# Council Work Session - May 6, 2025 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · May 6, 2025 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/6421 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/6421?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2025-05-06 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: March 26, 2026 - **Length**: 24,371 words - **Speakers**: Mayor > ⚠️ **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 Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council met on May 6, 2025, at 3:00 PM in the Council Chamber in Lexington, KY, with Mayor Linda Gorton presiding. The meeting included 3 agenda items spanning a ceremonial proclamation, a budget presentation, and a zoning matter. Over the course of the meeting, the Council took 3 votes, received 1 formal presentation, and heard 3 public comments. Among the items addressed, the Council approved a Building Safety Month Proclamation and received an informational presentation on the Lextran FY2026 Budget. A Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment (ZOTA) was also on the agenda but was tabled without final resolution at this meeting. ## Attendance The following 14 members were present at the May 6, 2025 Council meeting: - Wu - Brown - Ellinger II - Morton - Lynch - LeGris - Curtis - Sheehan - Hale - Beasley - Baxter - Sevigny - Reynolds - Boone **Absent:** Denise Gray No members were recorded as late. ## Votes and Decisions Three motions came before the Council during the May 6, 2025 meeting, all of which passed by voice vote. Because voice votes were used in each case, individual member tallies were not recorded. - **Agenda Reordering** [timestamp: 0:02]: Councilmember Baxter moved, with a second from Councilmember Reynolds, to move items C and D under Continuing Business Presentations to the top of the agenda. The motion passed by voice vote. - **Lextran FY2026 Budget Scheduling** [timestamp: 36:33]: Councilmember Ellinger moved, with a second from Councilmember Morton, to place the Lextran FY2026 Budget on the docket for the May 29, 2025 meeting. The motion passed by voice vote. - **Removal of Ordinance First Reading Item Seven** [timestamp: 2:03:12]: Councilmember Reynolds moved, with a second from Councilmember Curtis, to remove item number seven under Ordinances First Reading from the docket and instead take up the matter at the May 13, 2025 work session. The motion passed by voice vote. ## Budget and Financial Actions The Council approved three financial agreements during the May 6, 2025 meeting, covering a range of professional and technical services. - **Love to Ride (L0382-25):** The Council authorized a professional services agreement with Love to Ride in the amount of **$26,162** to support efforts aimed at increasing bicycling activity in the community. - **Crosslin, PLLC (L0386-25):** A contract valued at **$9,500** was approved with Crosslin, PLLC for the preparation of the Sheriff's Compilation, providing accounting or financial compilation services for the Sheriff's office. - **US Geological Survey (L0417-25):** The largest of the three agreements, totaling **$125,000**, was approved with the US Geological Survey for services related to stream flow and rain gauges, supporting local water monitoring infrastructure. Combined, the three agreements represent a total expenditure of **$160,662** across transportation, public safety financial reporting, and environmental monitoring services. ## Public Comment Three residents addressed the Council during the public comment period. [timestamp: 38:43] - **Richard Gaines** opened public comment by raising concerns about the lack of community input in development projects. He urged the Council to establish a process that would allow residents to meaningfully participate in development decisions affecting their communities. [timestamp: 38:43] - **Gail Swanson** spoke about transportation challenges in Lexington and their direct impact on residents' ability to access mental health care. She emphasized the need for microtransit solutions as a way to address these gaps in service. [timestamp: 40:49] - **Adam Jones** also focused on the topic of microtransit, specifically advocating for the inclusion of a microtransit pilot program in the 2027 budget. Like Swanson, he highlighted the potential for such a program to improve access to mental health care for Lexington residents. [timestamp: 44:07] Notable themes across the comment period included a call for greater resident involvement in local development decisions and a shared concern — raised by two separate speakers — about the relationship between transportation access and mental health care availability. Both Swanson and Jones pointed to microtransit as a concrete policy solution worth pursuing. ## Contested Items - **Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment (ZOTA) — House Bill 443 Implications:** The Council engaged in a heated discussion regarding a Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment connected to House Bill 443. The debate centered on the bill's implications for public input processes and development standards, with particular concern raised about its potential impact on infill and redevelopment activity. No additional participant names, vote tallies, or final outcome details are available in the source data for this item. ## Building Safety Month Proclamation [timestamp: 04:38] Mayor Linda Gorton formally declared May 2025 as Building Safety Month in Lexington. The proclamation highlighted the importance of building safety and recognized the contributions of the city's building inspection team. Bob Carpenter was also a key speaker during this portion of the meeting. The proclamation was approved. ## Lextran FY2026 Budget Presentation [timestamp: 09:31] Fred Combs presented the Lextran FY2026 budget to the Council. The presentation covered the agency's budget challenges, upcoming capital projects, and the need for microtransit solutions. The item was informational in nature, with no vote or formal action taken by the Council. ## Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment (ZOTA) [timestamp: 2:03:12] The Council took up a Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment (ZOTA) related to House Bill 443, with discussion centering on public input processes and the establishment of objective standards for development plans. Planning Staff presented the item, and Council Members engaged in debate over the proposed amendment's provisions. The discussion focused on two primary areas: how and to what extent the public would be able to participate in the review of development plans affected by the amendment, and what objective standards should govern those plans under the requirements introduced by House Bill 443. The item was ultimately **tabled**, meaning no final action was taken at this meeting and the matter will return for further consideration at a future session. *Note: The available data for this agenda item is limited. A more detailed summary — including specific arguments made, individual Council Member positions, and the precise nature of any concerns raised — could not be produced from the provided source material.* --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the May 8, 2025 Council Meeting Docket, as amended - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place on the docket for the May 8, 2025 Council Meeting, a resolution granting a waiver to the requirements in Resolution 40-2007 related to the Residential Parking Permit Program for the 700 block of W. Main St - **Motion** — passed (0-0): table the approval of the May 8, 2025 Council Meeting Docket until after - **Motion** — passed (0-0): remove from the table the approval of the May 8, 2025 Council Meeting Docket - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place on the docket for the May 8, 2025, Council Meeting, a Resolution accepting the bid of Szabo Project Services, Inc., in the amount of $40,840.00, for the Monument Signs at Tates Creek Golf Course and Aquatic Center Entrance, for the Division of Parks and Recreation, and authorizing the Mayor to execute an agreement with Szabo Project Services, Inc., related to the bid - **Motion** — passed (0-0): amend item 7 under VIII. Ordinances - First Reading on the Work Copy Docket for the May 8, 2025 Council Meeting, to remove in Sec. 1 – 11.- Definitions, the definition of Temporary Construction Trailer - **Motion** — passed (0-0): remove item 7 under VIII. Ordinances – First Reading from the Work Copy Docket for the May 8, 2025 Council Meeting, and to suspend the rules to allow discussion of this ZOTA as part of Continuing Business at Work Session on May 13, 2025 - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the April 29, 2025 Work Session Summary - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve Budget Amendments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve New Business - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve Communications from the Mayor – Appointments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve Communications from the Mayor – Procurements - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve Council Capital Projects - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place E911 Fund Revenue Source in the Budget, Finance, and Economic Development Committee to review current funding challenges and explore alternatives for funding E911 services in Lexington-Fayette County --- ## Full transcript Two, three, four... ...to find a seat according to the capacity of our room. Otherwise, if you're standing, we'll have to ask you to go to the mezzanine. Thank you very much. All right. I'll go ahead and call to order the Lexington-Fayette-Urban County Council Work Session. It's May the 6th, 2025, and we have a quorum. So right at the top of this meeting, I'd like to call on Councilmember Baxter for a motion. Thank you, Mayor. Excuse me. Thank you, Mayor. Because we have some significant interest on some items on the agenda today, I'm going to make a motion to move, under Continuing Business Presentations, items C and D to the top of our agenda to get those completed first. So moved. Second. Second by Councilmember Reynolds. Is there any discussion? Councilmember Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. I understand the reason why, but I do know that there are a lot of people here that are going to want to speak on item D and are going to have discussion. Now I will be making a motion that we will be putting this on for the 29th to put it on for the approval of the Lextran. So I don't think this will have an issue with getting the public comment because we are putting it on the 29th and we're not going to be voting on it until June 12th. So we'll still have the opportunity because I know people came to speak on the Lextran issue here. So I will support this because we will allow them still to speak after they do give the presentation. So I understand the reason why you're doing this, so I will agree to it. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? All right. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. And with that motion then, I will first ask Bob Carpenter to join me at the podium. I think you're the reason you're short of seats because I've got to say a little bit. Okay. If you are with building inspection, will you join us at the podium? Aha. Hey. Hi. Thank you. All right. Very good. So we are joined by members of Director Carpenter's team, and I want to thank each and every one of you for being here today. May is recognized as Building Safety Month, a time to highlight our commitment to improving building safety and to acknowledge the essential services provided by our building inspection team. Each and every day, our building inspection team upholds its responsibility to protect the public's safety and welfare by enforcing the Kentucky Building Code. Bob, you and your team play a critical role in our community, and I thank each of you for what you do. So with that, I'd like to read a proclamation, and here's how it goes. Whereas during National Building Safety Month, we renew our commitment to strengthening our buildings so our residents are safe, and whereas this year's campaign theme, Game On!, motivates people to get in the game and take part in learning about practicing building safety, and whereas modern building codes include safeguards to protect the public from natural disasters and hazards such as snowstorms, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes, as well as man-made disasters caused by substandard construction practices, and whereas structural integrity of the buildings that make up our community is achieved through building inspectors, code enforcement officers, fire prevention officials, architects, engineers, builders, laborers, and others in the construction industry, and whereas our local code officials assure us of safe, sustainable, and affordable buildings that are essential to our prosperity, and whereas Building Safety Month encourages everyone to raise awareness about planning for safe and sustainable construction. Now, therefore, I, Linda Gorton, Mayor of Lexington, do hereby declare May 2025 Building Safety Month in Lexington. Thank you for what you do. Would you like to say a few words? All right. Bob Carpenter. Briefly, I just want to thank this administration for supporting building safety. One small fact, across the United States, every year for the last 12, hopefully 13, Kentucky has more proclamations than any other state. That's because we're good, right? Thank you all. Shall we get a photo? Yes. Come and be in the photo. Let's do it. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 … 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 … All right. Thank you. Next, I'd like to welcome to the podium Fred Combs, who is going to give the Lextran Fiscal Year 2026 Budget and whatever else report. Welcome Fred. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council. I appreciate your support not only this year and all the years before for both me and my team and our city and our system. I will start with our mission statement, We Serve People in our Community with Mobility Solutions. I think this Council and Mayor, you are part of the we in this mission statement. You certainly help and support us, but I also want to draw attention to Mr. Mike Burnett, a very special employee of ours who is our several-time local rodeo champion. Mr. Burnett placed fourth in the International Bus Rodeo this year in Austin, Texas, so congratulations to Mr. Burnett. He is a phenomenal driver. Thank you. We are so very proud of him and are happy to know that we have a champion right here in our own community. So to get started with my presentation, some of this information will be familiar to you if you were at the Environmental Quality and Public Works presentation a few weeks ago. So I'll hit some high points. I'll talk about our services, not only the services that we currently have, but some conversations around the community, a quick note about the economic outlook, and then jump into our budget. So some highlights from this fiscal year, we've made considerable progress on our major capital projects. That includes the Transit Center Interior Renovation Project, which launched last month. We also completed CNG fueling expansion at our headquarters that allow us to fuel CNG vehicles much more efficiently, and in conjunction with that, we're working right now to finish a maintenance facility CNG improvement that will let us maintain those vehicles more safely. We've also focused on our fleet. We have acquired and placed 10 paratransit vehicles and 6 fixed route vehicles into service. There's also a back-end technology project that will bring better real-time information to people onboard the vehicles. Paratransit community outreach and focus on improving the paratransit service quality has been very important this year, and I'll talk more about that in a moment. So our fixed route outlook, this fiscal year we're projecting about 3.5 million fixed route trips. That's down slightly from last fiscal year. We have made progress on the technology and back-end, including passenger amenities out on the street. We also did a round of service improvements this year and also plan some more for the following fiscal year to improve our on-time performance for fixed route. We do have a series of unfunded service priorities. As I've been in this role and worked at Legstrand for several years, I've heard two things from the public. They want more frequency. They want more direct service. We do have some plans in the works to make that happen. Again, the budget that we're bringing today doesn't have any service improvements. It's a carryover from service of last year. So at a moment that we can find some opportunity to improve service, these are some of the things that we're looking at doing. And that includes items like the Baptist Health facility at Polo Club. We've not been able to get our service out there quite yet. Also Reynolds Road, the Blue Sky Rural Development District, and then the more direct service. We have plans to streamline a route from Hamburg to essentially the Fayette Mall. So around, you think of the Manowar Corridor. Those are the things in the works when and if resources become available to make them a reality. On our fleet, I thought this was an interesting slide for active fixed route fleet. So these are the larger buses. This upcoming fiscal year, about 29 of our vehicles will be at or beyond their useful life. And interesting about those 29 vehicles, they're all diesel and hybrid. So moving forward with our focus on CNG and electric vehicles, we're able to continue the replacement process and move to a more cleaner and greener solution. And also of note, you see the big jump in 2007. That was the vehicles purchased after the referendum. If you have such an increase in capital in one year, it makes it difficult over the years to replace that. So we've made an effort over the past 10 years or so to get five or six vehicles a year to smooth out our capital investments. So we look for that to continue in the future as well. On the paratransit side, that is the system known as WHEELS that is complementary to our fixed route service under the ADA. That is a countywide door-to-door service if, by nature of someone's disability, they're not able to access the fixed route network. We project about 170,000 trips this fiscal year. That is a modest increase from where we were last year. But our real focus on WHEELS this year has been that on-time performance and overall service quality. A big part of that is our fleet. The issues that you've heard about our WHEELS system and the issues that we've heard mostly boil down to the capacity that we have to deliver the service. This chart shows our fleet in order of age, so the older vehicles are at the top and the newer at the bottom. But the interesting is that middle row, or the middle column, the maximum passenger capacity. When we transitioned over to our current service provider in 2022, we were struggling for vehicles. So we had to lease. We leased 19 vans and then last year we were able to put in nine additional vans at very small capacity. Those were intended to be Band-Aids. To run a paratransit service efficiently, you need more capacity than three or four people per vehicle. So moving forward, we're working towards a plan to completely overhaul our fleet. We have a significant need for paratransit vehicles. We're working on that. We've put 10 in last year. We've got 10 upcoming this year and hopefully more to increase the amount of passengers on each vehicle that will in turn improve our on-time performance. This is a good slide to show how on-time performance has changed over the years. This is a three-month rolling average going all the way back to 2021. So our former service provider, you can see that it started to slide. We noticed that and made the transition to the current service provider in October of 2022. Slowly, but surely, we worked our way back. Last few months we've been sort of in between 75, 73, 75 percent. As I was putting these materials together, we didn't have any information for April. But back in March, we were able to get those additional vehicles in service. So the unaudited on-time performance for April did crack 80 percent for the first time in several years. If that holds to the audit, we're going to be very happy. We're going to celebrate, but we're going to remind ourselves that that's just a stepping stone to the goal of 90 percent. But to be able to make it to 80 is really a step in the right direction. So a couple of projects that have had some conversation around the city. These are unfunded. Both of these are in our current budget. But ideas that I think are worth talking about and pursuing. The first is a downtown circulator that would think of a trolley from the warehouse block to the distillery district. This has been done in collaboration with several local partners. And the schedule and hours of operation are really depending on any sort of operational dollars that we can find. Again, we're not proposing any additional operational expenses in this budget. But if we are able to identify operating funds for the service, we do think that the MPO is able to provide some grant funds for the capital side. And second, the microtransit feasibility study that we hope to wrap up in a month or so. We have ongoing community input and data analysis to really understand how microtransit fits in our community, not only with our fixed route network, but in the community as a whole. Part of that study was six peer agencies that we looked at. And we also did a survey. Unfortunately, the survey results were not responsive when you looked at the demographics of the sample. However, there's an interesting thing that I pulled out here to talk about. Now, because it's not representative, we can't say 72% of survey responses indicated they would use a microtransit service. But we know that a majority of people who answered that service said that they would. However, a smaller piece of those said that they would use microtransit to access a fixed route stop, a LexTran bus stop. If we get, or as we get closer to launching a pilot of microtransit, we're going to need help from everyone in this room to communicate out that accessing fixed route is really a major component of what we're trying to solve with microtransit. And this, I pull this data point out to say this is a communication issue that we're going to have to work on. To make sure that we're setting the proper expectations for the service. Through the peer studies we found, we need to start small. We need to start small and take smaller steps and grow. We've identified these five zones within the city that we think is a good place to start. And we'll have more information on where we rank those zones in the future. The cost of microtransit service, I think an easy way to think about that is $100 per vehicle per hour. That would exclude marketing, administration, and overhead. The zones up here, I think four of the five would be, take two vehicles. The one on the south side of the city, the blue one, is probably a three vehicle zone. And to get a rough idea of how much it would cost, you can sort of run the math. If you want to do five day a week, or seven day a week, and the number of hours in a day, multiply that through. And you can get a sense of how much a service like that would cost. So moving into the economic outlook again, I'm sure this council has faced the same rising expenses. Our three biggest expenses, paratransit, wages, and fringe benefits. If we go back to before the pandemic, we've seen a $2.6 million annual increase in paratransit service. 4.4 million in wages, and 2.5 in fringe benefits, driven largely by healthcare costs. Those are a little less than 50% on each of those line items, but it really illustrates how expenses have risen over the past few years. Couple that with the uncertainty that we have around federal funding right now. Our current enabling legislation, the IIJA, or the bipartisan infrastructure bill, is scheduled to expire next year. And we'll see what the current government can come up with as its replacement. Also tariffs. Tariffs, we don't know how that's going to affect our bottom line. We did increase the line item in materials and supplies in our budget to be ready. We did get an indication from one of our suppliers that there's a 5% increase across the board in response to tariffs. So this uncertainty around both of those things have caused some concern, and for us to be a little more careful with our budget dollars. We have significant unfunded capital needs at the moment, including and primarily those paratransit vehicles to get the fleet up to what it needs to be to match the demand in the community. Also several safety projects, including the transit center exterior, which would be a partner project to the interior that's going on right now. There's some safety elements that we would like to improve on the platform of the transit center. And our fare collection system is aging, and it's sort of on its last legs. So at some point in the near future, we're going to have to talk about revamping our fare collection. So all that's lead into our budget, our FY 26 revenues. Again, this is a balanced budget of $37,968,279. Our revenues are driven largely by the property tax, that's nearly 70% of our revenue. We also have state capital assistance, which supports matching of federal grants. And our passenger fare revenue is budgeted to be stagnant, that goes back to our ridership trends. And then the UK partnership is about 7%, and then the other revenue, which is advertising, fuel tax refunds, and those smaller things are also about 3%. On the expenses side, again, wages, paratransit, and fringe are the three top line items for expenses, those three combine for nearly 80% of our expenses. We again saw that big jump in materials and supplies, up about a million dollars from where we budgeted last year. That is because our operations are sensitive to tariffs, mostly for parts. Other expenses, advertising, fuel taxes are also included on there at about $1.1 million, so sort of wrap this up. Looking ahead to next year, we aim to complete our major projects, including the transit center interior renovation, the ITS project, which is our onboard technology systems, finish our CNG improvements. And the microtransit feasibility study will likely be wrapped up at the end of this fiscal year, but it could possibly bleed into next fiscal year. In our strategic plan, we're also going to focus on those on-time performance for paratransit. We know that's important to the community, and we look forward to getting that not only to 80 on a consistent basis, but on up to 90. We're going to launch an operator safety barrier installation project, which is the protective barriers onboard buses to protect our operators. We have a couple of FTA program updates to do, our disadvantaged business enterprises and our Title VI programs are due this year. We also have some fixed route service improvements in the works for this fall, largely for on-time performance for fixed route. As well as incorporate those new vehicles into fixed route in the paratransit fleet. That includes the ten fixed route buses that are currently on order. We have existing grant funding for one additional electric bus, and ten paratransit cutaway buses are included in this budget. So with that, I'm happy to take any questions. All right, thank you very much, Fred. And I was trying to think if this was your first budget before the council. It's your second, isn't it, since you took over as general manager. Thank you for that. Council members, if you have questions, now would be the time. If you'll log in, please. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Thanks, Fred. We had a nice conversation yesterday. I appreciate you taking the time, and I asked a lot of questions, and you've helped answer a lot of them. If we could just kind of go over a couple of them. The one that a lot of people ask about is looking at your balance sheet is the current assets and your operating cash, the 37 million. Can you kind of explain that? Because it looks like you're flush with cash, and I don't think that's quite accurate. I wish it was, but. I also wish it was, but no, there's not $37 million available. So the way that our operating account works, it is refreshed every November when the largest portion of our property taxes come in. Then it is spent down throughout the year on payroll, on our capital needs. Major projects like the transit center renovation is part of that. And then the biggest part that we keep liquidity for is for the reimbursement of federal grants. So for example, even if we win a grant award to purchase a bus, we have to purchase the bus out of our own funds first and get reimbursed for that later. Probably similar to the way that it functions for the city, and there's no real timeline to know when that money's going to come back. So we do have to keep a certain amount of liquid to make sure that we can match grants and be reimbursed for grants. And I think you also have, like we do, an economic contingency fund. Yes, about $6 million of that is a reserve account. So of the 37, 6 of it's already set aside, and that's kind of for emergency that you have to do certain specifications. One of the big issues that is important to me is the microtransit, and we've been working with that. And could you go through kind of the timeline, where you are, and I plan on making a motion at the end of this to put your all's budget on for May 29th. And then we would have first reading on that day, and then we'd have second read on June 12th. And in the interim, you volunteer to come down and talk about the study, because you hope to have it at the feasibility study, finished and completed, and be able to speak on that on the third at work session. Is that correct? The study might not be completely wrapped up and finished, but I think we'll be at the point that we can talk the majority of it and recommendations that come out of it. So I think we'll be at a good point on June 3rd to do that. And if you could just kind of elaborate where you are on the study, if you would, please. We're still working on some of the input. Again, that survey, we reopened that survey to see if we could get a more responsive sample. And then we're going to move into the phase where we're drafting recommendations and putting the final package together. So we should be on track to do June 3rd. We're working with our consultant to see if we can get them here as well. So that's to be determined, but we're working on that. Thank you. And I did ask a question, and you were going to try to find some answers, because you have 25 fixed routes. You were going to look at the most utilized and down. And were you able to come up with a list with that for me? I don't have the list. I can kind of talk through it. OK. And then also, could you talk about, I know you're going to talk about this on the 3rd, but when you start looking at areas where the microtransit in the zones, and you might bring up that map that had that on there, where would be the best utilized areas that we'll follow up with on the 3rd, hopefully. Can I get back to the map on here? Thank you. There you go. Perfect. OK, so I think a good example would be that there's a yellow zone. It's got an orange on top of it. The orange is because it overlaps with the purple zone above it. So that orange and the yellow in the northwest of the city that runs from Versailles Road up to Georgetown, I think that zone has a lot of potential for me. One of the routes, the purple route, is our old Frankfort Pike route. That's probably the least effective fixed route that we have. However, again, if we are looking to bring people into the fixed route service, here, the orange route, which is Leastown Road, becomes a very important anchor for a microtransit system. So in this situation, we could very well take the service that we're putting on the purple on the old Frankfort Road and put that into Leastown Road to make it the frequency on Leastown sufficient enough to support, to be the backbone or the anchor of that microtransit service. So I think that's one of the possibilities here to shift that to make sure that we have the frequency that we need for microtransit to work even better. Well, I've had the good fortune of talking to a lot of communities around, just like you were doing the feasibility study and the success of how microtransit on demand has worked. And I'm looking forward to, as we go forward, to trying to find some, because it all comes down to money, and that's how you set a budget on your priorities, to be able to have that pilot project and to see if we have that success. So like Birmingham, that have been able to take it even next step further, where it's become very successful, where I'm going to invite the person that helped bring it there to come here to talk about how successful they've been. So I look forward to this discussion and continue, and I think my time's up. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Morton. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Mr. Collins, for your presentation. I just have two quick questions, and just for re-clarification. So could you tell me the amount of funding in your reserve fund again? It's about 6 million. About 6 million. And what are the rules and limitations around that? Do not touch until it's an absolute emergency. Right, and just for the public transparency of the record, so that's not used for any existing services or any expansion of services? No. Thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Combs, I have a question about tariffs, and I know the short answer is we don't know because they're influx kind of on a daily basis. But it obviously will impact you all, not only on capital improvements and repairs, but also replacement of fleet. Have you all done any sort of projections to measure what the potential impact might be? And what kind of preparation are you doing for that? We've not done any projections. We've heard from some vendors, but there's nothing really in writing. This be prepared for an increase. We don't always know what the increase is going to be. And we don't think it's going to be even across the different areas that you spoke of. A great example is our paratransit fleet. We pushed quickly to get ten vehicles, we're trying to get ten vehicles on order now, because we know that the next contract is going to be that much more expensive. There's really no other way when those materials go up so much. So I wish I had a better feel of how much it's going to impact us. But we did take the step of adding to our materials and supplies budget, just to be safe. Okay, thank you for that. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Gray. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Fred, for your presentation. So along the lines of Vice Mayor Wu's question regarding the fleet, he asked specifically about the tariffs that are coming. If there was a camera, I would have looked right into it. So, currently your fleet is aging. What is your current plan to, because potentially costs will increase. Currently, you just said you have 60 million, wait, or did I make that up? 6 million, 6 million that's just sitting there. Is there a plan for replacements that you all have right now? There is a plan, it doesn't involve that 6 million. The plan is to take advantage of the opportunities for federal grants, should they become available again. That's, I know, that's a dangerous plan at the moment. But we've been very successful in the past at competitive grant awards to be able to fund vehicles. On the fixed route side, there is not enough dedicated to fixed route fleet in this budget, and that is because we're limited in our resources. Because we've been so successful in the past, we felt like it was time to turn our attention to the paratransit fleet and try to bring that up, because it is in more of a need at the moment than the fixed route side. So essentially, we want to rise up and come together to get this project together, correct? So also, I notice right now, last year, or two years ago, the council voted to expand our urban service boundary in certain areas. Does your current budget, or the budget that we're currently establishing, do you all incorporate any costs into that, or to the foreseeable, no? No, no, and that's one of those, the difficulties of expansion and growth in the city is it's really hard for us to keep up, because we've got expenses rising of what we already have, and then the need to go in different places. And the perfect example is Polo Club. We have plans to do it, and some of our plans, if we go back to when the COA was done, the comprehensive operations analysis of 2022, we were short-staffed. So it didn't matter what the plan said, we didn't have enough people to do anything. As we've gotten staff in a much better place now, it's the cost. So we're not able to add to the operations side, the operations cost, to get service to Polo Club. And we're still working on a way to try to shift things around and move service from here to there to make it fit within the budget that we have. Okay, and also, a note I noticed reading through, one of the other limitations or possible issues regarding besides fleet, that Alex Tram may be encountering is also the cost for pay for employees. And also, how are you doing with retention of your employees, first of all? Because I recall speaking with you, and that was partly an issue. So, there you go. I cannot give my staff the kudos and the thanks for the great job that they've done over this last year. We've gone from dire circumstances to almost fully staffed. I mean, I think last time in environmental quality, we were fully staffed. Really an amazing job. We did a new collective bargaining agreement, so that helped with wages. We've made focused efforts on retention. It's really helped. So, we're in a much, much better place now than what we were even a year ago. Well, thank you. But one last thing, I would hope that the board and I guess you and the other employees start working on a plan for the expansion because it's happening. And we need to be ready in all fronts, not just the city, but also our partners as well. because people will be there, and we must have a plan for the future. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Council Member Brown. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Mr. Combs, for your presentation and your work. And then also, thank you to Bill and Council Member Allenger for their advocacy and your willingness to work with them. I think exploring and looking at taking on new services when you're having challenges with the services that you provide now is courageous, so to speak. So, your paratransit fleet, do you all own that fleet? Because I assumed that, or I thought you all had a third party provider that provides the service, but you do own the fleet. So, when we transitioned, we didn't have a fleet. And we were able to retain some of the vehicles from our former provider, not a lot, not enough, some. And to fill the gap is where we leased, there's 19 leased vehicles in our service right now. Those are the smaller vans. Outside of that, we own the rest of the fleet. Okay, yeah, I was under the assumption that the fleet was provided from the service provider, so yeah, that's, yeah. Okay, the other thing I'll ask, too, is we had brought up the shelter, temporary shelter, or it'd probably be more permanent shelter, depending on the time frame that it takes to do the improvements, the capital improvements at the transit center. Were you all able to build any funding in your budget to address those shelter concerns? We've looked at seating. I think we're able to possibly get some seating there, but the space is kind of narrow and we're worried about ADA concerns. The shelter, we're still looking at temporary awnings or some way to get some shade there. We've not been able to find a good solution on that, but hopefully we can get some more seating up there. That's better than, it's not exactly what we want, but it's better than what we have now. Okay, yeah, and I'll just continue to say that I think that's important to try to address. And I think we are here as a resource as well to try to help address that need. Thank you. And again, I thank you for at least being open minded and working to look at these new services from the micro transit to the downtown circulator. I think it's important to our community, and I look forward to hearing the results of the study in a few weeks. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. And we changed the way that we normally do to let you all go first, and I understand that. But I would request, if you could just stay around, because I think we have about eight people that have signed up to speak and to hear what they have to say, because I think it's important to hear from the community. And I think a lot of them want to talk to you about the transit authority. With that, I will make a motion. I move to place in the DACA for the May 29th, 2025 council meeting, a resolution approving the fiscal year 2026 budget of the Transit Authority of Lex and Fayette Urban County Government, LexTran, pursuant to KRS 96A.360, and requesting that the commissioner of finance authorize the Fayette County Sheriff's Office to disperse the funds to LexTran collected from the ad valorem tax approved by voters on November 9th, 2004. So moved. Thank you, Council Member Morton, seconded. All right, council members, are there questions or comments to the motion? All right, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Thank you very much, Mr. Combs. All right, that brings us to public comment for issues on the agenda. We have eight people signed up, and the way this works is that I will call your name and you will come to the podium. And then for the record, you need to restate your name, please, and say your council district. And then I have one person, it looks like, who's going to yield time. So I'd like to confirm, is Adam Jones here? Okay, Adam, did you give your time to Valis Pennington? Or she, Valis is giving you her time. Okay, thank you. So you'll have six minutes. Everyone else will have three minutes. So first up is Richard Gaines, followed by Gail Swanson. Welcome. Thank you. Afternoon, Madam Mayor, city council persons. I'll be brief. I'm here on item 443, as it relates to the sober living houses in our community. Excuse me, I'm sorry, it's a different one. 443 that deals with development in our communities. I understand what the state is proposing has made law. My concern is that at this juncture, it looks like that the community will have no opportunities to offer input in the situations after a certain point. For items that will directly and potentially adversely affect the community, if not monitored right through until the end. So it is my concern and request to you all that in spite of the law, not trying to change the law, but that we might figure out a way to make it possible. Where there's a will, there's a way, I believe that. But that we might find a way that we might allow for input of the community into the development that is going to be taking place again around them that could directly and adversely affect them in a negative manner. That is my concern, pure and simple. Please, I plead with you, let's figure out a way to deal with it. So much is going on where people feel like they had no input, they had no option, and they left just to deal with whatever happens. I pray that not be the case here on this matter in Fayette County. So again, I appeal to you to find a way to allow for input in spite of what the law is directing persons doing in the development sector, but allow community some input before final decisions are made. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Gail Swanson, who will be followed by Adam Jones. Welcome. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Gail Swanson, and I live in Council District 7. I'm on the board of BUILD, and I am here today to talk to you about our concerns about transportation in Lexington. In the fall of 2021, BUILD heard from countless people about their fears and concerns regarding loved ones experiencing serious mental health crises. We took that on as our issue in 2022, and in our research, we quickly discovered a major barrier to mental health care, and that was transportation. Mental health professionals, both public and private, told us again and again that many clients simply couldn't get to the services they needed. Reliable transportation to see a provider, pick up a prescription from the pharmacy, attend church, or engage in community life was out of reach for too many of those people. As we dug deeper, we kept hearing stories of people stuck, cut off from opportunity, cut off from availability of jobs, cut off from healthcare and connection because of limited transit options. That's when we broadened and shifted our focus from mental health alone to the underlying transportation challenges that affect so many people in our city. Whether it was getting to work, getting to the doctor's office, a grocery store, or just staying connected, transportation kept showing up as a critical need. We then began researching solutions and found that microtransit is working in communities across the country. From tiny, wise Virginia to Birmingham, Alabama to Ann Arbor, Michigan, it was being successful. We knew this couldn't be solved without Lextran at the table. We were glad when Lextran responded to Bill and several members of this council's request to move forward with the microtransit feasibility study. That was a meaningful step. But since then, the process has seen delays, and now with the 2026 budget before us, we're concerned. There's no mention of the study, no plan for follow through, and no funding to act on what the data in the feasibility study might show. To us, it raises questions about whether this budget reflects the forward thinking vision Lexington needs, as Council Member Gray talked about with the urban expansion and other areas. We know Lextran provides essential services to many, but we also know too many people are still being left behind. We know that you know this budget isn't just about transportation. This is about health care, mental health care, workforce development, economic health of our community, and planning for a more robust future. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, next is Adam Jones, who will be followed by Carla Blanton, and you'll have six minutes. Okay. Thank you, my name is Adam Jones. I'm the pastor with Open Door Church and a co-chair of BUILD. Just from my experience over my many years at Open Door, we work closely with the mental health community and the refugee community. And we've had to purchase a van to transport folks to numerous events that we have and to other things because, for instance, I had lunch with a couple Sunday. They arrived here in November. They've given up taking the bus to the grocery. Their bus stop is on Montrose Street. They walk because it's not come so many times that they've, they learned the schedule because they had to, but they just gave up. So now they walk to get the groceries and bring them back. I've also had to pick friends up from hospitals because wheels didn't come. And this continues to be an issue in my congregation. We're not very big, but we have half of our folks that really need microtransit in Lexington. I would also say that when we met with NuVista, they also said that microtransit would be a game changer for their clients. NuVista is the largest mental health care provider in our city. And so I just want to emphasize again that BUILD is not trying to, we just don't come up with issues. These are things we hear from our people and from our folks that are in our organization. Every week we hear from neighbors who are stuck and about every week I'm giving somebody a ride in my community. We appreciate LexTran's work. We know that LexTran wants to provide mobility solutions. We know that they're working with a budget to expand their services and improve services. We acknowledge that. But also, as with any budget, there's always things you can fund and always things you can't. And moral decisions have to be made, because a budget ultimately is a moral document. And so in BUILD and my church, we are asking for LexTran to implement, just try a microtransit pilot, which is a way to see if microtransit would work on the ground in the 27 budget. From where we sit, it feels like this is an urgent need that we need now. We also acknowledge and appreciate the $75,000 that LexTran spent on the microtransit feasibility study. We were disappointed that when we met with LexTran in April, they had already decided not to put a microtransit pilot in before the study was even done, which was a little surprising to us. We're not here to nitpick the budget line by line, but from where we stand, it looks like there may be room to do a microtransit perhaps in 27. Something that could change the lives of my folks and many folks across our city. Also, I want to make you aware that tonight we'll be gathering at the BUILD action at the Lexington Central Bank Center. This will be the largest public gathering with public transportation as a central topic. Many of you have committed to hear from the community at the Nehemiah Action. We really respect folks that show up, regardless of whether they can answer yes or no. Going up to the public matters, and we appreciate that from our officials. For those of you who have not yet confirmed, we invite you and encourage you to attend this community event tonight at the Central Bank Center. We hope we'll see you there. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next is Carla Blanton, followed by Mike Brower. Welcome. Good afternoon, I'm Carla Blanton, I'm Board Chair of Commerce Lexington, and I'm speaking today on its behalf. But I'm also a former member of the Planning Commission. You have a tough task before you as you consider House Bill 443 ZOTA. You trust and respect the Planning Commission staff, and you should. They're top notch. But they aren't the only experts in the community, and they aren't right 100% of the time. No one is. That's why strong public policy comes from listening to segments of the community and taking their viewpoints, expertise, and experience into account before you make decisions. Commerce Lexington opposes the Division of Planning's attempt to fast track new regulations that will make infill and redevelopment even more costly and cause additional and unnecessary delays. Higher costs equal less infill and redevelopment. House Bill 443 doesn't change any of Lexington's current zoning laws, nor does it mandate revisions. It also does not prohibit public hearings on development plans. If Lexington takes no legislative action, nothing changes, and the detailed comprehensive plans development policies stand. All Lexington needs to do is follow current laws and the 386 pages of land subdivision and zoning regulations that are already on the books, as well as the hundreds of other pages of technical manuals. That is the intent and practical implication of the new state law, nothing more and nothing less. This ZOTA is a wish list of extraneous standards at a time when the city's own study shows it already takes more than twice as long to navigate the development process in Lexington compared to the national average. In addition, subdivision plan approvals in Lexington average 523 days, while our peer city of Greenville, South Carolina completes the same process in just 45 days. What are the cost benefit analysis that's been done? What is the need? What are the unintended consequences for each of the regulations on the more than 50 pages before you? Have each of you had time to digest each one of those? Some would say pass it now and fix it later, but bad process never leads to good public policy. We urge the council to stick to its normal procedures. Any substantial changes to development regulations should be addressed separately through the committee structure and thoroughly studied with robust input from citizens, the business community, and property owners. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next is Mike Brower, followed by Walt Gaffield. Welcome. Thank you, Mayor and council members. My name is Mike Brower. I'm the Vice President of the Southern Heights Neighborhood Association, and it's representative to the Fayette County Neighborhood Council. I'd like to point out that Representative Chad Hall wrote an op-ed letter to the herald leader that stated that he, who is a sponsor of this bill, and none of the sponsors of 443, intended for it to reduce public engagement, and this is from the sponsor of the bill. It's been my experience that also that final development plans very often don't even resemble the preliminary plans, which makes it even more critical for public engagement at that point in the process. Especially there, because it could be something completely different, as you all know. I suggest that the council contact Representative Hall and get some input from him and the legislature about what their intent actually was with this bill. If they're saying the intent was not to reduce public engagement, then you need to know that that was their intent. And if necessary, perhaps get an injunction to delay action on this until you know what the intent was from the legislature. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next is Walt Gaffield followed by Patty Dross. Welcome. I'm Walt Gaffield. I'm President of the Fayette County Neighborhood Council. I live in the 10th district. I think it's necessary to pass the zoning ordinance text amendment. Lexington has a very robust history of planning. And I think if we want to comply with a comprehensive plan and not lose a lot of planning knowledge and things that we do right now, it needs to pass. Do I think it's perfect? No, it's not. I think there was a problem with public engagement in the development of the ZOTA. Staff has first Friday meetings with the development community. They met with developers. They met with developer legal council. They met with real estate interests. When the neighborhood council finally received something from staff, the original staff request had already changed considerably. And I think the first comment that the neighborhood council made was. We preferred what the staff did first, but, you know, and we got it at the last minute. It was like 55 pages, a 55-page legal document. There was no way we could possibly look at all of it and make sense of it and make recommendations, so we had to do it in pieces. And I think notice was late, obviously. If you receive very little time and you have a 55-page document and it's legal, I mean you can't be expected to make a coherent comment on it or make a whole lot of sense out of it. I think I want to talk a little bit about waivers. It's interesting as to what a waiver is. For example, if the Prawl Town zone change had already had the CN zone, what that proposal did was it eliminated the sun 24-7 for a year or something. It was because of the size of the building they wanted to put next to the houses. Now, if there's nothing in the ZOTA that says we don't want, you know, we don't want the sun blotted out because of a large development next to a residential neighborhood, it would have to pass. So there's a question of what's the definition of health, safety, and welfare, because certainly it's not in the welfare of residents to have to put up with that. So there's some things that need to change. On the timing of the change, I think it's wise to set up, say we'll look at it in six months or we'll look at it in a year, but I think also you need to consider you might want to make changes sooner. And I think that's an important consideration. Anyway, in summary, I urge you to pass the ZOTA, and knowing that there are problems with it, make the changes that you can, and also restore some sort of semblance of public engagement. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Next is Patty Dross. Welcome. Thank you, Mayor and Council. My name is Patty Dross. I live in Joyland Neighborhood Association. I'm on the Joyland Neighborhood Association as a board member, and I'm speaking on behalf of the board. Currently, many people review development plans, including the planning staff, planning commission, and the public. Whittling this down to one person and their check off list excludes the knowledge of all members of the planning commission and the affected neighborhoods, excluding the intimate knowledge of the citizens there. The one planning staff person does not live everywhere in the city, does not know if there are serious traffic concerns or if there are farm animals in the adjacent property, as well as a host of other issues. For example, when Joyland Crossing Apartments at North Broadway came before you last year, it took presentations before the planning commission and council and drone video for a traffic safety issue to be addressed, even though traffic engineering had signed off. But they didn't live in the neighborhood either. Additionally, if the correct zone is present for a proposed project, this development, whether preliminary or final, will not come before the public. We will not know until the shovels are digging what is being built. Currently, although we have to search for it, we can find our option to give public comments on a development plan. Please have a check box for a mailing to all houses in an affected neighborhood, because blocking our concerns is wrong. It's a process that's weighted in favor of developers, not long time residents. Ministerial does not mean totally excluding the public. I ask you to remedy this, and I know you have concerns about it, by creating a meaningful step for public participation. Secondly, create a check box for historic neighborhoods, because I'm specifically thinking about that Prawl Town situation and St. Martins, that now will have no way to, if the zone is there already, they will have no way to fight off where they have concerns anyway. So create a check box for historic neighborhoods, which would require a waiver, knowing that DEI is no longer allowed. And third, can this check box ministerial review process apply to certain types of developments? For instance, for all business zones, but not residential, or vice versa? Or must it just apply to everything? Can it just be, can we have a segment of buildings that the check box situation has to apply to? Probably not, but wishful thinking. Thank you, have a good day. Thank you very much. This concludes our public comment, and that brings us to our docket. If I could have a motion to approve. Thank you, Council Member Svigny, Council Member Gray seconds. Are there any questions? That is all the people who were on my list. Several of us signed up at the iPads out in the hallway. So Patty Dross was the last person on my list. So I do not have anyone else. There were staff people assisting us in signing up. Okay, but I don't have their list. So if there are others signed up, I need to get that from staff. If you'll just be patient a minute, we'll see if they have the rest of the list. Did you happen to sign up for issues not on the agenda? No? Yeah, okay, she's gonna check on it. Yeah, so we'll be back to our public comment in a minute. Anyway, we have a motion on the floor to accept the docket. Are there any motions for the docket? Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner Barbary, can I ask you some clarifying questions about how we engage with the 443 Zoda that should be docketed for this coming Thursday. I wanted to know kind of what the parameters are for our discussion. Is this the appropriate place for discussion on that particular item that's to be docketed? And can we make amendments to that right here? Mm-hm. Okay. And then I think as we've discussed, if you all are not ready to move it forward, we provided a motion where you could move to put it on the next work session and do the same thing. Okay. But those would be your opportunities to actually amend it as you're talking about it. Other than a council meeting, so, yeah. Okay, thank you for that. So I'm curious to hear from my colleagues if they have particular, I know we had a good almost two hour discussion at GGP on it. And a lot of stuff was brought up, but obviously that was not the right venue for making actual amendments to this. So I'm curious to see if my colleagues have particular amendments that they want to make. But I want to kind of speak to the item kind of writ large. We have a housing crisis in this city. We are 23,000 housing units short. In general, I support a more streamlined approval process. I want to get those approvals done faster. I also support objective standards. I support a process that favors objective standards applied by trained professional staff over the subjective and sometimes political opinions of appointed or even elected bodies such as ourselves. And most of all, I want to make sure that we are in compliance with HB 443. And that language specifically stated that, quote, objective standards that shall be applied ministerially. Ministerially is not a word that gets thrown around. It has a very specific meaning. So to me, I want to make sure that on July 1st or July 2nd, if an applicant comes to us with a development proposal with an application. And we don't have those objective standards in place. We don't have those check boxes in place. What happens to that application? Who makes those determinations? Does this get kicked back to planning commission for a more subjective review on things that aren't written down? In which case, we're kind of back to square one, which is our old process, which in my mind would not be adhering or complying to the objective standards that are laid out in HB 443. HB 443, as some have noted, is literally like two short paragraphs. They don't specifically address public input. But the word ministerially frames what public input, how public input relates to it. Some of the conversation we had in the GGP meeting basically laid out that in a ministerial process, you check boxes, and if you check all the right boxes and fulfill whatever those requirements are, you are approved. There's no subjective sort of well, maybe this, maybe this, maybe I feel like it today. The waiver process is there in place if you don't like a specific item and you can kind of go to the planning commission process to get that change, right? So in my mind, we absolutely need a set of objective standards in order to comply with the law. The question of what those objective standards are, those are things that we as a decision making body can talk about and figure out are there things that we need to tweak or change. And I'm very much open to any of those. As long as we don't lose sight of the fact that these standards are based on our previous and common and historic practice, and also have to fall in line with our comp plan, with complete streets, with Vision Zero, with all the other standards and practices of all the other divisions that are involved, right? We can't throw sort of our stated values as a city out the window. So that's kind of my general stance on the issue, and I'm very interested to hear what my colleagues have to say. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next is Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. First, I have a walk on motion having to do with the ability to start an official petition process for residential parking. We have a motion on the floor, though. We have a motion to approve the docket. You're right, I'm sorry. Well, no, this is for the docket. Sorry, this is a motion for the docket. Yeah, this is a walk on. Okay, that's okay. I move to place on the docket for May 8th, 2025, council meeting, a resolution granting a waiver to the requirements in resolution 40-2007 related to the residential parking permit program. So moved. This is for the 700 block of West Main Street. Second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Thank you, and I do have a motion about HB 433, but I would like to give my colleagues time to discuss before I make that motion. And I did want to bring, I guess I can bring Mr. Crumb back up about, do I have a time? Are we being timed? Well, I don't know what's going on with the timer. Do you? I mean, you don't have to time me, but you will regret it. So you probably have about two or three minutes left. Okay, thank you, and I'll sign back in. When we were going back to talking about the big box stores and some of the requirements around them, we kind of got cut off. We were talking about parking and loading and unloading in a residential area and it being required on the front and side streets, or not being allowed to be in the front and side streets. Can you expand a little bit on that? I'm afraid, once again, that we're limiting, we would be putting some establishments that we have in the city out if they had to abide by these standards, and we're limiting our development. So can you explain why that, this should be six section, this is under- Do you have a page number associated with that council member at the bottom? When I reprinted the new version, it did not have page numbers, but it's one, two, three, four, five. 16-7. Mayor, I apologize, I want to just call a point of order. I wonder, and this is, Council Member Reynolds, this isn't to you, it's to us moving forward with the motion. When we know we have people that have signed up through public comment. We're getting that clarified in a minute. With law, we have a motion on the floor to approve the docket, and we know we have people, we now have our full list. People who would like to speak to an item on the docket, so I'll ask our commissioner if we can insert public comment in the middle of a motion that we have on the floor. What would you recommend? And I was thinking that the motion could be redrawed or something. We already added stuff to the docket. So let's hear- I think it depends on when you want to hear the public comment. I think we'd like to- You want to hear it before you act on this stuff? I think you go ahead and table the motion until after you've heard the public comment. And then you'd re-engage the motion at that point in time. Okay, now we've already had some amendments made to the motion. Well, it'd be the- Right, didn't you walk on? Well, we did add something to the docket, but we haven't- I think you're fine on that point. We haven't made any amendments to this. So when, excuse me, when we bring it back, we will bring back the amendments? Is that your view on it? I think by tabling at this point, you've already done what Council Member Reynolds did, so you don't need to do it again. So when you bring it off the table, that will have already been done. So, yeah. Okay, I think that answers that question. As soon as you're done with the public comment, the idea would be it's coming off the table for you all to act on it again. All right, very good. Because I think everybody would like to hear the rest of the public commenters. Council Members, what's your- So with that advice, I'll make a motion to table the current motion on the floor until we can include public comment. Council Member Gray, seconded. That is non-debatable. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Point of information. So then I have a question. Do we need to then make a motion to bring public comment back? No, well. Since we've already been moved on. Well, my sense is public comment wasn't finished because we didn't have the full list. So, I mean, I would just say out of consensus, I would think everybody might want to finish public comment. Does that work? Okay. We voted to table the motion. So, my apologies. There was a technical glitch and we only got half the list. So, we'll go ahead and hear the rest of the list and that is next up for public comment will be Shannon Stiglitz followed by Richard Murphy. And again, you'll need to repeat your name and say what council district you're in and you can lower the mic. That's always my problem. Yes, my name is Shannon Stiglitz. I am here on behalf of retailers across the commonwealth. Of course, retailers operating in all of your districts today. I specifically wanted to address many of our concerns that are in the planning and zoning. 443 Zoda, particularly our concerns is not just with the lack of public comment. It's also about a due process issue from the standpoint of the business, from the standpoint of your constituents. And so we would respectfully request that you do include that process. I am a resident of the city of Louisville. I work in Frankfurt. I deal a lot with you cities, with different cities and planning and zoning. And in Louisville, we absolutely have opportunities for public comment to be submitted whether or not it's because a waiver. If the community is developing a plan development, they certainly do that. That ministerial duty does not take away that there is a need for a public comment in our planning and zoning process in Louisville. But to get to the specifics, I think it's important to note the two few pain points I want to point to for our members are the regulations on drive-throughs. Making it harder to construct drive-throughs for our members adds to the risks that our businesses are already facing. You had a lot of discussions about tariffs and its impact on your communities. Those risks will be weighed against our building in our communities. Also, the big box regulations are hard to understand from a public safety standpoint. Having doors and multiple entrances at a time when organized retail crime is at an all time high. Kentucky is not exempt or immune from that. You're giving potential criminals entrances and exits. These acts are associated with increased violence. They are jeopardizing public safety. They make it harder for us to hire employees. The restrictions on what is put in a parking lot, Christmas trees, plants. Not to mention the common sense of how that impacts the products themselves. But this would require bigger buildings to be built to, for example, fit maybe a small piece of construction equipment under cover so it doesn't sit in a parking lot. It seems to discourage efficiency in our perspectives. Going back to drive-throughs, there are healthcare instances for where drive-throughs are necessary. If you have a disability, an infectious disease, you're going to a pharmacy, a retailer who's providing you healthcare. Please take those things into consideration. Thank you. Next is Richard Murphy followed by Rolanda Wolffolk. Welcome. Thank you, Mayor. I'm Dick Murphy, Council District 5. I'm an attorney here representing several developers. I'm a member of the BIA. Just had four quick points to make about the House Bill 443 ZOTA. First of all, right now, notice is required for zone changes. Very extensive notice, but there's no notice required under our current ordinance for final development plans or waivers. The ordinance which is before you does require notice for waivers. So it requires more notice than you have in your existing ordinance. Hopefully this procedure will take away the Planning Commission's consent agenda, because those items won't have to go to the Planning Commission anymore. But for the plans that require waivers, they will have to go to the Planning Commission, and unlike before, they will require notice. Second of all, I wanted to remind you that one thing House Bill 443 did not take away was the provision in state law that says if somebody comes before you with a zone change and a development plan, a preliminary development plan, and they say, I'm going to go above and beyond. For instance, if they say, I'm going to build that stub street, even though it's not required, and they put it on their preliminary development plan, that could be enforced, regardless of whether it's ministerial or discretionary, because the state law says that those agreements shall be followed. So that does not change that procedure, and you all do that in your zone change hearings. You say, how about doing this? How about doing that? If that's agreed to, that is a requirement that keeps going forward. Third is, 50 years ago, the highest court in Kentucky ruled that zone changes are discretionary, but the other items are ministerial. This is not a change in the law. That's why other cities haven't been reacting to this. Lexington has drifted away from it over the years, and it will bring it back. But that is not a change in the law as it has been, as I see it, for the last 50 years. And finally, we'd request that if you do go forward with the ordinance, that you remove the provisions that don't need to be in it. For instance, the ones Ms. Stiglitz just mentioned about drive-throughs, and also about the commercial entrance standards. Thank you very much, appreciate it. Thank you. Next is Rolanda Wolffolk, followed by Deval Headley. Is Rolanda here? There you are. I'm sorry. Welcome. Hello, Rolanda Wolffolk, District 2 Lexington Historical Black Neighborhood Association. President, I just want to say thank you planning staff for working so diligently and hard on this ZOTA. I know it's hard. Yes, we're asking for you to continue to add public comment into this. And we'd like to thank the developers now to recognizing that we are important, all of a sudden, to have comment. And we just want to say, please think about us, and think about how you transition this to us being able to have our input on these type of things. Because we don't know until it happens. And that's when we come down, and there's the frustration. Let's remove that. We can work together. We all can work together on things. It's just being more diligent. And I don't think our developers are going to be diligent about this. So we need some standards in there for them, and some obligations for them to do so. I appreciate you once again. Have a great day. Thank you. Next is Deval Headley, followed by Todd Johnson. Mr. Headley, someone over here will pass those out. They're all in order. That's for that. That's for the official record. I don't believe in God, that's for legal. Yeah, I'll give that to plant. All right, welcome. Hi, y'all. My name's Deval Headley. I represent the third. I also represent as proxy voters in all 12 districts, and now starting to hit some of the surrounding counties. So I think the most important thing is community involvement. I've said this for years. When you were nice enough to show up at the Oakwood meeting, Mayor, I appreciate that. We had a comment about when you were first on the council, and when I was a much younger man, and we need to fix some of this stuff. I'm just going to leave you with three sort of simple things that basically explain it on maybe a much easier level, we're not lawyers, we're not anything else. Number one, I appreciate Dick mentioned in 50 years, but I think in terms of Lexington 250, where will we be in 250 years? And I say this because there's a place called Versailles in France that had trees that were planted that would take 250 to 500 years to grow and expand. So the person who planted them would never live to see it. Their children would never live to see it. Their grandchildren would never live to see it. But they had enough foresight to do it to make that a much more beautiful place. Number two, in construction, real simple finance, measure twice, cut once. And the third point, and this is real simple, there's an old saying about the cart and the horse, and don't put the cart before the horse. I think we need to figure out whatever, whether it's LFUCG legal, whether it's council, whoever it is, to sort of maybe set this process correct. To me, it seems like the horse should be the community, and the cart should be the developer. We seem to let the developer be in front, and the community sort of drag it at the end when it's too late. I thank you. The last minute I'll give to anybody else who needs it for community staff. Thank you all. Thank you. Next is Todd Johnson, followed by Brandon Gross. Welcome. Good afternoon, Council Member, Mayor. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Todd Johnson with the Building Industry Association in our offices in Council District 8. Just wanted to speak today just to reiterate the information that we have sent to you all via email. And we've talked to many of you about the same points of concern that we have. We've sent a detailed list of items throughout this 60 plus page document that we are concerned with. We feel, and we started advocating for this after the first planning commission meeting on House Bill 443 ZOTA. That the rulemaking and the cleanup to be in compliance with 443 are really two separate pieces of work that's been rolled into one large document. We would encourage the council to consider separating the cleanup from the rulemaking. I don't think that, I think it's been expressed here today that us in our side of the industry and conversations we've had with many of you, the timeline to get this at the council level, to receiving it officially today, to expect to vote this out and move it forward today is kind of unprecedented for a ZOTA in general, much less one of this consequence in magnitude. So we would encourage you to divide out the rulemaking from the cleanup for 443. Let's make good rules, let's have input from the community on what those rules are, what the impact of those rules will be, and do it right the first time and try to come back and mop up the floor later. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next is Brandon Gross, followed by Jock Wiginton. Welcome. Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, council members, Brandon Gross, 10th district. Today I want to talk to you, not necessarily about the details, but about the process set forth in this ZOTA and also just in general of how we adopt ZOTAs in this community. So I will say, I will agree with staff, on paper, this process should be quicker, the way it's been drafted. And I appreciate that as a practitioner and as a community member. My concerns, though, are that too many projects may be caught up in the waiver process. And to differentiate the two is, you've got objective standards, but once a property owner asks for a waiver, it's now subjective. So it's important that we put the rules in place that we as a community have looked at, have digested, and understand, because as the two entrances for the Walmart, once that's on the books, if they don't want to build that second entrance, they have to go and ask permission from the planning commission and convince the planning commission that they do not need to build that second entrance. Having been in front of the planning commission and this body, sometimes it's hard to convince you I'm right. You don't always agree. And so that is one of my main concerns. And the comprehensive plan talks about a key strategic growth component of our city is infill and redevelopment. To do that, we have to make the rules easy to do infill and redevelopment. As we all know, we have a housing crisis. I think this mayor and the council have done a great job in funding to build more affordable housing in this community, but we're still 22,000 units short. Also, the harder it is to build inside the urban core, the more likelihood we're not going to build the services, the jobs, and the houses our community need. The more likelihood we're going to have pressure to do another expansion sooner than we otherwise would have. So this is one of my concerns, is that we're going to adopt rules that will make it harder to develop, which will make more pressure for you guys to look at expansion sooner than our community wants us to look at it. So the process, I think the staff and you and the citizens are really good at identifying potential and actual negative effects of development, and we make rules to say we don't want those things. What we don't do a good job at is look at the burdens that those benefits place on the projects. Do they increase costs? Do they delay the project? Is the project now less affordable? Are the rules reasonable and practical? Will they discourage development? Those are things you need to look at, and we have not looked at those for all these rules. So today, my ask is, is for the planning staff's created objective standards that have only been unwritten standards, that have not been fully vetted, that those be removed from the ZOTA, and you guys deal with those in the future. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next is Jock Wiginton. Welcome. Hey, may I have Mr. Duval's minute? I'm sorry, what? Mr. Duval's minute. May I have that? No, that's not how it works. Sorry. I asked. You have three minutes. Welcome. Mayor, how are you doing? Good to see you in council. I appreciate the opportunity. I want to especially thank Council Member Large Brown for recognizing the sensitivity of the issue. And that I rise in regards to HB443, which in Lexington is germane to the whole issue of public comment. And whether or not in this time in which we're living in, whether our government is truly responsive to the people or is it responsive to somebody else and something else. This is a critical issue that we're finding not only locally but nationally. With that being said, I want to thank you for that process correction. I rise in support of much of what has already been said, Reverend Richard Gaines and his emphasis that we know that bright minds can think themselves out of a paper bag. And we know that we have a culture here of Lexington of ensuring and making sure the neighborhoods are heard. And we can find a way to make sure that's done. How you do that is up to you, and we are trusting in your great creativity and your brilliant minds. We also note that when you talk about the bill, there was a question about intent versus statute. But we know that conversations are intent, but statues are like walls, and they remain long after the person is gone. We need to have, while the cement is wet, that we look at these issues. I heard something that was interesting, and it had to do with the question of objectivity. I appreciate my former colleague's comments that good fences make for good neighbors, but the question has to be whether or not we agree on the lines, and there's a big question right now on what the lines are. When we look at public comment, if you go and look and flip the pages that I saw from the committee, it found that it looks like it's very heavy on one side. The only community input I see really mentioned was Fayette County Alliance, and I remember their history was that they were created out of a land movement by those in the 12th district. So we want to be cautious about that. In terms of objectivity, much of it is being moved by the comprehensive plan. But the comprehensive plan, I know in watching it during my tenure here, we saw where there were concentrations of special interest groups that would go in and would influence the input. There's never been put in place a scientific methodology that would ensure all of Fayette County is included in terms of their comments. We want to also acknowledge that the question will be, if we apply what we do or talk about today, how would it have affected what we've just done? When you look at Prawl Town, in which staff recommended that it was okay to put an eight story building beside those houses, was that what we wanted? When we look at St. Martin Village, and they propose that we put an extended trail apart by an existing neighborhood that has historically been there for so many years, that was the staff position. I come because there have been asked of me, many neighborhoods to say, we need help in interfacing with government. That's a cry for help, and I hope that you hear it. Thank you. Thank you. Now, before we go on, is there anyone who thinks you signed up that I haven't called your name? That's the end of my final list, so anybody? All right, thank you very much. That ends our public comment. Now, I'll ask if there's a motion to bring back the docket off the table. So moved. Second. Thank you, Council Member Brown. Second by Council Member Reynolds. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Now we are back on the docket. And if you want to speak, please sign up. Are you finished? Council Member Reynolds has a couple minutes left on her time. She was not finished. If you could put, I'm going to call on Council Member Reynolds to continue. If you'll put two minutes up, please. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to at least finish one point. Okay, so we were talking about parking. Could you talk a little bit about that and how you came to the conclusion to codify some of these things once again? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, memory serves, we're talking about section 16-7, parking, loading, and unloading areas required in front or side, that section there. So, that is a section that speaks to a particular concern, or a particular safety concern, which is backing into roadways. So, the current language, without having any changes, basically says that you can have parking in areas where it's allowed. You can have parking in front of your building, but there needs to be sufficient room for you to maneuver without backing over the road right of way. Once again, if you're going to have that there, make sure you're not backing to the street. There's a safety concern with that. What doesn't work under House Bill 443 anymore is the word sufficient. And so, in replacement of that, it becomes a dimensional, a minimum of 25 feet, to give space in order to accommodate that parking maneuvering so that backing directly into the right of way isn't a requirement. As far as that specific dimension, that was provided through traffic engineering. Once again, taking something that was a subjective criteria as to what is considered sufficient, and replacing it with a standard that should be able to accommodate not having folks have to back directly into the street. So, with this, you couldn't have parking directly in front of a restaurant because you might have to back directly out. Yeah, so this is saying if you want to be able to have parking in that area, you've got to maneuver it so you can't back into the road right of way. That's correct. I could see how that could be an issue for a lot of places that are trying to work with a small amount of space. That it would be hard for them to have enough space to find, to have enough parking and turn around. So, I guess I'm a little bit concerned about that. I will sign back in. Thank you. All right, thank you. Council Member Brown. Okay, Council Member Curtis. Thank you, Mayor. So, Mr. Crum, I'd ask you to join me back at the podium again. I'll just hang out here. So, really quickly, just to give you a chance to address some of the public comment that was made before. So, how much of the language in this ZOTA would you consider clean up language and how much would you consider new regulatory language that wasn't on the books? So, that's a good question. So, really the main two sections that really have the we need to create a floor, we need to create these standards where they were just sign offs, really deal with traffic engineering. So, there's a lot of stuff referring to drive throughs, access points where you're putting parking. And once again, speaking to, and just as a refresher for folks that weren't in attendance earlier for the GGP. The traffic engineering, their guidelines, their manuals are not an adopted document in the same way that the division of engineering's manuals are. So, with that, we have to create those standards. So, it is very much weighted towards the aspects where we found holes in our current processes. So, we went to these individual divisions, what is currently on the books, locked in, objective, ready to go for 443, what is not. So, really the concentration of new language really is as it relates to Article 16 and those areas. The rest is either process oriented or largely clean up of those, once again, subjective standards that need to have a number attached to them. Sure, sure. So, just for clarification, if we do end up adopting a document that sort of codifies some of these things, would that language then be able to be removed from this, Zoda? I'm sorry, I don't quite follow that question there. Never mind, don't worry about that. I am going to move on from that, just because I know we're short on time there. So, I'd actually like to do something a little unorthodox right now. So, thank you, Mr. Crum, I appreciate you taking your time. I would actually like to see, because earlier I was asking questions about the communication with Lexington's delegation to the state legislature and the General Assembly on this. We have a member of Lexington's delegation to the General Assembly with us today, and I was wondering if he would come and speak to us about this. Representative Brown? Welcome. Just FYI, Council Member Curtis has one minute and 57 seconds left. I will be brief. Thank you, Representative Brown, for joining us up here, so can I ask a couple of questions really quick? Okay. So, we're discussing House Bill 443 from 2024. Do you remember this bill? Yes. And how did you vote on this bill? I voted yes. And the bill passed unanimously for the House, in the House, and it passed unanimously in the Senate. Just if I may, clarification, I talked to Representative Hall, who was one of the primary sponsors of the bill, and he was of the opinion that the bill did not appreciably change zone changes and input into, by members of the community, that the bill was passed to ensure the process of planning and zoning, but not to exclude public comment. And he can have that opinion, and I respect his opinion, but that doesn't change the letter of the law and the meaning of the word ministerial. And so we're in an unenviable position right now, so I just want to ask for clarification. Did you or any of the other members of Lexington's delegation to the General Assembly attempt to communicate or collaborate with LFUCG regarding this piece of legislation before deciding how to vote on it, or whether to, no? No, not to my opinion, not to my recollection. And you once served on this council, correct? I did. When you were serving on this council and there were decisions that were going to directly impact Lexington's local government, did you seek to communicate with your legislator at the time? In some instances, yes. Do you think that Lexington's delegation to the General Assembly has a responsibility to communicate with LFUCG regarding pieces of legislation that are going to tangibly and directly create this type of impact for LFUCG? Let me just be honest and tell you that this discussion and the interpretation by LFUCG and probably the law department is inconsistent with what we thought was on the table and up for discussion. We did not see this being a situation that would take away public input. And in talking with Representative Auld, who was one of the primary co-sponsors of the legislation, he said there's absolutely no way, and I'm speaking on, and this is kind of a quote, and if he says I hear he didn't say it, this is the way I understood it, is that there's no way that he would take away or pass or support legislation that would take away public comment from the citizens of the community. I recognize that I am out of time, but thank you for indulging me in this slightly irregular comment. Thank you very much. Thank you. Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Crum, I am going back into my digging here. Okay, we're in section 21.4F2. In House Bill 443, it specifies health, safety, and welfare. Can you tell me why that was stricken from this section, please? Let's see. We are talking about, just so everybody's on the same page as me, sorry, development plans. Article 21 is development plans, and this is under procedures of development plans. Okay. And what's the specific section that we're citing? 21.4, section F, well, under, yeah, 2. Commission shall be certified by the commission secretary, more, more, more, when it, and it was stricken to say, where the commission may require changes in the development plan when it finds it has necessitated such changes for the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of the community, but that's been stricken. So why was it stricken when that's the purpose of the bill? So this particular section talks about the certification and what happens then, so requires, I'm just refreshing myself on this section here. Okay, sorry. Yeah, you're fine. I'm going as fast as I can over here. So yeah, this is really speaking to, once again, so this is talking about recertification, and so they can require changes in the development plan when the ordinance and regulations have been changed. So it's not impacting the actual ability for staff to raise a health, safety, welfare, but it's strictly speaking to when the ordinance and regulations have changed. So this is talking about a plan's expired, this is how we kind of keep that active and moving forward, and it talks about the interaction between those and the regulations. And so that kind of keeps it in line with the objective standards and kind of keeping that frame there. Okay, great. I'm going to the waiver section. Okay, waivers is 21-9. So we know that the purpose of this is to make everything objective. So I am seeing lots of words like reasonably, reasonable use, unnecessary hardship, unnecessary sufficient potential, and all of those seem very subjective. So could you explain why those words were used here as opposed to something else? Yes, yes. Specifically because, as we kind of noted earlier, the process is objective until you ask for a waiver. And so that's where an argument is being made for why these are not appropriate. So that inherently, the applicant's reasoning, the planning commission's interpretation, those are going to be the subjective processes. So that is where we're allowed to use reasonable, sufficient, and that value judgment comes back into it. So this is the one place where you are allowed to have those types of considerations. And it's sort of the backbone behind the reasoning process for granting relief is a subjective determination that the planning commission makes. Okay, and then as we're looking at section E in that same, well, letter E in that section, when it's talking about the commission may impose additional conditions or restrictions. Are there a list they can pick from, or it's just on a case by case basis? Yeah, there is, I guess, under that language, there's not any real additional modifiers. Essentially, that gives the planning commission the ability to say, yes, we can grant your particular waiver for this aspect. But in exchange, we need you to modify some other portion, basically to offset or to otherwise kind of mitigate the impacts that a waiver may have. I think there needs to be a nexus there between sort of the relief granted and the conditions given. But that's the intention of that section there, to provide them some flexibility to provide conditions when those arise. Okay, and then back up in A2. It specifies that the planning director, unless determined by the planning director to be unnecessary, who would act in the case that the planning director wasn't available, or why was, I love you. Why was that position picked to be here? because it is just one person, and that can be very subjective. Yeah, so the planning director here sort of acting as sort of the head of the staff review, or the staff level determination. So essentially, these are the folks that are looking at the request for the waiver before it's brought to the planning commission. And giving them the information, basically, that is necessary. So whether or not a site plan would be necessary for what they're asking a waiver for, that gives them the ability to kind of make that call there to give the PC their info. Thank you, I'll come back. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Beasley. Thank you, Mayor. I have a walk on. Very good. Okay, let's hear it. Let's change it up a little bit. On behalf of the administration, I move to place on the docket for the May 8th, 2025 council meeting a resolution accepting the bid from, I'm not going to say this right, but Zaspo Project Services Inc. In the amount of $40,840 for the monument sign at Tage Creek Golf Course and Aquatic Center entrance for the divisions of Parks and Recreation, and authorize the mayor to execute the agreement with the Project Services Incorporated related to the bid. So moved. Thank you, Council Member Baxter. Seconds? Is there any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Thank you. Council Member Morton. So I don't have any questions as of right now. They were relayed in the GGP meeting, but I do want to make a statement for my constituents. And just with comments I've heard. So I understand the need to grow infield, and I actually support that need. But I do have concerns when it comes to making it as easy as possible, simply due to the challenge that we're running into when it comes to public input, where we know that a lot of our infield areas have existing neighborhoods right next to them. So making it easy as possible in infield, I don't think is the direction that we need to go. We need to make sure that we're listening to our community members, getting community input. Because those are existing neighborhoods that have concerns, and we already talked about the issues when it comes to public input. So as mentioned, I don't have any exact questions right now. But I'd like to emphasize my concerns, again, as it relates to public transparency, public input, and notification when it comes to parcels that are already zoned. And I look forward to amending and possibly adding in where we see fit to build a policy that recognizes community input, but also recognizes it important for us to set a firm standard and fair standard when it comes to how we grow here in Lexington, so thank you. Thank you, Council Member Brown. Thank you, Mayor. And I'm not going to rehash all my comments that I shared in the committee meeting today. But I did send out an email to council members that I did plan to make an amendment today to the ordinance related to House Bill 443. So I've moved to make an amendment to ordinance number seven for first reading on the docket, work copy docket, for the next council meeting, and it's to remove in definition section 1-11. The term, the definition for temporary shelter, temporary construction trailer. So move. Council Member Baxter seconds. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Is anyone? opposed. All right that motion passes. Thank You mayor and I think that I plan to support a motion to continue this conversation about this ordinance in the next work session that we have scheduled. So if other amendments come forward out I'll look to support those. Thank you. Councilmember Curtis do you mind if I go to those who haven't spoken yet? Councilmember Gray have you spoken already? Okay. Thank You mayor. Mr. Cobb I just have a question just maybe I'm just being overwhelmed with all the information at this point and you may need to talk to me like I'm in elementary school so it make you said please so that it makes full sense to me. So in the process prior to today was there an opportunity for at the beginning stages was there an opportunity for residents to give public input? So under the current situation or the what we have today? Sure. Yes yes so as it relates to today the all development final development plans were required to go to the Planning Commission which meant that that had open public comment it had the ability for the Planning Commission to use their discretion in weighing that setting conditions approving or disapproving the plan but it was meaningful in the sense of the public could show up their concerns and their comments could be incorporated into the outcome that they were seeking so yes. And so with this now written out here is there an opportunity if this does pass as it is right now will the public have an opportunity to give public input? Only if a waiver is requested so the as far as the ability to impact the actual review of a development plan a final development plan House Bill 443 clearly states that the lens you got to view that through objective standards applied ministerially which does not allow for personal discretion to weigh the public comment that comes in in association with a neighborhood. And commissioner whatever he says. There remains an opportunity as we discussed with people contacting planning either written comment calling having meetings to discuss the plan but the nature of the objective standard as we've discussed it removes discretion or debate but they can certainly have input and make their concerns known to the staff. They just won't have an opportunity at at I guess the Commission meeting. Correct. Unless those exceptions that we mentioned and you made me forget my second thought. The there will still be an agenda of applications and we will make those available we can make them available to you all at the beginning of the I'm sure we can so that you can share them with you either in your newsletters or with your districts so that they would know what applications have been filed related to which properties so that if they did want to reach out they would know that that was coming up. We're also going to start streaming the technical review committee meetings at the end of this month so if people want to see how one of those go it'll be a little bit different after July 1 but since they've added using microphones over there it's actually potentially useful to have it streaming on Lex TV. And so going forward so in that process once if this is passed as is they will still be able residents will still be able to give their input but just not in speaking here at the microphone. With that in with the emails and the whatever they the calls the voicemails that you all receive will the Commission members receive those? Well they that I think there's two levels of that they will not in the ordinary course because with this process the applied ministerially the Planning Commission has no role unless there's a discretion question in one of the exceptions for the waiver for the if it's kicked to the Planning Commission by staff. So essentially this this law passed by our General Assembly has taken away the voice of the people? Well at that beginning to give their public statement. They arguably it's taken away one area. Remember and maybe you do not share my belief that when this body adopts standards you are speaking for the community to say that this is how you expect on a basic level development in Lexington. And that's very important with these objective standards. And what you're also saying is with the waiver if for some reason this doesn't work in a particular area you applicant can ask the Planning Commission to look at it and grant you a waiver of the standard that we have adopted. Thank you sir and thank you mayor. Thank you councilmember Oh I'm sorry hang on councilmember Boone you haven't spoken yet. Thank you mayor. First of all I'd like to say thank you to Commissioner Horne and the planning staff for putting this work together. I will start by saying I do believe that adding an element of public engagement or comment into this ZOTA is paramount. I think that we all know Lexington to be unique and we know that the people are knowledgeable and passionate about our communities. I think we should have the opportunity and obligation to listen to them and I will add that I understand an objective approach to planning can be more efficient. I have a hard time with the infill and redevelopment side of these standards. It would seem almost every infill project would immediately need multiple waivers to make them viable or appealing to builders and the comprehensive plan clearly promotes infill to redevelopment projects. With that being said I want to make sure that this ZOTA does not create more red tape and expenses for builders. And I do and I do support bringing this back into our next work session to work out some of these details. Thank You councilmember Lynch you have not spoken yet. Thank You mayor and I have a question I don't know if it's Ms. Wade or Mr. Crum if you want you all want to answer this and this is just for clarifying purposes. What happens if there is after July 1 there's a part of this ordinance that's deemed subjective? What happens then after July 1 to that part that is in violation of House Bill 443 after July 1? We would not be able to apply it so that's not if there was a standard that was subjective in nature we could not use that in review of a development plan. Okay so then if a development plan presents itself after July 1 that kind of falls into that area where our ordinance does not speak to it then what happens? Then they are not required to do anything there so if there was if there's a standard currently and it is subjective and moving forward in July 1st we do not adopt a objective standard to replace it that provision would not need to be addressed and so they would only need to check the boxes of the standards we outlined. Okay thank you thank you mayor. Thank You councilmember Curtis. Thank You mayor and I'm gonna keep it brief because I know we've been here for a while but I think that it would behoove all of us in this room and in the General Assembly to remember the importance of collaboration and to remember that there is a difference between intent and effect sometimes. When the General Assembly passed this I do not believe it was their intention to put us in this situation that we are in right now but as a body we are forced to take the law as it is not as we would like it to be we are supposed to be voting upon pieces of legislation, ordinances, resolutions for what they say not how we interpret them and ministerially has a specific legal definition and we have to vote based on that so regardless of whatever the intent was behind House Bill 443 it has put us in an uncomfortable position now where a bunch of people are yelling at each other nobody really understands what's going on and nobody's gonna be happy. We are all looking for the best bad option so I hope that in order to prevent this from happening in the future we can just work together up front rather than having this kicked down the road until the last second so that we can all be on the same page about what a piece of legislation actually requires of the local government. Thank you. Thank you Councilmember Baxter. Thank you mayor believe it or not I met with planning for like two hours before this day so but I still have more questions. Okay so we are in article 16 for this is the vehicular use area section 16.6 3 C we're talking about raised pedestrian walkways and all of the zones so one of the original iterations of this document had a three inch or three and a half inch lift and now we're at six so what what was the thought process behind that change and I guess the addition in general. Yeah and this I think this particular iteration kind of speaks to the the fact that this is a collaborative process between multiple divisions and multiple considerations so the initial section and just to clarify the section we're talking about is talking about when we have when we're requiring pedestrians to cross more greater than 24 feet of a drive aisle that they're afforded basically additional protections in the form of a raised crosswalk the initial draft of the text that was done at the first go around had a different dimension as far as the height so the deflection how high it needed to be up off the ground I think it was approximately three inches that was the text that was sort of initially generated and then as we heard feedback and as we took a deeper look we realized that this actually runs a foul or the original version ran afoul of ADA so essentially you would create sections where you had a ADA compliant sidewalk that then had to go down and essentially deflect and create basically an impossible situation to maintain that grade so what six inches does is it brings it up to grade with the sidewalk so ensuring that that is navigable for ADA considerations so once again something that was caught a little bit later in the process by one of our internal divisions kind of stress testing that and it's like oh no we need to make a change to make this more workable and so that's where that came from thank you I appreciate that explanation I think this is one of the things this is one of the specific examples of what concerns me as we are you know doing we're supposed to do to be in compliance with the house bill but we're adding things to development that costs more on the front end just in the construction of just this facility just this pedestrian facility which obviously pedestrian safety is something that we're focused on as a council it's something that we talk about all the time so it's important but we have to understand that if those are our wishes for an aspirations for the community that there will be a cost associated with that but my fear is that on one hand we're saying all we want is you know to make room for all the people and to welcome businesses here and develop you know have infill and redevelopment and all the things that's what we want to do but on the other hand we are adding restrictions or objective standards that cost more on the front more to maintain and may end up making development not feasible for someone along the line so I just want I have a lot more than I'm not going to get through but I have a minute left so I thought I'd say some of my actual thoughts and I just want us to be really cognizant that as we develop all of the policies and the manuals and all the things that are important to us as a council as we represent our community that we are taking into consideration that safety improvements and trees and bike ped paths and landscaping and sidewalks and all the things there's a cost associated with that and we have to figure out like a balance of how we do good in the community and how we are good partners with the development community so I won't I don't have any amendments today I will have some as I will be supporting the motion to continue this conversation just know that I'm gonna have a conversation with you about drafters okay all right thank you mayor thank you councilmember Ellinger thank you mayor I asked this question but I want to take it a little further earlier about our peer CDs and look and you said basically when this legislation was written it's basically it looks like it was written just for Lexington because other communities were already doing this when we started looking at this do we we go on trips to go to other communities to see what they're doing what's they're doing right what they're doing wrong do we do we get any best practices or others from communities that that things are working or not working when we when we when we did this so just sort of once again kind of going back to how we kind of came to the position that we're in so a lot of these especially as it relates to things like article 16 is primarily traffic engineering and the like so this is not you know simply standards we guess you know put in to fill this void for a subjective or not subjective a lot of these are based on existing manuals existing best practices we absolutely and I can only speak for planning on our side you know we keep an eye on what our other cities are doing we attend conferences we stay up to date with the the training we have for our professional certifications and when we have provisions like this we're looking to kind of make sure that we're in line because if someone else has figured it out it makes it a little easier to implement but what you're seeing here is is largely I mean we're talking decades of experience decades of how we've we've been sort of navigating this at sort of a individual negotiated level as well as the backing of their manuals of their other information so a large body of professional work and I'm sure that includes you know comparisons to other municipalities and what kind of the trends are moving forward thank you thank you ma'am thank you councilmember Reynolds Thank You mayor and thank you once again mr. crumb and the whole planning department for all your work on this I think you all have made some really great improvements and over the years I've heard from developers over and over that they feel like things are too subjective and that they wish there was a clear quicker process and I think we're working towards that and I really appreciate it I know it's not easy to come into compliance and do all of this work so I'm not taking that lightly at all I echo some of my council colleagues concerns that what we are trying to encourage in Lexington is info and we all know that we know that's the majority of what Lexington wants but sometimes with our policies they can be so strict that we're actually working against ourselves and we're not encouraging the type of thing that we want and so I I think that maybe we just need a little bit more time to solidify our thoughts and any amendments that we might have I've heard that from my colleagues as well and we're working towards something obviously that would pass before July 1st and so I appreciate everyone's work on this and I think if we just have a little bit more time we might be able to you know work some of our question more questions out with you all as well as be able to you know fully express any changes we may or may not want to make so I'm going to ask my colleagues if you would please support this motion I move to remove item number seven under ordinances first reading from the docket and to suspend the rules to allow discussion of this Zoda as part of continuing business at work session on May 13th 2025 so move councilmember Curtis seconds is there discussion of the motion all right all those in favor say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes is there anything else for the docket we've barely just begun anything else any other motions for walk-ons or anything all right all those in favor of approval of the docket as amended please say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes councilmembers I apologize I have to be at the funeral home and so the vice mayor is going to breeze you through the rest of the meeting Thank You mayor all right next on our agenda is approval of summary we have the table of motions for council work session April 29th 2025 can I get a motion to approve we have a motion and a second any discussion on this motion all those in favor please say aye any opposed that motion passes next up is budget amendments need a motion to approve we have a motion and a second any discussion on budget amendments all those in favor please say aye any opposed that motion passes next is budget adjustments for information only and then next up is new business if you all have quest thank you we have a motion and a second and if you have questions or discussion please sign in councilmember gray thank you vice mayor I have a question regarding letter G that's you yes coroner thank you for being here today it's nice to see your face could you give us some information about this sure so thank you all for having me it's been a while since I've seen y'all's faces I'm sure y'all nobody ever wants to see the corner but nevertheless this is this is a good item that I bring before you I've made connections with many people across the state one of which is the Scott County coroner he has a piece of equipment that I've had for several years it's a it's a stretcher that is exactly like what we are purchasing for our new trucks as we get them the stretcher originally cost $80,000 it was installed and it was never used by former Scott County coroner it was put in the hands of the present Scott County coroner they have elected to use striker stretchers so he has the fernal stretcher and I have literally done some physical work for him as well as some administrative work with the disinterment of the remains in Scott County so with all those relations I've made I've finagled around to to do a swap we have one-man stretchers which we are taking out of commission as we get our new trucks in for my deputies so we have an excess of these stretchers we value them at about $1,000 apiece so if you take the original price of the 80,000 we're going to swap and he's agreed to eight stretchers so that's a difference of $72,000 that the urban county government would receive we are currently paying in the neighborhood of round figures of $40,000 because we don't get new stretchers we get stretchers that's been reconditioned which have the same warranty and everything that a new stretcher does those are valued at $40,000 since so we're saving the urban county government each time we buy one $40,000 but we know that it costs still cost $40,000 so if you use that figure and you minus the 8,000 that's $32,000 that we are trying to save the urban county government by doing this swap so we would like to ask that you all or I would recommend that you allow us to do a swap of our eight one-man stretchers for this one fernal stretcher we do have another truck in our budget that this would go into and this should be the last stretcher that we would need to purchase and in my budget this year we have allocated the I think it's it's more than $40,000 for that new stretcher because they've gone up over a period of time so in having this stretcher with a swap we would be able to take that stretcher out of our budget which would be significant in our budget and a good savings for us as well as a the urban county government thank you that's wonderful so basically you're saving the city money yes and that's what I like to do I mean every time I make a purchase we look at we look at a lot of different vendors and and I know with the tariffs we have started looking at a lot of different vendors but we currently are getting a lot of our equipment that we use on a regular basis body bags and and gloves and things like that at I mean we work the deals to get bulk quantities so that we can buy them at lesser amounts of money so everything that I look at I try to make sure that it's like it's coming out of my pocket because it is it's our it's our tax dollars that we're that we're looking at okay sure other questions anybody thank you councilmember Morton thank you have a question for item o that's why you're coming just for transparency purpose can you speak about this MOU and how it relates to the two previous MOUs with the FBI that we passed earlier this year and then also how it will benefit the LPD yes sir you know my name is go perfect but my name is Brian Peterson I'm a patrol commander with the Police Department item o is the MOU with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force the JTTF is a FBI initiative that brings local state and federal agencies together to prevent deter and investigate acts of terrorism it's been in place since 1979 and as long as I've been here we've been a part of the JTTF which is over 20 years this is a renewal of an existing MOU like I said it's we've been doing it for quite a while and what it does is let us put a Lexington officer as part of this task force elect an officer trained for this city an officer that has a voice for us to help bring some of those resources that the FBI has to bear to help us keep our citizens safe thank you yes sir and then just for item J yeah item J mr. Neal or miss Albright do we have anybody it's fine we don't have to worry about it luckily it was just more so um just you know we all love speed bumps and I would just want to kind of a timeline of how that wasn't in place but I can get that information elsewhere so okay thank you councilmember lunch Thank You vice mayor I have a question about item E as an East or Commissioner Ford if you don't mind you hello hello how you doing councilman well my question is so I see that we're leasing part of our space to the parking authority yes and do you know if it's for their public facing business they're more internal operations for staff or is it a bit a mix of both I think it's primarily their their location over in the county clerk in the county clerk building which is a government center annex it's more for their administrative staff I can clarify that but I'm almost positive it's not forward-facing it's where their administrative core is house on the second floor of the GC annex okay thank you thank you vice mayor Thank You councilmember Ellinger Thank You vice mayor number a they'll love to ride you could you I always get excited when I see you love to ride so we get to ride her bike so sir do you explain the program and is this related to the because I'm involved with the 20 to 50 hustle so is that and where you have to do now I think that this is something separate for the record Chris if you a Lexington area MPO so this is a platform online platform fundamentally to encourage folks to perform more trips using the bicycle mode there is a very important side benefit to this it gives folks the opportunity to provide us feedback about which routes they're using and whether they like those routes don't like those routes why they don't like those routes where the problems are and it gives us an analysis tool to be able to improve our roadway network and how do you become part of this what do you have to do to to sign up or how there's a sign up process what's the website that we go to oh I'll have to get back to you on that okay thank you because I want to sign up so thank you thank you thanks man thank you any other discussion for new business all those in favor please say aye any opposed all right that motion passes next up is communications from the mayor appointments I need a motion to approve we have a motion and a second any discussion about appointments all those in favor please say aye any opposed that motion passes there are no donations this week or today next is communications from the mayor procurements we have a motion and a second any discussion on procurements all those in favor please say aye any opposed that motion passes on to continuing business and presentations first is council capital projects need a motion to approve we have a motion and a second any questions on council capital all those in favor please say aye any opposed that motion passes next up is the summary for the general government and planning committee of March 4th 2025 I'll pass it over to chair Sheehan Thank You vice mayor the March 4th 2025 general government and planning committee was called to order at 1 p.m. the February 4th 2025 committee summary was approved unanimously without any additions or corrections first Boyd say ways senior planner in long-range planning presented on the downtown our area master plan the plan will align with imagine Lexington 2045 through a community centered approach an RFP was issued and the contract is anticipated to begin in May and last around 18 months council members especially those representing the six districts that include a portion of downtown will be involved throughout the process no further action was taken on this item next Kit Anderson deputy director of Civic Lex presented ways to strengthen our boards and commissions through various research methods the Civic Lex team identified recommendations those recommendations were grouped into four areas of focus representation functionality accessibility and transparency moving forward councilmember lynch and vice mayor we will collaborate to address those recommendations no further action was taken on this item director Holbrook then updated the committee on short-term rentals specifically renewals and compliance the compliance hotline was also reviewed no further action was taken on this item councilmember Whitney Elliott Baxter provided a brief overview of the Zoda filed for electronic digital billboards and her plan to meet with each council member to discuss the item further no further action was taken on this item lastly vice mayor Wu reviewed the preservation and growth management program timeline and provided an update on upcoming engagement and education opportunities those interested in learning more and giving input should visit our engage Lexington platform no further action was taken on this item the meeting adjourned at 216 and that concludes my report thank you mayor thank you very much thank you any questions or discussion about the GGP summary all right on to council reports colleagues please sign in to speak councilmember Lynch thank you vice mayor I have a few quick announcements to share with my district two neighbors please do not forget that on Friday May 9th this Friday from 6 to 7 30 p.m. the NAACP is hosting an event at the black Williams Neighborhood Center a Fayette County Schools update from our own superintendent dr. Liggins so please district 2 neighbors in the whole community please come out on Friday at the black Williams Neighborhood Center for that update on Saturday as we always have many 5ks in the second district because we are the 5k capital of Lexington the lunch lady 5k run and walk you choose will be happening on Saturday and this is being hosted by the Fayette County School Nutrition Association this is a nonprofit organization that aids local school nutrition for students and their employees the 5k race and walk is Saturday at 8 30 a.m. at Cold Stream Park also happening this Saturday st. Martin's village is having their Mother's Day brunch it is occurring at 11 30 a.m. at the Bluegrass United Methodist Church so please come out and support that and then lastly on Saturday Casa de la Coutura Kentucky is having their Mother's Day festival at Madison Station Park from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public thank you vice mayor Thank You councilmember Beasley Thank You race mayor I would like to move to place the e911 fund revenue source into the budget finance and economic development committee to review the current funding challenges and explore alternatives for funding e911 services in Lexington Fayette County so moved all right we have a second from councilmember Reynolds any discussion on this motion all those in favor please say aye any opposed all right that motion passes thank you I'd also like you to recognize our corrections department it is corrections week so congratulations guys and also we have an 8th district meeting tomorrow night from 530 to 630 at the Tate's Creek library Thank You rice mayor Thank You councilmember gray Thank You vice mayor to the residents of the 6th district as you you may have been watching the news and you see that we have a possible development coming to the 6th district and as in all things I like to make sure that I get the information out to you so I've spoken with the developers and to set up a public meeting with all neighborhoods will who will be directly impacted that meeting will be on May 14th at 6 p.m. doors open at 545 and this meeting will be led by the developers I have nothing to do with it I just asked that they meet with the residents at the beginning and they were open to do so so be there be there be there and express all of your concerns now so see you Wednesday May 14th at 6 p.m. yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the jail who says that to the community corrections where we celebrated the impact and the life of Ray Sabatini Ray Sabatini was our jailer here and his second or the after mr. Sabatini it was Glenn Brown who was led the helm and it was because of our deputy CAO that we had this celebration of life and the memorial for mr. Sabatini so thank you Glenn Brown for all that you did and for making sure mr. Sabatini's name rings true and it is posted there so thank you to our community corrections leadership for making yesterday happen so as many of you all know I've mentioned before miss Sabatini was my fourth grade teacher that's she and I together it was my first time seeing her since I was in elementary school I think Joseph may have been in my class were you in my class as well we both had miss Sabatini that's how far me and councilmember he'll go way back so thank you to miss Sabatini and Sabatini and to the daughter Jessica and Jessica's wife Charlene for being present you have made such an impact on my life and on countless lives around Lexington and around this nation miss Sabatini so thank you for all that you've done as the wife of Ray Sabatini and lastly not only is this corrections week this is teacher appreciation week being an educator is not easy you're often wearing many hats you are not only teaching you're also a social worker you are a psychologist you are a referee at times you are the police you are all those things at the same time so I want to say thank you to all teachers out there because as you see I'm still talking about my fourth grade teacher that's how much of an impact you make on the lives of your students it carries with them a lifetime so thank you for all that you do and you have a great week thank you councilmember agree thank you vice mayor tomorrow morning marks the kickoff of national walk and bike to school day so I just I think I have a graphic with the route for this event connected to Ashland Elementary so if you all are interested in joining and I know councilmember Ellinger asked me about some details just know that ride and walk leaders are going to be at their start by 715 in the morning to greet the participants and anybody who's interested in joining whether you're a student or not can show up at 720 a.m. and the ride will leave at 725 all routes are going to get to school around the same time so that bike and walk to school celebration at Ashland Elementary starts at 745 and the mayor will be there councilmember Sheehan and I will be there superintendent Liggins will be there principal Moore and of course the Ashland Eagle big celeb in the district the bike bus routes start at Martins Bakery in the parking lot at Woodland Park in the parking lot and at Menifee and Holiday the cul-de-sac there and then we also have walk bus routes at Victory Christian Church as a starting point then at Woodland Park along Clay Avenue and then at Belcourt at the Northwest Park entrance so just remember make sure you wear a helmet have a good time cheer others along stay together have fun and if you get it together enough you can also bling out your bike so we're excited about tomorrow it's going to be a beautiful morning thank you vice mayor thank you councilmember Reynolds thank you vice mayor so May 4th was International Firefighters Day a time to honor the brave men and women of our fire department and across Kentucky and around the world who run towards danger to keep others safe and I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the dedicated firefighters here in Lexington for your courage for your service and commitment to protecting Fayette County and that was this morning the mayor honored them with a proclamation this week is also National Correctional Officers Week I want to take a moment to recognize Lexington Community Corrections officers who show up every day with care and dedication your work often goes unseen but it is essential to the safety and well-being of our city and I'm grateful for your service and tomorrow I hope that you will join me at the entrance of the corrections facility at 1 p.m. for the dedication of the birth of hope a new public artwork created by Louisville artist Dave Cottle the work recognizes the service of Lexington Community Corrections officers and speaks of hope for the community also I know that councilmember Lynch mentioned this so I'm going to mention it in Spanish my friends at Casa de la Cultura are having their big festival and so this inuna and in poco tiempo vamos a tener nuestro evento que honra a nuestras madres no lo puede perder abra premios regalos gratis y otros regalos para las primeras ciento cincuenta madres va a ver meses de información comida y entrenamiento por nuestro talentoso ballet floclorico y otros grupos invitados es de tres a siete and I think I think that's it I want to wish everyone a happy Mother's Day to all the people that are mothers and mother figures we appreciate you and I know I really appreciate my mom and all sacrifices that she's made for me so thank you thank you councilmember Martin thank you so special thank you Amy B's councilmember Beasley for recognizing our correction special shout out to the Department of Corrections for correction week and councilmember gray for shouting out our teachers a major shout out to our teachers you know I say you got a corrections you got a an amazing advocate as a councilmember I'm sure whatever you need you can go to her and she'll she'll get it for you because I mean she's even made me change my put your team pin me had to wear your pin today so but shout out to you and chief Coleman you know how I feel thank you for all your service and thank you for your leadership it's just truly in debt to you so thank you I'm moving on this month I'll start with that first actually Wesley community table so each month Wesley is hosting a community table inviting the community at large to come eat good food have great conversations and just be a community so that's the the flyer for this week I mean this this month May 15th 6 p.m. to 7 30 p.m. at Wesley United Methodist Church so this month is mental health month may as mental health awareness month I'm a time to uplift the importance of mental wellness break the stigma and assure our community has access to the to the resources it needs here in Lexington we've seen a troubling rise in suicides as recently reported by our local media this underscores the urgent need for expanded services timely intervention and greater public awareness around mental health let's continue working together to make sure no one struggles in silence and alongside with mental health awareness month the mental health court homecoming and graduation is going to be made the 22nd and I'm proud to highlight that our mental health court a vital diversion program that supports individuals with serious mental illness throughout treatment and accountability rather than incarceration their annual homecoming ceremony will take place Thursday May 22nd at 3 p.m. at the Kentucky Theatre this celebration honors the strength and progress of participants and showcases the life-changing impacts of this initiative and lastly the pictures you see on the screen the pictures you see on the screen I was deeply honored to stand before family my family community members and transit students not only as a council member representing the first district where transit stands but also as a proud nephew of the honoree dr. Lula Morton Drews dr. Lula Morton Drews made history as the first african-american to integrate and graduate from the University of Transylvania her achievement weren't just a personal milestone it was a breakthrough for this campus for the city and for generations of students to come that spirit of perseverance and excellence run strong in my family ranging from my grandmother being the first african-american to graduate from the University of Kentucky my grandfather being the firm of action officer here at LFU CG on down to her being the first to integrate Transylvania University and eventually graduate on down to me as the youngest to be elected as a city council member and as I stated before many times this it's because of those folks because my family and the ones before me who instill those virtues and values of the golden rule of working hard of loving everyone and of being humble so while we are family of first and trailblazers it's for each of us to carry the load of responsibility the responsibility to hold the doors open wider to make space for others and to honor those who come come before us by continuing their work so to if my little I think she's actually listening to me now so to you you know I'm Lula this is a huge accomplishment no it is you know why she's not she's not my lose she's known as dr. Morton Drews to many your stories of courage of brilliant brilliance courage and legacy is extremely beautiful and I'm grateful for your example and proud to be a part of the family that continues to build on that foundation so a special shout out to her and that is it thank you councilmember Curtis I know it's been a long day spirit of debate but it's a significant day for me and my community personally so on this day 92 years ago May 6 1933 in Berlin one of the first and largest Nazi raids and book workings took place at the Hirschfield Institute for sexual research so founded in 1919 by dr. Michaels Hirschfield the Institute was revolutionary for its documentation research and innovation in the field of transgender medicine the mission was to be quote a place of research teaching healing and refuge to free the individual from physical ailments psychological afflictions and social deprivation well first field said is as varied as people are so there spent spent decades researching and developing what is now known as gender-affirming care the same health care that I was perceived and I continue to receive it is health care that has saved my life and countless other lives over the past century not only this but the Institute also documented the lives and livelihoods of the folks they treated their research and documentation showed them as a fully realized three-dimensional people that they were at the same time as I'm sure y'all did learn about in school something else is happening in Germany as the Institute grew so did the Nazi party by 1932 is the largest political party in Germany inherited a form of nationalism which targeted those outside of their specific norms Jewish immigrants and disabled non-white and transgender people on January 30 of 1933 Adolf Hitler ascended to power on the promise to read Germany and quote those whose lives are unworthy of living it took just over a hundred days for the Nazis to start putting that into action by reading the Hirschfield Institute May 6 1933 troops swarmed the Institute displacing and detaining its patients and emptying its contents of the streets including more than 20,000 books documenting the history of people like me and the development of the health care that keeps us alive. In England, a student joined in as an Inferno engulfed irreplaceable archives and research on trans lives and health care. German propaganda newsreels from the time featured footage of the burning with the voiceover declaring that quote Germany has committed the intellectual garbage of the past to the place. You likely have seen some of these photos that have been on screen at some point in school. I know I did, but I don't know that y'all have the context for that. I certainly did when I was growing up and so I want us to take a moment and consider that in the context of where we are right now and I think that's it for the pictures. So on January 21st, 2025, Donald Trump ascended to power here in the U.S. and today, about a number of days later, May 6, 2025, we found out during our GGP committee meeting that the Supreme Court had allowed his executive order barring trans service members in the military to stand which states that people like me are incapable of living honorable, truthful, or disciplined lives, echoing that same language. In the past roughly 100 days, the Trump administration has committed the digital equivalent of the raid on the Hirschfield Institute, purging all government websites of decades of research and documentation into trans life in the United States. I hope I don't have to further clarify the parallels here. So I would just like to remind y'all and anyone watching that the propaganda peddled by Nazis didn't eliminate trans people, nor did their genocidal attempts to eradicate us. It did have a human cost. The attempts by the Trump administration to do the same will not succeed either, but they will have a human cost. Trans lives are, despite what our government at the federal level might be saying, honorable, truthful, and disciplined, and our lives are indeed lives worth living. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just wanted to give a few updates on some parks things in my district for this week. I guess I jinxed us because we will not be opening the pickleball courts this week. The weather kind of threw us for a loop, so stay tuned for a new date on the ribbon cutting there. I also wanted to announce that our first food truck Friday in Shiloh Park is this Friday from 6 to 9, and it should be a great time. And then on Saturday morning at Wellington Park, we will be celebrating the 15 year anniversary of the Women's Garden. So I invite everybody to come out for that. It's from 12 to 2, and there will be cake. Very excited. All right, thank you. That's it, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Hale. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Just want to do a quick reminder that the upcoming district-wide meeting's going to be held next week. On May 12th at Edith J. Hayes Middle School, hope to see my neighbors to come out. We're going to have representation from the Division of Planning, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, and our East Sector Neighborhood Resource Officers will be in attendance to provide updates regarding things going on around the district. I look forward to hearing any input from our neighbors and about concerns that they may have in District 7. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. I have a few announcements of my own. It is May, and it is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. I've been lucky enough to be part of a cohort of organizers creating a bunch of cultural events this month to celebrate, and I wanted to highlight a few of them. So first up, I believe we have a movie coming to the Kentucky Theater tomorrow night at 740. It's Big Trouble in Little China, a classic if you haven't ever seen it. Super, super fun. After that, let's see, what's the next one? We have two more movies at the Kentucky Theater on the 14th and the 21st. Mississippi Masala, two words, Yung Denzel. A really, really great movie, and then a movie from more recently, Minari, about Korean immigrants in America. And then on the 16th, Friday, at Moon Dance, we have our Moon Dance celebration, which is going to be a bunch of performers, musicians, dancers. We're going to have food trucks, all kinds of good stuff, free and open to the public. 28th, at the Carnegie Center, we're going to have poetry reading, musical performance, and also an international tea tasting, so come out for that. That's also free and open to the public. And lastly, we're collaborating with the Lexington Public Library. They are bringing a terrific best-selling author, Angie Kim. If you haven't checked out that book yet, Happiness Falls, really, really interesting. They're going to have an author reading and Q&A on the 31st. So all kinds of really great stuff going on. On Instagram, we are gethappyky, and that's H-A-A-P-I. So I hope to see you all at some of these events. That is it for me. We don't have any public comment for issues on the agenda, so that takes us to the end of our agenda, and we are adjourned. Thank you all.