Music Thank you. Second, any discussion or question? Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Next on the item, first, as we get started here, I've talked to Beth, and she's talked with Chair Martin and her team, just so everybody knows. The short-term rental Rural Land Management Board recommendations, we're going to move that to the end of the agenda and hopefully get to presentation, but this may be in our packet today for information only. I know the sponsors of the short-term rental work are wanting to take plenty of time with this. With the mayor's budget address at 3, we want to make sure that we're done with our work and cleared out and give the mayor plenty of time to come in. So I'm going to make that adjustment to our agenda, and hopefully we'll get to some discussion on that. But the most important piece right now is the annual update from the Rural Land Management Board. We haven't had that yet this year, and we're excited to have it. So, Director Overman and Chair Martin, the floor is yours. Okay, thank you. So I will move quickly so that we can get you all ready for your 3 o'clock budget address. So starting with our rural service area background, while crafting Fayette County's 1996 comprehensive plan, our citizens and leaders recognize the importance of protecting the rural service area for future economic development and tourism, as well as its vast natural and cultural resources. The rural service area is comprised of some of the highest quality soils in the nation. The prime farmland soils are illustrated in green on the map to the right, and the statewide important soils are in yellow. The Rural Land Management Plan was adopted in 1999 as an element to the 1996 Comprehensive Plan, then updated in 2017 and adopted as part of the 2018 Comprehensive Plan. The Rural Land Management Plan was designed to document the natural and historic attributes of the rural service area and recommend ways to manage and preserve them. These attributes include, but are not limited to, the prime farmland soils, historic rural hamlets, historic roads and turnpikes, stone fences, and the Kentucky River Palisades. The Rural Land Management Plan notes five distinct focus areas, especially important to conserve, all of which are based on watersheds as indicated on this map. And if you start on this map, if you start on your left side, you will see the areas that are in pink with the pink hatching as they go across. That is the South Elkhorn, the Old Frankfort Pike, the North Elkhorn Creek focus area, the Boone Creek, and the Kentucky River tributaries. Protecting the rural area as called for in the plan has a trifecta of community benefits. environmental sustainability with the protection of our tree canopies, water bodies, soils, and wildlife habitats, economic development from the agricultural equine and tourism industries, and better health for our citizens by having access to locally grown foods and parks such as Raven Run Nature Sanctuary and Heisel Farm, in addition to less air pollution. So our PDR program background, and we know that this is the first report for all of our new council members. So the Rural Land Management Plan also called for the creation of a farmland protection program. A group of 26 community members representing multiple facets of business, industry, government, and conservation met regularly for two years and were known as the Implementation Committee. The Purchase of Development Rights Program was established in the year 2000 with an ordinance stated goal to purchase easements on 50,000 acres in the rural service area. The 16-member Rural Land Management Board was created to govern the program, and per ordinance is comprised of representatives from the groups who served on the implementation committee, as well as three council-appointed seats added in 2019. Thirteen of the members are voting, and three are non-voting. The board meets monthly to steward the easement and oversee the acquisition of new easements. Stewardship. So our PDR easements are perpetual and transfer with the land. They are recorded with the property deed at the county clerk's office just like a mortgage or a utility easement. The easements require landowners to obtain the board's permission to add housing and paving, and if the easement was recorded after 2007 when an impervious surface limit was added, they must also obtain permission to add farm infrastructure such as barns. The Board heard requests from landowners at over half their meetings last year. The request included primary residences, tenant houses, indoor riding arenas, barns, and paving. Since the PDR farms regularly change hands, a letter is sent to the property owners annually reminding them of these rules and that they need to ensure the PDR staff has their contact information. The easements must also be monitored annually and reports must be submitted to NRCS for each federal easement. Most monitoring is conducted in person, and we also utilize the aerial photography purchased by GIS every two years. The board and PDR staff must also field questions and requests regarding utility easements, cell towers, potential road widenings, subdivision, expansion, and other issues. Any potential road widening or other issue that might impact a federal easement requires the approval of the chief of NRCS. And so here we have the list of our board members, and you can see those are the ordinance-mandated groups. The only groups with two members are the Fayette County Farm Bureau and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association. Next, we have our financial benefits of farmland preservation. Fayette County's rural area is a globally recognized landscape that brings investors and tourists from around the world. Visit Lex reports the number one reason visitors come to Lexington is to see our horse farms and scenic beauty and that hosting the 2022 Breeders' Cup had an $82 million impact on Lexington and the surrounding areas. Lexington is the horse capital of the world and home to the Kentucky Horse Park, Red Mile, Keeneland, and Fasig-Tipton, in addition to numerous horse farms and training centers. We also have an increase in diversity in horse breeds with ownership of sport horses and pleasure horses both growing. The Legacy Trail now extends through the downtown core to the horse park where over 30 equine businesses and organizations are housed, in addition to the multitude of recreation and tourism activities and events. Fayette County is also home to the Bluegrass Stockyards, which is the largest stockyard east of the Mississippi River. Kentucky is the largest beef producer east of the Mississippi River and home to nearly 1 million beef cows per the USDA. In 2022, gross receipts from cattle production totaled $1.1 billion per the Kentucky Beef Cattlemen's Association. The Kentucky bourbon industry generates $285 million in state and local taxes, and 15 to 20 million bushels of corn go towards making Kentucky bourbon every year. 75% of that corn is sourced from Kentucky farmers, and corn and soybeans are the row crops most frequently raised on PDR farms. And you all remember, those of you who attended the Farm Bureau's legislative dinner last fall probably remember hearing those statistics. Our thriving Lexington farmers market operates five days a week during the spring-summer season, and many of our restaurants depend on the produce and meat supplied by local farmers. We also have wineries in the rural area, including a small one on a PDR farm. So one of the key things about our program is the federal funding partnership for farmland preservation. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, NRCS, with whom we partner, states it well by saying, agricultural land easements protect the long-term viability of the nation's food supply by preventing conversion of productive working lands to non-agricultural uses. Land protected by agricultural land easements provides additional public benefits, including environmental quality, historic preservation, wildlife habitat, and protection of open space. NRCS has partnered with the PDR program for over 20 years and awarded us over $29 million. Over half of PDR easements are federally funded. The funding program we utilize is called the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, and it receives bipartisan support from Congress in every farm bill. So our PDR parcel ranking process, I am going to skim these. So parcels in the rural service area that are at least 20 acres meet the acreage requirements for easement purchase. A property owner can combine two or more adjacent tracks under the same ownership to meet that 20-acre minimum. And to ensure impartiality, parcels are ranked using a land evaluation and site assessment system provided in Section 2610 of the Code of Ordinances, which includes ag-supportive scoring, like the soils, there being farming activities and production infrastructure, the environmental protection scoring, the historic protection scoring, and also negative scoring, which is negative points are awarded to parcels. In the sewerability categories, one through four, and those within one mile of the urban service boundary, unless they are in designated focus area or wellhead protection area or a community icon. And one note, parcels of any size can be donated, including those that are less than 20 acres. So our conserved farms and acreage. With the federal investment in PDR and the Commonwealth of Kentucky's $15 million investment, the program is nearly two-thirds of the way to the 50,000-acre goal. There are 286 farms totaling over 32,000 acres permanently conserved and over 930 acres under contract to close. In addition, the Bluegrass Land Conservancy holds 18 easements in Fayette County totaling 2,300 acres, and the Mary Wharton Nature Sanctuary at Floracliff has 337 acres under easement that has been designated as a Kentucky State Nature Preserve. It is a goal of both the PDR program and the federal matching program to create a critical mass of contiguous conserved agricultural land, and you will see that on this map, and we do have a larger version of this map in your packets. Applicants receive points for being adjacent to a PDR, Bluegrass Land Conservancy, or Floracliff easement, and applying with a neighboring farm. So we are very excited to announce that we purchased an easement on the largest easement in PDR history in December. It is on Farm 4 2020, owned by the Foxtrot Corporation, was purchased in December 2023. Its soil score was nearly 88%. It is PDR adjacent on multiple sides. It was a batch application with neighbors. It is in the Boone Creek Focus Area and the Boone Creek National Register Rural Historic District. The farm has rural greenways, environmentally sensitive areas, wildlife habitats, and large trees throughout. It is part of Fayette County's designated scenic view shed and has over 7,400 feet of frontage on a historic turnpike and Kentucky scenic byway. It is used for cattle and crop production. As you can see, this is a picture from the farm. It was federally matched 50-50, and NRCS said it is the largest agricultural easement they have purchased in Kentucky. So they were very excited about it, too. And so on this next page, we have, I'm going to show you all where the farm is. So this is it over here. So we're on the bottom right side of the urban service area. And so this is it over here outlined in purple. And you can see here in what we're talking about. I'll put on my glasses for this. So what we are talking about with conserving contiguous land, you can see that before we acquired this, there was this area that was all conserved, this, there was this area over here, and then this area, but none touching. And when we got that, it's like a big puzzle piece that brought it all together. So that is our goal with the PDR program, is to conserve these large areas of contiguous farmland. So, all right. So next we have, so our farms under contract. So we have 14 federally matched farms under contract to close, and these are the first eight. And then these are the next six, and together they total 931 acres. We also have three newly federally matched farms and three pending on a federal match application. and two donation applications, and those all total 320 acres. Additionally, there are five applications in the queue and one unsuccessful applicant to report. The five farms in the queue meet the PDR applicant requirements but are not yet funded due to life estates or the inability to qualify for the federal match due to foreign ownership. And the one unsuccessful applicant, the ordinance requires us to report this to you all. So the one unsuccessful applicant was federally matched but declined. The board's offer to purchase an easement on their farm, and that is located at 5201 Mount Horeb Pike and was a 40-acre farm. So our news and accomplishments. The board has been named a certified entity by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. This designation is based on our longstanding successful partnership with NRCS, through which we share over 160 easements. It is our understanding there were only four certified entities in the United States prior to 2023, and we are the only certified entity in Kentucky. This will give the board more autonomy to close easements and should expedite closings. Also, the nonprofit SeedLeaf is leasing 32 acres on a PDR farm and has expanded to the rural area for the first time. This is their big largest farming space thus far. They plan to allow farmers who have completed their training program to have their own one to one and a half acre lots and will also have land for migrant farmers to use. We are so excited about this new partnership and grateful for the vision and ingenuity of both Sea Leaf and the PDR farmer who is providing that land. And lastly, the board was awarded a $10,000 grant from the American Farmland Trust to encourage farmers to implement better soil health practices. Uses of the funds thus far include purchasing a soil penetrometer that will be used to measure soil compaction when conducting easement monitoring, providing funds to the Fayette Soil Conservation District to supplement funds paid to farmers to incentivize the planting of cover crops during the fall and winter, and those funds are available to all Fayette County farmers, not just those in PDR. and sponsoring PDR farm owners to attend a day-long workshop provided by NRCS experts on better soil health practices for cattle farms. In summary, over 32,000 acres have been permanently conserved, including 36 donated easements totaling over 1,400 acres. The PDR staff and board are currently working with 27 PDR applicants in stewarding easements on nearly 300 farms. The federal partnership is strong, and the Inflation Reduction Act is raising the investment in the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program from $450 million to $1.4 billion annually over a five-year period. We recently received funding for three new easements provided by our IRA funds, and we have just been given the green light to begin closing farms as a certified entity and look forward to a productive year of easement acquisitions. That is it. And we have several of our board members here today. So Board Chair Gloria Martin is here. And we also have Robert James, Margaret Graves, and Philip Meyer, and Mary Quinn Raymer. And we are glad we have Dave Savigny as our council person on our board and are enjoying him a lot. Thank you. Before we move to questions, Chair Martin, is there anything you'd like to add or speak to? Just to tell you that it is a great board, and I'm delighted that the ordinance was thoughtful enough in the beginning to designate the seats to special organizations. That has worked really well because of that, we have a great cross-section of the whole community and the whole county. So it has worked very well. It is a great board. They show up. We've had to do a lot through Zoom all the way through COVID. only one time in over three years have we not been able to meet a quorum because of that. So it's been a great board, and I can't thank them enough for the time they've spent doing it. And thanks to Robert and Phil, when we applied for the $10,000 grant, they jumped through all the hooks on their own time to make sure that everything met all their requirements. So thank you also to them. Thank you, and thanks to the board members that are here for all your hard work. We're having issues with the screens. A lot of people are trying to log in to speak but can't, so just raise your hands, and I'll try to get a cue going. We'll start with Council Member Ellinger for questions. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Beth, for the update. We're getting close. We're two-thirds away or almost two-thirds away from our goal of 50,000. My question is, on page 13, where you have the 32,000 acres permanently conserved, does the land conservation, the 18 and 20, 303, does that count towards a 50 or is that extra? Let's see. That's Margaret. That's a different group. Oh, okay. That is separate. That's a different group. Yes, that is, I'm sorry, the Bluegrass Land Conservancy, which is chaired by Margaret Graves. So that does not count towards our $50,000. That doesn't count. So our goal then will be 50 plus that then. So at some point we'll have $50,000 and whatever that. And with that number, how, I mean, the other goes into perpetuity. How is the other, the land conservancy, with those events, can, are those in the same? Yes, and I can, if it's okay if Margaret comes, I'll let her tell you a little more about that. Because they basically do it out of the goodness of their heart and we don't pay them for that, right? Correct. The easements that the Bluegrass Land Conservancy holds in Fayette County are all donated conservation easements and they are also in perpetuity. Okay, thank you. That answered your question. And then on page 14 where we had our largest easement, would we require two or three appraisals for that to come up with that? Just one. So we are only allowed to get one. So the NRCS, we have to use someone who is certified in conservation easement training, and then we order the appraisal, and NRCS does the technical review. And they do not allow counterappraisal, so that used to be something that was in our ordinance that was allowed, but that is not allowed anymore. I have three compables. Oh, yes. It has to have three. Gloria, could you, Ms. Martin, could you, what did you say? I was just going to add on to what she said. I think what you are sort of asking is they do have to have three comparables in the county of recent sales in order for this one easement. And they have to be within the last 18 months. The sales, those three comparables have to be within 18 months. So they're right on. Because I think prior we did have required two or three, and we did have some issues because other people had come back with their appraisals, and now we have the one that we have a national recognized. Is that how it works? That's correct. The NRCS does not let us anymore let those property owners get another appraisal. It has to go by the appraiser they have approved nationwide. And that is a big, there was 1170. What kind of price tag was on that then? What are they appraising per acre on that? Well, it was less than it would have been outright because in those 1170 acres, it was in four tracks. And they asked to be able to retain the four tracks, which the federal government has just now, the NRCS, as of last year. It was the first time they have allowed property owners to keep any development rights. So had it been one big thousand acre plus, it would have been one price. The fact that they've retained some development rights was a lesser price, and they knew that up front. Thank you. And then my last question is on page 21. I think it's 21. Yes, on the Inflation Reduction Act, could you tell us how that's affecting this? Does it look like that? There's more money out there now? Yes. So that is going to be additional funds in addition to the agricultural conservation easement program funds that come through the farm bill. And so we have just received our first batch of that and are working with NRCS. And it's new to our state staff as well. This is the first round that they've gotten. But it is going to be supplemental money. And the Agricultural Conservation Ease Program sounds like it's only farms, but it also covers wetlands, and so a lot of that money will be going into wetlands as well. Is that going to be a match then, too? Yes, it is a match. Is that a 50-50 then on that one? Yes, correct. All right, thank you, and thank you for all who make this program so good. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Plumman. Thank you, Chair. I did not realize I was next. So I just want to ditto about the committee. Really, Beth and Gloria have been the dynamic duo for the past few years. And under Gloria's leadership, I've really watched the rural land management board prosper and grow. So I think that's great. So commend you on your good work. Ms. Martin and I have had a little brief conversation about this. But the maximum that you have to have are 20 acres. And, of course, out in the rural area, we do have our hamlets and we have smaller farms, and they don't meet the 20-acre minimum. Martin, would you want to comment on some of your thoughts about that? I know I'm surprising you with that question. I think our commissioner is here as well. And it's something we are looking into because when you look on the map, you will see that there are some 10-acre tracks or less than 20-acre tracks right in the middle of some of our big critical mass areas, and they farm, but they've not been eligible. We also have some farms that really are farming, who are right on the border, who would like to do it, and we're looking into that because I think that we're to the point where these people qualify. They are farming. They are meeting the PVA requirement. They are meeting the state KRS requirement. And so I think we can work out some criteria whereby they can apply. The feds will not give us 50-50 match for it, but we're hoping we can work out something along that line. I think that would be great. I agree to get it to go through, and I think it's in the spirit of the big PDR program that we also bring in the smaller farms. So thank you, Chair. Thank you. Vice Chair. Council Member Savigny. Thank you for recognizing me. I appreciate it. And I just, I am a member of this, and I will say it's probably the best run of all the things that I do right now. It's a very well-run organization. Thank you. Except for, like, we're really good, but you guys are. And so I wanted to thank you for your hard work. I mean, they meet on Zoom, which is, I think, part of the key. And we've had guys on tractors in the meeting doing what they do. Very dedicated. And then I would just, one response to Council Member Ellinger's thing about the donated easements. A donated easement is basically a tax deduction, if I'm correct on that. So it's a tax deduction. It probably has a different little play for these folks that have those, but it's not insignificant. It's definitely good. My question in general is, do you feel like you are money constrained or do you think it's process constrained? Like our general thing is about a million bucks a year to this program. So give me an idea if you feel like you're money constrained or if you think it's the process. It's pretty, it's long to do. Yes. Just curious. So it's been very process constrained. It's two million. Okay. It's been extremely process constrained by the federal match. They have been very behind since the COVID crisis. And so they have been taking, like you all may notice in your packet, some of those farms are numbered like 5-2020 and that kind of, that is people who applied in 2020. So it's been taking that long. Now that we've been named a certified entity, we expect to change that and hope to close a lot this year. So we really believe that's going to be a big change for us. But that has been the holdup and has made it hard to recruit because, you know, the farm community is tight knit. And so some of them know that it's taking, you know, several years and that makes them more hesitant to apply. So we are really excited about being a certified entity and look forward. And I think Chair Martin wants to. I do have another comment about that. We're also restrained from what money they will match. For instance, you notice on the page where you have some people that have applied, but we have not been able to purchase. If you make as much as $900,000 basically a year, or if you have the farm as foreign ownership, we're not allowed to match that. We could purchase it with local dollars without match, but they're all pretty large farms and would be very expensive. So the answer to that is both. If we had more money and we were not restrained or constrained or the ordinance made us only look for, leave those folks out. So that's kind of twofold. And some of those people are not really interesting in donating because if you're a foreign owner, you're not going to get that tax write-off. Well, thank you. Thanks for that feedback. And appreciate it. Thank you. Council Member Lagree. Thank you, Chair. And thank you all for all of your hard work and your time and dedication to this initiative. I really appreciate this update and all of the numbers that you provided for us. It sounds like your step becoming a certified entity is going to be really helpful for the future and as you're progressing toward the 50,000 acre goal. You know, I think that some of the questions that Councilmember Savigny asked might get at this, But I'm curious if there's anything else that you all want to share about your conversations, your strategy, or your process as you are moving toward that 50,000. You know, is there anything that it would be helpful for us to know as you all are seeking participants, you know, what you're sharing with them, some of the benefits, et cetera? Yes. So one of the big things we are doing, we work very closely with GIS, and they have provided us mapping that shows us the farm. They can populate the names, and so we get these very large maps from them that show us the names of landowners surrounded who are adjacent to PDR farms. Because what we really want to do is fill in those puzzle pieces. And so we are working on that. And that is one of the main things. We are trying. Our board kind of took a little hold this year on trying to recruit them as much because we feel like this backlog has to be addressed with the farms that need to close. But I'm sure as the year progresses and we hold our annual application cycle closer to the fall, that we will get started. Because we do feel like we are going to quickly be able to start closing these farms and then look towards the future and start recruiting these others that are adjacent to those. Thank you. That's very helpful information. And, you know, thinking about the Inflation Reduction Act funding, which sounds really positive. We know so many important environmental initiatives are coming down from the federal government, and this is one of them. Is there anything special that you all have to do or we have to do in order to compete for those funds or anything additional that their existence adds to the process? So the main thing, it's my understanding they are scored just like the other NRCS applicants for the regular pot of funding that comes from the farm bill. And their scoring system is very similar to ours but has a few differences. And so one of the things that always helps us that NRCS staff has shared with us is, one, our soil scores. So they're almost always close to 100%, but also we have that adjacency. and we often have one of NRCS's scoring criteria is if you connect to already conserved spaces. And so we do a lot of that. And so that helps us to compete for that. And if we have the money to match. Yes, and our chair said, and if we have the money to match. Excellent. Well, thank you all again. And it sounds like that match money and this federal funding makes a big difference for our land conservation efforts in Fayette County, and we appreciate your service. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Ms. Overman and Ms. Martin for your service on rural land management, and to the rest of the board members for all you do. My first question is about, Beth, what did you say? There was a farm on Mount Horrope, 40 acres. You had to disclose something to us. Is it someone that didn't make it into the program or did make it into the program? They did make it into the program, and they qualified for the federal match, and our board actually made an offer to them to purchase an easement. But it actually was a situation where the owner was, she had inherited it and was unsure what she wants to do. She thought she wanted to put it in PDR, but then was a little afraid. You know, a lot of times when people inherit the family farm, What we see is that they worry at first about are they going to be able to afford it long term with the property taxes and everything else that goes along with farming. And so she wanted a little more time to think about that and declined our offer. Okay. So is that offer still good for a certain amount of time and she can come back or once you decline it? No. So they get 30 days to decide. And if they decline that, then the federal government removes their name from it. Now, they can reapply to PDR later, definitely. Yes, and we've had that happen before. So someone maybe applied in 2015 and was unsure and then came back in 2022. And so she can do that. She would have to reapply and go through the whole federal application process of getting her farm approved. Okay, okay. Well, thanks for the clarity on that. And then my second question was to the comments and the thoughts around smaller lots and the opportunity to provide more equity to the program. I know we've been talking about that for a while. What steps need to be taken to make that happen and move forward? Is that a small committee of the Rural Land Management Board that would drive that? I'm going to turn it over to Commissioner Horn. We have good news about that. And I'm referring to it as a small farm preservation program. and with the law department we're going to have an ordinance sometime probably in the fall for you all to consider to authorize that program for farms that are at least 10 acres but under 20 acres but are actively engaged in farming. And we're not asking for additional money. The plan is to use the money that RLMB has from its regular pool to do these small farms. Now, we don't know how many people are going to be interested, may want to sell conservation easements on small farms, but we think it's important to try to acquire some of those easements as well. And we believe it will also open up a little more diversity in the program. And people have voiced it. So this would just be a subset of PDR. These would still be PDR farms. This is not a separate program. That's correct, but they would be all local dollars. There would be no federal matching dollars, but they're smaller, so it would obviously be less money spent on each of the farms. And we're allowed to do that because of changes we made to the policy a few years ago. Is that correct? Yes, and because there's sufficient state law to permit it as well. Okay, okay. So any time frame? Any time frame when we might? Well, like I said, the hope is that we could have an ordinance before you when you get back or in the fall of this year so that we could start. It'll be a similar process application-wise and, of course, a ranking system. But depending on the number you get, the ranking won't be as important. Remember when PDR started, there were so many applications that we had to rank them to see which ones were first, second, et cetera. So similar process for applicants for small farms, but depending on the number that you get, my hope is we'll be able to take every small farm that is worth having and want to apply for the program. Okay. Well, that sounds good. I look forward to you coming back in the fall with something for us to consider. My last question is the American Farmland Trust, that grant, was that recently awarded, and have you had a chance to implement some of those programs? We have. Phil Meyer, would you like to come? We have. So we received that about a year and a half ago. Well, it came in parts. They've given the money in like four installments. And we have purchased the soil penetrometer. And Charlie Farmer, who conducts most of our easement monitoring, has that available. And in our annual letter we sent out to landowners, we told them that was an option to have him measure that. But I'll let Phil has shepherded this, and I'll let him tell you a little more. Yes, he is our treasurer. Yes, I'm Philip Meyer. I think we've used about $4,000 or $5,000 of the grant to supplement the Fayette County Conservation Program last year to try and help entice all the farmers in Fayette County to plant cover crops, because that's one of the best things they can do to improve soil health, which reduces runoff and reduces the need for fertilizer. So that's where the bulk of the money has gone. Like I say, we've still got half of it left. We may do that again, or we may use it to sponsor a field day, a farmer's field day, again, that promotes soil health. So that was the whole emphasis behind the American Farmland Trust to try and educate farmers on soil health. and Robert James here, his family, they're a leader in this county on soil health with practices they used. And so I did it myself some when I was farming, but it's this. So we're just trying to educate farmers on that as much as anything with that money. Well, kudos to you all for getting awarded the grant. That sounds like a great resource for farmers. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Lynch. Thank you, Chair. And thank you so much for the presentation. Chair Martin, I just told my legislative aide yesterday, we've got to set a meeting with Gloria Martin. I haven't forgotten. It's on her calendar, so she'll be reaching out to you so I can get a time to come out and visit. But I just have a couple of questions. Is it common that you approve farms that don't qualify for the federal match? Or is it your goal is to always approve farms that qualify for that match? So we have been pretty much driven by who qualifies, and most do. There are one reason that some people cannot, even if they qualify financially, like on the soil map that's in your all's packets that's on the first page, you'll see down by the Kentucky River area some of those white areas. That is where the soil quality is below 50%. And so those don't qualify for the federal match. But we really don't get many of those. So, in general, most of our farms do qualify, and we turn them in with our ranking and provide all that, and then NRCS re-ranks them. And so, the way that actually works sometimes is that they may fund who's number one to them, but not to us, and then send that back to us, and that is how we go forward. Because, you know, it has been our understanding a lot from council that they would like us to seek this match and the administration. I shouldn't think so. Okay. And then my last question is, you all are very close to your goal. And I know the goal is set by, the acreage goal is set by ordinance. So when you hit that goal, will you be coming back to advocate for a larger number, a larger goal? What are your planned next steps then? Because you're not too far away. I know. Yes. I think I'm looking at Margaret and Gloria and some of these people, and I would say that that's a possibility. Yes, someday. So I think it will depend on whether the farmers, if there's still interest. I think if there were, certainly if there were interest, we would want to provide that to them. And if the federal match is still there especially and we can still utilize that 50-50 match, then yes. And where they're located. And where they're located, like she's saying. And that will be, you know, if it's things that are next to a PDR farm, certainly, or other conservatives. Or a concern. Yes. We do have some very large farms we would love to have. If we've reached the 50,000 and some of those community icons have not donated, which some of them would have to do because of income, and because we couldn't give them a federal match, then I think we ought to really think hard about pursuing those, which would be beyond the 50. because I think there are a few farms out there we really would like to have and should have. Well, thank you so much, and thank you for the presentation. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion or questions? Thank you all very much. The next item on the agenda is Council Member Plowman's item related to a consent agenda rule change. Council Member Plowman, would you like to take it from here? Yes, I would, Chair. Thank you very much. Just a few things I'd like to say before we turn it over to Jennifer Sutton. He'll be making our presentation. We've had a great work group on this. If you'll look at your first page in your packet, you'll see all the clerk representatives that we have. These are the folks that have been in the trenches on agendas and dockets. And then we also have had Todd Slayton. He is the director of procurement. And we had Stacey, of course. She is gone. But then we also had two others that were not on this list, and I noticed it wasn't corrected. But one is Shante Hall, and the other is Kendra Thompson. So I wanted to point that out as well. We came together because our goal was to make our meetings more succinct by repositioning our most more mundane items into a consistent-driven format in process saving time and making our meetings more efficient and relative. It's been an evolution of actions over the years and since it went to committee in 2020. Some of our actions have already been approved and are in place. We're proposing three more today for a total of seven actions towards a consensus-driven approach. And I would add that there will be probably some more opportunities in the future to realign other items to allow us more time for, that could resort in more time for more attention to larger community concerns and issues for the greater good of our city and county. So thank you, Jennifer, and our work group. And Jennifer, go ahead, please. Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. So as Councilmember Plowman mentioned, we are going to be talking about the consent agenda today. and there have been quite a few of us who have worked on this over the years as Council Member Plowman mentioned so we are looking forward to bringing this forward to you guys today. So a quick overview of a consent agenda or a consensus driven approach. It is a strategy that is used to streamline meeting procedures and help put routine items into a singular vote format. The idea of this is that it would help take time off of meetings and increase or streamline the approval process for some items. So some background information. The discussion began in 2009 and was originally proposed as a legislative review format in 2013. It did not pass its second reading in April of 2013 at that council meeting. It was proposed again in committee in 2016, but it did not make it out of committee. So in 2021, it was introduced again in committee, and the work began about that time as well, and you'll be familiar with some of the actions that have taken place that you're familiar with already. But some parts were delayed because of COVID and some other factors. So just a quick overview of the actions that have occurred thus far. And again, you will probably be familiar with most of these. And again, they began in about 2021. So in 2021, change orders went into effect. That is the council approval of a specific change order is not required if the individual contract change order is 10% or less of the original contract award. and if that cumulative total does not exceed 10% of the award. If a change order is more than that 10% or more than $1 million, the council must approve that change order. The next action that has taken place was again in 2021, and this has to do with the grants budgets. This allows the mayor to transfer the unencumbered balance of grants of any account within the same grant budget, as long as the scope and the intent of that grant has not been changed significantly. This no longer requires a budget amendment. The third action was implemented in 2022, and this is with the price contracts. So it amended the process for the acceptance, approval, and establishment of price contracts for which funds have been budgeted and to include those in the mayor's report. And that no longer requires a resolution. And then in 2022, the fourth action that has been implemented is the budget amendments. So that expanded the qualifications for budget amendments and, I'm sorry, budget adjustments and budget amendments during fiscal year transition. And amended the council rules by adding budget adjustments to the agenda and repealed some sections in the rules relating to budget amendments. So moving into our proposed changes, as Council Member Plowman said, there are three. that will impact this. The first two are modifications of the code of ordinances and the third is a council rules modification. So the first one is to allow for the council capital project funding to move as a budget adjustment instead of requiring a budget amendment. The second one allows for fixed price bid recommendations and sole source vendors to move forward on the mayor's report in lieu of a resolution for each procurement. And then for the council rules and procedures, it's adding the donations, fixed price bid recommendations, and sole source procurement recommendations to the mayor's report, eliminating the need for resolutions and two readings for approval. So drilling down into the council rules and procedures changes, there are a couple different proposals for those changes. So first, moving the mayor's report up between new business and continuing business, as well as change the title of the mayor's report to communications from the mayor to match the council meeting language to give some continuity across both meetings. And then the work session order of business would be renamed. So the mayor's report would be renamed to communications from the mayor. And then underneath of that, you would have your appointments, donations, procurement, and then three subheadings underneath of procurement. So those are your price contract bid recommendations, fixed bid recommendations, and sole source procurement recommendations. And the votes would happen at appointments, donations, and at each subheading underneath procurement. This is also keeping in mind that not every work session will have each one of those items, but gives space for those to exist. So just to give a little bit more context, so these donations will include anything from outside entities. We also discussed a CAO policy update on donations, and that is being updated. And we'll state all donations valued at $500 or more will require council approval via the mayor's report. And then all cash donations will still require a budget amendment. Your fixed price bid recommendations, those are going to be all competitive bids, $40,000 and up, that don't require an additional agreement other than a purchase order. and those examples, vehicles, machinery, equipment, those kinds of things. And then for your sole source procurement recommendations, that is the establishment of a sole source provider without a specified dollar amount and no additional agreement is required. And the next slide are just some examples that you can see that have been pulled from various packets and dockets over time. So you guys can take a look at those. That's just for your information. And then just a few benefits, and kind of, again, building off of what Council Member Plowman mentioned, that there are administrative time savings for staff for packet and docket preparation. It also will condense our Legistar items on the back end as well. It will help with council meeting time savings. This is also in conjunction with the four initial actions that have been taken already. So combining all of these together will help with saving some time. It will reduce readings. And then it is important to note, too, that items can still be questioned or removed if needed. And then it will help speed up the approval process. So next steps that we have a resolution and two ordinances for your all's approval. Those are included in the packet. And then we would move this to full council. And then it would be effective upon passage. And then we can move into questions. Thank you, Jennifer. Do we have any questions? Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Council Member Plumman, for working on this initiative. And, Jennifer, thank you for your help as well. I'm in total support of this. I just wanted to make a comment because we've said a few times in the presentation that we are saving time in our meetings. And I don't want the public to think that we're trying to get out of meetings. I think it's really important for us to understand and the public to understand that we are trying to make our meetings more efficient and more productive for the community as a whole. We're not trying to skirt our responsibilities or anything like that. We just want to be more engaged in the process. And I think this is really beneficial for that process. So thank you so much for your work. Thanks, Chair. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Chair, and thank you for your work on this. I know it was a lot. And I'm supportive as well. I just wanted to clarify something. So for, like, the fixed price bids, they're going to be in the mayor's report, correct? And then we'll see. We'll still see the details. Yes, it's going to be like the price contract bids where it says, you know, company A is awarded this service for this budget or for this division. All that information is going to – it's basically the resolution language, but it's in that marriage report. And then all of the supporting documentation like the actual bid, the bid submittal, all that stuff is in Legistar. it's searchable by the public as well as internally. So all that same information is there. It's there, but that information will no longer be in the packet, like in the back explaining more detail in the packet. We would go into legislation. With a bid recommendation, the bid itself is in there, but that's the only supporting document. There's no other information. So let's say something comes across our way and it's a fixed bid, but we have a concern about the company that has the bid. So we can still bring that up and ask questions in work session about it and possibly make a change even though it's a part of the report. Are we allowed? Would we be allowed to do that? Yes, you can ask the questions at any point in that process, the same as you would if it were going to be a resolution. Okay. I guess my only concern is just our ability to interact with information and make changes. If we're able to do that, that's great, even though it would be taking away some of the information readily at hand. But I just don't want us to get to a point where we're kind of just rubber stamping things and it's not being transparent to the public. Right. I think primarily all of the same information is there. the major difference from the behind the scenes part is that law doesn't have to create a resolution. They spend a lot of time on that sort of information. We streamline that process to get something on the docket, and then it doesn't get two readings as opposed to just getting one rating. That's the main difference. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Council Member Plowman, for all your work on this and Jennifer and the rest of the team. My first question is about the amendment to Section 7-45, the Code of Ordinance. Is the reason that we can change it to a budget adjustment as opposed to a budget amendment is because the way our rules address capital project funding, it's all internal to divisions and departments in the city? Is that why we have the flexibility to turn it to a budget adjustment as opposed to an amendment? Sorry, I wasn't expecting to speak to this committee today. Actually, the major effort in changing the budget amendments to budget adjustments came with the availability for departments to be able to move within their areas. So if you remember when we set that, and that was actually the last version of this, it allowed for flexibility between operational line items. So if you wanted to move from supplies to professional services or within the personnel category. So we really tried to take a look at the things that council was really intently focused on. So obviously we don't want the divisions to be able to move between personnel to operating, for example. But we do want them to be able to manage their operations and move funds within certain categories. And I think that was really the goal of that first version between the budget amendments and the budget adjustments. Okay. So I'm going to take that as a yes. That's why we can do that. It's because all that money is moving internally. Correct. Okay. Right, within division. So we were able to go back and change our rules around the council capital project funding and allow for us to fund outside agencies, projects, and capital projects. That wouldn't be the case with that. We wouldn't be able to do it as a budget adjustment then. It would have to be a budget amendment. The capital council projects are under Ural's rules, under the council's rules. They don't actually, they're not the rules that we've set. So when you all went back and redid your regulations for yourselves, that's when those were set. So I don't know if you all determined if you could do those council capital projects with budget adjustments or budget amendments. That wasn't within the purview of that project. Okay. And then I have another question. This is mainly for Todd, and this kind of leaks into the next presentation that we're going to have. Can you just kind of generally walk me through a fixed price bid or a sole source vendor? What do they have to do to get that status with LFUCG? So the item that we're talking about moving to the mayor's report, the fixed price bid that's a unilateral contract with no other agreement, that's still a competitive bid that we would process through our office. We post it on IonWave. People can submit a price, and then it's typically going to be low bid wins that is providing a qualified product. That process doesn't change. The sole source, the unilateral, that doesn't require a separate agreement, there's no external. Other than divisions seeking out people that could possibly do a service or provide equipment, There's no competitive process for that, hence that's why it's a sole source. Those are typically going to be things like, for example, one that comes to mind is like at the material recycling center. We have lots of equipment that is basically custom equipment for that operation. And to buy a custom conveyor belt for that loader, you have to go back to the manufacturer. Something like that is going to be considered a sole source. They're the only people that will sell it. We don't know if we're going to buy one of them or ten of them this year. So it's a budgeted number. The amount we can spend is based upon whatever the budget was for that type of equipment for the division. But there's no separate agreement. We're just going to send them a PO, if that makes sense. Yeah, it does. And I'll say this. I had some of the same concerns that Council Member Reynolds had shared about the information and transparency. But from what I see today, it seems like all the information will still be there. It'll just be less routine, so to speak. So I think we still would have the opportunity to weigh in, ask questions, and make adjustments if needed. So I feel more comfortable with the recommendations this time around. So thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Savigny. Thank you, Chair. My question, and thank you for the hard work on this, Council Member Blumman. My experience, I guess, with consent agendas is typically there's a whole list of items all together and you just say you approve or you disapprove. It's kind of a, it does, it is a time saver, but on the way that you're recommending us implement something like this, let's say that I have an issue with a particular vendor PO, okay, or sole source or a certain budget amendment or change that would be in this consent thing. Do I just point out that one? How am I going to remove something and get a discussion made on it? That's the important thing to me. I don't know if I want to do the whole thing. It would be similar to what you all would do if you had an appointment that you didn't like on the mayor's report. You would just make a motion to remove that particular item from the consent agenda. and then you'd have to decide what to do with it whether you're going to put it in a committee whether you want to put it back on at some point in time but you can just discreetly move to remove the one particular item okay so you can move to remove it but you can also you can just say I want to remove it from consent agenda because I want to have a discussion about it right that's right thank you that's all I had thank you chair thank you vice mayor Wu thank you chair thank you council member Plumman and Ms. Sutton for all the work you all did on this. I'm definitely in support of these changes because I think they're very well thought out. And what it does is it increases our efficiency without putting a negative dent into transparency or flexibility. And I think we've discovered that from some of our questions. So thank you all for your work. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Any others for discussion? Thank you. I also support these changes. I think the only thing that I had, well, first I'll say one, when it comes to information and transparency, I think all the information will be publicly available to us and the public at all times. And I think when you look at the type of information that we're placing here, these are the type of things that with labor as process, we approve 99.9% of to start with. So I think this is good to make us more efficient. But like what Mr. Barbary said and what some of us have seen up here, with the mayor's report and communications from the mayor, we have pulled things out of those from time to time. And so it's a very simple process. And that's how I'm generally familiar with consent agendas, with clients of mine, their boards, the way they operate, where the consent agenda, it is what it is. But if someone would like more discussion, they, at the beginning of the meeting, say, I'd like to take that out. Also, procedurally, we could separate the question to have a specific vote on that particular issue. The only thing I have is it looked like even though we were condensing, there were still like three or four separate potential votes. And if we really were to do it as a true consent agenda, all of that should really just be one vote. That communications from the mayor shouldn't need then subparts. And I don't know if you want to speak to that, Jennifer. if anybody from law or kind of how we ended up with those various different subparts. If we're trying to be efficient, I'd rather be more efficient. Well, I think we struggled with whether it was a better practice to do all of those individually or not because there are separate categories. But I don't know that legally it makes that much of a difference. like you're talking about I think you'd always probably vote on donations separately from you know from the procurement stuff I think where it gets more convoluted is right now we're suggesting that you all would vote separately on each one of the separate procurement items but I think that's up to you all whether you really want to do it that way or not Thank you Well I'm comfortable with the way that's being presented to the committee I just think it's worth consideration either as we go through this process or through the future to consolidate even further, but I'm comfortable where we are. Council Member Plowman. Yes, if there's no more questions, any more questions? I was just going to add that, again, the goal was to save more time, and we can probably think of other more effective things to do with our times. And also, I think we're not going to have multiple readings on these items. Also, the folks that have to attend these meetings because of certain items will not have to come to these meetings or they can choose not to. So when you look at the whole city as a whole, we all will save time. So that was the intent. And then, Chair, also I was going to mention that we can tweak this at any time. And there probably are other things we think of as we move forward that we can add to this. So what I would like to do is make two motions. The first one has to be approving the resolution in two ordinances. So I move to approve the resolution in two ordinances pertaining to the consent agenda is presented today. So moved. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. That motion carries. My second motion is I move to report this item out at the April 23rd work session. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion or questions? Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Chair. And Council Member Plowman, is there any reason why you want to report it out early instead of letting it take its process? I just still have a few questions, but I'm comfortable with it moving forward at its regular pace. I think that was Mr. Barber. Didn't you recommend that? Did you recommend that, I believe, when we got to the end? No, ma'am. I just had a concern if it got reported out today. I think the original suggestion to us was report it out today and do it at today's work session, and that seemed a little tight. So I just suggested if you wanted to report it out early, why don't we do it next week because you don't have a council meeting this week anyway. But I don't think it matters to the law department whether it runs its normal course or not. So we could do it today. Yeah, I'm probably going to vote no to reporting it out early. I'd just rather let it take its course, natural course of action. So thank you. Thank you, Chair. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you. I am also not in favor of it reporting it out early. I still have some questions and would like it to run its normal course. So I'll have to vote no on that. Thank you. Council Member Lagree. Chair, I concur. I'd prefer if we just did it along the typical timeline with the report out. Thank you. Okay, I could amend my motion to go ahead and to have this report out as we normally do. Just normally? So then would you just want to withdraw the motion to report out early? Councilman Ellinger, does the second or do you agree with the withdrawal? Okay, then we'll just have that reported out in the normal course then if there's no exigent circumstance. All right. Correct, she withdrew the motion. Thank you. That concludes our work on the consent agenda. That passed out of committee and will be reported out in May. Next up is the disparity study update. Council Member Ellinger, this is your item in committee if you'd like to lead us in. Thank you, Chair. I'll keep it short. We've been working on this a long time and I'm glad to see that we've made lots of progress here and look forward to the presentation. Thank you, Ms. Miller. Good afternoon, everyone. BBC Research and Consulting recommended the nine remedies on this slide to address the disparity and barriers found in the disparity study report. On my left you have the race and gender neutral measures, which includes all small businesses regardless of their race and gender status. On my far right, you have the race and gender conscious measures, which is solely based on race and gender. As you can see, there are three of these measures that have been accomplished, which has the green check marks, and you have four of which have the light green that are currently in progress, along with two of the measures that are currently under construction. The prompt payment policy has been accomplished. We have established prompt payment processes to ensure that subcontractors are paid timely. As a result of this, the subcontractors will be paid on time and will ensure cash flow for minority and women-owned businesses and help to minimize that particular barrier. Some of the actions that were taken, procurement, we have modified the payment terms on construction and professional services contracts from net 30 days to 15 days. We also changed the prompt payment feature in the Diverse Business Management System, which is also known as B2G Now, from 30 to 15 days as well on the audit reporting. In addition to that, there was over 150 payment notifications that were sent out in the B2G Now system, and it was completed by March the 1st. Advertising and outreach expansion is accomplished. However, outreach is always ongoing through the minority business enterprise program. We market these programs to area business community through the existing partnership with the Kentucky Apex Accelerator, which is formerly known as the Kentucky Procurement Technical Assistance Center. As a result of this, marketing these programs engaged the community, but also helps us reach our spend goals and foster more relationships with new diverse businesses. Some of the actions taken has included expanding the six outreach events from the current year to seven events for fiscal year 24-25. Also in this year's webinar and event series, I included Amy Glasscock, who is the director of business engagement, to talk about LFUCG's economic workforce development grant. And that was the highest webinar attended for the first quarter of 2024. We have also created a stakeholder committee group, which consists of area business leaders to provide feedback on expansion of the enterprise program. And we continue to be involved in the community, also receiving quarterly updates from the Minority Business Accelerator 2, which is known as the Reflex Lex program, in addition to being a sponsor or community partner for the 2024 Turner Construction Diversity Accelerator Program. Small contract opportunities is currently in progress. The goal is to advertise more small contract opportunities by increasing the visibility of procurements worth less than $10,000 in order to include all small businesses and minority and women-owned businesses. As a result of this, this will create more opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses. Some of the actions taken has included, we have seen a demo of Equity Solutions Group online portal to help diversify our ProCard spend. In addition to that, we have developed inclusivity language for a three-quote process for procurements less than $40,000 to ask for at least one quote from small businesses, which includes minority and women-owned businesses. And the certified list that is maintained for diverse businesses is now on the Enterprise Program's LexLink page. Bundling large contracts is currently in progress. The goal is to make more LFECG contracts more accessible to minority and women-owned businesses. As a result of this, they can compete as small contractors as far as other than competing for larger projects due to bonding capacity. Some of the actions we have taken includes establishing a group of procurement influencers, 15 staff, representing eight different departments or divisions to assist us with the implementation. There was focus group meetings held on beginning January the 18th and they ended February the 1st. There was six focus groups meetings that were held. And I have obtained a list of construction projects from the Division of Parks and Recs for additional outreach and expansion for fiscal year 2425. As a result of that, I will host the very first outreach event for Parks and Rec's construction unit price contract next Wednesday on April the 24th. We will continue to unbundle large contracts. For example, we are looking at the audit of financial statements request for proposals in order to unbundle that particular project. Supported services for the enterprise program is currently in progress. The result of this, providing more services will enhance the effectiveness of the Enterprise Program and address the barriers related to financing, bonding, and technical skills for minority and women-owned businesses. We have requested funds in the fiscal year 25 budget to hire new staff. We will continue the existing partnership with the Kentucky Apex Accelerator. In the Division of Procurement, we will issue a request for information in order to explore the expansion of the current bid bond assistance program that we currently offer to certified minority and women-owned businesses in order to assist with their bonding capacity. Data collection and monitoring is also in progress. We are in the process of collecting comprehensive data in both the IonWave system and the B2GNOW system. As a result of this, we can identify both non-certified businesses and certified businesses who have contracts with us. And those who are not certified, we can help them get those socioeconomic certifications that are needed. Some of the actions taken, procurement, we have revised our current participation forms for bids, proposals, and our solicitation documents. And we now capture all subcontractor data, regardless if a minority business is certified or if they are not certified. The Small Local Business Enterprise Program is currently under construction. The overall goal is to consider reserving certain small contracts exclusively for small local businesses bidding on or to bid as prime contractors. The result will create a more competitive edge for small local businesses as opposed to them competing with other large businesses. Some of the actions taken, we have discussed an SOBE program or shelter bidding program with the consultant project team. So the next step regarding this particular program would be to establish program criteria, draft policies and procedures, develop an SOBE list, hire additional staff in order to implement this program. The SOBE program is a separate program from the existing Minority Business Enterprise program. Minority Business Enterprise expansion is currently in progress. The overall result for this is to have more accurate and timely reporting in order to improve the program efficiency, our goals, and our focus. So some of the actions taken, we have, as I stated before, requested additional funding in the 25 budget to hire additional staff. but we are also actively seeking efficiencies internally to provide additional support to the program. Some of the responsibilities for the new staff person hired will include working in the diverse business management system, which is known as B2G Now. I myself currently work in this system. Some of the primary duties will include data collection, monitoring, spin tracking at both the prime and subcontractor levels. Additional duties will include administrative tasks, assisting contractors with contract compliance, audits, and the contract closeout process. Race-conscious measures. Aspirational minority women business enterprise goals have been accomplished and actually pending for approval. The recommendation from the disparity study was to establish new aspirational goals for participation of minority and women-owned businesses. The actions taken, we have developed overall aspirational goals of 17% for both minority and women-owned businesses. We developed a separate aspirational goal of 5% for minority-owned businesses and a separate aspirational goal of 12% for women-owned businesses. These goals were developed based on the disparity study report and the information found in the relevant geographical market area, known as the RGMA. And as a result of this, the resolution, 44-2017, has been revised in order to implement the changes in order to address the disparities found in the study. The overall availability, based on the five-year study period, found that LFUCG spent $460 million. 76 million, or 16.5%, was spent with both minority and women-owned businesses. White women-owned businesses were available for 11.9%, the reason why we round to 12% for the women business goal. and the ethnic minority categories total 4.6% and we rounded that goal to 5%. Some of the highlights for the revised resolution, which is enclosed in your packet today, we changed the current combined aspirational goal of 10% for minority and women-owned businesses to separate minimum sub-goals of 5% for minority-owned businesses and 12% for women-owned businesses for a total annual aspirational goal of 17%. We also expanded the goals to cover all LFUCG purchases as opposed to just construction and professional services. There's language for race-conscious measures, such as contract-specific goals and price evaluation preferences. There's also a sunset provision of five years that will require re-evaluation of the program, adjustment of the aspirational goals based on market conditions, and the availability of minority and women-owned businesses, and some goal-setting factors for us to do that. The request today would be for the resolution to be moved to the docket for field council approval. Race-conscious measures. The recommendation was for LFUCG to implement price and evaluation preferences and award points or price preferences based on commitments to minority and women-owned businesses if they bid as a prime contractor, also have subcontractors or joint ventures on those particular procurements. This will create more opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses. some of the actions that have been taken. We will include language for price evaluation preferences in the resolution draft. We have reviewed and developed language for price evaluation preferences on bids and proposals. So the next step would be to pilot these program measures for implementation on relevant contracts and procurements. Implementation next step. Upon council approval of the revised resolution, we will release new procurement bid and proposal templates, minority business enterprise program documents, and webpage updates. The procurement documents will also be translated in other languages. Between April and May, the stakeholder committee and community engagement meetings will continue to take place to have already been held on March 27th and on April 8th. Also between April and May, we will issue the RFI for the bonding assistance program to obtain more information about that. And between May and June, we will start development on the small local business enterprise program and or the sheltered bidding program in addition to other measures to pilot on relevant contracts and procurements. So here is an overview of the project consultant team. Our prime consultant is BB Research and Consulting. They are out of Denver, Colorado. They were the prime consultant who conducted the disparity study. We have three certified minority and women-owned businesses on the project team, which includes EHI consultants. Mr. Ed Holmes, he's present with us today to do community and stakeholder engagement. engagement. We have Rosales Business Partners out of San Francisco, California for program policy development. She's a certified minority women-owned company. Along with Meriwether and Williams from San Francisco, California, she will assist with the bonding assistance program. She too is a certified minority women-owned business. Our overall implementation team not only includes the prime consultant and the sub consultants as well, but LFUCG staff, the division of procurement, myself with the minority business enterprise program, and our procurement team influencers, the 15 LFUCG staff. You can see the divisions and departments that they represented that assisted with this process along with the stakeholder committee group. Which brings me to questions. All right, Councilmember, please log in. Thank you, Ms. Miller. Councilmember Lynch. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Ms. Miller, for the presentation. I just have a few questions regarding your presentation and the recommendations. After reviewing BBC's reports, I was very pleased to see that you decided to adopt several of their recommendations to take action on because I thought several of them were very, very good. My first question is about the advertising and outreach expansion recommendation. And you said you have convened a stakeholder committee group consisting of area business leaders. And I just wanted to know just some more information about them, how long they've been meeting, and have they brought any preliminary topics to light, the things we could work on to do better at? Yes. So there have been three meetings to date, and there are internal staff from LFUCG along with Commerce Lexington, and there were three businesses that participated in the first round of stakeholder committee meetings, and then there's going to be some more committee meetings with the business owners for the month of May. So those are currently ongoing. And as far as information or preliminary information being shared, they have given information or their feedback on the small local business enterprise program and the shelter bidding program. And Mr. Ed Holmes, he actually facilitates those stakeholder committee group meetings for us. I definitely look forward to seeing what comes out from that stakeholder group and suggestions they'll have as far as us implementing some new things to make sure that we're doing things equitably for everybody. My next question is about something that BBC highlighted about the Minority Business Enterprise Program. They said in their report that the Minority Business Enterprise Program primarily comprises race and gender-neutral measures, and study results indicate that those measures have not sufficiently addressed disparities for all groups. So with the recommendations you have proposed, how will the race-gender-conscious measures fill the gap and meet the need? So the race conscious measures, like the price, if we decide to implement the price evaluation preferences and the points, that would help fill the gap. But please understand that the race and gender neutral measures is the foundation of any program that you implement. So once we implement the race-conscious measures, including those price evaluation preferences, we will also have the race and gender mutual measures as well. So you see them working together? Yes. They have to work together to support those race-conscious measures. Okay. That held me out a lot because I was trying to figure out if they were just going to be separate. It made sense for them to get together, so I just wanted to clarify. Yes, they absolutely work together. Okay. My next question is about a suggestion BBC made about looking at the subcontractors that primary contractors use. And having been here for about a year or so and having a look at many RFPs at this point, people tend to go with who they know. And so I thought BBC and one of their suggestions is that encouraging primary contractors to utilize new businesses, new subcontractors when they're putting forth their bids and then giving them points for evaluation points for that for using new businesses. So will that be incorporated in anywhere in the recommendations? I didn't see that specifically, so I just wanted to ask if that was going to be included. Yes, that would be included under the price evaluation preferences along with the small contract opportunities as well. So as long as they partner or form a joint venture with a new subcontractor, those evaluation points or preferences would be given. Okay. Yes. And we're working on developing that particular language for that. That's awesome. I love that. And I noticed that you all are recommending prompter payments, which is great. And BBC recommended keeping track of those payments for all the subcontractors. Will you all keep that data and utilize that data historically and for the future? Yes. Okay. Yes, that data is tracked in the B2G Now system. Okay. It is. Awesome. And then, I don't know what my time's like. Okay. I'll finish up with this last question. BBC also suggested when you're talking with your primary contractors, bringing in the subcontractors so that they know what the contract is and they have a stake in the game in that involvement in that piece. And since we have a lot of minority contractors that are in the subcontractor space for us, I think letting them have a seat at the table with the primary contractor, I think that was a great suggestion. So are we going to implement that and do that too? Yes, we will. So they'll be invited to those meetings with the primary contractors as things are negotiated? Yes. So currently, well, in February, I hosted the annual Construction Connection event. That is an event where all prime contractors and all minority women-owned businesses, they come together. They learn about the city's upcoming construction projects, and they get to meet the project managers in attendance as well. So that's a networking opportunity for them to meet the prime contractors, network with the minority and women-owned businesses to create those partnerships so they can partner on those upcoming projects. That's great. Thank you so much, and thank you, Chair. You're welcome. Thank you, and we'll try to get through as much as we can. I just ask council members to be as succinct as possible given our time constraints here. We need to shut down in about 15 minutes, tops. But let's get through as much as we can. Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for this work and anything we can do to fill these gaps in the disparity, I think we would support here. Going to page 12 in the presentation, that big pie chart, is this the primary way that we measure our success? Are there other metrics by which we can measure whether or not these changes we're doing will positively impact the disparity? I'm sorry, can you repeat your question? Sure. Is this chart, these numbers and these percentages and these dollar signs, is this the primary way we use to measure whether or not these changes are successful, or do we have other metrics? This would be the primary way. However, we can look at the number of minority and women-owned businesses that register in our Ion Wave system. I do approve those profiles on a daily basis as they come in. And I also maintain the certified list of minority and women-owned businesses who are interested in doing business with us. So we can measure all of it together. But all of that will help reach those goals that we have. Thank you. Mr. Slayton, were you trying to add something? I did want to just add that there are cases where people come through our programs as far as how to do business with the city. They may go through the contractor training programs that we put on. And then they never do any business with the city. That we're not really measuring because we're not tracking those numbers. But it's still a success. You know, it's fine with me if they get some help from us as far as how to bid, how to do government work, and then they go do all their work at UK. It's helping from an economic development standpoint. So that's something we know happens, and we have success stories about that, but there's really no way to track it from a – the dollar tracking seems to make the most sense. Gotcha. Thank you. In the proposed resolution, I want to know a little bit more about this five-year sunset clause. If it's mainly a measure for us to be able to revisit and assess this program regularly and see if it's working, is there a way we can do that to revisit and assess regularly without putting a sunset clause in? So in the revised resolution, there is language for myself and my director, Mr. Slayton, to do an annual review of the goals. So if we have exceeded, say, for example, that 5% minimum goal, we will increase it. But we will notify the council within 60 days before we increase that goal. Okay. Okay. So I guess my question is why a sunset provision at all? Typically when disparity studies are conducted, the anecdotal data is collected within a certain time frame, and that data becomes stale after five years. So the disparity study data was collected fall of 2021. So the data that we have from the study will become stale within five years. So that's the reason for the sunset provision. Okay, so does this five years kick in from the last study or kick in from passage of this resolution? The five years will kick in from the date the resolution is approved. Okay, thank you for that. And my last question, and we've had these conversations way back when we talked about all of these issues. Are there challenges that these particular measures don't address? And one of the things we talked about was just the very small number of minority-owned businesses, particularly minority women-owned businesses. And those are not necessarily things that we may even be able to impact. But do you feel like there are other challenges that these measures don't quite tackle? Based on the data found in the report, some of the challenges include access to capital, financing opportunities, bonding capacity for minority and women-owned businesses. When it comes to ethnic minority women doing business with the city, we do have those that are certified, but we spend the most of our money in construction. and there's not a lot of minority females in the construction industry. Well, thank you for all your work on this. Thank you, Chair. You're welcome. Thank you, Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Ms. Miller, for all the work you've put in on this and all the outreach that you've been doing in the community as well. I guess I'll start with I'm not a stats person, so help me understand. Why would the goal be 5% and 12% when that is so close to the data instead of a little bit higher, like we're here and we want to get here? Based on the disparity study report finding, this is the overall availability based on the dollars spent in that five-year period. So we spent $460 million during that five-year period, and $76 million was spent with minority and women-owned businesses, which is 16.5% that is available to do business with us. So we have to set the goals based on the disparity study data that was found in the study. So you base your future goal on basically being almost the same as what the past? what you reached in the past? Within that five-year time frame. That's the minimum. Now, if we do the annual review and we see that we have exceeded, say, for example, the 12% women on goal, we can increase that. And we put that language in the revised resolution. I was going to add, that's the total available businesses out there. We spent less than that. And our goal was that we spend 10% of our annual dollars with minority and women-owned business. We were getting anywhere from 7% to 11% over that five-year study period. And so the recommendation is, based on the availability of businesses that they surveyed and found, you should be able to spend 16.5% of your dollars with minority and women-owned businesses. That's what it is. That is helpful. Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't quite catch that. Real quick, with all of this that you have gained, all of this knowledge, how are you going to specifically do outreach to minorities and Hispanic-owned businesses? That is a great question. All businesses are invited to participate in all events that I have. As I stated before, our bid and proposal documents will be translated in other languages. I will work with Isabel Taylor with Global Lex to help do more outreach when it comes to the webinars and events. That would be great. I would really appreciate that. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council Member for Savigny, quick as you can. Thank you, Chair. Quickly, what's the big difference between the small and local business enterprise and the small contract opportunities? because they kind of seem the same to me. It's on page five and nine. So the small contract opportunities, we will advertise more of these opportunities that are $10,000 or less. This really is centered around our ProCard spend. We're looking for more ways to diversify the ProCard spend as to where the small local business enterprise program, we would actually reserve certain contracts of a contract dollar size less than the $40,000 and include inclusivity language for small and minority women-owned businesses. Yeah. Or go to the sheltered bidding market program. That's great. Because I do think that's, and I'm glad it's under construction, because I do think that that's a great, it's a great way to basically say a small business is going to get something similar, similar to the federal government with small business set aside. And then a real quick one. Have you thought of doing, if you have to do bids, have you thought about doing things that are more like reverse bids and encouraging minority vendors to participate? and then you can, you know, it's just a way, because a lot of times a minority vendor or really any vendor doesn't know exactly how to respond. So I'm just curious. It's kind of, it's an education experience doing this. I hated them when I was on the other side, but. Oh yeah, we have done reverse auctions for salt. That was actually a very productive bid. Several years ago, we've done reverse auctions for, there was a landfill when we closed part of our construction and demolition debris landfill out on Haley Pike many years ago. We did a reverse auction for the material that they used to cover it, and that was successful too. The reverse auctions, there are some restrictions by the mild procurement code that you have to do them. You can't do them for construction, but you can do them for actual physical items. I demand commodities. Thank you. I'm going to yield my time back to the chair. Thank you so much for at least recognizing me. Thank you. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Ms. Miller, for your work on this. I know it's been a focus for a lot of folks on council. And I was impressed by the presentation we met last week. I wasn't in favor of spending additional money on consultants, but with a more targeted and focused effort. But in this presentation, I can tell that a lot of work has been done. The wording in the resolution about authorizing you and the director to increase the goals, I think, is the appropriate thing. If there was a conversation about decreasing the goals, I think it ought to come back to us. But I think authorizing you all to increase the goals on an annual basis is appropriate. So with that, if there's no other comments, I'd make a motion to move forward to the full council, the amended resolution. So moved. Second. There's a motion and a second to report or to move this resolution on to the full council. Is there any discussion on the motion? Any questions? Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, thank you. And in the next month while we work through this, any questions for Ms. Miller or getting into the details of some of the things that she wants to do after this resolution is ultimately passed, I think there will be ample time to have that discussion at that time. Folks from the Rulet Management Board, I don't think we're going to be able to give your second item appropriate attention today. So we'll get you on the agenda just as soon as possible. We'll talk to you, Chair Martin and Director Overman, about potentially next month or as soon thereafter as we can. One thing that will 100% be on the agenda next month is the Urban Growth Management ZOTA. so if any council member that has an amendment to that ZOTA, would you please send that to me and Renee between now and the May 7th meeting so that we can organize those. I would like to have those organized and presented to you similar to the way the vice mayor did the goals and objectives so that we can have a better discussion when that item comes back. With that, since we didn't get through the agenda, I will need a motion to adjourn. We've got it. Can I get a second? We stand adjourned. Thank you.