Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.  Mm hmm. Mhm. It is. Mhm. Mhm. Mmm hmm. Oh, mm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Mm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Ask you to come to the microphone and share a little bit about yourself and and why you're interested in continuing to serve on planning commission. Good afternoon. Again, my name is Jonathan Davis. I live at 941 Revere Run Drive and I have enjoyed the last year plus serving, given the chance to know, I guess my fellow, um, planning commission members. But most importantly, given the chance to help shape what our city is going to look like 25 years, 50 years, 100 years into the future, because I really feel like it's a, it's a, um, it's a great burden for anybody in our position to think about the decisions that we make and the impact that will have on the least of these and also those that are not even here. So for that, I'm grateful. Well, we appreciate your service and your willingness to continue to serve and council members with that will open it up for questions. All right, first we have council member Baxter. Thank you chair and thank you Mr Davis for your interest in continuing to serve. You understand the time commitment and I applaud you for sticking in there for another go. Um, since you have been on the planning commission, what is one opinion that you had about growth or development in general that has changed? I think an opinion I have is that sometimes it could be a wide gulf between what's the best thing and what's the easiest thing. And I think that we as planning commission members have to keep in mind of the fact that we are stewards of our community's resources and trying to figure out what makes the most sense for the most and greatest number of people in our community. Thank you. Um, and what is one aspect of, um, just your role being on planning commission that you find difficult or frustrating? Well, um, one thing that maybe it was a little bit of a frustration for me and it's part of the learning or part of the learning curve of what we're doing is that for the first six months or so, it was almost like drinking out of a firehose. There was so much information coming at me and I have no background in public policy or planning, but I got through that first initial six months of just during the headlights and I think I'm on the other side of that. Now I'm looking forward to maybe have an opportunity to put in practice the things that I've learned over the last year plus serving. Right. And then my last question is, can you talk to us a little bit about how you prepare for his own change? As far as my preparation, I leaned very heavily on information from staff. I also try to lean heavily on information from my fellow planning commission members because obviously some of them have more experience in this arena than I do. And I've developed a trust with them. I think we have a very trusting bond in that the group that we have together is one that can work together. And many times you'll see decisions come from our body that maybe there were a few strong voices in the room, but they made an impassioned argument that made sense to the rest of the body. So we try to present every night at front when we can in those instances. That's great. Thank you so much. And thank you again for your interest. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Councilmember. Next we have Councilmember Morton. Thank you. And thank you, Mr Davis, for your service and for your for being willing to being willing to continue to serve. I just have two questions and they're pretty much I'm gonna ask any any any folk that is at being here to get confirmed for the planning commission. So the first one is just could you talk about your thoughts on community input and community engagement as it relates to new developments? I believe this is my personal opinion that there should be, you know, a component that does allow for the general public to come in here and to voice their opinion. And I think that their opinions should have weight and their opinions should matter. That's my personal opinion. Having said that, I do realize there are rules and regulations in place that may prevent that from happening. But I personally believe that the public should be able to say, you know, this project impacts us in a negative way. And here's why. And that we have planning commission members and the council should listen to them and take into consideration what their needs are in the community. Correct. And then just as the follow up to that. So I guess in the spaces where those community inputs can be used and could be gauged like zone change record. Excuse me. Um, so just in the spaces where that community input can be used like zone change here. And just what's your thought on the community engagement piece and the community input piece within that as a planning commissioner? I'm sorry. I'm not sure what the question is. Yeah. So the follow up is. So I know within 443 that that limited the planning commission for taking input. But in the case of like where there's a zone change, the initial zone change where you can seek where community input could be seeked and they could be provided. What's your thoughts on that? My thought on that is that's better than nothing. It's not my preference. But anytime the community can come forward and express their opinion as to whether a project in passing negatively or not, I think that should be something that we should consider. And then lastly, um, what is your stance on preserving historically African American communities? And what does that look like to you? I think my stance in that is that it's generally a very positive thing. As far as what that looked like, I think it looks like people that look like us who maybe have a historic interest in seeing artifacts or seeing buildings preserved that commemorate and that celebrate a specific culture, which is African Americans in America, specifically in Fayette County. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. Next we have Councilmember Sheehan. Thank you. Thank you for your service and for being willing to serve again. In the recent past, um, the decision to appoint another planning commissioner fell to the planning commission. Um, but at that time, a process for how to select a new commissioner had not been established. How do you feel about or are you committed to creating a process? Should it come to the planning commission again? Let me rephrase your question. Are you asking me if I feel like it's prudent or that I agree with the fact that the planning commission itself as a body naming the new name in their new, uh, uh, fell planning commission member? Yes, I would be in favor of that. But having having a process for that? Yes, yes, yes. And then, um, what do you think should go into that process? Or how would you select a commissioner yourself? Well, first of all, I don't think that the planning process for selecting a new commissioner should be done solely by the planning commission. I think there should be other voices that come to the table, obviously staff, obviously, uh, you guys as well and probably other other players as well that maybe have a unique voice that should be heard and that it should be a collaborative effort among several different entities to figure out who's the best person to serve. And what do you think should be some of the qualifications that we would want to see or that you would want to see in a commissioner? I think it should be a mix of different kinds of people. I think there should be some people to come to the table with a very specific set of skills and background people with a planning background, people who have public policy backgrounds. But there should also be people, you know, not like myself, who does not have that, who come to it with more of a common sense approach, who come to it more of a factor of, you know, how does it? How does this decision impact people in a specific community negatively or positively and make the best decision just based on common sense? There should be a balance of different kinds of people that I think should be on the council or the planning commission. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Mr. Davis, also for your service. We know that you put in a lot of long hours. And so I, for one, I'm appreciative. I know it's a volunteer position. So thank you. I wanted to ask what you, in your mind, how to balance preservation and the need for housing and growth, especially as that relates to the task of expanding the urban service boundary? I'm sorry, can you repeat the question, please? Yes. How do you balance preservation, the need for preservation, with the need for housing and growth, especially as it relates to the urban service boundary? Oh, great question. First of all, I think it's important that before we tear a building down, we figure out whether or not this building, this artifact, is of significant importance of enough people that it needs to be preserved. Because once it's gone, it's gone. So I'm a big believer in going slow rather than going fast and just tearing something down and then putting something up very quickly. So we go slow. We figure out, you know, who are the players at the table who have a vested interest in this artifact? Does it positively or negatively impact the greatest number of citizens in our community? And we make a decision based on that, whether the artifact should go or not. As far as how it pertains to growth, I am pro-growth. I'm a businessperson in this community. I want to see our community grow. I want to see our citizens prosper. That's important to me. But once an old building is gone, it's gone. So I think that if we go slow and figure out how many people, what's the greatest number of people that it positively impacts, I think that would serve us well as we move forward when it comes to infill growth. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Next, we have Council Member Sabigny. Thank you, Chair, and thank you again for being willing to serve. I do recall the last time you were in front of us. So my question is, now that you've been on the Planning Commission, like everyone around this horseshoe has, like you rely on different people for different types of opinions. What type of opinion do the people on the Planning Commission rely on you to present to them? What do they lean on you? It's like, oh, this is what Jonathan knows really well. I'm just kind of curious. Well, I would like to think that they lean on me when it comes to looking at a project through the lens of a person who does not have a background in planning. Again, I know that there are rules and regulations in place that govern what we do, but sometimes taking a very common-sense approach to a problem might, if not fix the problem, at least give us another avenue that we can look at before a final decision is made. So I feel like they look at me for just someone who does not have an iron in the fire, so to speak, who's looking at it from a 10,000-foot view, looking down on it. But also, I think I made myself, or I like to think I made myself very clear to my fellow Planning Commission members that, you know, I look at things from a very long approach. I'm not looking at what's going to make the most money right now or what's going to look like five years from now. I look at how projects might negatively or positively impact our community 50 or 100 years from now. Because I'm sure we're all aware of, we've driven past something in town and we think, what were they thinking about when they built that? They probably weren't. They probably did what was easiest and what made the most money. I don't think those should be the only two determinants we make final decisions and we would pass judgments on projects. Thanks. And then now that you've been on it, how do you plan your time for meetings and meeting prep? Tell me kind of what typically you do. I'm just curious because I know it can take a lot of time. It does take a lot of time. As soon as I get a package, I will get it and I'll print it out and outline it and go through it. If I have questions, obviously I've got people on the Planning Commission that I consider confidants. I can ask them a stupid question and they won't treat it as such because they know that I had no background in planning. And they'll help break down specific issues that I might have an issue with. Also, staff has been very helpful and very open as far as allowing myself to ask them questions as well. Trying to get me up to speed as to how the process works. Because sometimes the process that makes the most sense in my head may not be the process that we can actually do given our governmental constraints. Thank you. Thanks again for being willing to serve. That's all I have, Chair. Thank you, Councilmember. I don't see anybody else signed up to speak and ask questions, so at this time we'll go into closed session and discuss your confirmation. So a motion was made to go into closed session and second it. Are there any questions to the motion? All those in favor, please say yea. Are there any that oppose? Hearing none, we'll go into closed session. All right, a motion was made and seconded to come back into session. All those in favor, please say aye. Are there any that oppose? Hearing none, consider us back in session. Mr. Davis, please come to the podium. And with that, I'm happy to inform you that this council will recommend approval of your appointment. So thank you. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your willingness to continue to serve. Thank you. Thank you. All right. All right, Councilmembers, who we have next is... I'm gonna look at Keith real quick. Keith, we don't have to close this hearing and open another window. We can all do it all in one meeting, right? Well, I'll ask Law. I'm sorry, I didn't see him back there. Okay. All right, so we'll just keep rolling along. Yeah. Ms. Martinez, you're here. Are you comfortable with us going ahead and doing this hearing now since it's time? All right, so I'll just call you to the podium. All right, thank you for submitting your application and your willingness to serve. Would you tell us a little bit about yourself and why you had interest in serving the community on the Board of Adjustment? Sure. My name is Anissa Martinez. I'm from Texas originally. I was brought up here for work. I worked down at the Army Depot in Richmond, and I work in security doing initiations on background investigations and paperwork, a lot of processing employees to get to different chemical weapons. I was interested in the Board of Adjustment because there was a short-term rental going in across the street for me, and I was very against it. So when it finally came up to the Board, I wasn't able to come up and speak my mind. So you guys, they did approve it, but I've had no issues with it, so I guess I kind of changed my mind. It's been pretty great, and I always, I do use Furbo and Airbnb all the time, so I mean, I see the good in it, too. So that's kind of why. Okay, thank you for that. So council members, if you would sign in with any questions, we'll entertain that. First, we have Council Member Morton. Thank you for your willingness to serve. I'll just ask one or two questions. The first one is actually tied to maybe why you got initiated into this community concerns and community input. So what, can you talk about your thoughts on community input and community engagement as it relates just to the Board of Adjustment? I'm so sorry. My bad, my apologies, I speak up. So just could you talk about your thoughts on community input and community engagement as it relates to the Board of Adjustment? Oh, I think community input is a big thing. You can't throw something at the neighbors and expect them to be happy with it. They need to say their piece as well. But considering what the law says and what the city says as well, so taking both into account. All right, thank you. And next, we have Council Member LaGrie. Hi, good afternoon. I looked a little bit about like your background and I know where it appears as though you deal with kind of sensitive information, cybersecurity and whatnot. And thinking about like your decision-making process and your background in relation to the Board of Adjustments, can you talk to us a little bit about how you make difficult decisions or decisions where you could maybe see two sides of an issue? Sure. A difficult decision, I mean err on the side of caution. So if the loss is one thing, go with that. But if the community or something says something different and I have strong feelings about it, then take it into consideration. Let me see if I can kind of do some reframing. So with the Board of Adjustment, you know, you all will receive staff recommendations. You'll also have kind of a hearing situation. You'll be with up at the horseshoe with other members of the board. As you're listening to people's input and as you're reading the staff recommendations, can you elaborate even in your own life in different contexts? Like if you have a difficult decision to make, can you talk us through your process? Like list-making, kind of weighing pros and cons, just any kind of insight into like a challenging decision and how you personally approach that. I definitely do a pros and cons list. I'm so sorry. All right. Okay, that's all right, Chair. Thank you, Councilmember. Next we have Councilmember Baxter. Thank you, Chair, and thank you for your interest in the Board of Adjustment. In your own words, can you describe your understanding of what the Board of Adjustment does and the responsibilities of the members? Sure. So the Board of Adjustment grants short-term rentals. They look at variances. So if neighbors have issues with properties or if they want to build a little bit over, they handle those situations. Thank you. Sometimes the Board of Adjustment hearings can go on and on for a little bit. What is your job accommodating to kind of hours that you may not, you know, unforeseen long meetings? And is it flexible? That's what I'm trying to say. Is your job flexible? Yeah. I already talked to my boss about it in there. He's cool with it. Okay. I just, and I assume that you're prepared for those I am. Those Stenwinder meetings as well. Okay, great. So you mentioned that you yourself had an issue with a particular application and you came into it with one point of view and you came out of it with a different point of view. So how do you think, as a Board of Adjustment member, you would receive that information from the community that may challenge what your personal thoughts are on an application? I take it into consideration. I know there's good and bad for both sides. You repeat it. Repeat your question. Yeah, just, you know, sometimes during a hearing you would have very passionate individuals from the community come and give their point of view on an application. And you may have already made up your mind about how you think it should go. One, you know, how, I guess, how would you handle the confrontation part of it? Because it is, it's something. And then, I guess, how, what, in what ways would you take that into consideration in your decision-making? I take it with a grain of salt. So if I have a decision, I like to look at all the information beforehand and then see what people say. So if they have really strong opinions, of course, take it into consideration. If it works out well for the neighborhood or the community, then go a different direction. Okay, all right. Thank you. And Ms. Martinez, you can pull that microphone down to your mouth. Next, we have Council Member Litch. Hello, how are you? Thank you for being willing to serve. I have a few questions. You put on your board application that you're interested in serving on the Board of Adjustment because you want to make a difference in your community. Can you expound upon that, please? Make a difference, actually see a difference in the community? So see the short-term rentals and see, like, neighbors getting along or coming up and figuring out what works best for the neighborhoods and what works best for the community and just volunteering my time to serve. Okay, have you attended a Board of Adjustment meeting or watched it on TV or streamed it? I watched it online. I streamed it. Okay. What did you think about the meeting? Impressions? The meeting itself? The meeting you watched? It's a very long meeting. There were a lot of great questions and stuff that I hadn't thought about before. So coming into it with open eyes because I don't know a lot and asking for help when I need it would be great. So I'm excited about joining the board. Let's see, tell us about a time where you had to mediate a conflict between two individuals. How did you handle that and how did you find resolution for those two parties? And it could be work, it could be family, it could be church. You don't have to say any names of anybody, but tell us about a time how you handled a conflict between two individuals. How did you mediate it? Let's see, a work one. So, I don't want to say too much. We have to get documents and everything together for inspections. We go by a list of documents. So if you want more than what is needed. Some people want to send everything. Some people want to side on the air of caution. For inspections, I like to side on the air of caution. So I want to send exactly what they requested, nothing more. My co-worker would rather send everything. I'm like, please, let's not. So we sit down and talk it through. There's not really any big feelings or fights about it, but just sit and talk things through. Okay, and my last question is, I looked at your resume. What does a Box of Balloons volunteer do? Box of Balloons is, so it's like an easier volunteering. It's for kids in the community or around the world. It's for birthdays. So you can donate things for kids' birthday parties and you can go by whoever's house has a Dropbox, sign up, say, hey, I'm going to donate a cake or I'm going to donate banners or whatever, drop it off, and they put the box together and send it out to the kid. Okay, awesome. Thank you so much, Chair. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Council Member. Next, we have Council Member Savigny. Thank you, Chair, and thank you so much for being willing to serve. So your work, let's just talk about your work right now. So do you work on a, is it a team-based work at all? Is it somewhat team-based? Yeah, there's myself and a co-worker and then my boss. So there's kind of three of you. Yeah. So if you're trying to make group decisions, because that's basically what a Board of Adjustment is, it's listening and kind of making group decisions. Right. What do they typically, like, what's the viewpoint that they look to you to provide? And they're like, oh, you know, and this is going to give us this, this is going to be, she's going to come from this perspective and we're going to hear about that. I'm just kind of curious because you tend to, that tends to be what happens in a group dynamic. Yeah. So my co-workers, most of my co-workers are ex-military and they're older, so I provide a little bit of a younger viewpoint. And my, like, expertise is in security, so any security type question they come to me. Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Next, we have Councilmember Curtis. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Ms. Martinez, for your willingness to serve. I got a couple of quick questions for you. First of all, when you were preparing for this confirmation hearing, what did you do to prepare yourself for today? I watched a couple of meetings and tried to see what I would do, see if my values kind of aligned and that sort of thing. Did you find that your values aligned? What was your takeaway from watching those meetings? I saw things a little bit differently, but in the end, I probably would have voted the same sort of ish way on a couple of things. I was like, I don't understand, so I'd have a couple of questions. And honestly, I used chat GPT to kind of, like, come up with some questions and stuff that would help a little bit. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Councilmember. Next, we have Councilmember Morton. Thank you, and I've got just a couple of follow-up questions just from some other questions. So, and it's just could be very simple. So, do you feel like you can make decisions on your own using your expertise, using the skills that you learn, and using knowledge that you learn to make a sound decision on your own? I believe so, yes. So, talk about your stance on making decisions by yourself without being influenced by, whether it be staff, whether it be, just without being influenced. Just talk about decisions, making decisions on your own. So, I have to make decisions on my own every day with doing background investigation. So, employees come to me, and I have to tell them what it says, this is how it's read, this is what I need the answer to. It's pretty straightforward, I guess. Well, then the next follow-up will be, we'll talk about making hard decisions then. Tell me, just tell me a little bit, how you guys make hard decisions. Get some input, ask some questions. I'm not an expert in anything exactly, so always ask questions. And you feel that even when it comes to hard decisions, you can make a decision by yourself, in your own, without being swayed? I believe so, yes. Are you willing to commit the time and energy to learn the process and procedures to become the best BOA member you could possibly be, if confirmed? Absolutely. And then, just as wrapping up, you know, I always say, when we have challenges and concerns in our community, we always ask our community members, you know, we always, they, we always tend to, we have to be the solution. But when we have folks willing to step up and try to be the solution, we should give gratitude to that. So, I'll just leave it at that. So, I appreciate your willingness to serve. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Next, we have Council Member Sheehan. Thank you. Thank you for being here today and considering this position. I want to build on one of the questions that Council Member Curtis asked you, where you were talking about viewing some of the meetings to prepare for this hearing today. And you mentioned, like, some of the things you didn't understand or you might have had your own questions about. That, in those hearings, if you're a Board of Adjustment member, you, you have the opportunity to ask questions. So, what were some of the things that came up for you that you would have wanted to ask? Do you recall? Oh, man. I don't remember right now. Okay. I didn't think about writing them down. Do you remember some of the cases that you saw? Like, what, what the court, but besides maybe short-term rentals, but any of the other cases that the Board was viewing or reviewing while you were watching? Yeah. One was the two-fisted bullies doing that. They wanted to put an acoustic guitar upstairs, but they wanted to reduce it from 100 feet to 62. I thought that was a little crazy. They had the whole neighborhood out there arguing against it. I mean, it sounded like a good idea, but reducing it from 100 feet down to 62 is kind of a big difference. But they listened to everybody, which is interesting, but I can't remember what questions I would have had. And then the, the first one was the neighbor, the two neighbors that came out, and they wanted to accept a variance of the back porch. And the neighbors came out to support each other, so they were on the same side, which I thought was kind of cool. And I think what you're describing is an example of what those regular Board of Adjustment decisions look like. It is those, the variances, and, and the, you know, short-term rental applications are a big part of it, although we've restricted those to 10 a meeting, so hopefully they don't take as much time as they used to. But it is those, those kinds of decisions like you're talking about, so it's, it, I'm glad to hear some of your thought process here about what you were thinking as you were watching those. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. I don't see anybody else signed up for questions, so what we're going to do is we're going to go into closed session and have a discussion about your confirmation, and then we'll come back. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to go into closed session. All right, a motion was made and seconded to go into closed session. All those in favor, please say aye. Are there any that oppose? Hearing none, we're in closed session. I see a motion to go into closed session. All those in favor, please say aye. Are there any that oppose? Hearing none, we're in closed session. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. All those in favor, please say aye. I regret to inform you that we're not going to recommend your approval for the appointment to the BOA, but we do value your interest in serving the community and will encourage you to apply for other boards and commissions that you may be able to serve our community on. So thank you for your time and your interest. Thank you. Thank you. So, council members, with that, I think that brings us to the end of our business, and I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. And our motion was made to adjourn and second it. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All right. This meeting is adjourned.