outstanding and anything that is advantageous to the government to do what in a personal terms would be like refinance we have to obtain a certain level of savings in order for us to try and refinance because obviously that has cost so when we go out to market we have been identified two different issuances that that have the possibility of saving that threshold that we're looking at over 3% or $250,000 for those. We have two of them that are possible. We won't know until we actually go to market what the rates are and if it's favorable or not. So we go ahead and bring it to council to get the authorization that if it's good, we have a green light to proceed, and we would only proceed if we were going to save over that $250,000. Great. Thank you very much for that. All right, on item number or item F, I realize that the horse may already be out of the barn on this one, but could you explain, especially we have a variety of new council members, the general, the way we do bonds, like where the decision points are and then kind of where the fund balance, where we didn't maybe look at this in the fund balance discussion. Sure. So we put out our, the mayor presents her budget in April. It has to be adopted in June for a July start date. And fund balance doesn't happen until October or November. So we don't anticipate what that balance is going to be when we balance the budget and set aside what we think we're going to need to go obtain financing for. we tend to look at those things that are longer term large items this one in particular I don't think we had anything under two million dollars so we look at those large capital items and we use that debt financing or that availability we put it in the budget for you all and it gets approved as a whole you probably don't remember but when we brought the budget we actually brought this to you all the first time but since we had the cash flow to be able to pay for those items up until this point the name of our bond is actually going to change from 23a to 24a because we've now crossed into 24 calendar year so really we're bringing this back to you a second time because the naming of our bonds is changing but just the timing of a fund balance really doesn't align to when we ask for the authorization for bonding we don't know that until november and And we've already had to balance the budget with that debt service. Okay. And do you have an idea of what the rates, is there a predicted rate? And this is a whole group of bonds, so there'll probably be a variety of rates. And I know our interest rates have dropped over the last six months, you know, and I think it's supposed to still happen. Do you guys have an idea of where these bonds should land? and is it still the most fiscally intelligent thing to be doing? So the refunding one that we're looking at, since it's a different term, we're looking at 3.25%. That's around where we're expecting. But other issuances that we've seen recently are as low as 2.5%, which is fantastic. That's lower than I thought we would make it this year. We are currently earning, in the cash sitting in the bank, 5.19% on that. So right now it's better for us to have the cash, but that's, you know, when we do a bond, it's a 20-year outlook versus how long we're going to earn that interest. So I do think there's some push and pull in that right now. That's not typically a discussion that we have because usually we're not earning the interest like we're earning right now. Yeah. And is there, have we already spent the money to actually do this bond issuance? Some of it. About how much? So we've spent a good portion of the paving. We went ahead and got started on some of that, and we'll have a large paving that will happen in the spring. Also in our debt, in our bond for this year, is a large number of our fleet vehicles, both for our sworn, our fire vehicles, our police vehicles, and our general government. those have been ordered a lot of them but as we've discussed quite a number of times those are looking at you know a year year and a half 18 months two years for a delivery date so we've committed to the purchase but we haven't actually expended the funds on a lot of these which is what has allowed us to push out going in and obtaining that financing until now okay I'm out of time and I'll come back thank you okay thank you councilmember gray thank you mayor I would like to yield my time to my my colleague to my left okay council well we have two other people signed up we have councilmember Fogle so you're giving up your time okay we only have one person before him okay yeah anybody can come back. I'm giving him extra time on top of so he can ask all of his questions. He gets to come back. I know. I'm giving him my time. No, we don't do that. So we don't yield time. No, we do not. Okay, that's why it's my time. You can speak. It's the public that yields time, right? That's correct. So I'll let the officials do as well. So did Did you have something? No, well, I'll just come back. Because we're going to get him back. Well, I'm going to let him go because anything that he doesn't ask, I was going to ask. Okay, did you have anything you wanted to say right now? I'm going to let him go before me. Okay, Council Member Fogle. No, you didn't. I wanted you to. I would like to cue as in Quincy Jones. Good to know. We don't yield our time here. Commissioner, I see that Goodwill would be the physical agent, and I know that they deal with expungement employment of adults and ready to work. And I'm so used to, was there RFP sent out or was Goodwill chosen? And if so, did we consider community action that works with children? No, the reason we went with Goodwill on this is because that's who Fayette County Public Schools already had a strong working relationship with for their McKinney-Vento students. So it just made sense for that connection to go ahead, since it already existed, to go ahead and flow that connection through Goodwill, who also presented. They offered to provide their entire array of services, like you said, to anybody that also receives the assistance. Well, thank you for that. My heart is just beating. I'm so excited about the McKinney-Vento, everyone here. I made the announcement that we're up to 900 children that are homeless. And so this is awesome, this is awesome, this is awesome. That's all I wanted to tell you. That's the only question I had, and it does make sense. It's almost like the one-stop shop so that folks won't have to go all over the city to receive the services. So thank you so much. And thank you, Council Members. Thank you. It is awesome. And TC, who is Fayette County Schools McKinney-Vento Liaison, is here with us today. Well, thank you. And we appreciate their willingness to help us to do this. Thank you. Thank you. We'll call back Council Member Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner Finance, getting back on to F and G, well, F mainly. the 38 million there you mentioned to that you had already used some cash monies to alleviate some of those capital projects yes are you using the 38 million are you going to pay back those funds to general fund or where does it go back to right there's a refunding authorization that council approves when you approve this information the first time that says when we go out to obtain that financing we will refund the funding account that it came from that we've been using it from. Was that general fund? Yes. Okay. So in other words we had some extra cash and you used it right but now you want the cash back. Correct. Why why can't we maneuver that and and since we had that extra cash and drop our bond amount down. Well, the budget last year was balanced with this in it. And so if we wanted, if, if council wanted to make another decision to use other cash funds that are available to replace this, you all could choose to do that. But right now we have to proceed with what was authorized. Yeah, I understand. But this was administration that derived at this using the cash balance or your office or whoever right that's how we balance which which is a good way to do it now the other thing on the side of that the 38 million that we're getting obviously we're going to have several million there that we're not going to have to pay out although we encumber it we're not going to have to pay it out because fire trucks and police cars and all these things usually take a couple years may take a couple years right are we investing that money once you get it once you do this bond and we'll have that money actually in place to invest the difference if we earn interest on our proceeds from a bond we have something called arbitrage where we have to turn around and give it back to the government we don't get to earn money based on borrowed money at a at a lower interest rate or a lower rate um that municipalities get for their borrowing something that we can work out here because we got money floating around here that uh we're not using wisely i don't think we've really tried to push it to the very last minute and not go get that finding that's why you're you know you're not getting the 38 million but there again we're we're not going to be able to use that extra cash because of arbitrage so i guess by backing up why are we even doing a bond for 38 million when we could do a bond for less than 38 million and all you'd have to do is bring that information to the council for us to vote on, that we would amend the budget. I think that the recommendation, we balance the budget using the $38 million. Subsequent to that, the only cash that would be available to offset that would be money that council has restricted otherwise. Yeah, and I understand we're in a lot better position. It's a good position to be in. It is. And we really, I don't remember us having this good of a cash flow to where we could say, hey, wait a minute. Maybe we don't want to bond 38 million, maybe we want to drop that number down. But unless we take it to the budget committee or the administration makes a decision there, we're stuck with what is in the budget. Those are our marching orders right now. So I don't know if other council members understand, but I have a little bit of problem with it, and I'm not sure which direction, Mayor, I need to go in after this. But we need to look at some dollars maybe in the budget committee. We need to look at that thing. Well, and I think, Commissioner, is it not true, though, that we sell our bonds at all different times of the year? This is, it's not unusual to sell them after January. Oh, I know that. But this time we are selling them as one package. And we're selling them now in this month of March, I guess. So like I say, everything's different. We've got a different outlook here. And I don't think we're using our money as wisely as we could. Now that's my perspective and my accounting background. But anyway, I think we'd have to go through the budget committee to alleviate any of that. However, it's on the docket. Is this first reading? Yes. It'll be on Thursday night, first reading? correct and really the authorization exists from july yes um this is just the re this is really out here because we're having to rename them okay thank you thank you sir thank you we'll go back to councilmember civigny thank you mayor um and uh i want to thank you for everything you've done and um and i find myself agreeing with council member fred brown which doesn't happen super often But I do actually agree with them on this quite a bit. And unfortunately, I'm not, I'll take personal responsibility for not being educated enough to know the process that we do for bonds because I would tell you for sure that I should have probably pushed a different direction when it came to the fund balance discussion. But if we had already approved them prior to that, that's kind of tough because then, you know, so I think we have a timing issue between when we approve something for the first time and when we actually maybe know that we have some cash, that we don't need to actually do this. And when I look at about $4 million, you know, that if we're trying to keep our bond our payment number down I'm sure that that you know it's going to be about a 1% it's going to be somewhere in that that category right of 1% and we're trying to keep it to a 10% like good business says to keep it to about a 10% number and we're creeping up so So I will know more this next year, and I'm real reluctant to approve this, but I also I've gotten a lot of other guidance that says if you don't have a plan, you can't just vote something down if you don't have a good plan, and I don't have a real plan at this point, but I appreciate it. I do think it's important to note that this is not a typical situation we find ourselves in. And historically, fund balances have not been saved. They've been spent, fund balances. They've been spent on additional projects because there's always more requests than we have availability of funds. And so this is not typically a decision point even because there is no other available cash to make a different decision. So new or otherwise, this isn't a decision that has typically faced the council prior to this point. I just know that in general constituents, like they think just like a typical person thinks with their checkbook, you know, if I have $200,000 should I borrow $200,000 or should I spend my $200,000 on what I what I want that might be my house or whatever it happens to be and and I think they hold this they hold us accountable to a different level than they hold everybody else so but I appreciate and I I really do appreciate everything that you provided to me today really was very clear and very easily understood thank you and I do hope it encourages you just a little bit that will earn 1.6 million dollars with it sitting there for a year Yeah. Well, I don't understand the arbitrage piece, to be honest with you, but we'll talk about that later. Sure. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Possibly other council members don't understand that either, so sometime it would be good to explain it to everyone. Sure, and it's also not a typical situation that we find ourselves in either. It requires that we're able to invest at a higher rate that we're able to borrow, and if we make money off of being a municipal entity that we turn around and give that back. We don't get to profit from that. That's the kind of nuts and bolts of that. And I think it's fair to say that ARPA money put us in a totally different financial position that has changed everything temporarily. Right. And normally we don't have fund balances, at least not significant, not like we just did. Normally, we have what, a couple million dollars or so. So it is a really odd situation and I appreciate you and your team for staying on top of it. Thank you. Councilmember Gray. My mic was still on the entire time, so forgive me anyone watching. Mayor, thank you. Commissioner Hensley? knew it was about this. I can't believe that, I mean, I can believe that my dear colleague to my left has rubbed off on me in a way, which is interesting. Opposites do attract. But I too, I'm just having, I take our, I know that I didn't understand the process during our first last year. I know for a fact that I wasn't fully wrapped in my mind of what exactly we were doing. And so now looking at item F, I am hesitant. I'm extremely hesitant because I feel that I made my decision previously without all the information I'm just asking for going further I know this this is something that has never been done this is something new as has been clarified to myself and to all of us but just some more information because i feel like and equipped to make a solid decision in regards to it but i'm thankful um for your patience and understanding yes thank you ma'am and commissioner commissioner would it help i don't council members i don't know if it would be helpful to take your statement a little farther we bounce we balanced our budget last year and this council voted on a balanced budget including bonding as to what happens if we do not do these bonds right so if we don't if we were to not do these bonds we would need to replace that money that's been authorized and encumbered and committed with other dollars so the only other thing of of the size would be the capital funding that was allocated and that was you know that was just assigned to those purposes as well which is the same thing that we use bonding for those large items we we what i think what she's saying and correct me if i'm wrong we need this money to finish out our year that's kind of a lay person's way to say it because we balanced our budget with this if that makes sense Yes. Thank you, Mayor. So my question, therefore, knowing this, so this is mandatory that we do this at this moment right now. It's pretty important, wouldn't you say? So the latest, so we were, in order to balance this year's budget, we're required to get this by the end of the fiscal year. We're required to either replace it or go out and obtain financing. And about as late as we could go would be early May. So we've tried to push it quite a ways out. I mean, we're doing it on top of the budget, which tells you. We really didn't want to, you know, push it too much further because it is a lot of work. But we did try and hold off waiting for interest rates to come down, you know, since we really were able to finance some of these things on our own until we get the funding. So that does help right there. That does help in that everything that we have decided is depending on us doing this and following through. So that does help. Thank you. And you'll get another bond with the new budget. Yeah. My colleague to my left loves that part. Maybe not. I know he does, as long as there's paving, right? Okay, so- Thank you. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you. That helps me with my decision. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Worley. Thank you, Mayor. Same on item F, though you can sit down, Commissioner. So this particular bond package and this amount is not out of the ordinary from what we typically do to run this government. Mayor, you proposed a very, very modest bond early on in your administration due to the unknowns of COVID. That entire budget was a 15% reduction, a very modest bond. But then we saw how well we recovered out of COVID. And then the discussions that we've had over the years with this influx of cash from the federal government have been, we should continue to run the government the same way that we always have. And then use this wonderful opportunity that we have from the federal government to grow and take advantage of opportunities that we otherwise could never afford. And that's kind of been our approach with the ARPA money and all the other Recovery Act monies. So I think it's important to note while bonding is a philosophical governmental issue. And people talk about finding themselves in strange agreement with Council Member Fred Brown. Council Member Fred Brown and I, for most of the time that we've served, have been in lockstep agreement on everything except for bonding. And we just simply have a philosophical difference about how to run a government. And people talk about running a government like a business or like your household. But in reality, a government is its own thing that is so unique because it's not out to run a profit. And it's not trying to grow generational wealth or take care of your basic needs in the home. It's about taking care of everyone's needs. And how we do that is through our tax sources, through our bonding, through the help from the federal government. So this is a great discussion and it's a good one to have. But I think the public should know this is not an out of the ordinary bonding package for us. This is how we typically run the government. It just so happens we're very fortunate to have a lot of cash on hand right now. And I, for one, would prefer to continue to use that cash for opportunities that we otherwise wouldn't be able to but would still be bonding. So, thank you, Madam. That's a great addition to the discussion. And I couldn't help but smile because I remembered the retreat. where we talked about everybody's philosophy on bonding and then we kind of did the spectrum and we learned a lot about everybody whether they like bonding or not. Thank you. Anyone else on new business? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. now let's move to neighborhood development funds I'll need a motion all right I think I heard council member Plumman moved and vice mayor seconded are there any questions all right all those in favor please say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes councilmember Reynolds you're up with with social services and public safety. Thank you, Mayor. I have the report out from the January 23rd, 2024 meeting. This meeting was called to order at 1.01 PM. The first item on our agenda was approval of the November 14th, 2023 committee meeting summary. There were no additions or corrections and that summary was approved without dissent. Next, we have the approval of the November 14th, 2023 special committee meeting summary. There were no additions or corrections and that summary was approved without dissent. Next, we had a presentation on the source of income discrimination. That item was reported out at the January 30th, 2024 work session. Our last item was a presentation on the assistance programs update provided by Charlie Lanter, Commissioner of Housing Advocacy and Community Development. He reviewed the past, present, and future of rent slash utility assistance programs. LFUCG Community and Resident Services offered a slew of programs including emergency financial assistance to help with the rent, mortgage, or utilities. He mentioned additional funding from the fund balance that will allow them to serve 200 to 300 households. No action was taken on this item and the meeting adjourned at 2.38 p.m. And that concludes my report out. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Are there any questions for Council Member Reynolds? All right, thank you very much. And that moves us to a special presentation. Now, I'd like to ask Parks and Rec Director Monica Conrad to join me at the podium. And we have a lot of parks folks with us. So the Division of Parks and Recreation Golf Program, Playgolf-LEX, recently received several awards and recognition from the National and State Professional Golf Associations. Playgolf-LEX was recognized nationally for excellence in junior programming, youth development, and merchandising. So junior golf manager John Dixon is with us and head golf professional at Kearney Hill Golf Links, Whitney Paul is with us and both received awards from the Kentucky PGA. We are also joined by Parks and Rec team members who are responsible for the great things going on at PlayGolf Lex. Where are you? up and you're going to be in the photo in a minute. Thank you so much. With us is Deputy Director of Enterprise Michael Johnson, Superintendent of Enterprise Curtis Mitchell, and Golf Services Manager Justin Mullinex. Thank you all so much for being here. Golf is one of the fastest growing most popular recreational offerings the Division of Parks and Recreation has to offer. It wasn't always like that, remember? Yeah, so we've worked really hard to get right here. We take great pride in our great facilities and programs at each of our golf courses and Director Conrad I want to thank you and and your entire team for your hard work. Congratulations on this great accomplishment. Now I'd like to present a proclamation and then ask Director Conrad for a few remarks and then we'll get a photo with the whole team. Okay. Whereas the Lexington Division of Parks and Recreation Golf Program, Play Golf Lex, has received multiple awards and recognitions from the National and State Professional Golf Association, and whereas PlayGolfLex was recognized for excellence in junior programming, youth development, and merchandising, and whereas the Junior League program received national PGA recognition with the 2023 Top 25 National Program Award award and the 2023 top pga section program award and whereas john dixon serves as the junior golf manager for play golf lex and received the 2023 youth player development award from kentucky pga and whereas whitney paul serves as the head golf professional at kearney hill golf links received the 2023 Merchandiser of the Year Award from Kentucky PGA, and whereas the City of Lexington commends the Division of Parks and Recreation on all of these accomplishments and for its dedication to our residents here in Lexington. Now, therefore, I Linda Gorton, Mayor of Lexington, do hereby declare March 5, 2024, Play Golf Lex Day in Lexington, and if it's still raining, we can do it another day, right? Congratulations to all of you. Want to say a good word? Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Huge congratulations to John and to Whitney for their leadership in our golf programming. Also to our entire PlayGolflex team who continue to engage golfers here in Lexington, youth and adult, offering free programming, league play, increase of revenues over four years, and increase of rounds while they're continuing to tighten expenses. So I cannot say enough about our Play Golf Lex team, and I cannot say enough about the support of our mayor, CAO Hamilton, Commissioner Ford, and council members for sticking by this team to really turn around this operation. They have done an amazing job. So hats off. They've done an amazing job. Whipped around 360. Yes. Shall we get a photo? Yes, please. All right. Come on, team. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all so much. And now it's time for council reports. Council member Dave Savigny. Thank you, Mayor. I just have a quick one. Congratulations to the Lexington Catholic Girls Track and Field Team as they clinched the 2024 2A Team State Championship, seizing the title with an overall team score of 104. The girls 4 by 400 team and the 4 by 800 relay team took home the gold, and individually six Knights took home gold as well. Congratulations to the Knights. That's it. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilmember Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. I do want to thank everyone that came out for the All Hamlets meeting last week. Councilmember James Brown and Councilmember Jennifer Reynolds came out. But we had a good group, very productive, good representation from, I think, pretty much everyone. And we talked a lot about what do you want to see in this cultural center, and as I said, it was very productive. That was an all community. We'll be going back to our individual ones this spring, and we'll have some more dates on that. But this is for the Rosenwald School and the displays and interactive activities that we're going to see there. And then changing gears are this Thursday from 630 to 830 at Keeneland Library's reading series. We'll be hosting local author John Paul Miller. You all should know John Paul Miller. He runs a very successful auto dealership, but he has turned author. And his book is called False Riches, and tickets are $20, and it will be at Keeneland Thursday night. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I want to mention, I think I mentioned once before, that this weekend is super exciting because it is the grand opening of the Marksbury branch of Lexington Public Library on Rosales Road and Village Drive. and I just cannot honestly say how excited I am about this and how it's going to not only serve my district in that area but the whole city and so I want to thank my colleagues who at the time voted for the 1 million dollars for that library and I want to invite all of you all to come out there's gonna be different events but the main one is Saturday 12 to 5 and at 12 there'll be a press conference you can join the mayor who will be there and myself and i would just love to have your support that is a project that has been in the works for over five years and i'm thankful that i've been able to be a part of it and it's something that the community is very excited about i know we'll have tons of room for community events and meetings which is a very big need in that area. So, and it's beautiful. So, uh, really, really excited about that. I also wanted to mention that March 8th is international women's day and, um, March is women's history month. So I wanted to take a moment and just have a huge shout out to all the women, uh, who are in leadership in our local government, including the mayor, the council members, all of the commissioners, um, and many, many others. Um, it hasn't always been that way. There hasn't always been a large presence of women in government and in elected offices. And so I think we're at a really exciting time in history. And it is an honor to serve with each of you. And I look forward to continue to serving with you. And if you go to my Facebook page at Lexington's 11th, there's different women's events going on throughout the community that you can look at. There's a lot of different ones, and I'll be at one at the Manchester in my district on Friday night. So I hope that we can all get involved with different local community events throughout the month of March. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. Recently, I sat down with our Fayette County Clerk, Susan Lamb, for my latest council comment. We talked a little bit about the digital access program, the Kentucky Automated Vehicle Identification System, and important election dates and early voting locations. So it was really a useful conversation that I hope the community can gather some insight from. And I encourage everybody to visit my Facebook page or go to LexTV's YouTube channel to access that link. And then, as you all may have heard, a nonprofit organization, Park Sustainable Funding, has recently been formed and seeks to generate up to $8 million a year in local taxes to go towards park projects via a ballot initiative this November. To gain more clarity on this initiative, I feel it's important for us to have a presentation about their mission. So, therefore, I'd like to refer a presentation on the Park Sustainable Funding to the Budget, Finance, and Economic Development Committee. So, moved. Council member Reynolds seconded is there any discussion all right all those in favor please say aye anyone opposed right that motion passes that's all thank you mayor okay thank you councilmember Sheehan thank you mayor and first I would like to announce that on March 12th at 6 o'clock at the Kenwick Community Center we are having a housing workshop for homeowners and renters the The organizations that will present at the workshop include our own code enforcement, community and resident services, and grants and special programs, along with the legal aid of the Bluegrass and the Kentucky Fair Housing. I would like to personally thank Danielle Sanders, my aide Layton, Sam Garcia at the community center, and a local resident, Tommy Ross, for helping to organize this workshop for our community. And then as a continuation of our conversation today at the Social Services and Public Safety Committee meeting, I would like to place crime victim paid leave policy for LFUCG into the Social Services and Public Safety Committee. So moved. All right. Council Member Reynolds seconded. Are there any questions? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. That's it. Thank you, Mayor. Okay, thank you. Council Member Lynch. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to extend a big congratulations to Kevin Edmonds, who was a longtime LFUCG employee. He retired on March the 1st. He was Social Services Coordinator in the Community Residents and Services Department. He worked for LFUCG for 22 years, and he was also the longtime Building Manager for the Black and Williams Building in the 2nd District. So congratulations, Kevin. Well-deserved retirement, and I hope you are somewhere on a beach living it up. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Fogle. Thank you, Mayor. Videos from today, today marks 60 years that Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Frankfurt, And we were there earlier today and brought back just a couple of photos. We got hundreds of photos, but those are some of the photos that we took today. What an awesome place to be. And so, also the governor announced and it was heard earlier in committee that he vetoed the source of income bill today in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. So I wanted to share some of those videos and also we have important announcement. On March the 11th, there will be a meeting at the Green Acres Shelter for the Hollow Creek Citation Road Connection and the Green Acres Shelter's improvement for ADA. That's a big announcement in the first district for the north end of town. And also, hunger does not take a spring break. It will start April the 1st through April the 5th. And council members, I'm a little shaken and torn back and I didn't realize it either. The warming shelter is due to close March the 31st, that is Easter. I believe, Mayor, if we could, Council, extend it a day or something. I can't put people out on Easter. I don't know about anyone else, but if we can take a look at that commissioner, about extending it to Monday, so folks will not be put out on. Some of us, we really do serve and acknowledge the Resurrection Day. And for me, I don't know about the rest of council members because I can't speak for them. But it's just, it's not a good look for Lexington for like 140 people to be released with really no plan and nowhere to go. So I hope that we take a look at that and just think about that. I am planning to have an Easter egg hunt for them though on Friday at the warming center, the Hope Village. So if anybody wants to come out and hunt eggs, we're not going over on, We're not going over to the Y on their property, but inside the Hope Village. And so, first district has a lot of things going on. And when I talk about feeding for spring break, I would like for you all to know that all the children are welcome. It's 13 parks, we will list those parks at our next meeting on Thursday. It's for everyone to come to those 13 parks and to the Trello housing right there on Limestone for those children that goes to Arlington Elementary. So we will have food everywhere. Drop your donations, drop your donations, Lexington, to the Northside Library starting Friday, Good Friday, drop your donations, we need your help. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Lanter, am I mistaken? was the shelter not to be open through the 31st yes it's open through the end of March that's our contract the last Easter will be the last day it would close yeah Easter's the last day yeah and given that that's a Sunday that I would confirm it with the staff the Hope Center staff aren't going to be that the other the administrative staff aren't going to be there on a Sunday so it's most likely that would be open until monday so they're not closing it on easter there it will be open on easter it's closing after easter thank you mayor okay thank you commissioner thank you mayor um i would like to say and scene i would like to say congratulations to the bryan Station High School Robotics Team. They place, first of all, they are the first school from Fayette County Public Schools to ever go to state, and they place second in all of the state of Kentucky. So kudos to this young people right here who actually I know a great deal of them over there, and great job with your hard work. Keep it up. We are just so proud of you because in the sixth district we don't just do football we do robotics too and then some so keep up the great work next i would like to say thank you and give a shout out to nathan dickerson who has met with me i mean my colleague to my left is about paving but so am i and so nathan and i nathan and i we we have already devised a plan for paving in the sixth district um thank you nate nathan for quickly getting that huge map that's on my door in my office and thank you for your time and your patience and explaining every single thing to myself and my legislative aide in Yon. And finally I know my colleagues are aware of this but in April 18th we will be having a joint Fayette County Public schools board of education and lfucg city council meeting it will be taking place at frederick douglas at 6 p.m i believe the last time this has happened was when our dear mayor was a council member not too long ago and so i'm glad that we are able to bring this back i would like to say I thank you to, because it's just me that finally was able to make this happen. My dear colleague, Council Member Baxter, was, Council Member? Yeah. Baxter, last person I spoke to was attempting to do the same, but it took teamwork to make this happen, and I didn't do this alone. But we need suggestions. Anything I do, I like to hear from the public because we are doing the work for you. We are serving the community on your behalf. And I want to make sure that we're putting on our agenda items that you want. So if you could, please send me an email, which is dgray, spelt with an A the American way, at lexingtonky.gov to let me know what your suggestions are. If you can let me know, the deadline for suggestions to come in is March 21st at 5 p.m. I would like to have your suggestions. Thank you, and I look forward for us working together and walking together, us being Fayette County Public Schools and LFUCG as we go forward. And this will be the first, and we are going to continue it because it's important for us to always stay connected. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Commissioner, earlier for your presentation on bonding. I think there was a good conversation had about bonding and I think that it's obvious that council is really going to be looking at what we bond in the next budget year. I think it's important that folks keep in mind and I kind of struggle with chiming in during that conversation because I think it's good to ask questions and try to get a better understanding of bonding in the time frame. And I think Council Member Worley phrased it correctly, that what we do is what's happening is standard practice. And when bonds go out and when you purchase the bonds, I think it all plays into the broader picture of the current year budget that we're in. And I think we need to allow for maximum flexibility going into this new year's budget. With all the ARPA money kind of rolling off the table, kind of addressing all the reoccurring spending that we put in future budgets. I think we have to be real careful and real cautious about how we're going to continue to pay for the things that we and our constituents know are important going forward. The other end of that spectrum, we have an ordinance that guides us on our bonding capacity. We also have an ordinance that guides us on our economic contingency fund. So with everything that we've been doing in the last few years because we've had the resources, I think now is a good time to take a look at the Economic Contingency Fund ordinance and not necessarily in a way to look at expanding it, but a way to look at enhancing our contribution to the fund. I think we balance our spending with our saving. So with that, I'll make a motion to put in the Budget, Finance, and Economic Development Committee the review of the economic contingency fund policy. So move. Thank you. Council Member Sheehan seconds. Is there a discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Anyone else? Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. In relationship to that joint meeting with the school board, you said council meeting. Is this an official council meeting? I'm kind of confused the way that you described it as because it can't be an official council meeting unless the whole council, we vote on it and put it on our calendar. We can have, I guess, a, there is a process that we have to do to make sure all the council members are going to be available and that kind of thing. And I'm all for meeting with the school board. I'm just trying to understand how that meeting is going to be set up. And is it an official meeting? Because it is. And I think we have to do a certain process to actually include all the council members in. And is the mayor going to be chairing the meeting? I mean, how is that going to work? I guess that's my question. That is something that we're working on. The mayor is invited, and she may chair, but we also do. But I didn't ask her to. And from our short conversation prior to, that was something we didn't discuss because it was a very short, one-second conversation. She let me know that you were part of the council that did it. That was our short conversation regarding. That was it. So that's something that we can discuss. Nothing is set in stone as far as I'm concerned. What I'm concerned about is that we begin to be working together instead of in our silos. As we saw during the winter, we've had a breakdown between the relationship between LFUCG and Fayette County Public Schools. We are serving the state population, but we're not talking. So that's up for discussion. That's something that we can converse about. Nothing for me is set in stone other than us meeting. And I think it's a great idea that we get together. And I think the meeting that we did do way back when, that was an official meeting. It was official. Right, and if that's what we wouldn't do, but there's a process if we're gonna do that to make sure that it gets on the calendar and how that's gonna be done. So I just wanted to, if we're gonna do it, we just have to go through the right process to get it done so it's an official meeting. If not, then it'd just be kind of a gathering, I guess, and just hope everybody shows up. So going forward, I believe it's imperative for all council members to know what our, because we all have not been here as long as some of our other colleagues. There are certain rules that are in place that are not communicated to anyone else. There's nothing in our books stating to any of these processes that were going on. So going forward, if there's any traditions, anything that is typically done as council members, I would recommend for them to be placed in writing so there's nothing left for us to guess or to – because this is a conversation that I have had with others. This has been a conversation that has been going on even before I was here. So I can't know what I don't know and what's not written down. So everything, like I said, is up for discussion. And my colleague, would you like to? I'm happy to. This conversation originated to look more like a retreat of the two bodies. And in speaking with law, it would be noticed like every other meeting that we have, but it was more of a special meeting than an official meeting to be on our calendar, approved yearly calendar because we weren't for sure when both bodies could meet so while i would encourage everybody that can attend to attend it would not be an official meeting of the council and that's just what because there's difference between retreat special meeting council meeting everything has certain due diligence that you have to follow to to making it whatever and i just want to know where that where we what we're doing because i'm i'm glad we're doing it just want to to make sure we just do the right thing and in the process of it. And by the way, I refer to everything that whenever there's a council meeting, for me, that's a council meeting. Like work session for me is a council meeting. Just anything that involves council and we're meeting and we're talking about the city, for me, that's council meeting. So sorry for the. No, I just, when I hear council meeting, that's an official meeting and that's when you take role in that kind of thing. Thank you. Thank you, Mary. it is it is an interesting discussion and the only council meetings required by the charter are thursday night twice a month this is not required work session council just decides it's important committees aren't required none of that's required public comments not required none of that so um it is kind of tricky you know how that how that all works and i've kind of forgotten i think ours was an official an official meeting because the whole school board was there and the council was there and we had a joint agenda of issues that were important to both bodies so um it's hard to know you can't know everything i don't know everything you know but um i i really applaud the effort because i think it's important to the point of no relations i have excellent relationships with the superintendent and the administration does talk with the you know the administration of the school but it's different than you all getting the chance to sit down with the school board and talk. So thank you. All right. Anything else in terms of council reports? No? All right. There is a mayor's report. I believe you've all received it. If I could have a motion to approve. So moved. Thank you, vice mayor. Second by council member Plumman. Are there any questions? All right, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. We also have price contract bids. If I could have a motion to approve. Councilmember Fogle moves. Councilmember Sheehan seconds. And are there any questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. We do have some public comment, and I'll ask if the way this will work is that I'll call your name, and I'll also verify if there's someone in here who is relinquishing their time to the speaker. and so you'll go to the podium state your restate your name and your council district and you'll have three minutes for the speaker unless someone has yielded their time and so we have rick day and i'll ask if doug holloway is here and are you relinquishing your three minutes to Mr. Day. Okay. All right. Welcome. You'll have six minutes. My name is Rick Day and I live in the third district. I have told you that the urban county government's compensation policies are a mess. And if they are fair and equitable at all, They are far more fair and equitable for some than for others You will not be surprised that I am going to continue that message today But with an emphasis on how council helps to establish and maintain and promote these policies You also will not be surprised that I'm going to continue to talk about the reallocations and the mag studies as they are examples of how council is able to do these things the reallocations gave a very generous pay increase to a small group of employees while ignoring all the others the reallocations were a lot more fair and equitable to some than to others everything about the reallocations was wrong everything about reallocations was wrong and everybody involved in it knew it and yet the administration ash council to approve them and you did shortly after council passed reallocation the administration hired the management advisory group to do a system-wide compensation study the mag study you might say the mag study was a reallocation of the other 1400 employees great deal right well not really because guess what they changed the rules and the mag study rules the rules that the other 1400 employees were judged by were not nearly as fair and equitable now I would like to tell you that everything about the mag study was wrong I can't do that too much is still unknown it probably will remain unknown too many questions were unanswered too many questions were not able to be asked but the administration has counsel to pass the mag study and you did actually I think it was more pushed than past you He pushed it through and said you would fix the problems later. Back when the reallocations were passed, I asked council about why they were done and how they were done. Then Vice Mayor Steve Kaye said they were just signing off on what the administration recommended. Excuse me. Okay, you've got your next three minutes. Okay, thank you. Please. You've got three more. So they said they were just signing vice mayor Steve Kaye said they were just signing off on the what the administration Recommended well, I don't buy that You don't just sign off you place on the agenda you vote on and pass Sometimes you even ask questions To say you just sign off. No, that's too easy The reallocations were added to the work session agenda at the last minute two days later The rules were suspended and they were given two readings on the same night and passed with no discussion and no questions The mag study went quickly but not quite as easily I think council was a little surprised when employees showed up to ask questions but there were few answers and the mag study was pushed through again they would fix it later so I don't buy it when council says they just sign off on what the administration recommends that's too easy that's a cop-out I think getting the reallocations and the mag study through council was well planned and well executed good job and thank you thank you very much we have no other speakers so i'll entertain a motion to adjourn thank you all those in favor say aye all right we are adjourned thank you all Thank you.