# Social Services and Public Safety Committee - February 25, 2025 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Committee · February 25, 2025 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/6347 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/6347?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2025-02-25 - **Body**: Committee - **Last revised**: March 27, 2026 - **Length**: 14,936 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1, with speaker labels folded in from Granicus closed-captioning. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Social Services and Public Safety Committee met on February 25, 2025, at 1:00 P.M., with Jennifer Reynolds presiding. The committee addressed a total of five agenda items during the session, ranging from administrative approvals to substantive policy briefings. Three presentations were delivered on informational topics, covering a CASA update, homeless encampment response and street outreach services, and a comprehensive review of code enforcement. The committee took 7 votes over the course of the meeting and heard no public comments. Two items were brought to a vote and approved: the January 28, 2025 Committee Summary and the Annual Review of Committee Items. ## Attendance The following 11 members were present at the February 25, 2025 Committee meeting: - Jennifer Reynolds - Dan Wu - Chuck Ellinger II - Tyler Morton - Shayla Lynch - Denise Gray - Joseph Hale - Amy Beasley - Whitney Elliott Baxter - Hilary Boone - Dave Sevigny No members were recorded as absent or late. ## Votes and Decisions The committee took the following actions during the February 25, 2025 meeting: - **Approval of the January 28, 2025 Committee Summary** [timestamp: 0:01:02]: Motioned by Whitney Elliott Baxter and seconded by Shayla Lynch. The summary was approved by voice vote. - **Remove "Expand the Adult Mental Health Court with an Aftercare Program" from committee referrals**: Motioned by Jennifer Reynolds and seconded by Whitney Elliott Baxter. The motion passed unanimously. - **Remove "Review of Golf Cart Policies" from committee referrals**: Motioned by Jennifer Reynolds and seconded by Whitney Elliott Baxter. The motion passed unanimously. - **Remove "Improvement of Fire Department Recruitment" from committee referrals**: Motioned by Jennifer Reynolds and seconded by Whitney Elliott Baxter. The motion passed unanimously. - **Remove "Emergency Financial Assistance Program" from committee referrals**: Motioned by Shayla Lynch and seconded by Joseph Hale. The motion passed unanimously. - **Amend ordinance to add graffiti as a public nuisance and reduce the time period for assessing citations** [timestamp: 1:34:23]: Motioned by Denise Gray. The motion passed by voice vote. - **Create ordinance related to the Landlord-Tenant Act** [timestamp: 1:35:26]: Motioned by Denise Gray. The motion passed by voice vote. All seven motions brought before the committee during this meeting passed. Four items were removed from the committee's referral list by unanimous vote. Two ordinance-related motions were approved by voice vote. ## Contested Items - **Graffiti as a Public Nuisance:** A point of contention arose during the meeting regarding the treatment of property owners whose properties are tagged with graffiti. The concern centered on whether it was fair to penalize property owners for graffiti, given that graffiti is itself a crime committed *against* them rather than by them. Participants raised questions about ensuring that any ordinance or policy framework dealing with graffiti as a public nuisance would treat affected property owners fairly and provide them with adequate support, rather than placing an undue burden on victims of the vandalism. The discussion reflected broader community opposition to an approach that could effectively punish property owners for circumstances outside their control. The meeting record does not indicate a final resolution to this disagreement, but the conversation focused on the need to balance public nuisance concerns with fair and supportive treatment of impacted property owners. ## Approval of the January 28, 2025 Committee Summary [timestamp: 01:02] The committee took up the approval of the summary from its January 28, 2025 meeting. Jennifer Reynolds led the discussion on this agenda item. No concerns or objections were raised regarding the contents of the summary, and the item was approved by the committee. ## CASA Update [timestamp: 01:34] Director Melinda Jameson delivered a presentation on CASA, covering the program's mission, volunteer requirements, and funding sources. Dan Wu also participated as a key speaker during this agenda item. The presentation addressed both the challenges facing the program and its successes. Specific details discussed included: - **Mission:** The core purpose and goals of the CASA program - **Volunteer requirements:** The expectations and qualifications for CASA volunteers - **Funding sources:** How the program is financially supported This item was informational in nature, and no formal action or vote was taken as an outcome of the presentation. *Note: The available data for this agenda item is limited to summary-level information. For full details on the specific figures, challenges, and successes discussed, readers are encouraged to consult the meeting transcript or recording beginning at timestamp 01:34.* ## Homeless Encampment Response and Street Outreach Services [timestamp: 27:54] Jeff Herron, Director, presented on the history and current state of homeless street outreach services, with a focus on the city's capacity to respond to encampments and the resources available to support that work. Herron's presentation covered the evolution of street outreach services and outlined the current operational landscape, emphasizing that existing resources have not kept pace with the demand for encampment response. Key points raised during the presentation included: - **Resource gaps:** Herron highlighted the need for increased resources dedicated to homeless encampment response, noting that current staffing and funding levels are insufficient to adequately address the scope of the issue. - **Dedicated encampment coordinator:** A central recommendation of the presentation was the need for a dedicated encampment coordinator — a position that does not currently exist — to provide focused oversight and coordination of encampment-related activities and outreach efforts. - **Historical context:** The presentation included a review of how street outreach services have developed over time, providing the committee with background on how the city arrived at its current service model. The item was informational in nature, and no formal action was taken by the committee. The discussion served to brief members on existing service gaps and lay the groundwork for potential future decisions regarding staffing and resource allocation for homeless encampment response. ## Comprehensive Review of Code Enforcement [timestamp: 52:04] Councilwoman Denise Gray and Lee Steele presented a comprehensive review of the city's code enforcement system. The presentation covered survey results, community feedback, and proposed ordinance changes aimed at improving how code enforcement operates. The item was informational in nature, providing the committee with an overview of findings gathered through community engagement, including survey data reflecting resident experiences and perspectives on code enforcement. The presentation also outlined proposed changes to existing ordinances as part of an effort to reform or strengthen the system based on that feedback. No final action was taken on this item, as it was presented for informational purposes. ## Annual Review of Committee Items The committee conducted its annual review of ongoing committee items under Agenda Item V. Jennifer Reynolds led the discussion, during which the committee examined the current list of committee referrals to determine which items remained active and which could be removed. As part of the review process, the committee decided to remove several items from the list of committee referrals, though the specific items removed are not detailed in the available record. The annual review was approved by the committee. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of the January 28, 2025 Committee Summary - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Remove Expand the Adult Mental Health Court with an Aftercare Program from the list of committee referrals - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Remove Review of Golf Cart Policies from the list of committee referrals - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Remove Improvement of Fire Department Recruitment from the list of committee referrals - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Remove Emergency Financial Assistance Program from the list of committee referrals - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Amend ordinance to add graffiti as a public nuisance and reduce the time period for assessing citations - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Create ordinance related to the Landlord-Tenant Act --- ## Full transcript Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. Thank you. minutes to present and then would like to ask my council member colleagues to be concise and try not to repeat one another as we're asking questions and working through this agenda. So, the first item on the agenda is the approval of the January 28th, 2025 committee summary. Are there any additions or corrections? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Second item on the agenda is our CASA update, which is our court-appointed special advocate. Vice Mayor Dan Wu is a sponsor. I will turn this over for an introduction. Thank you, Chair. As some of you might know, Council Member Savigny and I both serve as volunteers for CASA, so I think we at least understand how important this organization is to the Central Kentucky area and the work that they do. I know it's been a couple years since we've had an update from you all, and we have a new council as well, so I'm very happy to have Director Melinda Jameson here to kind of talk us through what it is that CASA does, just so we understand this organization a little better. So, take it away. Thank you. I'm going to jump right in to keep this moving. As many of you know, CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates, but what exactly is CASA? It's a chance to save a child's life, or in some cases, literally keep them out of an unsafe home. It is a nationwide program, and we're going to tell you a little bit more about what that looks like. We use screened and trained volunteers. Oh, I've got to do the slides? Let's see. Where do you? You want to click on? I'm not super techie. So, anyway, we use screened and trained volunteers that come from the community to advocate for abused and neglected children in the court system, and so our CASA volunteers are matched to a child or a sibling set, and they visit with that child or children at least monthly. They are court ordered, so they get medical records, school records, drug testing records of the biological parents, and they put all of that information into a report that goes to the judge, because the judges often never meet these children that they're making lifelong decisions on behalf of. At the end of that report, they make recommendations that could be as extreme as termination of parental rights. It could be maybe the biological parents are doing a great job, let's look at putting them back in the home. It could be the child needs an eye exam or wants to play baseball, but the objective of the CASA volunteer is to find a safe and permanent home for that child. We are unduplicated resource, so if a child doesn't have a CASA volunteer, there's nobody else providing that same service. CASA volunteers have to be at least 21 years of age. They go through a 30-hour training that we do on site. They take an oath of confidentiality, and they're required to have 12 hours of continuing education every year, and most cases last two to three years, so we really want them to commit to that amount of time, because often they're the only constant for the children. It's not abnormal for a child to be in six different placements. That can mean six different schools, six different teachers, so a lot of transition, and one of the stories I share that capsules it best is we had a sibling set, ages three, four, and five, that were moved to their sixth placement in two months, and they came running out the door when they saw the CASA volunteer's van pull up and said, we knew you'd find us. So often that CASA volunteer is a constant for these children that, due to no fault of their own, are seeing a lot of change. What makes CASA different from a social worker? So CASA volunteers are volunteers, as we said. They're not paid to be there, so they're there solely for what's in that child's best interest. Unlike state social workers, on average they have 35 cases. Most of our volunteers have one case, so they can spend a lot more time getting to know that child or sibling set and provide that judge with that information. Number two, here in Kentucky, social workers have to work towards reunification. For so long, we do not, if that's not in the best interest of the child. We're all for that, if it's a safe and permanent home. The mission of CASA of Lexington is to use trained and supervised volunteers, known as CASAs, to advocate for these children to have safe and permanent homes. Ultimately, one day, our vision is that every child here in our community has a safe and permanent home, but we're a ways from that happening. We'll keep moving, but our values are listed. So CASA is a national program. It is in 49 of our 50 states. North Dakota is the only state without a program. They require that you be an attorney to do the work that our volunteers do. We are one of over 950 local programs across the nation. Here in Lexington, the program began in 1986, completely under Lexington Fayette Urban County government. It was not until 2003 that we became the 501c3. You may ask why, due to budgetary issues. That was when the first position was cut by LFUCG. Later an additional position was cut, but in 2003, we became a 501c3. So where our funding comes from, it is raised by private donations, grants, fundraisers that we do in-house. I think some of you are coming Friday, so we'll be excited to see you. That's our largest gross earning fundraiser we do, and from local governments. And we'll hit on that a bit more in a second. In 2024, we had 275 volunteers doing the work, and we served 673 children. We served 7 counties, Fayette, Bourbon, Woodford, Scott, Jessamine, Garrett, and Lincoln counties. Here in Fayette County, is where the bulk of our services, our staff, and the dollars are spent. We had 163 volunteers last calendar year, and of the children we served, 423 were Fayette County children. Unfortunately, there were 1,060 new kids that entered the family court system in Fayette County alone last year. It's important to hear two things. That's the new kids that entered, not the total amount. So we're serving less than 20% of the need here in Fayette County. There's two things it takes to serve more children. You have to have the volunteers, but in order to have the volunteers, by state law, you have to have what are called volunteer managers, which is a paid staff person. So you have to have money, and you have to have volunteers. So we have seen quite a bit of growth. We are one of the fastest growing programs in the nation. So in 2000, the program served 70 children, and you'll see it jumps to the hundreds. Then in 2018, we hit 626, ended out last year with 673. You may notice that that's slightly less than in 2023. Very important to hear. Recruiting volunteers looks a whole lot different since the pandemic. It takes more staff time, which is money, right? And resources to bring in the same number of volunteers. And a big reason a volunteer goes through a 30-hour training, that's 30 hours of in-person staff leading training, plus preparing for it. What we've learned is people don't like to wait anymore. So if you say, we have a training starting in a month, no, I wanted to start yesterday. So we're having to offer more and more trainings. We used to offer four. We offered 11 last year. And we're going to need to offer even more to be able to keep our numbers up. So we'll keep going from there. This is a quick story I thought I'd share with you. This is actually a child from here in Fayette County. Zach is not his actual name. We've changed it for confidentiality. But he was one of five kids, so a sibling set, that came into care. They came into care due to extreme physical abuse and sexual abuse. And all the siblings, because there were five of them, got split up and were moved from foster home to foster home. And he would go from one place and it would disrupt, and so he was nowhere long-term. When we were assigned the case, we were told that he was autistic. As the CASA volunteer got to know him, she really felt like that assessment was not accurate. And so in her report, she began to recommend that he be evaluated. It did take about 18 months for that to happen, but guess what? He's not autistic. And he does have some other challenges, but he had been misdiagnosed and was receiving all the wrong treatments. So thanks to her, he is now on the proper course. But she also was the one that really advocated for these siblings to have sibling visits. Because they were bonded, but they'd been removed, they hadn't seen each other for over two years. That's hard, right? When that's who you grew up with, and it's your blood family. So they began having these visits, and he was visiting with one of his sisters, who the foster mom actually ended up adopting. And he established such a bond with his sister's now-adoptive mom that one day he said to her, would you give me a chance? And so she and the CASA volunteer started talking, decided it was a great idea. So she became his foster mother, and I'm pleased to say in December of this past year, she adopted him. So now we have two biological siblings living together in a safe, permanent home. What I didn't tell you is, he's a teenager. He has some challenges that are not like a typical child you may meet on the street. And so for him to be adopted into a forever home, that's huge. I really don't know that that would have happened without his CASA volunteer, because there wasn't someone striving to find that long-term placement. Now four of the five siblings have been adopted, and we're all going to hope that in 2025, the fifth is going to be adopted into a home. But that's a quick story. We mentioned a volunteer manager, but what exactly is that? That's a paid staff person. The majority of our staff are volunteer managers, and by state law, we are required to have one full-time volunteer manager for every 30 CASA volunteers. So like I said, it's not a matter of just recruiting the volunteers. We also have to raise the funds to pay the staff. So sort of that chicken and egg. We need both of them. Now they go on the first home visit with the volunteer to meet the child or children. They're always at court hearings here in Fayette County. We have five courts every week. And they get assigned the new cases when a judge appoints us to a case, and they guide the CASA volunteer through the process, because our volunteers come from all walks of life. So they're there to answer questions and help them through that process. So this chart shows out of our seven counties, this is our operating budget, and numbers are for the calendar year 2023 that you're looking at. That year we served 681 children. Our program budget was just shy of 1.4. So looking at our full total cost and number of kids served, that would mean each kid we served cost $2,030. And then what you see is each of our counties, and down bottom you'll see the number of children that were served in that county, as well as the amount of funds that it cost to serve those kids, and the amount that came in. So we received direct financial contributions from Bourbon, Garrett, Jessamine, Lincoln, Scott, and Woodford County. And then we received in kind, of course, from LFUCG, you pay my salary, which thank you, but that is the funding that we received through Fayette County. And some of the other counties also give in kind in addition to direct support through office space, utilities, etc. Because we have offices in all of the counties except Jessamine. So that shows a breakdown, and I think the next up is we have time still for the video, and I'm at 40 seconds left. In Kentucky, we are top of the list for a lot of things, horse racing, Bourbon, but unfortunately, we're also at the top of the list for child abuse and neglect. And that's one thing we have to change. Children are our future, and we need to invest in them while we have time. I think it's important that they're not forgotten. I hate to say this, but the courts isn't unbroken, okay? That's why they need CASA volunteers. As a CASA, I am a consistent person on the case. CASA volunteers are matched with children in the family court system who have suffered abuse or neglect. The volunteer's goal is to soak up as much as they can about their CASA child's life and condense it into a report for the judge on the case. The CASA volunteer spends time with the child, examines the situation from a fresh perspective, and provides a simple but game-changing report that guides everyone to exactly what needs to happen. There's an opportunity to really protect and meet the needs of children who may have been neglected or did not get what they needed in those moments. CASA representatives are so important and so effective in these children's lives because they're able to spend more time with them, do things, and dig deep into what's really going on in the child's life. The kids have reacted well to having someone in their corner. The fact that they have someone that they can go to and discuss their feelings and frustrations I think makes it a very important part of their lives. They're getting some consistency. They know that I've got their back. I'll say my piece in court. I'm not shy. I've done that. I have no other goal than to be here for you, to support you in what you need. I can kind of see some of the effects that these family situations have on the kids, and it's very important, I think, that they have somebody they know they can count on to listen to them. The children I've worked with on CASA cases have just been so bright and so hopeful. They're all unique. They're all individuals. What this child needs, this child might not, and whatever they need, we're here to help them. What I'm doing is doing because these kids don't have a voice unless there's somebody that is a constant in their life. In every single case that I've worked with so far, something would have fallen through the cracks. At the end of the day, you're helping to change a child's life while they're going through maybe one of the roughest times of their life. CASA is vital. When I found out about CASA, I said, look, I've got to do this. CASA is intentional. CASA is changing children's lives. CASA is a difference maker. CASA is a chance to give back. CASA is a way into a brighter future. CASA is the best way I know of to help a child in need. CASA is life-changing. Caring. Supportive. The greatest. Invaluable. Hope. Hope. This is what I'd say. CASA is amazing. We thought it was important you hear from some of our volunteers doing the direct work about what is CASA. It's a lot more than an acronym. We have some of our board members here. If you're a board member, raise your hand or stand up. So we've got several here today that understand firsthand the importance of this work. So we want to thank you. I think I've still got 30 seconds. So if there's any questions, I'd be happy to attempt to entertain them. Okay. Thank you so much, Ms. Jamison, for being here and your presentation and for the very important work that you and your organization does. So I'll open the floor for questions or comments from colleagues. Sign in. I'll recognize Council Member Sheehan. Thank you, Chair, for recognizing me because I'm not on this committee. Thank you for this presentation and certainly thank you and thank the board and thanks to all the volunteers who work with this organization. You talked a little bit about the funding that you receive from us in the other counties and the fundraising that you do. Do you have other grants that you receive or funding from other levels of government? Yes. So federal and state, which federal is interestingly changing. So the grant, it is no longer our largest, but it's called VOCA, Victims of Crime Act, if you're familiar with that. It's federal funds, but technically it's not. It's funds that those, when they're prosecuted, pay in that go to crimes affecting victims and that's passed through at the state level. So it's federal funds passed down to the state. That has decreased. Probably five years ago we were receiving about $300,000. That has shrunk to $138,000 currently and things are evolving with that. We don't have time to get into that, but I'll happily share with you some changes around it later. Our other large grant is a state grant and that is a non-competitive grant that comes through the Justice Cabinet to Kentucky CASA Network and is allocated based on the number of active volunteers you have. There is a base amount, so we are the largest CASA program in the state, so there are a lot of smaller programs that rely on that base in addition to the funding formula based on your active volunteers. Currently for that, that's right at $300,000 and expected to decrease slightly for the upcoming fiscal year. Okay, and my next question was going to be about potential changes in federal funding. It sounds like you might be expecting some of those. So the great news for us is that's less than 10% of our operating budget and our values and CASA of Lexington will remain committed to serving all children and ensuring that they have a safe and permanent home. There is a lot of discussions and unknowns because even though it's a federal grant, it is technically not federal tax dollars. It is also passed through at the state level. But I think as we all know, every day is evolving and changing and at CASA of Lexington we're very fluid and we are committed to continuing to serve as many children as we can because we believe all children deserve a safe and permanent home. Thank you. And I also want to say thank you to the Vice Mayor for bringing this update to us for the presentation. Thank you, Chair. Council Member Spigney. Thank you for recognizing me and thank you, Linda, for the presentation. I just wanted to go back to the one slide that you had that was basically the by county. I don't know if there's a way to bring that back up. So there you go. What I'm seeing there at the bottom is the number of kids that we serve, I think, in each one of those counties. And then is it the, is the one, so that for Fayette County it's 449. Correct. Right. It's basically the cost of the program, about $911,000 for Fayette County. For the number of children served in the calendar year 2023, yes. When we did this, we hadn't finalized 2024 numbers. It's not drastically different if we were to look at percentages, but that's something we could easily get to everyone. But it hasn't changed much at all. And the number above that, the $100,000, that's the number that as Fayette County Government that we're providing you because you're not getting any money from the courts or anything like that, correct? Correct. As long as the program gets funding from the courts. So that would be my salary with estimated cost of benefits and retirement included. And the relative numbers of the other counties are all in line there, is that correct? Correct. And those numbers, all of the other counties contribute straight funding, but then some also contribute in kind. And so that's office space, utilities, and previously LFUCG did that here as well, but we outgrew that space and now we're in a space that the non-profit purchased and owns. So unfortunately we have to pay all the utilities, phones, internet, IT support. Okay. Yeah, and I just wanted to share with colleagues because I'm also a CASA volunteer, it's an amazing value that I would say that we're getting as Fayette County, but I do think that there's probably an equity issue here that we need to contemplate as we think about our budget. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Director Jamieson for your presentation. I knew you could do it under 15 minutes. Thank you to the board and other folks, staff, who are here. We really appreciate your work and I've seen it from the inside just as Council Member Savigny has. I think CASA is the very definition of punching above its weight. You all do a lot with a little. I want to remind everybody, there's still tickets left for bourbon? No, sir. We are sold out, but you can bid on items right now. If things get lofty as the presentations go on, get on casalexington.org and if you see a live auction item, we will offer you a proxy through tomorrow. Or some of your colleagues are coming, maybe you can give them your credit card. That's right. And thank you to my colleagues who will be attending on Friday. It's always a super-duper fun event. Melinda mentioned the two things that you all need to do the work that you do. You need volunteers and you need money. So even if we suddenly got a huge influx of volunteers, you still need paid supervisors, paid managers to manage them, and I've seen firsthand how important that is. I couldn't do what I do as a volunteer without Liz, without Dennis, folks like that guiding us along. So if you'll pull up that last slide again, as Council Member Savigny alluded to, those figures are pretty stark given that Fayette County, I think I did some back of the napkin math, is like 70-something percent of the kids that we serve in this seven-county area. Given that we are the bulk of using this service, we have the lowest percentage of contribution from our city and county government. I did an average of the other six counties and it came out to I think around 45, 46% of their contribution to the total cost of serving children in those counties. So what I would love for us to do, just honestly in terms of fairness and to punch at our weight with our neighboring counties is to get us up to that 45, 46%. And that, I believe, is just over $400,000. So I will be bringing a budget ask during our budget process, whether through links or other means during our budget, and I would love your support. That amount doesn't even necessarily increase the capacity or increase the number of kids that CASA can take on per se. What it does is it lets Fayette County pay its fair share compared to the other counties. And I think that's more than fair. And again, that money is going to get us operating costs, it's going to get us volunteer managers, it's going to get us volunteers, it's going to get us to cover more kids. Because as you saw, we served 400 something kids and there were an additional 1,000 kids entering the system. So it's a really, really steep hill to catch up on. But I think we need to do our part to contribute to that. So thank you all so much for the work that you all do, and thank you for your presentation. Councilman Gray. Thank you, Vice Chair Baxter. And thank you for your presentation. I'm over here. So regarding the funding, so going along with my colleagues Savigny, not Saviggy, and Vice Mayor Wu mentioned regarding us carrying our fair share of the weight. Why don't the courts fund any part of what you do? I'm just curious. I mean, that's a little bit above my pay grade, I would say, but I'd invite you to Frankfurt to suggest that. No, I'm meaning have you all requested from the- So the state funding that comes to Kentucky CASA Network, so that's not CASA of Lexington, that's our state organization, comes through the Justice Cabinet, and that is our largest grant that we have that I mentioned, the $300,000. So that is taxpayer dollars that are coming in at the state level that are allocated to our state organization, and that's the non-competitive grant that I mentioned, that there's a funding base, and then based on the number of active volunteers determines your funding amount. We currently have the largest grant in the state because we are the largest CASA program. So the courts or the justice system is actually funding a portion? That's not the justice system. That is Kentucky State Government. So it's not the AOC, if that's what you're talking about, Administrative Office of the Courts. We do not get funding from the Administrative Office of the Courts. From state to state, it's very different when you go across the United States. So some states, it would come through the AOC. Here in Kentucky, we got funding for the first time, I believe it was nine years ago. We were blessed here in Lexington. I got Bob Babbage to be our pro bono lobbyist for a dollar a year. We did not have a state organization at that time. That funding formed the Kentucky CASA Network, which has expanded the program across the state. I think now we're in 100 counties out of 120, and they are the pass-through of those state dollars. I don't know that that answers your question, but it's not AOC funds. Thank you. I'll ask my questions on the state level. Sure. And I'm happy to connect you with the CEO of Kentucky CASA Network if you'd like to discuss that further. Anyone else? Okay, I don't see anyone else signed up, so thank you so much for coming today. Absolutely, and if anybody has questions, you're more than happy to email me, and I'll get that information to you. Have a good day. Thank you all for your work. Okay, colleagues, we're moving on to our next agenda item, which is Homelessness Encampment Response and Street Outreach Services. This will be presented by Director Jeff Herron in the Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention, also known as OPI, and he is here with us today. This item is Councilor Reynolds' item, and she asked me to read this since she was unable to present and introduce this item. She says, I put this item into committee as an effort to further address issues surrounding homelessness in Lexington and give the OPI office more resources to be able to better respond to the overwhelming needs they are presented with on a daily basis. One of the largest areas of concern for my constituents over the past few years have been centered around homeless issues, both downtown and across the city. Adding an encampment coordinator and additional street outreach workers to directly work with the unhoused on the streets will allow Director Herron to do the rest of his job. There is evidence to show that similar approaches have worked in other cities. We have had an increase of folks on the streets, and we need an increased response beyond increased emergency shelters. As Director Herron will mention, it could be with the Hope Center as a partner agency, increased scope of paramedicine, or direct employees of the city. My desire is for us to seriously consider this position and several contract positions for this upcoming year. Thank you, Director Herron. With that, thank you for being here, and you may take it from here. Thank you for the opportunity. First, I just want to give a brief overview of what homeless street outreach services are. Having a homeless situation that you're experiencing is more than simply lacking a home. It oftentimes means other challenges that could involve a lack of transportation. Many individuals experiencing homelessness walk miles each day accessing services and meeting their basic needs. It could be lack of access to a telephone. Therefore, it's no surprise that we have a number of persons experiencing homelessness that do not always actively seek out assistance for themselves. And street outreach services are the mechanism by which we ensure that they have that service connection. It reduces barriers to people experiencing homelessness by meeting them where they are geographically, physically, and emotionally, and mentally. And works to address not only their basic and immediate needs, but to facilitate longer term solutions through connection to permanent housing and other essential services. To give a history of street outreach services in Fayette County, we implemented street outreach as a pilot program in 2016. That initial iteration was funded to the Hope Center at approximately $75,000 a year. This was largely intended to be a first touch service that would outreach and identify these individuals. And be the connection point to other case managers and other services. It was funded with one program coordinator and a peer support specialist. And had an initial target of serving 40 unduplicated households per year. They focused on services such as facilitating access to emergency shelter, connection to mainstream benefits, and completing assessments for our coordinated entry system. Next, this was funded initially out of the Innovative and Sustainable Solutions Fund. By ordinance, there is a restriction on that fund for being the source of ongoing operations for any particular program or entity. And so when we look at this source for continued funding in the area of street outreach, we're making modifications. We're trying to push the model further to ensure that it would meet the spirit of that fund. There's been a lot of challenges in identifying sustainable funding for street outreach. Many of the sources that we could tap into at the federal level may have caps for things like services. That would mean that it's a decision between funding something like outreach and potentially taking funding away from something like emergency shelter. So after the initial pilot, we did an RFP for an expanded model that would increase the levels of service. That ultimately went to Community Action Council who operated an assertive street outreach program paired with intensive case management running approximately 2019 to 2023. This was a much more robust model funded at 280,000 a year that included two intensive case management team coordinators, two peer support specialists, and a part-time clinician. It's important to note that one of those peer support specialists and the clinician were both contracted with another agency. This team carried out an active caseload in addition to facilitating initial contacts so they could complete those higher level service needs and produce better outcomes. They targeted serving 110 individuals or households annually with outreach contacts and maintained about 30 individuals on an intensive case management caseload per year. Once we hit the pandemic, a lot changes for the homelessness response system and the same is true of our street outreach services. Community Action Council's team became the operator of a non-congregate shelter to help provide shelter for persons that were in encampments and other settings, but also to help alleviate the pressures of our congregate emergency shelter system. That took a significant amount of their time and capacity and so LFUCG then moved to leverage coronavirus funding to expand outreach services. This included additional funding that was awarded to both the Hope Center and Lexington Rescue Mission who took on a lot of the initial contacts and a lot of the work in addressing homeless encampments while Community Action Council's team was still largely tied to a lot of those shelter activities. And then we went ahead and we modified our approach again and funded through the Innovative and Sustainable Solutions Fund a third iteration of outreach services. This was focused on trying to expand the availability of services, making sure that we had additional hours of operation. The first two iterations would have largely been limited to something like business hours when a lot of steps would need to be taken to try to facilitate housing, visiting a property, applying for food stamps, things that oftentimes had to be done during daytime hours. Funded initially at $300,000 annually, now increased to just over $316,000 annually, Hope Center is the current contract vendor for this project. They expanded outreach to operate Monday through Friday with two shifts, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., but also with the ability to receive after-hours contacts and to do flex scheduling as needed. Their team currently is comprised of a program coordinator, a peer support specialist, a housing navigator, a caseworker and SOAR specialist, and a part-time clinician. They also added in year two two peer mentors to supplement the services and also to ensure that there were persons that were equipped to engage the individuals that they're working with and have lived experience of homelessness. It's important to note they brought all of this into a single team. Which met some of the challenges that we had with the previous iteration where there was a collaboration between two entities. The part-time clinician for Community Action Council's outreach program, that actually got shifted to an individual who was working in New Vista's drop-in center, which extremely limits their ability to just go into the field as needed. And we kind of fell back into that trap of scheduling appointments, trying to get someone to come into an office setting, which kind of defeats the spirit of street outreach. This iteration targeted serving 60 unduplicated contacts monthly. So you can tell that this is obviously a big increase from what the previous teams were proposing. And maintains an active caseload of about 40 intensive case management clients at any given time. Essentially 20 clients per shift. What prompted this conversation between Council Member Reynolds and I was the increased need for these services, and in particular that aligns with data that we're seeing within our homeless system. For example, we have seen a significant increase in unsheltered homelessness, such as within our 2024 LEX count. That identified 82 persons as being unsheltered, up from 38 persons in 2023, so over 100% increase. And over 500 persons have been contacted by Hope Center Street Outreach Team in their initial annual period alone. We've also seen an increase in the number of encampments and other issues reported to the Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention. This means that we are spending more time addressing these issues. It's also having an increase in cost for the city. In fiscal year 24, we cleared 28 camps, and that average cost was about $1850, and over $50,000 was spent in that fiscal year to remove camps. I should also note that we're frequently seeing that we are cleaning oftentimes the same locations or locations in a similar area. If an individual does not engage the team and move to permanent housing, they're simply just reestablishing another camp. So essentially, we have to find a more effective solution to get to the root cause and to produce better outcomes. These figures are up from fiscal year 23, in which we performed 25 encampment removals with a cost under $40,000 and even a lower average cost per camp. This is all compounded by the effect of House Bill 5, which went into effect July 15 of 24, and effectively makes public camping illegal. This means that we sometimes have urgent needs to try to facilitate a solution for someone to try to avoid them racking up fines, criminal history, that make it more difficult for us to ultimately permanently house them. It also means that it presents some practical challenges. It may be more difficult for us to locate and consistently keep contact with individuals. They may be in fear of legal action and more hidden, more hard for us to identify. So how do we move forward? Simply put, we need to put more resources into this area. To give some context, the Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention currently holds only three staff positions, fulfilling all the duties of the local continuum of care, but also doing things like overseeing the local response to homeless encampments. Louisville Metro Government maintains at least 10 positions within their homeless services office, and they would primarily be the mechanism there that would address things like homeless encampments. And then Louisville's Coalition for the Homeless, an external nonprofit organization, serves as their continuum of care lead and has over 20 staff members. Meanwhile, collectively, my staff of three are doing all of this work. What we are proposing for fiscal year 26 is the establishment of a new position, an encampment coordinator. This position would be responsible for facilitating our response to encampments in compliance with our standard operating procedures, coordinating the activities of contracted street outreach services that we have with entities such as the Hope Center, and collaborating with internal divisions to actually conduct camp removals. One of the things that I think is important to remember is that the folks that are currently contracted for street outreach, their specialty is going to lie in having lived experience and being able to connect with individuals, building rapport, understanding services, and facilitating services. They may not be experts at administrative tasks such as managing timelines and returning to projects for updates, which then falls on me as the director of this office. We probably receive, in some weeks, as many as 10 or more items reported to us that we are responsible for assessing, working from a service perspective, and then ultimately ensuring that there is a cleanup performed. So this would greatly increase not only our ability to respond to outreach issues, but it would also have a significant impact on the capacity of the OHPI. The estimated cost for an encampment coordinator position, including salary and fringe, would be $85,000 annually. And we are also requesting a vehicle for use with this. This would be a position where I would definitely not want a staff taking their personal vehicle into some of these locations. That would be an initial cost of about $45,000. In addition to bringing in a dedicated staff that would help us to better manage these activities, I would like to leave you with some additional recommendations. One would be to identify a sustainable source of funding for street outreach services. This could look like modifying Ordinance 103-2014, which is the ordinance governing the Innovative and Sustainable Solutions Fund, to potentially remove that restriction on ongoing funding, essentially putting the sustainable back in Innovative and Sustainable Solutions. Additionally, I have the ultimate goal of moving outreach services to a point where they would be 24-7 services. We see a lot of needs, especially right now in the wintertime, that would have us need to have somebody that's available to guide a service situation, make connections, make referrals. And sometimes it is a very important, timely need that may have an impact, like whether or not someone survives the night. Additionally, we can look at some other best practice models that have been implemented in other communities and have had a significant impact in their response to homelessness. Some of these models include integration with law enforcement. There are a number of communities that are currently operating homeless outreach teams within their law enforcement departments. But also we can look at approaches such as integration with paramedicine teams. These have been a significant factor in communities like Sarasota, Florida, which reduced their homeless population approximately 50%, as well as Wichita, Kansas, which in less than a 10-year period reduced chronic homelessness over 75%. Finally, while street outreach works to meet someone's basic needs, we ultimately have to have places that we can transition people to. We definitely need to expand interim housing options. The bulk of the residents that we work with in encampments have significant barriers to accessing existing shelter. That could be anything from having pets, household compositions that are not served by current resources, or things like mental health and substance use challenges. So essentially we need to remember that housing is what ends homelessness, and that includes interim housing and permanent housing. I know we have a pack agenda, so I tried to move quickly, but I'm definitely open for questions. Thank you, Director. You did wonderful on your time. I appreciate that. Colleagues, I'll open it for conversation. Councilmember Morton. Thank you for your presentation. The first question, the presentation suggests exploring innovative models used in other communities, such as embedding outreach teams within law enforcement or integrated paramedicine. Have you spoke with the public safety entities, and what are their thoughts on that? So I've not had a more recent conversation, but in the past I think the primary hurdle has been the staffing capacity and the shortage of officers that we have, that it would just be difficult without us getting that increased to be able to dedicate staff for this purpose specifically. Right now we utilize heavily our neighborhood resource officers who are involved in a lot of our coordinated activities, especially when we're working to address our high utilizers of service. Great. You also mentioned modifying the ordinance 103-2014 as an option for sustainable funding and removing restrictions. Can you speak a little bit more in detail about, I guess, how you're limited by the restrictions and what this may do? Yeah. So right now we essentially, we are not able to continually go back to that funding source for the same service, for the same program, for the same facility. We've kind of been creative with doing new iterations of what we're asking for street outreach to provide, but essentially when we've looked at sustainable funding, for example, community development block grant dollars, we only have about 15% of those funds that can be dedicated towards services, and we have a number of service providers that already rely on that funding source. Emergency solutions grants, we would be looking at taking money away from shelters like Arbor Youth and Greenhouse 17 if we committed that to outreach. We are not able to do outreach activities under the continuum of care program. So if we were to remove that restriction from ordinance, we would essentially be able to continue to fund certain services that we find to be essential out of the Innovative and Sustainable Solutions Fund without having to constantly modify the model. If we find a best practice that's working, we could sustain it from that source alone. That seems to be a practical move given that that fund has recently shifted from a flat $750,000 annually to a percentage of the previously completed fiscal year's revenues. It's effectively doubled that fund. The current year I received $1.438 million, so just short of double, and for next fiscal year it's projected to be over $1.5 million. And then lastly, and maybe you can answer or Commissioner Lancer, can you just provide a brief update on the feasibility study that we have out, where we're at in the process, and when will we be receiving, I guess, more detailed information about that? I'm sorry? The feasibility study. Right. So working on that with the EHI consultants team right now, they are at a stage where they have the draft largely completed, working through reviewing that with them, making some recommendations. I believe right now our primary holdup is looking for a slot where we can hold that presentation within council. We have a lot of things that are already booked, but we are looking at completion around late spring. So definitely by early summer we would hopefully be able to share that information. Thank you. Council Member Sheehan. Thank you, Chair, for recognizing me. Thank you for all of the work that you do, along with your staff. I know as a member of the Homelessness Prevention and Intervention Board, it is a lot. And our community definitely benefits from having you in this position and all of the work that you do with your staff. I have a couple points to make. First, on the scheduling of the report about the feasibility study, that is an item in general government and planning committees. So we have been working on trying to get that scheduled. It is a tight schedule, but I actually have asked to have that presented to work session instead of the committee, because of the considerable council interest in that particular project. So still waiting on confirming a time for that. Then for the encampment and street outreach coordinator position, I do want to state that I will be in support of this position. about the encampment cleanup and the street outreach programs in the board meetings for the HPI board. And I do think this is a significant amount of work and we could devote a person to this to kind of free up space to do other work. And then, with regard to the ordinance and the changes for the Innovative and Sustainable Solutions Fund, that's a mouthful. I know this has come up in our board discussions. I think from a council perspective, it would be helpful if we could talk about that within the board and the subcommittees of the board and bring recommendations to council from the board and everyone that's involved with the COC, the continuum of care. And as a board member and a council member, I would be willing to then bring those recommendations to council and council member Beasley is our newest member on the board for the next council seat. So if you would like to work together on bringing recommendations on that ordinance to the council, I'd be willing to work with you on that. But if that's okay with you, do you think that sounds good? We can work together. I appreciate your support. I want to make sure that we also look at what unintended consequences that could have and if we truly think it's the right path forward. Thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor Wood. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Director, for your presentation and your work. I will also support the encampment coordinator. As you said, we talked about punching above our weight earlier in our presentation and your team definitely does that as well and we'd like for you to get a little more weight, I guess. That analogy is falling apart, never mind. But one of the things in your presentation that really stuck out to me, and I think is a good reminder, is these three words that say housing ends homelessness. All the work that your office does is important, but it's always kind of chasing after a problem and slapping as many band-aids on it as possible. And I think we have to, as a council and as a government, not lose sight of the fact that housing ends homelessness, period. So let that really inform a lot of our decisions in solving these problems, so that we're not always just chasing them, that we can be a little more proactive. So thank you for that reminder. Thank you. And I would just kind of add, since we've been talking about the restrictions on the Innovative and Sustainable Solutions Fund. One of the barriers that we would have from doing something like funding permanent housing out of that fund is we cannot house people and then take their housing away. So removing that restriction could also be a pathway for using that to support the expansion of permanent supportive housing. Okay, I think that's it. Thank you so much for your time and your presentation. Appreciate it. Okay, moving on. Our next item on the agenda is the Comprehensive Review of Code Enforcement. And Councilwoman Gray is the sponsor and presenter of this item. I will turn it over to you, Councilwoman, for your presentation. Thank you, Vice Chair. It is a pleasure to be here to present the work that has been done for over a year regarding code enforcement. Before going any further, I would like to begin with thanks, because one person cannot do this alone. And behind every council member is a whole team of people helping us to serve our districts in the city. So I would like to thank, first of all, my legislative aides, plural, throughout this process, beginning first with Tiffany Duncan and Jan Telfer, and my current legislative aide, Heather Parrish. I would like to say thank you to my colleague, my friend, Councilmember Shayla Lynch, and her legislative aide, LaShawn Barber. I would like to say thank you to the division of law, Gabrielle, aka Gabby Thatcher and Michael Santer. I would like to say thank you to Lexcal Director Kendra Carter and CIO Liz Rogers. And lastly, thank you to the Division of Code Enforcement for being open to make some changes, and thank you to Director Lee Steele for being a teammate and walking side by side throughout this entire process. The entire process. So, why are we talking about code enforcement? Why did I place this into committee? It goes back to the mayor's racial justice, and is it equality? Report recommendation, which was for recommendation number two regarding housing and gentrification. It stated that changes must be made, must be implemented in the division of code enforcement. Our recommendation is the housing code of the city of Lexington be reimagined, aka revamped, into a code agency that places the health, well-being, and protection of residents, especially the most vulnerable. And neighborhoods as its mission. And I believe throughout last year, we did that. So, we began the process, Council Member Shayla Lynch and I, we started off with town halls. I'm a big proponent of community outreach. We started off at the warehouse in the first district. We went to St. Raphael in the 10th district. We went to Liberty Elementary School in the great 6th district. And we were at STEAM Academy in the 2nd district. And the Lexington Senior Center, which is in the 5th district. And lastly, back to the wonderful 6th district, where Frederick Douglas High School is located. Where we ended up doing a follow-up town hall to let the residents know of the work that we have been doing throughout our entire year. because that was a promise that we made at the town hall. So, thank you to Council Member Shayla Lynch for reminding me of the promise and making me stay true to my word. So, part of the town halls, we implemented also a survey. A survey that went out to, I asked my colleagues to share it and other offices around the city to share it as well. So from that, we had 711 residents that responded. However, of those who completed the survey, it kind of dwindled off. We, let me go back. I believe we only had 216 out of the 711 who started to actually complete it. Because one of the issues, and it was my fault, is that if you weren't personally affected by code enforcement, the survey closed automatically. Because we wanted people to have, who had actual one-on-one, or they knew someone who had experience with code enforcement to supply their answers. So that we can actually learn from those challenges that we may have had in the past. So, I'm going to fast forward through some of these. Let's keep going. So one of the biggest issues that I found from the residents is that many were upset that residents were not notified of the complaint or request. And these were not the actual homeowners. We're talking about the people who submitted the complaint. And I worked throughout with LexCal to see what we can do to remedy this situation. So, let's keep going. So, right here we have the demographics of those who completed the survey. And I went about this, I tried to do different modes of getting answers and responses from our residents because everyone's not online. However, I was not successful in getting as much outreach for those individuals who don't have access to computers, and I tried. I did door to door, I knocked on people's doors to ask them questions. That was not successful. So, I'm hopeful that coming in the future that we'll have a better way to contact those people who don't have access or who don't want access to the Internet. So, a majority of our residents who completed the survey were 60 and over. So, this right here is the breakdown that is, for me, as a council member, was the most important. I wanted to see where was I hearing from residents the most often. And, of course, since I was the one handling this, I made sure I pushed this big time in my district. Second to my district was the 11th district. The 11th district is an area where we have a large number of apartments located there, and we also have a large number of individuals who speak languages other than English. So, that right there was, I'm glad that we were able to get this survey in different languages. We were able to translate it into Spanish, of course, which is our number one, second language that's spoken in Lexington. But we were even able to get this into Kirwandan and to other languages as well. So, our top issues that were reported according to the survey was one, no follow up from code enforcement, and this is not to the homeowners. Again, this is to the people who actually submit by calling LexCall, which is the one call to City Hall, or going online to lexingtonky.gov. And one of the issues that I noticed was if you don't put your email address in there, you're not ever going to get a follow up, and I was not able to fix that. Also, according to residents, once they put in their complaint, it was often missing. Like, they would put in their complaint, it would end up on the map, and then it would disappear. So, that's something that I worked out with Liz Rogers and LexCall. Sidewalls is always an issue. It's always going to be an issue for us, and thank goodness we have Director Lee Still, who is coming up, he's come up with some inventive ways to make sure we show compassion. And that we use our customer service skills as a city to communicate with our residents about what opportunities we have to, instead of being fined, what can we do to abate this situation? Another issue was the overgrowth of trash in yards and cars parked in yards. Cars parked in yards is a major issue, but that goes down also to some of the issues with our neighborhood development plans, where we have neighborhoods that have extremely short sidewalls, where you can't fit even one car in your driveway. So, that's an issue. And also, an issue from residents was code enforcement interactions. So, some of the improvements that I established, I passed out to you all something that I failed to place in the packet, sorry. It's a map of the code enforcement, if you go to the code enforcement page, you will notice prior to me doing this, it was all the blocks, all the dots were one color. And Cash, who was the director prior, he began working on that before he left. And so now, when the residents go to that code enforcement map, it's now color coded. It will help our residents better understand what the map is saying. In addition, my work with Lex Call, Director Carter, and Liz Rogers is that it's remedied the issue of residents not getting a follow-up. And working on ways for how our Lex Call customer service reps put the information into Salesforce, which is the software that they use, in making sure that it's fully complete, in making sure that each area is filled out. And Director Lee still has been working on that as well. So now, going forward, once we solidify everything, residents will now be getting a follow-up at the very end. So there will automatically be an update that will be sent to residents, which will give them a link to go to look at the complaint, to see what was the remedy. Okay, and I have passed out three ordinances. I know that throughout the year, many people, when I say revamp, it kind of confused people. In that I was not, my intent was never to throw the baby out with the bath water. It was always to make life better for our residents and for our employees. So with that, with the town halls, I noticed these three issues. And real issues coming from our citizens advocate was that, I'm hearing ugly, was one, many residents were afraid, tenants were afraid to submit their code enforcement reports or complaints due to fear of being retaliated because of that. And that was a real fear. One incident in particular, we had a resident that was living in feces for months. And because she finally contacted the citizens advocate, and the citizens advocate let me know what was going on, and we worked on this ordinance together. So actually, this ordinance is state law that we just revamped into our local ordinance. So that ordinance is just straight state law for the Tenants Landlord Act. Additionally, you will see that we have added nuisance as being a, excuse me, graffiti being a nuisance. Prior to this, it was just being listed as a criminal complaint. And the way that it was written is that it goes to the sheriff's office, who was then in charge of abating the issue. So the sheriff's office stopped doing that, but still had the information on their website. So I reached out to have them scrap that information, and then I added this as a nuisance. So we have code enforcement. They can oversee it and remedy the situation without penalizing the landowner. And lastly, The last one is just where we change the fine from being 24 months down to 12 months. That was the only changes that I've made. In addition, there are more changes to be coming forth in the future, because Council Member Shayla Lynch is still working on her areas, and she will be reporting later on in the year. But next up, I would like for Director Lee Steele to come up and give us more insight. Thank you, Councilor. Thank you, Councilor. Member Gray. I see us forward and back. Well, I'm excited to be here. Appreciate the opportunity to tell you about some updates that we've made at Code Enforcement. This will go from the fall of 23 to current day. Let me get it going here. Here we go. Many of you remember as Director Al Shabby exited, we received our accreditation for the International Accreditation Service. A lot of people doesn't know what that program does. Just like our internal audit system here at Urban County Government, we do quarterly reporting to this service. We do an annual review. They point out our deficiencies, where we're doing good, where we're doing bad. It has about 14 to 18 different categories that we report on. It includes everything from three hours, half a day with each officer's being ridden by a supervisor each quarter. They're in the background taking down notes on what they see, if they're observing them missing any life safety, being too harsh, being too overzealous. It's a complete package of auditing ourself quarterly and annually. Unlike in the past, we were getting audited probably every four to five years internally. Our permanent housing officers are all licensed by the state of Kentucky, which does dictate a certain level of certification that is required for a residential building inspector in the state of Kentucky. We encourage all of our staff to not only require to obtain the minimum, but to become fully certified. And that's your one and two family, which is usually a single family resident, duplex. And to be fully certified, you can go up to three story, like that's where we get into our multi-stack residential housing. Training, code enforcement never had a formalized training program. And I saw a deficiency from the day I started until the day I became director, that we need a week before you get here at day one, all the way through your educational component. Oh, out of time already. It's okay. What do we do? Anybody yield some time to me? How much time do you think you'll need to complete your presentation? I can probably get through the rest in five minutes, I'll speed up. Does anybody have objection to that, allowing five more minutes? Okay, you have five more minutes, thank you. I'll get through. The formalized training program is just going to get an officer through day one to his ninth month. Nine month, he is turned out onto the street with a training field supervisor, and they stay with him and shadow him through year two. So there's quite a bit of training that goes into getting a housing officer to year two. We feel at that point, they have the confidence to handle things on their own, just with minimal oversight. Conducting in-house training with our department, HACD has created an in-house training program. So all new employees, after about six months of being on the job, we'll have a formalized training program that tells you how our internal divisions intersect with one another to greatly improve cohesiveness in our department. We cross-trained extensively with Lexcal. We went and sat in the booth, we fielded calls, we learned what they hear on the other line of the phone, and they went with us. They wanted to ride and go on inspections and see what a complaint turns into actually in the street. We have a fabulous working relationship with them, and that cross-training is going to be ongoing. We hold monthly field staff trainings to update them, not only in new code, standing operating procedures. We do safety meetings at that point, but we keep the people connected to the office. We participated in the first continuing LFUCD mentorship program. I'm never going to get that right. Staffing, we recruited our first bilingual Spanish-speaking female housing officer. We saw a need for bilingual, and it took a while, but we went out and found it, recruited it, and it's worked out really to our benefit. One of the things that I'm most proud of is converting the field staff to 100% working in the field. I found it very inefficient for people to need to just come in and touch their desk in the morning and the evening in this line of work. So by how I did that was laptops over iPads. iPads wouldn't connect, be able to VPN, you didn't have full access to the city. So by converting everyone to laptops with the help of Commissioner Rogers, we were able to give the officer an autonomous ability in the car with thermographic printers, VPN into the office. They can do anything in the field that they could do at a desk. Inadvertently, by eliminating the need for 14 desks and computers, we freed up a portion of our building, which became the new home for the Office of Homeless Prevention. Now they have a permanent home on the fifth floor in the Phoenix building. That, our office, if you don't know, is staffed fully at about 21 field and field operatives and supervisors. We had had six to seven deficiency in that at one point since 2019. 2023, I started hiring and put five people in our divisions. First time we were fully staffed since 2019, and they've all gone through these programs. And I think in my world, if you're talking about construction, I've built a good foundation for these people. And I think with building a good foundation, it only sets them up for success as they move forward. Some of the quick programs that we administer, most of you are familiar with the Housing Repair Assistance Program. The only change there, it went from ARPA funding to general fund. Sidewalk program, thanks to some increased funding through a budget amendment in early 2024, that program still has money in the coffers right now. We've extended our budgeted money in the last 30 days, and we're now working on that rollover from the 2024 BA. We've added a small abatement part to the sidewalk program. This comes as a part of my ideology of excessive fines that are not needed. So I made procedural changes in 2024 that if a abatement would offset the cost of a fine, I would go for the abatement for immediate cleanup and solve the problem. And therefore, not allowing for excessive fining and then the problem still be there. Sidewalk program, we've been trying for 20 years to discuss this. I went at it really hard for about six months. It took a lot of work from, once again, Commissioner Rogers' staff to get it to work in Salesforce. But we now have successfully abated sidewalk panels in the county for the same cost that we would have been issuing fines. Increased our community outreach. Code enforcement, because of the town halls, probably did more outreach. But not only that, with Habitat for Humanity, Lexington Senior Center, neighborhood, we did more outreach in 2024 than I feel like was done in the previous five years combined. We're very proud of that. We're going to continue to do that. I am always up for any one of your districts that want to have me out to speak on. Most common things people have me out to speak about sidewalks. But I'll be glad to come out anytime, anywhere for an after hours meeting. Some of my ongoing efforts this year. I'm going to stop you there for a moment. Colleagues, if you would just look at the last few bullet points that Director Steele had listed. And if you have specific questions about those items, just in consideration of our time and making sure we have plenty of time to ask questions, but thank you all so much for your work. I know it's been a long time coming, and you all have definitely spread yourselves around the community. So, with that, I will open the floor for colleagues, if you have questions or comments. I'm sorry, ma'am. We can't have comments from the public right now. We don't do it in committee. I'm sorry. Okay, I'm sorry about that. Any other committee members have? Council Member Morton. Great, I just wanted to express my gratitude to Council Member Gray, Council Member Lynch, and then Director Steele and his team, Commissioner Lanter, for the hard work they've done over the last year. And I look forward to supporting the outcomes of this effort. And I just had, I guess, a quick question for Director Steele, just looking towards the future. As the division looks at the long term goals, what do you see as the biggest, well, I guess, as the most important focus for a long term goal? And then also, what do you see as the biggest challenge looking at long term goals? My longest term goal is working on employee retention. I see employee burnout at three to five years. I also see an employee at two years start to become comfortable enough to start viewing the careers page on the urban county government. We have a lot of good opportunities. I'm trying to figure out how to retain employees to get them above the five year. Once I see them above five years, I would feel that they bought into our program, and they tend to stay around then. And I see that eight, ten, and 12 year employee, if somebody makes it beyond five years. That's one of the biggest hurdles I'm facing right now, is the revolving door of getting youth in there. Not necessarily youth, but new to our organization. And without them having that time under their belt, they're never going to have the confidence to do a good job for the citizens of Lexington. That's my biggest hurdle is retention at the moment. How am I going to fix that? I'm not sure. The second part of your question was, biggest goals for this coming up is we've got a huge adoption of the 2024 building code coming up in late fall or early 26. That's going to be big for building inspection, and it'll change a lot of the ordinances will have to be redone. So bringing that on board, we're currently using what they call the 2021 building code. And probably late fall, early spring, we'll be adopting that. That's a really big deal for our industry, because it's what everything is really guided by. So those are the next two things. Great. Well, I appreciate your work on this, and thank you for everything you're doing. Thank you, Council Member Warren. Thank you. Council Member Sivigny. Thank you, Vice Chair. And thank you all for your presentation. I just have a few quick questions. The red lines that we see of ordinances, is that something that you're expecting this body to act on? Or is that just for reference material at this point? That is a great question, Colleague Sivigny. Yes, the red line items are new. And I'm seeking approval from this body so that it will go to work session and so that it will be approved by the council. And I think you mentioned, where did these come from? Are these from, is this from state law, you said already, and we're just codifying it? On the ordinance regarding the tenant landlord, that is part of the state's statute. Okay, all right. And which we just implemented into the ordinance, just so that residents know where to go to look for it. Because the problem was that tenants didn't know it was there, and they didn't know they were protected. And then my second question is, I thought in the study that was done that you brought up right at the beginning of your presentation. I thought it was a little bit more about the weaponization, I would call it, of code enforcement, and it's being used as a method to displace people. So I'm just kind of curious as to, did you uncover any of that happening? Well, previously, prior to the mayor's commission being formed, that was a great issue in, say, neighborhoods such as East End, such as Cardinal Valley, such as in Winburn. Since things have been changed with the new director, that has actually decreased. And now that there's an actual playbook for everyone to go from, and there's actual training and meetings that's taking place. So that has been decreased with our new director here and commissioner, who have been boots on the ground making sure that we are equitable around the city. So that one side is not being penalized with an ordinance or with a line, and another side of town is not. So right now, there is actual conformity amongst all. And then my last question would probably be for Director Steele, is code enforcement, is your primary activity kind of ticket based or complaint based? Or are you doing, like of the officers you have in doing this, does each kind of have a geography that they're trying to also be proactive and supportive and all that kind of stuff, I'm just curious. To answer your question, each officer is assigned an area. They have a territory that they work in primarily. We are currently just complaint driven all through Lexcal. We do perform a procedure that when we're at a property from a complaint, that we ask them to definitely look to the left side, the right side, and across the street. We have found it an impossibility that if we do not do that, that is the first thing that gets brought up. Why on earth did you not do Joe across the street when he's got the same darn thing we have? So we have to do that. And that could be considered proactive. But we're currently not calling it that. We are just calling it due diligence to keep that common sense and check that I would expect that if you're here, you see it right there to do it. So we're not asking them to walk up and down the street, but it's to do a 360 visual of the neighboring adjacent property owners. I appreciate that. I was actually at a meeting on Saturday morning in Greater Garden Side, and a landlord brought that specific up and said, if you go give someone a citation, look around, because he said that's the thing that gets everyone the angriest, is as long as you're treating everyone equally, people feel better about it. So thank you for that. Thank you, Vice Chair. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Chair. And thank you all for your hard work. On the ordinance that's in our packet and the one that was passed out, when are you going to be bringing those forward? And could you go through just a quick change? It looks like the ones on the ordinance in the packet are the ones that are underlined, and then you have a redlined one for a different one. So. Well, so. And what's our expectations? And you also said that Council Member Lynch also was going to be doing some stuff. So are we going to wait on that? Are we going to do this first and then come back to that? I would like, my preference is, I'm presenting today. Hey, let's go ahead and look at it today and consider it, to be at it. And once Council Member Lynch brings forth hers, we can consider what the work she's done at that time. Am I answering your question appropriately? Yes, and then to follow up with that, then the ones that are in the packet, you're going to be bringing those forward with an ordinance, you'll be making that motion. And then also the one that was with the landlord tenant, you're going to be bringing that forward today too? Yes, sir. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Council Member Sheehan. Thank you, Chair. For the new census section, section 12.2, first, thank you for the presentation and all the work that you've done on this. For the section on graffiti, could you talk to me a little bit more about the change and what's motivating putting this in here? Actually, I think all we've done is update the county ordinance to match state ordinance. And the, okay. You gotta speak directly into the mic, sir. Okay. I know the law's here and they helped work on this, but I believe all we've done is update it so the current county ordinance matches state ordinance, and there was very little change made to it at all. The wording. Let me add something in here. So you're referring to where we added graffiti in as a nuisance. So in that respect right there, as I mentioned earlier, that previously I believe it's in chapter 17 and not 12. This is chapter 12. It's listed there, graffiti is listed under this, using the same verbiage as a criminal offense. And since we no longer have an enforcer for that, that's why I brought this over so that under nuisance, so that code enforcement can help remedy the situation, not penalize. The goal of code enforcement right now is customer service, making sure there is abatement, which means lessen the penalty. And in fact, make sure that actually there is not a fine, so that no one's held liable. It's just a help, way to remedy the situation. Okay, I might need some further clarification on this, because the way that I'm reading this in section 12.2, it says the owner, occupant, or person having control or management of any premises has to, could be cited for any of these things, and graffiti is listed there as one of the things that they could be cited for. Correct. And so, in my thinking about this, I feel like if there is graffiti on your property, then you have been the victim of a crime. And so, I do have a little concern about then potentially in our code saying that we're going to cite them, which is penalizing them for being the victim of a crime in my mind. We had this discussion similarly in the past around grocery carts. And if a grocery cart is taken off of a property, there was a proposal brought forward to then fine the shopping center for the return of that grocery cart. But we talked about that as being, well, you've been a victim of a theft, why are we then going to fine you for that? And I do understand the mindset of trying to not penalize people and really work with people before you get to the point of a fine, but to me, the way this is written, it's still saying that they might be fined. They might be fined if they don't fix it. Just like all the other nuisances, it's the same thing. If your sidewalk is cracked and you don't fix it, there is a fine. However, the way that code enforcement is now set up, the fine is the last ditch effort. According to Director Still, if you would like to add more in, about the methods of abatement or to customer service that you have implemented in that the fine is, I'll go forth. If we indeed put them under notice, there's always the possibility of them receiving a citation eventually. In the case of being victimized by graffiti, that's what we want to talk about. We would make every effort to open up a line of communication, not just in the notice. We'd put a door hanger and ask for them to get a hold of us. And then once a person makes contact with my division on something like this, we would probably open up what we call a compliance schedule and allow them to assess what's been done to them. And how for them to properly get it remediated. And we would probably make suggestions, whether it need pressure washing or painting. This has been around for a long time. We've made these suggestions in the apartment communities. A lot of times we get graffiti on the large sides of the brick walls. They would go out a lot of times, the apartment managers, and just paint that spot. And eventually it happens over and over. And the painting itself of covering the graffiti looks as bad as the graffiti. So we ended up just working with them and saying, can we now just get a horizontal line painted across your building all the same color? Every time it happens, you can go out and paint it. And believe it or not, that ended up being a deterrent on Cambridge. Because as soon as something was tagged or graffitied, it would get painted. And it was almost useless to do it. So we'll find every effort to work with it. If we come across someone that says, hey, I didn't do it, I was a victim, and I don't want to fix it. We'll have to cross that when we get there. I don't know how we'll handle that. I don't have hard numbers for you, but graffiti against people on private property has been a very small number. We are mostly seeing graffiti in the right of ways, that's where we see it. I think my time is up, but I will sign back in if I need to, because I would like to continue the conversation. Sure, is there anyone else right now that hasn't spoken? Okay, go ahead, Council Member. And I see where you're going with this. And I do understand the trying to work with the property owner before any fine would be assessed. But these other things that are listed in this nuisance situation like a junked car or a mobile home that's non-functioning or trash or growth of weeds, I feel like that is a different situation. That isn't someone came onto their property and damaged it. And for me, I still have a concern about even the perception that we might be penalizing someone in this kind of a situation. The other question that I would have is comparing ourselves to what we expect from property owners. So I know public property is sometimes, we are also victims of crime and we have graffiti at times, and I would want to make sure that we would then be holding ourselves to the same standard that we would be holding the public to. But I don't have that information about how long it takes us to have graffiti reported to us and fixed. So that's another piece of this that I think there should be some discussion of. And so regarding that, so previously the sheriff's office was the one taking care of it. Right now, we have no one because the sheriff's office lost that employee and never rehired anyone to take that spot. So right now, there is no one spray washing or what do we call it, water pressure in any of our graffiti, so it's just staying up. So the reason why I move this under nuisance is because now we have a group that can remedy the situation. Before, this was a criminal charge, a misdemeanor. Now it's a potential citation. Well, I am not on this committee, so I can't vote on this today. But I'll just continue the discussion with you when it comes back to the full council. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Does anyone else have any comments or questions? Okay, if not, I have a few questions, please. Could I have someone from law come up? I want to talk specifically about the new ordinance and it being a repeat, I guess, of the state statute. Yes. Can you tell me if it is verbatim from the state statute? Yes, it is verbatim because the state has occupied that field, so we can't change a whole lot. So it's word for word what the state statute is. Okay, do we have other ordinances in the city that are repeated from the state level? There are a few, yes, offhand. I don't know which ones they are, but there are a few, yes. Okay, so Councilman Gray, in your mind, was this, I think I heard you say, to make this easier for people to find? Yes, okay. Because the issue is not even our city employees knew that they were covered, that tenants were protected by this act. Okay, yes, I understand. I guess my other question is, I have questions about enforceability of this. We're talking about, like in the last section five, it's talking about the tenant may recover possession or recover an amount and attorney's fees and things like that. What is the avenue for them to do that? Is that something that we will handle in the city level or is that a state level issue? That is neither, that's a private civil matter. It's a civil matter. Private civil matter, so the tenant would have to hire an attorney or file themselves in court. Okay, and so then if I'm backing up to section two, and it says the tenant is entitled to the remedies and has a defense, is that just saying that they have grounds to defend themselves or is that saying that somehow the city will provide a defense? No, the city does not provide anything. Okay. This is all up to the tenant. Okay, just clarifying that. And Okay, I think that's all I have for right now. Does anybody else have any final thoughts? Okay, that will conclude the presentation. You want to join us? I will join you. Back up on the horseshoe. Once again, I would like to say thank you to Director Lee Still. One thing that he didn't mention, their safety is always at issue since they're out there on the ground doing the work, and so safety is also a concern for them as well. Thank you. Thank you, Director. We appreciate your time. Councilwoman, I'm referring to you now because you said that you wanted to bring these forward for consideration. So do you plan to make motions at this time? We're at the end of our agenda, so that's fine. We are at the end of our agenda, so I'm asking if you would like to bring these forward now or if you want to wait until a later date. I would like to bring them forward now. Okay. I mean, I think. I would move, do you want me to do them individually? Yes, please. I move, how do I word this? I move for the council to consider the ordinance regarding changing from 24 months to 12 months, regarding the related nuisances to, wait, wrong one. If I may, can I make a suggestion? Yes, help a sister. Thank you. So is it your intention that all the red lines on the nuisance ordinance to be adopted at one time? Or do you want to propose the amendments individually? I will propose them all at one time. Okay, great. Well, she has the nuisance ordinance, and then she has the new ordinance that she's presenting. One at a time, one ordinance at a time. I move, so you want me to read all the red lines? No, I'm asking if on the nuisance ordinance. Yes. With the two red lines. Yes. Adding graffiti and the 12 month period. Yes. Correct? Those are amendments to the same ordinance? Yes. Okay, so if you would like to move forward. I move to approve, to report out to council on this item. So moved. The presented amended ordinance. The presented amended. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Anyone? So, what we will be voting on is two amendments in the ordinance. I'm trying to say, let's see, it's section 12-2C of code of ordinances, as it pertains to what nuisances are in the city, as well as penalties. Does anyone have any questions on what we're voting on? Any discussion at all? Okay. Hearing none, all in favor of moving forward, reporting this out of committee? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. I move to report out an ordinance creating section 12-55, subsection 1 of the code of ordinances related to the Landlord-Tenant Act. To be reported out to council. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on this matter? Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Chair. I just want to make sure I understand that when you did this, all you were doing was codifying what state statutory says. No changes, just codifying that. Just codified it. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Any other questions or comments? All in favor of moving this forward, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes as well. Thank you, Councilwoman. Finally, colleagues, we just have the annual review of committee items. If anyone has any updates at this time, or would like to remove anything from committee, please let me know. Okay, seeing none, that's the end of our agenda, and we stand adjourned. Thank you.