Do So So So So So So Welcome everyone. It's three o'clock and I'd like to go ahead and call to order the council work session September 16th 2025 and the first item on our agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda and it looks like we do not have anyone signed up yet. The people have until 3 30 so we'll see how that plays out. Uh next there is a docket and I'll entertain a motion to approve motion approved second council member Ellinger moves and council member Reynolds seconds and I'll ask are there questions are there walk-ons anything with the the docket? Okay if not all those in favor please say aye. Is anyone opposed? All right that passed. Next we have the work session table of motions for September 9th. Could I have a motion? Thank you vice mayor. Is there a second? Second. Council member Hale seconds. Are there corrections or additions? All right all those in favor please say aye. Is anyone opposed? All right that motion passes. Next we have budget amendments. Do I have a motion? So moved. Thank you vice mayor. Council member Legree seconds. Please log in if you have questions. All right all those in favor say aye. Is anyone opposed? All right that motion passes. Council members there are budget adjustments for your information only and that brings us to new business. Is there a motion? All right council member Lynch seconded by council member Hale and if you have questions will you please log in. All right there we have one. Council member Morton. Thank you and I just have a question on item H just what this is and why it's there I guess for public transparency. Welcome commissioner. Good afternoon this is one of those cases where we're actually the sub recipient from somebody else getting federal funding. So in this case CAC is giving us federal funding run one of our programs. So we are basically signing off on an amendment to the existing agreement. It's similar to some of the amendments that have done been done with us with respect to receiving federal funding. It basically allows them to terminate and it makes sure that you certify that you're currently in compliance with federal law. This is not being forced on them by us this is just this was brought to us by them. They would have already made the decision about whether they're compliant when they receive the federal funding themselves. Thank you. All right thank you. Council member Ellinger. Thank you mayor. Mine is with D please. I thought it might be law but. Commissioner Ford. And I guess just go through the quick history of this and this is our second renewal for the Kentucky American so. Yes. When will we make that determination because it says we get 12 months after this this second. Do we start negotiating then at some point. Yes sir. Yes council member this is the second eligible renewal on the existing franchise agreement. It goes to 20 31 31. In advance of that we'll begin negotiating again to put this back out for them to be in and for them to be in on. It does give us a 12 month buffer if we need it but it's going to be our preference and intent to negotiate in advance of it expiring. Thank you. So we had five and then two five. Yes sir. Okay this is that second one. So thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions about new business. All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed. All right. Thank you. One no on H. Next we have communications from the mayor. First our appointments. Is there a motion. So moved. I smear moves. Do I hear a second. Council member Ellinger. Are there any questions. All right. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed. All right. That motion passes. We have no donations today. We do have procurements. I'll entertain a motion to approve. Council member Baxter. Second. I think I heard council member Hale. Is that correct. Okay. Are there any questions. All right. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed. All right. That motion passes. That brings us to continuing business and presentations. First is neighborhood development funds. Could I have a motion. All right. Council member Baxter. Council member LaGree seconds. Are there questions. All right. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed. All right. That passes. Thank you. At this time it's budget finance and economic development report and that is council member James Brown. Thank you mayor. So this is the budget finance and economic development committee report out summary of motions for August 19th 2025. The meeting began at 101 pm. The first item was the approval of the June 24 2025 committee summary. The committee unanimously approved the June 24th committee summary. The second item on the agenda was the monthly financials update. Commissioner Hensley and Director Holbrook and Luker presented on the monthly financials revenue collections are on budget throughout period one. Personnel variances continue to fluctuate due to end of year adjustments especially with annual accruals and benefit entries. No action was taken on this item. The third item was the bluegrass area development update. Michael Bushman chief financial officer of bluegrass area development district presented an annual update to the committee. The purpose and mission of the BGA the bluegrass ad is to enhance the economy of communities through planning to maximize resources projects to promote development and programs to improve the quality of life for citizens of the region. An FY25 bluegrass ad administered over $191,500,000 in grants and loan funding across the 17 county region. No action was taken on this item. The fourth item was the regional business park authority update. Lucas Witt co-founder and partner and MWM consulting presented an update on the regional business park authority. The CKBPA has been working on establishing the triple crown business park in Berea Kentucky and the northern Madison county site which been which been assigned to the CKBPA by the Madison county fiscal court. It is under a purchase and sale agreement with the private owner. Next steps for the CKBPA are to hold regular meetings with the real estate brokers and site selectors to increase awareness of the opportunities and create a strategic plan for the authority including items like mission and vision, community and industry overview, site analysis, market analysis, strategies and initiatives and implementation planning. No action was taken on this item. The fifth item on the agenda was the industrial revenue bond policies and procedures. Craig Vince senior administrative officer presented an update on industrial revenue bond policies and procedures. Industrial revenue bonds are to be used to improve economic development to revive unemployment and to encourage and increase and to encourage the increase of industry. The IRB policy review is to review policies to allow for housing under some circumstances, maintain requirement for job creation or evidence of strong economic development resulting directly from the project and consider expanding the defined area of IRB applications to include the entire urban service boundary. On behalf of the committee I move to approve the amended industrial revenue bond policies and procedures ordinance policies and resolutions so moved. Council Member Morton seconds. Are there any questions? All right. Okay Council Member Baxter. Thank you Mayor. I have a motion to amend. Colleagues if you'll remember back in our conversation around this presentation there was a little bit of discrepancy between what we had listed as workforce housing, the definition of workforce housing in this in the proposed amendments and we wanted to mirror our planning definition of workforce housing. So I move to amend the industrial industrial revenue bonds policies and guidelines under special considerations if seeking leaseback arrangements to define workforce housing as residential units with monthly rents no greater than 30 percent of the monthly income of a household earning between 80.01 percent and 120 percent of the area median income. So this would change the current reference of 100 percent to 120 percent of AMI for workforce housing. So moved. Council Member Morton seconds. Is there discussion? All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right that passes. Thank you Thank you. Anyone else have any questions about the motion? All right. All those in favor of the motion as amended, the program as amended, which would be reflected in the motion, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right that motion passes. Thank you. The next item on the agenda was adjournment. The committee adjourned at 2 45 p.m. and I will state for this report out that there were other issues brought to the attention in regards to this policy. It may come forward later. I think we just want more time to talk to Kevin and Craig who worked intensely on this policy. That concludes my report out mayor. All right. Thank you very much. Does anyone have any questions for Council Member Brown about the report? All right. Thank you. Next on our agenda is the Fayette County Conservation District Annual Report and I believe that's Aaron Clark who's going to present that. Welcome. Hello Council Members and Mayor Gordon. My name is Aaron Clark. I am a second generation farmer here in Fayette County and I'm extremely pleased to be in front of you here today to report on what all we've been up to. I'm coming to you as the chair and for those of you that weren't at the Council Ag Day, I'm just real excited to be here. I failed to mention that we have Heather Silvanik, our director in the back. Sarah Ward has stepped out of the room. Supervisor Perry Gibson and community partner Naki Braga all here today in support. For those of you that don't know, there's seven elected supervisors that make up the Conservation District. So I believe you've got it in front of you. Everybody can see it. Slide two. We'll go ahead. Some quick things that I'd like to point out. Nothing too serious. Sixty-two percent of our applicants on all of the money. This one. My apologies. I was like why is it not turning? As you can see there was a bunch of individual projects across the entire county which has been something we've been pushing for in the past few years to really try to service every single council district in the county. The amount of first-time applicants in the last year as you can see was significantly higher than it has been in the past. That's been another point of emphasis for us just trying to do what we can with what we have especially with the amended millage that we received in the last year. Just making the best out of that that we possibly can. And then the final I guess key piece to point out is within the urban service boundary there were 889 conservation projects. Now that can range from all sorts of different things whether it's rain barrels, whether it's just backyard gardens, raised bed gardens that people are putting in. It's just a really cool opportunity for folks inside the urban service boundary to take advantage of some cost share opportunities. I won't forget to click it again. The next one key point for us here is the millage tax is 0.001 percent of the Fayette County property taxes at Valerium as you can see. I'm not going to read everything directly to you but that is a massive, massive part of our total budget. And then through the Kentucky Ag Development Board we get $237,000 to administer the CAPE program which is the County Agricultural Investment Program. And if you don't know about the Kentucky Ag Development Fund please contact Erica Rogers. I'll throw that on her so she can inform everybody on that. And then in the remaining money that we're bringing in is from seed drills and a lime spreader that the conservation district owns as well as a few donations and earned interest on the money. The key piece here is on the I guess the right side of the graph is 69 percent of our money is returned to the taxpayers annually in the last year. And we think that's incredibly important for us to point out. Out of the I've got it broken down bear with me. The $300,000 in the cost share programs that is dead animal removal, backyard conservation, cover crop, heavy use area, soil samples, and the CAPE program that I was discussing. The educational programs, we have a few scholarships, art and writing competitions that are available to multiple different age groups within the county. There's a few educational seminars just for anybody to attend and come to. And then there's a conservation and education grant that we award as well. I mean most of it, I was always told never read a PowerPoint directly to the people looking at it. So I'm really, I think the points are incredibly paramount here but it's right in your face. So the cover crop acres have grown within the past few years. We've upped the money in the program. We've pushed it a little bit harder and we think people are starting to take advantage of it a little bit more and that's exciting. The soil samples as well, that's folks in in downtown just testing where they're going to be planting the raised bed gardens, what they're going to be doing in their backyard, just giving them some more information. And then the key piece to me here is 63 ag producers in the county spent $934,797.89 and we gave back as much as we could $227,894 out of that Kentucky Ag Development Fund. So just a massive amount of money that is coming into the economy and getting put right back out and I'd be a big old failure standing here if I didn't point that one out to you. So as it comes to the urban environment, our backyard conservation program just like everything else within the past few years is continuing to grow. As I mentioned, the soil samples are really starting to get used in the downtown area. I believe it was higher than that in the urban areas maybe last year, but not by not by very much. So it's just very cool for me to see that folks are taking an interest in what they're doing at their own home. The big thing also is that we did chickens for the backyard conservation. A few folks took advantage of that of one. So one chicken. It's no longer there. As for the education and outreach to pay, the grants and scholarships have been pretty exciting in the last little bit. We've got seniors just writing unbelievable papers, and then we have some middle schoolers, high schoolers taking photos, submitting them of different conservation practices that they're seeing in the county. They're getting some money rewarded to them for books, different scholarships. And then the first category, as you can see, 36,000 was approved to 21 applicants. And that's just a lot of people getting help, whether that's going to college or just getting stuff they need for that upcoming school year. The graph on your left or the picture, we've reached out to over 6,000 individuals this year, made contact with them, whether that's at different events that we've had either one of our employees table or events that even some of the supervisors have been, whether that's been tree giveaways or at Gatton Park here recently. And so the two things we're looking into, I guess, would be the agroforestry initiative, just trying to figure out a way to continue to preserve the trees that we have here in urban Fayette County as best we can, and then just continuing to grow the plan of work a little bit every single year. I speed ran that, I feel like, so I apologize, but that's what I've got. And if there's any questions, I'll be happy to take them. All right. Thank you very much for that. And I'll ask if council members have any questions. Any questions, council? Council Member LaGree. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much for the presentation. I just want to say you all do so much with the resources that you have and with the staffing that you have. You all work really hard. And I hear really positive feedback from my constituents who are able to take advantage of your programming, your learning resources, and connect with each other and with you all in the process. And I've just been very impressed. And the reach that you all have had with your first-time applicants, that's huge. And what we found is when we put your information in our newsletter and we share the word, we get a really positive response. And that people often tell each other about the backyard conservation programs that they've gotten to take part in, and that you have ambassadors all over the county. I mean, that's very evident. I'm interested in your agroforestry initiative. Is there anything more that you want to share about that? So that as we're talking to people who might want to know more about it, we can speak about what you're envisioning with kind of clarity. So I will say quickly, it's still a work in progress, what we're thinking about trying to work with it. But between Heather and Nakia, I would like to, if it's possible, turn it to them to explain more about what's going on. Between Heather and Nakia, I would like to, if it's possible, turn it to them to explain more. Okay. Thank you. I don't want to give any false info. That's fine. Yes. Welcome. Hello. My name is Heather Sylvanek, and I'm the director of the Fayette County Conservation District. So with our plans for the next fiscal year, we are requesting a subset of federal funding to go toward agroforestry practices. And that is within the parameters of a federal program that already exists called the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP. So that is the big goal with that. And we have several community partners who are participating in that ask from the USDA or NRCS. Great. Thank you so much. That's really helpful. And good luck. I hope that it all comes together. And when it does, we'll be glad to promote it. We'll have a lot of interested people. I also want to say I love this poster. It's beautiful. So I don't know who designed that, but it is so beautiful. The backyard conservation poster, if that's what you mean, is Cosmic Asada. And it's John Mata based in Louisville. And then the other graphics that you saw were from Cricket Press for each individual program. Nice. Thank you. Thank you all again. Thanks, Mayor. Thank you very much. Are there any other questions? All right. Thanks so much. Thank you. Our final presentation is Commissioner Chris Ford, who will present the plan for Lexington's New Government Center. Welcome. Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, Councilmembers. It's my privilege to share this presentation on the plan for Lexington's New Government Center. I'm proud to be just one of our many team members who are actively working to help move this project forward. The purpose of today's public discussion is to share updates on the plan, the process, and the progress which brings us to today's current project phase of pending negotiation. But before we begin, it's important to reaffirm to you and to share with the viewing public that we are not requesting any action or official vote of the Council at this afternoon's session. I'll do my best to guide us through the presentation timely and to answer questions from Councils which may follow, so let's get started. We'll begin with the legacy of our existing facility, the legacy of 200 East Main Street, formerly the Lafayette Hotel, opened in 1920. Our community had the city-county merger vote in 1972. Then the newly merged government purchased this building in 1982, and we moved in a few years later in 1984. So just over 40 years, this site has continuously served as the headquarters for local government, and of course we're located at the corner of East Main and Martin Luther King Boulevard in downtown. It's important to note that our understanding is that this was always intended to be a temporary location until a permanent government center could be sited. Just for reference, and we all know that we have a growing community, but in 1984, Lexington's population was just over 209,000. Today we stand just short of 330,000 residents, so that's a 57% population increase from the time that we've been here in this location. Our workforce has also grown. In 1984, we employed over 2,200 employees, and today we're just over 3,000, and that represents a 38% increase. Our building's current condition. It's a historic building, of course. It has accessibility challenges, and it has space limitations for public meetings. Particularly, I'll bring reference to our council chamber where we stand this afternoon. The council chamber is 2,700 square feet, just a little bit above. Aside from the council dais and the horseshoe that we commonly refer to it, there are 90 seats in this council chamber that serve a combination of the public, staff, media, and security. We also always sit 40 seats, approximately, out in the mezzanine for overflow. I say that to say that we have experience, and I think we all know that the council chamber no longer serves the seating capacity that we need, particularly when we have issues that our community wants to engage us with. Our current building has an estimated deferred maintenance cost of $55 million. In the recent years, we've made some improvements to our facility, but I think it's important to note that there's still much yet to do as it relates to those improvements. Particularly, we've made improvements to the envelope, the building envelope. There are still significant needs there. Our parking garage, as we all know, also has costly improvement needs, and then our HVAC system has needs as well. A few council members may recall back in 2022 was when we had our last activity of improvements in the parking garage. At that time, we had to decommission the parking garage, and for a series of that summer and early fall, the appointed officials and the elected officials had to park in the Phoenix lot while we made those repairs. Just an illustration of some of the challenges of our current building. Mayor and Council, I would like to spend just a little time here on this slide. This slide, I think, illustrates the more recent pathway to a new government center. We've known and we've heard many years that there have been previous attempts to find a new government center. We consider those to be foundational, even though they did not result, and they've kind of led us to where we are now. But that first block talks about building on the past, and that is the council, the first term council, when Mayor Gordon's administration began, the 2019-2020 council. We did some research, and we now recall, and that is documented, that that council was very much engaged in this process and kind of has led us to where we are now. That council, led by Vice Mayor Kaye then at the time, had a council committee of the whole that met throughout calendar year 2019 and early parts of calendar 2020. It had three subcommittees. It had a subcommittee on finance. That subcommittee recommended the P3 model. It had a subcommittee on location. That subcommittee recommended that we stay downtown, and it also had a subcommittee on occupants. We know we've had a lot of council members come and go on the council, but the remaining council members from that time was Council Member Eliger, who had just returned, newly elected Council Member Reynolds, and then Council Member Brown was serving in the first. And then we had the pandemic, and of course, it was focused on public health and economic recovery. We fast forward, and we've made investments in a program study. Mayor Gordon challenged us to how much space do we need, and so we put out an RFP. We had three respondents. We chose Ernst & Young. We've invested just over $300,000 in their services, and they published their report in the summer of 2023. We quickly moved to downtown, and we commissioned a downtown market study, and this report was in August of 23. Also in that year, we began in earnest to focus on preparedness financially for such a move as a government center, and we made our first allocation to the capital reserve fund to the tune of $37.7 million. In 2024, we went out and we had RFPs. We issued an RFP that called for a consolidated government center of 160,000 square feet. We had two respondents. One was disqualified, and we ultimately decided in the spring of 2024 not to move forward with that approach. We revisited and issued another RFP later in calendar 2024, and that's the RFP that we're working on now, and that's RFP 51-2024. There were three proposals, and we entered into negotiations with a single negotiating partner in April of 25. Also in October, in the fall of 24, we revisited and added more money to the capital reserve to the tune of $8.5 million, and right now with some other commitments that we made of that fund, that fund stands at an approximate balance of $40 million. Lessons learned is a new approach. When we reissued the current RFP, we decided to reduce the footprint of the building. So the current RFP calls for a building of 100,000 square feet and 100 parking spaces. We prioritize fiscal priority on cost containment. We know that's important. We also made a decision to keep the Phoenix building and leverage it in the support of the new government center. The research is there. I just mentioned some of the efforts that we've taken to help prepare us for this moment. We've also retained outside counsel, both legally and in the financial service realm, and the resources that have come to bear. We have cash reserves that I've alluded to earlier. We have real estate holdings, such as this building that we very well likely look to dispose of at such time as we relocate and move into the new government center, and the key thing on resources and that Mayor Gordon has really brought to our attention is to make sure that counsel is engaged in this process, and we think that that has worked well to our advantage now. This map is a consistent map of previous RFPs, and it's the downtown central business footprint, and there's a lot going on on this map, so I'll kind of go over real quickly. In the yellow boxes are our buildings, the government center, the government center annex, and the Phoenix building. The buildings that are in red identify those sites that were deemed as possibilities for developing a government center. The blue line represents the two proposals that submitted the first RFP. The dashed yellow line represents the three proposals that responded to the current RFP, and then the current RFP has been an open and transparent procurement process. We've had a lot of our team members involved in that. Todd Slayton, of course, does a great job for us in the Division of Procurement. We had a selection committee. that met 10 times over a period. We had those three proposals. We had site visits and presentations with each of those three proposals and Vice Mayor and Council Member Brown, I remember some of those site visits being very cold on those February mornings, but we were engaged. In April, we decided to move forward with a single negotiating partner and that is the Lexington Opportunity Fund. And their property is located at 200 West Vine Street. The Lexington Opportunity Fund is represented by membership of local business leaders. The Webb Companies and the Greer Company represent the ownership. DW Wheelburn is the contractor on board as far as their development team and EOP Chaplin is the architecture firm. This site, and there's a map that shows the location. It is nearly an entire city block. The existing building is eight stories and has over 90,000 square feet. There's a newly reconstructed parking garage on site that has almost 290 parking spaces on three levels. It is bordered by Vine, Upper, High and Mill. The parking garage has three levels and you can access those from each of those streets that I just mentioned. And the acres is 1.7 acres is the site. We have a few goals that have been incorporated throughout the process dating back to 2019 and 2020 when we began looking at the new government center. Some of that has been informed by engagement with focus groups from our staff leaderships across divisions and we've also incorporated these into our RFP studies, market studies and et cetera. One is a center for the community and this goal is to make public spaces the heart of this building and creating a civic front door that invites gatherings. The council chamber, we want, this is a rendering that was submitted by the architect firm, an accessible, modern and big enough space for everyone to have a seat. In our preliminary designs, we are calling for a council chamber that is nearly twice the size of our existing council chamber to help us realize that. Welcoming and accessible to all. The on-street parking is one of the keynotes here and it's convenient and access for all visitors. Currently today, folks who come, most of the visitors that come to our government center here at 200 East Main Park in the Healers Garage, which is next door to the county clerk's building and that requires them to have to cross a busy intersection, signalized intersection at MLK and Vine. Our current location that we are negotiating with has a parking structure that is on-site and it makes that much more convenient. Another key component for us to pursue this long pursuit project is the healthy, safe and productive workplace for our employees. Investing in our staff, we believe, provides better service for Lexington residents and coming out of the pandemic, I think we all have a renewed sense of health, safety and wellbeing. Sustainability and environmental stewardship is also a key goal that we have. In our negotiations thus far, the firm is zeroing in and knows that it's very important for us to move forward. We want an efficient building and we want one that's built to last. This slide just talks about the time is now for a new government center, one that is safe, inviting, accessible and functioning. The past efforts, I mentioned this earlier, but I wanna reiterate, we sense those to be foundational. We've learned a lot over the decades prior and even the immediate times that we are learning from those successes and we'll build on those. This project is also shovel-ready. We think that we are ready to move forward if we are successful in our negotiations and to activate this project. One of the goals of that council subcommittee back in 2019 called for a public-private partnership. State statutes allows for us to do that in KRS 65028. It describes the goal to leverage private expertise and investment to deliver an efficient building responsibly. It talks about sharing risk, cost savings, delivering the product faster and on time and on budget and also being of high quality. There are three agreements that we are working on that would make this public-private partnership, being the real estate agreement or the lease agreement, a financing agreement and an operations and maintenance agreement. I'd be remiss if I did not think one of our team members who's been working with us, who's Jason Halligan. He's an attorney at Frost Brown Todd who has been a great resource to us in this process. Mayor, I'm running out of time just a little bit. So I'm gonna kind of just go through this quickly. The key next steps and opportunity is to continue and finalize negotiations without a single negotiating partner. Secondly is to request at a near future time, we hope to request council authorization to execute the P3 agreement. Then to also ensure the design phase will be shaped by the engagement that it deserves, primarily with the general public of staff here in government and of the council. And then last but not least, the goal would be to break ground and move forward with this project to begin in 2026. Lexington's new government center is more than a building. We know this is an investment in our people, our employees and our future. There's information that has been on the website prior and is now again on the website at lexingtonky.gov. You see the listing there. And then Mayor, if I could have maybe just 30 more seconds and I'll close. In closing, we sincerely thank the Lexington Fayette and Irving County Council, both past and present for partnership and collaboration with Mayor Gordon's administration in our steady pursuit of the longstanding aspirational goal to build a new government center. It has recently been described that the new government center project is, quote, a moment for Lexington whose time has come. And indeed, we believe there's credence to such hope and declaration. In closing, we have a valuable plan. We remain committed to an open and transparent process. We're making significant progress and have never been so close in negotiations of achieving our goals for a new government center. We are prepared to responsibly allocate resources to yield returns on investment in this capital asset and public facility. And lastly, we are positioned to seize opportunity for advancing our local government and community into the next 50 years of LFUCG and beyond. I thank the council and I'll open the floor for questions. Mayor. All right. Thank you very much, Commissioner Ford. Are there questions about his presentation? Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Commissioner, for your work and your presentation. I know it's been a lot and it's been ongoing, so I appreciate your hard work. You know, my grandfather was on council when we purchased this building, and I remember him talking about how it would be our temporary home. And when I told him I was going to run for council, he said, well, maybe you can get it done. So I'm really proud to be at this point, and I think that I'm even more proud of the process that we have taken to get here. I think we have done everything in a very thoughtful manner. We have been open and honest with the community on what we're doing. And I think that the plan that we have is a really, really good one. You know, I've, over the past few years, have been chair of the General Services Budget Link, and every year we talk about what money we're gonna put back into this building. And it's always a really difficult decision for me personally to say or agree with, yes, let's put $3 million in elevators, you know? But the truth of the matter is, if we hadn't done that and our elevators went down, we wouldn't be open to the public. So I think that, you know, we are in these seats to be fiscal stewards of our taxpayers' dollars, and we've proven that we can save, and we've proven that we are managing well, in my opinion. So I don't really have any questions. I just wanted to make that statement that I'm just really proud of where we are. And, you know, every time a curveball was thrown our way, we have pivoted, and we've just continued on in that very thoughtful manner. So I really appreciate everybody's tenacity on this one, and I think my grandpa could say that, too. So thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Commissioner, for your presentation and all the work that you've done. You know, we serve together on the RFP Committee, and, you know, it's a very complicated process with a lot of different things to consider. When we were weighing out the applications, it really was apples and oranges on locations, on size, on price, all of those things. So to have gotten this far is a testament to a lot of the work that you all put in. Can you speak a little bit about, on the sustainability and environmental impact of the building a little bit? Kind of talk through some of the things that we're looking to do. Talk through a little bit of the developer's proposal and their sort of attitude towards sustainability. Vice Mayor, I'll try my best. I will need to say is that we are actively in negotiations, so I'll be very careful and judicious as not to talk too much about negotiations. But I can tell the Council that this is a commitment that's built into our RFPs, prior and the current RFP. We have built in a basis of design that really calls for us to be efficient. We want the building to be safe. We want it to be accessible. We've also learned in our experiences that a lot of design and construction firms in today's market are already going in that area. They're already focused on things and building techniques that we would very much have interest in. So I can say that those conversations are ongoing. If we're successful in finalizing our negotiations and moving it to an agreement, there will be a very detailed design process that will make sure that we incorporate and reaffirm that we value sustainability and environmental stewardship in this process. Yeah, and I appreciate that. And I know sustainability and climate impact is very important to this Council, and I think we'll continue to watch this process and make sure those things are put in place. As I always like to say, how we spend our money is an expression of our values. So we have to always think about the price tag as attached to all the different things that we want to build into this building. And also for us as literal and figurative leaders in the community, having a new building and building it kind of from the ground up is a great opportunity to show the rest of the community what is possible and what can be done. On a different note, can you talk a little bit about the idea of, you know, on the slide that says welcoming and accessible to all, kind of talk through your thoughts on the idea of the government building as a customer service space. We think that's very important. We think that, and it kind of speaks to some of the challenges we have here. I'd be remiss, Mayor, if I can't just use this opportunity. 200 East Main Street has been our home for 40 years. It has served this government well. It is an icon, it's a landmark, but it was never intended to be an office building. And we have just kind of made the best of what we have. We know the challenges that we have, as I mentioned, with meeting overflow and capacity and constraints. So having that experience and looking forward, we definitely, Vice Mayor, want the space to be one that's accessible to persons of all ages, backgrounds, physical abilities, et cetera. We also want it to be inviting. We want folks to be able to, one, recognize it in our communities on the street level. And we also want it to be one, once they get into the facility, that they can easily move around and they can navigate. They can conveniently get to where they need to get to, to engage with us as leaders, to transact business, et cetera. So that's one of our goals, and it'll remain one of our goals. Thank you. Commissioner, lastly, for those who will be thinking about how big a project this is and how much taxpayer money that we're gonna put into this, can you speak a little bit about sort of the balance and the conversation between moving, or rather, new government center versus kind of investing and putting more money into this building? We had a slide about the deferred maintenance costs. So if you can expound a little bit more about, like, what would it look like if we decided not to move or not to get into a new building? What does that mean for us fiscally to stay in this building? Again, we have estimated costs of 55 million in deferred maintenance. Can you speak to a little bit of, like, what kind of projects that would mean? Yes, sir, I can. Give me just one second. We've made some improvements to the exterior of the building. The windows and the masonry of the building still require a significant amount of work. Our H, to the tune of, well, I have here, to the tune of roughly $12 million of that $55 million deferred maintenance costs. Our HVAC, we estimate that about 13 million of that deferred maintenance represents heat and ventilation, cooling, et cetera. And then there's our garage, which is three stories. We're only using one floor. Two floors we cannot use. And the lifespan on that garage is gonna be a decision that we're gonna have to make sooner rather than later. I mentioned us decommissioning the garage in 2022. Our technical consultants who help us with the garage have advised, we only have at least no more than one more opportunity to do a similar, what I call, patch job, basic remediation to keep it open. And there's gonna be significant costs to demolish the garage and then repurpose that space because we have utilities, et cetera, out there. Part of the deferred maintenance is, this is not to make an excuse, and this is just my thought is, some of what has led to the deferred maintenance has been the ongoing discussion of, do we stay or do we go? Do we decide to invest dollars? Now, to your question, Vice Mayor, if there's ultimately a decision not to move forward with a new government center for whatsoever reason, then yes, we would have to address some of the deferred maintenance costs we have now, but it will still never be an office environment that's designed for a 21st century local government operation, and it will make no impact to the accessibility for folks coming into the front door at Main Street, getting to this council chamber and navigating the building. It will be improvements, but the returns are diminishing. It would not be as optimal as moving forward as presented. I hope that answers the question. Yes, it did. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Morton. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Commissioner Ford, for the presentation and for all the hard work you've put into this, all the hard work everyone has put into getting us here. I just had one question and then a little quick statement, and the only question is, when will the request for council authorization come forward? Do you have an estimate timeframe? Yes, Council Member. We're hoping sooner rather than later. We began the current process back towards the holidays, it was late fall of 2024 when we issued that RFP, and in our selection committee, I'm gonna answer your question. I'd be remiss if I did not, Mayor, recognize the folks who served on both the selection committee. For you guys know, but for the general public, we've had Brandy Peetcher, Tyler Scott, Glenn Brown, Aaron Hensley, Vice Mayor, Council Member Brown, and myself served on that selection committee. We completed our work in April, and since that time, we've been negotiating with a single negotiating partner, the Lexington Opportunity Fund, and on that team is our CAO, Sally Hamilton, Tyler again, Commissioner Barbary, Commissioner Hensley, Council Member Brown, and has continued in value service to us, myself and Jason Halligan. So our goal, Council Member, is to bring that back to Council sooner rather than later. Our goal, as I mentioned on the slide, is to activate the project and get going with construction in 2026. To meet that timeline, if we could come back to Council later this fall, and now, we don't want to rush negotiations and not take our due diligence in finding the very, very best value for this government, but our goal is to conclude negotiations within weeks as opposed to within months. Thank you. Appreciate it. And thank you for all the hard work you've put into it. And I just got a little quick statement. So as I've advocated from day one, we must be intentional, responsible in how and when we choose to invest. At this moment in time, we're facing a tough situation. We have a building that is barely functioning, carrying a significant amount of deferred maintenance. We have a federal government cutting programs, grants, and resources that our city relies on, with the threats of losing even more funding if we stand firm on our values. And we have now more than ever a need to invest in people and communities that have historically lacked investments, both programming and capital. All three of these realities must be weighed carefully and intentional. Decisions must be made soon. Most importantly, I believe our community must have a voice in how we move forward. And now is that opportunity to do so. So I look forward to hearing from the community at large, and I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Brown. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Commissioner Ford, for the presentation. Mayor, I thought it was, I called Commissioner Ford yesterday because I had questions about the presentation, and he reminded me that, and I forgot all about it, is that right before the pandemic, when you first came into office, I don't, and don't let me speak for you, I don't think you were that supportive of moving to a new government center. But I think council was fully going that direction, and I think the vice mayor at the time set up a standing cow that we had in meetings and actually started doing a lot of the work. And I remember recently asking where that downtown map came from. And I think that downtown map that we included in the RFP came from some of that work. So, you know, I think, you know, we've been talking about a new government center since I've been here. It comes up about every two years. And I think there have been some good opportunities, but ultimately, like the last RFP that went out before this one, I think the administration, as well as the council, decided not to move forward because it wasn't in the best interest of the government. And I bring up the previous effort that I think, and I think it's a safe way to phrase it, that council led the discussions, then the pandemic hit and we just abandoned that route. Mayor, when you took it up this time, I think you've been real intentional about including council in the process. Every step of the way, we've been brought up to speed and had opportunity to weigh in and kind of help guide this. So we've been doing it more together and more inclusive than I've seen in the past. So I thought it was funny that council member, I mean, that commissioner Ford reminded me of that, because I forgot all about that. The other thing I'll point out too, and I think it's been said, but I'll, and I'll quote council member Worley. And this building has never been intended to be an office building. I mean, no matter how much we spend, no matter how much we do to it, it'll never function the way we want it to for our constituents, for us, for our employees. And patching and making patches and deferring maintenance, just because it's, I hate to say it, but it's easy to do that. If something comes up, but we have other needs, we would defer it to our own Pearl. And even with that $50 million deferred maintenance budget, that is not gonna make this building accessible, more accessible. We've all been in this chamber, we've sat up here, we see when folks have mobility challenges, what it's like for them to enter and navigate this space or even come to the podium and address us. And I think if we have an opportunity to make this building more accessible for everyone in our community, I think we ought to take that, take that opportunity. And then as well as the employees, you know, this, this, this, you'll come to work and do the work wherever you're stationed and are supposed to be, but I think we owe it to our employees to explore the best opportunity for them as well, to put them in a safe, efficient, functional environment to move forward. So I think this process has been inclusive of the council. I think it's been inclusive with the space study of our employees to determine what our needs are as a community, as a government moving forward. The next thing I'll ask too, is we rejected that one plan. When y'all come to us for a decision in the coming months, it's gonna be a viable plan that you all feel comfortable moving forward with in regards to the term of the deal or whatever is negotiated. Also the financial obligation, but then also the amenities that the building will serve. And I'm asking that as a question, you won't come to us and present something that y'all don't feel comfortable as an administration moving forward with. Yes, sir. Council Member Brown, that is exactly correct. We are trying our very best and with the help of legal counsel and the team that I mentioned to negotiate what's best for this local government, because what's best for this local government is in turn best for our community. We know that there are a lot of priorities and we know that we can't do all things, but we're being very, very intentional to try to get the best value. And I mentioned cost containment. That does not mean that we want to go with this project on the cheap. Value is still very important, but yes, Council Member, we're trying our very best to negotiate the very best value-based deal for this government. And the RFP was the best value. It wasn't the lowest bid, it was the best value. And that's what we're committed to working towards. So I got one more question, and that's in regards to public transparency. The reason that we're having this presentation today is for that reason. But then can you explain or tell us what other things are out there that we can direct people to in regards to the transparency of this project, this plan, and how we've been moving? Yeah, I would suggest it starts with the website, award-winning website, I think our CIO has for us now, lexa.ky.gov. We have a webpage there that has all the information. It has both copies of the prior and the existing RFP. It has the market study, it has the space study. It has the letter of determination that the mayor signed to move, to dedicate us to move towards the P3 model. All that information is there, and it's more descriptive of what our goals are. We think that the RFP process itself has been public. I think we may have mentioned this before when we've given Council updates in the last couple of months, is that it's not necessarily a requirement that we would have gone the RFP process. It's real estate. We could very well go out into the open market and negotiate, but we feel that this has been the best process to keep everything open and transparent. We anticipate being able to provide future updates such as this if the Council thinks that this may be of value to yourselves and your constituents, but a lot of information is already out there. We have not talked a lot about the terms of the deal, but there will be an opportunity at a time, at the appropriate time, to present that information so you guys can share it with your constituents and we can share it with the community at large. Thank you. You're welcome. Are there any other questions for the Commissioner? All right. Thank you very much, Commissioner Ford. All right. It's time for Council Reports. Do we have any? Council Member Lynch. Thank you, Mayor. I have a few announcements for my District 2 neighbors. Neighbors that live along Greendale Road, you know that a new elementary school is being built by our FCPS partners, and there's a noise variance that has been approved by our Department of Public Safety. So from September the 15th through October 27th, they will be pouring concrete, which will be a little noisy. So just be aware of that going on for roughly a little bit over a month. Coming up, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to my council office. Happening tomorrow, Lexington Habitat for Humanity is having women build. This is the first time that the organization has done this in several years. There are some new homes to be built, and we are calling on all women, or Habitat is calling on all women to come and volunteer and help for this new woman build. There are several homeowners that are excited about building their homes over on Harrison Trace. So all are invited tomorrow for the groundbreaking for women build, and then please visit Habitat for Humanity's website to sign up to volunteer on the build. On Thursday, I'm excited to be working with Aval on their Dining Out for Life, and I will be at Doodles on Thursday from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. So come on out, have a great breakfast, and support a great organization. There are many, many restaurants in town that are partnering with Aval. So if you don't want to get up early to have breakfast with me, please go to visit their website to see the many restaurants that will be participating in Dining Out for Life this year. All funds going towards a great cause. On Saturday, I just want to invite all of my neighbors out, come out, as you know, the second district is the 5K Race Capital of Lexington, and the Pride 5K will once again be hosted in Cold Stream Park. The race starts at 9 a.m., so if you want to walk, jog, stroll, come on out. We're going to have a good time once again in Cold Stream on Saturday. This weekend is also a yard sale weekend for Madison Station Neighborhood on Saturday and Sunday. So get your shopping bags out and come visit our Madison Station Neighborhood for some great deals. And then lastly, neighbors, our next district-wide meeting will be on Wednesday, October the 22nd. We'll have refreshments available. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Lynch mentioned Dining Out for Life. I was going to mention that as well. So go out and support Aval on Thursday. I did not get my pictures in time, so I apologize, but I did want to mention that Viva Mexico was last night in Madison Station Park, and despite a lot of concern and different things, a really large group of people turned out to support one another, and it was really beautiful to hear the national anthem of both the United States and Mexico celebrating Mexico's Independence Day and celebrating our largest immigrant population in Lexington, the Mexican population. I just wanted to say that it was really beautiful, and that Casa de la Cultura did a wonderful job once again. And then also, this weekend is Festival Latino, so come on out. It will be downtown again this year in the Courthouse Plaza Friday, Saturday, and then a health fair at Masterson Station on Sunday. And so the opening services will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, so colleagues, you're invited to that. I hope that you will come out and support them. And then Metathorpe's Party in the Park is Saturday from four to seven. So if you live in that area, come on out for some music and fun. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. Colleagues, if you remember, last Thursday we had very robust public comment, and in the audience was a mother and her daughter. Their names were Beth and Lacy, and they sat through an hour and 45 minutes of public comment thinking that they had signed up when they checked in at security to give public comment. I wanted to speak on their behalf today, just because they did not get that opportunity. Lacy has roosters herself, and thinks of them as pets and emotional support animals. And her mother actually, I'm trying to get emotional. Her mother actually sent me a picture when they got home that night of her holding her roosters and crying, and so it was just really a sad moment for me and for her too. So I just wanted to publicly apologize to both of them for the lack of clarity that we had in the sign-up process for public comment, and make a promise that we will do better in the future. And I don't ever want someone's first experience in this building and their first experience engaging with the government to be frustrating or just really disappointing. And so I just want to make the commitment to the community that we'll make some improvements to make sure that that sign-in process is abundantly clear and easily accessible. And that's all that I had. I just wanted to say hello to Beth and Lacy, and thank you guys for coming down to share your comments with us. And I apologize that you didn't get to tell us what you wanted to. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Morton. Thank you. I think I got it. There it goes, cool. So I'll start off with what we have in the future, then I'll talk about the great weekend I had. So on September 28th, Partners for Youth will host the Spotlight on Youth in partnership with the Lyric Theater, my office and Council Member Beazley's office, a talent show celebrating kids of all ages and their talents. So I encourage everyone to come out and support these young men and women. It takes real courage and vulnerability to step on a stage and share their gifts in front of a crowd. And our kids deserve that applause and support from all of us, emphasizing that they are shining stars, not just for our present, but also for our future. And then moving on to the great weekend. Starting off with Saturday morning, I attended the groundbreaking of a new affordable housing project right in the heart of our city in the first district, led by the Koreshi Group. I'm excited to see this development come to one of our neighborhoods. This project isn't just about representing progress for affordable housing, but also it represents preservation. As we build new opportunities, we must also protect the character of our neighborhoods, the culture, the history, and the connections that make the historic neighborhoods in Lexington so unique. Affordable housing isn't only about roofs over heads. It's about dignity, it's about stability, and it's about the chance for families to thrive right here without being displaced out of the communities that they helped create. So that was a great event in the East End. And then moving on, we had also in the East End, this is a great weekend in the East End, if you missed the East End this weekend, you missed something special. Great food, live entertainment, and the opportunity to support our local economy. Activating our neighborhoods and parks has always been one of my top priorities, and Saturday showed just how powerful it can be when residents, local businesses, and LFUCG partners come together. I was honored to join the Artist Village for their East End Art and Music Festival in memory of Mr. Patrick J. Mitchell, a beautiful tribute to both art and community. From there, I headed to Charles Young Park, where Boogie G and the Titanics had the park energized with incredible music, seeing the park filled with families enjoying the space, and its amenities reminded me why we continue to invest in safe and vibrant gathering spaces for our neighbors. And then lastly, on Sunday, I wrapped it up the weekend where I'm happiest, spending time with constituents, along with my staff, our own CAO, Ms. Hamilton, our own citizens advocate, Mrs. Dietz, and at large, Council Member James Brown and Ms. Charmaine. We attended a thank you dinner hosted by one of our first district residents. I remain committed to this truth. The work I do is not about perception, power, or ego. It's about people. It's about serving and doing the right thing. That includes helping navigate challenges and rebuilding trust. I ended the evening with our Elkhorn neighbors at their annual block party, a joyful reminder of strong bonds that make this district so special. So a great weekend and a great time with constituents. Thank you. Thank you. Council Members, there is no one signed up for the last public comment. So I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you all for coming.