Music Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome everyone. I'd like to go ahead and call to order the Lexington Fayette Urban County Council meeting, the work session of June 18th, 2024. And now is the time for comment, public comment for issues on the agenda. And we do not have anyone signed up for issues on the agenda. so there is no docket today and that brings us to the june 11th work session motions and i'll entertain a motion to approve all right any questions all those in favor please say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes there are no budget amendments today and there are no budget adjustments so next up is new business if I could have a motion to approve Council member Sheehan moves Council member Plumman seconds and log in please with your questions Council member Ellinger thank you mayor the first one is a it's the feasibility study for the housing and shelter and I got a couple with you Charlie thank you so what's our prognosis we're what's the timeline on this we hope it's approximately eight to nine months from commencement of the study which will be from execution of the contract before we have a completely final deliverable and a presentation to council so we're looking at in the spring of next year we should have a mid-spring probably okay it may go a little faster because this is the same vendor who's conducting our affordable housing needs assessment and so some of the data collection has already taken place and that'll save some time. Okay and the next one is the um is Kay and I think you're you're on this one too so and Jeff I see back there I kind of spoke with Jeff earlier um this was 2024 money right that we put in this so it's it's coming out we've already had the money budget the 300,000 and just to try how and ask Jeff how are we going to go about make sure we get the landlords involved what's going to be our marketing strategy that make sure that we go to all their different meetings or whatever we can because the more we can get them involved the better absolutely so the short answer is going to be we're going to be as aggressive as possible and use every possible strategy so that would include leveraging the meetings that the land that the housing authority is already conducting with landlords the office of affordable housing, I'm sorry, the Department of Housing Advocacy and Community Development already has a landlord advisory group that meets routinely. We're going to utilize the COC's mailing list and social media. We're going to look for every opportunity to get the word out. And I think word of mouth especially is going to spread and really help draw attention to the program. And what kind of incentives are we going to be giving landlords on this? Yeah, so this would include one-time incentives like incentives for landlords to begin participating in programs or to add new units. It also includes things like a damage mitigation fund. When we floated this idea with some of the landlords participating in that advisory group, one of the concerns that they had was things like when there might be damages that exceed a security deposit. Additionally, it's going to provide funding for a staff position to be a liaison. That person is going to be able to help do some things like explain processes and paperwork, be a direct point of contact, and even do a little bit of mediation when there might be a tenant and landlord issues. Thank you. The next item I have, Mayor, is B. Okay. The sheriff said Tandy Park. Okay, Alan. We've got Kevin Atkins down here, but we'll take you. Downtown Lexington Management District. DLP, okay. We'll take you. Kevin's out of town, or not here right now, so I'm standing in. standing in. Yeah, could you tell me what I always said for up for extra security just for safety purposes and how's this going to work and what kind of policing powers do the sheriffs have? So the sheriffs are down there. We've got two units with two vehicles and they're they are armed and they're there May through Halloween on Fridays and Saturdays from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. They're parked and usually stationed there at the Tandy Park side on Short Street, and then they'll roam kind of that area to help augment the police that are already downtown. If they see something and need assistance, they notify one of the Lexington police officers, and then it goes from there. Thank you. And my last one is J, and that follows up. That's with the flight cameras, so it kind of moves to that. We have welcome. So we're at 100 we're going to be adding the 25 that we've just funded. Have we selected the the sites that we're going to have at this point where the new ones are going to be? We haven't selected those sites yet. And when's our time frame to have these put in hopefully? Well we're hoping with this amended contract that we can begin in installing them on August 1st. August 1st? Yes sir. So how are we going about we've added the additional 25 how we go about locations on that? Well like we did with the first hundred it's going to be based upon reported crime that's crime that's reported by citizens to us and then we're going to take a look at potentially where there are gaps with the traffic cameras as well to determine where these extra 25 would be. So do we have kind of a list of 100 now we got the next 25 onto that? Yes sir And once we figure out those 25, we'll put those on the map and put in our transparency page as well. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor. That's all the questions I have. Thank you. Councilmember Lynch. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question about item G, as in great, if Director Larkin wouldn't mind coming up to talk about. I know the CSEP funding source is ending, and I know there's been some, I would like to hear about all the great things that you've been able to accomplish with the CSEP program and share about your request. Welcome, Director Larkin. Mayor, great to see you. Thank you, Council Member. So this contract extension is just to carry us through the closeout process of CSEP for the two contract workers that we have. So as far as the history of the CSEP program, actually started back in 1997, And that was for us to be able to deal with any contingencies that might arise from the Bluegrass Army Depot and the chemical activity there. So every fiscal year we had an exercise. We actually just completed our last one last Wednesday. And it was a little bit of a hybrid. Working with Kentucky Emergency Management and CSEP itself and Bluegrass Emergency Response Team, We conducted a hybrid exercise for urban search and rescue, wide area search and medical treatment. That helped Kentucky emergency management. And then we also fulfilled our obligations to the CSEP program by running through our emergency operations center. So for 27 years, it's meant about $18 million to the budget here in Lexington Fay County. including equipment, professional services, also building upgrades to the Emergency Operations Center, and a storage building at the Fire Department. So there's about 13 benchmarks that are associated with the CSET program. We have successfully completed 10, and we have three remaining as we go into the closeout period. and really outside of that during the closeout process will be disposing or essentially having disposition of some equipment and and that type of thing that'll that'll go on throughout the throughout the remainder of this year in the February March of next year and that's when we should hit what they call surety that's when there absolutely is no residue of chemical weapons left at the depot and that should be about it we'll have a couple of little council approval things as far as that equipment as it comes down and is disposed of and donated back to fucg so really that's about it ma'am it's been a great great process as a result of it we are we are more resilient uh we are better prepared and kind of hate to see it go away thank you director locking thank you mayor thank you councilmember baxter thank you mayor i have a question about item p director neal just kind of curious if you could give me a little bit more information about that and what how it would benefit the community director Neal welcome thank you thank you for the question councilmember how this helps the community you know the overall goal is to try to make traffic run better and smoother the federal funding involved in this is congestion mitigation and air quality and so our effort is to try to make things more efficient okay will it will it allow us I guess it does. I'm answering my own question. I guess I'm just trying to see if it's adding new technology to what we already have or new software. Or just improving upon what we already have. There's like a list of projects we're going to do. Some of it is signal timing, get a consultant on board to help us out maybe with a corridor like Tates Creek Road, things like that. But the advanced signal detection, we have a lot of devices out there, but we're exploring some opportunities for analytics. And so it'll do a variety of video and radar detection to let us know more about what's going on out there. Okay, great. I look forward to the updates. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else have a question about new business? All right. All those in favor of approval, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. And there are no communications from the mayor for appointments, donations, or procurements. And that brings us to continuing business. And I'll call on Councilmember Sheehan for her committee report. Thank you, Mayor. have the report out summary for our april 30th 2024 meeting the meeting was called to order at 102 pm the first item on our agenda was approval of the march 12 2024 committee summary there were no additions or corrections and the summary was approved without dissent commissioner hensley provided a review of the urban services fund and she explained this was established to account for streetlights refuse collection and street cleaning so residents pay only for the services they use speaking about petitioning for street lights and next steps nathan dickerson administrative officer in environmental quality and public work said august 1st is the deadline to apply this is because it requires a public hearing two resolution readings and two ordinance readings which need to occur by the end of the calendar year the change would take effect in the next fiscal year on july 1st no action was taken on this item our next presentation was from heather wilson the urban forestry section manager in division of environmental services she provided a background on street trees in lexington which shows lfucg maintained street trees at 10 percent while privately main privately maintained her at 90 percent she reviewed the lfucg hazardous tree removals and replacements by council district and expenses from that for the fiscal year fiscal year 15 to fiscal year 24. she spoke about street tree clearance pruning which occurs mostly in winter or early spring director carrie presented chapter 16 and 17b ordinance changes chapter 16 relates to civil fines and removing the one-third reduction in fine for not appealing in chapter 17b they cleaned up language updated definitions and address gaps in enforcement and i have two motions to make regarding those changes and council members i put a packet at your seat that has a hard copy of the ordinances that shows the changes the first motion is for the first page for section 16. so there was a motion by council member lagree in committee to approve an ordinance amending section 16-203 of the lexington fayette urban county code of ordinances to update division titles and remove the penalty reduction for failing to contest citations this was seconded by council member gray and the motion passed without without dissent so on behalf of the committee i so move is there a second i heard one over here council member plumbman all right any discussion of the motion all right all those in favor say aye is anyone opposed all right the motion passes and then the rest of the packet that i provided has the 17b and there was a motion by council member lagree in committee to approve the proposed amendments to chapter 17b of the code of ordinances relating to street trees as presented to the committee and is set forth in the committee packet seconded by council member gray the motion passed without dissent so on behalf of the committee I so move. Vice Mayor Wu seconds. Any questions? All right all those in favor say aye. Anyone opposed? All right that motion passes. Okay and then finally Commissioner Albright presented the pavement management plan annual update. She provided an overview of the plan and explained how roads are scored using the overall condition index or OCI. She spoke about the paving sharing which seeks to coordinate LFUCG paving priorities and combined efforts to provide the highest quality finished paving surface at the lowest total cost. When asked what the best practice is for how often a road should be paved, Albright explained the local roads can go a longer time between paving. And Director Allen pointed out that a lot of it has to do with traffic count. Collectors and arterials get more traffic, so they need paving more often. No action was taken on this item. The meeting adjourned at 2.42 p.m. and that concludes my report out. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Does anyone have questions for Council Member Sheehan? All right. Thank you very much. Council, it's time for Council Reports. Log in, please. Council Member Lynch. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to, I would like to highlight some of the awesome activities that happened this past weekend, And there are several, several awesome events that happened over the course of the weekend. This past weekend was our last weekend for our Bluegrass Fair. I would just like to extend a huge thank you to our Lexington Lions Club for once again hosting an amazing fair with great attendance numbers. I got to get out there Friday night and have some really good food. Shout out to Commissioner Armstrong for the recommendations on the food. It was all really, really good. The crowd was great. And I thank you to my council colleagues for approving paving the fairgrounds in the fund balance talks last year. The fairgrounds looks great. Thank you to Parks and Recreation for getting that done before the fair. So the paving looked great. Everyone looked like they had a great time, and that was the best funnel cake I've ever eaten in my life. It was so good. It was so good. I also got to participate in an inaugural 5K. The Lexington African American Sports Hall of Fame had their inaugural Juneteenth 5K in the second district. And the second district is, as you know, the 5K race capital of Lexington. Dave. And so they had a great turnout for their very first 5K. The money that they raised goes directly towards scholarships to youth in our community. It was a really fun event. And I would like to just brag that I placed second in my age division in the 5K with a great time. So it was a great event and thank you to the Lexington African American Sports Hall of Fame for hosting your event in the second district. Also, I was able to attend the Juneteenth celebration at African Cemetery No. 2. It was a phenomenal turnout. The speaker was amazing and gave some really great information regarding all of the soldiers that were at Camp Nelson. It was a beautiful day to celebrate Juneteenth and to celebrate those soldiers that gave up their lives. during their time of service. So it was a wonderful event that the community came out and supported. So thank you community for coming out to support. And again, thank you to Dr. Yvonne Giles for organizing such a great event for our community. And I think this year was the 19th celebration of their Juneteenth event. And then lastly, I got to attend the Soul Feast Week Festival that was in Councilmember Sevigny's district that was at Moon Dance. And the food vendors were once again wonderful. I think I just pretty much ate all weekend, ate good food all weekend. And the food was great, the crowd was great. Although the weather was very hot, it didn't damper anyone's spirits. And we had a really, really good time at the Soul Feast Week Festival. And just I want to encourage everyone, this is officially Soul Feast Week. So please engage with your African American owned restaurants here in the city. If you go to soulfeastweek.com, it'll give you a listing, a directory of all the restaurants that are participating. And they have a special discounted menu just this week, so I encourage everyone to get out into the community and eat really good this week. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Fogle. Thank you, Mayor. First off, let's start with yesterday's event. One Lex was featured and 15 recipients received $100,000 to share. that's omag and they're located in the charles young center and he does a great job geo does with those young folks so I wanted to make sure I highlighted that thank you mayor for having that press conference and everything all the information that was delivered so I wanted to give a shout out to them there they are holding that holding it almost check but that's one thing I wanted to The next thing is Douglas Park in Juneteenth, some of the celebration there. Couldn't capture all the photos that we had, but we wanted to make sure that we highlighted some of the photos. That folks, it was over 700 people there. On Sunday, they had like a statewide boxing, and that was girls and young people. And a little seasoned folks were in the ring. And they were boxing on Sunday, and our dirt bro started also that day. So it was hot, but people came out, and they enjoyed themselves. No incidences that I know of, and that is a great thing to say in itself. The next thing I wanted to highlight, I don't have a photo of it. Well, let's talk about what's happening at the Lyric. Tomorrow night, Juneteenth, the doors open at 6 o'clock at the Lyric Theater downtown with more Juneteenth celebrations. I have so much to say, I'm going to just keep on moving. On the 22nd, Charles Young will have a Juneteenth festivity over to the Charles Young Center. Please come and join us for that, 11 to 7. And then the class of Dunbar in 1964 will be celebrating 60th class reunion, and that will be at Dunbar. So congratulations to folks that attended Dunbar. And there's one photo, there's a lot of photos that's not up on the screen, but that is the Robert H. Williams Culture Center located on Georgetown Street. Craftsman, is that right, council member? Council member? They donated and put a roof on that center and it is so much history. I believe it's 100 years old, that building is. And of course, Miss Yvonne Jowes was there to give education and a black history education to folks who were there. And so we showed up and we were so delighted. And that is just the first stage. So council members, I will be coming back so that we can do the infrastructure inside that building. It's a beautiful building. It used to be an orphan home. And then the cultural arts and just art and dancing. And it's a building that brings community. And then just a few blocks down the street is the Black and Whim Center that council member Lynch, She oversees because that's the second district. But I wanted to make that announcement. Give a shout out to the police department, the fire department, for being in Douglas Park. The children had a great time on Saturday. The fatherhood initiative. All the children that marched from the first African to Douglas Park to celebrate Father's Day on Saturday. It was a lot going on and it was really hot. So just, I don't want to sign back in, but I want everybody to remember, if you were hot and I was talking to Council Member Ellinger and he was talking about riding his bike, just imagine the folks who are laying on the street and are trying to find just a small piece of shade to stay cool in. We will be out giving out water. Big shout out over to my buddy Charlie. He came around, he left water on my porch so that we could get it out to the folks. And they are so appreciative because we went all times and days over the weekend and handed out water to people who really needed that. So thank you, Housing Stabilization for doing that and setting that water there. And thank you for the offer to bring more as much as we need. So I just want to just give some love out to all of you all. That's it, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. And as they say, it comes in threes. So this is your third reminder, because tomorrow at 11 o'clock, we have our Sense of Place Juneteenth event at the Cadentown Baptist Church. And it really will be fun. I think we're in a big crowd. Lunch by Black Soil, we've got singers from Jimtown. We've got an update on the project. I've told you all this before, but I'd love to have you there because colleagues, you will be recognized tomorrow as well. So that's tomorrow. And then just FYI, really for the community and the public, my 12th district office will be hosting a solar farm info session. And this is from 6 to 730 on July 8th at Macedonia Christian Church on Winchester Road. I'm not sure how many of you are up to speed on what's going on here, but there's a proposed 1200 acres. Part of that is 300 acres from East Kentucky Power, which has to go through the PSC. But the remaining 800 acres are comprised in the Haley Pike area, five different farms and solar fields with sheep grazing. So a lot of people just want to get up to speed on that and find out what they can. So we're going to go ahead and hold an informational form and Q and A on that evening. I'll remind you again, but looking ahead, I just want everybody, if they want to get that date on their calendar. for the public to know. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Gray. Thank you, Mayor. Just making eye contact. First of all, I would like to say to the resident of 6th District, you asked for activities in the park. And you've asked for opportunities to showcase your talent. So guess what we have coming up in August. August 24th, we have 6th District Presents Who Has Talent? And we have now opened this up to all residents of Lexington to sign up for this opportunity. So I need people to sign up, to scan that QR code and sign up to showcase your talent. Bryan Station Marching Band is already going to be there to be the intermission songbirds, I guess, to play songs. So we would like to have you as well. Next, we have rescheduling of our next movie night, which will be Sixth District Movie Night. This time it will be at Mary Todd Elementary School. Something that has never happened in that neighborhood, in the Joyland neighborhood, is a movie night. So I'm glad that Mary Todd Elementary is willing to partner to have this movie of Kung Fu Panda 4. We will have food trucks and more. And so bring your whole family. This will be a great opportunity for, once again, for us all to come together and get to know one another. So everyone in Joyland, I hope to see you there, especially you. And finally, residents, this can be anyone in the city who has questions regarding Liberty Park, because my office receives many questions. We will be having a Liberty Park informational meeting at Frederick Douglas High School on July 16th in the cafeteria. So come on, bring all your questions. This is the time for you to get your questions answered by someone that really has an answer, not me. So thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Council Member Fogle. Okay, this is a double dip, but I wasn't finished. So shout out for the soul feast with Mimi's Restaurant. It's located in the first district and they were featured on the news yesterday. And Friday Night Flicks at Castlewood, I forgot to mention that. Street Voice Council, impacted people. I'm taking two busloads to Washington, D.C. They will be marching on Washington about House Bill 5 on the 29th. We will be in Washington, D.C. with Bishop William Barber of the Poor People's Campaign. They will be featuring Lexington. And also, a shout out to Miss Sally Hamilton and Parks for supplying those swim tickets for all the families. It's a big hit. Douglas is not finished. It's underway to be constructed. But the city allowed our kids to receive tickets to swim at any park in the city. So I want to make sure I say that. And back to that, the heat, I wanted to let you all know I had an episode where the sun was so hot and I was trying to participate in Douglas Park and my heart rate sped up and I just happened to sit down at a table, didn't look at the front of it, and I said can I sit here because I knew I was in distress. And I happened to be in front of Bluegrass Community Healthcare and they put the blood pressure cup on. I was at 70 over 40 and they put an ice pack on me. So it's really important that we take care of citizens because I know firsthand and thanks. I just can't thank the fire department enough for being on the scene. We have been plagued with sirens all week long. So police department, fire department, sheriff's department, constables, everybody in that realm, please, from the bottom of my heart, I just want to say thank you for the service that you do. And I think I covered everything, and that's my double deal for today. All right, thank you very much. That takes us to public comment for issues not on the agenda. And I'll ask if Jeannie Robinson is here. Okay. Are you yielding your time to Rick Day? Okay, thank you. Rick Day, you'll have six minutes. Welcome. My name is Rick Day and I live in the third district today. I will again compare people positions time of service and salaries in my effort to help current and future employees have a better idea how to manage their career at LFU CG. I also hope to show you the urban county council that even though HR and the administration might tell you that our policies are well defined and fair and equitable to all that in fact they can be very arbitrary and subjective. Let's compare how Brian and crystal were treated by our system. They both received promotions in 2023, Brian to a 522 and crystal to a 517. So this is not a comparison of salary, but a comparison of percentages. At the time, Brian had worked here five years. Crystal had worked here 18 years. HR recommended a salary for Brian, and he requested an additional 7%. The director and the commissioner agreed and both appealed. These are some of the terms the commissioner used for Brian. Fully support this salary. Experience and skill set add immense value. Qualifications are hard to quantify, and there is no learning curve. HR recommended a salary for Crystal, and she requested an additional 7%. The director did not appeal, but Crystal was told she could write her own appeal and send it to the commissioner. The commissioner did support the appeal. These are some of the things that commissioner used said about Crystal. Educated in the practices and policies of sewer line maintenance. Educational is an exceptional qualification. There's no learning curve. There's staff shortages. And finally, it is a hard to fill position. HR accepted the commissioner's appeal for both positions. Brian received the additional 7%. Crystal received an additional one-half of 1%. Surely, one-half of 1% must be some sort of a record low for appeals. And so you know, that was 15 cents on the hour. Brian salary passed another project manager senior who had been with LFG, LFU CG for over 10 years and in that current position longer than the time Brian had worked here. Crystal did not pass anyone. Let's look at Mark and Chris. Both are currently engineering, both are currently engineering section managers in water quality. Mark was a new hire in 2019 and became a section manager in 2020. Chris was hired hired in as a section manager one year later in 2021. He had several years experience with LFU prior to that but left and came back so he was considered a new hire. Mark was originally hired as a municipal engineer senior. At that time, HR recommended a starting salary based on their standard policies. The recommendation appeared to be higher than the minimum Mark had requested, but he never saw that recommended salary. Even before the offer was made, and even though it was higher than his minimum, the director appealed. Here are some of the terms the director used. Responsibility. Well-qualified candidate. challenging and fast-paced environment high degree of confidence of professionalism difficult time filling the position when Chris was hired HR recommended a salary based on standard policy the director appealed here's some of the things he said about Chris complexity of programs and capital projects responsibility expected of the section manager a well-qualified candidate challenging a face patient environment confidence and confidentiality of professional and here it is again hard to fill position HR agreed with both appeals mark got an additional 13 percent Chris got an additional 5 percent today they are both both say the same title of pay grade similar duties and responsibilities identical education experience mark has been in a current position one year longer than Chris but Chris has had more total years with LFU CG the director speaks highly of both mark makes almost seven percent more than Chris and that spread will continue to grow it will grow through by three percent next month and in our system there is nothing Chris can do to catch up. Nothing he can do to close that gap. It will be there the length of his career. Fair and equitable? I don't think so. Inspires excellence? I don't think so. For the record, I gave you the Vice Mayor a handout that shows HR's calculation of education experience for both Mark and Chris. They are almost identical. The next time here I hope to finish with the examples and I think I have saved the best for last. We will see if you agree. Council members we have no one else signed up for public comment. I do have one other communication for you and in in the past mayors have simply put this in front of you or sent it to you in email but out of respect for you i wanted to read it here today with you in the room and so i want to start by thanking council members for your considerate and careful deliberations and thoughtfulness in this budget process. You've made some very valuable contributions that will help our residents in many ways. My team and I approached this budget with the desire to do as much good as possible with the guiding principle that we would protect the taxpayer and the city's long-term financial health. We assessed every expenditure, especially recurring costs, and the potential impact they would have on future budgets. We carefully vetted the new positions' requests. And while there were many good ones that were unfunded in my budget, I felt we had to make sure we were living within our means. I do not want to make choices today that could potentially force us into increasing taxes in the future. And I believe in living within our means. Now, this is not personal at all. It's certainly my philosophy. And I cannot support the precedent set by increasing our projected revenue number by $750,000 without justification to add more recurring costs in the 10 new positions that council approved. With this in mind, I'm vetoing the 10 positions that Council added to the budget, and this will help protect our city's financial health into the future. And I thank you for your work every day. Thank you. And with that, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. All right. All those in favor, say aye. We are adjourned. Thank you. ¶¶