# Confirmation Hearings: Board of Adjustment and Ethics Commission - June 18, 2026 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Board · June 18, 2026 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/6807 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/6807?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2026-06-18 - **Body**: Board - **Last revised**: June 19, 2026 - **Length**: 7,048 words - **Speakers**: Chair, Mayor, Clerk > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. Verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Confirmation Hearings body convened on June 18, 2026, to consider a slate of appointments and reappointments to city boards and commissions. No presiding officer, meeting time, or location information is available for this session. The body worked through 4 agenda items in total, approving all of them: the reappointments of Harry Clark, James Pursley, and Linda Tucker to the Board of Adjustment, as well as the appointment of Jonathan Gifford to the Ethics Commission. Across the meeting, 4 votes were taken, no presentations were given, and no public comments were heard. ## Votes and Decisions The Board took four votes during the June 18, 2026 meeting, all of which were voice votes moved by Council member Brown and all of which passed. No roll call votes were recorded, and no seconds were noted for any of the motions. - **Closed Session – Harry Clark (Board of Adjustments):** Council member Brown moved to go into closed session to discuss the recommendation of Harry Clark into the membership of the Board of Adjustments. The motion passed by voice vote. [timestamp: 21:06] - **Closed Session – James Pursley (Board of Adjustments):** Council member Brown moved to go into closed session to discuss the recommendation of James Pursley into the membership of the Board of Adjustments. The motion passed by voice vote. [timestamp: 35:29] - **Closed Session – Linda Tucker (Board of Adjustments):** Council member Brown moved to go into closed session to discuss the recommendation of Linda Tucker into the membership of the Board of Adjustments. The motion passed by voice vote. [timestamp: 45:49] - **Closed Session – Jonathan Gifford (Ethics Commission):** Council member Brown moved to go into closed session to discuss the recommendation of Jonathan Gifford into the membership of the Ethics Commission. The motion passed by voice vote. [timestamp: 54:49] All four motions were voice votes; no individual ayes, nays, or abstentions were recorded in the meeting data. ## Appointments The Board took action on several appointments and reappointments to advisory bodies during the June 18, 2026 meeting. **Board of Adjustment** Three members were reappointed to the Board of Adjustment: - **Harry Clark** was reappointed to the Board of Adjustment. - **James Pursley** was reappointed to the Board of Adjustment. - **Linda Tucker** was reappointed to the Board of Adjustment. **Ethics Commission** - **Jonathan Gifford** was appointed to the Ethics Commission. In total, the Board confirmed four personnel actions — three reappointments to the Board of Adjustment and one new appointment to the Ethics Commission. ## Reappointment of Harry Clark to the Board of Adjustment [timestamp: 05:25] The Board considered the reappointment of Harry Clark to the Board of Adjustment. Clark addressed the Board directly, discussing his background and experience and expressing his desire to continue serving in the role. No concerns were raised during the discussion. The Board approved the reappointment of Harry Clark to the Board of Adjustment. ## Reappointment of James Pursley to the Board of Adjustment [timestamp: 25:52] The Board considered the reappointment of James Pursley to the Board of Adjustment. Pursley addressed the Board directly, speaking to his qualifications and interest in continuing his service on the Board. During his remarks, Pursley highlighted his background as a real estate broker and described his involvement in community-based organizations. He expressed his desire to continue serving on the Board of Adjustment. The Board approved the reappointment of James Pursley to the Board of Adjustment. ## Reappointment of Linda Tucker to the Board of Adjustment [timestamp: 38:51] The Board considered the reappointment of Linda Tucker to the Board of Adjustment. Tucker addressed the Board directly, discussing her background in education and sharing her perspective on urban and rural issues. She expressed her desire to continue serving on the Board of Adjustment. The Board approved Tucker's reappointment. ## Appointment of Jonathan Gifford to the Ethics Commission [timestamp: 49:03] The Board considered the appointment of Jonathan Gifford to the Ethics Commission. Gifford, an attorney, appeared before the Board to discuss his qualifications and interest in serving on the commission. Gifford spoke to his background in law and public safety, presenting these areas of experience as relevant to the work of the Ethics Commission. He expressed his interest in serving in this capacity. The Board approved the appointment. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Go into closed session to discuss the recommendation of Harry Clark into the membership of the Board of Adjustments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Go into closed session to discuss the recommendation of James Pursley into the membership of the Board of Adjustments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Go into closed session to discuss the recommendation of Linda Tucker into the membership of the Board of Adjustments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Go into closed session to discuss the recommendation of Jonathan Gifford into the membership of the Ethics Commission --- ## Full transcript Thank you. All right, good afternoon, everybody. I'd like to call to order the confirmation hearings for Thursday, June 18, 2026. We have a few different ones. We get three reappointments for Board of Adjustment and one appointment for Ethics Commission. Just so you all have a heads up, I'm going to do them in this order. We're going to start with Board of Adjustment with Harry Clark and then James Persley and then Linda Tucker and then move on to Jonathan Gifford for Ethics Commission. I'm going to one by one call you all up to the podium to tell us a little bit about yourself and why you would like to be appointed or reappointed. Then I'm going to open up the floor to my council colleagues to ask questions, give any sort of comments. And then with each one of you, we're going to go into closed session, make a decision, come back out here and inform you of that decision. So without further ado, we'll start off with Board of Adjustment. Mr. Harry Clark, if you would come to the podium and tell us a little bit about yourself and why you would like to continue on at Board of Adjustment. I feel so strange being down here. As most of you know, I was on council for one term. And I ran for a second term. and Amanda Bledsoe changed the course of my career. I will say, however, that Amanda and I are good friends and I think she did a great job as a council member and also she's doing very well in the state from what I can tell. But anyway, my career is in music. As I say, most of you know that. I started as a high school band director way down south, moved up through Tennessee and Kentucky, taught at Eastern Kentucky University a couple of years, then moved to UK to work on a doctorate. Stayed at UK for actually 46 years total, and became director of bands in 1968. Did that for 21 years. It's a funny story because I was hired, as I said, I was a graduate student at UK, and they called me one day and said, Harry, we lost our band director. Could you do it for a year? Because that was kind of my background. Could you do it for a year until we could hire somebody? I said, yeah, that's why I was working on my degree. So, yeah, I'll do it. Well, anyway, long story short, that one year became 21 years. So that worked out, being in the right place at the right time. You know how that works. And then I moved into a new position as director of the School of Music, which was both a band and that particular position were both challenges because they're highly administrative, both in terms of music but also in terms of being an administrator. So anyway, I taught, I was at UK for a total of 46 years and retired in 2011, had no plans. Doug Martin, who was a council member at that time, told me one day, he said, Harry, I'm not going to run again. Why don't you run? Well, I'd never thought about it, to be honest truth. But I thought, well, what the heck, I can do this. So I did, and I won, and the rest is history. But I was disappointed not to get reelected. I really was, because I had a ball being a council member. I know what it's like, and I know there's terrific pressure in a sense, but also tremendous satisfaction. I know you feel that way as a member of this council. So you know how I felt and how I feel. But I also found lots of opportunities to do other things, too. because being part of the council made me realize how important it was and how satisfying it was to be a member of a group that serves the people of Lexington. So I wanted to find other ways of doing it. I brought a list here of all my council appointments, but I know you don't want to hear all that. I'll let somebody ask me a question. I'll read it. But anyway, I've been on quite a few committees. I've had positions in different ways, including the Water Quality Fees Board. Have you ever heard of that? Most of you probably haven't heard of the Fees Board. But we give over, well, I'm not in it anymore because I timed out. But we give over $3 million every year. And most people don't even know what it's all about. But that was enjoyable. And so a lot of other things, too. The Board of Adjustment has been a real pleasure. And like I say, I have enjoyed being a part of Lexington, its government, and the opportunity to serve the people of Lexington. So I was also very fortunate just last year. It's a big surprise to me to be selected as the, I have to look at this, Isabel Yates Community Champion. total surprise to me me? but it was an honor for me because more for the fact that it's named after Isabel because she was my hero my heroine wonderful friend and wonderful person also very fortunate UK gave me an honorary doctorate in 2021 so I've had a great career great life and I enjoy serving the people of Lexington. All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Clark. Council members, if you have questions, please sign in. Come on, David. Council member Lynch. Thank you, Vice Mayor, and thank you for being willing to serve again. My question is, what have you learned from your time on the Board of Adjustment? and has serving on the board shifted your opinion about things in local government? I'm sorry, repeat that last part. Have being on the Board of Adjustment shifted your opinion about local government and how it operates and the way things work? Okay. Well, not really. I have learned something every time I have a meeting with the Board of Adjustment. I mean, you just don't quit learning because the things are different. The people who come to apply, they're different. The people who are in the audience who want to protest or support or whatever are different. Lots of different community things. And I have learned that I think more than anything, I'm impressed with some of the public responses to some of the issues that we have. I mean, there are some really, really wonderful people, brilliant people. Sometimes I don't satisfy what they want to do. but they are very, very honest about what they do. I will also say one of the hardest parts that we've done is the short-term rentals. That was really, really difficult for us. And we were having problems. I know which one I won't go into, but thank you, Council, for making this new ordinance. It's made all the difference in the world. It really has helped us. And we can make quick judgments and be based on the ordinance itself without having to apologize for making decisions we make. So I've learned a lot. I've learned about how wonderful the people are and have a lot of interactions with them as we went through each board meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Vice Mayor, and thank you, Mr. Clark, for your willingness to serve the city in several different capacities. What is the specific skill set that you feel like you bring to the BOA, and why do you want to serve on it when it is a very, it requires a lot of commitment and has a lot of controversy? Commitment has never bothered me. And if you've ever thought about being an administrator at UK, you can understand why. That's easy. But I think the idea of, like I said, serving the people has been really important. And the fact that I've had a lot of experience as an administrator. I mean, as director of bands, you know, you think, well, you're just up there conducting the band. But it's much, much more than that. Probably 90% of it is administrative. And obviously being a director of the School of Music, when you're dealing with faculty, students, alumni, athletics, all this, I mean, Board of Adjustments is a piece of cake compared to a lot of that. So I feel very confident being able to deal with the kinds of things that we deal with. All right. Thank you so much. Very welcome. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Savigny. Thank you, Chair. And thank you again, Mr. Clark, for trying to re-up here. So I appreciate that. Generally, I usually want to know, like, everybody of an organization is made up of a variety of different opinions and different viewpoints. And I'm always kind of curious, in the Board of Adjustment, since you've been serving, what viewpoint do you generally bring to the table? You know what I mean? What do you bring to the table that might be a little different from the rest of the board members and might be a slightly different perspective? Well, I think one of the things you have to understand, that the ordinance tells you how to move. If you know the ordinance, and I will say the staff has been wonderful. The staff that planned the meetings and tells us the kinds of ordinances that we need to be thinking about and the parts of the ordinances, it means a great deal. And I think that the idea is that sometimes you have to look at the ordinance, David. You have to say, this is what the ordinance says. Now, is that going to control how I vote? Or am I going to listen to these people who say, oh, but I want you to make an exception here? It's very difficult sometimes to look at these wonderful people sitting here and say, well, I can't just listen to them. I have to look at the ordinance. What's it say? It's a reason the council has made it this way. And you have to stay there most of the time. You have to use the ordinance to help you make your decision. Once in a while, the ordinance just doesn't fit. And you have to say, all right, the staff has said they approve of it. And you say, well, but this is one of those times you make an exception, Dave. And we do that. Sometimes I agree with my colleagues. Sometimes I don't. This past meeting, I was the only vote against one of the things that happened. And that's really hard. When you respect your colleagues, you know they're doing the same thing you're doing, trying to make a good decision. And you have to be the only vote that does not agree with them. It's hard. Some of you have been in that situation, too, I'm sure. Thank you. And then what about making, how do you prep? Like, what's your typical prep? Because you've got so many things on the agenda. You guys meet once a month. Kind of just tell me what you typically do. Yeah. Well, we get a good report from the staff. Of course, that's where we start. I spend a lot of time with that, and I look at the ordinances. I look at the articles within the ordinance as much as I possibly can. I will often drive around and look at the places that we're talking about. Sometimes you can learn some things by just looking at a place. Somebody wants a conditional use for a certain situation. You look at their home or their business, and it really makes sense. Sometimes you have a completely different opinion. But I do study quite a bit. I spend a whole lot of time within that week studying the staff reports and do some digging within that. And then go look at some of the places. Some of the places you can look on Google Map and just tell whatever you need. But sometimes you really need to go look. And I do that. I do spend a lot of time, Dave. Thank you very much. That's all I have, Chair. Thank you. Mr. Clark, thinking about some of your comments about talking about the short-term rental regulations, kind of building more of a framework that really helped you all with decisions, your point about really looking at what the ordinance says. But a lot of times, groups like the Board of Adjustment or the Planning Commission, your job is to adjudicate the things that are in the middle, in the gray, could be interpreted one way or the other. You all are making those kind of decisions. Would you be a proponent of more regulations and more objective standards that leave less room for subjectivity and in some ways less, potentially fewer cases that come before you all? Or do you feel like you would like either more or the same amount of room for you all to kind of make those subjective calls? We need some flexibility. There's no question about that. We need flexibility. But the original ordinance for SDRs gave us so much that it made it very difficult for us to make decisions. And so, as a matter of fact, I actually came and talked to a couple of members of the council and said, we need to be more specific. And so that's what really helped us there. So I would say that I certainly proposed more regulations in terms of STRs. I certainly think it was a really good decision the council made to do that. But sometimes you do need some flexibility. Right now, I think we have enough flexibility for STRs. I think it's working very well. Thank you for that. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And I think I'm the only one who up here actually had the privilege of serving with you. That's right, Chuck. And I can vouch for your commitment, your hard work, and I'm really pleased that you still want to continue to serve the community because you've done it very honorably and certainly enjoyed working with you. And I'm glad that you're still here. And I always say the Board of Adjustment is a very important one because when you have the Planning Commission, they come to us and we can still make a final say. But when it comes to the Board of Adjustment, you all make the final say. And I think the only recourse of appeal would be going to circuit court. So we don't have that opportunity as elect officials to appeal your all's decisions. So I always think Board of Adjustment is a very important position. And I really appreciate you taking the time to want to serve and have served. So thank you. Thanks very much, Chuck. And I will say to all of you how much I appreciate what you do. because I know what you do and what you face on a daily basis. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Clark. If there are no more questions, Council Member Brown has a motion. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I move to go into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.810 and KRS 61.810 to discuss the recommendation of Harry Clark and to the membership of the Board of Adjustments as these decisions might lead to the appointment of a member of the Board of Adjustments and constitute deliberations of a quasi-judicial body regarding whether to make individual appointments to the membership of the Board of Adjustments. So moved. All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, that motion passes. We're in closed session. We'll be back momentarily. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Clark, will you join us back at the podium, please? Mr. Clark, we appreciate your service and we are happy to let you know that we are approving your reappointment to the Board of Adjustment. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks everybody. Appreciate it. All right, moving right along, Mr. James Persley, come on up. Tell us a little about yourself and why you would like to be reappointed to the BOA. Absolutely. As you all know, my name is James Parsley. I am a principal real estate broker here in Lexington, Kentucky. Being a principal real estate broker, I'm also president of a nonprofit organization called NARAB, National Association of Real Estate Brokers. And that's kind of what ushered me into being on Board of Adjustments, being part of a nonprofit, community-based organization. And I've always kind of wanted to be more part of the community and be more involved. So I went online and just kind of applied, and thankfully I was able to have the opportunity to serve for Board of Adjustments. With this being my first appointment in serving, it's been an eye-opening experience, meaning there's a lot of things that myself, I didn't know when it comes to regulations, even things such as Airbnbs, how those are regulated in the city. And I could tell just from the meetings that we have and the folks that come in here, they don't know either in certain cases. And even with some of the letters that we get from constituents on worries that they have with certain issues, a lot of it is just not knowing that there's things already in place to safeguard the citizens that a lot of folks just don't know about. So it's been a pleasure and it's been enjoyable to be on this Board of Adjustments thus far. All right. Thank you very much. colleagues, please sign in with questions or comments. Council Member Lynch. Thank you, Vice Mayor, and thank you for being willing to serve again. My question is, why do you want to come back and do another term? Sure. The main reason I want to come back is because being on a board of adjustments, I feel that I'm able to be more of an advocate for folks in the community than I was not being on the board. And for that, it's kind of helped me be able to find my voice, meaning for my first couple of meetings, I kind of sat in and watched how things go and just see how some of my counterparts think about some of the issues that come about. And it kind of helped me kind of form my own information decision on how I feel about certain issues that's brought up and brought before the board as well. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Savigny. Thank you. Thank you again for your willingness to re-up. So I appreciate that. I'll ask the same questions that I asked before. So in a group of people, a variety of diverse opinions, what opinion do you think that you bring that might be unique to the Board of Adjustment? Yes, I think just my experience and what I mean by my experience, not only being a real estate broker, but also having the pleasure to live in different areas of Lexington, I kind of see things that maybe certain counterparts don't see when it comes to certain issues that pertain to a certain district of the area, and other folks may not see what the big deal is. And I see what the big deal is because I have lived there, and I've seen what the people go through with certain things. Great. And then what's the way that you typically approach a meeting and the work that you do ahead of time to try to figure things out? Yes. So I rely, of course, on the staff reports. Once we get them, I do my research for each case, read through it. And in certain cases, maybe even do site visits if it's kind of a more complex case. But that's normally how I kind of prepare for it. just making sure that I read thoroughly through each one of the cases and know exactly what the issue is. And not only that, just kind of seeing why the staff came to the determination that they came to when it comes to certain cases and see if maybe there's any wiggle room around what their determination is considering the case. Thank you. And that's all I have, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Curtis. Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Mr. Percy, for your willingness to serve again. I wanted to follow up on your answer to Council Member Lynch's question where you said that you aim to be a voice of the community. When you say voice of the community, could you be a little more specific about who you're referring to, given that a lot of the issues that come before the BOA can be quite contentious? Absolutely. So what I mean by that is when we have certain cases that come about, For example, one of the cases that came about earlier this year was about having another auto dealership on a certain area of New Circle Road. I've lived on that area, and I already know how heavily populated that area is. And I know kind of with the infrastructure of having an auto dealership, the lights and things that come about with that and how that may be harmful to a neighbor in a neighborhood or a neighborhood that sits in the back. that can be damaging and that can kind of hurt this quality of life for a certain neighborhood. And some folks who may not have ever had to stay on that end of Lexington may wonder, well, I don't see what the big deal is at all because it's another business and they're already thriving on that end of New Circle Road, so let's just keep it going. No, and I agree that's a valuable perspective and I appreciate you giving such a specific example. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Morton. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for your willingness to serve. And I think I was just going to follow up and just say, like, basically, I think your emphasis is equity and making sure that the board is well diverse. Is that kind of what you're saying? Absolutely. Thank you. Absolutely. Appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. Persley, can you think back to your time? You've been on, I think, just a little bit under two years. Can you think back to a time at one of the meetings where you've had to take a really hard vote, particularly one that maybe sort of the rules or the ordinances involved may be conflicted with maybe your own personal values or your own personal perspective? How did you take that into consideration and how did you come to your final decision? Yes. There was a specific case with the Airbnb that I personally, with me being a real estate broker, at first was all for it. However, we had such an outcry from the surrounding neighbors in the community about it to where I was very much so conflicted on whether or not it would actually be a good idea to approve it. to where I actually had to take a break from it myself and just kind of think, well, you know, it's a two-way street to where, yes, you can approve this, even though it may have been approved by the staff to have this particular Airbnb. However, you want to as well, since I serve for the public, I want to keep them in mind as well. And also, you know, they write letters, they come in person, and you want to legitimize, you know, their concerns that they have as well. So there's been a couple of Airbnb cases, but those are the specific ones that come to mind to where it really had me conflicted. And I want to follow up on that a little bit. You know, we very often see community members come out very often when they oppose something that we're doing, right? And how do you kind of discern in your mind that if 10, 20, 50 people come out and speak against a particular issue, how do you decide whether or not they are representative of that neighborhood, first of all, right? Or if it's just folks who happen to have the time and resource and energy to come out to a meeting, because not everyone does. and even if they do, how do you sort of balance that with maybe the larger view or the larger needs of the city as a whole? Very good question. Most of the times you can tell once they speak on their concern. You can kind of get to the bottom of it as to whether they're just upset that their neighbor is actually trying to operate a business beside them and they just don't like it or whether they have a legitimate concern about, quote-unquote, noise, if that's going to be a problem. And what I was saying earlier as far as people being uninformed, a lot of times they don't really know that there's already parameters in place to where they're not going to play loud music one in the morning, two in the morning. There's things in place for that not to happen, you know what I mean? Or for, like most people say, it's going to just turn into a party house if they open this up for an Airbnb to where there's things in place, and a lot of folks don't know until they actually come to one of these meetings and say, oh, well, they will only approve for four people to live in this house, or six, depending on how big the home is. Yeah, thank you for that. Colleagues, if there are no more questions, Council Member Brown has a motion. I move to go into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.8101F and KRS 61.8101J to discuss the recommendation of James Pursley and to the membership of the Board of Adjustments, as these discussions might lead to the appointment of a member of the Board of Adjustments and constitute deliberations of a quasi-judicial body regarding whether to make individual appointments to the membership of the Board of Adjustments. So move. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. We're in closed session. We'll be back. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Persley, you want to join us back at the podium, please? Can I get a motion to come back into open session? We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, we're back in open session. Mr. Persley, thank you so much for your service on the Board of Adjustment. We're happy to let you know that you have been approved for reappointment to the Board of Adjustment. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, Linda Tucker, come on up please. You know the drill. Welcome. Hello, thank you for considering me again for the Board of Adjustments. I'm married, I have a couple of kids, and I have a lot of animals. I've lived in Lexington since 1974, so back then it was a junior high. I went to Southern Junior High, Tates Creek High School, the University of Kentucky, and then I got my master's at Georgetown. I taught in Fayette County for 25 years. When growing up, I lived kind of more in the Tate's Creek area, and now I live kind of out toward the Athens area, which to me has been very valuable because I can see kind of both the rural and the urban kind of coming together. I love to spend time with my family, friends, garden, travel. After I retired, I got a heart for women. so I volunteer a lot with women who've had a lot of trauma issues or who are trying to get out of addiction. Lexington is a beautiful place to work and live, and since I taught school, I also feel like that I can bring to the table that I'm looking out for the generations to come. It's kind of funny during the board meetings because for a while, one of my middle school kids was down here because now he works in traffic with the engineering department, so he sits in the back, so I'll be sure to wave at him and embarrass him. And so I kind of think about that. And then, I don't know what else. Do you have a question? All right, thank you very much. Council members, if you have questions, please sign in. Council member Savigny. Thank you again for being willing to serve. And I'm just going to ask you the same question. So it was hardest probably on Harry, and now you know what the questions are. So what do you feel like your unique perspective is to kind of create a diverse board of adjustment? Well, I'm the only girl on there. So there's that. And I don't know just the difference in living both in the rural and in the urban area and living in different sections of town. and for a while I lived kind of over toward the Kenwick area. So being able to see those things, I'm pretty persistent on going out and looking, even when the agenda was long, at everything on the agenda just to get a feel for the neighborhood. And things change so much to kind of educate myself in that. Well, that's great. You answered my other question as well, I think, so I'll turn it back to you. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Boone. Thank you, Chair. Well, when you've been serving on the BOA, what have you found to be kind of the most rewarding and or the most challenging parts of making those hard decisions? The most rewarding is probably just being able to help somebody out with something that we were talking about earlier. There was a man who couldn't turn his head, and he was looking for a circular driveway over near Morton Middle School. And circular driveways are kind of, you know, the staff disagrees with him, but due to his medical condition, we allowed him to have that. And I was really happy about that. And so I don't know, just things like that that we're able to help people or maybe stop something that looks like it might not be good in a neighborhood. Great. Thank you. As part of a member of the rural community, what unique perspective do you bring to the BOA when balancing between the urban and the rural? That could be a really long answer. Probably sustainable growth would be the short answer to that. and just working together to see that both sides are well represented and respected, I think. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Ms. Tucker, I hate to bring up a potentially sore subject, but I know you all had a pretty rough meeting a little while ago about Duke Road. Yes. From everything that I've heard, it was very contentious. There were a room full of people. People lined out the door. How does that impact you? We talked about it a little bit before about how many people are in the room, do they represent the neighborhoods? But when you see that scale of pushback or a particular opinion, how does that impact? Uh-oh, law is coming up behind me. Evan, do you need to chime in? That's all right. I just want to mention that Duke Road is currently in litigation, so I'd recommend potentially not speaking necessarily about that at this time. Okay. Thank you, Evan. All right, Ms. Tucker, hypothetically, but honestly, not even this particular case. I'm sure you all have had rooms full of people that are angry or upset about something kind of pushing you in a direction. So I guess my question is, like, how does that impact your decision-making when you see a certain scale of pushback or opinion from the public? I don't know about the scale, but I do appreciate all the letters that come in. I try to read each and every one, which is difficult, because where I taught school, I could not come down and voice my opinion. So I look at that letter as somebody standing behind a podium. I think it's great when people come down here. I think that they're going to be a part of government and stuff. I don't know the scale of anything weighs my decision. I try to come in with an open mind. There have been some times when, honestly, I've come in and I've thought I've had a decision made, and then I change based on new information. I appreciate that. Council Member Lynch. Thank you, Chair and Vice Mayor. Thank you, Ms. Tucker, for being willing to serve again. Thank you for also holding it down for the women. My question is, why do you want to serve again? Well, kind of like I mentioned before, you know, seeing some of these kids grow up. Lexington is a beautiful place to live. I've lived here for a long time. I hope I can contribute something positive to that and to the generations to come. That in a nutshell. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. If there are no more questions, Council Member Brown. I move to go into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.8101F and KRS 61.8101J to discuss the recommendation of Linda Tucker and to the membership of the Board of Adjustments. as these discussions might lead to the appointment of a member of the Board of Adjustments and constitute deliberations of a quasi-judicial body regarding whether to make individual appointments to the membership of the Board of Adjustments. So move. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, we're in closed session. We'll be back. Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. Thank you. All right, Ms. Tucker, you want to join us back at the podium, please? Can I get a motion to come back into open session? Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, that motion passes. We're back in open session. Ms. Tucker, thank you so much for your service thus far and the Board of Adjustment. We're happy to let you know that we have approved your reappointment to the VOA. Congratulations. Thank you, and thank you for letting me serve, and I know that you guys work tirelessly, and I've spoken to a couple of you all about some of your projects and stuff, and thank you for doing what you do. I appreciate you. Yeah, thank you for that. We appreciate you as well. All right, we're going to move on to the confirmation hearing for ethics commission. Mr. Jonathan Gifford, please join us up at the podium. Hopefully, you've gotten a little taste of what this process is like. Tell us a little bit about yourself and why you would like to serve on the Ethics Commission. Certainly. So I am a 24-year resident of Lexington, Kentucky. Came up here after getting married several decades ago. My wife and children and, unfortunately, several cats all dwell in my house. And we have a rambunctious but enjoyable life here in Lexington. We are in the Tates Creek area, just off of Tates Creek, very close to the golf course with a good view. and within listening distance of the marching band at Tate's Creek High. And I am also a local attorney. I practice as an attorney with the firm Sturgill, Turner, Barker, and Maloney. Prior to that, I also worked for the Cabinet for Justice and Public Safety, the Kentucky Cabinet for Justice and Public Safety, where I worked in the office of the secretary, dealing with a variety of issues that affect public safety and government in general, dealing with ethics on a regular basis. And so, of course, that leads naturally into what I'm doing here. I think I have a decent background in it. It's a subject that I enjoy. I like investigations. I've done them on a variety of things. And I believe that I would be an asset to such a commission. And therefore, I'm putting my name in the hat. Thank you very much. Colleagues, if you have questions or comment, please log in. Council Member Lynch. Thank you, Vice Mayor. My question is, I think, for Mr. Thompson. I'm sorry, Gifford? Our law department. So Mr. Gifford is filling the seat that was for a Citizens for Ethical Government nomination. So I looked up their organization. I couldn't find anything about them on the Internet. and I looked at the Secretary of State's page and they're inactive but in good standing. So can you let this organization still in existence? I think largely from my understanding it's not. But I think basically we still, for the purposes of record keeping, and I think Melissa could maybe speak more to this, but for record keeping purposes, so we know which one's going in which spot, we constitute that as being in that spot, even though they didn't provide nominations. So it ended up going, the Ethics Commission provided recommendations to the mayor pursuant to the Ethics Act as a provision for that, to being able to do that if the entity doesn't provide nominations itself. So that's what happened. They're just putting that as a record keeping to show that this is, that's there for, that's really the position even though it wasn't nominated by the Citizens for Ethical Government. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Allinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And actually, Evan, could you come back here? Sorry. I think we received an email a while back that said we were kind of out of balance on this board. So does this put us back into good standing? We were in good standing before this, and this appointment would not put us into bad standing. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. All right. Thank you. I guess I'll ask you a question, Mr. Gifford. Certainly. In your work, obviously, in law, tell me your conception of, I guess, just the idea of ethics, but particularly in this context. Tell me what you think this role entails when it comes to adjudicating on ethics and behavior. Right. So, of course, we have a series of ordinances in Chapter 25 that dictate certain rules that are to be abided by. Those are, as far as I can tell, pretty objective standards. They leave very little wiggle room. It's just a matter of ensuring that people comply with these particular rules. Now, in my legal practice, that's a big part of it. There's constantly rules that are being broken, and certainly there's some that need to be upheld as well. And there are some that are somewhat ambiguous. We deal with ambiguity on a regular basis, and I foresee that there would be plenty of opportunities for ambiguity to arise in this context as well. And that's, of course, the reason for investigations is to hopefully funnel that down from a very broad concept of what's going on down to a very narrow issue and finding out whether our rules apply. And then, if they do, figuring out whether or not we can adjudicate that issue accordingly. And so I think that my philosophy here and what I think this boils down to is that I'm going to have to take those rules. I'm going to have to look at them at a very broad base, and I'm going to have to find out whether or not they narrow down to an issue that is properly before that board that they have authority and jurisdiction to rule on and provide advisory opinions. If that is the case, then, of course, I'll do my due diligence and write those. But these are objective rules. You know, my views on these things are going to be secondary, of course, to what we have already agreed on in our ordinances. And that's what I'm here to do is enforce those rules. Thank you for that thoughtful answer. If there are no more questions, Council Members? Council Member Brown. I move to go into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.8101F and KRS 61.8101J to discuss the recommendation of Jonathan Gifford and to the membership of the Ethics Commission. as these discussions might lead to the appointment of a member of the Ethics Commission and constitute deliberations of a quasi-judicial body regarding whether to make individual appointments to the membership of the Ethics Commission. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, we're in closed session. We'll be back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, can I get a motion to come back into open session? We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We are back in open session. Thank you, Mr. Gifford, for applying and your willingness to serve. I'm happy to let you know that we are approving your appointment to the Ethics Commission. Congratulations. Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. Thank you. And with that, we are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.