Oh, I wish that there were four of her. So I could love so much more of her. She has taken my complete heart. I've got a sweet tooth for my sweetheart. Candy. It's gonna be just dandy. The day I take my Candy. And make her mine, all mine. The day I take my Candy. And make her mine, all mine. Is there anyone who wishes to address the council on any matters that are on the agenda? I see none, so we'll proceed. We do have a docket to approve. Is there a motion? Motion approved. Second. We have a motion by Council Member Ellinger and a second by Council Member Meyers- Mayor. ... to approve the docket. I heard someone. I did. Council Member DeCam. Ah, I move to place on the docket for Thursday, December 4th, 18, 2008, council meeting, a resolution authorizing the transfer of a portion of the property of the Henry Clay Estate back to the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation. Is there a second? Second. I have a second by Council Member Gordon. I have a motion to amend the docket by adding that, uh, property transfer item. Is there any discussion? All in favor of amending the docket, uh, as indicated, please let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no? Council Member Wayne? The motion carries. Council Member Wayne. Uh, thank you, Mayor. I move to place on the docket for Thursday, December 4, 2008, an ordinance expanding, extending full service, uh, full urban services district number one for the Irwin County Government for the provision of street lighting, street cleaning, garbage and refuse collection to certain properties in the following subdivisions, Fortune Business Center, Blackford Property, Johnson Property, Meyers Property, Ramsey Sullivan Property, Chesapeake Equine, Guest Property, Clark Property, Rit Station, Masterson Hills, Tuscany, Sharkey Property, and the Mulliken Property. So moved. Second. Thank you. I have a motion to amend the docket by adding that item which I'll not dare attempt to restate. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no? The amendment carries. Council Member Wayne? Thank you. Uh, I move to place on the docket for Thursday, December 4, 2008, an ordinance expanding, extending partial urban services district one for the Irwin County Government for the provision of garbage and refuse collection to include certain properties in the following subdivisions, Sharkey Property, Lexington Estates, Lochmere Estates, Maple Ridge, Higby Mill Reserve, Richmond Woods, Newtown Springs, Hamburg Place Farm. So moved. Is there a second? Second. We have a second by Council Member Gordon. Motion by Council Member Lane is to amend the docket as he, he has indicated. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no? Motion carries. Are there any further amendments? Council Member Gordon? Thank you, Mayor. Um, I move to place on the docket for the Thursday, December 4th, 2008 council meeting, an ordinance approving the 2009 calendar for the Irwin County Council. Is there a second? Second. Council Member Crosby seconded that motion. Is there any discussion? All in favor of amending the docket as indicated by Council Member Gordon, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no? Motion carries. Anything further? If there is nothing further, we're prepared to vote to approve the docket as now amended. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no? Motion carries. I think we had a summary that was circulated separately. Is there a motion to approve? Move. Second. I have a motion by Council Member Beard and a second by Council Member Meyers to approve the summary. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no? Motion carries. We have a few budget amendments. Is there a motion? Is there a second? Council Member Meyers has moved approval of the budget amendments. Council Member Beard has seconded that motion. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. We're now down to the new business items. Move to approve. Is there a second? Second. Council Member, uh, Ellinger has moved to approve the new business items. Council Member DeCamp has seconded. Is there any discussion? Yes. Um- Council Member Crosby. Yes, I have questions on both C and D, please. I don't know if, uh- Just go on to G-4, if you want to bring that up. ... Commissioner Taylor. Oh, j- um, my question, uh, you had actually left the room two weeks ago. I had, in my council report, made some comments regarding, and, and you probably are up to speed because I actually have copied you on my emails regarding, uh, and I won't go through and read what I read last time because I think you've received this communication via email and all, I b- I believe all council members were here, um, regarding the expenses from the sanitary sewer fee that we've collected. And, um, this regards, um, more importantly, what we've spent on salary and wages. And I've tried to get a report, um, on this. I guess, I, I, I asked the question, or I made the comments two weeks ago, and then Wednesday, I tried to follow up on an email for an accounting of exactly what positions we've paid for out of this fee since it's been collected. Because according to the emails I've received from Mary Fister and your office, it appears that there's only, um, let me go to my notes here. There, uh, were being, there's only been one engineer hired, and there's, uh, been interviews being held for a second engineer, which would have been now three weeks ago. So I've been asked, I asked for an accounting of all people who are being paid out of this fee because the expenditures that I've received from, and communication that I've received from you all have said that we have spent five million dollars from May to October. And I've not been able to receive any type of accounting for this since Wednesday of almost two weeks now. Um, I'm just wondering if we might be able to get some kind of report of the expenditures from the fees we've collected of the $18,245,918 that have been spent from May to October 2008. I'd have to be able to get finance to help me with that because there are numerous people that are not in my division- Okay. ... that are paid out of the sanitary sewer fund. For example, the Division of Engineering. Uh, when we asked for the rate increase, we asked for the increase in authorized strength of two and one half people. And you mentioned we've already hired one. We're in the process of hiring the second one. So- So those two people, that's, that's all we asked for as far as an increase in strength. So, uh, ar- so your personnel expenditures are five million dollars? Out of the sanitary sewer fund, according to what you were given, I would assume was correct, would be five million dollars. Yes, there's roughly 163 people who work in the Division of Sanitary Sewers. So this fee's covering now everybody in that... I, I guess, um, wouldn't that be, or maybe Commissioner Coe might be able to... It seems to me that's a pretty simple accounting question to ask, how many people are being paid out of this five million dollars? Like I said, I can tell you that 163 of them in my division are. I do know that there are percentages of, of salaries that are in the Division of Engineering, such as new development, that work on sanitary sewer issues relative to new development, that a portion of their salary comes out of the sanitary fund as well. I guess my question is, the five million dollars that's, has that been spent or is that what's been budgeted? I, I don't have those numbers in front of me. I'm sorry. I, I didn't know this was going to come up today. But I, I think, I think what we need to understand here is that the sewer fee is not a new fee. We have always had a s- I mean, we've had a sewer fee for a number of years, and it's always paid for personnel in this division. So it's not, it's not that, it's not that the new money is necessarily being used in a way that it's never been used before, because we've always paid personnel out of the sewer fund. I understand that. What I'm suggesting, though, is that what we have collected from May to October is, that five million dollars is being used towards that. So I'm trying to get an accounting of who is being paid out of that five million dollars. Is it the 160, whatever, five now? Is... That's my question. Out, out of that five million and, and the other, I mean- And the other two? That, it, it, to me, that is a very simple question. It is a very simple question, and I'll be happy to g- provide you with an accounting. Uh, and that was a question that has been sent to people almost two weeks ago. Everyone responded. And in fact, I jumped in at the very end and asked if there was anything remaining that needed to be dealt with. And I was told by your aide that we, that you had everything you needed. I wasn't... I'm sorry, I wasn't aware you wanted anything else. We can give you any kind of accounting you like on the sewer fund. We have reports that we can run in the next 30 minutes. I'd be happy to. Okay. Um, first of all, I don't think my aide... Uh, maybe she responded to a different email that way. But as of, uh, Wednesday, two weeks ago, I asked for specific acc- accounting, and I don't, um, I won't sit here and argue with you on camera, from somebody in your department, which I have not received any con- I mean, I've received communication from- Ma'am, I'm try- ... but I haven't gotten that yet. I'm happy, I can go right now- And I followed up yesterday and have not gotten it. I'll go right now and run the rep- I would appreciate that. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. Thank you. Coun- Thank you, Mayor. I had questions regarding, um, item G with respect to the Abmattox Road culvert. I'll also be asking about items J and K. ... related to the, uh, office of the budget officer and the time keeping and holiday swing hours. And whoever's first we'll just do in that order. You got the Appomattox. This is a project that completed some months ago, and I'm wondering why we have a change order for it now. The ... Typically, the, the final change order that adjusts all the quantities lags the project somewhat. Um, there ... It, it takes a while to, to compile these, these figures, and to, uh, reconcile them with, with the other projects that we've got. It's, it's just taken, taken some time. There's no, no specific reason. So, this change order is actually retroactive on this project? This change order will allow the project to be closed out. And p- and final payment be made. Yes. Okay. Thank you, that's what I wanted to know. Who's next? Commissioner Coe, are you gonna work on the, uh, budget officer? Can you explain what this is, please? Um, yes, sir. You may, um, remember that Connie Underwood retired from the Division of Budgeting, and her position was an administrative officer position. And when the Division of Human Resources examined that, they said that it really, um, would be a better representation if it was the, uh, Budget Officer Senior instead of an Administrative Officer Senior, that would be more specific to the job. Beautiful. That explains it. That's what I wanted to hear. Thank you. Okay. And then what was this? And are you also gonna do the time? Yes, sir. Would you explain what's going on here? Yes, sir. Um, there are a number of changes that'll be coming to you over the next several months around, um, changes that we need to make in the way we handle payroll and some personnel issues because of the way things work in PeopleSoft. I think, um, you, Council Member Blevins, know probably better than anyone that we need to try to run this software off the shelf as much as possible, and not make any, um, modifications, or at least make very, very minor modifications, 'cause those modifications are something that you continue to deal with over the long haul of the software. So, um, one of the things that we did not have the ability to do in PeopleSoft was, um, do the, the year-end rec- reconciliation of time, um, for vacation, sick, holiday, um, and, and comp. We could only do that once a year. So, um, to this point, we have been awarding the two swing holidays on July 1, but doing the reconciliation of all the other time as of December 31st, or the payroll that includes December 31st. Sure. So what we'd like to do is move that award of the two swing days from July back to January. Um, it'll mean that everybody gets theirs six months earlier this year, but then we're on ta- track for it to be annual from there on out. Okay. The, the thing that grabbed my attention here was that, uh, "And if additional rules are needed, they can be adopted by administrative reg- regulation or CAO, bypassing Council approval." That's- Well, well, actually- ... that's what caught my eye. ... what, well, what I had, what I had requested that we take out of the existing ordinance is that the, uh, Director of Human Resources could make rules to affect the implementation of this ordinance. And, um, as I keep bringing those to you, um, these changes in, in personnel, we were gonna take that out consistently, because w- the- we really don't need a set of rules that are just made by the Director of Human Resources. We, we need something that is a little more, uh, global across government, which would either be the administrative regulation process, which I think does come to you, I, I think. I may be wrong about that. Um, CAO policies don't, but clearly, um, we're happy to bring those to you for your review, if you'd like those as ... Uh, right now, I'm not aware of anything we're gonna need to do, but it was to, to, um, affect the implementation of this particular change in the ordinance. But if we need to ... If there is something that needs to be clarified, I'd be happy to bring it back to Council before we distribute it. Okay, that explains it. Thank you very much. All right. That's all I had, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner Coe, before you, before you leave the podium, uh, just to follow up on, uh, Council Member Blevin's question about the Item K and the, um, uh, CAO part, or the administrative part. Yes. Can you just give me, um ... Do you have any examples of what that might be that needs to be changed that the CAO ... well, that the administration might bring? Uh, th- that's what I was saying- We don't know. ... I'm not- I'm- I don't- It's just to cover- ... know of anything right now, but- Okay. ... um, clearly- It's- ... on some of the other leave policies, there have been clarifications that came from the CAO when ... I mean, there, there's always something that comes up of- Mm-hmm. ... "Well, did you mean this or did you mean that?" So I think that's why- how we've used the CAO policies in the past, is just to clarify what the ordinance says. And generally, um, the deb- Department of Law reviews those. Um, but I'm happy to bring, bring it to you if, if we do make a change. Well, one of the things I noticed is, and, and maybe you can have better eyes than I, on page 36 where the ordinance starts, um, there really isn't any mention in here of CAO policy or- No. ... administrative changes. Right. Do- If you look at page 36, see that, that we have tw- um, number two marked through- Mm-hmm. ... paragraph two? "The director shall make reasonable rules and regulations to implement this section." ... that's what we're taking out, because that refers to the Director of Human Resources. And you didn't want to put anything in? We... No. Okay. That, and we just- Okay, that's- ... left it out. I- I'm, I'd be happy to change it- But- ... to the CAO if that would- No. ... make you more comfortable. No, I'm fine with it. Okay. I just had that question. Thank you very much. And then, Mayor, I just wanted to thank you and the administration for bringing forward letter I, which, um, some of us were on the original, the council that originally started the benefits to our deployed soldiers who are government workers. And I know many times they get deployed, and when they do, their salary goes down, um, while they're serving in Iraq or Afghanistan or their deployment site. So I appreciate you bringing this forward. I think it's a good thing for our government to be doing, to help them out. Thank you. Anything further? Now we have a motion to approve the items of new business on the floor. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. I turn the floor over now to, um, Council Member Stevens. Uh, thank you, Mayor. The Budget and Finance Committee met in its regular session on November 25th, 2008 in these chambers beginning at 1:00 PM. All members of the committee were present. Uh, the main purpose of our meeting that day was to review the Equine Task Force study and its, uh, recommendations to the, uh, Urban County Government about, uh, measures that might be undertaken to, uh, implement their recommendations. As you recall, the, uh, Mr. Quick, who was Co-Chairman with Frank Penn of this task force, did make a 15-minute report to the council several months ago, but the Budget and Finance Committee thought that perhaps a little more detail could be obtained if we spent a little more time with it. We did have a presentation by Dr. Stuart Brown and by Dr. Duncan Peters about the magnitude and the scope of the vet- veterinary hospitals we have here in Central Kentucky, two here primarily in Fayette County and one in Woodford County. Uh, they are large enterprises and contribute a lot to our economic activities. And Dr. Duncan Peters just recently joined the practice of Hagard, Davis, and McGee to deal with sport horses. Sport horses are any horses that don't run in a race, and are becoming much more popular or common here in Fayette County and Woodford and Scott, uh, because of the, uh, nucleus of horse-related activities we have here. These are horses which are show horses and other types of horses, the kind that will be participating in the World Equestrian Games. Uh, I should say that sport horses are any horses that don't run in a race, the ones you don't win a pr- which you can't bet on. Uh, we also heard from Dr. Nancy Cox, uh, Associate Dean at the UK College of Agriculture, about her work in, related to equine. Uh, the university, as you know, is starting an equine initiative right now to build a facility on Maine Chance Farm, which will enlarge, greatly enlarge their pro- academic programs for equine activities. Uh, Dr. Laurie Garchovich of the UK College of Agriculture also reported on the economic benefits of our activities reg- related to equine here in Central Kentucky, that being the biggest agricultural activity we have in Fayette County. Uh, Mr. Billy Van Pelt, our own Mr. Billy Van Pelt, gave a very good report on the status of PDR and why it's continued, uh, progress is very important to this industry, as they represent the factory floor really for the equine business. Mr. Tom Thornberry of Keeneland spoke and, uh, supported the PDR program. We also heard from Dr. Allison Davis, uh, from the UK College of Agriculture on economic impacts to the equine industry. Uh, we then had some discussion among the council members, and when we ran out of time, the Budget and Finance Committee is scheduled to meet next Tuesday, uh, December 9th at 1:00 PM. That time, uh, we plan to have the committee go over the recommendations and bring to the council those recommendations we think are appropriate for us to do here in Fayette County by the Urban County Government. Some of the things will need to be done by other agencies, private and public, but not all. And some things we'll be able to do as a, as a government to help this industry, if not now, later. And that completes my report. Are there any questions for Council Member Stevens? All right. Thank you very much. Uh, welcome- Thank you. ... to the podium, Billy Van Pelt, who has a couple of different presentations, and so Billy, we'll just leave it to you to roll through them. Thank you, Mayor. I'm gonna start with a brief PowerPoint presentation, uh, to give you your annual update on the PDR program. I submitted to the council office a handout of a map and a spreadsheet of farms that we closed on and donated easements that we received as required by ordinance. And this PowerPoint will be for your information, and I'll answer questions at the end of the PowerPoint. All the farms, by the way, that you're seeing on the slides are farms in the program. Currently, we're at 22,444 acres, 44% of the goal of 50,000 acres by 2020. And without question, this is what gives us our unique, world-renowned landscape that defines our sense of place. PDR, as Dr. Stevens was saying, protects the factory floor of agriculture. Fayette County ranked number two in 2005 for cash farm receipts of $354 million. In 2006, the Blue Grass Stockyards sold over 245,000 cattle, and it's the largest stockyards east of the Mississippi River. We have a significant ag-related infrastructure, and agriculture supports a significant number of jobs and tax base. The horse industry, uh, in 2007, 1.1 billion in horses sold at Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton, $437 million in revenue and 6,300 employees, and those are from Dr. Tim Wood's report that was given to the Budget and Finance Committee. PDR protects the factory floor of the tourism industry, which is a $1.6 billion economic impact in Fayette County that supports 23,000 jobs with a payroll of over $529 million, generating almost $15 million in local tax receipts. The goals of the program are to preserve 50,000 acres out of 128,000 acres in the rural service area over the next 20 years. This is 27% of the land in Fayette County. We want to protect the ag and horse economies by conserving large areas of contiguous farmland. We want to protect the natural scenic and open space areas and our tourism economy and that sense of place that attracts visitors from all over the world. It is a voluntary program. Most rural landowners are eligible that have 20 acres, and we use an objective ranking system that is part of the ordinance that was adopted by the council and is on our website. The major components of the program are the ordinance which was adopted in January of 2000 by the council, the Fayette County Rural Land Management Board that is appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council, our ranking system, and funding. This is the makeup of the board, which as some of you may think is a pretty, um, odd group of people to come together and talk about farmland preservation, but each representation on our board realizes that they have a stake in preserving that which makes Fayette County unique. The board has a number of duties, um, including holding the easements, prioritizing the easements, soliciting donated easements, and establishing administrative procedures for the program. Our ranking system is heavily weighted towards agriculture, uh, farm size, road frontage, um, batch applications from jo- adjoining property owners, soil quality is where you get your largest number of points, farm activities, and ag improvements. Environmental considerations are also part of the ranking, with environmentally sensitive areas considered, greenway potential, historic cultural resources or scenic resources, or reconsolidation of subdivided farms. But we also give minus points. We give negative points if you are in close proximity to the urban service boundary, if you're likely to be sewered, if you're in close proximity to a federal highway or interstate interchange, but there are exceptions to this, um, these negative points, if you're a community icon, for instance. How is the value of a conservation easement determined? We look at the farm before the conservation easement and after, and we determine the value in both of those scenarios, not including im- improvements, and the difference is the value of the development right that's being given up. Funding obviously is a big component, and this is explained in greater detail on your handouts, but the upshot here is that we've received over $5.3 million more in matching grants than we've invested, uh, as a community, and the majority of the investment made by the community are 20-year municipal bonds. During the Budget and Finance Committee presentation, Council Member Gordon asked for the information from the PDR participant survey, and I promised her I would provide that information. We conduct a survey every year, and you can see here that the money that's paid out to the farm owners is going back into the local economy, it's going back into the farming operation, and it's helping to keep the farmer and, um, their heirs on the farm. The number of farms in the program is 194 farms, which includes 33 donated conservation easements on 1,610 acres, a hundred equine farms, 81 general ag, and 13 classified as other. I'd like to make a point here that just because a farm is a n- horse farm today doesn't mean it can't be a general ag farm in the future and vice versa. The important part is that we're preserving the land. Our, um, donated conservation easements have resulted in a savings of over $4 million to the LFUCG in conservation easement acquisition funds. Round seven is the current round. We received 64 applications o- on 4,849 acres. Round eight applications are due on January 30th and are already in process. As I mentioned, just as a recap, we're at 44% of the goal, uh, of fif- 50,000 acres by 2020. I want to give you some takeaways here now that we're at the end of the presentation. ... that there really are ten benefits of the PDR program to the community. We're protecting our brand, we're protecting our equine, our tourism, and our general ag industries. We're encouraging infill and redevelopment of the urban services area, which lowers the cost of services to the LFUCG. We are, we support the reduction of the carbon footprint by preserving farmland. We also support elements of the EPA consent decree by protecting watersheds. Preserving farmland and having a vision for this community and who we are and where we're going ensures that we retain a good bond credit rating. Our preserved farmland and our unique landscape attracts jobs and businesses as a quality of life. And we are protecting the base of agriculture for feed, uh, food, feed, and fuel for future generations. So we're at the end of the presentation, and I'd be happy to take any questions. Are there any questions concerning the PDR program? Council Member Blues? Thank you, Mayor Billy. Could you go back for just a second to the negative points? Yes. Okay. The, um, I just had a question about, uh, the rationale for the, um, for negative points. Why we have negative points? Yes. Okay. We, the, the program is designed to allow expansion of the urban services boundary in a planned fashion when, you know, we're ready to do that. And that's a function of the planning commission. So we don't wanna create the urban, the, um, the choker around the urban services boundary, where we would set up a situation for leapfrog development. And that's why we don't want conservation easements, or that w- our ranking system is not set up to acquire easements on the ur- on or near the urban services boundary. There are exceptions. If you have a blue line stream going through your farm or if you're a community icon, um, like Calumet, for instance, that farm sits on the urban services boundary, but I think, um, no one would argue that that is a community icon of Lexington that's recognized internationally. So those negative points in that situation would go away. But the, the key to the negative points is to allow, uh, a planned growth approach for the urban services boundary at the right time. Thanks. That's, uh, I- I was at- at first uncertain about why we wouldn't want a buffer closer to, say, the interstate, but your explanation makes perfect sense. Thanks. You're welcome. Is there any... Council Member Lane? Uh, Mr. Van Pelt, could you, uh, maybe just speak a little bit about the voluntary nature of the program and how properties offered to the PDR program and how it's s- selected? Could you just spend a minute or so on that? Sure. Um, we have a continuous application process. Um, the- the filing deadline is the last day of January of each year, and we've already received applications for the next round. The ordinance requires us to have two public meetings that are advertised in the Herald Leader prior to the application deadline. Those will be held on January 15th. They're offered at 1:00 in the afternoon and 7:00 at night. Um, normally by the application deadline, I've already been contacted by a farm owner that's interested in applying. Once they apply to the program, um, they're, I visit the farm and I work on a preliminary ranking for the board's review. After the board reviews it, we hi- we approve an initial ranking which is sent out to the farm owner. They have two weeks to appeal their ranking to, just to make sure we haven't missed anything. The final ranking is sent out the first week of April, and then we, um, look towards, um, proceeding with the conversation easement acquisition process once our budget is in place on July 1. And w- and once, when people apply, if they don't get in in a round because of, for one reason or another, those applications are rolled over into the next round. So it's a, it, there's an opportunity to move up in your ranking. Thank you very much. You're welcome. I've got Council Member G- Gorton, then Council Member James, and Council Member Stennet. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, Billy, I don't have a question. I just want to thank you and the members of the PDR board. I know that this program has received national recognition over the years, and I think that those of you who have worked on it have really done a good job of following what was initially set up in 2000 and i- and have achieved a lot. And I know that it, that you're looked to as a, as a good example by people throughout the country, and I just wanted to thank you all very much. Well, thank you for your support, because without the council's support of the budget, we wouldn't be able to go forward with the program. Council Member James. Thank you, Mayor. I ditto what Linda said. You all do a really good job. The, um, PDR, um, staff and, um, the Rural Land Management Board's a very well-oiled machine. Y'all do very well. I'm interested a little bit in, um, one of your points dealt with, um, um, taking, or encouraging infill and redevelopment. So I'm wondering if you have any stats that show prior to the PDR program, prior to 2000, at what rate, um, were farms being developed? Um, and if you could compare that. So can you, can you tell whether or not, um, or can you show how... ... how it's impacting infill and redevelopment by, um, conservation of the farms. Well, uh, I don't have statistics in front of me, but I'd be happy to work on those and get those to you. But I think just on the surface, we can look at all the infill and redevelopment that's occurred downtown since 2000 and say that obviously, um, by maintaining the urban services boundary at this time, that we have a large amount of infill and redevelopment underway throughout the urban services boundary. Yeah, I just wonder... I mean, I can visually look. I just was wondering if you have any perce- you have a lot of percentages here, so I just wondered if you had any ratios and said because of the preservation, we've been able to offset 10% of- Right. ... the infill. I, I, I do, uh, have some information for you. From 1997 to nine- from 1990 to 1997, 4,700 acres, uh, were used for 10-acre lotting in the rural services area. If you took 4,700 acres and made a perfect circle and put it inside New Circle Road, we could have gotten 20,000 typical residential lots. So instead of 20,000 lots, we got 429 lots. So I think you can see by preserving farmland, we're, we're encouraging a denser development, a more responsible development on the inside. Absolutely. So that's one statistic that I can give you right now. Absolutely. And, uh, and, um, very interested in that. And any more that you, as you progress this, and as you reach your goal, I'm really interested if you could keep track of those in any kind of way. If someone could come up with something, because what I... Of course I represent an inner city area, um, and we're feeling the pressures of infill. Um, and where I see the plus in the PDR program is you, um, you incentivize, um, folks to not, um, uh, develop. And in the inner city, we don't have any ins- incentives yet for, um, to encourage development. So you can't develop outwardly and you come inwardly, and we don't have those incentives for developers and the $2,500 per acre, that sort of thing. So I'm trying to figure out, um, how do you balance that? And how do we take some of th- using your example, your wonderful, um, program, which you and I have talked about this, is how can we all- how can we balance that with you're not going to build out and you're gonna preserve... That is the normal tendency for people to come in and develop. I think that the chair of the Dese- Courthouse Area Design Review Board may have some comments along those lines in the next presentation. That would be wonderful. But I will tell you that I was contacted by the mayor's chief information officer, and we're gonna be working with him to do a documentary on the PDR program to, uh, talk to everyone that was involved from the early '90s to date, talk about how the program came into being and who was involved and how we got there. So I'm sure that, that those matters will be discussed. Thank you, Billy. Thanks. You're welcome. Thanks, Mayor. Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Mayor Billy. Thank you and your board for all the work you all have done. You have done a tremendous job and, and this program is obviously further ahead of schedule than we anticipated to date. Just have a question. On one of the sli- slides you showed, I think Council Member Gordon asked for it, is how people are spending the money that we're giving them. The, the process, I guess, currently is we give them a check and that's it. We don't ask them or do any type of audit or anything like that on how they spend the money currently? Is that right? That's correct. And so the response, how many people responded to that survey on that slide? Because it, it confused me a little bit 'cause it showed several people, 68%, 60%. Sure, and, and I see what you're saying. There are, there are... It's because people spent it on multiples of different things. So there, there are a list of items on what did you spend your money on. So if you received X, you might have, um, spent some money on farm improvements, some money to buy more land, some money to pay down debt. So that's why those percentages add up to more than 100%. Okay. Have you ever talked about putting any type of restrictions on how they can spend the money? No. Is, is that an issue that y'all have ever discussed? No, because th- the farm owner is, is giving up a lot when they're giving up their development right. I mean, they're giving up the, the right to subdivide that farm in the future. They're giving up their conditional uses in the AR zone, and they're also putting a limitation of impervious surfaces on their farm. And we're, they're, we're restricting the number of residential structures. They can only have one primary residence regardless of the size of the farm. So there are... They're giving up quite a bit when they put the conservation easement on. Could they opt out of PDR? No. And go back the other way and pay back the money? No. No. There's no, there is no buyout clause. Good. Thank you, sir. Does any other council member have questions for, uh, Billy? All right. We'll move on. Thank you. Uh, Margaret, did you want to say something? Yeah, I did- Margaret's Chair of the Rural Land Management Board. I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Stevens and Dick DeCamp for their steadfast support of the PDR program. You were there in the beginning and you've been very loyal and strong allies, and we very much appreciate it and we'll miss you. So thank you for your service. The next presentation is, uh, ano- another presentation that's, um, required by ordinance. There will not be a PowerPoint here. Uh, you do have a handout that I submitted to the council office last week. Uh, the Chair of the Courthouse Area Design Review Board, Mike Moiser, will be going through th- um, the documents that you've received and giving some comments. Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the council. My name's Mike Moiser, I'm the chair of the Courthouse Area Design Review Board. Um, this board was created, not coincidentally, in 2000, the same year the PDR program was adopted, to deal with exterior changes and review of demolition and exterior changes in an area around the old courthouse. And we've given you a packet today to sort of orient you to what we've, uh, been doing and some ideas we have for- for some improvements. The first portion of your handout is the map of the actual courthouse area, um, that's covered by our board, and you'll see that it is a substantial portion of the downtown commercial district, but certainly there are a lot of areas that are not included. The second page of your handout gives you a description of the members and the staff, and I have a couple comments here. One is you'll notice that we really only have one design professional currently on this board, and that's, uh, Mr. Hankle, who's a landscape architect. The rest of us either represent the business interests in the downtown area, or in my case, an association with historic preservation. Um, at the bottom of that page, it lists the applications that we've had since the ordinance was adopted, and which, whether the board or the staff had to approve those. As you can see, it's not a large number, but as you probably know, we've had a- an intense amount of activity in recent history relative to the activity of our board. Uh, the most important portion of the handout is the next page, which is some proposed changes to this ordinance that we have discussed, uh, both as a board and also with the staff. Um, and I just want to go through those quickly and explain why we've recommended those for your consideration. The first is to require roof inspections by code enforcement and fire of buildings within the district. The reason we've included that is presently, our staff doesn't have the ability to inspect a roof unless they can observe it from an adjacent roof or get the owner to give us permission to go up. And we sort of recognize from the nature of downtown buildings that the roof is a place that you don't often see, but may be the most vulnerable for these buildings, and so we'd like that changed. Uh, the second item, which is also very important, is we'd like the ordinance to be amended to reflect that there won't be a demolition allowed to proceed until the appeal process has been exhausted. Uh, as you may recall, that became an issue relative to the Centre Point matter. It seems to us to be a matter of common sense and fairness that we wouldn't proceed with demolition until the appeals are- are exhausted. Um, the next is to potentially expand the area covered by our board to include some areas that aren't presently, uh, encompassed. As you know, the administration has ordered a survey of all the historic buildings in the downtown core, and that could certainly be used as a measure, uh, about possibly expanding the boundaries. Um, the next one is to delete the ordinance language that only allows the chair to vote in the event of a tie. It's a very small board currently, and to us it doesn't make much sense to reduce the voting membership to four. Um, the next two are ministerial r- r- involving notification. Obviously that's something we'd like our staff not to have to deal with. In the planning commission and other contexts, it's usually the applicant that has to send out notices. The next item has to do with possibly expanding the size and professional expertise of this board, uh, to include others from the community both in terms of design expertise, uh, the commerce people, and also, uh, members of neighborhoods adjacent to the downtown. And then we've suggested that we could possibly add some non-voting members associated with design in the university. Um, and finally, we've got a couple of recommendations to deal with large projects like Centre Point. One is that our board would be permitted to engage or required to engage, uh, someone recommended by the Urban Land Institute to consult with us relative to design issues on large projects, because we really don't presently have that expertise, and second, to allow additional time for the work of that consultant in connection with a large project. Um, the last pages of the handout just gives you some samplings of things that we've dealt with in terms of applications and approval, uh, and it shows the facade of various buildings that have been improved in the district during the time we've been on the board, and then finally, the, um, the Centre Point project, which was the most recent application. Um, I think one of the things that we've recognized is that as the PDR program has been successful, as there's been additional interest in infill and redevelopment downtown, it may present the opportunity for the council to fashion some new ways to deal with the issues that come up relative to infill and redevelopment in the downtown core. Be happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much, Mr. Moiser, and let me express to you and other members of the board through you my gratitude for the amount of time and effort that you all have devoted, especially this year, but- but, uh, throughout. You've done a good job. Thank you, Mayor. Um, any questions for Mr. Moiser? Ms. Crosby, Council Member Crosby. Yes, thank you very much. Um, I have a question. You mentioned, uh, in your presentation that, uh, you approve, uh, exterior changes, and I would assume, I'm just interested in knowing, does that include, for example, if there's like, um, say, natural brick on the outside of a building- Right. ... and somebody wants to paint the brick, would you have to approve if somebody wants to actually change the color of their brick and paint? I- I don't think... Uh, d- does color change it, or is it just the application? It's state law. Let me let our staff member answer that. I think I know what project you're referring to. Um- We do -- if there's an unpainted surface, we would have to approve painting. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. If there's an unpainted surface, we would have to approve painting that surface, but if it's previously painted, we would not. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Council Member Stevens. Uh, Mr. Billy Van Pelt's really a man about town. He covers the rural area, he covers the downtown. We're glad he's here. But I would move that this matter be referred to the Planning Committee for further consideration regarding implementation of some of these recommendations. Second. We have a motion by Council Member Stevens and a second by Council Member Ellinger to refer the recommendations from the Courthouse Area Design Review, uh, Board to the Planning Committee. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Any other questions for Mr. Moiser? All right. Thank you- Thank you, Mayor. ... very much. Um, we're, uh, almost ready for council reports, but I want to, um, make one announcement that I think will be of interest to everybody here and, um, um, to many of our citizens who've had the good pleasure of working with one of our employees for quite some time. This is an announcement I make with, uh, mixed emotions. Leo McMillan has worked for five mayors. Uh, those of you who have dealt with him in his capacity as director of our Streets, Roads, and Forestry Department know that he is uniformly respected, well-liked, and highly regarded among folks in that arena. He advised me earlier this afternoon that he has decided to retire effective January 1, and, uh, he asked that I apprise the council of that bit of information this afternoon. I hope at some point in the very near future, we will arrange for Leo to come see us before we get away for the break. But, um, I did want to share that bit of news with you because I knew it would be of interest to many of you. I assure you, it is of, um, great interest to me as the weather turns cold and the prospects of snow become more, uh, more, uh, uh, near. But, um, Leo has served this community, well, admirably is not an adequate word. He, he has done a superb job of serving the citizens of Lexington since, uh, he joined urban county government just before Mayor Basler became mayor, and we will miss him sorely. So having, um, said that, I'll go ahead and turn the floor over to the council members along the way here, starting with Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Um, the first thing is I move to approve the Neighborhood Development Fund list to be submitted for approval at the December 2nd work session. Second. We have a motion by Council Member Gordon, a second by Council Member Blues to approve the NDF. All in favor? Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. And secondly and finally, um, as we all know, we have two of our esteemed council members who will be leaving us, um, much to my dismay. I've, I will miss both of them. But the, uh, council is going to have a reception for Council Member Dick DeCamp and Council Member David Stephens in the ballroom on December the 9th. And it will be between work session and our six o'clock council meeting, so we're kind of thinking it might start around 4:30-ish. And we are very hopeful that our urban county government employees in particular, some of whom have worked with these men for a long time, will come by and, uh, you know, wish them well. So that's December the 9th, somewhere around 4:30 or whenever we're done here, in the ballroom. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. I just have one, uh, excuse me, one, uh, meeting announcement, and that is a meeting of the Irish Town neighborhood, which will be at 6:00 PM Monday, December the 8th in the Nathaniel Mission on Daruti Street. 6:00 PM Monday, December the 8th, Nathaniel Mission on Daruti Street. This is a really important meeting for, for the neighborhood, um, which is concerned about the effect on the neighborhood of the, uh, uh, of the coming distillery dress- district development. So, uh, we will have some of our folks, uh, present there. Harold Tate, uh, will, uh, will be there. Joe Kelly will be there. Uh, somebody from the PVA office will, uh, will be at that meeting. Uh, and residents will have a, have an opportunity to ask some questions about, uh, the future of the neighborhood, how it, uh, how it might change, uh, how they, how they will keep their integrity as a neighborhood as, uh, as it, as, as Manchester Street, uh, transforms itself. I think this will be an interesting and productive meeting, and I, I sure encourage all of the, uh, of Irish Town residents to, uh, to attend. Thank you, Mayor. That's my report. Thank you. Council Member Meyers. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I just have a quick, uh, shout-out for the emergency care unit number eight. My wife was in an accident, um, with my daughter on Sunday morning, and the first platoon at EC8 did a fantastic job of -- of getting her out of the car and taking care of her and making sure my daughter was safe too. So, I just want to thank, um, the commissioner, for one, but also, uh, Steve Lewis, Jordan Sass, and Joe Nugent. Thank you very much. And that's my report. Council Member McCord. Thank... Thank you, Mayor. Had the good fortune yesterday to, uh, be in Louisville to speak to their council on a number of -- of items in. And one of the things I want to bring forward to -- to this council, uh, minus Dr. Stephens and -- and Dick DeCamp, is, uh, that in February, we were looking to put th- the two councils together, uh, and -- and under the banner of economic development, uh, and -- and taking ourselves, uh, to Louisville to spend some time with them, not only to discuss, uh, what we can do together, uh, as -- as two cities and two engines in Kentucky, but also, uh, to debrief a little bit about Ryder Cup for them and -- and where they were two years prior, uh, to Ryder Cup, like we are with the World Equestrian Games. But also, for us, as council members, to ask our counterparts up there, "What happens when -- when, um, uh, disaster strikes and the world's watching?" If you remember, during Ryder Cup, 300,000 people in Louisville were without power. And it went off without a hitch. Nobody out there knew it. And I think it's a great lesson for us to sit down with them and -- and just ask questions about, how did they handle constituent concerns and -- and still pull this event off? And -- and so, uh, I'm looking to -- to put that together in -- in February, for us to go up there, and we'll have a date shortly. Um, and then as we talk about retirees, and I certainly want to, uh, thank Leo for his service, and -- and he and I have had a great opportunity to work together, uh, over the years here, uh, on r- on a number of road -- road projects. Uh, I also want to thank somebody very specific that's retiring as well, and -- and that's Bob Drakeford. And Bob has been with us for 20 some odd years, and, um, Bob recently, uh, just a few months ago was, uh, put by the mayor into the position of kind of coordinating all of our trails, uh, projects and where we were, and -- and Bob has done a fantastic job in that regard, and I just wanted to say publicly, I -- I really appreciate his help. And it -- it has really moved us lightyears, uh, ahead just in a very short amount of time, and he will be sorely missed. Thank you, Mayor. I would echo those sentiments. He really has done a superb job, and we will miss Bob's service as well. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to thank, uh, Parks and Rec for organizing the holiday event on Saturday. My grandson and I really enjoyed the parade and the -- the, uh, tree lighting, the chorus. Everything was just wonderful, but they did a lot of work and it's very much appreciated. Thank you. Vice Mayor Gray. And Mayor, what Council Member Henson had to say, I would endorse. I know all council members would. Uh, it was a really festive event. Um, I have two things, um, of council report. Um, first, I guess, the tough stuff first. Um, last week, in the Committee of the Whole meeting, we had a discussion related to the media reports, uh, regarding the, um, airport, the, uh, Blue Grass Airport, uh, the executive director's role there. And after that meeting, and I'm putting this, um... I'd like to provide some context because I have shared with you all a proposed, a draft of a resolution. After that meeting, um, and after, um, some counsel with some of you, I've had a conversation with, uh, State Auditor Crit Luallen. And more for, more than anything, just to get advice and guidance from her, because she's been through a number of issues that, uh, resemble, I suppose, this one that we have here today. And in that conversation, um, in that conversation, um, Auditor Luallen confirmed the, um, seriousness of the issue from her point of view. And she indicated to me at that time that she expected to intervene. Um, after that conversation, um, and some conversations with some of you, I guess, a couple of times, not so much, but I myself looked at this from the point of view of the public, and I expect that I, like you, have heard comments anywhere from, "This is not unexpected," that the expenses were not unexpected, maybe perhaps business as usual, to disappointment, um, and even to outrage. So, that led me to believe that our council, our administration, uh, the gov- the leaders of the city have a responsibility, if not an obligation, to declare that steps should be taken to address these issues. Now, we all know that it's often a bitter pill to swallow. Uh, but sometimes it's better to go ahead and swallow the bitter pill and get it over with. That, um, sometimes painful initiatives, at first, come out at the end to be, um, build strength for us. Now, they're extraordinarily committed people... ... have served over time on this airport board. In fact, two of the best council members that ever been in this body, and friends of ours. And the issues that may exist through an audit may emerge as not consequential, and that would be very good news for us. But by taking this step today, we have the chance to say to our citizens, to our public, that we're all about transparency, that we're all about accountability in all of our government, throughout our government, whether quasi-public institutions or fully public institutions, like the one, like the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. So with that context, um, I'd like to read the resolution. And I believe I've shared with you all already, and I'll just read it now. Uh, whereas Lexington's Blue Grass Airport is a significant and essential element of our regional economy, and whereas Blue Grass Airport has provided commendable service to our citizens over time and history, and whereas the boa- board of Blue Grass Airport has been served honorably and with distinction by many local citizens, loyal citizens of our community, and whereas recent reports have called into question the airport management on issues related to travel expenses, and whereas there is a vital public interest in resolving any perception of inappropriate expenditures and management practices on the part of Blue Grass Airport, so therefore be it resolved that the Council of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government invites the Kentucky State Auditor, whose resources are appropriate to assist the city, to examine any issues related to the administration of Blue Grass Airport so as to confirm the public trust and integrity in the airport, its board of directors, and its governance and accountability systems. So moved. I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Council Member DeKamp? Thank you, Mayor. Um, we're being asked to pass qu- a re- a resolution when we have not requested the airport to explain their management procedures concerning staff expenditures. We're requesting an audit based on a newspaper article. As I have, uh, been told, as I've heard just now, the State Auditor is aware of the criticism brought forth by this newspaper article, and that a decision which th- that's a decision that the State Auditor should make after some basic investigation. Let her swallow the bitter pill. This resolution, no matter how worded, calls into question the proper operation of an airport, an airport who has won m- m- multiple awards from their indust- industrial peers for financial management, and they have consistently operated in the black. At a time when other airports are cutting back, they are able to increase seats and flights. Let the State Auditor do her job. When these results are in, the council may want to take some appropriate action at that time. I don't believe we should request any action if we only base our decision on a newspaper article, though I will not support this resolution. I have, uh, Council Member Stevens and Council Member Crosby. Council Member, Council Member Stevens. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Um, as you know, I represent, or, uh, serve on the airport board and have been familiar with the incidents which have led up to this, um, uh, resolution and the issue that we're discussing at this time. Uh, uh, when we talked about this last Tuesday, I said that I thought it was appropriate for the airport board to act and for us to react to any action they might take. They have not had a chance to do that. There have been many telephone conversations between members of our council and members of the airport board, and the airport, uh, I think, would be happy to invite a audit at the appropriate time. And to me, the issue is one of timing. And I think we need to develop a strategy that's best for the airport, but also one that will suit our s- council and the citizens regarding a- and the public, light of the public. And the airport has some sensitive financial, uh, moves underway, which we approved several weeks ago. And, uh, those are to be considered, uh, the first of next week. So I think that it's inappropriate for us to put the stigma of this on our airport right now is 'cause I am told by our, uh, agents who are negotiating these bond sales that this would be an adverse, um, action to take. So I would recommend that we not take this today, but postpone it until December the 9th. And I would move that this item be tabled until December 9th. We have a motion to table. It's debatable only insofar as to the date. Um, otherwise, it's non-debatable. Is there any debate solely with regard to the issue of- I'm sorry. You're right. I stand corrected. Is there a second to the motion to table? Nays or lack of a second? A- anything further, Council Member Stevens? Uh, Council Member Crosby? Uh, thank you, Mayor. Um, I, uh, uh, will be supportive of, uh, Vice Mayor Gray's motion, and, um, I believe that we should have transparency, particularly, um, from, as I recall, two times, I think it's two times since I've ba- been on here, and I'm just totally going off my memory, but we've been asked by... I believe it's Commerce Lexington to help fund for marketing, um, with the airport, uh, their marketing ef- efforts on separate occasions, uh, to the tune of $50,000. Um, and some of these, uh, s- trips or whatever have been for marketing efforts, so I, I don't think, like Vice Mayor said, that there's any question that there's, there's- Sure. ... that this is wrong. There, there should be transparency. Um, the only concern that I have is that since we have funded them on various occasions, and we did already spend money for an audit of government with management partners, and we did look at outside agencies, I'm just wondering , I see some smiles in the back, um, why maybe this wasn't picked up with an audit that we already did with management partners. It seems to me that we've already paid for an audit and had one done. We've provided funding to this agency. And, um, certainly at that time, we probably could have, you know, looked into the airport. Thank you. I can address that question for you, I think. And I'll stand to be corrected by folks who worked a little more closely than I have, but the scope of work for management, uh, partners did not extend beyond the departments of Urban County Government specifically. They didn't review any of our partner agencies. They didn't, they didn't look at any of our partner agencies? No. Thank... All right, Council Member Blevins. Thank you, Mayor. I'm gonna support this motion. I think it's very similar to some other situations we've had within, within the Urban County Government where we've referred things to our own internal audit agency. I think in this case, since it's an external agency, it's a perfect fit for the State's Auditor, and I'm glad she's willing to take it up. I'm looking forward to a very brief audit and hopefully it shows that everything's in order, so that will protect the executive director's reputation as well as that of the board and as well as that of the public, the public interest in this matter. Thanks, Vice Mayor, for bringing it forward. Anybody else wish to address? Council Member McCord? Thank you, Mayor. I, I too, like everyone, have received a range of comments, um, as Vice Mayor had said, ranging from, um, folks in support and, and folks in outrage and shock. Um, but I, I tend to agree with Council Member Decamp. Um, you know, I, I think that what we have here is a situation where if the auditor, uh, state auditor feels that there is, is, uh, a certain reason to look at this, then I, I say go ahead and look at it. Uh, I think that, um, this is the first I've heard of this resolution, first I've seen it. I saw an editorial, I've, I've seen it in the paper. I've seen, uh, statements made in the paper and so forth. Um, but this is the first time I've heard this. Uh, we've not asked the airport to come in and speak to us directly so we could ask them point-blank, face-to-face questions, which I think is, is certainly appropriate in this situation on behalf of our constituents. And, uh, so I can't be supportive of this motion in this form. Uh, I certainly do support, uh, taking a, a, a look at things, and again, if that's what the auditor chooses to do because, uh, she feels there's something to look at, then that's, that's fine. I think also that, you know, that if, if it's, uh, a situation where this is the tack we're gonna take, then we, we have some other areas to look at inside government potentially, uh, with this. And I would, I would expect that people who have supported this to, uh, to be supportive of that later on as well. So with that, I, I can't support the motion in this, in this form. Does anyone else wish to speak to the, um, motion? Council Member Lane. Uh, I totally support a transparent government, but I too am hesitant to vote for, and by implication infer, that there has been wrongdoing, uh, at Lexington Airport just based on the article in the paper. Um, until the council receives a report on this issue from the airport board, then I would be in favor of tabling the Vice Mayor's resolution. But let me assure you that if there were any, any information presented at that presentation, I would definitely vote to, you know, forward this to the, um, auditor for review. Thank you. Any further discussion? Okay, my understanding of the motion is it would be to place a resolution on the docket for approval on, for first reading I suppose, on, uh, December 4th meeting. Everybody of that accord? Then those in favor of the, um, resolution, please indicate by voting aye electronically. Those opposed, vote nay electronically. Just for type order. No, the motion is to, uh, approve the resolution, put it on the docket. Um, I don't... All right. Council Member Henson is the only person who hasn't voted. But we'll get, we'll get that straightened out here. We're trying. Motion, uh, is approved by, I think, 11 to 4. Council Member Henson vote for or against? Yes. Yes. She was voting yes. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member, uh, Vice Mayor Gray. Thank you, Mayor. Um, one other thing, um, importantly. The, uh, storm water, or the, the storm water fee, the task force that was, uh, resolution was passed by the council, I think, a, 10 days ago to establish a task force which would address, um, the mayor and the administration's proposal for the, uh, storm water fee. The, uh- Fortunately, Council Member Gordon, who has a lot of familiarity with this issue, has agreed, has consented generously, graciously, to, uh, chair this task force. And other council members who, a- at this point, um, we are casting this, or Council Member Gordon is casting this as a work in progress. The idea would be to set up the structure first and working with her to do that, other council members on this task force, we've asked, uh, Council Members, uh, Stinnet, who has also past experience, a lot of past experience with the issue, uh, Blues, Blevins, and Council Member James. Now, we'll... Council Member, um, Council Member Gordon will be inviting members of the administration for this work group, this, as well. And then after that decision is made on the structure, we will dec- that, that structure decision will then be made, and the extent to which a broader representation with the, through the community will be, will be decided. All right, any questions? Anybody? Okay. Thank you very much, Mayor. Council Member Lane. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Uh, the clerks advised me that the second motion that, that I placed on the docket had a typographical error in it. So I'd like to just re-read the entry paragraph to make that correction. I move to place on the docket for Thursday, December 4, 2008, an ordinance expanding and extending partial urban services district number three, it was formally number one, for the urban county government for the provision of garbage and refuse collection to include certain properties in the following subdivisions. The clerk, uh, says that's all I need to say. Uh, so moved to make this correction. Second. Council Member Lane has moved to amend the docket as indicated. Council Member Gordon has seconded that motion. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say, "Aye." Aye. All opposed, "No." Motion carries. I- Uh, uh, Mayor, I was just gonna say, the luck of the draw today, uh, gave me some of a warm and fuzzy feeling 'cause I'm sitting in the middle of two lame ducks. So I've got two good wing man, wing men for me today. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Crosby. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I just wanna make one quick announcement. Uh, Thursday, uh, December 4th at 6:30 briefly in the caucus room, if I could have Vice Mayor Gray and Council Member Beard as well as Mr. Schonegger, and I'm not sure if, uh, Joe Kelly or if it's Commissioner Cole, who's gonna be representing the administration with the management audit. We're just gonna meet for about 10 minutes to kind of iron out, uh, meetings and kind of guidelines for our, uh, committee regarding how we'll proceed with the, uh, factual errors of management rep- um, management re- audit. Uh, thank you. Thank you, Council Member Crosby. Uh, Council Member McCord. I- Yeah. Am I looking wrong here? You've already done. You've already had yours. Uh, I've got a new screen here. Council Member Meyers, are you up? No. Okay. Y'all excuse me, man, I'm gonna have to quit. That's it. That's it? That's it. All right. Comment from Oh. All right, the mayor had to leave for an address to our legislative caucus. That's why his absence. All right, we are ready now for public comments. Public comment issues not on the agenda. And there are two people signed up. Uh, Lewis Cobb, Mr. Cobb, and then Eric Marr, Mr. Marr. Yes. Whoo. Thank you, Vice Mayor Gray. Peace and love to the council. Uh, I got a lot of things to be thankful for today. Grateful for my life, first and foremost. Uh, Lexington's gonna have to pause and learn and listen like the rest of the world to what's happening to us all. We're being challenged to listen to new voices, new directions. We cannot afford not to take advantage of the time that we living in. We live in some crucial times, and sometimes money can't solve the answers. Y'all sit here and talk about millions and millions and millions of dollars, the problems that we face gonna cost us more than money. It's gonna cost us some humility. There's gonna come a day where we gonna have to throw our money on the ground because it's not gonna be worth nothing. The respect and the integrity that our forefathers had, we're gonna be required to utilize some of those same principles. And I'm gonna take a quote from a famous American. He said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what can you do for your country?" I'm gonna ask that question to us all, what can Lexington, what can I do for Lexington as opposed to what Lexington can do for me? Um, we got wonderful opportunities. I'm asking the council to hear my cry. I wanna meet with every one of the council members to show y'all what I can do for y'all. I can shine shoes. I can create economic development. I can create jobs. I can raise some money. All I need is a chance. We got a new year coming upon us, 2019, who knows what we gonna face in 2019. We gonna need each other. I wrote down something on this paper that I've been thinking about it all week. It's a quote, actually, it's a song by the Doobie Brothers. It says, "What a fool believes he sees, the wise man has the power to reason away." ... uh, the reasoning that w- we are using, we gotta listen to the fools sometimes. I think it was Shakespeare that said, "Life is a tale told by a idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." We got a lot of people saying different things, but we gotta listen to one another. We gotta listen to the reasoning. Everybody plays a major role. And the last thing I'm gonna say, I was on my way, uh, to the council meeting and a homeless person said, "Hey, Shushan, man, I wanna be like you when you grow up... when I grow up." I said, "Nah, you don't wanna be like me." I said, "You wanna be like George Myers." And he said, "What? Who's George Myers?" I was amazed that didn't nobody know who George Myers was. So I got a new agenda. I will make the whole city know who George Myers is. Okay? 'Cause he's a role model. And thank you for your time, Vice Mayor. Peace and love. Thank you, Mr... Thank you, Mr. Cobb. Mr. Meagher. Ah. That was good. Take your time. Hi there. Whew. Uh, I always feel like I'm out of rhythm here when I speak. This is like a week ago, I guess, but I didn't really do my whole presentation last week. So, uh, last work session, Tuesday, Renee and, uh, some other folks talked about Downtown Lexington, so I wanted to bring a little three-minute spiel. Uh, where's that mouse? Here we go. How do I do this? Just hit next. Okay. So we're talking about downtown, making downtown great, all the different ideas we have. And I was, uh, talking to somebody, Harvard Business Review, several years ago, probably like five years ago, uh, one of their monthly editions, uh, discovered that 70% of all change initiatives fail. And that was in corporate America. I would imagine the social sector failure rate would be a lot higher. Uh, so again, people try to change and do different things and try to make things better all the time, but one out of four, if that, succeed. Which leads me to my next point, John Maxwell, which I'm sure we've all heard of. And I spoke a little bit about it last week. And I'm a big fan of his. Everything rises and falls upon leadership. Because we're talking about one out of four projects succeed, seems like those, that 25%, 30%, leadership is the reason why it succeeds. And then I put, if you can see that in the black letters, to lead, my definition is to go first, to be first, to venture out, to take that risk, take that chance, to do things that have never been done before. If they've already been done before, then you're obviously following somebody else. Uh, and also leadership means a movement. And we talked... they talked about the brakes last week. Obviously, when your brake's on the... if it's on the brake, you're not moving anywhere, so there's, I think, a lack of leadership, a, a dearth of it. And I hear more and more of all of us talking about how difficult it is to just even communicate. Just you feel like you're talking to a wall, pulling your own teeth. I feel like that when I'm talking here sometimes. Which is a lot of fun, by the way. Uh, then also in Maxwell's book, the Laws of Leadership, he had this great chart. Uh, no matter how... no matter how dedicated we all are, 270 some odd people went to Austin, uh, your results are minimal, like the, the bottom portion of the graph there. If you're... you're extremely dedicated, off the charts, but if you don't have great leadership ability, then your results are gonna be minimal. But if you have... if you can combine great leadership with the dedication, which we have around town, then your results can really be maximized. Uh, not for... not to make anything a downer, but the 9/11 catastrophe, the enormous economic impact and how that relates to Lexington, why did that happen? Silos, no teamwork, no imagination, no empowering leadership. If you read that book, the commission report, fascinating stuff. Uh, how much does that cost us by, by not having the engaging leadership environment where people take chances and people speak out and people do things? Uh, UK, one of their media relations guys that I talk to has this on their email, "Teamwork is a field that allows common people to produce uncommon results." And that's what we need here in Lexington. I... My three minutes is up. You always amaze... it's amazing. What'd you say, George? Just give him the... Okay. Thank you, Councilman Meyers. Uh- We're... we're... we're learning. We're... we're... we're willing... yeah. Thank you so much. You got... you've got a lot of work here. I appreciate that. And he's a role model. Right. Nice. Thank y'all. Rock on. All right. So... and usually I talk in conceptual terms, so I'll be real quick. I appreciate your extra time. So just some... my just rough ideas off the top of my head during Thanksgiving weekend for what we can do for downtown, maybe some more just concrete ideas. Uh, if you can see that. I'm sorry if it's kind of small. Uh, because 83% of our revenues come from the local payroll tax, it seems to me, from an outsider's point of view, that step number one, if we're going to be talking about downtown especially, is great global R&D jobs and businesses that spur on high-paying jobs and then bring in global dollars from all around the world, uh, as opposed to something like an education system, which we have a lot of, uh, it's a big employee... employing... employing segment here. So the dollars are always recycled within this. Uh, if you can read that, it says, "Make Downtown Lexington the world's hub or Silicon Valley of the clean energy economy, biofuels, synergizing UK's research base, ALTEC," which is a great company, "KSTC with Chris Kimmel, and then our vast agricultural base." We have the ingredients here, I believe, if we just learn to use the teamwork and bring them together. Uh, number two, cool... as we all know this probably, cool, affordable housing within walking distance of our... of these great businesses and jobs downtown. Uh, I know we have a lot of banking jobs and law firm jobs and governmental jobs downtown, but you have the R&D, the innovative, creative class, innovative jobs, then you can have the housing. People walk. That saves gas. It saves the environment. Bookstores, groceries, drug stores, everyday life retail outlets like a Walgreens, things like that. And then we're on the street... the streetscape plan is already doing really well, I think. I'm sorry. I'm going real fast. Uh, and finally, uh, we're talking about the brakes. I would ask that we don't use the brakes of not having money. Just last week, Chris Kimmel and KSTC announced $2.88 million in grants that they are giving to 13 Kentucky R&D firms. ALTEC has their $200,000 margin of excellence scholarship they're giving out. Uh, airport expenses, which we've been talking about, their board seems to not have any lack of money anywhere. Uh, somebody has $205 million in cash for a hotel that we're being... that's being built right now. So obviously, somebody's got money somewhere. So I don't want to hear that excuse, please. And that's it. Thank you so much, V- Vice Mayor Gray. Thanks, Patrick. Thanks, uh, Council- thank- thank Councilmember Meyers. Yeah. He'll do it. All right. Uh, is there anything else? Uh, motion to adjourn? So moved. Motion second? Second? All in favor, please say ayeh. Ayeh. We are adjourned. Yay. Dedicated to you. If I should fa-