so so so all right council members we'll go ahead and get started i'll call this meeting to order for the june 24th 2025 budget finance economic and development committee and we'll go straight to our agenda and the first item on the agenda is the approval of the march 18th committee summary move to approve second all right there was a motion made to approve and second it are there any questions or corrections seeing none all those in favor please say aye aye are there any that oppose hearing none that motion passes the next item on our agenda is the monthly financial update the number's from may 2025 i'll see commissioner hensley and director lucre making their way to the podium so i'll turn it over to you commissioner good afternoon everyone we are happy to be joining you this afternoon we have our monthly financial update for you we also have our arpa slides for information in the back of our packet um as this is not a quarterly we just have our regular general fund financials this month um and since we have been very deep in budget land um just wanted to remind you all that all of the pre-fund budget items that you all just approved won't be seen until the june financial presentation so the may financials that you're looking at now don't reflect all of the pre-fund items the big changes that we've made with the budget so keep that in mind as we're looking through these financial statements that all of that is yet to come so we are almost to the end of our fiscal year this is our financial performance our actuals through the month of may so 11 out of 12 months our revenues were 466.9 million dollars versus our expenses of 431.3 million dollars with transfers to our other funds of about 29 million dollars a lot of that goes into our capital funds where we did a lot of that end of year fund balance transfers that were scheduled as well as our affordable housing funds for things that we transfer out and so at the point in time for the 11 months ended we were actually positive by about 7 million dollars our revenue collections were higher than we expected by about 1.4 we've talked all year about how we are getting a little more snug for our revenue projections and we have continued on that path all year long but we're still doing well to budget along with the pre-funding that we anticipated so we are looking like we're going to come right in on budget along with the pre-fund that we were anticipating our personnel was running a little bit higher than we expected and we did take that into account when we propose the pre-funding we may be a little bit extra there as well and our operating savings we do have quite a bit of purchase orders that are going to be rolled into the next year we talk about that as we're going into june we're starting to see what that number is going to look like we should have a better idea towards the end of this week what that that purchase order roll will look like but we do have several activities that are not quite finished as we finish the fiscal year and so the the money is encumbered a lot of that is happening in our operating budgets and so that is encumbered at the end of the fiscal year and has rolled into next fiscal year and that happens in our purchase order roll we reserve those funds and fund balance so that budget is available into next year so those are just things to keep in mind as we're looking through this maybe okay we did have a little bit of header issue to this this month so i apologize for that if you'll look at the second column that's we see actuals amended and variants that amended column should actually say budget it is amended we amend it every month all year long you guys do approve all of those budget amendments so technically it is amended but that column usually says budget and it will have the amendment for all of the pre-funds in next month but just to keep in mind we did note we are 1.4 percent above these are our revenue numbers we were lagging a bit last month when we talked about april sorry i'm filling in for director holbrook he's on paid paternity leave so he's getting to spend some time with his new daughter so i should have let you all know that so i'm also filling in for director holbrook today i'm going to talk about revenues real quick so our payroll withholding it was lagging a little bit it is coming in well june is also looking good net profits is the same thing we talked to you all in april about the mail delays we started to see that recover a little bit and we're continuing to see that in june so we're anticipating that that is going to just about even out to where we expected to be budget-wise for the end of the year we also saw some strong performance in our insurance and our franchise fees as well as our investment income is still doing well we're still seeing some of that return from our interest that we're earning as well as our some of our other investments and other income year over year again some of the header issues i apologize this is actually a revenue slide not an expense side so apologize for that year over year you can see that our payroll withholding is up from 25 to 20 versus 24 10 and a half million dollars as of the end of may we were just a little bit under where we were last year in our net profits but you can see year over year insurance and franchise both doing very well year over year and continuing that growth that we have been talking about a little bit we're 2.6 percent above where we were in 24 in 25 in the end of as of the end of may i'm just going to cover the summary and the revenue but i'm happy to answer any questions that you may have before i turn it over to director luker all right thank you commissioner and first we have uh council member baxter thank you chair thank you commissioner for your presentation um i want to talk a little bit about our the net profit revenue and the the tax deadline delay um are we attributing the variance to more of the mail delay or more of the deadline extension so it's possible that we have some taxpayers that have not yet sent in their net profit payments because of the extension as we have talked to some of the tax professionals that we regularly deal with a lot of them just wanted to go ahead and get their clients filed a lot of them didn't really advertise the the extension um that being said the net profits we're not really sure how much is owed to the government until the businesses tell us um so year over year we're not really sure how well businesses have done you could have a banner year for a business one year and then the next year is is just not quite doing so well we're not seeing a huge difference in estimated payments that would indicate to us that there's any significant lag anything that we would be expecting come october or november that's significantly different so i mean it's possible that there's some out there but i don't think that we've really seen anything to tell us that there's anything looming that might be major in october or november sure that's kind of where i was going was if we were expecting some amount of influx come this fall and yeah and if it would like where it would fall like what fiscal year that would fall in if it would affect any fund balance conversation you know how how do we work through right so if there is addition if if the extension um if taxpayers choose to take advantage of that extension they would be due in um september september 15th or october 15th depending on how they're filing um and they would not have penalties or interest based on that we would probably see that come in not it would not affect the fund balance because that is the funds that are related to the prior year's leftover funds that would actually go into revenue and be additional revenue for the fy 26 and we would recognize that as additional net profits in 26 and you would if there was something significant you would see a blip in the net profits revenue recognition in 26 okay perfect thank you for the clarification thank you chair thank you council member next we have council member lagree uh thank you chair thank you commissioner um i just have a i think a simple question it's on the slide entitled uh 2025 fiscal year cash flow variance expense um i noticed this variance with personnel um sorry it's the last slide before questions um of that 7.1 percent would you be willing to talk to us a little bit about that and maybe some of the reasons and sure um director lucre is going to go over some of the expense categories but this is a year over year slide that tells us about um how our expenses in 25 have compared to our expenses in 24 and so particularly um through the month of may our personnel expenses have run about 18 and a half 18.2 million dollars higher um than this year than they did last year and in our personnel category that includes all of our different personnel expenses which are salaries health insurance pension um any other related benefits that are are included in that category and so um our overtime is also in there when you see fluctuations in that um during the course of the year it can be related to those and we try and bring those to your all's attention um but the the budgeted expenses that are typically in here that are big drivers of that would be increased costs and pension um in the 26 budget and and melissa may be able to help me in just a second with how much we've got um in 25 but in the 26 budget um i know just off the top of my head the the the police and fire sworn um pension cost increased about six million dollars now the non-sworn side actually went down because those follow the kppa set rates and those are given to us and so those kind of offset each other and had a little bit of a balance um but those are pretty significant costs and then every year we renegotiate or talk about our health insurance rates that's a big driver of those as well and so those um year over year are not just the amount that our salaries are going up that that also includes a heavy lift for our benefits i appreciate that i think it's helpful to know what all is reflected um in those numbers and um thanks for explaining some of the nuance and detail yes thanks thank you chair thank you council member uh that's all the questions we have for you director okay i think director luker is going to go over the expenses in just a little bit more detail for us back slide here yeah the headers are off this month i'm i think we were deep in budget and we missed that so i apologize um so looking at our personnel the variance is four percent we only went up 0.1 in our personnel variance from the month of april so we're maintaining that variance which is good because um out of that 11.4 that we're showing as part of the pre-fund 8.7 million is coming out of that to pre-fund items for fy 26 so um that variance was staying steady from month to month and we've reallocated a large portion of that as part of the about 19.2 million dollar pre-fund is where we ended up the savings we're seeing is in our full time salaries it's in our overtime it's in our payouts we've got savings spread out around our personnel accounts there's not one category that's jumping out and saying this is where you know the majority of the savings are they're pretty well spread out amongst our accounts um with our operating variance though that one went up 0.3 percent from prior month to this month and so we are seeing significant savings in some of our categories we talk about this every month it's in our professional services it's in our repairs and maintenance our operating supplies um and we have some savings in our utilities as well with insurance we're right at budget as well as debt service you know we have a schedule a payment plan for those so um those will get paid out our partner agencies are under agreements with them so we're within two percent there we're working through all of our year-end stuff and then with our capital if um we worked with divisions to get it encumbered or get it moved over to the 1105 fund the capital fund so that they can continue their capital projects into the next fiscal year if they're not yet completed so overall the variance there's 41.5 million want to remind you all we reallocated 19.2 as part of the budget for fy 26 so that number well that was the number at the end of may that's not going to be the number at the end of june things are changing just about every week it seems like and then with the comparison to the prior year you can see we're spending more in our categories than we did in the prior fiscal year we're just not spending to budget as the previous slide showed um i want to point out in insurance for fy 25 there was some balance in the self-insurance fund for property and casualty insurance so we were able to offset some of our costs so that's why you see that decrease in the insurance actual expense because we were able to use some fund balance in that fund to cover our expenses so our insurance didn't actually go down it's just what we had to transfer over to the property and casualty insurance fund went down for fy 25 in personnel as the commissioner sort of alluded to comparing to last fiscal year part of that 18.2 is made up from about 8.2 million dollars just in base salary increases over fy 24 pension was about 4.3 million dollars more than fy 24 and health insurance was about 3.6 million dollars more than fy 24 for the 11 months that we're reporting here so those are some of the big things that are making up that 18 million dollar variance that we see on that line the increase um and then in our operating you know i just spoke about us having very large variances in professional services but professional services and repairs and maintenance those are the two categories in operating that we have spent significantly more in fy 25 than we did in fy 24 so just wanted to point out some of those categories where we are increasing our spend year over year talk about that and then if anyone has any questions thank you for that director uh committee members any questions uh first we have council member shan thank you chair um can we go back two slides that one um on the difference in operating that i mean it's a pretty big difference there and i um i appreciate your explanation for some of the line items that might have changed how how does this look going forward and like into fiscal year 26 is that big is that difference kind of accounted for so when we worked on fy 26 budget we sat down with divisions and they had to supply additional information prior to submitting their budget requests comparing to prior years actuals and so in that exercise we worked with them and we had discussions with them on look you know what are you spending this on we had them detail out the professional services so that we know okay it's for this engineering firm or it's for this project or it's for this reason as opposed to just having a number in there so we really worked with the divisions for fy 26 on outlining what their expenses are how it compared to prior years and when we looked at year over year on our operating increases the operating increase for fy 26 was one of the lowest increases we've had in the last several years so we did go up in our budget but that amount that we went up is less percentage wise than the past five or six fiscal years so hopefully that will help to alleviate this seeing this large variance yeah thank you because i i i feel like we don't want to be in this place at the end of the fiscal year having that large of a variance but at the same time i also don't want our departments in the middle of the year not having the professional services funds or or other operating costs that they need so it's kind of like it's a pretty fine line to walk but i appreciate your answer thank you thank you thank you chair thank you council member next we have a council member savigny thank you chair um thank you so much for the presentation um really quick so um i know we've we've got pre-funded 19 million and and change um and if this if this kind of stays the same there's obviously there's a fund balance so we should be okay and have some sort of surplus um when you go about the closed procedure again what what are the things what are the things that you're going to book against um like are there are there cat do you have to have a po in place for capital items you know how do you what do you what do you book against whatever's left there how do you do that so divisions were supposed to let purchasing know of open purchase orders that they had where money was encumbered so it's not spent but it is encumbered to be spent on a purchase order or something that has had a contract that's had council approval those things will roll forward to fy 26 as of yesterday afternoon i believe that general fund number was about 15.3 or so million dollars that was set to roll forward into fy 26 so some of that 15.3 is showing up in this variance because it was you know part of the budget already um so we have that we also have grant match gets booked at the end of that's one of the very last things that gets booked so there's some variance for grant match that's showing up here that will get booked and transferred move forward to the next fiscal year um payroll accrual as well um which we don't know you know that's we we account for that in our budget spread so we put more budget spread into june so there's more budget coming on to account for that but we you know it's always a this is the best guess and you know this is the most mathematical way we can do this but it's you know it changes year to year so um those are in there and then um i know there's they've started the process but it's still uh it's still very early on in the in the week of the close okay thanks yeah i was just kind of curious as to what those items were because i know it's always a it's always a fun time of the year to be doing trying to trying to book all those and make sure all the expenses are in there so um thank you very much that's all i have chair thank you council member that's all the questions that's all the folks we have signed up to speak our questions for you so thank you for that report and we'll keep going down our agenda the uh what else is in your packet is the arpa the arpa report for your review and for your information the next item on our agenda is digital accessibility today we're going to have presenting to us troy black who is an administrative specialist in the office of the mayor works with that kevin atkins in the economic development office and troy has been leading our effort in regards to digital accessibility in lexington so troy i'll turn it over to you all right thank you uh good afternoon council members i'm troy black administrative specialist with the mayor's office uh working with kevin atkins the chief development officer i've been assigned to work on the digital accessibility efforts in lexington with council member brown cio liz rogers and amy glasscock director of business engagement just to get us started here's some background information about the prioritization of digital accessibility at the federal and state levels in 2021 congress passed the digital equity act as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law digital equity is when individuals and communities have the information technology resources they need to participate fully in the economy and society this includes access to information education job opportunities health care and civic engagement platforms in 2024 the state of kentucky's digital equity plan was presented and awarded federal funding to implement their plan focused on economic and workforce education health outcomes civic and social engagement after being contacted by formal council legislative aid jamie rogers and national digital accessibility expert heather gates about local efforts it prompted some internal conversations and discussions at city hall to determine a path forward for our community council member brown referred this item to be fed committee and worked with chief development officer kevin atkins to form a work group to develop a plan for lexington our work group is comprised of key stakeholders in the digital and tech space education and workforce sectors in lexington with members including nick such with awesome ink dr chi representing fed county public schools jason keller with spectrum and charter and christy stanbaugh with our age division of aging there are additional agencies and organizations invited to participate but this is the list reflective of our core group the work group worked collaboratively to refine the vision statement and goals to guide their work with the end result being to develop a digital accessibility roadmap for lexington a roadmap where every resident regardless of age background or location has access to affordable broadband reliable devices and skills to navigate the digital world here's a brief timeline the work and initiative kicked off in august of 2024 with this becoming council committee item and the establishment of the work group on october 23rd 2024 digital accessibility work group held first of four meetings at the senior center in december 2024 work group efforts began to enhance kentucky's digital asset inventory list which is an online database of digital resources across the state we focused on getting more lexus and resources to input information in june 2025 digital accessibility roadmap draft and survey review by the work group and on june 28th of 2025 our digital accessibility expo will take place launching our public input survey our plan is to come back to the council in september to present and give feedback on a digital accessibility draft roadmap for lexington the work group held meetings the past several months at varying locations such as the senior center the marksbury branch of the public library and our new workforce center in davis bottoms this allows us to expose our work group members to various spaces partners services and opportunities the work group has been very instrumental with working to enhance the state's asset inventory website through their networks the group has also provided valuable contributions to the upcoming digital expo experience and community input survey our plan is to launch the community input survey at the digital accessibility expo which will ultimately inform our roadmap we've been working with layton garlington the council public information officer to set up an engaged page engaged lexington page for digital accessibility this page will share information about our efforts with the initiative and the community input survey the survey will be open and available to the public for feedback survey will be open and available to the public for feedback for at least four weeks primarily on the engage page we also plan to have paper copies available in other languages upon request council members please join us saturday june 28th at the lexington senior center at 195 life lane from 10 a.m to 2 p.m and invite your constituents and all community members to a fun informative event they'll have door prizes and free giveaways participants can learn more about internet safety and artificial intelligence more about your computer and other devices and experience the workforce experience with virtual reality please come get connected lexington council members that concludes my presentations i'll take any questions thank you troy for um for the overview and presentation uh committee members are there any questions joy all right first we have council member lynch thank you chair thank you for the presentation troy and my question is um do you have the specific dates that the survey will be open to the community like when will it start and when will it end it will start on june 28th at the expo and it will be running for four weeks from there four weeks do you think four weeks is enough to kind of cover the whole county with the survey um i'll i'll chime in and kind of help out so we set it um for a month but i think it's based on the response if we don't if we don't get a good response of the survey on the survey then we may extend how long that it's that it's out there on the survey then we may extend how long that it's that it's out there okay but we were at least going to try to give it uh four weeks and then with the engaged lexington page will the survey be on that page or will you link it to your engaged lexington how would that work yeah no so yeah so we're working with uh layton our pio so the survey is going to primarily be on the page but we'll have paper copies that we'll we'll upload and and once we have the survey results we'll share that information on the on the engage page please send me the link to the survey because i would like to share that in my newsletter and with my neighbors too okay thank you okay thank you council member uh next we have uh council member sabigny thank you chair and thanks so much for the presentation just a quick um like i know when uh like i went to an initial meeting of this um of trying to gather and and storm a little bit on this thing is so is there money that was coming down from the infrastructure fund to the state and did the state have a series of goals or something like is there are they creating a methodology to to help localities um with this initiative and is it like are we supposed to create a program around that i'm just kind of curious what it will eventually look like yeah no council member i think that's a good question and in in cio rogers i may ask you to help uh support this answer but from our understanding is that a lot of the funding that the state was awarded from the federal government they are going to put into state initiatives really focused on education and and workforce development opportunities i think there may be some opportunities for local municipalities to apply but it looked like the state was really focused on using their funding for their initiatives that's correct so the state received i think it was around 10 million um for initiatives around uh what they've termed digital equity they're not using a subgrantee award type of approach where they're then you know kind of sending that down to you know non-profits or municipalities to to distribute that what they've done instead is worked with the area development districts in each region to develop programming and distribute funds among them in pursuit of the goals that they laid out in their strategic plan and and the state has their own strategic plan is that correct a very comprehensive one yes we sort of started there it is it is lengthy it was a very uh very comprehensive data collection process they went through as well they actually did a listening tour on several i think 14 locations across the state online surveys as well but understanding that there's a digital divide not everyone can can participate in an online survey so yes multiple hundreds of pages of plan with some very ambitious goals and success metrics all lined out within okay well i look forward to to kind of seeing more of what you guys are doing and and how it rolls out and i too would like to be able to i do think that we have a good uh way of pushing out to our districts via our newsletters to get information out so um and i'm glad you're going to be there on saturday thank you thank you uh thank you for the question and and leo's before you sit down i was going to ask you could you elaborate a little more the state's priority uh focuses a lot on uh connectability as well is that is that is that correct was that not in this space okay so the the state's office of broadband development uh has a lot of programming um around actual uh availability of broadband internet service this is more with this is driven out of the state's department for workforce development um to kind of approach the um the not connectivity not strict connectivity piece but the um you know ability to sort of navigate the online world once you're there all right thank you welcome all right next we got we have council member gray thank you chair brown i do appreciate you and mr black thank you for your presentation it was very thorough and job well done i believe this is your first presentation to us it is it is and i'm proud of you thank you thank you yes sir um so um regarding um do is there a long-term strategy to sustain digital access programs after the federal funding is gone i will direct it to um uh liz rogers miss rogers um so a lot of what we've done so far isn't so much about funding it's really just connecting existing providers and existing resources together um consolidating those activities so that they are uh readily available to the community somebody kind of knows where to go to look for this type of thing in terms of the funds that were uh distributed to the state um by way of these awards um i don't know the status of that right now uh to my knowledge there's there's been no change there again it was it was a pretty pretty small award uh in the grand scheme of things um so i don't look for um their approach to this to to change materially in the short term um but we we didn't really approach this as kind of being the the source of funding we just wanted to um bring everyone together um create those connections um examine where the gaps still are and then put all that forward into the community and so once the surveys and everything are completed um are we putting together a long-term plan for the entire city i think the deliverable that's due to you all in september um is is a roadmap so um you know not probably not to the specificity of a plan um but definitely a a direction a destination and how to get there we're getting there that's what i hear we're on that road to get there so thank you thank you chair and thank you mr black and thank you liz rogers thank you council member next we have a council member reynolds thank you chair uh thank you mr black for the presentation and everyone that's working on this so i'm gonna ask sort of a strange question uh is there a way to maybe um message this that gets the point across of what you're trying to doing what you're trying to do but is a little bit easier for the public to grasp i'm wondering that because when we just say digital accessibility what does that mean um is that being is that is that specific enough is it broad enough and i wonder like do you have a message of this is what we've been working on this is what we're doing this is what we're delivering and this is why we need the input um well our main message um because we were going to have it as digital equity at first we changed it to digital accessibility just to make sure that all the people that are in lex to know that the resources are accessible to them um so that's where we got the digital accessibility from um i mean do you have any more to add to that councilman brown yeah not i'll add to it i think you know our work group has been real real helpful with it helping us break down the language barriers the first flyer that we had for the event coming up this saturday spoke a lot of tech jargon so to speak and we didn't think that it was going to really connect with our target audiences these are folks that are kind of in the gap and don't necessarily know what resources exist or how to use them so i think the the term that we're using get get connected lex is is is more of a breakdown of what we're helping to try to communicate to folks but i think we're to your point i think what's going to inform us in the plan is how do we speak to the folks that we're trying to speak to and get the message to them that we're looking to provide services and resources to them that actually helps benefit and improve their their quality of life cio you got anything you want to add to that i'll just say quickly bringing layton into the fold on all this i think is pretty indicative of the fact that we needed an assist on the marketing piece of this so i'm i'm happy to have him here to assist with the messaging around all of it because it does it's a rose by any other name but if you don't really understand you know what the what the intent is or what the goal is then you don't know you need to be participating in it so agree we can kind of simplify the message a little bit and i'm looking forward to his help on that thank you yeah it seems kind of uh it's a new topic maybe that we've been talking about and so maybe not everyone quite understands their role why it would be important to go to an expo or why it would be important to get engaged so i was just thinking yeah any any work around that messaging i think would be would be helpful but thank you very much now i agree and i appreciate the question i think we we've stuck with kind of the digital language just uh just to make sure that we're congruent with what they're doing at the state and the federal level but i think when we start talking to our constituents we need to say it in a way that's connects better thank you council member next we have council member morton thank you chair um i don't have any i guess direct questions i just want to extend my sister thanks to council member brown um council member hill troy for the troy black mr black for the presentation i'm cl rogers and all the work group um that has put any effort into this um this digital accessibility initiative um this work um laying the foundation um for a more digitally connected and inclusive lexington is important as this effort continues i hope that we can keep looking from that lens of making sure that our undervalued communities have the tools um resources and opportunities as we as it's developed so i look forward to um taking intentional steps and hoping that this initiative is very intentional for the effort so thank you thank you council member uh council member lynch thank you chair i just have one question about the event on saturday on the flyer it says there will be help with your computers and other devices so does that mean our neighbors can bring their computers and devices for assistance help repairs is that what that means just for clarifying i don't think they can bring them for repairs i think what some of the presentations were going to be about were i think just letting them know some functions some computer functions that some people didn't know and overlook and then we're also going to have a vendor component at the event so i think there might be an opportunity to get some help and assistance based off of some of the vendors that may be present at the event but i i don't think they're going to repair or fix any devices at the event you may want to clarify that in your uh marketing because just putting on their help with your computers and other devices i feel like people are going to come with their devices for help just be ready for that on saturday no advice taken thank you thank you uh troy that looks like all the folks that we got signed up for questions i just want to say thank you for your leadership and your work on this initiative you've you got us off to a good start uh council member hale i know uh came on as part of the team once he got into office and and we look forward to his support and then i'd also like to say thanks to cio rogers amy glasscock in in your office in the same office as kevin atkins and then also jamie rogers and heather gates they're the ones that really brought this to our attention and said that lexington needs to develop a plan and to do something to make sure that we're ready to receive some of the resources that are out there at the state and the federal level so i just like to say thank you to them and then also kevin atkins for his work and support and layton for coming on board and being a part of the team so thank you thank you all right council members we're going to go to the next item on the agenda and um the next one is the tech ecosystem and this is uh i know this item is committee and in committee under my name but this is really council member savigny's item so i'm gonna turn it over to council member savigny to kind of introduce this item in today's presenters thank you chair on saturday i'm going to bring over my phone because i'm struggling to get a selfie council members i'm really really excited to um have worked with council member brown and chief development officer atkins last year to um for to get the council to allocate some funding for us to look at the tech job ecosystem here in lexington tech jobs are traditionally higher paying and provide a very high density of tax revenue per acre of land which is super important to lexington what you'll see today is results of that investment last year and it clearly defined wade ford from our tech partner our partner techonomy out of columbus in our 2026 budget you trusted me enough to place 90 000 in the budget as my personal personal ask to help fund some of these next steps and i really do appreciate that trust please ask questions because you you have allowed us to start this work in this fiscal year and it's really important for you to understand um the requests that will come in for this item for future funding thank you and i'm gonna i'm gonna turn it over to the tech team thank you you might introduce yourself too got ahead of myself thank you council members for having us today my name is jonathan dwarren and i'm a principal and project director with economy partners today i'm joined by my colleague joseph simpkins who's a senior economist with our team as a little bit of background economy helps our clients compete in the global knowledge-based innovation economy and our firm really focuses on what we call technology-based economic development and we do this work with a wide range of client groups everything from states to cities to counties universities trade associations economic development organizations and really everything in between today we are very excited to share with all of you our final recommendations on a project that we've been working on for the past eight months focused on tech driven workforce and economic development opportunities for lexington fayette county since october of last year our team has been engaged with lfucg under the direction of the economic development office and chief development officer kevin atkins and his team as well as council member spigney and this work has really been comprised of six key tasks five of which are highlighted in the figure on the screen since we kicked off our project our team has really been deeply engaged in understanding the tech ecosystem in lexington fayette county from a wide variety of angles tasks two and three primarily focused on developing a situational assessment of the tech-based industries in lexington fayette county and really understanding how they are deploying tech talent meanwhile tasks four and five focused on identifying opportunities to expand the tech industry in lexington fayette county with an emphasis on attracting retaining and developing the necessary workforce to achieve the intended growth all of our analysis has resulted in a final report which outlines various recommendations for lfucg and for your partners and these recommendations are the primary focus of today's presentation so pardon this text heavy slide but this really highlights some of our key findings from our various inputs our team used a wide range of data sources and approaches proprietary and publicly available to really look at the lexington fayette county ecosystem across a wide variety of angles first our team took an industry level look at understanding tech employment in lexington fayette county through this work we found that traditional core tech industries things like information technology or computing or software those have experienced relatively flat growth since 2017 on the other hand several other leading industries clusters as we call them across fayette county have really emerged as major areas of deployment of this tech talent using advanced analytics of proprietary workforce data our team was then able to assess the dynamics of the tech workforce through this analysis we found continued growth in tech workers happening across a wide range of industries notably we also found that the demand for this workforce as measured by job postings was far greater than the supply of workers currently found in the county similar to our views of industry our understanding of the tech workforce also delineated between those core tech positions like software and it as well as some other tech enabled roles things like engineering or other science technology engineering and math jobs stem jobs while many of the companies in lexington fayette county are indeed understanding software employment as part of kind of their workforce demand. We're also seeing a lot of prioritization and demand around these embedded tech or other STEM roles. So all this to say there is no one size fits all STEM or tech job. To understand potential technology driven economic development opportunities and help differentiate the county in its economic development approach, we also conducted an analytic approach that we like to call line of sight analysis. So this analysis looks at technology push and market pull. I know these are a little bit buzzwordy, but bear with me. So technology push is looking at things emanating out of the research university, things like publications and federal grants and R&D expenditures. Whereas market pull looks at those industries that are currently in existence in the county, where leading investments are happening, where intellectual property and patent activity is occurring. As well as where we're seeing venture capital and other small business innovation research or SBIR awards. We then use an approach to really look at how those areas intersect with the tech workforce. And this analysis found that there are five distinct opportunity areas where we see Lexington is well positioned to compete in the years ahead. These areas are ag tech, hard tech, which encompasses advanced manufacturing and materials. Health tech, biotech, as well as the last one around digital business services or software as a service. That really underlies a lot of the headquarters businesses in existence in Lexington Fayette County. Two other points are that the demand that we're seeing from industry, even with the presence of a major research university and several smaller colleges, the demand is insatiable. This suggests that there's new approaches that must be needed, whether they are around talent attraction, retention, or upskilling the existing workforce. Lastly, we look at the importance of having a hybrid skill set. So while it is very important to have skills in things like data analysis and software, there is a lot of demand from industry looking at how those various skills can be applied to some of those opportunity areas that we discussed earlier. The economic development priorities outlined for Lexington, ag tech, hard tech, health tech, biotech, as well as digital business services, each require distinct but sometimes overlapping sets of tech enabled roles, skills, and capabilities. Based on what our team was seeing in the broader market, as well as trends in the workforce, as well as some of the high demand, high priority occupations that we outlined in our report, there are several sets of key roles and skills, which we believe should be prioritized by Lexington and its workforce development partners. We go into much greater detail on this information in our report, but this slide does summarize some of those key roles that we're seeing, some of the skills that tend to be valued by employers for these roles. Some of the educational requirements that might be needed, as well as some of the macro level trends that our team is seeing across these various industries. I would say that it's important to note that while many of these in demand roles and skills might require a college degree, a wide range are also available through things like certification, stackable credentials, two year programs, boot camp certificates, and other types of non four year degree programming. In addition to our data analysis, our team spoke to a lot of individuals in Lexington Fayette County. We had roughly 25 one on one or small group conversations. And through the assistance of the Technology Association of the Bluegrass, we also participated in focus groups with about 40 other individuals who care deeply about Lexington Fayette County and its tech ecosystem. Based on this outreach, we began to see some consensus around the strengths and the opportunities facing Lexington. In general, a lot of those strengths revolved around things like the presence of the University of Kentucky, and its research strengths, as well as its ability to provide a robust foundation and talent pipeline. We also found that the tech community in Lexington was really characterized by some strong personal relationships, a highly engaged and passionate base of volunteers, as well as an expanding network of incubators, accelerators, investment programs, and other activities that are really working to grow and nurture this space. We also heard frequently from those who we spoke to about a high quality of life, combined with a low cost of living that has proven attractive for a tech workforce of both local and relocating professionals. On the other hand, our interviews also uncovered some weaknesses or opportunities that we felt needed to be addressed. The primary concern really related to connectivity. It was widely recognized among those that we spoke to that stronger linkages between large businesses, startups, universities, and everyone in between could really help encourage economic growth. As one stakeholder characterized it, we have a lot of dots, but not a lot of lines. Currently, we found that collaboration outside of individual relationships was somewhat limited, which resulted in a fragmented ecosystem where there were missed opportunities for partnership and innovation. Another challenge really related to student retention. While there were a significant number of graduates coming out of the universities locally, retaining this talent remained a challenge, particularly in some of those core technology, engineering, and other tech-enabled fields. The downsizing of some large local employers meant that this placed a greater imperative for startups and smaller businesses to help absorb this local talent, and some of their resources were limited. To help overcome some of those challenges that I've just outlined, Techonomy recommends a strategic framework that really focuses on aggregating some of the activities that we're seeing across economic and workforce development. This includes dedicating a pool of resources to help develop core functions that help address some of those gaps, and really with the focus on improving coordination. We think that it will be important for Lexington to engage with talent and research initiatives to help link these together in order to grow and scale them. We see opportunities around coordinating services and entrepreneurial service providers, so we can have kind of single pathways and access points where it's very clear where that front door for entrepreneurship should be. And lastly, we see an opportunity to help coordinate some of those networking groups and initiatives that are happening, particularly around some of those specific technology-oriented opportunity areas that I described further. To do this, Techonomy recommends four broad strategies in order to help grow Lexington-Fayette County's tech and tech-enabled workforce, all with the purpose of supporting economic development. These four recommendations are around elevating a tech council that can really serve as a convener of the ecosystem. We see an opportunity around growing tech employment with an emphasis on prioritizing connectivity among the various educational institutions, their students, the workers, employers, trying to bring everyone together. We see a distinct opportunity for Lexington to support innovation and entrepreneurial capacity by building on high growth opportunities. And lastly, we see an opportunity to accelerate marketing, branding, and storytelling in order to help tell the story of Lexington's tech ecosystem. All of these strategic recommendations include recommended actions, with 16 actions in total. And I would encourage you to please look at our report in more detail. For each of these, we've included a rationale, a recommended strategic approach, as well as an estimate for the types of resources that might be required. Importantly, we've also included a set of what we would consider best practice examples from our work across the country, in order to help serve as inspiration for some of these actions. So as I mentioned earlier, our first strategy is really around elevating a tech council to serve as a centralized convener. We think that there's an opportunity for LFUCG to provide resources and build out something similar that we've seen working in other areas. We think there is great opportunity to empower industry-led working groups to help guide this council's approach, as well as to help support linkages with the University of Kentucky and develop an innovation district with the importance of attracting and retaining talent. We think that growing tech employment by prioritizing connections is a really important focus of strategy too. And we've developed six actions within this. The first three, we are excited that there's an opportunity to develop resources around boosting linkages between employers and students, scaling some of the existing tech talent retention and connectivity initiatives already in existence, as well as other experiential learning programs for some of the high school or younger students. And then actions 2.4 through 2.6 are really all around how do we identify corporate partners to help support this work and serve as kind of first partners with these activities. We think that elevating the role of the tech council into a fully-fledged entrepreneurial support organization can help serve as that front door and that physical hub that we talked about earlier on providing funding to help scale some of the entrepreneurial programs. In order to go from things that are really serving locally to things with a national reputation and acclaim. We also think that there are existing programs within the LFUCG purview, which could better support companies who are outgrowing local incubators and accelerators as well as developing a first customer program that helps connect startups with established companies. Lastly, we think that telling the story of Lexington's tech ecosystem is an important opportunity. I think a lot of people both locally, nationally, and even internationally are unaware of some of the many great things that are happening here. So we would recommend providing additional support for economic development across these priority areas. Planting a flag in ag tech and continuing to support that important initiative. And lastly, developing a marketing and branding campaign. To implement these strategic objectives, we believe that the level of funding that LFUCG puts towards technology-based economic development must increase, and in addition to this investment, there needs to be much more coordination happening at scale through the various public-private partnerships that we've seen be successful in other areas. We are extremely grateful that LFUCG has put toward $90,000 in its most recent budget to help implement strategy two. However, we also recognize that this is just one of the many important steps in order to driving this further. By focusing on economic development around tech-based fields, we believe that there is a great opportunity to grow tech employment and tech talent, increase innovation and investment, and ultimately elevate ecosystem visibility and impacts. On behalf of Techonomy Partners, it's been a real pleasure to work with LFUCG on this important work. And we believe that this strategy that we've developed has the potential to result in a wide range of benefits for the county and for its residents. This concludes our presentation, and we would be happy to answer any questions that you might have. And apologies for speaking quickly, but there was a lot of content to cover. Thank you. Now, thank you. Thank you for your work, and thank you for the presentation, and you, Council Member Savigny, for bringing this item forward. So we'll go into questions, and first we have Council Member Gray. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, sir, for your presentation. I have been awaiting this one, because I get to sit next to this young man right here, who is all about tech, and this is an exciting day. Do you, is there an order to implementing everything that you would suggest as the funds are allocated year to year? Does that make sense? It does, and I will take a stab at answering, and then I will cater to Joe as well. We have found that having a central convener to do this work, and as we've outlined in our report, having a dedicated organization, like a tech council, to really be responsible for delivering this strategy should be considered a priority. We recognize that funds are available for some of the workforce development programs, and so we do want to emphasize that there's a lot of really good activities happening currently that could be amplified and scaled up with some additional resources. So we're grateful for that amount of money. It is difficult to start completely new things with that tranche of funding. So at a beginning level, we would recommend investing in scaling and advancing some of those pre-existing programs. For example, Action 2.2 is around tech talent retention. Undercover Lex is an initiative that is currently happening, relatively lean resources that we were really blown away by its growth in recent years with relatively little funding. That's an area where we could see a really good opportunity to advance and scale it. Similarly is Five Across as kind of a pitch competition. Again, offering somewhat smaller prizes but an area where we believe that that funding in the initial stages could help to elevate its audience, bring in more funds, and help to grow and scale some of those companies that are starting in Lexington and have the potential to really grow their workforce here as well. Wonderful. So in regards to, I don't know whom to ask this question, but I'm just going to say it and whoever, Dave or someone else in the world, you may know this. But do we have any stakeholders that have committed to co-funding any of these projects? Or participating in the tech ecosystem that we're talking about establishing? I can answer that if you want. Okay. Council Member Gray, it's a great question. I do think that that's part of, if you look at their presentation, that's one of the things we have to generate. We have to generate, we have to provide the seed to make some things happen. And in about two to three years, most cities will then end up pairing themselves or getting three or four kind of major sponsors to end up sponsoring this tech initiative. If you look at, if you remember when we went to Madison, Wisconsin- I did not go. You didn't go, sorry. But there was an innovation center that had started as a city initiative, and then they basically started securing more and more corporate funding to kind of get it off the ground. So great question. I aim to please, and I try. So also, in regards to, I guess, the upscaling, because I see that we allocated 90K for this. But I'm looking at the other areas, such as establishing the tech council, which would essentially take 300,000. That seems to be something that we should be doing all at the same time. It seems that we're going about this a little bit going off with one leg when we need two legs to do it. So I'm just, does that make sense? I just want to make sure that if we're giving 90,000 for an endeavor, that we're really going all in to making sure that we're getting this off the ground in the correct way that will be successful in the long term for our city. Does that make sense, colleagues? Okay, I don't know. So that's all. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Baxter, for saying yes. Thank you, Councilmember Gray. Next, we have Councilmember Baxter. Thank you, Chair and Councilman Gray. Let me carry your pass a little. Okay, so I know that we, you talked a lot about there being a lot of dots, but not a lot of lines, which I really like that analogy that works in several areas of government. So as you were doing this study, how did you engage the stakeholders that we will rely on in the future, like Commerce Lexington or the University of Kentucky? What were the conversations, or were there any, around how they can be involved as well? Yes, so we had roughly 25 one-on-one conversations of which both of those groups were part, as well as members of the private sector, large companies, startups, as well as members of the startup ecosystem. Then in partnership with the Technology Association of the Bluegrass, who's really taken on an early stage at helping to convene a lot of those stakeholders. We participated in their working group discussions and board meetings earlier this year, where we were very much in the listening and asking questions and hoping to gather that feedback as well. And we've had several kind of interim discussion points, both with LFUCG and the Economic Development Department, as well as kind of follow-up conversations with some of those that we spoke to in order to help keep that thread going as well. Well, and as mentioned, if we're providing seed money for this initiative, I want to make sure that there are appropriate checks and balances. So I don't know, Ms. Glasscock, are you going to be playing a role in this? I guess I want to see, I want to know what it looks like from here on out, like what's the game plan? Sorry, I'm using a lot of football analogies today, because we're in football season all of a sudden. So right now, we're just focused on strategy two. I'm sorry, can you? So right now, we're just focused on strategy two, the $90,000, and so we'll RFP for that. And that's really our focus right now, and then we'll go from there. We'll be fleshing it all out once we start from there, and we'll go through all the other strategies from there. Okay, and then do we anticipate regular reporting back to us on- Yes, 100%. Okay, and then as far as the tech council is concerned, I guess I want to know who's leading that charge. Are we kind of starting it and then hands off, or do we have- We haven't fleshed that out yet. You haven't fleshed that out yet, okay. Okay, I guess I just want to make sure that if we're providing funding, that we're keeping tabs on everything and making sure that the money is being spent well. Okay, that's all I have for now. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Next, we have Council Member Sheehan. Ms. Glass-Clock, don't run away quite yet. Thank you. First, I do want to say thank you to Council Member Savigny for working on this, and Council Member Brown for whatever role you did play, even though you passed it a long time. And the rest of the team that's here in the room. For strategy two, and I'm not sure if this will be a question for you, Ms. Glass-Clock, or the rest of the team. But I know that business and information technology is one of our priority areas for the workforce development grants that we already allocate to the community for trainings. And I've participated in some of those selections for those grants, so have seen some of the proposals that come in. How do you see this part being different from what we do through the workforce development grants already? Again, and we're still fleshing it out as far as it, with the workforce. I'm sorry, with the workforce and development grant, we RFP. So, we'd be looking at, as far as the different opportunities that are available. We get multiple grants in for that, so we may be weighing more and less on that grant for the business and IT part of it, so that more can go to this side of it. We just haven't looked at that just yet. Okay, I do, when thinking about economic development and workforce development within our county, I do see these as higher paying jobs. So, I would like to see how both efforts are working in concert, because I want to continue to support those kinds of programs through the workforce development grants opportunities as well. So, I'll be interested to see how this moves along in that regard. Thank you. And if I could just add one small thing. So, we believe that training as part of the second recommendation is just kind of one piece of that. And as you will see more in our report, we really try to cover the entire gamut. It has everything from providing that training, as well as how do we connect students to careers. How do we help teach younger students in the high school ages or middle school ages to get them excited about potentially working at tech and teaching them about some of the companies that are working in this space. We have a lot about how do we retain people who have already been trained, who are coming out of our universities or those already being trained by some of those training programs as well. So, we want to encourage that it is more than just how do we give you the skills, it's how do we kind of deploy those skills into the workforce from all different types of ages. How do we start young? How do we upskill those who are already in the workforce? How do we continue to give skills to those already in the tech workforce and making sure that Lexington can really be a leader in that space as well? Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Next, we have Council Member LaGre. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Council Member Sabigny, for sponsoring this item and for bringing it in front of us. And thank you all for the report you've shared. I know that there is a supplemental packet that was shared with us. And I'm wondering if we could talk a little bit about that strategy one, which is the tech council. Which it sounds like the funding level for that is 300,000. I know in your report you all go into a little bit more detail about what this could look like. But I'm wondering if we could talk about it here as well. It mentions in kind of the action items and the strategic approach and then the resources required that this would be like a tiered funding approach. So 300, 200, 150, 100, etc., year after year. And you all mention that this public funding would be to jump start efforts. And then you mention your staff and other individuals. Can you help us kind of understand what this would look like in practice, what the business structure would be, and then how the public would engage with this tech council? So from our research on tech councils, there's no one size fits all approach to how they are funded. But we did find that especially when you are trying to grow and scale them from the earliest stages, having some of that initial public support to serve as a champion can be really helpful. In order to help build out that original staff and have some of those key flagship programs that would allow it to demonstrate its value to the ecosystem and to the private sector. Over time then, we would ideally be able to see kind of that weaning off of public resources and having a different type of kind of pie chart for funding. So in looking across TECNA, who's the Trade Association for Tech Councils, with a wide range of government support, anything from 10% to 90%. While we are not expecting it to be 90%, we do understand that in those early stages, having some public support would allow the program to focus on actually engaging with its customers. Instead of being kind of a full time fundraising group. Whereas over time, as it is starting to demonstrate its value, it would be able to then begin to kind of focus on how it could gain things through membership dues, through some of its fees from programs, and some other funding structures. We believe that having a dedicated person who is living and breathing this is really important. Someone who is a full time, focused on growing tech employment in Lexington. A person who can serve as the front door for the community, who knows the community and is able to engage. Part of having that multi-year funding stream would allow that person to kind of get some experience under their wings. But as they are working on it, as well as it would give an opportunity to have some of those frequent checkpoints. Those checks and balances that Council Member Baxter was referring to earlier. Making sure that it's not just kind of a blank check written in the first year, but instead a multi-year kind of functionality that would then allow it to be able to kind of celebrate its wins, understand what else is needed, and engage from there. And I'll just add to that briefly. I think you see nationally tech councils that are in metros that are scaling or are already of the size that Lexington is, you see oftentimes a chicken and an egg issue where if there's not a dedicated organization with capacity. Sometimes those industry partners and others are not as willing to invest because they don't see the continuity. Whereas once that is there, and there's a little bit of a brand and continuity built around it. We've seen a lot of examples of folks leveraging registered apprenticeship program models that have federal funding or state funding as well as completely underwritten programs from the private industry side. That will come in after a demonstrated capacity has been built up and then actually completely fund. That element of new programming. So it's a little bit of a, you have to build it, but you don't want to make it, you know, as Jonathan said, a blank check so that there is the motivation to then also seek out and build out that capacity on the other side. Thank you, that's helpful. I have one more follow up question, but I can log back in, Chair. All right, thank you, Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, gentlemen, for the thoughtful presentation. With all the efforts that we want to kind of put into workforce development, talent attraction, recruitment, retention, and attracting employers and businesses. Did you all in your conversations and in your sort of studies and research look at or think about housing? Because housing obviously is an issue nationwide and certainly an issue here and it's one of the factors that we have to think about. It's great to kind of create opportunities and draw people here and then the question becomes where are people going to live? So can you give me some of your thoughts on that? And maybe what potentially other cities are doing that you looked at, any creative solutions, incentives, things like that. Yes, I'll maybe take a first pass at that. I think part of what you see reflected in the verticals that we called out, in whether it's an ag tech, health tech, card tech, business services and software. Those reflect things that Lexington already has to some degree and that people working in those industries are here in Lexington. There's increasingly going to be a need for both higher value but higher wage jobs across all of those. So there is a key part of this is it's not about how do we bolt on entirely new segments. Although it's the yes and, right? But there's also this element of how do we double down on the strengths that we have and make them tech value added to push the wages higher, to push the business attraction and innovation higher along with there. So in some sense, those folks are the built in market, but to your point, housing is an issue. I think we've seen folks try to get at this through verticality in some cases and building up, right, rather than out around key hubs. But Jonathan, maybe I'll let you take a stab at the broader housing market piece. Yeah, I would just start and say we did not directly deal with housing as part of this analysis. We are much more focused on kind of the economic and workforce indicators. I don't want to discredit the importance of housing because this was something that came up quite frequently in our one on one conversations as I'm sure you would expect. We also understand that the unique zoning structure of Lexington Fayette County in some ways goes hand in hand with kind of the unique housing and argument. And we just felt that we are experts on economic and workforce development and we are not experts on housing, we also understand that this is something that has been studied previously with its own recommendation. So we felt it was an area where we could focus on what we were best known for, I would say. Yeah, and I definitely understand that. I guess my thinking was that there have been other cities and other places who within their economic development plans and strategies have thought about that housing piece of it. Certain cities have done where they give people from certain sectors, either vouchers or preference to certain kinds of housing so that it's one less worry and one more incentive to either draw people in or keep people. So I was just wondering if you all looked into any of that angle. Something we can look into further. We'd be happy to explore some options and perhaps have some follow up conversations about it. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member Savigny, did you want to close this item out? Okay. Council Member LaGre. Thank you. Thank you all for your response to my previous question. I just had a simple follow up. And this is again under that same strategy one with the Lexington Tech Council. I'm just wondering if you all would mind, for people who might not be familiar, describing this concept or practice with UK's Innovation District. And I know that also has some land use planning processes mentioned. So whatever detail you could go into with that would, I think, be helpful. Sure, so innovation districts are something that we are seeing happening all over the country. Sometimes they are kind of naturally occurring and organic and just things that are happening on their own. But other times, they're really the product of really intentional strategic planning efforts. In general, what we believe could be summarized as an innovation district, and in the report, we have kind of the full definition of it. But it is an area where around a research anchor, where you see the presence of that, in this case, the university. As well as you see amenities for businesses to co-locate office space for startups, both affiliated with the university and outside of it. You also see a residential component, typically a dense urban environment. And we've seen them work really well strategically when you have kind of a blank space or an area that is perhaps underutilized by the current development patterns. That given the opportunity with some real strength of backing by a group like the university or would be an opportunity to help build and scale. So we cite some examples of areas where this has worked really successfully in St. Louis and in Winston-Salem, both of which happened around underutilized space near their research universities, research hospitals as well, in which they were able to take, in one case, it was vacant warehouses around a tobacco factory, and another was just kind of underutilized urban space. And it really transformed the entire district, and it was home to then not only some of those research spaces, but especially it's where the private sector was able to take hold, a lot of new residential units of a variety of different types. Everything from single family to multi-family to affordable housing as well. And it also did a really good job of kind of repairing the urban footprint, whether it had been damaged by railroads or highways or other types of things that would lead to that underutilized space. So there's no one size fits all. We've seen it work successfully in a lot of different places, and we find that it can be a really catalytic development. And it's an area where we think having a front door for a tech council, a place where anyone who is local to Lexington or perhaps coming from out of town and wanting to see what that tech ecosystem really looks like, that could be a place where they could be located. Well, thank you for going into more detail and kind of helping us imagine what might be involved. Since I represent the downtown area and University of Kentucky, all the surrounding areas, I was really curious. So thank you all. Thank you, Chair and Councilmember Savigny. I look forward to your final remarks. Thank you, Councilmember. Before I go back to Councilmember Savigny, I just got a few, just a few questions. So one of my first questions, and I haven't had a chance to digest the full report, but one of my first questions was why was the fourth strategy about marketing kind of last? And I would, on the surface of it, think that would be something that we'd want to do on the front end to kind of help build that industry. And I think you kind of answered that. I think the centralized component and being true to marketing and being consistent with the messaging is why that would come at the end. But was there any thought about a different placement for that strategy and putting it more on the front end and make it more of a responsibility of the local government, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Tourism Bureau to kind of build that messaging as a recruitment tool? This might not be a great answer, but in general, we always put storytelling last because we want to make sure that there's a very compelling story to tell. Before we start kind of delivering on that marketing campaign. I will say, it is not necessarily last in chronological order, because a lot of the recommendations within that strategy are things that are happening right now. And there are things that could be amplified through some additional resources. For example, there is already economic development marketing happening with Commerce Lexington around strategic opportunity areas for 4.1. We're really focusing on how do we tell our story in a much more specific to Lexington type of way. Similarly, we think that planting a flag in ag tech, this is already an activity that is currently happening in Lexington. And again, an area where additional resources can help. We also believe that if you were to complete in a very strong, successful, organized way those first 15 recommendations, in some ways the story will tell itself. And that's why kind of the very last action is all around that strategic marketing campaign. Talking about the successes of the tech ecosystem, not only locally, making sure that all of the local partners are on the same page. But how do we tell it cohesively across the state, across the broader southeast region, internationally as well, making sure that people really understand that. So there had to be, one of the strategies had to go last, I guess is what I'll say by that. And we believe that having marketing and storytelling be the final strategy, the last strategy, would allow us to focus on kind of doing the work before we tell everybody about it. Yeah, no, I kind of get that, but I always tend to put, or think that you put marketing and storytelling towards the front end. Do you have something you want to add to it? Yeah, I was just also going to add, I think there is, in the strategy, I would agree with everything Jonathan said, but I would say there's also recognition that those other three that you see, to some degree, are all functions of a fully-fledged tech council. So if strategy one is enacted, it's not as though you're doing any one of the others in isolation. That, in theory, is the job of a fully-fledged tech council, to do all three of those other strategies as part of their functions and capabilities. Okay, okay. And then, so I think this initiative is going to live in economic development, and I think Council Member Savigny's going to help spearhead it. I think I'd be remiss if I didn't ask our CIO, kind of what do you, and I know you helped work on the RFP and gave some feedback. What do you think your role may be with this initiative and the role that the city will play? I know when we talked about digital accessibility, the presentation that we had before is that we didn't want to set it up as, you know, this is the government just doing it all, this is a community-wide effort. What do you think about this initiative and what your role may be and what else we could be doing at the city to be supportive? It's a very long report to sum up in the next however many minutes I have. But, and I don't make it a practice to argue with data, though it can be interpreted in many different ways, but I think in general, we are most successful building these types of ambitious things if we act, when we act sort of as convener. And I think that's kind of a good place to start always. I don't know, for me, it's always, the level of investment always comes down to prioritization of this, among other things. And that's a decision made up to this group and not me, but I think in terms of my role, it's supportive. Obviously, membership, sponsorship, whatever degree of involvement in a tech council that gets established to be the central point of focus for these types of things. You know, assistance with the storytelling piece, certainly. And we, you know, got a great relationship with the folks in economic development and Amy in workforce development in particular to strengthen those pillars of this. So, wherever we can, I suppose is the answer. Okay, okay. Well, thank you for that. And the other thing I'll touch on is I think the Vice Mayor brought up a good point. I think to talk about housing and where the folks that we're talking about recruiting to this community are going to live and what style of housing I think might not have been a part of this study, but I think at some point that needs to be part of the conversation and part of the whole ecosystem that I think we're trying to enhance and create. So, thank you again, and with that, I'll turn it over to Council Member Savigna. Thank you, Chair, and thank you again, Joe and Jonathan, for the presentation. Just so you guys know how we got here, we had about six or seven RFP answers, and it was a difficult decision. Techonomy, this is what they do for a living, and they were close enough by Columbus, Ohio, so that was helpful. So, I wanted to just kind of set that out there for you. I do want to thank them for the presentation and for all of your thoughtful questions. None of us like to do studies that sit on a shelf and gather dust, at least I don't. And you really were selected because, like when we talked, I was like, we want actionable steps and some sort of cost associated with it. So, it's easier for us to do things when it's like that, so we do appreciate that. To Council Member Baxter, one of the questions you had about, I just want to kind of list some of the people they talked to, just so you're aware. CNW, Arc Vision, Baptist Health, Deloitte, Condiva, Kinetic Windstream, Lexington Clinic, Pyramal, Tempur-Sealy, Awesome Inc, Base 10, 110, Commerce Lexington, Fayette County Schools, Hunsusker, KCTC, Kentucky Science and Tech Corp, us, Middle Tech, TAB, who is represented out there with several people, University of Kentucky, and then multiple TAB boards and board meetings and focus groups. Okay, and I think we're ahead of a lot of people in some sectors, but we're a little behind on this one, but we do have the pieces to not be behind. So, you've heard from them, their priorities and use of funds and timelines. I did originally propose to fund the whole thing. So, and I do believe our Chief Development Officer, Kevin, his thought was he wanted to start with a reasonable piece, and he wanted to figure out how the government can be the original convener, and what people that he wanted to make sure, and the partners want to make sure are at the table for the council. So, I do think we're going to see that come very quickly, so just stay tuned for that. And as an action from this group, I'd like to make sure we get at least annual updates on this work from the study. And I would suggest that the first one come in March, February to March of 2026, so that's going to be my ask. And if the chair and the committee are willing, I'd be glad to formally move and co-own this topic for future updates. So moved. Thank you again. Second. All right, so Council Member, no, thank you. I think we're about to start taking action on the items. Thank you. Council Member, I don't have to co-sponsor, you can just take it. I'll work with you on it. Thank you, Council Member Brown. So, and I think if you said that in the form of a motion, I think it was seconded. All right, and that's the change to sponsor this item from me to Council Member Savigny. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. That motion passes. So, Council Members, that brings us to the end of our agenda, not the end, but we're going to review committee items. If there's any action that needs to be taken on committee items, I'd entertain that now. Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Chair. I move to remove item 10, which is the Parks Referendum Policies and Procedures from BFED. Second. All right, a motion was made to remove item 10 and second it. Are there any questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Are there any that oppose? Hearing none, that motion passes. Thank you, Chair. Any other items? Council Member Beasley. Thank you, Chair. I just had a quick question about if there'd be a follow-up for the ALICE presentation that we had. Yes, there will be. I think we just kind of got busy with the budget, going through the budget process, and now that we got a moment to breathe. I think the plan is to follow up with yourself, and I think Council Member Curtis and might have been a couple other council members that were interested in working with United Way on a follow-up to that presentation. So, we'll make sure you're included on that. Please reach out to me, Council Member, if you're interested in being involved with that conversation going forward. All right, Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Chair. I move to remove item number three, Facilities and Fleet Maintenance Management Plan. Second. All right, a motion was made to remove item three and second it. Are there any questions? Hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Are there any that oppose? Hearing none, that motion passes. Item's removed. We'll get it next time. All right, if there's no other business for this committee, I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. All right, a motion was made and seconded to adjourn. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, consider this meeting adjourned. Thank you.