♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ So we have a light agenda today, so we'll get through it fairly quickly. And our first item is the approval of the January 13th, 2026 committee summary. I have one non-material correction to state for the record. Under PM-705.1 in section 12-1C, the law department wanted to clarify that the Kentucky residential code establishes building code requirements for single family and two family dwelling units in Kentucky. So to avoid confusion, the unnecessary reference to the international residence code was removed. Are there any additional corrections? May I have a motion to approve the summary? Second. There's a motion and a second. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes, thank you. Next, we have an update on the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI. And Council Member Curtis is the sponsor of this item. Do you have any opening remarks, Council Member? Yes, thank you, Chair. I would just like to thank all the fine folks from NAMI for being here today and talking to us specifically about their work with the Mental Health Diversion Court. A lot of times when we are talking about mental health as it relates to our community and our most impacted folks, we have a tendency to not take a particularly, or at least a historical tendency to not take a particularly humane approach to the matter. And what they've been able to do with this program, I think, is truly remarkable. And I think it's important that we continue to engage in those conversations with them. So I'm just really excited to have them here and hand the mic over. Thank you. We have Connie Milligan, Clinical Director of Fayette Mental Health Court, and Judge Tackett to present this update. Thank you for joining us. Good afternoon, and thank you so much Chairperson Reynolds, Vice Chair Baxter, Vice Mayor Dan Wu, and Council Members for inviting us. It is our pleasure to give you a review of our banner year. I'm Connie Milligan, I'm the Clinical Director for the Fayette Mental Health Court, and it's truly my honor to tell you about how we're doing. It may be helpful to highlight how we started. Charlie Lanter is here, and I want to mention that we started as a solution to homelessness, as such that a judge would use the black robe effect to order someone with mental illness into treatment. That being the beginning of helping someone that's on the streets with mental illness. And remember, not all people on the street have mental illness, but those that do. That that begins the recovery process for homelessness. So you might be interested in how we're doing with that mission. Here's our data, 50% of the people enter our program unhoused. But that number is misleading because the majority of them are precariously housed. That means couch surfing and living in situations that are either downright dangerous or else unhealthy. But our mission is to get them stably housed within the year of the program, or sometimes it takes longer. And to do that, we have succeeded by 97%. That is remarkable when you look at the rates of poverty upon entry. Because our participants have a poverty rate that's six times greater than our Fayette County residents. And given what we know about affordable housing, this poses some very difficult challenges. Homelessness is a multi-layered problem, and don't forget that these people are coming to us with criminal charges. And we know how landlords feel about that. So getting 97% stable housing is kind of remarkable. But there are other issues that are barriers to stable housing. One of them is substance use problems, because of all the myriad of problems that creates with keeping jobs and stability, and stable housing is certainly one of those problems. 90% of our participants come in with a dual diagnosis of substance use. And 32 of those have problems with more than one substance. This makes for some very tricky, difficult treatment planning, which we have learned over our 11 years in existence, that we need to treat the presenting substance use problem first before people are clear-headed and clear-minded enough to even begin to really sink in with mental health treatment. So how, did that, so how are we doing with treating substance use? You know, I think I said that what we have learned is that we have to treat the addiction and the substance use first. Well, we have had remarkable success, 60% have maintained complete sobriety at year one in the program, compared with a national average of 20%. What about other markers of success? Recidivism is certainly an important marker, and with that, 54% of the people coming into, participants coming into our program, have repeat offenses. After a year of treatment in our program, we have brought it down to 17%, and we have maintained that number for the 11 years we've been in existence. That is remarkable, but even more remarkable is the people involved in our aftercare program have a 7% recidivism rate. I would like you to compare this to the DOJ data in this state, or DOC data in this state, that says people coming out of jail and prison typically have a 40% recidivism rate. So we're doing really well with this. Other things about our aftercare program, alumni program, you all started funding that a couple of years ago, we thank you very much, it has really done a wonderful job. We have 25 participants, and we have twice weekly groups that include peer support, socialization, and navigation services. Not only have we reduced the recidivism rate, we have an over 80% retention of our participants. They're involved in peer support services with one another, with staff, and we help them stay on their recovery journey. The positive improvements that they have sends a ripple of wellness into the community, which we can all appreciate. We warned you the last time we spoke that our caseload was growing, and yes, it has. We were 40 people treated this year. At peak, we see no end in sight. The demand for this service keeps growing, and we are hoping to be able to meet that demand as requested. Like I said, we've set records this year. We brought in 25 new participants, 210 to date. 25 have graduated, that's a record for us to graduate 25 in a year. And we have had 121 mental health evaluations completed for the court system. I would like to recognize Bill Buckman, our program director, clinical social worker, for he has done all of those. And they are sent to all our referring parties, regardless of whether they're eligible for the program. You might ask, what is the secret to your success? Please ask that, because we want to tell you. We are certain that it's because we are the only consumer-run mental health program in the country. I want to recognize Phil Gunning and Kelly Gunning, the directors of NAMI Lexington. Kelly couldn't be here for health reasons, but they are the brain children behind this. Kelly took the initiative to get this started. She and I started this 11 years ago with the idea that if we focus on recovery first, trauma-informed care, meaning we focus on strengths and positive interventions. And we lift people up so that they can successfully recover. We then offer a plethora of recovery services. And I want to also acknowledge other staff here. Gabrielle Vance, who is our recovery navigator. And Makiya Atkins, who is our education coordinator. Y'all are not raising your hand. Anyway, and we have Jennifer Tishman, who also provides services, peer support. This has made a world of difference. We also collaborate with everyone in town that provides services. Main partners are Eastern State Hospital and New Vista, recovery services of every kind, AANA, and employment services and housing services. The result is we're a state model for other mental health centers, and we have received national recognition from SAMHSA because of our great outcomes. But you might be particularly interested in recognizing the savings we provide to the city. Just with our 25 graduates in this last year, we have saved the Fayette County Detention Center to 25,450 days of incarceration. And I want to recognize that we have Chief Scott Colvin here and all the staff that work with us to make this program work. They are here giving us support today. We really appreciate that. Law enforcement savings has been remarkable, reducing law enforcement involvement by 240,000. The total being $3,166,822 saved in one year. So talk about a return on investment that is your $270 investment has given you a 1,073% return on investment. So we're pretty excited about that. Hope you like it too. But our program also has major benefits to the court system and the community. And I'm going to turn this over to our presiding judge, Honorable John Tackett, to take it from here. Thank you all. Thank you all for allowing me the opportunity to speak. I want to also recognize we're supported by the Administrative Office of Court. Director Zach Ramsey is here. Thank you, Director Ramsey, for being here. And the reason why he's here is because this is an amazing court. And we are training folks across the state as far as mental health courts, and they come to us to learn. But I always say, I've got a criminal court, I've got a probate court, I've got a detention court, a forceful detainer court. But this is not my court. This is your court. This is a court where the community has ownership in this court. Because the things that we're doing in this court really matter for folks with serious mental illness. And you all and your predecessor counselors had the wisdom to understand that. So I appreciate your continual support of our court. So thank you, Director Ramsey, for being here. I always say this, we get better results when we treat folks with serious mental illness as public health issues versus criminal justice issues. It's just undoubtedly true, and you've seen that. So I want to make sure that's said today, because that's an important message that I want you all to know, internalize, and say. But I really want to talk about, my brother-in-law, he makes a lot more money than I do. And so he goes to the amusement parks, and he gets with these fast passes. And so he's taking my nephews, you've seen these fast passes where you skip the line, right? And you get to go to Universal, and I don't make that kind of money. So I'm sitting in the back of the line at Spider-Man and all that. So what you've done here, believe it or not, you've handed out 623 fast passes while funding this court. And that's money not really reflected in what we just showed you. But when you ask, and Ms. Lynch will know this because she's an attorney, when you ask for a competency evaluation, everything freezes. Because you don't know if the person's competent, and you're making a legal determination. And so when the defense attorney and the judge orders that, everything's on hold. So what happens? Those folks are staying in jail, and they're waiting for a bed, either at Eastern State or Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center. And those bottlenecks, we've done a lot to reduce them, but they are still mighty, mighty long, mighty long. And so folks are staying in your jails. And you know where the only place is that you have a constitutional right to get medical treatment is? In your jail. That's the only place in the United States of America. And so those costs are, we can say, roughly double for folks with serious mental illness. Because you're paying for their medications while they're sitting there. But when you ask for an assessment from us, you might not always, our numbers are not 623, but you're informing the attorneys and the judge which direction to go in. You're telling them there's either a serious mental illness here or there's not. And what's even better is, you're telling the judge and the attorneys, here's how we think that this could help. Even if they don't qualify for our court, you can send them here or there or so and so. Or they're a better candidate for there. So you're providing that information quicker. If you without those, you're at the back of the line to, you know, what? Spider-Man, your heels are in like Frontierland. So you're waiting a long time at Disney World to get on that ride, folks, right? So bottom line is, you're helping things move quicker. It's not part of our budget this year, but let me tell you, the jail is here. Because 20% of the folks who are incarcerated now in the Fayette County Detention Center have serious mental illness, right? That's 20% of your population. Last time I checked, it was somewhere north of 800 folks. Maybe give or take, right? You talked about 200 people. Our court, capacity-wise, probably around 40 or 50. So in order to recoup some money, to make things work better, there is a future. We've got four drug courts, folks, in Fayette County. There's no reason why we couldn't have two mental health courts, because the numbers are there to support it. We've got judges who are willing to do this work, and we've got people who are willing to cooperate and participate. So we think that there is a chance that you will see, in the future, a need. And I'll tell you this, is that it stinks. It stinks to tell people that we're at capacity. We've got to shut off all of the referrals, because the attorneys are used to it. And when they're not used to it, and we say there's no referrals, we see the numbers decrease. So we're not helping as many people in real time as we can. So I'll just let you know that there is that capacity to serve probably somewhere 80 to 100 people at a given time. I think, if we have the resources to do that. So it's not part of this budget. I do want to mention it to this group, because I think it's something that is worthwhile. So thank you all very much for your time. I appreciate everybody here in this room supporting us. It's a remarkable court that you all have established. As Connie has said, we've received national recognition. So it's a diamond in the rough, and this council, it wouldn't be for you all funding it, it wouldn't exist. So thank you. And I can answer any questions, although I would say Justice Keller has asked me to be a part of the prosecutor conference, so I got to skedaddle pretty quick. But do you all have any questions? Thank you very much. Thank you for the presentation. Colleagues, if you have any comments or questions, please sign in. Vice Mayor. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Ms. Milligan, for your presentation. Thank you, Judge Tackett. Thanks to this whole room full of people for this program. I love seeing those numbers, not just in terms of the fact that we're getting really great return on our investment in terms of dollars, but to see the recidivism rates, to see the housing, to see all of those numbers. It's very, very apparent that this is a very impactful program. So my only question really is, how do you envision the future of this program in the short or long term? What does next year look like for you? You spoke to the idea of potentially having more capacity if you had the resources. I'm also curious if what came into your decision in terms of not adding or asking for more in this year's budget. I can't speak to why we didn't ask. It might be for Mr. Gunny, he's more the money man. I don't touch the money. But as far as the future of our court, I've already had discussions. We've had discussions at the Administrative Office of Court. We've had discussions with other judges. There's judges that are willing to have the time, block out the time, very busy people. But they were willing to set off time. It's a labor intensive court. It is. It's a lot of case management, a lot of work. So you would be basically funding a second court coordinator. The resources are still there, but it would just be more case management, more judicial attention, and a pledge from the folks who give us free services anyway, such as the folks here at the jail, the prosecutor's office, their defense attorneys, Eastern State Hospital, New Vista, just to be able to pledge that we will support the second court and block out part of our day to support another 40 or 50 people on another caseload. So it won't be, I don't have time myself, but it'll be another wonderful judge that we can steer, has a second court. Well, I appreciate that, and I'm honestly a huge fan of the idea of getting a good return on our investment, whether it's medical debt relief, parent medicine program, CASA, NAMI. When these programs show results, I think you'll always get support from us. So thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Council Member Morton. Thank you. I don't have any questions. I just wanted to give kind words. I just want to thank you and the beautiful team out there for all the work you do every day for the mental health within the mental health court, but also for mental health awareness, education, and support to our families and our community. Your compassionate recovery focused approach within the justice system is directly saving lives, reducing recidivism, improving stability for individuals, and strengthening families across our community. And I think today's presentation and the outcomes that we're seeing clearly shows that investing in mental health services help build safer and healthier communities, but also, as stated, directly save lives. So I just want to give gratitude and thanks to all of you out there. So thank you. I don't see any other folks signed in. I just wanted to say it's been amazing to watch this program grow and really flourish into something, what it is today and what it can be in the future. So you have our support, I think I can say that, speaking for myself and my colleagues. And we look forward to how this will serve even more people, hopefully, in the future. So, thank you so much for your time. Yeah, come on up. If you've not attended our court, we really welcome you. It's a really great way to understand what we're doing, because it's hard to make sense of it with just reporting data. But it's really kind of like a love fest, and I think you'd enjoy it. So welcome you. You're most definitely welcome to join us. Wednesdays, we start staffing cases Wednesdays at around noon, and then court starts at two. And it's really interesting, I think, to see a day, because someone said it best, I think, was it's revisioning a punitive and hostile environment as a therapeutic and restorative part. And it's all about therapeutic and restorative justice. So, it's unlike any court that you'll see and walk into, and I would appreciate everybody come. I get the joy of watching it firsthand and seeing the people change that I think have no shot. And then when they're medicated and they've got their wellness recovery plan and they're working it, it's just remarkable to see someone that's on the verge of homelessness or hospitalization have a job and just buy in to this spirit of recovery. So it's amazing to see the transformations, but just seeing it for a day, you'll see people at all levels, and it's a remarkable experience. So please email me, come by, visit, anytime, you're welcome. Thank you, thank you so much. Thank you all for being here. Our last agenda item for our short agenda today is the list of committee items. It looks like most of the committee items we do have scheduled for this year. But if your item is not scheduled, please work with myself and Kendra to get that scheduled. Does anyone have a status update that they would like to bring forward at this time? Okay, seeing none, I will say that this meeting is now adjourned. Thank you, and see you all in an hour and a half.