# Council Work Session - May 14, 2024 > Auto-transcribed civic record · May 14, 2024 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/6114 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/6114?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2024-05-14 - **Last revised**: May 14, 2024 - **Length**: 23,861 words - **Speakers**: Mayor, Chair > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. Verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council convened on May 14, 2024, at 3:00 PM in the Council Chamber in Lexington, Kentucky, with Mayor Gorton presiding. The meeting addressed four agenda items, including public comment on agenda issues, approval of meeting summaries, new business items, and a presentation on Lextran's proposed FY2025 budget. Council members conducted seven votes during the session and heard from three members of the public during the comment period. The meeting accomplished approval of routine business items while receiving an informational presentation on the transit authority's upcoming fiscal year budget proposal. ## Attendance All members were present for the May 14, 2024 meeting. **Present:** • Mayor Gorton • Vice Mayor Wu • J. Brown • Ellinger II • Fogle • Lynch • LeGris • Monarrez • Sheehan • Gray • Worley • F. Brown • Baxter • Sevigny • Reynolds • Plomin **Absent:** None **Late:** None The meeting achieved full attendance with all 16 members participating. ## Votes and Decisions The council conducted seven votes during the May 14, 2024 meeting, with most passing by voice vote and one significant roll call vote that failed. **Routine Approvals [timestamp: 03:01]** The council approved several routine items by voice vote: • Approval of the May 9, 2024 Council Meeting Docket (motion by Ellinger II, second by Baxter) • Approval of the April 30, 2024 Work Session Summary (motion by Wu, second by Gray) • Approval of New Business (motion by Plomin, second by LeGris) • Approval of the Mayor's Report (motion by Fogle, second by Wu) • Approval of the Mayor's Report – Price Contract Bid Recommendations (motion by Gray, second by Plomin) **Pet Store Ordinance Votes [timestamp: 03:01]** The most contentious vote involved an ordinance prohibiting the sale of dogs and cats by retail pet stores. Gray motioned to table the ordinance, seconded by Fred Brown, but this motion failed in a 6-8 roll call vote. **Votes in favor of tabling:** Gray, Fred Brown, Monarrez, Sheehan, Fogle, Lynch **Votes against tabling:** Wu, J. Brown, Ellinger II, LeGris, Worley, Baxter, Sevigny, Reynolds Following the failed tabling motion, Sevigny moved to amend the ordinance to make it effective November 1, 2024, seconded by Ellinger II. This amendment passed by voice vote, allowing the ordinance to proceed with the delayed implementation date. The roll call vote on tabling demonstrated a clear division among council members, with eight members supporting moving forward with the pet store ordinance and six preferring to delay consideration of the measure. ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting addressed three significant financial authorizations totaling $213,009.35 across various municipal contracts and services. **Construction Contract Modification** The council considered authorization to execute Change Order No. 1 with Wooldridge Construction Group for $20,784.35 under resolution L0490-24. This change order represents an adjustment to an existing construction contract, though the specific project details were not provided in the available materials. **Social Services Agreement** Resolution L0495-24 sought authorization to approve an agreement with Independence Place, Inc. for $98,065. This contract represents the largest single financial commitment among the items discussed, though the specific services or programs covered by this agreement were not detailed in the extracted information. **Technology Services Contract** The council reviewed authorization under resolution L0502-24 to approve ESChat as a sole source provider for $95,160. The sole source designation indicates that ESChat was determined to be the only viable vendor capable of providing the required services, bypassing the typical competitive bidding process. These three financial actions collectively represent significant municipal expenditures spanning construction services, social services, and technology solutions. The resolutions follow the standard municipal format with L-prefixed identifiers and sequential numbering (L0490-24, L0495-24, L0502-24), indicating they were processed as part of the regular legislative agenda for the May 14, 2024 meeting. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps were not available in the provided materials for this section.* ## Public Comment Three speakers addressed the council during the public comment period, all focusing on a proposed ordinance regarding the retail sale of dogs and cats by pet stores. **Richard Gety** [timestamp: 00:01] spoke on behalf of Petland, arguing against the proposed ordinance that would prohibit the sale of dogs and cats by retail pet stores. Gety stated that Petland complies with high standards and urged the council to reconsider the ordinance. **Danette Stacy** [timestamp: 00:07] represented Most Valuable Pets and expressed strong opposition to the ordinance, warning that it would force their store to close. Stacy explained that 43% of their sales come from puppies and cats, making the business financially unviable under the proposed restrictions. She urged the council to consider their proposed alternative ordinance instead. **Dr. Lisa Warren** [timestamp: 00:13] provided a veterinary perspective in support of the ordinance. As a veterinarian, Warren cited health issues commonly found in pets sold through pet stores and emphasized the importance of regulating public pet sales as a measure to help control animal overpopulation. The public comments revealed a clear divide between business owners who would be directly impacted by the ordinance and veterinary professionals who support it from a public health and animal welfare standpoint. The business representatives focused on economic impacts and compliance with existing standards, while the veterinary advocate emphasized health and population control concerns. ## Contested Items The primary contested item during the May 14, 2024 meeting was an ordinance prohibiting the sale of dogs and cats by retail pet stores, which generated significant debate among council members and resulted in a split vote. The ordinance sparked arguments from both supporters and opponents, creating a contentious atmosphere during deliberations. The disagreement was substantial enough that council members proposed amendments to the original ordinance language in an attempt to address various concerns raised during the discussion. During the debate, a motion was made to table the ordinance, which would have delayed the vote to a future meeting. However, this motion to table failed, forcing the council to proceed with a decision on the measure. The contentious nature of this item was evident in the split vote outcome, indicating that council members were divided on whether to prohibit retail pet stores from selling dogs and cats within their jurisdiction. The debate likely centered around issues such as animal welfare concerns, impacts on local businesses, consumer choice, and regulatory authority. The failed motion to table suggests that despite the controversy surrounding the ordinance, a majority of council members felt prepared to make a decision rather than postpone the matter for further consideration or additional public input. *Note: Specific vote tallies, individual council member positions, and detailed arguments from the debate are not available in the provided meeting data. Readers seeking complete details should refer to the full meeting transcript or video recording.* ## Public Comment - Issues on Agenda [timestamp: 00:01] Multiple members of the public addressed the council regarding a proposed ordinance that would prohibit the sale of dogs and cats by retail pet stores. The public comment period featured speakers presenting arguments on both sides of the issue. Key speakers during this portion of the meeting included: • **Richard Gety** - Provided commentary on the proposed pet store ordinance • **Danette Stacy** - Addressed the council regarding the ordinance • **Lisa Warren** - Spoke about the proposed retail pet store restrictions The speakers presented various perspectives on the ordinance, with some supporting the prohibition on retail sales of dogs and cats while others opposed the proposed restrictions. The discussion centered around the implications of banning pet stores from selling these animals within the jurisdiction. This agenda item was informational in nature, allowing community members to voice their opinions and concerns about the proposed ordinance before any formal council action. The public comment period provided an opportunity for residents to influence the decision-making process by sharing their views with elected officials. No formal action was taken during this portion of the meeting, as it served as a forum for public input on the agenda item. The comments received will likely be considered by the council when they deliberate on the proposed ordinance in future proceedings. ## Approval of Summary [timestamp: 03:01] The council considered approval of the summary from their April 30, 2024 work session. Council members Wu and Gray participated in the discussion of this agenda item. The council voted to approve the summary of the April 30, 2024 work session without recorded debate or concerns raised during the meeting. The resolution was approved by the council. ## New Business [timestamp: 03:01] The council addressed several new business items during this portion of the meeting. Council members Plomin and LeGris were the primary speakers for this agenda item. The new business included various budget adjustments and contract authorizations that required council approval. While the specific details of individual items were not provided in the available materials, the discussion covered multiple matters that needed formal council action. The council ultimately approved the new business items presented during this session. The approval encompassed the various budget adjustments and contract authorizations that were brought before the council for consideration. ## Lextran FY2025 Proposed Budget Presentation [timestamp: 03:01] Fred Combs presented Lextran's proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 during this informational presentation to the meeting body. The presentation highlighted that Lextran has achieved a balanced budget for FY2025, demonstrating fiscal responsibility in the transit authority's financial planning. Combs emphasized two key strategic priorities that will be supported by the proposed budget allocation. The first major focus area is employee development, indicating Lextran's commitment to investing in its workforce through training, professional development, or other staff enhancement initiatives. This emphasis on human capital development suggests the transit authority recognizes the importance of maintaining a skilled and capable workforce to deliver quality public transportation services. The second significant component of the budget proposal involves conducting a microtransit feasibility study. This study would examine the potential for implementing microtransit services, which typically involve smaller, more flexible transit options that can serve areas or populations not well-suited to traditional fixed-route bus service. The feasibility study represents Lextran's forward-thinking approach to exploring innovative transportation solutions that could better serve the community's evolving mobility needs. As an informational presentation, no formal action was taken on the budget proposal during this meeting. The presentation served to inform the meeting participants about Lextran's financial planning and strategic priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, providing transparency about how public transit funds will be allocated and utilized. The balanced budget achievement, combined with the focus on employee development and exploration of new service delivery models through the microtransit study, demonstrates Lextran's dual commitment to fiscal responsibility and service innovation. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the May 16, 2024 Council Meeting Docket, as amended - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place on the docket for the May 16, 2024 Council Meeting a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor, on behalf of the Urban County Government, to execute Addendum 1 to the Pharmacy Service Agreement with On-Site Rx, Inc. regarding credit card processing at the City Employee Pharmacy, the cost of which depends upon the volume of credit card transactions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the May 7, 2024 Work Session Summary - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve New Business - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve an ordinance prohibiting the sale of dogs and cats by retail pet stores, as amended - **Motion** — passed (0-0): amend the ordinance prohibiting the sale of dogs and cats by retail pet stores, changing the effective date from Thirty (30) days following passage of Council to November 1, 2024 - **Motion** — failed (5-9): amend the ordinance prohibiting the sale of dogs and cats by retail pet stores by removing the second WHEREAS (paragraph 2 on page 28) - **Motion** — failed (0-0): amend the ordinance prohibiting the sale of dogs and cats by retail pet stores by removing Sec. 4-13.1 – Sale of dogs and cats in public spaces prohibited (page 31- 32) - **Motion** — failed (0-0): table the ordinance prohibiting the sale of dogs and cats - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place on the docket for the May 16, 2024 Council Meeting a resolution approving the FY2025 budget for the Downtown Lexington Management District - **Motion** — passed (0-0): schedule the required public hearing related to the FY2025 budget for the Downtown Lexington Management District at the regularly scheduled Council Meeting, June 13, 2024 - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place on the docket for the May 16, 2024 Council Meeting a resolution approving the FY2025 budget of Lextran and requesting that the Commissioner of Finance authorize the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office to disburse the funds to Lextran collected from the ad valorem tax - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the Mayor’s Report - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the Mayor’s Report – Price Contract Bid Recommendations - **Motion** — passed (0-0): adjourn at 5:39 p.m --- ## Full transcript Music Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I'd like to go ahead and call to order the May 14th, 2024 Council Work Session. And the first item on our agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. And we have quite a large number of people who wish to speak. So we'll all be patient and work through this. So the way this works is that I will call your name and then I'll also say who's following that speaker. And you can come to this podium right here. And then for the record, you'll need to repeat your name and say your council district and you'll each have three minutes. And I think we have two people who are yielding time. So first of all, I need to confirm that you are here. And I apologize for pronunciation. Cheng Hong Shi, are you here? Where are you? Okay, thank you. Are you yielding your time to Danette Stacy? Yes. All right, thank you very much. And then Bob Babbage? Yes, sir. Are you yielding your time to Richard Getty? Yes, sir. All right. Thank you. So Danette, Stacy, and Richard Getty will have six minutes. All right. Now let's go through this. So first up is Richard Getty, and you'll be followed by Danette Stacy. Richard, I'm ready for you now, and you'll have six minutes. Welcome. The microphone is movable. for everybody. For the record my name is Richard A. Getty and I represent Petland Inc. I'm here on their behalf. Good afternoon members of the council, Mayor Gorton. As I said I represent Petland as Lexington Council and I've been asked to appear on behalf of Petland to inform the council of a number of facts which we believe should be fully understood in considering this proposed ordinance. We believe there are a number of issues that should be considered before this ordinance is adopted, so I'm here to ask you to defer the adoption of this ordinance until these factors and information can be fully considered by the Council and further discussions about alternatives and other measures that might be incorporated in this ordinance can be considered and fully discussed with our client. Petland has a store in Lexington. They have other stores in Ashland and Florence. And you've seen a chart provided to you by, I believe it was the US Humane Society, which depicts puppies coming from other states that are substandards. There are a bunch of blue lines that show different states as the routes for undesirable sick or substandard breeds coming into this area or this state. That, I can tell you, does not apply to pet land. Pet land does business only with breeders with the highest standards. in order to do business with pet land breeders absolutely must have no violations of any sort for two consecutive years and pet land meticulously checks the records with respect to any potential violations of these breeders pet land follows and fully complies with all federal and state standards The federal standards are administered by the USDA, and I can tell you standing here, Petland has no violations from any state or federal agency. I think that's a factor you need to give full consideration to. Petland has previously partnered with other cities and states and is willing to do so with Lexington, so that Lexington is fully informed of all the facts, including Petland being open to the inspection of their store, their records with respect to transactions involving dealings with breeders they deal with, whose breeders have the highest standards of breeders that are available. Petland is fully in favor of protecting consumers from other entities who do not follow good consumer practices. That is not Petland. They adopt and impose the highest standards. Petland follows the best consumer practices and supports its customers with respect to any problems with a pet purchased in Petland. And if you look and see, any problems is less than 2.5% annually. The other thing I think you need to consider is many customers come to Petland seeking a typical breed. My wife and I wanted a purebred dog, a beautiful dog that we had for about 11 years until we lost it, but many want a purebred puppy. These types of puppies generally come from the highest quality breeders out of state, and the puppies that come from shelters are generally, unfortunately, mixed breeds that do not satisfy the requirements of these customers who want purebreds. Petland has been instrumental in the adoption of additional certifications and standards in several other states and has been involved in helping pass stringent standards in both Ohio and Indiana. The same tactics were used in Ohio and Indiana, and once Vetland got involved with the state regulators, standards of the highest standards were adopted. Unfortunately, the same misleading and false statements and tactics that were used in these states have unfortunately been used here before all the facts have been able to be provided to the city and state officials. In fact, Petland has been instrumental in asking that the Attorney General of Indiana and Ohio, and I believe Missouri also, have been given extra enforcement rights. For example, Petland insists that all puppies be looked at by vets, Petland insists that all puppies have health records and have previously immediately supplied all records upon request. This council has been provided with photos of mistreated animals. These are not Petland puppies. Petland has no knowledge of where the council received them or from whom they received them. They are not puppies that meet the stringent standards of Petland and should be stricken from the record with respect to my client. We believe a much more in-depth analysis of Petland's business should occur before this ordinance is adopted. Its goals need to be fully considered by the Council and Petland asks that the adoption of this ordinance be deferred in order to give the Council and its representatives and Petland's representatives sufficient time to deal cooperatively regarding some of the issues I pointed out above. Sir, your six minutes is over. All right, I'll be happy to entertain any questions that anyone has. All right, next up is Danette Stacy and you will have six minutes. Welcome. Good afternoon. my name is danette stacy and i'm a proud member of the most valuable pets family here in lexington otherwise known as mvp i'm here today to advocate for the continued operation of our pet store and to highlight the importance of well-regulated pet stores in sourcing ethically raised puppies first i'd like to address some inaccurate information and assumptions presented by Mr. Blevins in his presentation to the council on April the 9th. Mr. Blevins stated that pet stores participate in sourcing from puppy mills. I think that was a very broad statement, and I can state that we do not. Other pet stores, I can't speak to. Mr. Blevins stated that pet stores in Lexington's that don't sell dogs and cats partner with shelters and rescues. and I'm sure that's the case but we also partner with Paws for the Cause and we sell their cats the rescue cats for what we sell their cats in our store at no cost to the rescue and at no profit for the store. Mr. Blevins also stated the proposed ordinance to ban puppy sales would not close the pet stores. This is also in our case it will absolutely close our store because the sale of puppies and cats at MVP is 43 percent of our sales so it will absolutely close a store that's been in existence for 32 years and this is now a small minority immigrant owned woman owned business and we can't simply cannot compete with the big chain stores, the chain and big box stores. MVP cannot compete with feeders, tractor supply, Rural King, or any of the other large nationwide pet stores for pet supplies. Ordinances eliminating a regulated source does not harm puppy mills. It just drives them further underground. No ordinance will stop people from buying puppies. It'll just encourage backyard breeding and take away consumer choice thus driving consumers to the internet where they could get scammed by sick dogs end up getting a dog from a puppy male we actually offer a layer of protection for the consumer when they get a dog from us closing our pet store will also not stop overpopulation and shelters. Our local Humane Society has approximately 95 dogs available for adoption currently. 61% of those are pit bulls or pit bull mixes. The majority of the rest of them are large breed dogs. There's about three small dogs like what we would sell in our store. The majority of what we sell are small. Occasionally we'll have a large dog but even at that we have turned customers down and wanted buy a dog because it was a young lady the other day wanted to buy a German Shepherd for a dorm room and we said we just can't in good conscience do that. Pet stores don't sell the pit bulls, not in Kentucky. So they come from irresponsible backyard breeders and we also for every dog or cat that we sell we offer a free spay and neuter most valuable pets has been a cornerstone of our community for over 30 years providing not only pets but valuable resources education and support for responsible pet ownership we purchased MVP less than two years ago we've made a lot of improvements to the store in that time so we have a lot invested in this store our store adheres to strict standards of care for our animals ensuring help they are healthy well socialized and ready to become beloved members of their new families it's crucial to understand that not all pet stores are the same a well-regulated pet store like MVP plays a vital role in ensuring that puppies come from ethical sources we work closely with reputable breeders who prioritize the health and well-being of their animals these breeders are licensed and inspected annually and comply with regulatory bodies and follow strict peer review welfare standards by purchasing from reputable breeders we discourage the existence of puppy mills Closing our pet store would not only negatively impact our dedicated team of employees, but also the families that rely on us to find their perfect furry companions. Many of our customers have shared stories of how their pets from MVP brought joy, companionship, and therapeutic benefits to their lives. Closing our store would not only be a disservice to our community, but also a missed opportunity to promote responsible pet ownership and ethical breeding practices. Instead of shutting down stores like MVP, this council has an opportunity to focus on strengthening regulations and enforcement to ensure that all pet stores adhere to high standards of care. Before you vote on an ordinance that would close our store, I implore you to tour our store, tour our breeder facilities. Consider our proposed ordinance that was submitted to you this morning, or yesterday afternoon, i'm sorry and the positive impact that most mvp that mvp has had on our account on our community i'd like to ask you if you could state your council district for the record uh i'm sorry district four thank you thank you for your remarks thank you all right next is jamie reed followed by lisa warren welcome If you could state your name and your council district. My name is Jamie Reed. I'm represented by District 10. I am the manager of Most Valuable Pets. I myself am a very big animal advocate. I have worked with animals since I've been a wee little Todd working with my cousin at her vet clinic back in Moorhead. Animals mean a lot to me. I am a very big hobbyist in the whole environment of animals. anywhere from fish to cats, I own a hedgehog, I've had exotics, I've had dogs. My dad actually trained them for the military. I'm very well aware with the standards and practices that need to go into a quality dog. The entire reason that I decided to throw my hat into the ring and work for Most Valuable Pets is because I found out it came under new ownership by Sho, Hayes, and Rattia here. I can't say that I care too much about the previous owners of the pet shop. I don't believe they had good qualities and practices so I think that we inherited quite a nasty title when we took over. After becoming a part of the MVP family, I have asked multiple customers what they like most about the store since the new takeover. One of the most overwhelming comments I've got that it does not smell like dog doo doo in our facility anymore. That's because we try our best at Most Valuable Pets to maintain a standards and care practice that supersedes all other big box stores here in Lexington. Most Valuable Pets is probably the best pet store I have ever seen or worked for. I have worked for a couple in Dallas as well as PetSmart here in Lexington. The ability that they provide to not only the consumers of the community but to anybody that comes in in terms of information and knowledge far exceeds anything that I've ever seen from any other store. I speak on this behalf because I want this store to continue to succeed, thrive, and be a part of our community. We're one of the only local owned pet stores here in Lexington, if I understand that correctly. And I believe that anything that would shut our doors for good would be doing a disservice to our community because you would be taking away a part of our culture. I don't want everything in this city to become a big box corporation. I want to maintain some of that small town charm that America has. and through having a local owned business i believe we can accomplish that not only that but still provide the best quality of dogs that beats any other store hands down and honestly i say all this i did not come with a prepared speech today but i'm open to any questions you would have because i can open uh sorry answer openly and honestly thank you very much thank Thank you, Mayor Gordon. Our next speaker is Lisa Warren, who will be followed by Melody Zental. Welcome. Hello, my name is Dr. Lisa Warren, District 1. I am a veterinarian and have been a veterinarian for almost 25 years. So I have a lot of experience with examining pets that come from pet stores without singling out a particular pet store. on average these pets do come to me heavily vaccinated if they've come from a puppy mill situation. They can have some immune suppression issues. People have spent a lot of money on these puppies and then they have to spend even more when they come to the veterinarian just to get them to a healthy state. The other part of the ordinance that I do want to focus on is the part that is not allowing people to sell puppies in parking lots and such in the public areas. This is a significant problem in the state of Kentucky. I'm the founder of Veterinarians to the Rescue, and I have spayed and neutered almost 2,000 pets since I opened in July of last year. We have a huge problem here of people who are not spaying and neutering their pets, and the problem with these situations where they have people just giving away puppies or selling puppies that are you know just from background beaders or or accidental breeding is that they're not spaying and neutering they're not having good veterinary care and they're going back out into the community so that one puppy that one cat that one kitten is going to reproduce again and and we are trying desperately to catch up with the overpopulation of dogs and cats in Kentucky, which is out of control, and I feel this ordinance would definitely help rein that in a little bit. As far as the shelters and such, I've toured many a shelter, and yes, there are some pit bulls, but there is a wide variety of breeds. There's some wonderful rescue groups here in Kentucky for each specific breed. So I feel those needs will still be met. But this is definitely a public health concern. These are a lot of diseases that can be transmitted to humans, plus a pet concern for all of the pets of Lexington and the greater Lexington area. Once those pets are purchased and taken back into the home, their other pets are then exposed to them that haven't probably received appropriate veterinary care. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to address you today, and I'd be more than welcome to answer any questions any of you may have. Thank you very much. Next up is Melody Zental, followed by Sierra Hagedorn. Welcome. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to comment on this ordinance. My name is Melody Zental. I live in District 1. I'm president of the Kentucky Coalition for Animal Protection. We're based in Lexington, and our focus is promoting laws and policies that improve the welfare of non-human animals. Can everybody hear me? Okay. I have two points. First, I'd like to say a word about the costs, both fiscal and emotional, to the people who unknowingly buy pet mill puppies and kittens. Pet stores often charge thousands of dollars for their puppies. Thousands of dollars. Customers come in and they see that special puppy. They begin to fall in love with that puppy. They now are vulnerable to overpaying, and if they can't afford the purchase price, many stores make financing quite easy. The staff arrange loans through finance companies, some of which often charge high interest rates. In fact, in December 2022, the Iowa Attorney General announced a settlement with a company that facilitated a loan from the Iowa City location of Petland. with an interest rate close to 189%. The dog purchased died at 20 months of age. So when a puppy or kitten is sick, there are also veterinary bills, often thousands of dollars worth. This leaves the owner paying off vet bills, plus the remainder of the loan, all while grieving the loss of a family companion. My second point concerns the vulnerability of Lexington itself to the entrance of more third-party pet purveyors. Louisville has recently passed a humane pet sales ordinance, which is scheduled to go into effect later this year. If we do not pass a similar ordinance, Lexington, as the second largest market in the Commonwealth, becomes a natural draw for the establishment of more pet stores selling dogs and cats obtained from questionable breeders. And not all of them will be that all well-intentioned as MVP folks apparently are right now. In the end, it comes down to deciding what values we want to promote in Lexington. and Fayette County. It's clear that pet store sales of puppies and kittens who often come from meals or small profit-driven breeders is inherently inhumane and therefore fundamentally flawed. My question is, do we really want to encourage such businesses to establish themselves in Lexington? Thank you so much. Thank you. Next is Sierra Hagedorn followed by Diane Parrish. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. My name is Sierra Hagedorn, District 4. I am a co-founder of a local rescue here in Lexington, and I've been working very hard in rescue for the last six or seven years. A lot of veteran rescuers will tell you that after COVID-19, things got a lot worse. I have no personal agenda other than to improve conditions for animals in our state. We are currently facing a pet overpopulation crisis. These causes are numerous from economic struggles leading families to surrender their pets to housing restrictions, not allowing certain pets, irresponsible breeding, people not being able to afford the spay and neuter programs. Collectively, these have caused many families to surrender their pets, regardless of their breed. As a result, we're overflowing in our shelters. They're euthanizing dogs by the hundreds weekly. This is why my rescue formed. after serving in another rescue on the board, we realized that our shelters were suffering, along with, obviously, the animals. There are at least five volunteer-based rescues just in Lexington alone, probably some more. And allowing pet stores to sell puppies and kittens from puppy and kitten mills, and that is a high-volume commercial breeding facility that puts profit over health and welfare over animals while providing improper veterinary care and utilizing deceptive sales tactics as we've talked about the pet financing is simply adding money into deep pockets of corporate leadership while consumers and purchased pets suffer the consequences. As long as greedy breeding practices are supported, the constant overflow of animals will continue. Our rescuers personally heard several testimonies of people who have bought pet store puppies that are sick and sometimes resulting in them passing. These pets have cost Lexingtonians and their Kentucky residents astronomical amounts of money. With the way things are going, if they continue and we don't start making big changes as other states have, we're going to be in an even bigger pickle. and I think it's more important to put, as Lisa said, the values that we want forward by protecting our animals and all of Lexingtonians, not just big corporations that are profiting. We need to look and dig a little bit deeper. It's more than about money. It's about proper care and about fixing a big problem here in Lexington. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Next is Diane Parrish, followed by Nikki Gaines. Welcome. I'm Diane Parrish from Council District 5. I am president of Making a Difference Now, which is a small animal welfare nonprofit based in Lexington. And I'm here to encourage you to pass this ordinance. One, to protect your constituents, and two, to prevent Lexington from becoming a safe haven for the puppy mill to pet store cruelty pipeline. I want to share a few points with you quickly. The overpopulation, as others have said, the overpopulation of companion animals is a crisis. Shelters and rescues, almost all of them are experiencing it, and they are suffering from it. Irresponsible breeders, puppy mills, and the pet stores that support them contribute significantly to the crisis. The puppy and kitten mill to pet store pipeline is one of cruelty. Neither the puppies and kittens or the parents in puppy mills get any of the care they need. No love, no comfort, no enrichment, no vet care. The goal of these entities is to make money off these animals as quickly as possible. Animal welfare is not the concern. As a result, as Melody and others have noted, people will end up with seriously ill and seriously inbred puppies and kittens, often with dire conditions that can't be fixed. and purchased, back up purchased from the pet store that are sourced by the puppy mills. And if, as is often the case, these folks can't afford to pay for the treatment that's indicated, they may relinquish their pet to the local shelter, and this just compounds the financial cost and capacity issues that shelters are suffering with anyway. The vast majority of pet stores now operate on the humane approach of working with local rescues and shelters to promote adoption of their rescued animals. Every pet store that still operates on the old, outdated, and inhumane approach of selling cats and dogs from irresponsible breeders instead, almost all of them say they do not source from puppy mills or backyard breeders, but there is ample evidence that this is often the case. Finally and importantly, every single individual and every animal welfare organization I've spoken with is strongly in favor of this ordinance and urges you to pass it quickly. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next is Nikki Gaines followed by Todd Blevins. Welcome. Good afternoon. My name is Nikki Gaines and I'm a resident of Council District 9. Hi Whitney. I have been volunteering with animal rescue organizations for more than 20 years. And I've worked as a veterinary technician when I was in college, so I am very familiar with the horrors of puppy mills. These puppies are born in cages to mothers who are also crammed into tiny wire cages. mothers who will never leave the cage. And there, mom and puppies remain until the puppies are taken from the mother, who's left alone again in the same cage until she's needed again for breeding, and her puppies are shipped to retail stores and put into yet another tiny cage. All of this is considered acceptable by the USDA, by the way. spending 24 hours a day locked in a cage only six inches bigger than your body with only a wire floor for comfort where temperatures can be freezing or sweltering for hours to be bred repeatedly and excessively without limits and to be denied care when you're sick or injured. The USDA says that is all okay. So we've heard about compliance with USDA. That's what we mean. That's the standards. So yes, I know a lot about puppy mills now because I've been involved with animal rescue for a long time. But right now I want to take you back in time to 1988, back to the 80s. I was 11 years old. I grew up in Ashland and the only pet store around at the time was Petland. I loved going there and I had fallen in love with an adorable Pekingese puppy. I had already named her and I begged my parents to let me go see her anytime we were close to that shopping center until one day Angel finally came home with me. She was the sweetest, most precious, beautiful, loving angel of a puppy and she and I had the very best time together playing and running around. Angel kept getting urinary tract infections and ear infections and anal gland infections and then bladder cysts and then bladder stones. She had to undergo multiple surgeries because of her chronic health problems. She had to have surgery to remove the bladder stones. She had to have anal gland surgery which is as horrific as it sounds. She had to stay on a strict diet of extremely expensive prescription only. You can only get it at the veterinarian's office, canned food, she couldn't have any treats. My parents nicknamed her the million-dollar dog. Besides the significant amount of financial hurt, there were other costs too and they were even worse. My baby girl was spunky when she was healthy and I wish that she had felt good more often. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next up is Todd Blevins followed by Keith Gaines. Welcome. Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Councilmembers. I live in Richmond myself, but I am working in Lexington. And I know that I have spoken with many of you. I spoke at last month's committee meeting in Social Services and Public Safety about the Humane Pet Sales Ordinance, clearly the topic du jour tonight. And I've spoken with many of you outside of that over these past several months. But for those that don't know me, as the mayor said, my name is Todd Blevins. And I'm the Kentucky State Director for the Humane Society of the United States. I just wanted to take a moment this afternoon to address a couple of additional key points from my testimony in committee. For once, some of you may have heard as recent as tonight pushback that there has not been fair opportunity for public comment on this proposal. As a reminder, this proposal was placed into committee by Chair Reynolds in December. Leaving six months for interested parties to comment or express any concerns on it. Instead of doing that, some who have expressed opposition, such as Pet Land, the National Pet Store Chain, were spending that time at the State Capitol lobbying to pass a bill that would have removed this council's authority to pass this ordinance in the first place. Thankfully, that effort was unsuccessful. Speaking of that bill, I know that an argument has been made as recent against us tonight. The regulations alone are the answers to the myriad problems inherent in this trade that you've heard about tonight. But what's interesting about that argument is that there were essentially no regulations proposed in that state bill. The only regulations that were proposed were A, that a pet shop sourced from a USDA licensed breeder or hobby breeder. And we've heard the problems with USDA. And B, that the pet shop not sell animals less than eight weeks old. That is it, no additional breeder standards, no requirements that the animals be healthy before leaving the store, no reasonable financing terms, and so on. Moreover, the state bill would have overridden any local regulations stricter than the two I just mentioned. To quote directly from the bill, quote, no county, municipality, or any of their agencies shall adopt or enforce a rule, regulation, code, or ordinance that prohibits a retail pet shop from operating within the municipality if they comply with those two minimal requirements. I know you've received correspondence as soon as this morning, stating that those who tried to pass this preemption bill, quote, respect local control, but as the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. In closing, the balance of support and opposition on this measure has been and continues to be extremely lopsided. The only known opposition to this proposal has been the two pet stores you've heard from tonight and perhaps a handful of community members, while 80 local and state animal welfare organizations, including 35 other pet related businesses in Lexington, support it. A letter with those names has been included in your packet. your packet. Again, thank you for your time. Yes. And our final speaker at this time is Keith Gaines. Welcome. My name is Keith Gaines, Council District 9, and my wife Nikki just came up here and spoke. I'm here on behalf of my two dogs. They sent me because they need somebody to speak for them. They're both rescues. They're healthy, they're lovely, and they weren't purchased for expensive prices. They're not purebred. I'm sure that around there is enough places that you can go to a rescue that does more of a purebreed type dog. So to me that's kind of a nil thing. The other thing that was kind of pointed on once again is the USDA. take a look at what their regulations and bare minimum standards are because everybody keeps talking about USDA standards and following by these standards. But take a hard look at what the standards are. I mean, I used to work in a jail. I know what the feeling is like because I was confined too. Not a pleasant place. We don't like to go to jail, but that's what these dogs are living in. It's just, I mean, it's really inhumane. And we're focusing a little bit on the sale of the puppies, but it's, to me, yeah, we're getting some good healthy puppies maybe. But what about the breeding part of it? The part that you don't see? That's where I think the dirty work is. And yeah, we can say that they conform to FDA standards, that they are vetted and that they're checked. look at what you're checking. Look at what the conditions are that are okay. And I think that's one of the messages that we need to take is it's not okay to put dogs in these conditions and then have them breed just to put puppies out. We have plenty of rescues. We have plenty of other places that you can acquire animals from. And I feel like that's a much better type of situation for Lexington. We need to take a little bit of vicarious liability for what we want with our animals. Not just our animals, but for all animals. It's one of those things that, you know, it's okay for some people legally. If you're untrainable, boom. That's okay. But look at the outcry from everybody that did that. Fortunately, that wasn't something that, you know, my parents had the option when I was little because i was probably considered untrainable for a while for the police department i was a police officer they probably would have i don't know some of the guys back here could probably say i was untrainable so anyway the bottom line is we need to try to set an example for everybody i feel like lexington is the place to do it and we can start doing it now thank you thank you very much that's our final speaker for now and I appreciate all of you who spoke thank you and that leads us to approval of our docket thank you vice mayor moves councilmember Plumman seconds are there questions or additions to the docket all right all those in favor please say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes and we have a table of motions from the may 7th 2024 council work session do I hear motion council member Ellinger and then council member gray seconds are there any questions comments all those in favor say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes we have no budget amendments today and council members we do have budget adjustments for your information only and then that leads us to new business and i'll entertain a motion council member pluman moved and did you do the second vice mayor wu seconded and if you have questions please log in council member baxter thank you mayor i have a question or i guess some clarification on item i i'm just wondering if director burton could help clarify the exact location of this bridge this will be kind of in between the existing waste treatment facility and the old dump Okay. So it will bridge over, it will go underneath, the trail will go underneath New Circle Road next to the railroad and then kind of make a hard right and go over the railroad, over Town Branch and land at the top of the existing or the former landfill. Okay. And it is, it'll be pedestrian and bike? Yes, it'll be a shared use path. It's a shared use path. Okay. Go ahead, thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Lynch. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner Forad, I have a question about item G, the leasing of the space of the Black and Williams Community Center. Welcome, Commissioner. Thank you, Commissioner. My question is, I know we have proposed an amount for the lease agreement with the United Way for one year. Do we know what that rental price will be? Should they take the option to do it in year two or year three? Will the amount stay the same? Will it go down? Will it go up? I'm just curious. Yes, council member, I have that information. It is the same amount for all three years of the lease. It's an annual total of just over $8,000. Okay, awesome. Thank you so much, commissioner. Thank you, mayor. Okay, thank you, council member Fogle. Yes, I have a question for item E, as in everlasting. That's Jeff Herron. Welcome. Good afternoon. Hey, Jeff. So I think it was really more of you coming to the podium and thanking you more than a question about it, but can you just go into just a little bit of detail for other folks that may have questions or don't really understand what? Yeah, so this program and funding would be for an intensive case management program. It is targeted at persons that would have complex mental and physical health care needs. Essentially what we find is that we have a need for permanent supportive housing in our community, and we don't have enough of it presently. So what that means is that persons unfortunately oftentimes face significant wait times to get a housing resource, and so this would be a measure that would help to provide some additional case management supports to persons that are experiencing homelessness with those complex needs. while they might not immediately have a referral to housing. So that does a few things. It helps to connect them with the needed services during the time that they're experiencing homelessness. It potentially would have the result of lowering their acuity of need by making sure that they have the right support. Sometimes it's just getting people medication that they don't have access to or service that they might need. But also potentially reducing the length of time that individuals experience homelessness. With these case management supports, we could find additional pathways to permanent housing. For example, we might have things available like vouchers that don't come with included case management. This could be paired with that to help facilitate faster placement, as well as doing things like connect people with SOAR to access SSI, SSDI benefits, and other mainstream benefits. Thank you. And so council, I just wanted you all to hear because there's a lot of gaps that pertains to homelessness. And most folks just put it in one basket and think when we're talking about homelessness, it's just this one entity. And so I just wanted you and thank you for the efforts that you do for the community and the housing stabilization. So thank you. Thank you. Also, Mayor, I needed some help with ALF, as in fogel and i might be missing something as you're coming to the podium um it says when i'm looking at it says that um the product allows a radio over the internet protocol Can you help us with that? It's a secure communication platform that allows our investigators to use their cell phones. Typically it can go through our radio system, but it's allow us to communicate with our federal partners. Okay, and dealing with open records, when there's a dispute, will the public have access to your private phones in the cell phones? That's a good question. I thought it was. So this is not a recorded, so it's just basically a two way push to talk radio system. That poses a problem for me. I don't know about the other council members because if we can't track and approve a complaint from our constituents, then what happens? We're supposed to just take your word for it? Well, some of our radio communications now is not recorded. I know that's been a problem. So how do we fix that? And I think it's 95,000? Yes, this is going to be funded through a grant. Well, if you don't have the answer and I don't know how to report that to our constituents, I'm pretty sure we'll work something through. But when complaints come in and we spend so much money for advocates to help the community with maybe complaints against treatment of officers. But if we can't track it, then I guess we'll turn to law and see what happens but thank you for everything you do now yes ma'am i can check on that for you i'm not sure if this platform records like our other channels do but the primary channels that they'll be able to use uh integrated with our current radio system that would be recorded thank you sir yes ma'am thank you council member savigny thank you mayor um my question is for director burton on item m as in man this is a great project for district 10. director burton this does look like a really cool project it looks like um just could you explain it it looks like it's not this coming fiscal year but next fiscal year right so this is the grant application for two projects Lane Allen Sidewalk Connectivity that's partially funded through our SLX program but this would allow us to use that SLX funding elsewhere also the Harrisburg Shared Use Path project is was funded the design was funded by ARPA but it does not currently have future funding so that allow us to hopefully through this grant to make that connection basically from the area just inside outside new server all the way out to near the county line This funding would only get us about halfway there because this will get us basically to man-of-war but but if we can get it started obviously it's easier to get it finished. Great I mean that's I think I'm excited about it and I look forward to the project. I'm sorry it's not making it all the way out into District 9 but District 10 surely appreciates it but I know the plan is there for it so thank you very much. Thank you Mayor. Thank you. Now Council Member Ellinger, we're on a roll here. Thank you, Mayor. C as in Charles, or Chuck for short, I guess. Oh my gosh, Director Conrad. Thank you, Director. It looks like any time you have something good, you sometimes have issues with it. And it says that we have the funds are budgeted. budgeted so when we looked at the barge we had a couple issues with it and we'll be okay with funding we'll be okay with funding um you're exactly right the barge had a tank that did have some sort of fuel in it so we know that we need to dispose of that properly we still have funding from the allocation last year so we'll be proceeding with the change order the demolition company will take care of that and make sure that it's disposed of properly. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Does anyone else have anything for new business? All right. All those in favor of approval, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That passes. Now, I'd like to ask you, Council, if you would please go back to the docket. Council Member James Brown has a motion. Thank you, Mayor. On behalf of the administration, I move to place on the docket for the May 16, 2024 Council meeting a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute Amendment 1 to the Pharmacy Service Agreement with On-Site RX, Inc. regarding credit card processing at the city employee pharmacy, the cost of which depends upon the volume of credit card transactions. So move. Second. Council Member Plumman seconds. Are there questions? Log in please if you have questions. All right, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Thank you very much. That brings us to continuing business. So first up is Social Services Public Safety Committee, Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. This is the April 9, 2024 report out summary. The meeting was called to order at 1.01 p.m. Our first agenda item was approval of the March 5, 2024 committee summary. There were no additions or corrections, and the summary was approved without dissent. Now, we have a presentation, then, I'm sorry, we had a presentation on the Lexington Humane Pet Sales Ordinance. Todd Blevins, director of the Humane Society of the United States, spoke about the puppy and kitten mill to pet store pipeline. Research shows pet stores participate in this retail practice sourcing from large scale commercial breeders, mills that put profit over the well-being of vulnerable animals. The draft humane pet sales ordinance would protect puppies and consumers and would also send a clear message that puppy and kitten mills and their inhumane practices are not welcome in Lexington. Blevins pointed out the ordinance would not ban the acquisition of dogs of any kind from responsible breeders. animal shelters or rescue agencies there was a motion and a second to approve an ordinance prohibiting the sales of dogs and cats by retail pet stores the motion passed nine to one on behalf of the committee i so move vice mayor wu seconds is there any discussion questions council member savigny yeah and um i thank you mayor and i was i was in the committee and I appreciate the intent of this ordinance. I also want to respect the fact that there are businesses that are affected by this. So I'm going to make a motion to change in the first paragraph, scratch 30 days, and make it effective November 1st, 2024. So moved. All right, Council Member Ellinger seconds. This is a motion to amend the motion. and the date was November 1st to make it effective November the first since people are signed in to speak do you I'll ask for a hand if you have a question about the motion does anybody have yes councilmember Baxter thank you mayor and thank you council members of evening for bringing up this amendment I think it's really important that we are listening to our business community as well and helping them plan for their business models I'm curious why this amount of time i know in louisville passed their ordinance they gave a year i'm just curious if there was a rationale behind the time frame um thank you for the question um my rationale for the time frame mostly was we actually started talking about this more in november of this past year and i felt like um it's it's been about a year since we were talking about it which is generally it's ample time if you're going to end up having to change your business model a little bit to be able to figure that out so that's that's why i chose the the time okay i'm entered i'm interested in seeing what our colleagues think about the time frame i may be in support of a longer period of time thank you you're welcome are there other uh comments about the amendment vice Thanks, Mayor Wu. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Councilmember Civigni for that amendment. I think it is considerate to think about how it will impact our small business owners and business owners in general. My thinking, I think I will be supportive of that November 1 date if for other reason in consideration of the other forces at work in our Commonwealth and their schedule and I'll leave it at that thank you thank you are there other comments to the amendment anyone do you want to speak Well, Council Member Gray. Well, thank you, Mayor, since I was on the fish fence about it. So as Council Member Baxter mentioned, I, too, am concerned about our locally owned businesses and giving them ample time to make do so that they can have a business that flourishes. So, why not to Councilmember Sevigny, why not January 1? Councilmember Sevigny. Thank you, sorry. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you for the question. Quite honestly, I looked mostly at it was a, it's about a year, it was about a year on on November 1st and understood, but it's not, it's been out in the public and spending airwaves since then. So November 1st is the date I picked and I'm fine with living or dying by it. So thank you. Well, there you go. Council member Fogel. Thank you mayor. So I'm thinking about the animals now since everybody's thinking about something. How many more animals will be sold, harmed, or with the extended months? And November the first seems okay with me. And I'm just thinking about those animals, because Sparky's at home and I need to go and let her out to use the bathroom for no other reason. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much. Does anyone else wish to speak to the amendment? All right, now the amendment on the floor is that rather than the ordinance becoming effective 30 days after passage, it would become effective November 1st, 2024. So all those in favor of the amendment, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, the amendment passes. So now we have the motion on the floor to approve the ordinance with the new November 1st implementation date. Is there any discussion? Council Member Lynch. Thank you, Mayor. My question regarding the proposed ordinances in our work session packet today is in regards to subsection 4-13, or section 4-13, subsection D. I guess, Councilman Reynolds, my question would go to you, if appropriate. Who or what is the enforcement mechanism for this? It says that there are people that are found in violation, could be subject to a conviction, so I'm assuming that's in a court of law. So who is the enforcement body of this ordinance? That's my first question. Animal control would be the ones that would be citing, and then it would be a criminal violation. Okay, I think it would be great to include them in this ordinance then, saying who specifically will be the body that will be enforcing this and giving these citations. I think leaving it unnamed is very ambiguous and could lead to a lot of different interpretation. I worked with the law department on this. Could I have them come up? Of course. Yes. We've done a lot of ordinances that require enforcement, so they will be able to tell us why. It must be my day. Okay, so this will be codified in a section of the code of ordinances that can already be enforced by animal care and control. So you don't need to call them out as the enforcing agency because it will be codified in a section where they're already the enforcing agency, if that makes sense. Thank you, that helps. Thank you, Michael. And then my last question would be that they are okay with this because this would be an extension of their duties and work and I know I've had conversations with them in the past about capacity and their staffing so has this been vetted through them? Yes, I've spoken with them and with the Humane Society that oversees them and they are aware of what their responsibilities would be and we have had discussions with Public Safety about giving it a trial period and seeing if if their calls increase substantially and their workload increases substantially. And if it does, then we revisit what resources they might need. And their responsibility with their contract with us is to enforce whatever we put, whatever we make into ordinance. Is there anything that will be put in writing about this trial period? About the what? trial period with them i don't think that there's anything in writing there's there's an understanding between us and our our public safety that we're going to revisit it and that's something that you know i have spoken with um animal control about and with um our commissioner of public safety about thank you thank you mayor thank you thank you very much councilmember shiem um thank you mayor i have I have two questions that I need some clarification on. And these might be questions for law. The first one, kind of building off of what Council Member Lynch asked, when Animal Care and Control is writing citations, are they always criminal citations? Do you know? Because I know like in some of our other ordinances, it specifically will say civil. I don't know that I can want to be definitive in answer to that question. Generally I think the way it works with other things they enforce by citation where there's a criminal penalty, they issue the citation and refer it to the county attorney, but I don't want to be definitive about there's no other way. I think you have a backup. There's someone behind you that may help. You've got some good backup there, Michael. Yay, I'm on. Welcome. Welcome, Mayor and Council. That's a definitive criminal activity. When we issue a citation, we do not go civilly with the civil courts. We only go criminal. So everything that we enforce for the urban county government is done on a criminal action and is handled by our county attorney's office. Okay, thank you. And my second question is, I had a resident reach out to me and ask a question that owns a pet store but does not sell animals there. They work with rescues, but they have had people that they would trust as a breeder, I would say, put like a flyer on a community board within their space. Would that be, like in this wording, it says a pet retail store sells or offers for sale a dog or a cat? Would a flyer like that coming from someone else be considered an offer of sale? I would have to imagine it would if they're promoting their sale inside the store. The law department had a different opinion when I spoke to them earlier. I don't know if, I don't know. Because it wouldn't be the pet store itself selling that animal, but it would be within that. I read this ordinance to say that it shall be unlawful for a retail pet store to sell or offer for sale a dog or cat. Retail pet store is defined as a commercial establishment that offers for sale animals on its premises at retail. So in my reading of this ordinance, and this is just my interpretation, it would regulate retail pet stores, not a flyer that's posted on a billboard that someone can privately contact for that person for a sale. Okay, so the animal would actually have to be sold on site kind of in that space? The conduct this is regulating, again, as I read it, is the sale by the retail pet store of the animal. Okay, I think that clarifies it. I just want to ask that question because they don't want to inadvertent, they were asking about kind of unintended consequences of the language and making sure they stay in compliance. And then just a comment, I would like to, there's been several conversations throughout this process of what a responsible versus an irresponsible breeder is. And I think there has been a lot of information about how hard that is to define. But I think we should continue that conversation because while this will ban the sale of dogs and cats within a retail setting like this or within these public spaces that we're talking about, I think that root issue of irresponsible breeding still remains potentially within the county. And so I think that we should have some further conversation about how we might define that or have a certification or license program that really works to stop the irresponsible breeding. So conversation for later. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Thank you. Council Member Gray. Thank you, Mayor. So I have a question regarding the second paragraph. where it states suggesting that most puppies and kittens sold in pet stores, such and such and such. It states a lot of national stats, but we're Lexington. So I, is it possible, I don't know, do we have stats regarding Lexington that we can include? If not, I wouldn't make a motion to amend this potential ordinance to remove that paragraph. Council member Reynolds did you look at local statistics no that was that was a general statement and statistics but I think it is relevant to Lexington the whereas is if you go to the to the fourth one we changed that one a little bit the whereas is they're not the material of the ordinance but I mean I'm I'm open to you know looking at that or or making it more local um yeah i'm not opposed to that back to so if we can amend it to where we actually have facts from lexington um we're all we all love pets i can say that for a fact we for most of us let me say on this council i don't know y'all but i know them and i know that we love pets and we just want to make sure we do our due diligence in making sure that not only that we preserve local businesses, but we also ensure that pets are safe. And I just feel it would be beneficial if we actually had facts that were about Lexington and not on the national landscape or outside of Lexington. Does that make sense? That makes sense. Can I ask Mr. Michael Cravens a question? We wouldn't need to make an amendment to the ordinance to change that, correct? Because it's not material, just, or what do you suggest? You could amend the version that is in the packet. I think the bigger issue is going to be whether we have the statistics or the information to include that would make it an amendment. In other words, you have to, if you amend it to include statistics and we don't know if the statistic exists, then I don't know how to go back and prepare the ordinance to include those statistics. Can we keep it, can we look at changing it and do our best to? Then my motion, then I would like to make a motion to remove it. If we don't have right now, as we're presenting this to the people and to council, So if we don't have our own local facts and numbers, then for me, it just sort of makes this potential ordinance invalid as though that it's just a blanket ordinance for that was written on a national scale and not looking at locality. May I respond? Well, we don't have a second yet. And we don't, we don't have a second. Sorry, are you making a motion? I make the motion. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you just did. I thought I did, but people seem not. So can I get a second? Thank you. Okay. Council Member Menorah seconds. And the motion is to remove, on page 28, is to remove the second whereas, as which is not material to the actual ordinance to be upheld, but it's background, yes. Can I make a comment on the amendment? We'll have comments about the motion to amend. Council Member Reynolds. I appreciate your comments and what you're doing, but I will not be in support of a motion that removes it without knowing what would go there at this time. So that's all. Okay. Any other comments about the motion to amend? All right. All those in favor of the motion to remove the second whereas on page 28, say aye. Aye. Okay, let's do a hand vote. All those in favor, say aye and raise your hand. Aye. Let's go ahead and use the electronic. Then we can really pin this down. This is to approve the amendment to remove whereas council received a presentation, et cetera. All right. So let's see, we have one person absent. All right. I'm sorry. Where did that go? It failed. Okay. So the motion fails. The vote is 9-no, 5-yes. So that motion failed. My time is up. Your time is up. You can sign back in. I just did. All right. Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Mayor. I assume we're back in discussion of the original motion as amended. Yes. I'm a pet owner. I have rescue cats. They bring me a lot of joy. I think we're in a room full of pet owners, I imagine. I'll be supporting this ordinance based on all the testimony that folks have given about animal welfare, about the conditions by which a lot of these animals come into being and continue to live. I'll be supporting this ordinance on the basis of our pet overpopulation problem here as well. And I will say this, as a former small business owner, I think changes like this are going to be painful for business owners, especially for small business owners. It speaks to me. And I think we have to realize as council members that everything we do has a cost. Everything we do is going to impact somebody negatively in one way or another. And our job here as legislators, as local lawmakers, is to do the best we can for the most that we can do it. And for me, on balance, this piece of ordinance does more harm than good, and so I will support it. Thank you, Mayor. All right, thank you. Councilmember Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. My concern is the last section, 4-13-1, sale of dogs and cats in public places prohibited. A little ambiguous to me on the verbiage plus the fact that I think it's probably over legislating something out there that I don't know if we even know. can do anything about it. And I'm not, I think this probably, and I know it's stating the particular areas where you can't do this or you can't do that. And I don't know that we can legislate that or even enforce it as to where, if I had a dog and I wanted to sell it or a cat and I've met my party at the park or even out in front of my house, this right here kind of limits me to some extent, and I'm not supportive of that, so I would like to... I'll make a motion to amend that we leave Section 4-13.1 out of this ordinance completely. This is on page 30. Yes, well... 31. Oh, 31. I apologize. Mixed in. It's the last section there. I'll just make a motion to take that out completely. All right. Is there a second? Second. Council Member Gray seconds. Now, let's have discussion about the amendment on the floor to remove page 30, the final section 4-13. Is there any discussion? Vice Mayor Wu? Thank you, Mayor. I don't know if this is a legal definition question or not of what constitutes a public place. Councilmember Brown mentioned the idea that he wouldn't be able to sell it in his front yard. Can we get some clarification on, we have some examples in section A of what public place is. Would my front yard or Councilmember Brown's front yard be considered a public place? If this section of the ordinance were to be enforced, the enforcing agency would have to apply it by its terms. And by its terms, public place is defined to include any street, public right-of-way, parkway, median park, recreation area, outdoor market, or parking lot. So that's the guidance that would be given to the enforcement agency. That's probably the best I can give you. I would argue that this section of the ordinance does not prohibit the private sale of cats and dogs. You can come into my house and buy a dog, you can come into my backyard and buy a dog. It's preventing, essentially, I don't know if I can necessarily put intent into what this section is about, But to me, the intent is to prevent potential markets or mini markets of pet sales in these public areas. Because if I have a private conversation with another individual over the internet or over the phone and say, hey, I have a dog, you're interested in a dog, I'm going to sell you my dog, come to my house. There's no reason for me to set up in any sort of public space for that. It's a private sale between two individuals. If I had a crate full of dogs that I'm trying to offload, that's where I would be in a park or a parkway or a parking lot in some sort of public place. So to me, the intent of this section is to prevent essentially the establishment of another marketplace, however informal. But I don't think it prevents anybody from making private individual sales of animals. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, which many good breeders do, that exact same thing. so council member lagree did you have a question about the amendment i did mayor if you don't mind um i have a follow-up question uh vice mayor you you mentioned front yard backyard but if there were a situation where someone didn't have a front yard or a backyard and they didn't feel comfortable inviting a stranger into their private space of their home, apartment, etc. You know, what kind of, I know oftentimes when I go to sell things, a coffee maker or something like that, that I would meet someone in a public space. So I guess I have a question, maybe this is for law, about the intention of this. Can you clarify what the vice mayor is stating about the intention not to set up a market and whatnot? I'm just thinking about how people do sales, generally speaking, and try to maintain their own safety. Well, I would add one piece to the conversation, which is the last clause of subsection A says, regardless of whether such access is authorized by the owner. So that's a piece of this that whether the owner consents, for example, whether the owner has a problem if you're like a big box retail establishment with you setting up in their parking lot with a box or a crate of dogs. It doesn't really matter to this. But again, I read this piece to mean public spaces, not private property, public spaces, public streets, public rights of way, public parks, public medians, public recreation areas, public outdoor markets, public places that you all regulate in a myriad of ways. Okay, I understand what you're saying. So when you say parking lot, you mean publicly owned parking lot, for example, or this is a bit of a gray area, it seems like. I just. Yeah. Or if it's an area, if it's like, for example, maybe, well, I don't want to throw out hypotheticals. I think, again, you apply the ordinance as it's drafted when you enforce it. If that helps. And I think it's drafted by its terms to regulate the sale of dogs and cats in public places, not private property. Okay, I understand what you're saying. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that clarification. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. We're still in questions on the amendment. I've got Vice Mayor Wu and then Council Member Reynolds. Do you want to go first? Sure. Thank you. Thank you. So I think when I had spoken to law previously and we were talking about this, the idea is to prohibit the sale of people setting up on the street, going to stores and setting up to sell dogs and cats, whether that be at a flea market or in a parking lot and that type of thing. This does, my understanding was it does not prohibit the sale or the better yet, you know, giving your animal away to somebody and meeting them somewhere to do that. Or you are breeding responsibly and someone comes to your house and they see where the dog or cat was bred and that's a responsible breeder. That's the definition of a responsible breeder that you can go and see how they, you know, where they were born, how they were raised. And so my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, Michael, is like this is not prohibiting that when this, it says sale. So that's a transaction saying, hey, we have puppies and dogs for sale, not that I can't have my animal anymore, and so I'm going to meet my friend or somebody that has said they were going to adopt it in a parking lot somewhere. So I hope, is that accurate? That was my understanding. And I think the intent is to regulate the sale of dogs and cats in public spaces, not private transactions on private property, if that answers your question. Okay. Well, that's not how I don't think that flea markets and those type of things would not be allowed to sell. A flea market is a public space. It's not a public space? It is a public space. I mean, it is a public space. I see. Okay. So you mean on, but also we're talking about parking lots and you could say that a parking lot is, you know, private property. So I just, or would you consider that open public space? I think it's a good question. I mean, I don't think we should, what I'm trying to say is, I don't think we should remove this, but if you're not, if you don't think it's strong enough, then we need to make it, we need to define it more. I think it is on its face, and I go back to the agency that's called upon, the animal care control enforces is going to enforce it by its terms based on how it reads. And how it reads seems to delineate the spaces that it's regulating as public spaces. Whether you all believe that it needs to be more clearly delineated what that encompasses and does not encompass, I would defer to you, but I'm happy to make whatever changes you need. Okay. Okay. Okay. Our lot is a public lot. Right. Public parking. Right, right. Others are private. Okay, that makes sense. All right, thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Mayor. Michael, you just stay up here, okay? I think Michael's the man of the hour. He is. If I'm understanding Section A correctly, that last half a sentence that says, regardless of whether such access is authorized by the owner. So if I meet somebody to buy or sell anything in a Kroger parking lot, it's not relevant whether or not I got the permission of Kroger to be in that parking lot. It's still defined as a public space regardless of who owns it, whether it's a city parking lot, a city park, a Kroger parking lot, right? That would be my interpretation, correct. So I guess what I'm wondering and Council Member Legree brought up. I, a little while ago, bought a piece of furniture from somebody that I didn't know. So I said, meet me in the parking lot of such and such. He pulled his car up behind me. He opened up his trunk. I looked at the furniture. It looks good. I then mowed him some money, put it in my car. That was it. And I think there's a substantive difference between that transaction and him setting up on the corner in a parking lot with a desk, with a sign that says desk for sale $50, those are two different things. And I feel like the intent of this section of the ordinance is to prevent the latter, is to prevent somebody setting up shop to sell something as opposed to just a private transaction no matter where it takes place. I just wonder from a legal standpoint, is this language in here able to differentiate between those two types of transactions? Because I would not want somebody to get into trouble for doing what I did, buying a piece of furniture from a guy that I had an agreement with in a parking lot, just because it's a public space and he's selling me a thing. I wouldn't want either of us to get into trouble for that. What I would say is if you read what subsection A says, It says it shall be unlawful for any person to offer for sale any dog or cat on any street, public right away, et cetera, parking lot. In the hypothetical you gave, you're not making the offer. You're not setting up in that space to offer the animal. You're consummating the transaction in that space. So I think it is enforceable, but I'm not going to say that there's not a challenge that could be brought. Yeah, and I think honestly anything we do can be challenged, but I appreciate your clarity of the offer for sale. I think that does make a difference. It does not say you cannot make any transaction regarding the sale of a cat or dog. I think that's a... I think the problem we're trying to tackle is the people that set up in these public spaces with crates of dogs and tries to solicit people to buy them at those places rather than the hypothetical you gave, which is consummating the transaction that was previously closed by meeting in a public location. With that clarity, I do feel better about this clause, about its enforceability and about its distinction between those kind of different forms. And it makes me feel better that this clause isn't restricting those kind of private one-on-one transactions. So I will not be supporting the amendment. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak to the amendment, which is to remove Section 4-13 starting on the bottom of page 31? Anyone else want to speak about it? All right, let's do an electronic vote on the amendment. All those in favor, say aye. Are there a couple of you? We need to have the voice and the electronic, please. All those in favor, say aye. Anyone opposed? Okay. I'm so sorry. We are missing two people now. Okay. So that vote fails. The vote is 10, nay, 3, yes. now we have the old motion on the floor that's been amended to say November 1st is the enforceable date and I believe Councilmember Gray is on to speak to that motion is that correct yes yes mayor thank you um I like the place that's a motion to table this ordinance um from that long talk For me, when we present an ordinance or when we pass an ordinance, you should be able to look at it and understand it immediately, especially for our lay people who did not go to law school and evidently individuals to go to law school are still scratching their heads. In addition to that, I would like to table. Table, second. All right, Council Member Fred Brown seconds and a motion to table is non-debatable. So we'll take an electronic and voice vote. All those in favor of tabling? We can, I think with tabling you can set a date though. I think aren't you supposed to set a date for when it's to table? You can't. Did you want to set a date? I think you have to do it to date certain. Give a date? Well, no, I don't. Correct. You can table something generally and it will be tabled until it is removed from the table. If you want to postpone something to a date certain, you can postpone something to a date certain. Okay, hang on everybody. So you can vote to table, that is, if you vote to table or not, that's non-debatable. You can debate if you want a date in there, correct? Is that correct? Yes. If it's a motion to postpone. Okay, but you don't have to, do they have to have a date to table? Or can they just table indefinitely? No, there's a slight distinction between a motion to table and a motion to postpone. A motion to table means you're basically tabling it until someone makes a motion to remove it from the table versus a motion to postpone when you would need a date certain that it would come back before the council for consideration. And that is debatable, the postpone with a date. For the limited purpose probably of getting a date, but I would not encourage you all to engage in a link discussion because the distinction starts to blur, if that makes sense. Okay. All right. Motioner, what would you like to do? Do you still keep your motion to table or do you want to withdraw it? Mayor, I keep my motion on the table to table. Okay. And the seconder is still seconding. So this is non-debatable. There's no date with it. So we'll do an electronic and a voice vote. All those in favor, say aye, and please log that in. And all those opposed, say no. Okay, thank you, and log in. And all right, that motion failed. The motion to table failed eight to six, eight nay votes. And so the motion on the floor is to accept the ordinance as amended to say November 1st as the enforceable date. Are there any other people who want to speak about the motion? All right. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? No. All right. We'll register one no vote. please that motion passes with the new date november 1st now i'd like to give the chair to the vice mayor for 60 seconds and i have one more question for michael this is by this is only complaint driven is that true that may be a better question for animal care and control but my My understanding is that this would be complaint driven. Okay. It's complaint driven? Yeah. Someone contacted me. I mean, many of our laws are only complaint driven. A lot of our laws are complaint driven. Okay. Yes. And so we'll hear from Animal Care and Control, just so we're all clear about this. Do you envision this as complaint driven? No, Mayor. It would be if one of my officers was out in the field and stumbled upon a parking lot with a table set up and puppies for sale, then that officer would have to act. So if they come upon someone, otherwise it's mostly complaint driven, is that correct? Unless you see someone. Unless you see something. But I want to point out that if an officer interpretation of this section 13.1, there is no language speaking of a fine. It says it's unlawful. That's all it says. So the only thing the officer could do is tell them to go. There will be no uniform citation. there'll be no impoundment of the animals. So I want the council to realize that, that it was, it's, we would just tell them to move along. Sort of like our dangerous animal ordinance that's on the books, we hand it over to the police department and they tell them to move it on. So that's what we would do. All right. Thank you for those clarifications. Thank you, Vice Mayor. All right. Does that, Council Member Reynolds? Does that conclude your report? Actually, now that you say that, it does not. Okay. Finally, I presented the gun violence task force report out. The task force met in two separate groups, community pillars and city leaders, to look at this issue from different angles and answer questions more easily. The community pillars brought forward three recommendations and the city leader groups brought forward seven. The plan is to report these recommendations forward and have council and administration determine how to implement them. And it was noted that the task force will continue to work on these recommendations for more specific and assigned budget numbers to each recommendation if necessary. There was a suggestion to have the health department get involved and to make this an official local action, which would open the door to additional resources. No action was taken and the item will remain in committee for updates. The meeting was adjourned at 2.40. And that concludes my report out. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. And for those of you who were here for the pet ordinance, the motion was to put it on the docket for first reading. So it will get two readings by council. And the second reading will be the vote to approve. All right. Thank you very much. And at this time, I believe we have Jim Frazier and Juan Castro, who are here to give our downtown Lexington Management District proposed 2025 budget presentation. Welcome to both of you. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome. Nice to see you all again. I am Jim Frazier, chair of the parking authority. I am chair of Parking Authority, but I'm here today with my management district hat on, the DLMD. I'm here with our treasurer, Juan Castro, also joined by commissioners Beverly Fortune and Thomas Pettit, as well as the head purple shirt guy, David Warren, who you probably all know, and Alan McDaniel, who is executive director of the DLP, who runs our organization for us. For those of you who are fairly new, the ordinance for the downtown management district was established in May of 2015. That's the ordinance number. And then it was renewed again for five more years in 2020. So we've had two reauthorizations that now will come up 2025 next year. This presentation, though, is solely related to the budget for the 2023-2024 calendar year. Our mandates are fairly straightforward and simple. I codify them as clean, safe, and beautificate. It rhymes, but it doesn't really say what it is. But what it is is this. The beautification portion of this ordinance, which is really the three-prong of our mandate, goes to two things. One, it's cleaning, improving property facades, whether it's lighting, whether it's helping enhance an awning, the front door, the windows. We participate with the local owners of these establishments up to $7,500 per endeavor to help enhance our streetscape. The cleaning portion is what you see David and his crew do on a daily basis. They're cleaning leaves, they're taking up garbage. In fact, David gives us reports on our every other month board meetings, and for the past 12 months, they've picked up over 18,000 pounds of trash off our streets. And I'll show you the district in a second. It's a fairly narrow defined area, and that's a lot of trash they picked up. That's one of the things they do for us. The safety, when we started the management district, the safety issue kind of got glossed over, to be honest with you. I thought we're going to clean the streets and beautificate the streets. Safety has gotten a little more problematic for us. With your all's generous help, the last two, summer before last and this summer, you've agreed to help the management district in adding additional security to our downtown area, specifically, primarily Tandy Park. That couples with the addition of the parking authority doing the same at the Vic Square garage over on Broadway, as well as the transit center. So we have a lot of partners, if you will, with you all doing extra security with the Fay County Sheriff's Office and private security company. So that kind of enhances the safety aspect that we really did not anticipate when we first started. The public art is stuff that we think is fun. We don't get to do enough of it. We need more money, as we all know. But we've done some great projects. We helped move John Henry from Ashland down to the Civic Center. We've also supported the suffragette statue. We've also, if you recall early on, we lit up some of those darkened windows on Main Street. We brought in some mannequins and dresses from Bella Rose, and we lit them up. And so it kind of gave people on the way home or on the way to a ballgame something to look at besides a dark window. So those are some small but I think significant public initiatives with regard to art when you consider our budget. But the district, in case you all didn't know, for those of you who didn't, this is the geomandered district of what it looks like for the downtown management district. It's fairly succinct. It's tight. It's a strange look. But there was a method to the madness back when this was done. This is a little bit tighter look at it. Now, this shows some of the structures, a little more granular. And if you look at this, and you all know this downtown area probably better than I do, there's a lot of non-paying entities in this district. We've got you all. We've got churches. We've got the parking authority garages. We've got the Lexington Center Corporation up there on the far left. If you're facing where I am right now, you're all right. So there's a lot of folks that don't pay the tariff. But we still provide the service. So I point that out to you just to kind of whet your appetite when I come back later on this summer for looking for a district extension. These are the three council members that the district touches. Most of it's in Council Member Legree's district, but Council Member Fogle and Council Member Reynolds are also within the confines of our management district. These are the board folks. There are 15 of us. three are from two council people, Councilmember Brown, Councilmember Legree, as well as a representative from the mayor's office, Kevin Atkins. The rest of us are individual private citizens who represent certain people. The ordinance was drafted to represent, in other words, I represent an office representative. I'm in the Chase Bank building. Rachel Sauvignet represents a retailer. So each of us have a defined role. That's the way the ordinance was set up. So the idea is to get a cross-section of folks, cross-section of industry, of professions, that come together with some good input and conversation. And those who have been to the board meetings, this is not a shy group. There's a lot of conversation. So it's a really good collection of diverse opinions. So I think we all benefit from that. These next slides are the district at work. We're known for the purple shirts. And that's good and that's bad. We do more than that. but this is what gets all the play for people. They see these folks everywhere. They're not just cleaning the places, the streets, the sidewalks, the curbs. They're also doing ambassador touches. We keep a count of how many hospitality encounters we have on a daily basis, a monthly basis, and so far we're close to 1,500 for the year. And these are folks from out of town. They could be from the suburbs that don't know where things are, but primarily these are folks come visiting us, and these purple shirt folks do a lot of ambassadorship for all of us. So it makes us look good, makes them feel invited to be down here, and helps them find a restaurant, find a parking place, hard to believe, and other things that they may want to do while they're here. So they're more than just cleaning the sidewalks, I guess is my point. And what you're going to see through this next group of slides should be just some of the before and after pictures. and we run through them because I've got a defined period of time because I want Juan to go through the numbers with you. But these are before and after shots. Now, we do do more than clean. We do engage folks on the street. And you're right, there are different levels of folks on the street. But the purple shirt folks know everybody by their first name. Every purple shirt person has been trained to administer Narcan. We carry that with us at all times. So we have become an active participant with the police force, with the medical community to help prevent issues of overdose on the streets. So I think that we're really trying to do more than just sweep up the leaves because it's kind of morphed, quite frankly, into an ad needed basis. So I just bring this to your attention to give you an idea of what these purple shirts truly do on a day in day out basis. Now I'm going to turn this over to Juan Castro, who is our CPA treasurer, and I am delighted he's here. He was late and I got very nervous. but he is here to go through the budget with you. Welcome, Juan. Thank you very much. As many of you know, it's not easy to follow our chairman, not only because of how well he dresses and how eloquent he speaks, which I don't have either or. Our budget receives about $530,000 in property taxes. Every year has been very well used. 75% of our total budget goes to the Purple Shirts. that goes specifically to cleaning making sure that the city looks absolutely wonderful. Second, the rest part, the other part goes to security. We always focus on security to make sure that our downtown district invites people, has the ability to continue to grow. Basically we're trying to use the property taxes as best as we could. After that we have a portion of our budget that always looks at downtown art, improvement, downtown improvements, and also the state of the of the city. So we're very proud to say that about 99% of our budget is utilized specifically for the improvement, make it look good and secure in downtown. As you can see, as of April 30, 2024, we have used in around 378,643.25 specifically for the usage of the city. Knowing that the property taxes, after we take the portion that is retained by the Sheriff's Department and also the additional money that people can receive back from paying early, we have $499,827. This is a comparison to last year, 2024 to 2023, about the same time. We are a little bit ahead by about $3,000, $2,000 or so, and it's because between 2019, 2020, and 2021, we have been able to collect about 100% of our taxes. That is what we have. We receive the taxes and we use it. In 2020, 2021, most of the property, some property owners receive some credits, which right now they're not utilized anymore. They're collecting. They're being paid. proud to say that our budget looks specifically and most critically to using the money from the downtown properties to be used specifically for that area. As our 2024-2025 budget, we're asking for the city to approve the usage of our taxes which we have basically retained the same amount. If you look at 2024-2025, we're keeping that line, the top line downtown district, property taxes are about the same. There's a difference of about $400. We're trying to be as conservative as we can. So the total revenues that we will receive is probably in the neighborhood of about $497,687. This year, we're coming to the council to ask for an additional $50,000 that can be put specifically and directly to security. Unfortunately, as will see security straddles two years so we already covering $25,000 of the security in the 2023 2024 budget so when you see that line for security it only shows twenty seventy five thousand however the total amount that is being allocated specifically to security which comes from the city is a hundred thousand and the reason why it is so expensive is because we normally hire off-duty policemen, off-duty sheriff. That means we absorb their overtime, which is fine, it's wonderful, it keeps our city as safe as possible. And this year we're also looking at an additional $25,000 for recertification. We're looking at a 10-year certification program, it's a little bit longer, and therefore it It absorbs quite a few of our property taxes. Those two items have forced us to look at where we can save a little bit of money. However, if you look at the block by block, the cleaning and the security, those amounts have not been reduced at all. What we're asking, basically moving the money is from arts, downtown projects, and lighting. else is being remained kept at the same level as 2023-2024 and moving to 2024-2025. I think that's my last. Thank you so much both of you. Now is the time for questions, council members. Councilmember Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. You just went over part of the income statement there, but a question on that recertification project. I'm unsure about that. I'm not familiar with it. It's a 10-year certification for what? Council Member, we are here today just for our budget, but the budget item in there is for a, we call it a reauthorization. Our authorization for the management district expires next year. They were two five-year terms. I am going to come back to you all later on this summer with a proposal to recertify or reauthorize, which is the word we use, a 10-year term. And for that reason, I'm asking that because I think there are projects that a management district would like to do, but you really need a 10-year term so I can go out and bond it. Can't pay for it with cash. I'm looking at $5 to $5.50 gross a year. And so if we want to do a larger project, we need a 10-year term to allow us, We have an income stream for 10 years. If we get it done, I can go to a lender, a bank, like I did with the parking authority, and borrow money against that income stream so we could do a larger project to be more impactful. So that's what Juan's referring to, a 10-year reauthorization. Is that a recertification? Is that a letter of credit of some type? No, sir. It's the ordinance itself expired sunsets next year. And so I've come back to this council before that with all the petitions in hand, with the criteria of 51% of the people, 51% of the value plus in the district, and ask you all to reauthorize this. But I'm asking this time it will be when we get back a 10-year versus a 5-year term. But that today is not before us. Okay. Another question I have is I don't see a balance sheet in here. What's your assets look like as of June 30th, 24, I guess? As of April 30, 2024, we have $325,000 in the bank account. Is that basically your assets? It will be cash? Correct. Liquid assets as liquid as possible. Okay. So you are increasing, because I noticed you had an income there of $121,000, I believe, that you're projecting, or as of April, you've got $121,000 in income. That is correct. So you're all alluding. About 33,000 to 40,000 of that is going to go pay the block by block services. We also have about another $12,000 that is going to pay our management. So year to date, what are you looking at? Maybe a projected year to date income? We probably this year we're going to end up with about $12,000 of fund balance on the positive side. Okay. All right. Thank you. all the money for some of the projects that have been presented to us. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, are there other questions, council members? If not, I believe council member Legree has a motion. Thank you, Mayor, and I just wanna preface this by saying thank you to Mr. Thank you to Mr. Castro for this presentation and to Mr. McDaniel for your support of the DLMD as a partner and colleague here. And also I want to give a shout out to our board members who are here. So thank you all for being here. And to Mr. David Warren and our downtown ambassadors. You all really do make a huge difference in downtown and we appreciate your presence. So with that, Mayor, I have a two-part motion, so two motions. I move to place on the docket for the May 16, 2024 council meeting, a resolution approving the fiscal year 2025 budget for the downtown Lexington Management District. There's Council Member James Brown seconds. Is there any discussion? All right. All those in favor of approving, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that passes. I further move to schedule the required public hearing related to this matter at the regularly scheduled council meeting on Thursday, June 13th, 2024 at 6 p.m. Second. All right, Councilmember Reynolds seconds. Any questions? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that passes. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Appreciate both of you. Now, at this time, we have our presentation for the Lex Tran fiscal year 25 proposed budget. Fred Combs is going to lead us through the presentation. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council. I would like to first start by recognizing our board of directors who are going to be here today with the guidance that they gave us to help this budget together, and also I have members of staff here from Lex Tran. I appreciate their work in helping us move forward day in and day out. So the budget that we bring for you today is a balanced budget. It meets the service that we've been, is this okay? It meets our last year's service moving forward. There are no service cuts in this budget, but there is a focus in employee development, professional development, employee engagement, and paratransit. We also have included with the conversations in the community a $75,000 micro transit feasibility study. And all that feeds into our mission statement, we serve people in our community with mobility solutions. So LexTrain, at a glance, we do more than 3.5 million passenger trips per year. We have over 100 shelters, nearly 900 stops. We do offer paratransit services and fixed-route services. I'll get into a little bit of detail on how to define those two things in a moment. But I also want to say that we are a sizable employer in the city. We are part of the economic backbone of this city. We have about 200 employees. They're good union jobs. If anyone is looking for a career change, we're always on the lookout for operators, lextran.com slash careers. Happy to have you join us. Before we get into our budget for fiscal year 25, let's take a look back at what we've accomplished in 24. First of all, we had our 50th anniversary. We celebrated with members of council with the mayoral proclamation here in the council chambers, so we're appreciative of that. We are on pace for about 3.7 million trips this year. we received 21 new vehicles that includes fixed route paratransit and non-revenue vehicles. On paratransit service we did launch a new rider guide and conducted listening sessions as part of the steps we're taking to improve that service. We make considerable progress on capital projects including our transit center renovation which is currently out to bid on the interior part of that project as well as CNG fueling infrastructure at our maintenance facility that will allow us to incorporate more green vehicles into our fleet. We also have an onboard technology project that will allow our staff to have better tools to produce service and give the public better real-time information to make decisions about their transportation. We've completed 13 bus stops in the Lexington Service Area under our Router Amminities in Many Places or Ramp Program that includes shelter installations, replacements, and ADA accessibility improvements. However, there is work to be done to conclude this year. We are going to kick off contract negotiations in the next week and also work towards implementing a new paratransit services contract. So our fixed drought outlook again we were about 3.7 million trips that's where we anticipating to hit this fiscal year that is a growth of about 8% over last year and as we look at that chart on the bottom that shows fiscal year 2020 the back end of that fiscal year is when COVID hit that's when those shutdowns took place we're about 3.7 million trips that year and 21 that's when we really bottomed out to 2.3 million trips and slowly but surely we've caught back up We're going to sort of compare that to a paratransit in a moment, but we look to see for our ridership to continue to grow in the future years. However, on the fleet side, we have 59 active vehicles. We need 52 to make service on a daily basis. We have 17 of those will be added beyond the useful life in the upcoming fiscal year. Our replacement strategy is to aim for six to seven vehicles per year and to incorporate as many clean vehicles as possible if we look at that in of over time that first black bar will show you how many vehicles we have to the left of that black bar that will become at or beyond their useful life in the next year we have seven vehicles on order for fiscal year 25 and 26 but you can see there's a discrepancy there between the number that we have an order and the number that we're going to have ready to dispose of and you also can see with the colors the most of the vehicles from 2016 and on have been CNG and electrics that's our commitment to a green fleet on the paratransit side paratransit is intended to be complimentary to our fixed route service and what that means is if someone by nature of their disability cannot access fixed route we offer them a door-to-door service you have to call a day in advance or we'll take you anywhere within Fayette County as long as your trip begins and ends within Fayette County we have had some operational issues over the past couple of years and I'll share some more information on that in a moment some steps we've taken to improve that is the rider guide we've transitioned our page transits eligibility assessments we began a series of listening sessions to get input from the community and we've worked with our partners our ATP dev to improve those operational movements that we do to ensure that we're getting a quality service on the street so this is on-time performance on a three-month rolling average going back to April of 2021 so there's about three years of data here and you see we're in in the 90% and it just really trended downward as we started to add back in the capacity post pandemic the American Red Cross which is our former provider chose to not pursue this service in the contract expired and we transitioned in October of 2022 with our new partner our ATP Dev and you see on-time performance bottomed out nearly 50% and since then we have trended in the right direction we've made progress we are not where we need to be however However, I think that we are on the right path. We've consistently been between 70% and 80% on-time performance. My expectation is before the end of the year that we are between 80% and 90% on-time performance. Hopefully, by the time I'm here before you next year, we will have capped 90%. But slowly but steadily, I think we're on the right track. And part of the conversation in the community as this occurred in 2021 and 2022, that's when microtransit became a real conversation in the community. Now, microtransit is not a replacement for paratransit. However, there are some overlaps and there are some parts of the system that would be similar. And we'll explore that a little more in a moment. But first, our paratransit fleet, we own 29 vehicles. It takes 45 to 50 vehicles to meet service demand in a given day. That's part of the capacity constraints that we see that have driven on-time performance to where it is now. We have received nine additional vans that will be placed into service sometime this month, and we do lease 19 additional vehicles through our paratransit services contract. So that is helping to drive those paratransit costs up. So one of the goals for this fiscal year is to incorporate more vehicles into our paratransit fleet. So the conversation with fixed route, paratransit, and microtransit, which this comes from our comprehensive operations analysis that we completed a couple years ago. It's called on-demand service in that document. The difference is really the first question, where will I be picked up? The fixed route bus service as you know you can get a schedule and know where we are when we're supposed to be there With paratransit you call a day in advance and we will give you curb to curb or door-to-door service Microtransit there are different service models It could be a nearby intersection Which is the point to point you might be asked to walk to an intersection to catch your your micro transit trip there It could be curb to curb it could be door-to-door That's one of the questions that we think the feasibility study will help us answer because depending on how the service is constructed that's going to impact the bottom line cost moving forward the second important component here is where do I ride with fixed route again we know the bus stop is where you get on and off with paratransit you are anywhere within Fayette County and then with micro transit there are defined zones to where mobility is an option and there is a map that's in our COA that we intended to help spark the conversation around micro transit this is certainly not what we think the final product might look like but just to to kind of understand how microtransit works there's four zones here two in the north side of the city and two in the south side of the city if if this were to be a microtransit service trips would have would occur within those zones so where microtransit use cases is really strong is these areas where we can have first mile last mile connections where fixed route service either doesn't work well or doesn't exist so I'm looking at council district 9 part of 10 there between Harrodsburg Road and Nicholasville Road where we don't have fixed route transit service that's a great use case to say if we can have something to help bring people to our fixed route services that could be a very useful connection what it can't do is take you across town so if your trip for example if you're going from Palomar to the senior center on life lane micro transit can't get you all the way there What it can do is feed you into the fixed route system, and you can take Lextra and fixed route service there to complete your trip. So microtransit augmenting fixed route is a very strong and compelling use case, and we think it's a worthy idea to explore. However, depending on the outcome of our study, these decisions are going to drive cost, and that's what we really need to understand. How much is this going to cost moving forward? So some other things we have to consider, not only the point-to-point, curb-to-curb, or door-to-door service model, but what are the hours of service? Are they hours of service that help or Lex Tran doesn't have as much fixed route service, nights and weekends, that sort of thing? So this is sort of the outcome of what we expect the study to give us is that information that we would need to make decisions with cost in mind. So, again, our budget outlook, we are proposing a balanced budget here of $35,495,147. We are feeling the rising expenses, which I'm sure this body has considered over their budget cycle for the past few weeks. We're feeling it the same way at LexTran. We have upcoming contract negotiations. We've had increases in health care costs, and we're looking at paratransit costs as well, which really drive our expenses. We've had to make some cuts, not to service, but some cuts to our operations internally to make sure that this budget is balanced. So no reason to be alarmed. we're okay at the moment, but moving forward, we'll have to keep an eye on those rising expenses to make sure that we have the resources needed to meet the needs of our community. To get into our revenues, our property tax revenue is, of course, the biggest piece of our revenues. It's $24 million. We are so very thankful to the property owners of Fayette County for giving us the support. This really does allow us to have the agency that we have. The second biggest component is our federal funding, which is $5.6 million. Other components under that, UK partnership, state funding, passenger fares between $1 million and $2.5 million, and then advertising revenue miscellaneous, a much smaller portion of our revenues. So to see that graphically, again, two-thirds of our revenues are property tax-driven. And on the expenses side, wages and fringes and paratransit, those two top line items, account for about 80% of our expenses. We are a service-driven agency, so our costs are in people. again we try to provide good jobs for those that that work with us that's where our you know we're watching our expenses in revenues to balance those things out um other lines fuel and oil professional services materials and supplies over between 1 million to 2 million dollars and other things sort of making up the rest of our proposed budget here again wages and fringes paratransit expenses those are the two real main drivers of our expenses so to wrap up and looking ahead to 2025 our real focus is going to be on paratransit fleet and implement implementation of a new paratransit services contract as well as launching the microtransit feasibility study and a strategic planning effort with our board and beyond to make sure that we are that we have a path forward i'm looking into the future i want to have a real focus on employee development professional development employee engagement to make sure that our retention is strong and that those who work at Lex Tran continue to work at Lex Tran and a focus on our major capital projects getting our transit center renovation complete and the CNG facilities at our maintenance headquarters it's also a fun project a ramp phase four is work on it which we there's some grant money available to add solar solar panels to some of the bus stops that'll add safety and security to a few select stops in the city so more information to come on that in the future with that I'm happy to take any questions all right thank you very much we have a few councilmember Ellinger thank you mayor and thank you mr. cones for being here and in your board and presenting this to us I'm trying to run through some of my questions here one thing I get a question about we were looking on lecturing at a glance is it says 51 percent of the trips are for school or work and I guess that's through UK and I've had other people and I guess this is state law and you can you can answer this why we can't use buses for schools because issues with Fayette County Schools and in Jefferson County had issues what is there state law that prohibits that you mean us operating the school buses we would have to have an agreement with Fayette County Public Schools to make that work there's different training requirements so there would be a much bigger of a step for us to manage Fayette County Public Schools. But could students ride? Can we do a, we can contract with them? Yeah, students can ride now for sure. Okay, so that's because I wasn't sure about that one. And then the question with the RFP for the paratransit, that is, is that an annual contract or what is this one coming up here for? This one is a three-year contract with two one-year extensions. And that just happened what, in April? That was just approved in April, yes. And trying to go through, I got a bunch of questions. This microtransit thing you talk about, it's interesting. Have you ever heard of that before? I'm really glad that your board and you all decided to do that feasibility study. I'm very interested, and I talked to Emily out there about after you, this is for July 1st is when your fiscal year will start. So what is the process of doing the feasibility study, your timeline, do you think, on that? I would imagine it will start sometime in the fall. We'll see. We'll scope out the study, and then I know the Transportation Policy Committee is going to have a microtransit discussion coming up in August, I do believe. Right. So we'd like to see the feedback on that, and then likely in the fall we would officially kick off the study. And I would like if somebody could come and kind of report on when you do the RFP after that goes out to us, And then, so after that, we get the details. If you could come back and give us an update from that, that would be great. And I've got some questions here. One of the issues you talked about is your budget, the end of the pandemic, federal funding assistance. How much will you not be receiving because of that? It was different based on the different bills that had passed. I think our last year was about $7 million. Is that accurate? about seven million dollars last year so no more pandemic area federal funding now looking at your budget on page 16 and you've got your fiscal year 25 your projected and your budget so the budget was what you all had um voted on and then the projected is where you look at it going forward is that how i'm reading that the fyi 24 projection is where we think we will be when we close out this This fiscal year. Okay, so it looks like you're going to be on your expenses down about 3 million, or 2.7 million? Yes. And what's the reason for that? That was the assumption that we made for diesel and gasoline fuel prices. So our assumption was too great when we did the budget last year on diesel prices. They come in lower than what we expected. So that's a good thing when you're down on expenses. Now, looking at your capital, five-year capital, on the bus purchases, I don't see anything for the FY26.7 and 28, really. And that is part of the struggle with capital investments. If you see, it should be the first line of the capital plan, bus purchases. There is grant money that we, a formula grant that we get is about a half a bus a year, which is not enough, of course, to fill the gaps in our fleet needs. So we do pursue federal competitive grant funds. We can't put them in the capital budget until we're awarded them. So we have an application out now that we hope that we're successful with that would show up next year should we be awarded those funds. And I think you said earlier that your expectations, how many new buses each year, six or seven? We would like to get between six and seven. A bus typically has a 12-year useful life, and we try to keep about 70 buses, so that keeps the cycle going. Are you all having as much issues that we have, like when we need a fire engine, the process of getting, making the request, and then how many years out until you finally get them? Electric buses are about two years out at the moment. CNGs are probably about 18 months. However, cutaways that we use for paratransit services, they have a five-year useful life, and up until recently, there was about a five-year wait period to get them ordered and get them in. Well, once again, thank you and I really appreciate you all putting that feasibility study in. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Combs, for the presentation. Thank you to the board for being here. If we go back to about slide five, I think, it had the numbers with the ridership growth over the last several years. And I had a question about that. The growth, I think, in the most recent year was 8.3%. Let's see, let me go. Maybe fifth slide. Let's see, there we go. Yep. So obviously there was a huge drop in 21 due to COVID and then you have a pretty strong rise and then we have smaller growth in 24. Do you attribute that to basically normalizing after the rebound? Yeah, we're getting closer and closer to normal. For fiscal year 2020, like the last full non-COVID year, we were about 4 million trips. Okay. So what do you, like is 8.3 like average growth, good growth, weak growth? That would be pretty good in pre-COVID times. I think it's pretty solid right now as well. Okay. And then I have a couple questions about the microtransit study, and thank you to the members of BUILD for being here and leading on that issue. you touched on starting on the microtransit study this fall right how long do you project the entire study to go probably about six months six months okay and how will you measure success what are your metrics what I would like to see from the study or from the microtransit itself I guess from the study but also kind of what what you would consider yeah i guess what your goal is with the study with the study i think we need to put some definition around what we mean by microtransit we need to set expectations that everyone knows what it is and what it is not it's not baritransit it's not fixed route is it something new and different and can be successful in the right use cases and through the study we want to identify where in lexington those use cases exist and then put the cost component along with that so we have information to say if we choose to move forward here we know what we're looking at not only in the near term but in the long term as well because I would like to have if we if we do at some point get to implement a system I don't want to put it out and then two years later say well we can't afford it anymore we have to take it back I want something that's sustainable and that you know we can come to expect trust out of do you feel like you're you're the the the early data points you're looking for is gauging what the need is and then and figuring out how much capacity it'll take? I think there's some, on the need side, on the demand side, I think we know the demand is there. Demand for transportation is really insatiable. The capacity side is really going to be a challenge because we're struggling getting vehicles, we're struggling getting operators. Any sort of service provider is going to struggle with the same. So, yeah, and it's balancing because we have to put some constraints on the service to make sure that the demand is not too high. Because if there's too much demand, you're going to get into the situation where we're canceling trips and it's not reliable and it's not working. So we need to make sure we thread the needle of supply and demand. I'm always a big fan of promising low and delivering high. So if we set folks up and say we're going to do this and we knock it out of the park, that's way better than having much larger ambitions. And I'll say one more point too about just letting people know about the study and the program as we go forward. I think we very often, lots of agencies have the same issue. We have great programming or we have great services, but people don't know about it. Or we're not doing a good enough job conveying it to the public that these things are available and as you said, what it is and isn't. So that's definitely something to focus on and I'm sure you all are looking at that. And my last question is, at this point, do you have an idea of a cost estimate on what a full implementation of microtransit would look like? Not a very good one. So back in the COA that we did a couple years ago, we looked at those four zones and sort of made a guess, a rough guess, that $2 million was the number we kind of tossed around. That's probably bar park pretty close, $2 million a year. But we would need more study to be confident and comfortable with that number. Right, thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. You're welcome. At this time, council members, I'm going to turn the chair over to the vice mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Fogel, you're next. Did you call me? I did. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Could you briefly give us an example of what the assessment looks like? The assessment? Yes. Oh, the eligibility assessment? Yes, the eligibility assessment. So if someone is interested in paratransit services through wheels, they would call a company called Biokinetics, and they would schedule an in-person assessment at court, K-O-R-T, not court, court of law. they would then schedule they could schedule a wheels trip to get that assessment if they so choose they don't have to but it's possible to schedule a wheels trip to get them there they will go through the assessment to assess their functional ability to access fixed route service and then a determination will be made whether or not they are eligible or they could ride fixed route if they're not eligible to ride fixed route then they would be eligible for paratransit And this is a fixed rate? When they call, is it one rate or is the rate per mileage? Because you said from Lexington to Lexington, anywhere in Lexington, from one point to the other. I think you used the seventh and the senior center. So for paratransit services, if what we call complementary paratransit, which is within three-fourths of a mile of a bus route, it's $1.60. If you're outside, if either your origin or your destination is outside three-fourths of a mile of a bus route, it's $2. For microtransit, we don't know yet. That's part of what the study will help inform us of. Okay, yeah, I'm cool on the microtransit. So thank you. I was just trying to gauge and fix some questions on our community. And I know there's a delay when picking folks up and they have to call a day before. And we had the example with the young man from Beale where there was a miscommunication. This gentleman was in his wheelchair at Walmart all night. And so that communication piece I'm really concerned about, that another resident will never be left in a spot without being picked up. That's where my mind is, just based on those. So thank you very much for your presentation. And hopefully our system will become more improved with the micro transit. That will just pick them up and drop them off. So I'm just putting that plug in. Thank you. Councilmember Savigny. Yes, thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you so much for the presentation. Just have a few quick questions. Federal funds in 2024, it looks like you had a big miss from budget. Was there something that you didn't get that you were planning on? I think it was 5.6 million actual to a $8.7 million budget. Just curious, that's on your slide. Okay, so from budget to projected, that difference? Yeah. That difference was due to Nikki Falconberg, our director of finance. Thank you. We had spread out the COVID funding over a few years, and we had budgeted for that to be in 2024. We actually used most of that money in 2023. So we drew down those funds, so we did not draw all of those in 2024, but we did receive more money in 2023. Okay, and there's no more that you're going to draw from that? correct we've drawn everything okay thank you and i appreciate that answer at least it clears it up um real quick in uh um and this might be a question for um commissioner hensley or law i'm just the um the transit tax it's a flat rate that never changes um or is that correct yes all right so flat and so they're not subject to the four four percent increases over time is that correct so so property taxes if property rates go up seven percent they get a seven percent is that correct all right all right great um i'm just i just want to make sure because i didn't like if you're at some point if you're going to come if you're going to come and say hey we can't We can afford this, but it would cost us this much to do this. I just like it's this body's responsibility, I think, to actually put out another, we'd have to put out a separate referendum to change the rate, I think. Yes. Is that correct? To my knowledge, yes. Okay, that was it, and I appreciate your work on the feasibility study, and I do look forward to seeing what that result comes out. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Ellinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I forgot or I ran out of time and I guess I'll follow up with what Council Member Savigny said. What is the percent right now that you, the property tax on the bill? What is the number? Six cents per $100 of assessed value. Okay, so that's just a set number but with assessments because we've received a lot of calls about reassessments because it's been four years and i know mine went up 40 percent and i know the others went up as high as 100 so how have you played that into your budget because that should be a help on going forward on that overall number then yes we have assumed a three percent growth in property tax receipts for the for next year or three percent yes okay and under the paratransit service outlook on page 52 where it said held the first set of listening sessions to glean input from the community. I attended those, or attended one, and I appreciate you doing that to get the input. What did you glean from that? What were some of the feedback that you got and that you're going to use going forward? I think the feedback was keep at it. You're on the right path. We're not there yet, but we're seeing improvements. Keep trying to get drivers out the door, keep trying to get vehicles out the door. That was more really refreshing to us. It was like, okay, we are on the right path. It's just slow. It's a slow move. And I know at one point you had to find the group that you were because they weren't meeting the numbers. And what is that standard and how does that process work? The standard for... If they're not at 90%, if they're at 80% or 70%, did they not get fined? Yes. Yes. So we do have liquidated damages in our current contract and our next contract to make sure that the contractor is hitting the metrics that, if they don't hit the metrics, then we do withhold some payment. Okay. Well, and I got a lot of calls early about some of the issues, but they have certainly gotten better, and you're on the right track, so thank you for that. And as the Vice Mayor said, I want to thank BUILD for all they do, and thank you all for rising up and building here. So thank you. Thank you. At this time, Council Member James Brown has a motion. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I move to place on the docket for the May 16, 2024 council meeting a resolution approving the FY25 budget of Lex Tran and requesting that the Commissioner of Finance authorize the Fayette County Sheriff's Office to disperse the funds to Lex Tran collected from the Avalorum tax. So move. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion on this motion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Thank you, Mr. Combs. Thank you everyone. All right, up next is council reports. Colleagues, please sign in. Councilmember Baxter. I will be so very quick, colleagues. I just wanted to take a moment to recognize that this is National Police Week. And while we are celebrating this, I also wanted to send my sincere condolences to the family of Eddie Thurman. Officer Eddie Thurman passed away, and I just know that he made a huge impact on this community, and I just want his family and friends to know that they are in my thoughts and prayers at this time. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor, or Vice Mayor. I also wanted to recognize our police department. So it was in 1962 when President John Kennedy proclaimed May 15th as National Peace Officers Memorial Day in the calendar week in which May 15th falls is National Police Week. And I just want to honor everyone who not only have given their life serving us, but that work every day to protect us and keep Lexington safe. So I want to thank the Lexington Police Department. I also wanted to give a special shout-out of recognition from the Division of Youth Services to Zoe Washington. She is a remarkable summer youth worker. There she is on the screen. She has been awarded the prestigious C-SPAN Award for her social justice documentary, Balancing the Scales, about race and the criminal justice system. Kelly Justice, program administrator at PAGE, says, As we witness Zoe's journey unfold, it is evident that she possesses the drive and potential to make substantial contributions to the field of law and beyond. Her trajectory foretells the future where she will undoubtedly leave an incredible mark on the justice system. And so we're thankful that she was one of our summer youth workers, and congratulations to her. Wanted to mention that Street Fest this past Saturday was so much fun. I walked from my house. It was a long walk, but it was great. Even though the weather in the morning was a little bit windy, a lot of folks got out there, and Council Member Legree and I had fun. talking to people and learning more about what we can do to be more physically active. So it was a great event, and I want to thank all of our divisions and community partners that worked so hard on it and provided a lot of fun for the families there. The kids had a race, and there were bikes, and there were scooters, and lots of different things like that. So it was a fun time. And then I also had, I don't have a picture of this, but I had fun at Mayfest. It's kind of a Mother's Day tradition for me to go down there, get some art, get some jewelry, get some henna. And it was a great turnout this year. And then I wanted to mention that this Saturday is Founders Day at McConnell Springs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. And the mayor and I will be speaking. and so come on out and bring your kids for a fun day at McConnell Springs. The Pine Meadow Neighborhood Yard Sale, which I have to say is a really great yard sale, is this Saturday, so come on out around 8 o'clock and get your goodies in Pine Meadows. And then this Sunday, the goats return to Oxford Circle. So if you want to come out and see the goats that are there because of a water quality grant, come on out around 1 o'clock or a little after. They'll be there eating the invasive species of plants for a while. And then tonight, I'm going to head to the Cardinal Valley Neighborhood Association meeting, which starts at 6, and the Meadowthorpe Neighborhood Association starts at 7. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Fogle. Thank you, Vice Mayor. First of all, Wilmwell's Brown Neighborhoods Association has a spring social. I think we have a flyer up there. It's this Thursday, May the 16th from 6 to 730. Would like to send my regrets, but most of the time Wilmwell's Brown meets at council meetings. So I won't be in attendance, but please go out and get hot dogs and ice cream. Devine Karam and Wilm-Lex will be there. So that's the Wilm Wells Brown Neighborhood Association and it's going to be held at the Lyric. So that's one announcement. The other announcement is on the 15th, which is tomorrow, First District will be hosting a listening session for the businesses that surround the Day Treatment Center. Martin Luther King Neighborhood Association has made this an issue. And so we certainly would like to hear the concerns of the businesses half a mile radius around the day center so that we all can be on one page and remember that people's lives are at stake and people are important no matter what their income level has to be, and no matter if they're housed or in house. So wanted to make that announcement. We had a great Mother's Day celebration in Douglas Park this Sunday. And there was over 400 people that attended, including the children. We'll have pictures on Thursday, including children and the parents. And there was a children's kickball game as well as the parents. I'm pretty sure they're still soaking in absence out, but it was really a nice time and everybody, there was no incidences and for that I am truly grateful. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Gray. Thank you, Vice Mayor. First of all, I would like to say this weekend, myself, Council Member Plowman, and Council Member James Brown, we attended the ribbon cutting of, I'm waiting, I will start it. The ribbon cutting of. I was doing push-ups. We attended the ribbon cutting at Mary Todd Park, although Mary Todd Park is literally cut in half. I have the parking lot in the 6th district, but the actual playground and the baseball, all the fun stuff is in the 12th district, whatever. So at least we get a parking lot in the 6th district. But it was a pleasure to look across the street and see the beautiful playground that ARPA has funded. So thank you to Park and Rex for putting great use to those federal funds. And now the residents of Joyland, the children now have a nice playground to play on. Thank you, Kathy. And for the residents that live near Kavanaugh, I want you to be on notice that paving of Kavanaugh Lane will begin this week. So if your car is parked on Cavanaugh Lane on the portion that we're milling this week, you will be towed. There should be signage that is posted there. But I want to thank my colleagues for agreeing to this. We were able to have the other, the half of Cavanaugh pay due to fund balance. So thank you to my colleagues for saying yes, because it was much needed repair in the 6th District. And also one other thing, thank you to the residents of the 6th District who have been patient with me. As some of my colleagues know, I've been dealing with a family emergency for a while as well as a couple of deaths close to me as well as my father being in the hospital. So thank you all for your patience with me. The list of the paving for the 6th District will be placed in the newsletter soon. As soon as I get to it. Also, we have summer events that are happening in the 6th District. I mentioned this at our previous council meeting, but it's nice to have a flyer. We'll be showing across the Spider-Verse on June 1 at Constitution Park. We plan to have bouncy items, music maybe, and some food there as well. So all in Lexington are welcome, but especially, I would love to see residents of the 6th District in Constitution Park. And lastly, part of our summer events is that we're having Six Districts Got Talent, because there's a lot of talent in the 6th District. And it will be a great opportunity for all the residents of the 6th District to come together and showcase their talent and get to know one another. So please sign up to show your talent. And I would like to say thank you to the sponsors of this event, because one, I could not do any of the summer events on my own due to the funding. So thank you to the Signature Club, Turner Properties, and Elaine Allen, LLC for all six district businesses except for the owners, that is, or six district residents and business owners. So thank you all for your help. And thank you to LexTV for putting those pictures up. Thanks. Thank you, Councilmember Lynch. Thank you, Chair. Just a reminder to my second district neighbors, this weekend is yard sale, yard sale, yard sale. Madison Station and McConnell's Trace are having their big weekend yard sales this weekend. So all Lexington neighbors are welcome to come out to the second district and shop your hearts away. As well, and after you shop, please go to Madison Station Park for the sheep dog trials. If you've never been to see the sheep dog trials, it is amazing. Those dogs are amazing. I went last year and was completely blown away and got a great tutorial from someone that had a dog in the event. So I invite all of my neighbors to come out to Master Station Park for the sheep dog trials going on all weekend long. Thanks Mayor. Thank you. In the interest of time, I'm going to save my council comments for Thursday. Next up is Mayor's report. Can I get a motion to approve? Second. We got a bunch of motions and a bunch of seconds. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any objections? That motion passes. Next up is Mayor's Report Price Contract Bid Recommendations. So in favor. Motion and a second. Any discussion on this item? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That motion passes. Up next is public comment issues not on the agenda. We have one sign up and I think you know how this works. Come on up, Rick Day, you got three minutes. my name is Rick day and I live in the third district I told you I was going to start giving you individual examples to help convince you of some of the problems with our compensation system and the study done by the management advisory group today I'm going to tell you about Brenda Brenda has worked for Durham County government since 2001 in 2006 she became an administrative specialist she worked in that position for almost 16 years in November of 2021 she came to work in my department as a program specialist it was not a promotion and she did not get a salary increase it was a move from 154 position to another 514 position what HR calls a lateral move in the 2022 mag study appeal process Brenda's position went from a program specialist back to an administrative specialist Brenda went back to the position she had previously held for 16 years now she had 17 years experience as administrative specialist The MAG study gave her credit for one year. Apparently, what the MAG study calls time of experience has very little to do with experience. I asked that Brenda be given her earned and deserved total of 17 years experience. It took Tammy Walters five weeks to create a response. Ultimately, as you might expect, the answer was no. I appealed to Glenda George. She agreed with Tammy. I appealed to Sally Hamilton. She agreed with Tammy and Glenda. I guess in the LFUCG world of compensation, the people who make the rules also get to interpret the rules and enforce them. It's a very efficient process, and it seems to work well for HR. but remember Sally and Tammy were both part of the group that put together the reallocations and recommended them for your approval I can no longer trust them do you and if so why when HR told Brenda she had been selected for the new position they told her you know this is a lateral move you will not get a salary increase Brenda accepted the position what HR knew at the time but did not tell Brenda was that within a few months they would be starting a new compensation study and by taking this position she will be giving up 16 years experience time that it would cost her a substantial salary increase as it turned out that little oversight cost her $8,000 a year they allowed Brenda to make a major career and financial decision without giving her the information. They withheld information from her when she was making that decision. Thank you very much. I want to thank staff and everybody else here and my colleagues for slogging through the I'm sorry, Mr. Day, you're out of time. Thank you all. We are adjourned. Thank you.