# Urban County Council Work Session - September 30, 2008 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · September 30, 2008 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/608 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/608?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2008-09-30 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: June 17, 2026 - **Length**: 25,535 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Urban County Council met on September 30, 2008, beginning at 3:02 PM, with Mayor Newberry presiding. The meeting covered four agenda items spanning a range of topics, including updates and informational presentations as well as formal action. Across the session, the Council heard three informational presentations — a Planning Committee Update, an Equine Task Force Report, and Technology Study Work Force Findings — and took up one item requiring a formal vote, the NAMI Proclamation, which was approved. In total, the Council conducted 7 votes and heard 1 public comment during the meeting. ## Attendance All 14 council members were present at the April 11, 2024 meeting. No members were absent or late. **Members Present:** - Stinnett - McChord - Gorton - Blevins - Beard - Ellinger - Myers - DeCamp - James - Crosbie - Stevens - Lane - Gray - Blues ## Votes and Decisions All motions brought before the Council on April 11, 2024 passed unanimously. No roll call vote breakdowns were recorded. - **DEA Agreement** [timestamp: 0:02]: Stinnett moved, seconded by McChord, to place a resolution on the docket authorizing execution of an agreement with the DEA. The motion passed unanimously. - **Deed Acquisition – 685 Dartmoor Court** [timestamp: 0:03]: Stinnett moved, seconded by McChord, to place a resolution on the docket authorizing deed acquisition of 685 Dartmoor Court. The motion passed unanimously. - **Docket Approval** [timestamp: 0:06]: McChord moved, seconded by Stinnett, to approve the docket as amended. The motion passed unanimously. - **Budget Amendments** [timestamp: 0:09]: Blevins moved, seconded by Ellinger, to approve budget amendments as amended. The motion passed unanimously. - **New Business** [timestamp: 0:14]: DeCamp moved, seconded by Stinnett, to approve new business as amended. The motion passed unanimously. - **State Legislative Delegation Request** [timestamp: 0:19]: Gorton moved, seconded by James, to request the state legislative delegation to work with other counties and cities to seek changes in contractor's fees and fines. The motion passed unanimously. - **Community Development Recommendations**: Blues moved, seconded by DeCamp, to approve community development recommendations. The motion passed unanimously. No timestamp was available for this item. ## Budget and Financial Actions The Council addressed two financial items during the April 11, 2024 meeting, though specific dollar amounts, vendor information, and resolution identifiers were not recorded in the available data. - **Intersection Improvement Project – Lansdowne Drive and East Reynolds Road:** The Council considered an amendment related to an intersection improvement project at the junction of Lansdowne Drive and East Reynolds Road. No specific contract amount, vendor, or resolution number is available from the meeting record. - **Acquisition of 685 Dartmoor Court – Storm Water Management:** The Council took up a purchase action for the property located at 685 Dartmoor Court, intended for storm water management purposes. No purchase price, seller information, or resolution identifier is available from the meeting record. Readers seeking specific figures, vendor names, or resolution numbers for these items are encouraged to consult the full meeting minutes or supporting documentation available through the Council's official records. ## Public Comment One member of the public addressed the Council during the public comment period of the April 11, 2024 meeting. - **Mr. Maher** spoke on the topic of economic development in Lexington. [timestamp: 2:28:40] He emphasized the potential he sees for economic growth in the community, advocating for better organization and stronger support structures for high-tech innovators and entrepreneurs. Mr. Maher's comments suggested that Lexington could benefit from more intentional efforts to attract and sustain individuals working in technology and innovation sectors. ## Planning Committee Update [timestamp: 14:39] Gorton presented an update from the Planning Committee, covering several topics the committee had recently discussed. The committee's agenda included the following areas: - **Development plan adherence** — The committee examined issues related to compliance with existing development plans. - **Mobile home park quality of life** — Conditions and quality of life concerns at mobile home parks were discussed. - **Electrical inspector fee schedule** — The committee reviewed the fee schedule associated with electrical inspections. - **Penalties for zoning ordinance violations** — The committee considered penalties applicable to violations of zoning ordinances. - **Building permit time limits** — Limits on the duration of building permits were also addressed. The update was informational in nature, with no votes or formal actions taken by the Council at this time. ## Equine Task Force Report [timestamp: 51:37] The Council received a presentation from the Equine Task Force on the equine industry, with key speakers Bob Quick and Frank Penn delivering the report. The Task Force presented findings covering several areas: - **Industry impact:** An overview of the equine industry's economic and community significance - **Land use planning:** Findings related to how land use policies affect the equine industry - **Recommendations:** Specific proposals aimed at supporting and sustaining the equine industry going forward This item was informational in nature, and no formal vote or action was taken by the Council as a result of the presentation. *Note: Additional detail on the specific findings, data points, and recommendations presented by Quick and Penn is not available in the source material for this summary.* ## Technology Study Work Force Findings [timestamp: 1:28:24] The Council received an informational presentation on findings from a technology study examining the entrepreneurial environment in the Bluegrass region. The presentation was delivered by Dr. Jennifer Swanberg and Mack Werner. The study focused on assessing the strengths and areas for improvement within the region's entrepreneurial landscape, providing the Council with data and findings intended to inform future planning and decision-making related to workforce and technology development. The item was informational in nature, and no formal action was taken by the Council as a result of the presentation. ## NAMI Proclamation [timestamp: 24:38] The Council took up a proclamation recognizing the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Council member Linda Gorton presented the proclamation, which declared October 5–11, 2008, as Mental Illness Awareness Week in Lexington. The proclamation was approved by the Council. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Place a resolution on the docket authorizing execution of an agreement with the DEA - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Place a resolution on the docket authorizing deed acquisition of 685 Dartmoor Court - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approve docket as amended - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approve budget amendments as amended - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approve new business as amended - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Request state legislative delegation to work with other counties/cities to seek changes in contractor's fees and fines - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approve community development recommendations --- ## Full transcript You, you could never hurt me. Why'd you hurt me and be so untrue? Anywhere, I would have followed you too. If you wanted to hurt me. You could not take me. In your arms and always love me. If I were you. Anywhere, I would have followed you too. If you wanted to hurt me. You could not take me. In your arms and always love me. Is there anyone who wishes to address the council on matters that are on the agenda today? All right, we're ready to proceed with the docket approval. Is there a motion? I move approval. Second. Council Member Blevins has moved approval of the docket. Council Member McCord has seconded that. Any discussion? All in favor? Council Member Gordon. Uh, Mayor, I believe we got a email about item one, and maybe someone needs to, um, verify that, asking for it to be taken off. Is that correct? Whose district is that? Mr. Lane, do you know about that? Uh, that is correct. They've just asked to with- withdraw that, because it was, um- What was it? ... essentially in a down zone type thing. Was it number three? Was it number one or number three? Um. It's number three. No, that's, that's a complication, 'cause it's the same ownership on it. Let me look at it just for a second. Maybe, maybe our clerk can shed some light here. Is it normally the case? It is number three and it has been withdrawn by the petitioner, but we have to wait until Thursday night to make the motion to remove it from the docket. And it will be removed because it has been withdrawn from the application. Very well. Anything further? Council Member Stennet. Thank you, Mayor. I have a couple walk-ons. Uh, one, um, I move to place a resolution on the docket for Thursday, October 2nd, uh, authorizing the execution of an agreement with the Drug Enforcement Administration, and this is our annual agreement with them, so. Second. Council Member Stennet has moved and Council Member McCord has seconded a mo- uh, the motion, the motion is to, uh, add a item to the docket that would include the approval of our agreement with Drug Enforcement Administration. Any discussion on that motion? We'll treat it as an amendment to the original motion. All those in favor of amending the docket as specified, let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. I have one more. I move to place on the docket, a resolution authorizing the acceptance of a deed for the acquisition of 685 Dartmoor Court. The purpose of the acquisition is for storm water management and mitigation to the existing water head, and the purchase price and appraisal obtained have been approved by the Division of Water Quality. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a, by Council Member Stennet to amend the docket, second by Council Member McCord. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, no. Something less than enthusiastic endorsement there, but we'll roll on. The, that amendment's approved. Council Member Gordon. And then, Mayor, um, I believe, um, and I'm looking at Jimmy Emmons from planning, I believe, uh, do we need a motion to put the revised version of ordinance number o- number eight, which is on for first reading, do we need a motion about that? Or... Oh, you have that motion. Well, Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. And Council Member Gordon. Uh, you know, I move to put, uh, put, put the, uh, ordinance amending articles 111 and so forth on the docket without a public hearing. And because there has been a, a, a, a revision in the, uh, in the amendment, I'd like to ask, to, if, if permissible, to ask, uh, uh, Jimmy Emmons of the planning staff to, um, briefly explain the, uh, you know, the, the, the change and why this does not need to go back to the Planning Commission first. Sure. While I think about it, is there a second? Second. Second. All right. Council Member DeCamp has seconded Council Member Blue's motion. Mr. Emmons? Thank you. I just wanna, uh, very briefly, uh, explain, I did pass out earlier today, a memorandum, uh, with this, uh, text amendment. And the, uh, the text that was in the white was just, uh, uh, correcting a Xeroxing error. The, the text that was in the gray, I mean, in the beige sheet, uh, that wis, uh, that was, has a few minor changes that are not of a substantative, substantative, uh, nature, that the Planning Commission did ask us to look at and, and go forward with. And so, I'm pleased to announce that the applicant, the staff, and the, uh, and the interested party all got together and we came to, uh, agreed language that does not substantially change the Planning Commission's action. Uh, today, uh, you do not need to act on that. You just need to put the original ordinance on for no hearing. On Thursday night, uh, there is a resolution prepared to, uh, to adopt the revised, uh, amendment that we've got there today. If you have any questions at today's work session, I'd be happy to try and answer them. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Emmons? Seeing none, any further discussion on Council Member Blue's amendment? And we will have a, a, a revised ordinance to, you know, to read at, at Thursday night's meeting. Thank you. If there's no further discussion, those in favor of amending the docket as specified by Council Member Blues, let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Oppose, no. Motion carries. Any further discussion on the docket as amended? All right. I see no further discussion. Those in favor of approving the docket as now amended, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Oppose, no. Motion carries. We're ready to consider the summary. Is there a motion to approve it? Move approval. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion by Council Member Gordon, a second by Council Member Blevins to approve the summary. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. Summary's approved. Budget amendments. Mayor. Council Member Beard. Uh, I have a correction on, uh, budget amendment page 11. Uh, item, uh, journal number 27440-41. It says that the, uh, 249,652.10 was work done on the Handberg Force Main Project, which is not accurate. It should read Lansdowne Drive at East Reynolds Road Intersection Improvement Project. I would move for that correction. Second. I have a motion by Council Member Beard and a second by Council Member Gordon to amend Item 27440-41. Any discussion? Those in favor of amending that item, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those oppose, no. Motion carries. Mayor, I'll move approval of the budget amendments. I have a motion to approve the budget amendments and a second by somebody. Council Member Ellinger. Council Member Meyers. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, I've been asked to, uh, make a motion by the administration to move. I move that the budget journal number 27435 on the budget amendment request list be removed for, from consideration. This budget general, general for water quality moves funds within the divisions operating accounts only and does not impact fund balance, therefore does not, does not require approval by the council. So moved. Second. Thank you. Council Member Meyers has moved to delete Item 27435 from the list of budget amendments. Council Member Gordon has seconded. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those oppose, no. Thank you. That amendment is adopted. We're now ready, I think, to vote on the budget amendments as amended. We have a motion on the floor to approve them. All in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All oppose, no. Motion carries. We have a few items of new business. Move for approval. Uh, I have a motion by Council Member DeCamp, second by Council Member Stennet to approve the items of new business. I think Mr. Green has one issue for us on Item A. Mr. Green? Mayor, council members. Uh, Item A where it reads program manager, it should say program manager senior grade 120E. That was dropped from the synopsis. Is there a motion to- Move it. ... make that amendment? Council Member Blane has made that motion. Is there a second? Second. Council Member Gordon has seconded very dutifully, I might add. Thank you. We're making progress. Any, uh, discussion on the amendment? Those in favor of that amendment, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Oppose, no. The amendment carries. We're ready now to vote on the new business items as amended. Any discussion? Council Member, um, James? Thank you, Mayor. I have a question on letter H, Item H, and would prefer Human Resources to come forward. Is there anyone here from Human Resources? Mayor, it would be great if, um, when we have anything related pers- to personnel on the, um, agenda, if we could have someone from Human Resources present. They, they should be here, but, um, I don't see Commissioner Bennett here either. All right. Uh, Mr. Curtis, can you speak to that? It, it, it probably is not going to be appropriate for him. It's not specific to these particular, um, positions, but has to do with the reclassifications as a whole. So I will wait on Human Resources. Thank you. All right. Will, Commissioner Cole, can you address that issue? Commissioner, thank you for coming forward. We've, I know that there are several divisions of government that have been trying to get reclassifications done, and this appears to be a reclass. Can you explain the difference between this reclassification and some of the other divisions who have not been able to get their reclasses? Um, some of the reclasses were actually put forward, um, as a part of the budget process and reviewed by, um, by the individual links as part of a bigger picture, maybe a reorganization, something like that. And sometimes too, um, we're reclassifying positions that do not have people in them. So as the positions are becoming vacant, we're allowing people to reclassify into a position that is more comparable maybe for the kind of work that they need to have done, um, in the future. ... than, than the previous, um, person held. So, there are some instances that we are moving them forward. Um, I can tell you, week before last, we had a, a real serious discussion about where we're going with reclassifications as a whole, and we're gonna be bringing some proposals to you, um, i- in terms of how we deal with this, because we have kind of put a lot of things on hold. I know there's some reclassifications out there that people would like to, to see happen. We really want to get past this October 15th date of taking a good look at where our revenue is for the year and where we are in terms of retirements before we contemplate how we move forward on the reclassification issue, but we will be bringing a plan forward to you in the, in the next month or so. Okay. And how... To whom is that expressed? So, if you have a director of a division or, I don't know, a supervisor in a division that believes a reclass needs to be done, do they need to send a list, an updated list to Human Resources, or you all will be contacting those divisions specifically? Well, uh, the commissioners are aware of where we are in the process right now, and they should be communicating with their division directors. Um, we're, we're not encouraging people right now to, to, to bring forward reclassifications of, with people in existing positions because of not knowing where our personnel budget is for the year until after we get past this retirement issue. So, um, we haven't been encouraging any to come forward, and, and, and the commissioners are well aware of that. Okay. Well, thank you, Commissioner. Mm-hmm. Thanks, Mayor. Thank you. Any further discussion of the new business items? I see none. Those in favor of approving the items of new business, please indicate by saying, "Aye." Aye. Opposed, "No." Motion carries. We're now ready for presentations, the first of which is the Planning Committee. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. The Planning Committee had an extended meeting on September 23rd. And the first item that was discussed was development plan adherence, and the committee spent approximately an hour and 15 minutes on this issue, um, related to discussions of what happens when development plans are filed, uh, what happens when development plans are not followed, and some of the options which the Urban County Government has in this regard. And so one of the things that was discussed and that will be discussed at our next meeting is, um, the committee asked the law department to look at the Georgetown City Ordinance, which relates to notices of violation, and this is in regards to developers, builders, and other entities who are delinquent under the local regulations. And so the committee has asked our law department to come back with a draft ordinance that we can discuss at our October meeting. So that motion, um, stays in the committee. A motion which was made by the committee in relation to the discussion was a motion by Council Member Blues to ask our internal auditors to expedite the Division of Engineering audit, and so I bring that forward as a motion. I have a motion by Council Member Gordon and a second by Council Member Crosby. Is there any discussion? Uh, yes. I, I support this motion though, at a meeting in the Internal Audit Board, which followed the planning meeting and before today, this was discussed and they are expediting it, so I think this, uh, would be a welcome motion also. Good. All right. Any further discussion? Those in favor, please say, "Aye." Aye. Opposed, "No." Motion carries. The second item which was discussed was the mobile home park quality of life. And the committee looked at a draft ordinance which would create relocation assistance program for tenants who are displaced by rezoning, redevelopment, or a change in the use of property, and this, uh, draft ordinance came to us as a result of the situation which occurred at Ingleside Mobile Home Park. And so th- this will stay in committee and, um, the committee has asked our law department to meet with our budgeting folks and iron out some details that were discussed at the committee meeting and bring that back to our October meeting. The third item which was discussed is the electrical inspector fee schedule, and this is in regards to Section 5-76 of our Code of Ordinances, which is the uniform schedule of fees for electrical inspections. As you know, the Urban County Government, um, does not actually do the electrical ins- inspections. We hire someone to do those for us and to be sure that, uh, we are following code. And these fees were last amended in 2002. And the committee has asked Building Inspection and Purchasing to come back to the committee with their recommendations for changes in this ordinance. The fourth item which was discussed involved penalties and fines for zoning ordinance violations. This is Article 5 of the Code of Ordinance and also involves the, um, Kentucky Building Code. And, uh, Dewey cr- Mr. Dewey Crowe of Building Inspection and Mr. Chris King of Division of Planning talked about this. The penalties have not changed in over 20 years. ...so they're very outdated. And so, the committee has brought forward a motion, which I make today, which is a motion by Council Member Blues to request state legislative devel- excuse me, delegation to work with Louisville and other communities to seek changes in the fine levels at the state level. So, this comes forward as a motion. I have a motion by Council Member Gordon, second by Council Member James. Any discussion? Those in favor, please indicate by saying, "Aye." Aye. Opposed, "No." Motion carries. The fifth item which we discussed was restrictions on building permits when the applicant has violated the zoning ordinance, and, um, this was discussed at length, and the committee has asked for the Department of Law to take a look at zoning violations of record, those which have occurred that they have on record, and whether restrictions on future applications for permits or licenses can be enforced. And so, this item will also stay in committee. And the final item which we discussed is time limits on building permits, and this is an item brought forward because of concerns in the community where, uh, neighbors have a house which has been under construction for years, and, um, this is all, uh, regulated by the Kentucky Building Code Section 105.5. And so, the committee has asked Mr. Paul Scheaniger to do some research and have some discussions with the Kentucky Department of Housing and Building Instruction to give us some guidance as to whether we can make any changes in this area. So, um, that completes my report, Mayor, and again, I thank the entire planning committee who all stayed for all four hours. Thank you. Council Member Stevens, do you have the Corridors Committee Report? Uh, yes, sir, I do. The Corridors Committee met in its regular session on September 16th. Uh, we reviewed our ongoing projects which include, uh, transportation enhancement grants for constructing a stone wall at the new intersection between, uh, Old Frankfort Pike and Alexandria, uh, which will be complementing the S-State Highway Department's construction of a roundabout at that intersection. Uh, we also, uh, discussed and reviewed the progress on the Newtown Pike enhancement grant, which we have, uh, primarily from New Circle Road to Main Street. And this will be for- it's G- it's $250,000 to improve the appearance of that, uh, road. We also have another one for Versailles Road, which will be from the airport into the Maxwell and, uh, High Street decussation for a similar amount. And these projects seem to be, uh, going along very well. The, uh, Corridors Committee did broker a meeting of the Green Space Commission, uh, the environmental interests, the, uh, Tree Board, and other citizens, along with the State Division of Forestry, with our foresters, at the request of, uh, Mrs. Sandra Schafer, former council member from the 10th District. And the purpose of this meeting was to, uh, see if there was interest in starting a citizen's group to support the, uh, planting, nurturing, and increase of trees for our urban forest. There was a good deal of interest in that, and Mrs. Schafer is in the process of organizing such a community effort. Uh, there was some concern at our meeting about the trees on Tates Creek, and, uh, some citizens approached me and said that the trees, which appear to be very dead, are still having the alligator bags filled with water every day, and he was wondering why they're watering them if they're dead. And I couldn't answer his question, uh, because it does seem, uh, a little waste of effort and water, but, uh, the contractor is obligated to replace those dead trees, and the theory is that perhaps the contractor's hoping they'll come back to life if he pours enough water on them. But, uh, I doubt it. That's not likely, so... But, the problem is, is known to us and we will work towards its, uh, solution as time goes by. There is no other business and that conclude our meeting. Thank you very much. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I am- I want to read a proclamation, and Mayor, I wanna thank you. This is the 16th consecutive year that the mayor of our urban county government has, uh, done a proclamation for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Uh, this is a, um, a situation which impacts all of us, whether in our own family or whether with friends or, uh, friends of family. So, I wanna ask Carolyn Cullover to come up to receive the proclamation. Carolyn's from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Welcome. Thank you, ma'am. And I will read the proclamation, and then Carolyn has just a few short words to say. Um, this is a proclamation by Jim Newberry, Mayor, to all to whom these presents shall come. Whereas serious mental illnesses, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, severe anxiety disorders, borderline personality disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorders are the number one reason for hospital admissions nationwide, and whereas serious mental illnesses are more common than cancer, diabetes, or heart disease, and whereas serious mental illnesses have often been scientifically proven to be highly treatable illnesses of the brain, and whereas scientific research is producing tremendous breakthroughs in the understanding of mental illnesses resulting in more effective treatments that allow people to reclaim full productive lives, now therefore Jim Newberry, Mayor of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government does hereby proclaim October 5th through October 11th, 2008 as Mental Illness Awareness Week in Lexington, Kentucky and urges all citizens to gain a greater understanding of these illnesses. Signed Jim Newberry, Mayor. Thank you. You're welcome. Appreciate it. Thank you for being here. I'm proud that you're here. I'm actually thrilled to be here for the 16th year. I'm a native Lexingtonian, never having lived anywhere else, so I love this city. And I love you council because you're always so open to not only us, NAMI Lexington, but other entities that come to you as volunteer groups for some good cause so that the citizens of our community- community can lead better lives, particularly when they're- they're dealing with something that is, uh, quite a negative influence on their lives. Uh, Mental Illness Awareness Week actually starts for us this year, uh, October the 3rd, this Friday. The Congress, a number of years ago, designated the first full week of October as Mental Illness Awareness Week. So I would like to sh- share with you our schedule. Being here is so nice because not only do we get to share it with you, those who a- are watching on, um, our Channel 3, you know, then word gets out to all of them. But anyway, this coming, uh, Friday, at Eastern State Hospital from 3:00 to 5:00 o'clock in the afternoon, we're having our first annual Recovery Festival. And what that means is two years ago, they started a very innovative treatment program at Eastern State Hospital called the Recovery Mall where patients don't sit on a unit, but they come down and they participate like going to school. So this is our- our first annual festival and it's from 3:00 to 5:00 at Eastern State Hospital. Surely you know where that antiquated facility is. Also, on, uh, Sunday from 6:00 to 7:30 PM we have a candlelight vigil in Phoenix Park, and this is the 16th year we've done that. On, um, Monday, Nicholasville from 6:30 to 7:30 will have their candlelight vigil. On Tuesday from 10:00 o'clock in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon, there will be a d- depression screening day at the WT Young Library at UK, and this is just not for students. It is open to the public screening for a variety of mental illnesses, which I hope you all know are very common. They touch one in four people. And then next Thursday we're having a- a dinner and, uh, it's called the Heroes in the Fight. We are honoring those people, uh, professionals as well as non-professionals who have done extraordinary things to, uh, help us with our advocacy for the mentally ill. And that evening we will be giving the Wings Award to Governor Beshear because he was, uh, helped us with our advocacy this, uh, early year to put wings to the project of getting the new Eastern State Hospital. And we've only worked for that for a very... That was a very hard several months, um, first of the year. People said to us, "Oh, he'll never get that done." Well, we at NAMI Lexington, the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness are very determined and that's gonna be an entity, and I'm sure you all agree after 184 years, we need a new hospital. And, uh, then Saturday, October the 11th concludes our week with our national or our statewide walk, NAMIWalks for the Mind of America. These are done all over the country. We will have 2,000 people coming from all over the state from many different affiliates. The walk, uh, registration is at noon, the walk is at 1:00 o'clock. It is a fundraiser. Uh, there will be 2,000 people there. And also we form teams, and, uh, we raise money that way. If you're not on a team, don't wanna form a team, just come, register, walk with us. The governor will be there, and, uh, there will be food to eat. For instance, my team is Scotty's Steppers, which is in memory of my late brother, Scotty Health, who was a professional sports writer, very successful in his career until he was 29 years old, and the last 22 years after he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder were quite a struggle. So that's the reason that I'm involved with- with this. So there we are. Um, I wanna introduce to you someone else now who will give you a little more information. Her name is Fay Morton. She is an immediate vice pre- uh, president of NAMI Lexington, the local chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness, and she, like me, has had 40 years of experience in dealing with mental illness in her family. Thank you. I too would like to thank the mayor for, uh, once again supporting our Mental Illness Awareness Week and all of you. I, and I don't want to miss an opportunity to say thank you. Uh, NAMI thanks you. I'm just a little tiny part of NAMI, probably oldest part, but I tell ya, uh, this, this leadership is something outstanding. I just want to mention that wherever we go as a little group, there is leadership, Lexington leadership there listening, quietly listening, and then the next thing I know, Lexington leadership is, is taking a stand, making a change that's going to impact the lives, I, of all our people that are seriously mentally ill. I'm here because I am a mother of a son who's 51 years old, and in June of this year, I, uh, had him committed. I filed the papers of the, um, mental health petition and had him taken to the Eastern State Hospital, and it was his thirty- thirtieth time to be committed, so you know, you know what this possibility and now reality of a new hospital means to me. And as I speak to new parents, I, I never fail to tell them... And when I say new parents, I mean all the 20-year-olds that I, we get calls about that's being diagnosed. I can tell them that we're gonna have a state-of-the-art hospital. They no longer have to be ashamed. And frankly, the children that are 20 years old, um, they don't know the horror stories about Eastern State as much as my Tim is aware of. And, and the stigma has already been reduced by all the things that's going on right now around building this new hospital. And, um, as I said, there's just many things. Example, last Friday, I attended the graduation of 41 le- uh, well, they were from around the community, police officers and sheriffs. They received, uh, they graduated from this crisis intervention training, and it's called the CIT program. They will be better equipped to go into the community and, and provide care, uh, to our mentally ill citizens in a way that they'll be safe and our citizens will be safe. Um, there are just something... There's something going on every day, and we are so looking forward to this next week and our walk. And I'd like to just hand out, uh, have each of you to have one of our little folders to, to just know a little bit more about what we're doing, and I thank you so much. Thank you. Let, let me, um, before you get away, tell you how appreciative I am of all the work that NAMI has done on multiple fronts to make our community more aware of mental illness issues. I think all of us know people who have suffered from one form of mental illness or another, and because of efforts like you, much of the stigma has been alleviated in years past. There's more work to be done, but we've made enormous strides, and I'm very grateful for the efforts which you and the other folks involved with, with NAMI have made. And I am especially grateful for your efforts with regard to Eastern State. That, uh, that project is going to make Lexington a far better place for folks suffering from mental illness, and, um, um, I know NAMI had an enormous amount to do with that project being approved in Frankfort, and it's, it's a great project for Lexington. So thank you very, very much. I'm delighted to be able to participate in some small way in your efforts. Thank you. All right, Mr. Clark, if you'll step forward. Mayor and Council, I wanna thank you all for the opportunity to come and present, uh, our vacuum leaf collection program for 2008. Um, I have prepared a brief PowerPoint presentation that, uh, we'll walk through real quick and, um, so I know most all of you are aware of our vacuum leaf collection program, but we'll just run through some of the, um, some of the history, the service area, why we do vacuum leaf collection, how it works, how much money it takes, and, and how we communicate to the public, um, some of the improvements that we've made recently, and then we'll have an opportunity for some questions. Parks and Recreation took over vacuum leaf collection in 2004, when property management, part of property management was absorbed in, in parks. And since that time, Alan Laughlin, uh, has been the supervisor of, of the program. He w- he ran the program when it was in property management, and he does a good job, and he's going to be, uh, running the program again for us this year. Who gets vacuum leaf collection? Basically, all citizens in the urban service area who receive urban county government waste collection services. And so, you know, why do we do vacuum leaf collection? Well, there's a n- a number of opportunities for the citizens to get their leaves collected. Uh, one of those is the vacuum leaf program, and primarily, we do it to help out keep the leaves out of storm sewers, uh, keep the, get the leaves up off the roadways, 'cause when they become wet, it becomes slick. Also, um, environmental issues, we redirect the leaves. They don't go into the landfill. So there's a number of- ... reasons why we do that. And plus, the citizens can rake their leaves and put them in the linie waste containers. Um, waste management also has the paper bag program. So vacuum leaf collection does work, but it's just one of several, uh, methods that we use. The program lasts about 10 to 12 weeks each fall. Uh, starting tomorrow next month, we will begin hiring. Uh, we hire approximately 30 to 35 seasonal employees, and, um, we do have some turnover through the year, but we replace them as quickly as we can. This year, vacuum leaf collection will take place starting in the first week of November. Uh, we have the city, the urban service area that I mentioned earlier, divided into five collection zones. And essentially all we ask th- or that the citizens rake their leaves to the curb, not in the street, but just to the curb, and then we will come along and vacuum those, suck those up with the big vacuum, um, leaf units. This is, um, this is a map that I inserted. You don't have that in your packet, but I've got other copies here that I will hand out. This shows the, the five zones and when we plan to begin leaf collection in each one of those zones. Essentially, like I said, we will start the first week of November, and we will cycle through the zones and each zone will receive vacuum leaf collection, uh, twice during that 10 to 12-week period. This is a picture of one of the leaf collection trucks, the vacuum box, and the, um, leaf vacuum unit. This is one of the dump trucks. Uh, we also use two rear loader units. Um, but all in all, we're going to use 11, um, pieces of equipment this year. The fund is the, um, 1115 fund, that's where all the money comes from to run the program, and it's a half a million dollars. We communicate with the public in a number of different ways about the, uh, leaf collection program. I've listed a lot of these. Also, um, Lex call provides us tremendous assistance, uh, with the leaf collection program through the year. A lot of citizens call them with questions and, um, uh, Lex call does a fantastic job of answering those questions and referring, uh, issues on to us. And also, the Herald Leader, uh, works with us well to publicize the streets that will be collected and the, um, collection times, so... Some recent improvements, um, that, um, really helped with our success, last year for, for the first time, we paid our seasonal employees $10 an hour. Uh, that made a tremendous difference in our ability to recruit and retain these seasonal employees. Uh, so we plan to do that again this year and expect to have similar success. Also, last year, for the first time, we posted on Thursday the streets that would be collected the following week, and we do that each Thursday, and we tell the public, um, what streets will be collected the following week so that they will have advanced notice and can get the leaves right to the curb. And so that, we felt like that made a significant improvement in, in the communication and, and the number of complaints that we received, uh, from the public. You know, "When are you coming to get our leaves," and that type of thing. So we intend to do that again this year. And then also, we improved our record keeping. The drivers, as they collect the, the routes, they report that information back to the supervisors at, at the headquarters, and we update our maps daily, which then, in turns, allows us to update the website. So essentially, that's, that's what we plan to do for 2008. There are no major changes. We just feel like, um, we're gonna build on the success that we had last year and the previous years. So I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. Any questions for Mr. Clark? All right. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much, Mr. Clark. Um, I really appreciate this. I think this, uh, vacuum leaf collection is one of the best services we offer our citizens in the fall, you might say year-round, because it also helps our stormwater system. And, um, I guess this, uh, question is kind of in my mind, it really is a stormwater question, but it impacts you all also. It seems to me a few years ago, we were going to be putting a little, um, a little item, I don't know what we call it, at each storm, uh, drain inlet that basically directed people not to dump things in there, because those flow onto our streams and rivers, and I, I don't know, have you had any conversations with, uh, engineering or, um, I guess, really Charlie Martin's shop now, about, about that? No, ma'am. No? I have not. It might be something to talk about. I've actually seen people, and unfortunately I couldn't help myself, I stopped to talk to them when they were dumping leaves down the storm drain inlets, and, um, I- I think as much as we can do to help people understand that those aren't for leaves, they're for water. Right. And, um, maybe that conversation can take place across the divisions as to how we can get that word across. When you, um, communicate on the website, I like, I like that you're doing the updates on Thursdays. Do you include the map on the website, the map that you just showed us? We list the streets specifically, but, um, we don't provide the map. Seems like we had some issues with that last year- Okay. ... and, um- As far as getting it on? Right. So- so- But it might be something that, you know, we certainly take a look at this year. Okay. And I know that one year, um, snow took over and a lot of people, it's been several years ago, a lot of people had their leaves at the curb. Um, and of course, we can't control Mother Nature, but, um, do we have any contingency for if it snows and then the snow melts, do we go back? Or what do, what do we do in that case? We do... You know, weather severely impacts what we do. If it's raining, we continue working. If it's heavy rain, I know of a couple of occasions this past year that we had to completely suspend operations. When it snows, we totally shut down. However, the leaves are still there, and so what we do is go back to the point of where we left off and, and begin collecting those leaves, and then we have to readjust our maps and, and our website and all of that. But that's why, you know, we say 10 to 12 weeks. I know in the past, we's al- we've also gone into January, you know, sometimes later. It... So many factors, depends on when the leaves come down, weather, as you mentioned. So, but we make sure that every street gets collected twice. Well, thank you very much, and I thank the Division of Parks, because I think this is a terrific service. Thank you. Council Member Stevens. Uh, Tim, I had a question to clarify. Exactly which households would be served? When we first started this program some years ago, we only, uh, collected leaves where the people received the city garbage collection, but, uh, because this problem exist all over the community, and because it has some public safety issues, it was thought that our general urban service tax would cover this, and, uh, not the, uh, refuse collections. So I believe it now applies to all households. Is that correct? Actually, I r- I recall some conversations about that several years ago, but at this point, uh, we are, we are simply collecting in the area, in the urban service area that receives Durham County Government solid waste collection, not the entire area. So that, uh, a street like Cherokee, which now has private garbage collection, will not be served? Uh, that would be correct. So now it's just the 65,000 households, instead of the 94 that you list here that have- Well- ... our urban service garbage collection? I understand that number to be close to 90,000 that, that we, uh, do leaf collection on. Mm-hmm. And do you know when that policy was changed? Because I recall several years ago, we decided, uh, to go ahead and do everybody in the urban service area. I would have to take a look at that and go back and research, but I recall several years ago when we had some conversations about that and expanded it. Yeah. I would appreciate you clarifying that. Okay. Anything further for Mr. Clark? Council Member Hinson. I'm sorry, uh, Council Member Crosby, then Council Member Hinson. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Clark, I'm looking over this schedule and of the leaf collection zones, and I just happened to notice a particular interest, uh, to the Seventh District, uh, zone D. Um, the leaf collection happens to occur over two holiday weeks, um, November 24th through the 28th, and December 22nd through the 26th. Both are times which may be, um, times where there are a lot of people who are gone and maybe traveling. Um, is there any way that maybe you all might reconsider, at least with one of those weeks, perhaps flipping them? Since they're both holiday weeks, it, it appears that that might be... yeah. One of the reasons- Yeah. ... that zone D, um, has those particular times in it is because what we found is that, essentially zone A has, other than zone E, it has the most density, but zone A on the south side has, um- I understand, I understand that, but I would also imagine that maybe B or C, when you get out to some of those areas too, maybe flipping one of those weeks, n- not both, but one perhaps could be flipped, maybe. We'll take a look at it and see if we can readjust. Council Member Hinson. Thank you, Tim, um, for the presentation. And, um, also, I would be very interested. There are several, um, citizens in the Eleventh District that do not have city garbage pickup. So I would be interested to know if we could include those folks, or if that's... Is that out of the question, or? Uh, so the residents that have private garbage pickup, they will not get the service. Is that, like, done? Uh, that's -- that's the way I understand it to be, and our marching orders are to collect in the urban service area where the citizens receive the urban county government waste collection services. Okay. Maybe it's something that we need to revisit perhaps. Yeah. I would like for that. Also, just so I would know, um, if someone is interested and needs employment, where do they go to apply? Do they come to Parks and Rec? They can apply to Parks and Recreation or here at the Government Center with Human Resources. Okay. Um, that ad will appear, uh, w- we're still working on that, but it should be out in, um, the next week. Okay. So- So, they should be able to apply within the next week if they're interested, like if they're a student or whatever and need temporary employment? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anything further for Mr. Clark? Thanks- Thank you. ... Tim. Appreciate your information. It's now my pleasure to welcome Bob Quick to the podium for presentation on the Equine Task Force. Bob. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. Just leave that there. Yeah, just sit it right there. Yeah, that's ... Yeah, why don't you keep it there? Okay. All right. We're gonna make a good attempt at, uh, covering a topic that is very significant, very important to, um, this region, to the commonwealth, and, um, since we have a real short period of time, I'm gonna j- go through and really just kind of lift out nuggets of what this task force has found. And, okay ... The, uh, goal of the group that was set up was to encourage the growth and security of the equine industry in Fayette County and the Bluegrass region. And, uh, you can see a listing of the individuals who made up this task force. And over to, uh, my right, uh, are members of the task force. The rest of the folks are out of town traveling, uh, and, uh, their specific, uh, disciplines, but we are very appreciative of the long hours that each of these individuals put in. And as you can see, it's a pretty stellar group of individuals. And, uh, especially I want to draw all the attention to Holly Wiemers, who's over here as well. Holly is a phenomenal researcher, and what we found in this study in our efforts is that we have so much treasure, so much wealth and resources here, that, uh, the more we got into it, the more, uh, impressive, uh, this whole industry seemed. These are the, uh, areas that we targeted, uh, land use and planning, uh, the importance of the stallions, and again, uh, it'll become very self-evident in many of these charts that we're gonna show, uh, economic impact, research and development infrastructure, branding and marketing, legislative and policy. Um, Dr. Stevens and Ed Lane were two of the council representatives who worked with us, and our focus was Fayette County, but I have to tell you, it's really hard to uncouple, uh, the equine industry, especially as it relates to the region. Uh, we tried the best we could, uh, but again, it's, it - this is a very significant regional issue for us. Uh, a couple of the highlights, under the land use planning, uh, at the very -- the bottom bullet point, as of September, 191 farms with 22,354 acres have been protected, and the goal is 50,000. And you can also see where, uh, close to another 6,000 or 5,600 acres of conservation easements in the region have been, um, placed in control of the Bluegrass Conservancy. So we are making progress towards the goals that we set out, but you can tell, uh, and you can see we have a lot more, uh, progress to, uh, to make. One other ... Hang on here. Uh, interesting statistic. 90% of all thoroughbred farms in the state are located in Woodford, Fayette, Scott, and Bourbon Counties. So that's the significance of the equine industry as we know it, um, to this, to this region. Here was, uh, another, uh, item that the more we got into it ... Dean, uh, um, um ... I forgot one of my ta- Doug Dean, um, was on our task force and he did a survey looking at all of the spinoffs, uh, you know, all the supporting industries to the equine, to the horse, and the more we got into it, the deeper it got, and then we found out all of the spinoffs that these different, um, services provide. So again, very interconnected to the region, to the state, and globally. When we were in Aachen, Germany, we, we came across one of our chief architects, uh, doing a huge, uh, project, one of the largest in the world, in Dubai. Um, and it's right down here on Main Street, the offices. So, uh, we find that they're, uh, very interle- uh, interconnected. Also, Lori Garekovic, uh, Garekovic has, uh, done a phenomenal, uh, equine cluster presentation, and it ... I've got a ... Uh, I think we've got a chart of that coming up in here. But anyway, it shows all the interconnections between the diff- the different, uh, professions. Uh, again, under land use and planning, another interesting aspect was that, um, since the, uh, breeder incentive program was, uh, uh, created, it served as a catalyst for an influx of quarter horses. We all think of the thoroughbred. One of the largest growing segments of the equine industry is the quarter horse. Since 2006, when this breeder incentive was, uh, enacted, 600 stallions have moved from Oklahoma, Texas, and other prominent quarter horse states. ... to here, to Central Kentucky. Uh, more than 2,100 mares have followed and are boarded at Kentucky Farms. So again, I think you start to see the significance of what legislation and incentives can mean when we provide carrots. People want to bring the... more of their industry here, uh, to Central Kentucky, the equine industry that is. Uh, oth- the recommendations that we came up with for land use planning was strengthen and fully fund the PDR program, allow PDR to match state and federal grants, advocate the equine industry's position in planning and zoning decisions, and, uh, one i- one item's been tossed around for, as I've been told, a long, long time, is to create an equine economic development office. And there's a lot of discussion. Do you create a new silo or do you create an interactive, ah, piece that fits into the other economic development that we do? But again, I want to emphasize what we were trying to do is to identify a lot of baselines, a lot of information, and then the next step is the implementation and trying to take what we've done and take it to the next step. So, um, we came up with a lot of recommendations, but also there's some price tags on many of these things. The second item was the importance of stallions. Um, we St- Kentucky stands 345 of the most prominent Thoroughbred stallions in the world. Uh, as with a quarter horse example, decided mares follow stallions. Stallions support all sizes of, uh, breeding operations, not just the large ones. And very interesting, um, in a 2001 study conducted by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association revealed that on the medium-sized farm, there are 34 horses, 19 of which are owned by someone else. One of the things we want to emphasize is that we often think of the Thoroughbred industry and we see these big, beautiful farms, and we think that is an example of an average farm. It's not. Uh, it's very difficult to make a go. As a matter of fact, the average income per farm is 400,000 gross, 50,000 net. That doesn't give you a lot of window for, uh, any type of, um, uh, natural occurrence, uh, or some type of a catastrophe that could affect you. The other thing we discovered very quickly, and, you know, most of the folks in the group were very much in line with this, I think they were numbed by how much competition they face. Those of us more from the, uh, other sectors of our economy were shocked. Uh, a number of other states have completely focused and targeted Kentucky to get away our stallions and our mares. And there, these are the Florida, New Yorks, West Virginias, and Marylands. Some are using casino gaming, and we're not advocating any type of casino gaming, but they have a lot of additional revenues that they put towards their purses, and it's all about options. I talked with a horse, uh, uh, owner today, and he talked about where they had a horse that won at Ellis Park, and he says, "Now the option is do we take it to Turfway or do we take it to Indy?" In Indy, they have a purse of 40,000. In, um, uh, Turfway, they have a much smaller purse and it was like, uh, 25, um, 25% of that. And so obviously, they're probably heading out of state with that, with that racer. The, uh, breeder incentive programs have helped the industry a lot, um, but it's self-funded from a stud feed tax, which means it's much more limiting. So again, we are under the microscope, um, here with our industry. Others want it. Um, this type of industry poses a threat to, to us. Uh, in '86, there were 626 stallions standing in Kentucky. 1997, the number dropped to 440, and today there's 345. Remember, mares follow stallions, and your industry follows wherever your stallions are. Uh, in the S- uh, amongst the, uh, standardbreds, there were 94 in 1985, and there were 14... last year, there was 14, and that was up from five, again, before the Breeder Incentive Fund was established. Once you lose an industry, it's very difficult to get it back. Kentucky is th- the only state that taxes horse farmers for purchases of feed, tax supplies, and equipment. Now, if you raise beef cattle, if you raise goats, if you raise mules , um, you don't get taxed. But if you raise horses, you get taxed. And there's... it causes... and when you go back to the numbers of what that net revenue on the average farm is, you see it's, um, it's a pretty difficult industry to be in. Um, and I go back to John Gaines' comment. This came up many times. If the... if 20 prominent Kentucky stallions were loaded on horse vans tomorrow and taken to Nome, Alaska, Nome, Alaska would immediately become the new center of the horse industry in North America. And here's what I was pointing out. When, uh, the horse, uh, owners, trainers have a choice of where they go, this is, um, a comparison of Turfway purses and Presque Isle downs, and you can see there's a significant difference in what Turfway offers and what Presque Isle downs. Presque Isle downs is supplemented. Keeneland, if it wasn't for the, uh, horse sales, uh, we would not have the purses that we offer here most likely, unless there was some other stream of income. So we're very fortunate at Keeneland, but again, the tracks in Kentucky depend upon each other, and they need each other. And the more tracks you lose, the more that the business goes out of state. The research and development infrastructure, um, as it is, uh, uh, as it is, the horse capital of the world, Lexington is also the horse health capital of the world. We have Jim Smith over here, who's a, uh, very storied and, uh, well-known veterinarian, longtime veterinarian here in the area. The World Equestrian Games, uh, are here because, um, the health for the horses was a significant issue and we could prove that we were probably the capital of the world for, uh, equine, uh, health. We have Haggard Equine Medical Institute and Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital. For a lot of people, they're hidden. A lot of people drive by them and do not know the significance of them, but it is huge. A hundred equine veterinarians between those two firms alone. 350 veterinarians in the region. We often, uh, underplay the role of the Gluck Equine Research Center, but they tackle some of the most difficult issues in the equine industry for health, but we also have the Livestock Diagnostic Center, and there was a ribbon cutting, uh, there recently. I think it was a $20 million check, uh, that the state presented to, uh, develop out that, uh, facility. Between both facilities, we have 125 faculty and support staff. And the, uh, uh, diagnostic center has the largest equine caseload in the world. So again, it kinda goes back to pointing out we are the epicenter, uh, for the equine health world. I apologize, I'm jumping through these, uh, real, real quick. The bottom, uh, point shows the, um, return on investment for research investment at least, is at least 10 to one, so for every $10 we invest we get a... For every dollar we invest, we get $10 back. So again, very significant to our economy. We need to enhance, uh, the units to the extent possible, support needs for increased reach for re- research facilities, and when we go forward, we usually go, uh, arm in arm, hand in hand to the, to the state when we try to get funding for, uh, livestock and animal research, but again, just wanna emphasize the significance of it to our economy and to us. In the area of branding and marketing, um, the economic impact of tourism in the state and with the horse as a signature is 8.8 billion, and I've heard in this region it's around one billion. And again, you take the horse out of the equation and it's a lot less. Um, there are more than 128 tourism-related jobs in the state with nearly 15,000 directly attributed to the horse industry, and 900,000 visitors attend functions at the Kentucky Horse Park alone on an annual basis, and that figure is expected to climb to 1.6 million by 2014, and that's because of the new facilities that have been, uh, developed out at the horse park. The, uh, the brand we have, Kentucky's brand, more specifically our brand, uh, as evidenced by research nationally and internationally is much rooted in the iconic scenes of the rolling pastures, the planked fences, stately barns and galloping horses. It's something that I would guess everybody in this council, you are very much in tune to, you understand the value of many of the things that I point out. The only point I would make and our, and our group, um, uh, talked a lot about was that probably most, in Lexington, most residents don't understand the significance of that. It's more than just the, uh, rolling pastures and iconic scenes, uh, but it's also the economic numbers behind it. And all of you should have the PowerPoint in front of you and had a chance hopefully to take a look at it before, uh, today. The horse industry's the single-largest agriculture product in the state. The annual economic impact exceeds four billion and up to 100,000 jobs are supported by the, the industry. We've tried to break out through an economic study done here at Fayette County, and, uh, it's hard to do all the extractions, but again, uh, equine is number one in our agriculture products, and number two is tobacco still, and number three is cattle, and four gets into nursery and landscaping. Um, one thing to, uh, look at here is the second bullet point. Horse sales in Fayette County alone exceeded 1.1 billion. You take the horse sales away or you diminish those sales in, uh, poor economic times, and I believe I heard that sales so far have been down about 10%. If you take that away, it can have a, a pretty significant impact on the overall equine industry. And we have a lot of other shows and competitions here in, in Fayette County. Here was the, uh, cluster picture that, uh, Laurie, um, Garkovich put together for us just to show how everything ties together. I'm gonna skip over a lot of the legislative policy and incentives. We work, uh, uh, pretty much hand in hand on those. We did sit down with economic development officials from the state, tried to find, uh, how we could work, uh, how we could develop some incentive programs and, uh, as easy as it sounds at surface, it was really hard to try to figure out how to do that, but again, that's a conversation we need to continue. A lot, when we go to DC on our fly-in, a l- one of our issues we always take out is equine legislation. So the overarching conclusions, uh, central Kentucky is at a pivotal point in enhancing and protecting our signature industry. Other states are trying to lure breeding operations and racing stables to boost their own agricultural economies. We need to view these farm operations for what they are, operations that produce a highly sought after product here today and it could be gone tomorrow, and we need to support their growth and expansion as we would traditional business operations. I raced through it. I know you have a copy in front of you. We have a summary that we're gonna, uh, pull together with also the, uh, Fayette County ag study that was done to show you the significance of agriculture here in, in, in this county. Thank you. And I, I was remiss to point out, um, um, the co-chair of this, of, of this, uh, project was Frank Penn. He put in, uh, untold hours, um, and, uh, so I appreciate that and all the other committee members. I was a, I drew the lucky straw to come up and present. Thank you. Council Member Stevens. Uh, thank you for a very good report, uh, Bob, and I think you summarized what the task force accomplished over the months that we met. Uh, I wanted to also thank the memory of John Gaines because he was the impetus for this. He came to this council, uh, I guess it was maybe it, it was before he died obviously, but, uh, uh, told us that, uh, horse, uh, factories were depending upon, depend upon the stallions here and pointed out why. And so that was the, uh, reason that this task force was appointed, to follow up his admonitions that we better get off the stick and do something. And, uh, I think there are many recommendations there, w-- some of which are, uh, related to Irving County Council, some to many other organizations. Eh, but I think we need, as a, as a, a government to take a, a closer look at this and see what elements of this we should take up and do. And for that reason, because Mr. Lane and I are on the Budget Committee, I would recommend we refer this report to the Budget Committee for further study and coordination with other efforts. We have a motion to refer the report to the Budget Committee. It's been seconded by Council Member Lane. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you. I think this will be the start of how we work this out. Of course, we'd be, uh, looking forward to help from the administration, from other members of the council who are not exactly on the Budget Committee, but who can help. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. And Frank, I don't know if you wanna come closer to the, to the mic, and maybe, uh, for the, for the vice-chair as well, um. Is, is this the, is this the end of the task force's work to this point? I mean, ha- have you all accomplished everything that you set out to do as a, as a task force, or will there be any kind of ongoing work left to do for you guys? Well, I think that's at the direction of, of the committee, and what, what they want. The one issue that I think we need to understand is, we've got to treat agriculture as economic development. That is the sig- signature, not only the signature industry, but the -- it is economic development. And the other thing is, is that ag tourism is something that we just really haven't, haven't scratched the surface on. It has a tremendous impact for us. And those are two areas we might be able to work on at our other than it's your pleasure. I, I think that you just hit the nail on the head for me, and, and that is that, you know, so many communities spend, uh, billions of dollars trying to come up with a brand, and we, we have one already. Uh, Bob, where are we with, with the community's branding discussion? I know that that was something else Commerce Lexington was involved in and so forth. Where is that? I, I know that's gone back to the drawing board numerous times and, and -- It has. ... is that ever gonna come out, uh, or surface? I, I hope so. Um, eh, it, it's had many, uh, iterations going back and forth. It's a tough thing to get your hands round, but I think we got some more movement, and we can sit down and update you all on the progress of that. Um, but I think we're getting closer, Jay. It's, it's a very difficult thing for us to get our hands around. Well, and again, I, I come back to communities spend lots and lots of money trying to figure out what their brand is, and we already, we already have it. Eh, if you go to Hershey, Pennsylvania- Exactly. ... every traffic light is a Hershey Kiss. Uh, you know, the fact of the matter is, you, wh- why not embrace what is already ours and what is our legacy? And, and to Frank's point, uh, you know, agri-tourism and agriculture itself is, is a huge industry we're not, we're not really tapping, uh, from a, from an economic development side. So I guess a couple of things I, I would have for all of us in this discussion, but especially for those that are on the task force, um, is, you know, what I'd like to see is, is take, taking that report, and as we go through the, the process with the council, maybe gleaning out for, for us, um, you know, what you see as how do we leverage our strengths? You know, what, what are our strengths? How do you really see, what's that low fruit that we really need to, to go after? Um, you know, what is it we can do right this second? And I keep coming back to, um, that tax on horses just seems to be the very easy entry point, that if there was a collective weight, um, to, to bring to bear, that that seems like, uh, an easy entry point. It may not be, but that's the one that, eh, when you, when you lay it out there, the most pe- people... It feels very, uh, commonsensical that, that you would just treat them, eh, as you would a goat or mules or other things like that. Go ahead. Uh, go ahead, Frank. That's a state issue, uh, recognizing the horse as, as a, as livestock. Right. And we've made a lot of progress on that, but what, what the end result of that is, that you make crooks out of honest people. Uh, there's, there is, for instance, there are feed mills that are generating horse feed and calling it livestock feed to get around the sales tax issue. There's all those types of things going on, and all the different breeds in the state of Kentucky need to be recognized as livestock because it's a huge industry, and that, that's a state issue. But the thing we can do, and in Fay- in Fayette County, we can do it very quickly, is we can decide that our number one brand is equine, and it's a tremendous tourist attraction, and we can create ways that people come to the horse park, and don't make it an afternoon, they'll make it a weekend, or they'll make it a two or three day thing. And, and just by some, some innovative ideas, we can hold people in this area and have a good time and make this a destination rather than a place to stop on the way to the interstate. Well, and, and I agree with you 100%. I think that what's important to, to us, a lot of folks will come and present, but, but oftentimes, they don't say, "Here's, here's the entry point. Here's the first three things we can do. Here's how we can lend our collective weight to this equation." Um, I think that needs to be done. I think something needs to come to us as you move through this process of, "Here's how you, you can help." And, uh, I think everybody up here understands that and wants to do that, and recognizes that, uh, because of the way our, our tax structure is, we really have to get, uh, after every job opportunity there is, um, and, and leverage what we do have. Th- the question is, I was walking through your presentation, Bob, that, that I kept waiting to see, and, and I think this is an- another thing that really, uh, puts us in a little bit of a, um, a gray area sometimes is, you know, who's going to do the implementation of these things? We talked about an economic development office for equine. Eh, you know, who does that? Spell that out. How's that look? What exactly is the best way to make that happen, so that we have something to work off of? Because, uh, that's a, a no- a wonderful recommendation, but again, it just sort of dies as a recommendation. That's right. And we do... Uh, I mean, and not just your all's study, it's a... All these studies we see. Uh, but, but that would be very, very helpful to... If there's anything that looks... That's out there that, uh, from another community that looks like that. Um, but as we go forward, that's, that's what I'm asking- Sure. ... uh, for you. And I guess the last two comments I'd make is- It's a little bit disheartening when-- when you were saying that, um, you're looking for the ways that we can offer greater incentives and so forth at the state level, and you've met with economic development people, but that's-- that's tough. That's kinda how you left that hanging. It is tough, yes. And-- and, you know, at the end of the day, there's-- there's 15 folks up here, there's a number of folks out there that, uh, can lend a lot of collective weight, and I think what we need from-- from you all is, w- where is the easy entry point? You know, it may be difficult in all these areas, but here's a place where we seem to have some-- some dialogue with these folks. Um, I think that's the next step that has to come from-- from you all that are at ground zero, uh, on this thing. And-- and, uh, I think that the way that you can help us most is if, when you come to council, will you separate out what are council actions and what are others' actions, and who are those others? That would really help take a report like this and-- and give it some legs and give us some opportunities. Not to belabor that point, but, uh, one easy thing we can do is, w- we're all focused on 2010, and we're gonna have a tremendous number of people from all over the world here. Well, yes, the Horse Park is gonna be the focus, but there's no reason we can't showcase what we have here for ag tourism. And we need to think of things that we can do between now and then that would make them want to come back here, whether or not we have the World Equestrian Games again or not, because we may not have that opportunity again. And-- and it's common sense things, but it's things that somebody has to get together and do. And I-- that-- that's my point exactly is, you know, who-- who will do that work? Who can-- who can pull that together in two years' time? And what are the half dozen things that we can do? We don't have to do everything, but-- but what are the half dozen things we can do during that 16 days that really set us up to win long term? But I applaud your all's effort. I thank you very much, Dr. Stephens, uh, for-- for putting this, uh, before us today. I just would like to see this broken down a little bit further and give us some action steps that we can do and be involved in. Thank you. Well, you're on the Budget and Finance Committee, so it's gonna be in your lap. I plan on it. And you're gonna be gone in three months, so I figure it will be-- will be in my lap. Council Member Lane. Good. Uh, thank you, uh, Bob. I appreciate your report. I-- I just thought I'd throw a little sidelight comment in here. Having been on the committee and having been on some other committees in addition to that, uh, I feel that one of the most important things that I got out of the process we went through was the necessity to do better branding of our community. And I do feel that the equine industry is our brand. And we have the World Games coming up. Uh, we got about two years to go. We're gonna be getting a lot of publicity when those games come through in the equine area. I think if we could have our brand ready pretty soon, so it would be available to use to market our city and our region when that happens. Uh, the other thought I had is, uh, we have Streetscape and new signage and things are being planned for the city, and it would appear to me, if we had our brand and we were promoting the equine, uh, logo, we could incorporate a lot of that into our Streetscape program and our signage program while we're at it. Uh, so I would, uh, uh, like to also say that, um, that branding could be done, the World Games could participate in the branding with us, the Urban County government could rebrand, uh, its image, the Convention and Visitors Bureau is running a lot of ads and promotion, they could help rebrand, the chamber could be involved. And then you look at our hotels and businesses, uh, UK and even the state could all participate. This would not necessarily be an expensive program, it's more of an i- getting the idea together and getting it, uh, implemented. So I would like to encourage us to work on that, and perhaps that would be a thing that we could bring up in our, you know, future comm- uh, committee meetings to address that issue. And I just thank you all for inviting me to be on the committee. I enjoyed it. I learned a lot, and, um, I'm even more gung ho today. Thank you. Uh. Any-- any other council member have questions? I've got a couple. Uh, first of all, Frank, I'd like to get you to elaborate just a little bit about your tourism notion. Are you thinking about a driving tour from the Horse Park or-- or something else along those lines? Well, I had the experience of going to Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley and seeing what they do, and I was there 10 years ago to investigate the PDR program that they had-- they had initiated at Sonoma Valley, and what they've done in the last 10 years to promote ag tourism is astonishing. And the one thing that I took away from that that would be easy to-- well, nothing's easy, but is doable, is that you would do a-- a CD that-- that could be passed out at hotels that they could do self-driving tours, the history of these farms. It wouldn't mean they had to go on all these farms, but the farms could be open on a limited basis. But the main thing they could do, they could do a self-driving tour that we have tremendous history in these farms. Old Paris Pike, uh, Old Frankfort Pike, Russell Cave. A lot of these farms have history that go back, all types of sports, the whole thing, and the driving tour would be a very easy thing to do. It'd be a CD that the city would have, a Convention and Tourism Bureau would pass out. It's just a matter of getting people that know the history together and making, and making the-- the thing happen. That's just an example, Mayor. Uh. Okay. The next question I had may be something, Frank, you know. It's something I once knew, but I haven't been able to keep track of, uh, last couple of years. I've been kind of occupied with some other stuff. Um, but that is the impact of the stallions and the declining number of stallions. The-- the decline in the number from '86 doesn't bother me at all 'cause there were too many stallions in the market back then. But I guess the question I've got is, if we've got 345 stallions now, how many of the top 50 or top 100 stallions does-- do we have in Kentucky? And I don't know the answer to that now. I don't know of many we, of the top ones that we don't have. Neil, help me here. Jim, help me here. Probably 90% of them are here. At least, at least 90% of them, probably 95% of them are here. Yeah. There's a lot- We're seeing a lot more mares too. Yeah. That, the, the problem is we're, we're just breeding a lot more horses. The regional markets, uh, have, with our extending the books of these horses up to 200, we're just saturating the market. But Lexington is still, still hanging on with it, but Pennsylvania is a tremendous threat because of slot machines and because of the money that's coming in. When you can run at Ellis for $15,000, $18,000 person, you can ship $800 van ride and run for 70,000 and you get s- 50 or 60%. It's pretty much worth the trip. I understand. Well, I'm glad we're holding our own with regard to the- Top- ... top, top end of the stallion market because they are critically important as John Gain told us ten years or more ago. Um, well, thank you. Unless there's something further. Council Member Link? Yeah. I, I wanted to sort of add one backup to what Frank said, is that I have the pleasure to go to Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley and visit some of the vineyards out there, and we need to also keep in mind that we have a lot of vineyards that are coming into Fayette County and the surrounding areas. Uh, the Gene Farris Vineyard & Bistro, I don't know if you've been there or not, but that's the kind of a thing that I think would be a very strong tourist attraction where you can come out and visit the vineyard, taste their wine, and actually have a meal there. And I could see on a limited basis a few things like that in our, uh, in our agricultural area, which is a revenue generator and sells wine, uh, and I think it creates a nice ambiance when people come into the, to the community. So, and I guess back into the branding, uh, idea also. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. As somebody who actually owns horses and has some thoroughbred horses, I actually had that, um, decision about either sending a horse up to Prescott Island or over to Turfway, and I've got one running hopefully at Keeneland here on the 22nd if it gets in. So, uh, I guess when you look at that, um, purses, wh- how, how do you plan on competing with, uh, we looked to send an allowance horse up there for 55,000 that was 24,000 here at Turfway. How do you compete with that then? And, and I know we passed it to allow for the breeders and for, you know, we have some incentives, but still the bottom line is they have the, the slot machines that they were able to generate a lot of money. In fact, last year, I think September, they had to spend $17 million in the month that by statute, um, with the person you saw trainers shipping in from all over the country for, um, that month. So how do we compete with them then? It's got to be purse enhancement. I mean, however you do that. And there's lots of ways to do that. The, the state of Kentucky is going to have to decide- But, but once again, that's the state of Kentucky. What can we do as a council? Well, you can encourage- Can we send a letter? Encouragement? You can, you can encourage Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton, continue to do what they're doing. Fasig-Tipton has now changed ownerships. We'd like for them to participate in purse enhancement like Keeneland does, and, and that's something you can encourage them to do. That's just off the top of my head. No, I'd like to be proactive. There's obviously I have a, an interest in it. Sure. And- Well, you know, anybody that owns a horse is an optimist. Yeah. We all have an interest. Exactly. We have an interest in- That's exactly right. And I want to keep my horses here. I'd rather do that than send them to another state and- Well, I mean, it's, it's a matter of working with not only the legislature, but working with the equine industry. And, and it's not just thoroughbreds. Um, we're, we're focused on purse enhancement with thoroughbreds, but the standard breeds need purse enhancement also. Sure. And, and we're going to get some racing quarter horses that are going to need purse enhancement. So it's a matter of we got a product to sell. We got to have the, the, the purses drive, the breeding drive, it all, it's all driven by purses. I mean w- those of us that breed horses think it's breeding because we're so smart we breed the right horse, but it's not. It's bred, it's driven by purses. Right. So I just, I guess we need to look at what we can do as a council to try to, to move the, the state legislature in a way to, to work at making sure that we do keep this as Sure. ... our own brand. 'Cause as we've said here a couple of times, it's easy to, to send the horse, your stallions down to Florida, send them to New York, send them to other areas. As soon as you do that, we're no longer going to have that brand as the Horse Capital of the World, at least not in the thoroughbred industry. Well- We lost that in the standard bred in, um, in some situations because they sent them up to New Jersey. We got rid of a lot of the stallions because we didn't really push it. The other thing that comes to mind, Council Member Ellinger, is the fact that we've got to treat equine as livestock in Kentucky. And you all can send that message with your legislative people. You can send it with the, with Fayette County delegation, but there's no reason why, uh, livelihood for our equine should not be treated as livestock, and that takes care of a lot of the issues you're talking about, but not purses. Sure. I, I think Council Member McCord kind of hit it on the head when you get back to we've got very finite resources, very limited. Considering we are the center point of the equine industry, we've got to rally everybody that we can rally to make the point that has to be made to the General Assembly and it's still a, a tough battle. But, but if we don't do it collectively, we won't... Which is another one of the findings we had, is that we all may understand and know the significance of the equine industry. I don't think that the average citizen, um, may have the same understanding that we do and somehow we got to get that message out as well. Right. I think the numbers speak for themselves when you said there was 100,000 people directly and indirectly involved in the horse business and over four billion dollar industry. So it has a lot of ramifications for this area. And if you go anywhere, they, they know Kentucky and they know horses, and that's what we're in a lot of ways known for. But we're not thought of as economic development. We're... And we need to change that mindset. Sure. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for this presentation. Vice Mayor Craig. Uh, Bob, this is a follow-up on Council Member McCord's questions regarding, uh, branding. Is the branding initiative that, that, uh, that Jay was describing- ... that y'all have been working on. Is that the same one that, uh, the Convention & Visitors Bureau? Correct. David's been the lead- David's been- ... entity on that, yes. Okay, well, and they hired the- one of the best branding firms in the world, with Pentagram. It's my understanding they've pretty much completed that, so why don't we get a presentation of that? What about that to the Economic Development- We can. ... Task Force? Okay. Good idea. Good idea. You wanted that presentation to the Economic Development Task Force? Okay, fine. Anything else- Or Full Council, whiche- whichever way is best. ... Council is the best course. Yeah. So we'll... Whatever's- whatever we can work out, perhaps. All right. I don't see, uh, Mr. Greene, who's the keeper of our presentations. Here he is. If you would, uh, work with the Convention & Visitors Bureau to try to get a presentation on the branding initiative, I'd appreciate it. Thank you very much. Well, that completes the horses. Nami took care of the healthcare. Now, we're gonna hear the high-tech piece. So, um, I'll turn the, uh, floor over to, uh, Jennifer Swanberg? Bob Quick was gonna give it. All right. I'll kick it off. Bob? How are you? Good, how are you? All right, we wanna present to you the, uh, findings of a, uh, workforce study that we had done. Uh, before we do that, in the back, we have, uh, several individuals. The one I wanna point out especially who's been working on this is, uh, and someone new to our efforts, is, uh, Pat Powell. Pat, uh, is the new director of the Innovation & Commercialization Center located in our offices. And, uh, also we have Pamela Troutner. Uh, they're in the back as well. I think a few other folks have had to, uh, uh, to leave. This- this study was funded by the Bluegrass Business Development Partnership. And I just wanna remind you, that partnership consists of, um, uh, Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, University of Kentucky, and Commerce Lexington. We selected the, uh, UK Institute for Workfa- Workplace Innovations to conduct the independent survey. What this was all about is we wanted to get a better understanding of the environment and the culture in the region, in terms of recruiting or growing high-tech companies. Basically, what is good and where can we improve the region? And we wanted some action steps to help address the areas of improvement. So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to, uh, one of the principals. Um, uh, is, um, was with us, Dr. Jennifer Swanberg, and she is going to go forward in the presentation. Thanks. Sure. Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you. Do we have the first slide? I never- I didn't get any slides. I didn't get any slides. Yeah. We sent them. Oh, okay. You got a copy? Okay, great. All right, as, uh, Bob Quick was saying, that what- what? What? We didn't get any slides. We haven't gotten them. Okay. Well, you've got copy of the slides. Um, as- Good question. ... Bob was saying, we're shifting gears and moving from horses to high tech. We were commissioned by the BPPD to, uh, assess the entrepreneurial environment, the high-tech entrepreneur environment in the Bluegrass region. And the study had, um, several objectives, but the primary focus was to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the Bluegrass region's entrepreneur environment, primarily looking at what are the strengths and weaknesses. Now, um, and if you look on slide three, what we did is, um, as, uh, in a research organization, we always kind of look at this from a conceptual framework. And what we did is we kind of did some background research to try to understand, you know, what promotes regional, uh, innovation, primarily looking at high-tech areas. And we looked at a variety of different models that are used within, uh, top areas of the country that have focused on high-tech regional innovation. And as you see, this conceptual model that's p- uh, put together by the Council on Competitives identifies that there's several outputs that lead to innovation, which then leads to productivity and ultimately prosperity for a community. And the inputs focus on human capital, which is your human resources within a community, your networks, the relationships within and between high-tech entrepreneurial groups, between different entities that promote, uh, innovation within the region such as universities, as well as researchers, as well as other entrepreneurs, venture capitalists. Assets looks at what are the current, um, assets that a community may have, and Mac will talk a little more about that, and then looking at the culture, the- the community culture, that is, um, whether or not it's responsive to this whole idea of high-tech regional innovation. Um, study four, I know we only have a few minutes, so I'm gonna kind of go through the methods quickly. The study had kind of three primary components. One is even though we can look at what the research suggests, we wanted it grounded in what's going on here in the Lexington area. So we met with- we had a series of focus groups that looked at key constituents and tried to understand what their concerns were and what their questions were around regional innovation around high tech. So we met with venture capitalists, economic development professionals, as well as... Oh, okay, um, as well as some other, um, key constituents. And then, we also, um, did a series of case studies. And you have a copy of that report in front of you. It's a white, um, matted, um, report. And what that is, is this is an in-depth investigation of 11 companies, high-tech companies in the region that, um... Do you have this? Is that right? This sh- should have been passed around to you? ... okay. Thank you. Um, this is, uh, uh, a report, it's coming around to you now, which is a r- uh, a case studies, a series of case studies of 11 high-tech companies that live here, grew here in the, in the, uh, urban county region. And the primary purpose of this was to try to understand what creates success. What are the opportunities? What have been the limitations? And all to, also to show that we have valuable resources here within our commonwealth. So not only do we have a variety of different, um, wealth and resources in the equine region, we have a, an emerging area within the high-tech region. And then finally, uh, my colleague, Mack Werner, who worked with me on this study, is gonna present the key findings of the qu- of the quantitative study. Uh, a survey that went out to a variety of different, uh, companies, excuse me, um, uh, entrepreneurs, to try to understand from their perspective what have been the strengths and limitations in the environment that's helped them grow. And I should note that these success stories are, um, are... There's 11 companies that are listed on number fi- on page five of your slides, and they go from a very kind of small, two-person operation all the way to, um, a large company. So, um, without, um, further ado, I'll pass this over to Mack, and I'm sorry, we did send the slides, but, um, we'll just kind of work together- Sure. ... with the handouts. Hello. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Um, if you'll go to slide number six, this kind of is the introduction to what, um, Dr. Swanberg had pointed out would be the survey. So what we did is we talked to actually 80 different high-tech companies here in the region. These were small, medium and large-sized companies, and we actually spoke with 88 individuals who took the survey itself, actually completed the instrument. Of that particular group, we received a 76% response rate, which is very, very high. So we're very pleased with that. And gave us final sample after we cleaned the data of 64 cases. On the next slide, this gives a demographic profile of those who completed the survey. What you're gonna see is it's predominantly, um, white male, middle-aged, um, at 47, and predominantly high, high levels of education and children. Next slide. Next one. Oh, that's interesting. Okay, so that's the demographic and we'll go to the next slide. Apologize about this. I don't really understand it. Interesting to note very strong levels of con- Kentucky connections coming into this. You'll see that originally, 39% of the respondents are originally from Kentucky. 50% attended school here, attended college. Um, the number of years living in Kentucky range from zero to 60, with an average of 23 years. And when we asked them specifically, "Why is your business located here in Kentucky in the Blue Grass region?" 46% stated simply that this is home. This is where I live. This is where I'm from. Um, 32% noted a connection either professionally or with the, um, educational resources, predominantly UK. And also of particular note, 51% of respondents mentioned that they had previous business ventures here in Kentucky. Currently, they have on average two. So definitely a, a history of serial entrepreneurship amongst these individuals. The next slide'll show the distribution of the industry sector that we were able to, to speak to. You'll see it's a broad, um, sector reach. After looking at this and talking with some other folks, um, once the results came out, we also recognized that if you look at these particular industry sectors, that the one sector of engineering and technical sales could probably show a little bit higher, um, representation if we were to do the study again. Um, then to flip to the next slide, we have the business profile. On this particular slide, you'll see across the top that, for the most part, 70% or more are early stage growth companies, here five years or less. So that's gonna be predominantly the, kind of the size and scope of the businesses. Next slide will be the impact on the workforce. Over 3500 employees out of the 62 companies that responded on that question. 75% of the jobs are full-time, and 54% of the companies responded that they increased their workforce in the past year. Also, on that slide, you'll notice that the majority had 10 or fewer employees, 80% of the companies, right? So we had a couple large ones. And we can s- we can flip that. This particular slide was not so great, but this was the handout that I think was just passed around. You have a better rendition of this. And this is really the guts of the study, if you will. Dr. Swanberg had pointed out earlier how we looked at assets in the region, when you talk about what the environment is. So we grouped those assets into five different groups. You have, um, networks, financial capital, structural capital, business infrastructure, and lifestyle culture. Again, these domains, if you will, or these groups of assets come from the literature on how other communities have looked at entrepreneurship, and then specifically entrepreneur environment. On this particular slide, you'll, excuse me, you'll see at the top the high concentration of red, right? So this would be lifestyle culture assets. So what these particular business owners, high-tech business entrepreneurs told us is that in this region, that I think it's, um, eight out of the top 10 are lifestyle culture assets were most important to the success of their business. Secondly, we asked them to rate, when you look at the Blue Grass region, how does the reg- region perform in this par- particular area? So the table that, that we have displayed there shows you the order of importance, number one, to the success of their business, and then the second column gives a rating on the performance of the region. Also high, number one and two were, um, actually networks. So you're talking about colleges, and universities, and qualified service partners being very important to success. The next slide, would be breaking down the... I think they're out of order, so I'm gonna assume that. Okay. When you look at human capital assets, again, we asked them a number of questions. Number one, within your firm, do you feel that you have an adequate, um, representation of this asset? And then secondly, what do you see as the availability of this asset, um, in human capital in the region? So you'll see that the adequacy of the column on the left shows that most of the companies felt pretty confident w- where they're at, um, at the top. When you look in the right column, I wanna highlight two particular points 'cause this'll come back later. Number one, the CEO level management showing low availability in the region. Only 30% of respondents, um, said that the availability was good. Likewise, project management, is, is fairly low if you would look at 44%. So those two, those two items are of rather importance, that we'll come back to. And next slide. The entrepreneurial resources and programs, these were ones that are identified. Again, looking deeply within the region, you'll see that there's some other resources that could be added to this list in future studies. These are the ones that kinda stood out in prominence. Number one, they were asked, "Have you used this resource?" And then if you responded yes to that, you were asked, um, "Did you find this resource to be useful?" And the last question was, "Or are you unfamiliar with th- this resource?" So that would kinda go back to the first question. Again, looking at this, you'll see that KSTC, Kentucky Science Technology, very, very important to, to these entrepreneurs, um, and high use. So the use and the usefulness on that particular resource is exceptionally high. Um, the BBDP is the new entity that's, that's a combination, right, of the LFUCG Economic Development, Commerce Lexington, and then also ICC. So there's a little bit of overplay there, but with the BBT being new, um, low usage, which would be under- understood. Not a lot of companies have used them, but the folks that have have found them to be very, very useful, at 71%. So that would be good. Next slide. Then we asked them simply more of a blank question about professional services within the region, not putting a name to it, but just, um, the sort of service that it would be. Be it legal service, financial services, et cetera. Again, we asked them the same sort of questions. "Have you used these resources?" "Have you found the u- um, them to be useful, or are you're not familiar with them?" We found that the use on these professional services, according to self-report by these entrepreneurs is relatively low. 45% said they've used legal with the low of business marketing down to 9%. However, the folks that did use these services reported that their usefulness was very high. Um, next slide. And then we asked them a, a blanket question, again kind of open-ended. "In the, when you look at the region, what sort of resources would you like to have in place that you feel maybe that aren't currently here in the Bluegrass region?" So their response to that, number one I thought was kind of interesting 'cause it was, we kinda grouped these thematically, is consulting and professional services. And those included things such as company formation, um, consulting work for corporate structure, board selection, business plans, et cetera. Very similar to number two, the mentoring and coaching sort of ideas. However, what they were looking for in the mentoring and coaching is successful lo- local entrepreneurs. Folks who have been successful doing what, what they intend to do, and what they've started to do, right? And then we look at networking opportunities, also very important. And with no surprise, access to capital is very important as well. So in taking that information, um, this, this, um, board of advisors who looked at the initial results suggested that we look at these recommendations as, as considerations. That would be to explore opportunities to create additional networking, mentoring opportunities, uh, provide entrepreneurial businesses and management skills training opportunities, and then also to create or enhance, um, resource tools to promote entrepreneurship and business, and to connect them with business services. So promotion of entrepreneurship is a, is an aspect of that. Since the results is, of the study have come out, the BBDP has moved on action. We can go to the next slide. And so these are the, this is kind of the response and some action items already in place. Since the report has come out, they've, I think this was actually Conference Lexington rolled out the Intellects, and I think they had their, um- Geek Night Out. Geek Night Out- Yeah. ... which was two weeks ago? Last week? Something like that. So that was a brand new, brand new event, and so this will be a networking opportunity for entrepreneurs as it was designed to be, right? Tech entrepreneurs kind of. Also the University of Kentucky has set up their alumni expert consulting opportunity, so they're going back to, um, alumni and asking them to contribute time to work with entrepreneurs in their ar- areas of expertise. Also, the BBDP has suggested that they put together, or organize and sponsor a two-day project management course to get to that project management piece that we had spoke about earlier, and also to conduct a one-day entrepreneurial boot camp, uh, and hopefully to do that in partnership with the Bluegrass Angels. Also, to create a comprehensive entrepreneurial service directory, and lastly to update the www.thinkbluegrass.com website to address and advertise some of these local entrepreneurial needs. And I believe that is it. So... Questions or comments? Does anybody have questions for... Okay. I- my screen is not coming up with names, so I'll just have to keep a track of hands. Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for coming. This is exactly what we've been looking for as one of the ideas and issues on the Economic Development Task Force. I think this gives us a lot of new data that, that we've seen a little bit about, but I guess my curiosity is on the colored sheet that you passed out to council in terms of the raking- rankings of where businesses, what they want to see and what they need, uh, to have success in our community and where this region ranks. Who compiled this data on this sheet? Do you know? I'm sorry, we- We did. ... we, we did. So you did all the- and you did all the survey for the Blue Grass region itself. How- how did you compile that section of it, on how we ranked? So, as I understand your question, and we, you know, this was an aspect of the survey, so they ranked- Right. ... all those. And then as far as how we ranked, you mean the Blue Grass performance? Right. ... section? And that, the individual businesses ranked that or did you all use an independent outside? Actually, they were asked one of two questions. Okay. If you look at the assets, some of those assets lended themselves to- to, what we asked is, is this available in the region? And then the other question that would be asked based upon the- the nature of the asset... Get the wording on that. Availability and then also... Whether or not it helped to move their business forward. No, that was the first question. Yeah, performance. Yeah. Was it- Adequacy. That's what it was. It was adequacy within the region as far as like were enough of those around and availability. Well, that would have been the same thing. I'll get back to you on that. Tha- that's okay. I just wanted to- to double check the data 'cause I think it's also, um, interesting on that one sheet though that our number one asset here and our performance in the region is cost of living. You know, we always hear so much it's expensive to do business in Lexington. It's expensive. But th- these companies obviously have a different take on that in terms of the cost of living for both, I guess, it's their employees and the business. Is that what their, that question meant for cost of living? Well, that's what I think is very, very interesting. It was actually just asked to them as the owner or the entrepreneur. But that's one question that came up is, w- would it be interesting or wouldn't it be interesting to ask employees what their perspectives on these same assets would be? Because we're talking about the entrepreneurs here, so is it the same and what kind of gaps would, mi- make sense- Yeah, 'cause I think we may find a different story if you ask the actual workers or the firms themself about cost of living and, and- We'd love to do that. Yeah, that'd be- Okay, thank you. ... a great next step. I think the other thing, um, that's not too surprising, but one of the reasons why we're doing the Economic Development Task Force is how we ranked on the entrepreneurial resources. You know, 12% have used, it was only 13% said we're useful and 22% said they ain't never heard of our, our help in any way, shape, or form. So, I think that's a very telling statistic as to why we need to really get serious about economic development from a government side and, and hopefully with our task force work, and I know we have our next meeting here Thursday, we'll be able to utilize some of this data. So thank you all for your hard work. This is, this is very telling. Thank you, Bob, for bringing it forward and working with the group. We appreciate you being here. And if you want, we can get you a copy of the report from which those slides were generated. Dr. Swamm, if you'd step to the microphone. Oh, I'm sorry. Um, what I was gonna say, if you'd like for your committee, we can get you a copy of the report from which these slides were generated. So it gives a little more detail than the, just what you have in the slides. That- that would be very useful. So it might help your committee. If you could electronically get that to us. Yes. That'd be great. Yep, that'd be great. Thank you. I'm advised that my, uh, screen is now working, so if you wish to speak, you can log on. I think Council Member McCord was up next and then Council Member Lane. Thank you, Mayor. Just very quickly, thank you all for your work. Really appreciate that a lot. And there's a couple of things that, that jump out at me and I have a couple of questions. But one of the interesting ways that I look at some of the numbers you compiled, I- I think you mentioned there were 62 companies or 62 entrepreneurs and they represented 3,500 plus employees. You know, if you take 62 people and you lob them together, they're one of our largest employers, if you, if you want to look at it that way. Uh, and it's, it's a very interesting way to look at this and how do we treat them? How would, how would we treat an entity that had 3500 employees if they were all under one roof? Um, and, and we as a body, and we in economic development need to be thinking about, uh, the way that we can treat these folks, uh, so that they grow that business, if you want to look at it as one business. Um, another telling stat was what Council Member Senate just said about how our office was looked at where only 13% found it useful. I think that's an im- an immense opportunity for us and an immense validation as to why what we're doing as a council is, is very much needed, but it's never been done before to actually sit down and what is our government's policy going to be towards economic development? Where are we going to allot resources? A couple of questions, though, to your, um, to this, I guess, the colored sheet. Um, can you tell me what, um, the qualified service partners, what's the definition of that? That was, uh, number two on the list, and I don't know what that means exactly. It's very similar to what you saw with the, um, resource piece and that is the professional services. So I would think that that would be, in, in your terms, it would be accountants, it would be consultants, et cetera. So business- Okay. ... resources. So, so they are saying they don't feel like they have a network of those type of folks readily available in this region. Is that how I'm reading that? Right. Is that accurate? That's correct. Okay. And, and I think, uh, this is something that's kind of a low fruit opportunity for us to look at is here's the number two item of importance to the folks surveyed. It's number one on, on that other, other list over there and yet, uh, Blue Grass region performance is number 19. So here's an area where we don't do so well, uh, and, and- ... folks are asking for this, so as an economic development task force, here's an area where we can drill down and, and take a look at what can be done. And from a Commerce Lexington economic development standpoint, again, here's, here's an opportunity to low fruit. The, the one thing that I find really interesting, uh, especially in light of the discussion that we've been having over TIFF and other things like that, is if you look at number three through number 11, uh, on this list, everything from quality of healthcare to recreational activities, uh, they're all quality of life issues. And as we've said over and over and over and over again, it is about the quality of life in a place that causes people, especially younger people, entrepreneurs, uh, the, uh, the knowledge-based economy, to wanna live in an area. And so therefore, when you have things like TIFF, where you can use, uh, capture local money, keep it local, and, and build amenities into your downtown that folks want, uh, this, this tells me that that's exactly what you should be doing with that. I- am I reading that correctly? Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely correct. Uh, again, I would, I just want to thank you for, for your, uh, uh, quantitative and qualitative work in this and look forward to working with you some more. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Lane. Uh, thank you, Mayor. I wanted to speak to the same, uh, chart too. Sure. Uh, could you tell me how many people were actually surveyed, uh, for this particular, uh, database for that? Absolutely. I believe the original amount that were asked to complete the survey was 88. And then after we cleaned the data, people that completed at least 75%, we had 66. 66 companies. There were 88 employees. No, 88 were originally sampled- Oh, okay. ... but then we ended up... Yeah- Okay. Our end was 64 completed the sur- completed the instrument. Okay. And the parties surveyed were all the, the managing partner or the CEO or the principal of the company? That's correct. So you're talking to the top management. That's right. Okay. Well, I- I thought the, uh, numbers looked very good I think for our community. I mean, there's areas obviously we could do better. Um, but I believe the idea that I like the most, for example, was the qualified service partners, that that could be an initiative for the urban c- or say for Commerce Lexington, to actually find out what types of partners they're looking for and use these data to go out and say, "We've got 80 companies here and they feel like this is an area where they need help and your company might do very well here." So we could use this as a tool just to get new business to come here. Um, but I'm very impressed with your work. Thank y'all for what you've done. Thank you. Vice Mayor Gray. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I just, I was just wanting to confirm the, um, survey population, Jennifer, was 88. Is that right? Response rate of 6- so 67? Yeah, we had, um, we sent the, we sent a survey out to 88 people. Okay. Okay. And then there was a 76% response rate. Right. Which is, um, for anyone that's ever done community-based research, 76% is very high. Uh, so we were quite pleased with that. And so there was 64 people in the end that were, ended up being surveyed. So the 64 that responded then, this is where the data, the data that collected here- Correct. ... is a function of those 64. Right, and these are high tech entrepreneurs. Right. So they... Okay. I, I, th- a- again, this is just a curiosity question, but colleges and universities ranked first in importance to business success and community colleges ranked last? So they- From their perspective, correct. So there's, I mean, I t- there's a potential- That certainly says... I mean that, that, is that a perce- you know, I'm just curious about the perception, perception and reality issues associated with that ranking. Well, the one point that I would like to make regarding that, again, this is high tech entrepreneurs. Right. So many of them had incu- well, a number of them had incubated out of the University of Kentucky already. Yeah, okay. Right? So there was many connections with- Right. ... what goes on there. Predominantly early stage companies who have not yet faced the challenges- I gotcha. Right. Of- Predominantly early stage companies that haven't yet faced the challenge that they will inevitably face when they try to employ technical workforce. Technical workforce, right. And then, then they're certainly going to come to, to realize that the community colleges play a vital role. Right. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Anything further? All right, let's see. Council Member Beard. Yes, thank you. I'm sorry. It's on, then it's off, so. It's on. I'm pumping. Yeah. Okay. Beer. Um, a couple of, o- one's an observation and it maybe just be my eyesight, but when you have maroon, rust, brown, all running together and you look at these little boxes down here and you can't really identify what color they are, the color chart is totally meaningless to me. Um, you know, blue pops out. Well c- we'll give you a copy of the final report- Yeah. ... that are in different shades of blue. It could be in how it was, um, copied, but we tried to make it as easily as possible. It's a complicated chart to i- try to understand, so we apologize that you can't- Well, no, I, it's just, um- ... completely, um, comprehend the, the findings. ... this isn't the first person that's been up here with the same thing. They never seem to make their, their legend big enough to actually be able to tell what color it is to tell you the truth. Um, what is the Bluegrass region as far as, as this survey was concerned? What, what area? A geographic area was not defined for the Bluegrass region. Instead, the BBDP identified businesses with- within what they de- clarified as the Bluegrass region. So it wasn't X number of counties. It was more, I think, repres- representation of- ... businesses. ... of certain businesses, through -- to create that sector chart, when you look at that, they wanted to make sure that there was a clear distribution of businesses that impacted the Bluegrass region. That's what I knew the region. Well, you know, ha- you have situations like, uh, quality of K2, K12, um, schools, and of course, we can't influence any schools, but let alone, we sure can't influence them if they're located in Powell County or- My understanding is- ... wherever. ... most of them came from Lexin- uh, with, from the Fayette County area, so. Well, I would have guessed that- Yeah. ... but I just don't know that. Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's primarily- Huh. ... where the companies came from, from the Fayette County area. Uh, well, that, that, uh, that, that, and if I knew what that sample was, that, uh, more crisply, and maybe it's in the detail, I don't know. Um, that's, uh, really all I had. Thank you. Council Member Lane. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Just a quick followup question, what, uh, new studies do you have in the pipeline? Because I found this is very interesting and very valuable. Do you have any other projects you've got in the planning process right now? Uh, we always have lots of projects in the pipeline. It just depends on, on what topic. Um, a, relevant to this in terms of the regional economic development of the area, absolutely, no, we don't. I mean, we've got some projects that we would like to do. One of which is, is that's come up, is looking at employees within the Fayette County area, the employees particularly of these high tech entrepreneur companies, because there was, in one discussion, actually when we briefed the, the mayor, um, and a few other people, the question became is that, this is the perception of the business owners. What do the young people think? And then, those of us who, um, have worked with senior executives sometimes know there's a, there might be a slight disconnect. So that was one, um, topic area that came up, but if this is an area of interest and importance to you all, we're always open to kind of looking at, um, possibilities. All right. Well, one, one thought that I had was, uh, evaluating the reasons that expatriates have returned to our community and what were some of the motivating factors that they came back here, um, because I feel this, we have a great deal of potential. There's, you know, thousands and thousands of people that, from this area who have gone to school here and if they had a good opportunity, might come back, and I would like to know what the hot buttons are that would attract those folks to come back to our Central Kentucky area. Yeah. It's, it's a great idea, and if that's something you want to pursue, we can always talk to you. Thank you, again. Anything further? Uh, Council Member Blut. Thanks. I, I'll join in the, the cause and say great job. Thank you. This is very, very interesting, and I, I'm sort of the poster child for this. I have advanced degrees in electrical engineering, followed Alan Hawes almost exactly his career back, although I've been a little bit quieter about it. What I wanted to touch on is what Council Member, um, Beard was talking about, the perception issue. I look at some of the pl- areas where we're struggling and I don't agree with them 'cause I know that there's capital out there that, that could be used. It's not that we don't have it. It's that they don't know that we have it. And all, you know, the schools, our K12 school system ranks with anybody's. I, I don't know where they get that impression. We're well above national average. I can back that up with any statistic you want. But I can't change the perception if we don't get to them. So we need to work on that. That's something that the, the school board and perhaps Commerce Lexington could take up. Same goes with professional services. There's no excuse for that. I know we have them. So here we are again. Commerce Lexington, that's on you. Go for it. CEOs, I am so tired of hearing people say Kentucky does not have leadership talent. We know it's not true. So we need to de- develop, again, work on that perception. We do have leadership talent. A lot of it comes here and then comes back here, as we're noticing. People leave town, they come back to, to found their business here because this is home. Well, we do have the leadership talent. So, uh, what I, my takeaway, at least at, at first is that we have a perception problem as opposed to a real talent problem. And thanks again for the report. I'm gonna study it further. This is good stuff. Great. I'd like to comment, if I might, comment on, on your comments. Um, I, I, uh, I think that I agree with you with regard to the, um, service providers, but there is a important, there's an important fine point that I think needs to be made here and that is, a lot of these high tech enterprises are financed with, by means of risk capital, and fundamentally in the state and in Lexington, Fayette County, we have a challenge of developing the resources that are specifically geared towards facilitating risk capital enterprise, as opposed to, uh, debt financing, which we do very well and have, uh, with a few exceptions, you know, stand above the nation in, in quality of debt finance. So there are specific service providers' challenges. For example, intellectual property attorneys, we have many in Lexington, and this is an exception rather than the rule, so we fi- we stand far ahead of, of where, uh, other communities in the state stand. However, when you, when you look at where the risk capital, uh, center of the United States is, in Silicon Valley, you have a lot more, uh, developed, specific developed service providers in terms of marketing and in terms of deal, uh, attorneys, attorneys that are used to working on term sheets for risk capital. And this is a specific area that's, that's, uh, that we need to develop. ... here locally. Okay. I wasn't sure if you were talking about the, the folks that actually help cons- con- consummate the deal, which it sounds like you are- Yes. ... as opposed to the cash itself. Right, no. Uh- The angel investment cash. I, I, I think, uh, and we've done a great job here locally with, with putting risk capital, uh, in, for early stage companies, uh, and, and making that available by means of, of organizations like Bluegrass Angels. Uh, but I, it's an opportunity, I think, to thank the council, uh, for the BBDP funding, because actually, the funding made this study possible. And it, and you, what you're seeing now is a tangible result of a tool that you made available. And so we can go and take this tool now and, and follow up on that. An example is that we intend to use some student labor to assemble this comprehensive entrepreneurial service directory and th- and that will be available for entrepreneurs who are interested in knowing where to go for marketing help, where to go for deal attorneys, where to go for risk capital sources. And, and that's the kind of thing that we're going to put together. Again, thanks to you for making, uh, making this resource available. Anything further? Council member Beard. Can't help myself. You know, w- we continually try to compare ourselves with Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is located in a metropolitan area of six or seven million people. And so yes, they're gonna have a lot of the things that we don't have and we'll never get, so we have to pick another target somewhere along the line to emulate rather than Silicon Valley. Thank you. Seeing nothing further, we'll let you all go except Dr. Swanburg. I wanna put you on the spot for just a moment. Uh, could you give the council about a minute's worth of summary about our announcement this morning with the Alfred Sloan awards? Because there were a number of employers that received very special recognition, uh, this morning and Dr. Swanburg has, uh, had a lot to do with that. Uh, sure. Thanks for putting me on the spot . No. I'm happy to announce that, uh, Lexington, Kentucky, some of you may know, was chosen ama- as one of 30 cities throughout the country to be part of a national initiative called When Work Works. And When Work Works is, uh, a, an initiative that's funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to educate the business community about the need of using workplace flexibility as a business imperative, that as, as many of us know, the workforce has changed dramatically and the, uh, work, th- kind of the workplace as we know it, um, has also changed dramatically in the, in the 21st century. And today, we were able to honor, uh, 15 of our, uh, companies locally. Um, the, um, awards initiative, the, uh, the When Work Works initiative is kind of a two-part initiative. One, it's engaging businesses throughout Lexington to learn about what is workplace flexibility and what does it do for businesses and how does it help the, um, the working individual? And then the second part is that individuals get to apply for an award, and the award process is very, um, the application process and the survey is very rigorous. They first, uh, fill out a survey about business practice, and then they're evaluated based on national data. And if companies are ranked 20% or higher, um, compared to the national data, they become a finalist. And we had 22 companies that applied. Uh, we had 18 companies, I think, that be- or 15 companies that became finalists and among, then the finalists are asked to then fill out an employee survey and 40% of companies, 40% of the employees within the company have to fill out the survey. And then those individuals that were ranked, uh, among the top 10% became, um, what we were called honorable mention, and then the top 5% were, um, actually won the award. And we have eight companies that, um, won the award, and they, they join 200 other companies around the country, uh, that are among the f- um, fi- among the 5%, they are among the top country, uh, companies in the country, excuse me, I've been talking since 6:00 this morning with people about this. But they're among, um, the best companies in the country, um, with one o- with respect to workplace flexibility. And I should say that we had companies that were, um, small all the way up to a company such as Lexmark. Can y- can you tell us- The companies? Yes. Yes. Can you wait one second? Yes. Let me grab the list? Let me, uh, just mention while she's doing that, that this is extremely important in terms of our economic development efforts, because to the degree we are generally recognized in the country as having progressive employers, people who understand the benefits of flexibility in the workplace, Lexington becomes a, a community of choice with people who are looking for a place to start and continue their, their careers. And to have eight of what's now the top 200 or so countr- companies in the country located here speaks extraordinarily well for Lexington's workplace, and now's the time to give them a little plug if you've got your list handy. Oh, absolutely. So the, uh, the top companies, um, the finalists were Ashland Terrace Retirement Home, Benefit Insurance Marketing, JR Architects, Lexmark International, Potter and Company, Smiley P. Publishing, Unit- United Way of the Bluegrass, and Woodward Hobson and Fulton. Honorable mentions were Central Baptist Hospital, Dean Dorton and Ford, and then the other, um, finalists were Central Bank, Kentucky Orthopedic Rehab or KORT, as well as Stowell, Keene & Ogden, and the Community Action Council. And I'd like to thank the mayor. Uh, the mayor has been very supportive of this project, and he has an amazing vision to recognize that creating quality workplace practices is a fundamental economic develop initiative, and it's a new way of thinking for people, but I, I truly believe it is critical to our, um, economic, uh, development and, uh, survival of our community and our businesses in our community. The Institute of Workplace Innovation has been -- been very helpful in terms of bringing this program to Lexington and -- and bringing, of course, this recognition to these employers who are very worthy of it. So thank you- Sure, thank you. ... Dr. Swanger. All right, I think we're now ready to move on to council reports, um, and it looks like I'm back in business with my list here. So, um, Councilmember Gorton, we'll let you begin. Thank you, Mayor. Um, two items. I'm -- I know that Dr. Stephens is going to talk about the new Hisle Park, which is being called Hisle Farm. Um, we s- uh, saw the presentation of the draft master plan Thursday at the Parks Advisory Board and it's -- it's very exciting. And I just only will say I think Lowes & Associates has done a fabulous job of translating what the public said they wanted into this plan. And Dr. Stephens will say more about it. And then the only other thing I wanted to say is I want to give a public congratulations to Councilmember Tom Blues and Councilmember Andrea James. Um, Mayor, you and I were there Saturday morning at the First and Second District Leadership Summit, which, uh, Councilmembers James and Blues put on. And it's really the first time in -- in my memory, uh, that I remember of two districts, two council districts, which abut each other going together for a neighborhood summit. And I -- uh, from what I saw, it was extremely well done and it was extremely well attended. And I think it was really, um, really a terrific thing that the two of you partnered, because you share a boundary and you share some things in common. And I -- I got the sense that the folks who attended were very excited, very interested in learning, and I thank you for doing that. Councilmember Stevens. Uh, thank you. If you can put up that picture now for me, Chris. Uh, Lynda and I both serve on the Parks Advisory Board, and we had a presentation by Chris Camp, uh, Lowes & Associates that she mentioned of the park on Briarhill called Hisle Farm. Uh, the donors of this land, which is about 280 acres off Briarhill, uh, asked that it be preserved, and the neighbors wanted to preserve it as the farm character. So this will be a passive park which will include, uh, many miles of walking trails, very few miles where cars can go. It'll have some fishing ponds. And that clear space on the top on the left underneath the triangle w- was -- is a large pasture which will contain horses. And then one of the themes of this park is gonna be opportunities for people to, uh, use their horses or to have horses that may be available there for, uh, those type of activities, which will go along with Masterson Station and its, uh, equine activities. Uh, the plan looked great and I think the Parks Advisory Board was excited about it. And there are a few little problems associated with it. For example, there's a railroad that goes right through the middle of it and we have to, uh, find some way to build a better crossing, because the bridge that goes over the railroad now is -- is about to fall down. And, uh, uh, that's a problem. But other than that, the park w- can be developed for a little of -- for very little capital. And I look forward someday to going out and taking a walk through -- through, uh, this Hisle Farm Park. The second thing I wanna announce is that, um, I have been privileged to serve since I've been on the council for th- part of this century and part of the last century on the Emergency Medical Advisory Board. And I have, uh- That's right. ... brought very few, uh, reports from that because our emergency medical service is really a very well-run enterprise and there haven't been many problems for the council. Now, recently, a problem came up, uh, with the health services at the jail. And, uh, to resolve this, it seemed that we needed to have a meeting of the parties involved. Uh, Dr. Joel Richardson, who's the, uh, Medical Director for the Emergency Medical Services, he requested a meeting to re- resolve these. So, uh, Tim Bennett, uh, Chief Baston, Chief Hendricks, and Mr. Bishop at the jail and I and several others all met, and I'm happy to say that the problems were resolved. But I wanted to thank those people who participated for being so gracious and being able to resolve a problem. Thank you. Councilmember Stennett. Thank you, Mayor. We all know we heard the announcement on Friday regarding some of the new, uh, transportation improvement dollars that are coming to Lexing, one being the, uh, new bridge over Man O' War that will hopefully join the Brighton East Rail Trail as well as the Brighton West Rail Trail once it's completed. And, you know, being as significant as that is, there's another issue that, um, that popped up before this council about a year ago, and that was the m- the Man O' War study that we all received about a year ago. And as you know, Man O' War's not getting any s- any less traffic on a daily basis. I was reminded of this when we were adding the 41st -- 41st and 42nd stoplight to Man O' War here coming up in the next couple weeks. When it opened back in 1988, it had 13 stoplights. So you can see the tremendous pressure that's been put on Man O' War over the last several years, since 1988, 20 years, in fact, now. And I know we've been talking about Man O' War and putting money into the capital projects to repair some sidewalks. But I'd like to look at some different options with those dollars, and if we could, Mayor, in the next couple of council work sessions, have a presentation from traffic engineering as to the current condition and state of Man o' War. I know the study, uh, outlined five specific phases in te- in terms of widening and improving Man o' War, some of which may still be relevant, but one we're actually already doing right now, and that's the intersection of Man o' War at Todds Road, will be widened and an added additional turn lane here in the spring. So, um, you know, having said th- that, 10 council members are directly affected by Man o' War. Um, it's the major... second major artery in Fayette County. It has a top five congested intersections in Fayette County. So there's a lot of reasons why we need to start taking a look at this, 'cause it's not on anyone's road plan, uh, at least for the six-year plan. It's not in front of the MPO. Uh, something's gonna have to be done sooner than later, with additional 3,000 homes coming, uh, to those areas, uh, in the next several years. Um, so I... if we could, Mayor, in the next couple of council work sessions, have a brief presentation by traffic engineering, kind of give the current state of, of Man o' War? Sure. Commissioner Webb, could you work with Mr. Harrington and the rest of the folks to make a presentation happen for us? I believe we can do that. Great. Thanks. You know, and I'm, too, and want to... I know we've all seen the study, but I think it's now time to start looking for what the design cost would be and actually what the cost of each phase would be, 'cause the, the sooner we can get something going forward, I think the better off we'll all be on. So thank you, Mayor. Council member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. And I'm just going to echo Council Member Stennit's, uh, comments, because, uh, my district is certainly one that is affected and, and I think that the Nicholasville Road corridor that is in my district is probably one of the large contributors to the sort of... to, to part of the problem. The explosive growth in Jessamine and Garrard Counties, uh, is something we can't control, but is certainly affecting our folks, uh, on Man o' War. And it will be another decade or so, if ever, before a, um, a limited access road is built from Jessamine County over to Richmond to take some of the pressure off. And so, uh, I think we need to move post haste with, uh, with, uh, what we can do with Man o' War. Um, on another front, uh, as I mentioned last week, on October 12th, we are, as a state, doing a, uh, doing something to change the state of our health. Uh, we are... Across the state of Kentucky, 65 counties and communities across those counties are joining together during the hours of two o'clock to six o'clock on that Sunday to close roads, to invite, uh, folks to come out and blade and bike, walk, push a stroller, to come out and exercise. Uh, and we are doing that here in Lexington. The press conference for it is tomorrow at 10 o'clock at the courthouse. Uh, but for folks at home in, in Lexington that wanna know about, uh, the specifics of our, um, our event, uh, the website specific to Lexington is 2ndSundayInLex.com. Uh, and it's 2ndSundayInLex.com. Uh, the route for Lexington is we are closing South Lime from Avenue of Champions down to 3rd Street. And with partners such as the YMCA and the Heart Association and others, uh, Downtown Lexington Incorporation, there's activities all throughout the day and, and, uh, it is all health-related. And it's all about being a community and doing something that's never been done before as a state, and closing roads and, and saying that we are, um, kind of sick of being sick, and we want to offer an opportunity for our folks to, um, to come out and enjoy what we have. So I would encourage all my council member colleagues, uh, to, to get on the website and send this out to your constituents, to the neighborhood associations, because at the end of the day, what's going to make, um, the national, uh, news and others take note of Kentucky is how many folks came out that particular day. And we can do our part. I certainly would love to have you all there. Um, for those who, who bike, it's, it's very interesting on days like this, where moms with strollers and bikers don't tend to, uh, share the same road. Uh, at four o'clock, one of the activities, uh, Pedal the Planet has, uh, organized a bike ride, uh, to, uh, to Paris and back. And for those that don't want to necessarily go 40 miles, I believe there's a, uh, a five mile up and back that they're gonna do as well. So there's something for everybody, uh, and it's a day to come out and enjoy the road. So, uh, 2nd Sunday is October 12th from 2:00 to 6:00. And in that same vein, this Saturday, uh, the Assurance Center, uh, their Love Walk is going on at Appleby's Park. Uh, it starts at 11:30 and goes until 2:00. Uh, we want to encourage everyone to come out. Another great opportunity to come out as a community and walk. And on October 8th, uh, the PTA in, in Lexington is having Walk to School Day for every, uh, s- school child and their parents. Um, and it's a, it's a great lead-in to 2nd Sunday. Uh, lastly, I just ask, uh, Vice Mayor, we had, uh, a couple weeks ago had talked about the Government Center Task Force. Uh, and I believe Dr. Stephens had made the motion about, um, putting out the RFP, uh, and, and moving forward on that, and I know we've had discussions about that task force. Is there anything to report as far as putting that group together, or, or where are we on that? Still working on it. Okay. All right. I just would ask that we move quickly on that in putting that team together. Thank you, Mayor, that ends my report. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, with reference to the, uh, First and Second District, uh, Neighborhood Leadership Conference, I think that a lot of the success of th- that conference had to do with the fact that, that a lot of folks in, in both districts and the neighborhoods of both districts gave up a Saturday morning to come out and, and to participate, showing the... I, I think demonstrating the, the, the... not only the willingness, but the, uh, you know, the enthusiasm of folks to learn, learn more about how to make their neighborhood organizations more effective, m- more dynamic, uh, m- m- better connected to, to, t- t- to, uh, to the urban county government, and, and, and among themselves. So it was a... it was a great meeting. We also had a wonderful cadre of, of facilitators who l- who, who led our breakout discussions. All in all, it was a great success and we thank the, the mayor, too, for, for, for being there and, and, and welcoming us, and, uh, we appreciate you- ... your presence at-at the event. It was a great event, and glad to be able to participate. Council Member DeCam, thank you. Wait a- Oh, I'm sorry. No, no, no. I apologize. No, no. I apologize. Uh, I've got, uh, a couple of things I wanna, I wanna announce and-and-and one is a, uh, on-on next Monday night at 7:00 PM, uh, we're gonna have in the second district, and especially for all of the residents along the-the-the-the Leestown corridor, a road projects public meeting. I get a lot of questions about the Leestown widening project, about Citation Boulevard, about Spur Roads, Greendale Roads, so we're gonna have on Monday night, uh, e-engineers from-from State District Seven and from LFUCG to pre- provide all kinds of information on-on-on these, uh, essential road projects. That meeting is gonna be 7:00 PM at the First Baptist Church of Bragtown at 3016 Bragtown Road. The Bragtown church is more or less across from Masterson Station Park off of-off of Leestown. I really encourage the residents of the Leestown corridor to turn out, learn about the-the-the-the project schedules, the cost, the-some of the related issues about the utility movements, about buying purchase of right-of-way. Uh, I think it's gonna be very important. Folks'll have an opportunity to ask questions, uh, ab-about these essential projects. So again, Monday night, 7:00 PM, First Baptist Church of Bragtown, and look forward to seeing you there. On- Also on Monday, October 6th, two neighborhood association meetings, the Georgetown Street Neighborhood Association at 6:00 PM in Douglas Park, the O'er Center, and at 7:00 PM, Green Acres-Hollow Creek Breckenridge Neighborhood Association, seven-at-that's at seven o'clock in the community center in Green Acres Park. Thank you, Mayor. Now, Council Member DeCam. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, I just wanted to commend the Parking Authority, um, I think any of you who have been riding downtown have noticed that there are parking places available. That's what the parking meters were th- put there for, so people could come down and park and do their business downtown. Uh, I u-understand some of the meters are gonna be changed to two hours, which is gonna make it more convenient for the public. Um, and they're also making it, uh, easier to pay your parking tickets 'cause they can be paid online now. Uh, one of the big things which I think the public oughta be warned about is that the authority is going to start beginning their booting, uh, program, and anybody that know what booting is, it's, uh, they clamp a boot on your, uh, on your, uh, automobile, uh, wheel, and it can't be moved until it's unbooted, and that will be if you don't pay your tickets, your car will be booted, and it costs $60 dol- dollars to-to get it unbooted. So, uh, I think, uh, people should be aware that that is, uh, they're going to start that program, and we're serious about people not, uh, who get parking tickets, to pay their fines, and, uh, that, uh, we don't have people feeding the meters that work downtown anymore, um, and we are turning over places, uh, and it's, uh, been a big... I've heard a lot of people say, you know, they can come downtown and-and find a parking place now. So, um, I think they're doing a good job, um, and, uh, beware, booting is going to begin, uh, under the authority of the Parking Authority. So, uh, just wanted the public to know that, and I think the program is succeeding in providing parking places for people who want to come downtown. Thank you. Council Member Beard. Thank you, Mayor. I would like, uh, to move approval of the Neighborhood Development Fund WISP for this week. Second. We have a motion and second. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, no? Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. Appears as though that gets us down to the Mayor's report if there's no other council members who wish to report. I only have one item that I've asked, uh, Paula King to come and share with us just a little bit of information about the Neighborhood Action Match Program recommendations. Thank you. The Neighborhood Action Match Program, we were able to award, uh, 15 neighborhoods this year, which is great. We thank you for the boost in funds. $70,000 is wonderful. Uh, just remember that when you get ready to do your next one. They will remember it, but we did actually have 24 applications that we received that totaled $148,000, so 70,000 out of the 148 is still pretty good, and we were, like I said, able to fund 15 of them. We do do a-a... There is a board that does select the applications. We just rank them basically based on if they received funding in the last three years. Every time you receive funding every three years, it reduces your priority, so we were able to fund all of the priority ones. That means these people have not received money in the last three years, and we actually was able to fund one small one that was a priority too 'cause it was only $300, but it's gonna make a big difference to that neighborhood, so we were able to do that, and I'm just here to answer any questions if you have any. Seeing... Uh, Council Member James. I-I don't have a question, Mayor, but, Paula, I just wanted to thank your staff. I know that we had several, or at least one, um, really kind of aggressive... Not aggressive, um, proactive and very engaged neighborhood, and you all were very responsive to them, and they did feel like th- there was a technical component there that they didn't necessarily expect, but we're pleased that you were able to give them that advice. Thank you. Thank you. If there are no further questions, a motion to approve those recommendations would be in order. So moved. Councilmember Blues has moved and Councilmember DeCamp has seconded the motion that those recommendations be approved. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. That's all I have. The last item on the business is public comment for items not on the agenda. Mr. Maher. I didn't sign up anywhere. I'm just gonna take three minutes. All right, thank you. Um, actually, the, um ... I'm glad that Commerce Lexington was glad here- was here today. It was really, really good. It actually came out really well with what I want to say today. Uh, I mentioned it last week, or whenever, here, two weeks ago, there's a book here called The Dip, uh, Seth Godin. He's a thought leader from the Northeast, I believe. Uh, it starts out, the book, talking about economic development, which is my passion for My Lexington. As we can see by their presentation and by many of y'all's questions and statements, that we have a ton of potential, I believe economically, that's been largely untapped in our city. We have a ton of opportunity and it just needs to be organized better, in my opinion, ours, our facilitation of our high-tech innovators and our entrepreneurs in general. Uh, Seth Godin said this, talking about life and business, "Being the best in the world is seriously underrated." Underrated, being number one. Then he goes on to give a funny little anecdote about, uh, the volume of sales for ice cream. Uh, the percentage of people who buy vanilla ice cream versus the per- percentage of people who buy other flavors. 30% of ice cream sales goes to vanilla, 30%. The next, uh most popular flavor is chocolate, which is at 8%. That's a big gap. The gap between being great and being like everybody else is ima- is enormous. Being good economically is okay. Being great is a whole nother planet. Think about, again, Tiger Woods' income versus the average PGA professional's income. My Lexington, and my friend Payton will speak in the next couple weeks probably, uh, a lot of my folks will say that Lexington is good in many ways, but we are not great economically. Opportunity-wise, entrepreneurial-wise, uh, organizationally, as far as how our city's connected, which I think that survey they presented really spoke about how we are not connected, and entrepreneurs and innovators wish that there was more of a supportive, connecting environment within Lexington to really bring out the best of our ideas and our possibilities. Uh, in, uh, in Good to Great, again talking about the same thing, he talks about the great companies outperform the good companies by a, a factor of seven. So again, there's an enormous difference between what is good, what is adequate, perhaps what hotel can bring into downtown versus what the next Altec can bring in, that capitalize on our agriculture industry, synergize that with Toyota and Altec and agri- agricultural base and create the next biofuel mecca of the entire world, the next Saudi Arabia, the next Middle East in our Lexington, because we have all the ingredients around here and we have the intellectual capital busting out of our seams, as a matter of fact. We have the resources, the intellectual capital here. We have the ability, the Economic Development Task Force, which I applaud, I think you guys are on the right track with that. I think you keep on doing that, there's so much opportunity here for, for you guys to provide our entrepreneurs like Payton and so many of- all of us who have left to really, really make our economy great, not just good. Thank you. Thank you very much. Does anyone else wish to address the Council? Seeing none, a motion to adjourn would be in order. Move to adjourn. Councilmember Gorton has moved that we adjourn, seconded by Councilmember Meyers. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you very much. In my heart, there always will remain. My Stardust Melody. The memory of love's refrain.