... hot, hot. It's too, too darn hot. Like to coo with my baby tonight. And pitch the woo with my baby tonight. I like to coo with my baby tonight. And pitch the woo with my baby tonight. But brother, you find my baby tonight 'cause it's too darn hot. According to the Kinsey Report, every average man you know much prefers his lovey dovey to go out when the temperature is low. But when the thermometer goes way up and the weather is sizzling hot, Mister Gob for his slob, a Marine for his queen, a GI for his cutie pie is not 'cause it's too, too, too darn hot. It's too darn hot. It's too darn hot. It's too darn hot. It's too darn hot. Angry, please don't be angry 'cause I was only teasing you. I wouldn't even let you think of leavin'. Don't you know I love you true? Just because I took a look at somebody else, that's no reason you should put poor me on the shelf. Angry, please don't be angry 'cause I was only teasing you. Don't believe a thing you hear. Just wait till you see. Then you'll find no cause to show you're jealous of me. Call the meeting to order, please. Angry. Please don't be- The first item on the agenda is public comment on issues that are on the agenda for today. Is there, uh, anyone who wishes to address the Council? Seeing none, we'll move along. We do not have a docket to approve. We do have a summary to approve. Is there a motion? Move approval, Mayor. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the docket. Uh, motion was by Council Member Gorton, second was by Council Member Myers. Is there any discussion? All in favor then, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no? Motion carries unanimously. We don't have any budget amendments. We do have a few items of new business today. Is there a motion to approve? Move approval. Second. Council Member Gorton has moved to approve the new business items. Council Member Beard has seconded. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no? Motion carries. Now down to the Services Committee report. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. The Service Committee met for the first time for this new term on January 6th. It was more of an organizational meeting. We went through all of the different, um, issues in the committee, went over the stats. They didn't got comment from each, um, council member on where they stood. There are no motions that come out of that and we adjourned at 1:36. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Any questions for Council Member Ellinger? All right. We'll move on to Council Member Lange. Uh, yeah, I just would like to mention that, uh, Council Member Ellinger was reelected as chairman. He didn't mention that. Thank you. I was. And, and Mr. Myers will be the vice-chair again. Thank you. Congratulations to both of you. Thank you. All right. Um, the presentation we have today is, uh, by, going to be by Charlie Bolin, now a former member of the, uh, mayor's office staff. And, uh, let me tell you that since Charlie retired on December 31st, uh, we have missed him. Fortunately, some of you have expressed an interest in trying to have an opportunity to express your good wishes to Charlie, and we're going to have a get-together for him on Thursday afternoon from 1:30 until 3:30 on the 12th floor. We would invite any member of the council, or the public, or, uh, LFUCG staff to come. Charlie has been an active participant in a lot of, uh, retirement celebrations in the past, and so it's only fitting that we do him justice by, uh, saying, singing farewell in an appropriate fashion. We'd be glad to have you. But with, uh, that, let me, uh, on a more serious note say Charlie is about to make a presentation to you on, uh, one of the six pillars. You may recall last year we talked about developing... Two years ago, actually, we talked about developing a community vision, and we set that process in place in late 2007. Um, a lot of work was done during the course of 2008. Charlie played a criti- critical role in pulling all of that together. And, um, Charlie, I'll turn the floor over to you to, to go from there. Thank you, Mayor. On that previous item, does that mean you're going to be singing at the... on Thursday? Fortunately, I will not. Okay. All right. Thank you very much, and, uh, greetings and happy 2009, and I appreciate the opportunity to visit with you today about, uh, I think really one of the more important things that I've ever worked on in my career with the urban county government. And, uh, I hope that you will follow along, uh, with the presentation. I want to acknowledge that there are several people who were critical to the process that are visiting with us. We, we engaged a group of very, very busy people, uh, from all walks of community life to help us to, uh, pull off this project, and several of them have found the time to be here today. Many of them are not able to be because of their schedules, but I really appreciate, uh, all of you who are a part of that and who are here in attendance today. Why don't you stand up just for a minute so they can see who you are? These, these people represent pe- members of our steering committee, our work team, volunteer facilitators who helped to lead sessions, and, uh, any other number of things that they did along the way, um, and I really appreciate it. I also want to acknowledge the project team that worked on this. Lisa Higgins-Hord, who's our Vice President of Community Engagement at the University of Kentucky, was critical member of our project team, as was the team of S- Steve Kay and Rona Roberts, and I really appreciate all that you guys have done to help facilitate this process. It was a very interesting and challenging time to conduct a community vision process if you think back over the last year. We've had major economic distress. We had a presidential election. We had $4 a gallon gasoline. We've had budget cuts thrown at us from the state and local sources. We had the CenterPoint discussion, and any other number of immediate pressing, urgent needs that presented themselves, and those can make it hard for a community to stop and take a moment and think long-term, to think about the future. But I would like to say, too, that I think that they can also serve to provide a reality check when you do a visioning process. When things are tough and the people in the room that are working on the vision are engaged in some of those tough things, it really s- helps to bring clarity and a certain realism and a focus on the things that are really important. And I think that this process actually then benefited by the fact that we've had some interesting things, uh, going on in 2008 while we tried to conduct a visioning project. And I want to begin this look forward really by looking back for a moment to early 2007. This project has come full circle, uh, in a sense, back to where it started with the six pillars agreement the mayor mentioned. What I like to do is to remember the sense of promise and hope and possibility that ran through the community at that time. We just had a new alignment of leadership that really, I think, permeated a lot of our community life and gave a lot of people a sense of hope and opportunity, and I just want to try to recall and seize upon that feeling as we review, uh, this report about the community's dreams and desires for the future, that we would have that same sense of promise and opportunity. Today, I think if you will listen, I believe you will hear the authentic voice of the community. I believe you'll hear the authentic voice of the community in a way that you haven't for some time. So I want to begin with our report now. Uh, we had mentioned the six pillars MOU that... and you see community vision there, right there number two among the other f- the other five things that we've worked on. And it was an honor and a privilege to get that assignment. I wasn't real sure about it, to be honest, in the beginning. Uh, it's a tough thing to do to try to work through a visioning process, but I realize now how rewarding it also was and the number of, of, uh, positive interactions I've had throughout the community. When you think about visioning, there are things that really all communities want. We're all chasing the same things basically. We all have to do with the available resources. And you can name those things off. We all want a safe community, we want good schools, we want good housing that's affordable, we want our communities to be clean and have good leadership and all of those things. If you could read community vision report after vision report, you would see they all want these same things. And they have some resources that are available to each community. Um, federal money sources, state money sources, they all have, uh, certain types of, uh, political infrastructure in place to deal with things. But if you're blessed, really, you have as a community some resources that are rare or even unique to your community, and that's certainly true here in Lexington. You're gonna see some of these that come up really that I think are some of our rare and unique resources that we can bring to bear in trying to, uh, achieve a vision for our community. These things were all mentioned throughout the process as, um, uh, items that our community values greatly and wants to see protected. Um, and so we do have some unique resources to bring to bear. Now, the vision in a vision document is found really in how a community applies its resources to pursue its future dreams. It's that how question. And I wanna talk about really three things here. The first one is that you have to connect the resources and the dreams in an executable way. Again, we've all got, uh, resources. We have some things that we may bring to bear that are different from other communities, but we have to define those specifically. And we have to state our dreams in a succinct way that is specific that people can understand and then connect those things in a way that's doable, that's executable. We also need to build and maintain lasting community partners, because this isn't just the government's job to realize a community vision. And it's gonna take the sustained effort of our business community, our neighborhood leadership, uh, the educational community, and on and on. And government is, has an important role to play. In this case, it played the role of convener to try to bring all of those folks together to do the visioning work, but the implementation will take everybody. Finally, you need to give the citizens a vital role to play. And that's really what I wanna talk about here just, uh, in the next section of this report. We purposed from the very beginning to do a very grassroots type of effort. Uh, we wanted our citizens involved. We didn't wanna just give them a quick phone call survey or send them out a mail survey and see what we got back. We wanted them to really dialogue and get involved in the discussion about what our future should be. And so that's really what we tried to do in the civic engagement phase of Destination 2040. Here you see just some of the numbers of, uh, what we've been doing in the past year. We conducted 50 stakeholder interviews to start with, uh, to try to really help define what it is that we needed to talk about. You see 140 community meetings held. Most of those an hour and a half to two hours in length. We had 102 people receive training to facilitate th- many of those meetings. We had 2,000 participants in those groups. Most of those 2,000 participated in groups, and we had a few online folks. We did a 1,000-person survey and totally engaged a number of 3,000 citizens directly in this process. We had 15 steering committee members and 36 work team members I mentioned about. I really want you to look at those hours there at the bottom. You know, we can talk about how much, you know, things cost or whatever, but I want to talk about this investment of volunteer hours by members of our steering committee and work team. They sat for several afternoons in three and four-hour-long meetings, trying to help parse this information and stretch it and turn it into executable ideas for the community. And they'll never really know how grateful I am to them for the work that they did. And our volunteers, facilitators, I know this number is low, but they sat through training sessions and then went and led one, two, and some folks here led seven, eight meetings out in the community. And again, we really appreciate the teamwork that, that was showed there. So we had a great deal of involvement, and I mentioned these 50 interviews in the beginning here, and they were used really to shape this idea of what is it that Lexington needs to talk about in 2008. This was our root question for the exercise. How will we protect all that we value while continuing to grow as a community? Any of you that have been here for s- any amount of time know that we have fought particularly in this community over land use and physical growth. This is a much broader question than that. It does refer to that, but it's not only that. We have a lot of things that we wanna protect. We have a lot of things that we value, and we know that as a community, we ha- we're gonna continue to grow. The big question here, and I think there's really three key words here, is how. How means when you look at that question, it is possible. It is possible to protect the things that you value while you grow as a community. We infers that it's up to us to do it, and the community part means that we have to pursue it together. We can't leave any elements of the community out as we move forward. It has to be a true community thing. The way that the community answered that question basically is what leads to the vision. If I could give you the vision in three words, this is it. Keep our balance. We have a balance of things in this community that is unique and treasured, and people, no matter what we do, want to keep our balance. That's just the short version of it. We do all want action, and we do all want positive change, and we're gonna talk about some of the specifics of that here in a little bit. But we want action and change that honors and maintains the balance between rural and urban living. So that really is a definitive, I think, hallmark finding of, of what, the work that we've done here. Now, as we move into the report, I just wanted you to have a little sense of, of how this plays out. We ... There are a lot of different ways you can write a vision report, and this is how we chose to write it. We wanted some broad vision language that you're gonna see here in a minute. We dealt with four aspects of community life, and there's a vision statement for each of those that we'll talk about. There are some informing statements that we'll explain to you, and then there's a strategies and tactics section that have a total of 90 different specific approaches or ideas that could be pursued toward implementation of, of this vision. And we'll only spend a minute or two on each one of those, but we will get through this. And then we have a section on implementation ideas. I'm just kidding about that. We have a section on implementation ideas, um, before moving this forward. But basically, this is the succinct, definitive statement that has come out of Destination 2040. It's a seven-word statement that any citizen can remember, and it basically boils down this issue of the critical balance, great city life in a productive rural paradise. If you take that to an overarching statement that fleshes it out just a little bit more, Lexington will be one of the world's great mid-size cities by striking and sustaining a brilliant balance of dynamic urban living in a matchless rural setting. Basically, there's that balance again. We want all of the urban amenities, opportunities, and privileges that come with living in an urban area, but we also want to sustain our productive, beautiful, rural setting. And it is productive, and it's important for us to remember that. It's not just beautiful. People think about that, but it's a huge part of our local economy, and basically, more importantly than that, our cultural identity worldwide. And that's why we need to keep that matchless rural setting just like it is. The value statements here relate to the four aspects of community life. If you remember that root question we talked about, how do we protect all that we value while continuing to grow as a community, we've pushed that down over four logical divisions. You've heard them before. The mayor's talked about them from really his inaugural address forward, because it is a division that makes sense in this community. And so we chose to use it. And those four areas are human needs, physical growth, economic expansion, and cultural creativity. This is the statement that we came up with for human needs, a place where all people can thrive. I'll just let you take a minute to read that, because this, this basically sums up what we would like to see in, uh, our community. These are the sort of statements basically that you might find in any community vision. Um, these particularly though reflect the priorities that were expressed by citizens that participated here, and you really can look at each of them as the answer to that how question. How will we do that? We will be of ... With regard to human needs, we will be a friendly, embracing, and diverse community and so forth. Physical growth, always in balance. Again, that's a very key thing in our community, is keeping that balance, particularly with regard to physical growth. This says, "How are we gonna do that?" This is how we're gonna do that. I wanna highlight the fact that we wanna ensure that all of our urban and suburban neighborhoods flourish. Suburban neighborhoods are sometimes overlooked. And we also wanna acknowledge that, uh, if we do have future growth in our population and needed facilities, we're gonna have to look a lot mor- a lot harder at proactive, cooperative regional planning so that we can address change positively while we balance the needs. The third aspect is economic expansion, a fertile field of new opportunity, and this is the statement that there, uh, came from the 2040 process with regard to that, and you see all of the issues there that were, were highlighted. Fourth is the area of cultural creativity, exploring artistic expression in all things. This was something that got, uh, a great amount of discussion through the process because of the fact that we've been talking about this area a lot in our community. We've had our downtown entertainment task force that's been talking about that part of the cultural life. We're talking about, uh, a trolley system connect these places and so forth and so on that, uh, really I think are, uh, important to look at as we move forward. And this was the expression of the 2040 group with regard to cultural creativity. The informing statements, I'm gonna dwell on a little more just simply because they're a little more, uh, specific. These are things that came out of, uh, the process that were major themes regardless of what the topic was that kept coming up over and over again from the community that say how, in whatever regard we move forward, here are some things that we really need to, to keep in our sights. First is that rural-urban mix. We have an unusual closeness in this community between the city and the countryside. It's really close. People talked repeatedly about being able to be from one to the other in 10 minutes, and they like that. They wanna keep that closeness. It's very unusual. It's what helps to make us unique, and it takes a lot of attention to protect it. ... and to keep it because it is a delicate balance. T- talk about the region came up repeatedly through the process. And the fact that we've got to begin to work more closely with our neighboring communities, uh, in ways that don't compromise their identity, that don't compromise who they are, so that all of those things are valued, and that there's trust, and, uh, that the leadership is, is marked by having a willingness to share new and exciting resources to develop the future of the region. I'll talk about that one just a little more in a minute. Sustainability came up repeatedly throughout the process, and this is, in a very practical sense, I really sort of almost attribute this one to the $4 a gallon gasoline that was going on at the time. People were really looking hard at resources, and they really are beginning to understand the value of having rain gardens and barrels to collect the rainwater, and finding ways to conserve energy, and trying to be more efficient in how we go about our community's infrastructure. And certainly, you know, the, uh, the EPA work that we're doing in the community, and the impact that's gonna have on us, this is really on people's mind in our community. And they just really want us to be sure that, that as we move forward, we do things that are responsible and sustainable, and that basically build our capacity to be adaptable as future change occurs. This last informer is called Community Appeal. And I know the mayor's talked about, uh, Richard Florida's work quite a bit. And, frankly, we had a great number of participants in our process that were young professionals, and even young people, even high school age and on up. And we really tried hard to be sure that we heard that voice because typically they're underrepresented. And this community appeal issue relates somewhat to that, uh, quality of life that, i- it's a magnetic quality of life that attracts and holds creative and talented persons, not just the young though, but people of all ages. The people that are already here that, that basically can help drive this community forward with new ideas and new initiatives, and that we want to try to have the kind of community that's attractive to those people so they'll want to live here and work here and raise their families. So those are the informing statements that we want to keep in mind, again, as we move forward. Now, this moves into the strategies and tactics section of the report. This first section is divided up into those four areas again, and, uh, basically you can see how the community prioritized things. When we first went out to the community, we had this aspect, human needs, and you see there are, beneath there are eight community elements that we looked at, that they were allowed to talk about and, and, um, among themselves, and dialogue, and vote on and so forth, and decide which ones ought to be emphasized. And the four that they emphasized, that's going to be true in all of these slides, are the ones on the left. That doesn't mean that the ones on the right are not important, and I'll, look at the second bullet from the bottom on the right, adequate treated water supply. If you've been around Lexington any time at all, you know that's not ever, that would have been probably the only bullet highlighted at one point in our recent past. But in our process, it didn't come through, and I think it's because people feel like we've got this handled. We, we, it's not unimportant, we want to be sure we have an adequate treated water supply, but we've got it handled. So I don't want you to think that the elements that are not highlighted are unimportant. It's just that the community felt that the ones that are highlighted, these are the ones they chose as being the ones that needed to receive the most emphasis right now, based on where we are, in the sense of need that we have. You see the four, uh, areas there. With regard to physical growth, these are the four areas that came f- to the front through the community input, transportation alternatives, public facilities, and that really refers to things t- where the public gathers, libraries, schools, parks, those sort of things, land use decisions, and, uh, road and utility infrastructure. And I think, again, that's on a lot of people's mind, particularly with the EPA, uh, settlement. With regard to economic expansion, you see, again, these, these four areas that were highlighted, and, uh, the, particularly the thing that came through in this is the importance, I think, of the agricultural industry. We give attention to all of these, but beginning to look at our agri- businesses here in this area more as a part of our economic development pie, and understanding how critical they are, not just in terms of livestock, but all of the related amenities that come. And we saw that really in the equine task force report, for instance, that Dr. Cox presented recently to the council. Um, that's a huge piece of what we need to do in this community. Finally, cultural creativity. Again, the development of an arts and entertainment district on many people's minds. There are, people have a sense that we could do much more in this community to attract tourism, and to offer a greater diversity of cultural offerings and events, and to have, um, enough of a different kinds of per- performing arts facilities. And again, there, if you look at our report, you're gonna see beneath each one of those bulleted items anywhere from three to six different things that we called action approaches that were reviewed by the community, and again, those were assessed and put forward as ideas for here is a tactic, here is a strategy about which you could, um, address this topic and move it forward. So these, again, these action approaches relate specifically to the four aspects of community life. ... uh, each in turn. We also did a category of items that we call momentum builders. These were larger cross-cutting ideas that really can affect two, three, maybe even all four of those aspects as you look at it, and they're divided into five different groups the way that they shook out. The first one, again, is region. Um, I'll highlight just one of each of these as we go through and just briefly mention it. Um, do you have that up? This is one that, that we talked about, um, quite extensively, and some people really don't like this golden triangle label because of the fact that in other parts of Kentucky, it's not necessarily a compliment. It's about that golden triangle that gets all the money that we don't get and all the resources that we don't get. But it is an identity I think that people relate to, so we chose to, to keep it in here. Can you turn that, uh, uh, okay. But we thought, uh, if you zoom in a little bit closer, and we're a part of this, uh, golden triangle, we have several regional partners here in this area, uh, that sort of make this diamond shape and wondered if we could not create a new regional identity based on this because of the fact of when you look at all of the resources that these communities can bring to bear combined, and if we could begin to work together, and you see those highlighted urban areas, and we have this crescent area particularly of the agricultural lands that lie between these communities. We've got to work together in ways that protect that, you know, so that we keep that balance and we need them to help us do that because part of that crescent area lies in their counties or in their jurisdictions, and we need to be more proactive, and this is a proposed idea, uh, to work with the Bluegrass Ad and Bluegrass Tomorrow and all of the other regional, uh, agencies that are out there and also directly with these communities to see if we couldn't put an economic development identity around this Bluegrass Diamond. Okay, thanks, Neil. Uh, the next section of Momentum Builders dealt with people and the Comprehensive Health and Human Services Directory was one of those ideas. By the way, each of these are fleshed out in the report basically as a one pager. You know, we've built a rationale for why we ought to do this, what things we can bring to bear, uh, and basically sort of a charge for the implementation side of this project to pursue. Here, we've, we've, uh, our, our Commissioner Helm here did a lot of great work on this, uh, only last year with regard to looking at the social services needs assessment in our community. She's worked on closely with the United Way, who set up the 211 network, and they've done quite a bit to make that accessible to people in real time and in many different languages and all of this sort of thing. But here's a piece of low hanging fruit where we could really s- pursue in a, in a way to make a truly comprehensive directory available to all of our citizens in a way that they can access it and which would be a model really for other people, other communities to look at. Third, uh, section of Momentum Builders is called Place. And here are three other ideas that were fleshed out. One that we talked about quite a bit toward the end is having a consistently clean community, and the fact that we have not only li- some litter issues, but visual clutter, um, is so-called, and to try to identify ways that we could work with the state authorities on the roadways to get beyond some of these, well, whose responsibility is it to pick that up or this up, and ways to more proactively use, um, our sources of labor and other things to just try to be sure that we're keeping a consistently clean community. That's one of the ideas. Another one that has to do with systems are local public transportation improvements. Here's another one that we did not know about when we began this process and it came out and basically is about a, a circulator trolley system and which was announced I think in early fall that, that the funding is in place, I believe, for this piece of the pie, although we've not implemented it. And this is something that we want to be sure is followed through on and that it goes beyond just, uh, this idea of the old trolley we used to have connecting the downtown areas, but that it picks up into our educational triangle that we're gonna be seeing come into, into play and that we connect all of those places where students are wanting to go, we connect the nightlife establishments as they come on, perhaps what we see over on Manchester Street, and all of those in a way that people can come down here and enjoy this, this part of town and get around without having to, uh, uh, have transportation be an issue. Finally, community development. Uh, one thing that we worked on, uh, was this idea of why does Auburn have a vet school and we don't? Why does Mississippi State have a vet school and we don't? We're the horse capital of the world, why shouldn't we have that sort of a thing? But in talking with Dr. Cox and, and Dean Smith over at College of Ag and in reviewing some monies the state had already put aside, it became apparent really that what we need to pursue is a UK research and development center for animal diagnostics and other, uh, I think racetrack testing and that sort of thing. Um, that would be something in between that. They feel good about our veterinary training being able to be done elsewhere and that we, we have enough access to that, and a facility like this is what would actually help our community more. But beyond that specific facility, look at all of the resources that we already have in this community about animal health. We've got some of the world class equine veterinary hospitals. Uh, we have 30, over 30 headquarters now out at the horse park. I think it's 34 headquarters for large animal livestock, equine, and other related livestock. We have a huge cattle industry. The third is, Knox, is it the second or third? ... third largest, uh, in the nation, largest this side of the Mississippi. We have all of these things that are not particularly connected though in- in a way that makes them a- a truly powerful and- and potent economic development force. Why shouldn't we try to connect those? That's what the ideas in this momentum builder are like. Uh, there's 15 ideas that we felt like really could be easily pursued, uh, to move, again, this vision forward. Now, I want to move quickly just to implementation and then we're almost home. Uh, most communities, when it comes to implementation of a vision, they will use some sort of a foundation. Part of the reason for that is because, uh, it's not just the government's job to perform on, uh, realizing a vision. It takes, again, everybody, all the different parts of the community working together, having come into agreement around a vision. Also, though a f- a foundation gives you, uh, a number of reasons really why it makes sense to- to use, uh, a sort of a once removed setting from the government. A- a foundation can give you long-term focus. They give you accountability. They give you a neutral forum to do your work. They're once removed really from the political arena, so that, uh, rapidly changing elected leadership, uh, couldn't easily undo a vision. Uh, it is true community ownership, not just us. And it gives a centralized base of operation. We've had discussions in a preliminary way with the Blue Grass Community Foundation. And they've begun to get involved in a big way in this kind of work. And you probably already know they're doing the legacy initiatives piece to set that office up to pursue two or three visionary ideas that were founded through, uh, funded through the Knight Foundation to set that office up to continue pursuit of our Main Chance Trail and our Third Street Corridor and that sort of thing. We had a very positive discussion with them as a potential home for the implementation side of Destination 2040 and about how that would work. And, um, so with regard to that implementation agreement, here are some things that, if we chose to go in this direction, LFUCG could do. We ought to take a lead in pursuing an agreement with the community foundation for performance of the- of the Destination 2040 project. We ought to acquire some community partner commitments so that this truly isn't just a government initiative, but that we have various segments of the community helping to fund an ongoing office to, uh, pursue Destination 2040. That agreement oughta address certain things in our mind, staffing and performance issues, what the initial funding structure and term would be, what's the reporting cycle for these group to come back and report to the community on progress and, uh, basically performance. Uh, we would keep ongoing work teams in our mind around these four aspects of community life that we've, th- that have started and continue to draw from the expertise, uh, and the investment we've already gotten from several people in our community that- that helped us to shape the vision and then basically also vision evolution. How- how will we tweak the vision in the future? What if we check things off the list that we've got done? Or what if there's some major new circumstance that causes us to think differently about something that we've got in there? It's important to- to think about all of those things. So we also wanted to provide some performance measurement tools, uh, or s- at least suggest some. These frankly are still a bit in process because I think you really need to develop them as you begin the implementation phase, but we've begun already, uh, to identify indicators. There are 16 of these indicators, and there's, again, there's- there's four of these aspects of community life and beneath each f- of those four, there are four areas that were, uh, community elements that were given emphasis. So we... That's 16 items and we wanted to provide an indicator for each of those 16 items. Uh, they're selected based on the vision specifics and just, again, they're a simple concise way to indicate project. And we've tried to choose indicators to this point that really speak to a broad range of related activities. Uh, and those are in your report, the ones that we've got, uh, so far. Now, I want to talk just for a moment about the importance of, uh, a word I love, engrain, and the importance of engraining this vision. Um, there you see Webster's definition of that word, engrain, to work indelibly into the natural texture or mental or moral constitution or to introduce one thing into another so as to affect it throughout. When you have a true community vision, it's important for you to practice engraining that vision throughout the community at every opportunity you get so that it becomes a part of conversation. And by that, I mean that questions come up like this that need to become automatic, really even not second nature, first nature type questions. When new initiatives are proposed or when a major new issue arises in the community or things happen, we ought to ask ourself, how does this activity or initiative support the vision? And we ought to be able to trace that back. And if we can't do that, then we ought to s- consider tweaking it or what other things that we might do that might more closely align with the vision that's been stated and embraced by the community. Second thing is how does this activity or initiative reflect the vision it formed, so specific items... ... that really, we need to pay attention to and that we don't want to have a negative impact on as, as we move forward. That needs to become part of the conversation. Now, I know a lot of you folks, uh, went down to Austin, for instance, last year. So, so what's the phrase there? Somebody say it. Keep Austin weird. You know it. See, you came home from Austin. You can tell me what their vision is. There are oth- their other vision, the, the, the real vision they began to pursue back in the early to mid-'90s was to become the most livable community in the country. Well, what does that mean? I mean, that sounds like a bunch of lofty, froufrou kind of language. That doesn't really mean anything. They've made it mean something over the past 20 years because they've invested in it, and because everything that came along in that community, they said, "Does it keep Austin weird? Does it support the vision that we've put forward? How does it support it? If it doesn't support it, why are we doing it?" If you go on their website and look at what their city council does to track that vision and their city government to try to help enforce that, you'd be amazed. Maybe some of you saw that while you were down there. But that's the only way you can do it. You've gotta trace things back to a vision. Otherwise, we will have spent a good part of the year of 2008 chasing down a lot of language through the community that, in, in essence, basically won't have very much meaning, and we just don't want to be guilty of having done that. It's really important to ingrain the vision. There are a lot of ways you can do that through the implementation piece. You can develop the, basically continue to develop the solid vision network that's already in place, involve a lot of people, do reporting on progress and achievements, celebrate successes publicly, honor your community partners, uh, award the individual achievements that people make, and define specific future year goals. These are just some things that you can do that will help reinforce the vision throughout the community as things come along and as people, people, people, uh, can see it move forward, make progress, and know that the work that they did made a difference. All right. What next? That's the question. Basically, we've completed the first phase of this project, and I'm giving it to you today. I don't consider it, frankly, finished yet until the council has been able to weigh in and talk about, um, this project and to have, uh, your input. I know some of you were involved more than others along the way, but this may be the first time you've really tried to, to look at the nuts and bolts of this to see, does this make sense, does this seem to, to line up with where we want to go, uh, based on the fact that you are the elected leadership of the community, uh, and that you have, I think, good insights into those things. I think it reflects the authentic voice of the community, 'cause we had the participation numbers that we did. So we spent a year designing a process and engaging the community and refining the results. We've issued this report and imp- proposed for you an implementation scheme to consider. Uh, we've delivered, I think, to the community, uh, leadership, uh, on this project for follow-through, and, um, I think that, really, you have in front of you what, uh, the beginnings of a very solid, strong community vision that makes sense for Lexington, Kentucky, and that is doable and achievable if we will pursue it. So I appreciate your time. Again, I want to acknowledge the efforts of the, the many people who participated along the way with, uh, Destination 2040. It was, uh, a very interesting, uh, and challenging ride, and one which we had people from very opposite ends of the spectrum sitting across from each other and coming to agreement around this document. And I don't think that was any small achievement. I think it was an important... I used it as a test, really, to see if I thought we could do this, because I think it's real important in our community that, uh, for us to understand, at this juncture in our history, it is possible for people who have very, very different viewpoints sometimes to agree on a vision for a community that's out in front of them and come around our community and move it forward toward that vision. That's what we hope will be the impact of Destination 2040. You have our report, and I'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you very much, Charlie. Let me add my, uh, own words of appreciation to all of you who are here today, and to those of you who have participated extensively in this process over the course of the last year. It would have not been nearly as successful had you not made the commitment that you did, and I'm very grateful for that. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Charlie, thank you very much. And, uh, since you sort of, uh, retired on the sly, I want to thank you for your years of service at LFUCG. Um, I did have a question for you. If you go back to the very first, uh, page, at the six pillars, um, the 20- Destination 2040 has to do with the community vision. One of the other pillars is innovative planning, and so on page six, one of your momentum builders, a- and I, I don't know if you have a fleshed-out, i- in the full packet if you have a fleshed-out, um, discussion of the momentum buil- builders. But in this box of place, um, you talked about the center one, a consistently clean community, but you didn't mention becoming more proactive about planning and use urban land efficiently through infill and redevelopment. And personally, I think those two things related to planning are two of the most important that we could attend to. So I wondered what the discussion was, just in brief, I don't want- It- ... a long discussion. I do have that. But of those two points about planning. I do have that, and again, this was, um, we, we just wanted to highlight maybe one of those as an example as we went through that. But we do have, uh, I do have, and hopefully you all have the report. I know I gave it to you a, a little earlier. I hope it's been reissued to you for... If you don't have it, I'll be glad to get you the final copy of the report so that you do have all of this language in front of you. Um, you can read it at night. Uh, but basically, this discussion revolved around the how question, how are we gonna continue to grow and protect all that we value? Again, and the fact that we're going to need to go about that in ways that give flexibility and creativity and capital resources that we need really to give better functionality, better community infrastructure systems, uh, and s- and, and, and to protect our balance. It's, it's basically laid out in here. And I, again, I know you want a, a, a brief answer in here and, uh, if I could give a brief answer to solve that question, then I wouldn't, you know- Uh, that's okay. ... I wouldn't be here in front of you today because bigger, better things. But it's, it's a very, um, um, pertinent issue obviously in this community. And we talked about things like, in our planning process, why can't we get out ahead of infrastructure development? Why can't we decide the optimum places and work with our friends down here on Main Street to decide where's the best place for a school in an area that's gonna develop in the future? And let's go ahead and nail that down now instead of ending up with the last lot that happens to be available that we can make work. What are some things that we can do to be sure that the infrastructure systems connect the way that they're supposed to and aren't complicated by our current system, which is... I don't want to use the word reactive. It's the system that we have in place, and it is dependent upon when we zone land, how people come forward and who comes forward first, which developer first to build which part of the system. And that hopefully in the end it all ties together well. Is there a way that we can just go ahead and get in front of that, similar to some of the success I think that we've seen in the expansion area, to try to do that really throughout the community and to get ahead of those kinds of things? It's, it's really about trying to be more creative, more, um, out front of things so that we don't end up with mediocre infrastructure systems to live with. The streets connect well, the traffic flows the way that it's supposed to. The schools, the libraries, all of those things are where they need to be. That was a lot of what this discussion was about. Well, I'll, I'll look forward to taking a look at the full-blown- Mm-hmm. ... um, discussion. I know that the mayor mentioned two years ago when we, um, decided jointly, the council and the mayor, about our six pillars, planning was one of those six out of every single thing that we talked about. And I, I personally think that good, innovative, proactive planning affects everything we do. And so I, I appreciate that you touched on it, and I'll look forward to more of your recommendations. One other key one I didn't mention but that I need to here was just this whole infill and redevelopment scenario that we need to, to get in place that supports really what we're doing with the PDR in the rural area by helping to maximize our resources in the already developed areas. I know vice mayor's worked hard on that with the staff and others. And you know, that's, that's an example of the kind of plan that this group is saying, "To the degree you have a plan, follow through on it." They're directly linked. Just to be done. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Council- Council Member Stennet. Thank you, ma'am. Charlie, thank you for bringing this to us today. I know we just had through a couple preliminary drafts o- of this report and, um, I appreciate the summary and all your hard work and everyone's work who's here today on this issue. Um, obviously this, this body sat down two years ago and developed the pill- pillars that you referenced in here. And, you know, one of the disturbing things when we were sitting down there and developing those, those six pillars, and many of you experienced the same thing, is that we didn't really didn't have a vision to create those pillars around. We didn't have a statement that w- was guiding us in creating those pillars. I, I guess my big question is, w- what were the discussions around coming up with that statement, that vision statement, and, and what does that statement look like as we go forward? You know, same as Austin has, um, you know, they have a pretty precise one. Um, you know, 14, I think 14, 15 words or less. What, what's... What was the discussion about on our statement for Lexington? Well, we've given you the broad language that the group gave the consensus on as of now, which is great city life in a productive rural paradise. It's basically a picture of the balance that we need to keep. And, and the struggle is always going to be, I think, in this community of keeping our balance. And that that's what carries forward throughout. And I'm not sure I'm getting at what you're answering the question that you just asked. This may be the next step, that we're gonna bring it all back in together and narrow it down to a simple vision statement that everyone can buy into, live, breathe, and eat every day. Right. And I don't... I'm not sure that that was the purpose of this exercise, but I think we're getting there, right? I think that that's where... I, I think that is the statement that we would put forward that we've been able to agree upon through the citizen input at this point in time. And I, I think the majority of the people, it was a strong consensus, really liked this statement. It's not... Keep Austin weird. ... but it -- it -- it relates to what we have here specifically in Lexington, Kentucky. And I think that we tried to -- to -- to really focus on our specific attributes and to try to keep something that is succinct, but that paints the right picture. And -- and that would -- the -- the statement on page three, great city life in a rural -- productive rural paradise. Right. That's the one. Yes. And -- and next steps, what's the timeframe for your next steps? Well, the implement -- I -- I really feel like that that's part of what the council needs to discuss now with regard to implementation. I feel like this was a charge on delivering one of the six pillars. We've given you a proposed implementation structure. You may like it, you may not. Uh, but I really think at this point, it's -- it's the best plan that we can see going forward, and would be important, I think, to follow through on as quickly as possible without missing a beat. 'Cause we built up a lot of advocacy and support in the community through the process. Very good. Thank you, sir. Council member James. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Um, Charlie, thank you. Um, I'll just repeat what everyone else has said that applaud the -- your efforts and the efforts of all those that were involved and everyone that took the time to respond. It's pretty exciting to see the vision of community come forward, um, and give us an opportunity to respond to it. Couple of questions I have, one of them is with, um, Austin is very successful with, um, getting everyone to buy into the Keep Austin Weird and I'm excited about the relationship potentially with, um, Blue Grass, because I think that they can maybe help for, like you said, to kind of not remove the government, but make the government a part of the process that's combined with community. What I'm wondering, is there any -- is there a -- an example that we could use as far as how to make sure that, um, we're monitoring the progress of 2040, the values that came out? Because kind of what I'm envisioning and tell me if I'm going -- jump -- barking up the wrong tree or what, but it's something like a -- a check-off list. And so if someone submits something and they say I want to know if this qualifies as a 2040, there's kind of a check-off list of how many of the values or the vision does it actually match? And then what are the benefits? What should be the benefits and the incentives to something aligning with the 2040 vision? How do we -- how do we support that? How do we incentivize, you know, policies, ordinances, programs, businesses, organizations, everyone to buy into this and to keep in line with -- with the vision? I think that's -- the -- you've just described the activity that would be the first one, two, three years of the implementation phase. That -- whatever person is charged with that responsibility or team of people, that's really gonna be their focus, is -- is to weave this vision through the community, get that buy-in from people to move any of the things forward that can be moved forward, uh, and to define some of the criteria that you just talked about, um, as it moves forward. I think what we have today is the broad language that we all agree on that basically paints the vision, I think, that we want to see as we move toward 2040. Mm-hmm. We do have a good example. It's about 70 miles north of here. It's called Vision 2015 in northern Kentucky and it's about, uh, 20 -- 15 to 20 years into their work. And if you want to see how one of these things is done extremely well, I think that's a good -- you should visit their website. We've talked to those people who I think it'd be important to talk to them going forward, because they've done it in Kentucky. The same sort of community input? Absolutely. Okay. They -- they have huge numbers of people involved through any number of working committees. They have check-off lists on their website about these things are in progress, these things are already been done, here's the next thing we're gonna pursue. Uh, they have a funnel mechanism where new ideas can come in and be tested, does this meet the criteria, all of those sort of things. Mm-hmm. And they've done that very successfully just 70 miles north of here. Now they did it out of economic survival basically- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ... from where they were probably about 1990 and early '90s. Mm-hmm. And realized that if we do not begin to come together as this big coagulation of cities up here against the river and begin to work together, we may not survive. And it's largely an economic development oriented exercise- Mm-hmm. ... an education-oriented exercise, but they do get into these other areas that we talk about here too. Mm-hmm. And they've been able to spread that out throughout and involve a great number of people and I think it's an excellent example- Mm-hmm. ... actually for us to use a model. I think Austin's was strongly geared towards economics as well. It is. And been very successful par- from what I saw. I think they, uh, that -- basically research we did there and how that they drive that, how they engrain it in their community- Mm-hmm. ... is very useful and very instructive. Mm-hmm. And obviously you want to steal every good idea that you can- Mm-hmm. ... to move these things forward. Mm-hmm. So there -- there are models there. Mm-hmm. And of the folks that have been involved, all the volunteers, have you had like a show of hands for those that would like to remain involved? Because it seems like we're gonna need -- we're gonna need some ambassadors to -- to go out there and -- and to work with Irwin County Government and everyone else. You got a list of people that are gonna stick around? I don't know, guys. What do you think? Yeah. Everybody that we've talked to seems extremely interested in seeing this move forward. It was interesting, the comments we got throughout, we've never had an opportunity to talk about this kind of stuff with just our fellows. ... most of these meetings took place with group, peer groups. Uh-huh. You know, it was an office, a group that, you know, Drew and Allen led groups at the Y, and some of their outlying facilities that, people that were getting together anyway. Hmm. Normal, everyday people. People in the school class, leadership, Lexington, Young Lexington, all of the different things. We, we made an effort to reach out to, you know, the handicapped population- Uh-huh. ... um, and disabled populations 'cause they're typically not represented. But every one of those groups that I was in, and I was in quite a few of them, we've never had an opportunity to talk about this kind of thing. It's always just the immediate buzz thing that's going on. But to talk about our future's fun, and it energized them. It excited them. Hmm. They liked it. And I think that they are very interested in moving forward with the process. Uh-huh. What about Irwin County government staff? And you've now retired. Is there anyone that's volunteered to step up to be that liaison on behalf of the district? I have so far, but... You know, I think that's a good question though. Okay. That, that needs to be answered in terms of point person that's an official LFUCG rep, who that might be, but- Okay. ... I don't know the answer to that. Well, good work, and I do, um, um, if my assistant's watching, she'll probably think it's not a good idea, but I would like to stay involved in this, so if there's an opportunity to, to help as much as I can, um, please let me know, and anybody that's here today that's been a facilitator, you need, you need someone to go to a meeting with you, give me a call and I'll be ha- happy to, on behalf of at least the First District, and maybe on behalf of the council, um, be, be ready to be there to respond to see what we need to do from a council standpoint, and I appreciate your work, again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, ma'am. Council Member Beard. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, Charlie, before I get into the, the meat of what I want to mention, I do want to congratulate you on your retirement. Thank you. We will miss you greatly. Thank you. Um, I know you're probably going to go to Nashville or LA or somewhere and- ... and become a songwriter or, um- We'll see about that. ... and then bring the money back to us so that we can figure out some way we can do all of this. We'll keep the c- That's really my question on page- ... we'll keep the corporate office in Lexington, that's right. On page five, in the, uh, box called Economic Expansion, and the very last item on the right, Stabilize Government Revenues, and I hate to get mundane about this, but having seen some of the wish lists of what, uh, uh, some of the participants have, uh, put out there, uh, it's going to take a big chunk of money. Even if it is 32 years of it, it's going to take a bunch of money and, um, has anybody... Hopefully, somebody has got an answer for us out of that group of 3000 people. I'm going to... You mentioned wishlist, and I want to talk about the fact that there was a, sort of a sample listing of ideas put out, uh, in mid-process that some people began to think, "This is what the Destination 2040 exercise is promoting?" It really wasn't that at all. It was a testing of ideas that we put forward in community meetings to get ideas about what people thought were bold and doable ideas. And I think you'll note that none of the ones that people thought were pretty crazy really made it through into the final report. Our people have a good sense of what's doable, is how I interpret that. It's true that a lot of the things in here will take money. I think a larger number of things in here will take something that's maybe harder to come by, and that's cooperation, getting people to work together. So I think a lot of this vision can be accomplished if we can get people to work together, maybe in new and different ways that they've not worked before. But the things that will take dollars, take for instance, maybe the high dollar one in here is the idea of a transportation system that links up our neighboring communities by way of a monorail. It's true that that would be costly, but between now and 2040, how do we know that federal dollars or other dollars won't be redirected to tho- that type of mass transit for communities that get their act together and decide, "We want to get away from petroleum-based fuels and we want to do everything we can to help the environment and get people to use mass transit"? Mm-hmm. And so what about that idea? What would it take to do that and bring people around that idea and flesh it out and do things like cost it out in a very real way by people that are professional engineers or transportation officials and others who know what it takes to, to count that cost? And then decide through the visioning process as it goes from year to year, is this worth pursuing? Do we want to do this? And if it is, well, let's get busy. Let's, let's drive it. Let's push it. So there, there was thought given to the cost of, of items, but it wasn't our purpose to do cost estimating or to, to get that detailed about it. It basically was more along the lines of, how can we do things that might protect, uh, this balance and line up with the other things that we say are important and get those ideas on the table? And to the degree that they can be costed out, then I do think that's part of the initial implementation phase or trying to see which of those, 'cause some things may be just too costly and, and you can't do them. You just can't... You gotta choose between this or that, and we, we, we recognize that. Well, you know, I would agree with you. I think, um, obviously some of those that, that I saw initially, I, uh, I was one of the, the people that raised my eyebrows about, uh- ... tunnels from Nicholasville to downtown Lexington and things like that, that- Yeah. ... it bothered me a little bit. Uh- I'm glad that didn't make it through too, Mr. Beard. Yeah. Well, I am too. Um, it's the stabilize question about the revenues that, uh, I'm, I'm really focusing on 'cause we, right now, are going through some problems because of the, uh, an unstable, uh, revenue source. There was, there was talk given to that. Part of, part of the intent of that element as it was defined was really about looking at our existing revenues and how, for instance, here at LFUCG, we are so dependent on the payroll tax- Mm-hmm. ... and, uh, what that does to us in times of economic downturn. And is there a way that maybe through some sort of tax reform idea that could be proposed and, and agreed upon to shift things in a way that makes our revenue base more stable. Uh, that really was what that, that issue was about because a stable, a, a government that is stable is a huge component to good economic expansion. That's how that related. You'll see other things in economic expansion though on the items that did make it through with regard to the action approaches that are in there about pursuing ways to enhance, uh, our revenues or to get new kinds of revenue streams not currently available to us to be able to, to come in that will help to strengthen our revenue base. So you're gonna see that sort of thing that did actually make it through into our report. Well, that's great. Hopefully, we can get there. Uh, I, I think that's probably the linchpin of, uh, of, of all that we're talking about. Uh, it, it always gets back to money- Mm-hmm. ... somewhere along the line. It's true. Again, thank you and thank your group for, uh, for all their work. Thank you, Councilman. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you again, Charlie, for all you do and have done for so long. Um, you know, I think what I gather from this, kinda going back from your original statement is that the, the balancing act in Lexington that people have identified is, how do we grow while preserving what, what's important to us or to us as individuals or us collectively? And, and I, I do think you hit the nail on the head. I think that where the next bit of work comes from is, you know, defining what is that vision that we can articulate in, in an elevator speech or in a tagline or a bumper sticker that everyone can, can articulate? And as we go, uh, from different s-... around different cities, what I find interesting is some... a number of the cities that we've gone to in the last number of years have... the, the taxi cab driver can tell you what the vision is. Uh, he can tell you what the statement is, and so can the waitress, and so can the mayor. And I think that, as you say, that, that ingraining has to take place, and, uh, I think we have to move, uh, move ourselves down the line a little bit. And there's a, a great statement that says, "Vision leaks," and so you have to cast it every 28 days, or else people forget why they're doing what they're doing. And so it's great that we've done all this and that we can even articulate it into a 14-word sentence or a seven-word sentence. But until we get it down into this, this very distilled thing that, uh, we can articulate and we gotta recast that every 28 days and everybody's gotta be saying it, you know, we'll... we won't be there. And, and so... um, but one of the things that, that's tough about this city is, is that sometimes, uh, we, we see that maybe there's a leadership vacuum that, you know, folks aren't leading or whatever, but I, I sense that a lot of times folks don't like to be led, you know. Some folks don't want us telling what to do or the chamber or the state, or, you know, just pick any entity. And I think one of the things you said that's really important is, is that there's, there's gotta be, uh, a sense of cooperation, which is tougher to get sometimes than money. And I think that as a group that has helped, uh, get this to this point, I would encourage you all to recognize that's probably our biggest challenge is, is to find that cooperative spirit and find the areas where we do agree, um, because there's aspects of this that people can get hung up on and chuck the whole thing. And what we want to try and do, I think, is, is to find those common denominator areas and, and, uh, and focus in on those. And so a couple of weeks ago, Lexmark and Toyota came down and, and talked to this body about we're, we're not doing enough. We haven't created enough, um, of a city that's... that puts them in a competitive advantage for, for hiring and so forth. And one of the things that was brought up in that discussion was, uh, the fact that we do a lot of talk, we do a lot of studies around here, and there's not a lot of implementation. And that what the real crisis seems to be these days is people want to see stuff get done. They don't want to see folks just talking about it. They want to see, uh, see their efforts rewarded. And I think, Charlie, you've articulated that since day one, that you've been through these types of things before in your career where people... you ask people to be involved, they get involved, and then they don't see anything for their involvement. That's the risk that we run right now with this, is that we've had 3,000 people, uh, 10, 15% of our, our population be involved in this, and they've expended a great deal of time, money, and energy, and that we as a body that, that want to move the city forward, what... we need to make sure that, that we're doing something. We're at least attacking the low fruit. So I guess my question to you, Charlie, is, um, from an implementation standpoint, uh, what is it that we could do, we can do as a body, or, or we could do collectively to en- engage in agreement, um, and, and, and discuss an agreement with the Legacy Center, uh, for being the implementer of some of these things? Well, we can, we can have that discussion, but in a broader sense, in a broader response to your question is Page 36 in here. Okay. You're in tune very well, Mr. McCord, with a lot of the folks in the community who express this idea that we wrote up as, uh, civic project management, and that there is a dearth of that in the community. ... people expressed, uh, in many, many, many settings how much we talk about things, but we don't ever actually get around to doing things. And that doesn't mean that the people that are involved aren't well-intended, equipped, uh, educated enough to do it. A lot of times, we've not put a structure in place that is, is, uh, truly defines, well, who's leading the effort and how are we gonna hold this group, um, accountable or equip them to actually be able to deliver on that? So one of our momentum builders that you'll find in this document is exactly on the point that you raised, that we need to do a better job of what we called in this exercise civic project management. And that- that- that's a pretty broad thing, but it gets exactly at some of the things that you mentioned with our business community that wants a different or enhanced community to attract employees, that sort of thing. Well, I- I would just encourage all that are involved to- to really focus in on that piece right there, that- that if it's on page 36, to- to absorb that and recognize that that's- that's kind of the distilled takeaway from today is, is that the community is saying, "Hey, we wanna see things done." Um, we wanna see things done. We wanna, I- I've said before on this mic that so many folks will come down and present to us and then not tell us what we need to do next. Mm-hmm. And- and I think that what we, I, at least am looking for are what are those next steps to taking a- a place like the Legacy Center that is doing a phenomenal job of ci- civic project management. And I know Councilman, uh, James and I both with our projects that are near and dear to our heart from the 3rd Street revitalization to the trail, uh, to the horse park, I mean, they're doing phenomenal work, uh, for this community. And I think that- that, again, let's recognize who does get things done and let's- let's, um, see about moving that forward. The last challenge I would- I would leave with all those involved in the group, uh, the- the facilitators and- and folks who really have kind of, uh, lived with this for the last year, Councilman Beard brings up a great point. You know, the part that does ask for money, and it's one thing to put in a recommendation and say, "More funding should go towards education or towards..." Uh, that- that's all fine and well, but there- there needs to be a next step. Right. And what I would challenge is, what are those things, uh, that we can do now that- that- that drive other types of things? What- where can we focus money that will bring other money? Um, because we don't need to scatter shot it and- and try and- and get all of these things done. If we focus on maybe one or two or three, they may lead to 30 of these- of these types of things. And so, uh, I don't know, Charlie, if there's anything that jumps off the page at you specifically that in your experience that you would point us to, much like you just did with page 36. Well, page 27, Jake. I'm just kidding. There you go. Teed that one up for you. Yeah. Yeah, you did. Th- that is something that was, I think is related to what you said just earlier about just the whole idea that you can deliver results on things that, uh, you have with regard to project manage. Obviously, a big part of that is how are you gonna fund things? How are you gonna pick and choose between things or bring new monies in that you're not able to get now? And I think that's a very valid exercise for somebody to pursue moving forward with trying to identify and acquire funding for maybe some of these initiatives that would require new funding. Some- some of this can be d- be done with redirected kind of things. Yeah. But obviously, you- you can always use more funding. The last thing I'll say to this is, is that, you know, we put a date out here that some people kind of, uh, blank out on. Uh, I'll be 70 years old in 2040 and my daughter will be roughly my age, you know, and in a place of- of, um, potential civic engagement if she- if she's here and so forth. And what we really need to make sure that we focus on is that if we're doing these things, that we have a succession plan in place and a succession plan of communication in place because as they say, vision leaks. And if we're not able to communicate it amongst ourselves and- and the vote, those of us that are here right now, how in the world can any of our- our kids take this up and- and run with it? So again, I thank you guys very much for all that you've done and Charlie, specifically you. Thank you. Thank you. I will just share with everyone that- Oh. ... Council Member Gordon has advised that she'll be 92 in the year 40, 2040. I will not be that old. Vice Mayor Gray. Thank you, Mayor. And I- I th- uh, I'm gonna, um, sandwich on some of what Council Member McCord had to say and, um, but... and, um, and watching the clock, I know we need to move on, but, uh, I wanna thank the mayor for the initiative here and for the administration, everybody who worked on this. Charlie, certainly you. And before Ann McBrayer leaves the room, thank you, Ann, too. As I was gonna say, you know, part of this too, part of our opportunity in this, um, is ta- I mean, it looks like y'all, you know, pulled some really good data together. And the language, you know, there's a lot of clarity in the language. I know Steve is walking away too, but Steve, you and Rhoda, you guys did a great job with this. The clarity in the language is really powerful. Um, I suspect that we're all still yearning for, there is that sense that, um, uh, y- you know, you used the Austin, uh, identity line and the inspirational nature of that, uh, the enthusiasm that that creates that we may perhaps still need to reach and stretch and work some more to find that. But the data that is here is really extraordinary and I think that's really worth acknowledging and to all of, you know, so many people who worked on this, enormous credit. Um, one other thing that this, that struck me is, you know, we- we hear f- from- from this, from- from this horseshoe, we hear lots of presentations and we start connecting the dots often- Right. ... and encouraging the connection of those dots. The alignment of- ... initiatives that may be in one place and then in another, and it wasn't that long ago that we heard the branding presentation, the equine branding presentation just before Christmas in which Commerce Lexington and, um, and David Lord and the Convention and Visitor's Bureau introduced their work and the Big, Big Lex, Big Blue and the opportunities to engrain, you know, that, that image, whether it's controversial or not, you know, Keep Austin Weird was provocative. And you can imagine that there were people in Austin that said, "Oh my goodness, we can't go there." But that's ex- the- Right. ... you take this data and, in my view at least, you take this data and we start then linking it to these other very creative and very ambitious and often even provocative results or initiatives or recommendations and we can have then that next level that Council Member McCord was ser- was sugge- was perhaps suggesting. So thank you all again very much and thank you Mayor for your leadership on this. Ju- just, just one quick response to your initial point. They didn't start at Keep Austin Weird. They started at, "We wanna be the most livable community in the country." That, that's not nearly as, you know, every taxi driver and elevator guy and, and everybody knows that. And I think you have to start with what makes sense and then over time, you're gonna get to that. And I really think that's the case here too. Uh, this group, I tell you, it was a great group of people to work with. We had some challenging meetings, but I think this language that we've put in front of you today is we feel about the best that we can do at this point and we don't s- I don't, I don't think that that means it can't evolve, uh, it can't grow over time or as it makes sense in some new ways. So I hear, I hear your comment and I think we've presented today I think about as far as we think we can take it and that if, if we are successful and if we're in the shoes where Austin is now and w- you know, 20 years from now, where we can look back, we'll be able to say, "Remember when we did this? And then this came forward and that." And, and we'll be able to see that stepwise growth of, of the vision as it got engrained but thank you, sir. Council Member Lawless. Um, thank you very much and congratulations on your retirement and, uh, you'll probably be busier than you've ever been in your life - ... in my experience. And thank you to Roberts and K for their participation and all the volunteers. Two things, one, I think you made a very good point that Austin didn't start out Keep Austin Weird. It really was organically grown. They realized that they had a very, uh, tolerant, open, accepting, live-and-let-live neighborly community and that it drew a lot of talented people. And I think we need to keep that in mind as we move forward. The second thing I'd like to ask is, is the 2040 website linked to the LFUCG website or is it independent? It is. It is linked and I think actually- I mean, is it a part of? It, it, it is currently- Okay. ... the way it currently exists. And by the way, we just posted this document on there for the general public, anybody that's watching or listening can access this document by going to lexingtonky.gov, our, our new website. Um, and also, it seems to me that you probably have a huge database of emails, et cetera, and I'm wondering if one of the ways we can get people involved and keep 'em involved and engaged is through that website and through that database. And I just wanna make sure that- That's the plan. ... there's... Okay, thank you. Yes, ma'am. Wonderful job. Thank you. Council Member Feagel. Um, I too would like to congratulate you on your retirement and to tell you that you took on a huge challenge for the mayor to come to you and say, "Here, I want you to talk to 3,000 people in our community and come to a consensus." So that is a, a real challenge. Uh, I've served on two of these vision studies in previous communities and I know how difficult that process is. Uh, I do think that, uh, what we need to, to accept as a council is this is just the beginning, and while this may seem a little awkward to us today or a little foreign to us today, that I think as we move through, um, some of the, the policies and procedures that we normally do every day, uh, we will begin to see how this actually can give us some guidance in making those decisions. Mm-hmm. Uh, so I really appreciate what you've done and I think it will really help us, uh, to, to be the city that we wanna be in 2040. Thank you. Tha- thank you. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to, um, ha- uh, have any questions for, uh, Mr. Bolin or the rest of the folks who are here? All right. Thank you, Charlie. I, I think the, uh, question that's now before the council is how would you like to proceed with this? Is this information that you think should be referred to a standing committee, a special committee for further consideration? Is it something that should be moved on to the docket for, uh, the next council meeting or perhaps some other course of action? Mayor, I make a motion we put it in the planning committee. Second. And motion is to refer it to the planning committee. Congratulations. Thank you. Any, uh, discussion? Council Member James. Um, I was -- I've been thinking about which committee it needs to go in, and there's so many. And I'm wondering, maybe Planning would be the first step, and Planning could then decide which would be appropriate, where it could be appropriately, yeah, split. So, I mean, I do support it going into some committee to start taking some action. But I don't think that that would be the end result. That's not where it's gonna be housed. Thank you. Vice Mayor Gray. Well, I -- I'm just sort of thinking out loud here, and I'm tagging a little bit on, or, or l- listening to what several council members had to say, especially what Council Member Feigl had to say in terms of -- and, and Council Member Lawless too, in terms of this being, um, having gained a lot of, um, traction, critical mass of support, and so forth, and, uh, being able to continue in a, um, in a positive and affirmative way, you know, while we may be deliberating. I guess, uh, my point is, uh, or Mayor, are you thinking that, uh, that the administration would continue with Charlie? H- how do things keep going as we may review things- Yeah. ... I guess, is what I'm getting at? Well, I had a conversation with Charlie about this earlier, and I think we -- I think the group that's been working on it has given it their best shot to this point. And it's a pretty good shot, from everything I have seen. And, and they are to be commended for it. But now, at some point or another, for this to kind of take on the life of the community, I think it's appropriate for the council to give it some imprimatur. Not that that is the end of the process, but that is the next significant step in the process, to adopt it as being Lexington's vision for the future, and, um, then do so with the understanding that this is a long-term plan that's going to continue to evolve. And, and maybe there's a role for council committees. Perhaps, uh, there's a better role to be played by some foundation. But, but at some point, I think it is appropriate for the, uh, council to say, "This makes sense." Okay, thank you. Um, now, I would, I would -- th- then my questions have been, uh, satisfied and answered, and my concern would be that it, it would take on the same never-never land sort of context that the Downtown Master Plan has over the last several years. And that's what we definitely wanna avoid. And maybe we can, in fact, pull both out and vote on them at the same time. Thank you. Thank you, sir. So the motion on the floor is to refer it to the Planning Committee. Is there any further discussion? Those in favor of referring it to the Planning Committee, please let me know by saying, "Aye." Aye. Opposed, "No." Motion carries. Thanks, Charlie. Good work. Mayor. Mayor. Council Member McCord. May I just make a request that when it, it does appear on -- in the Planning Committee, uh, that we have someone come and speak about that agreement, wha- what it would take to put an agreement together with the Legacy Center, at least to have that discussion so it doesn't, as the vice mayor say, kind of just stand out there in never-never land, and then we have our first meeting about what we should actually be doing with it. I'd like to see us discuss, you know, what is ... what would be the opportunity for implementation of certain things, and how would that look if it were the Legacy Center. Just speaking to that from an educational standpoint. Thank you. Council Member James. Yeah, I just wanted to add, I probably could have said this on the side, but it's really not the Legacy Center, it's the Bluegrass Community Foundation, which is two separate ... Legacy Centers would ... Legacy Center would be underneath. So they've actually made the recommendation for Bluegrass Foundation. Is that the same ... Is that what you're still requesting? Okay, thank you. There's nothing further. We'll proceed to council reports. And, um, Council Member Gordon appears to be the first. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I have just one item. Um, I wanted to report on the Storm Water Fee Task Force. Um, our task force met again on January the 8th, and it seems to be a popular meeting, Mayor. We had 65 people there. So we are having to move our venue out of the fifth-floor conference room. Um, so our next meetings will be in, uh, larger venues. But on January the 8th, the task force made, uh, two, uh, baseline decisions, one of which was to, um, ask our, uh, storm water folks, the water quality folks to use the 25-year storm event as the minimum for their, uh, planning. And then we also had a discussion on whether this should be a fee which, um, all folks pay, including nonprofits, uh, governmental agencies, churches, et cetera, or a tax, which is only paid by those who are, um, property owners who are not nonprofit. So, the discussion, um, ensued, and the committee did decide for purposes of moving forward, that this would be best as a fee. And that, that way, all those who have impervious surface to contribute to our community will pay their fair share for the storm water. And I would like to, I see Commissioner Rama here, and, um, uh, one of the things that I'm hoping that we can do is get the minutes of these storm water task, Storm Water Fee Task Force meetings and the agendas on the web, because there's a tremendous interest from the public and we keep adding people to our email list every day. So, if we could have a conversation about that, I think it would be very helpful to do that for the public. And then, um, our next meeting is January the 15th, which is this Thursday. We're meeting once a week. It will be from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM here in the council chamber. We will have, for the committee members and the administrative support folks who are helping us, we'll have a table set up. We are not sitting at the horseshoe, and then we can accommodate many, many community members who, um, want to come. We'll be discussing enterprise fund, we'll be discussing costs and expenses associated with the storm water fee, and in relation to the EPA consent decree, and we'll be discussing the ERU, uh, the 2,500 square foot, um, ERU discussion. So, I'm trying to keep everyone in the loop, and council members, as soon as the minutes are finished today, you'll get a hard copy of them, and they'll be out on the internet by email to all the folks who are on our list. And I just want to take a quick second to thank Commissioner Taylor, Director Charlie Martin, um, Director Bill O'Mara, and our attorney, Ed Gardner and his, uh, sidekick, Mike Sanner, who are doing heavy duty every week to help us move forward with the information that we need on this task force. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. I I just have three, uh, three neighborhood association, uh, meeting announcements. So, the Saint Martin Village Neighborhood Association will meet tomorrow night, that's Wednesday night, 6:00 PM in the, uh, Whitney Young Park Community Center. This, uh, this is an important meeting, and, and, uh, I know that the, the neighborhood has many issues it wants to discuss, so I hope that, uh, residents will come out, uh, and, and, uh, and participate in that, in that meeting. The next night, Thursday, January 15th, Spiegel Heights Neighborhood Association meeting, 7:00 PM at the Antioch Baptist Church, and then Monday night when Windborne Neighborhood Association meets at 6:30 PM in the community center in Martin Luther King Park. Again, all three of these neighborhood associations are important. The leaders are, uh, are doing some very serious work on behalf of their communities, and, uh, it's up to the, up to the residents to come out, participate, be involved, uh, and, and, and support their neighborhood organizations. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Feigel. I, uh, have a constituent that would, uh, like to talk to us about an issue, uh, regarding the parking meters, and, um, I'm sure that you will all welcome former council member Bill Farmer- Thank you, ma'am. ... to speak to us. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Mr. Mayor, um, Mr. Vice Mayor, members of council, uh, congratulations to those of you recently, uh, re-inaugurated or inaugurated for the first time, licensing appreciates the challenges before you and the opportunities. I bring you one today. The upshot of my comments will be to ask you to direct the parking authority to not turn on the municipal parking meters in Chevy Chase for at least a period of six months. I have, uh, passed to you all a very short, uh, list of, I didn't really count 'em, but there's at least a couple dozen Chevy Chase merchants who have signed, and in, in this instance, these are all names I gathered myself between last night and this morning. It is not a comprehensive list. It does represent an awful lot of property owners, a lot of business owners and people who are worried about the institution of the munici- the municipal meters in the blocks in Chevy Chase, which people understand the need for parking patrol out there. It has turned over inventory and helps parking. I think people also understand the need for a higher rate. I don't think that there's really much argument there, although if there is a national discussion about not turning on HDTV till later, you might want to roll off putting it to a buck an hour until later too, but my point today is, Chevy Chase, known for its convenience, its city with a small town feeling, going back to the presentation, is kind of being unduly, uh, put at risk here, I think. Because a mun- a municipal meter in the 800 block, especially, if you were to come to our place of business, Farmer's Jewelry, and you were gonna park on the street, say, in front of Domino's, you would get out of your car at Domino's, walk to the center of the block, obtain a ticket, take that ticket back to your car, put it in your car, and then have the opportunity to then walk to Farmer's Jewelry. One of the pillars that's been missed here is communication. The opportunity for the parking authority to communicate directly with the merchants of Chevy Chase- ... and really take a step back from what they have, have put in out there and look at the opportunity for maybe better parking analysis, better situations between the neighbors and between the, uh, the merchants and ways to integrate and have even different types of parking opportunities, as you would see in other municipalities. But I think the taking of the convenient nature of Chevy Chase is what all of the merchants, and no one, no one turned me down in, in these signatures, because everyone understands that we're in the toughest of economic times. Our business last year was off over 20%. Each... each customer, each potential customer is more vital than ever. In that moment at which they drive through and decide, "Well, you know, maybe I'm not gonna stop there," is an opportunity cost that I don't think we, as merchants, should have to bear at this time. Before meeting with you all, I spent some time with Gary Means, and he, he is somewhat amenable to the idea that maybe there's a better option out there, and he does have two-hour meters that could go in out there. But his comment to me was, "Let's, let's try it my way first, and then let's, let's see what goes on." And he's, he's willing to meet. I say, we don't have the time right now to try it his way first. I'd like for us to keep our meters out there, and if after six months' time we need to have municipal meters, we would have them. But we wouldn't have them in the cold, in the dark, in the damp of winter, during the worst depression that any of us will remember, at a time that each customer is so important. If you look around, these meters work very well. There's some on Jersey Street there behind where, um, Canes is. And... Am I done? Sorry. Your time- I ask for a motion to help the merchants of Chevy Chase. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Council Member Feigl, is, do you have anything else to report? Um, I really don't have anything else to report. I, I would comment on this, and that is, um, Chevy Chase is known for its, uh, convenience. People pull in and, and we have quite a few just spontaneous shoppers there. And I do believe that this is going to cause a, a real burden on them. And so I, I support, uh, his request. All right. There's nothing further. Council Member Lane? Uh, thank you, Mayor. I'd like to move for approval of the Neighborhood Development Fund. Motion is to approve the NDF. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please vote aye. All, all opposed, no. Motion carries. May I just add another little comment after that? Um, I provided a copy of an independent auditor's report for the Bluegrass Airport. At our previous meeting, it was requested to get a copy of that. So I just happened to get one delivered to me, so I thought the councilor would like to have that. Also, there was a board meeting today. There were a number of actions taken. Uh, I'm not gonna go into detail on that, but you might want to, um, follow up on it after the meeting. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Council Member James. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I had a request. It, it, Mayor, I guess you could maybe handle it. The stormwater fee meeting, um, Council Member Gorton's meeting on the 15th, I wondered since if it was gonna be in chamber as if it could be televised or at least taped. Is that a possibility? I don't know whether or not it can be televised live, but I'd ask Mr. Dewaraha to check with GTV3 and see if that is a possibility, if you would. Okay. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Um, appreciate that. And also, I wondered if you could give us a little bit of information about the merge to government, um, the State of the Merged Government Address, um, and luncheon. Many of us received this invitation. Um, and I had a good conversation with, um, Shay Rabil today after inter-governmental committee, um, which helped me to understand a little bit more that, um, there's an option for luncheon, but there's also seats that... where there's no charge. Um, one of my concerns was, um, there's some people that don't have $35 at all. Um, and there are some youth that attended at the Opera House last year, and I thought it was very exciting to have youth involvement. So I wondered if, um, you would just talk to us a little bit about what are the options to view the State of the Merged Government Address and let the public know, um, just everything that... you know, there's a requirement for council to be there. It's a missed meeting, um, basically, if we're not there, but I wonder as far as our public, will it be televised, that sort of thing. The Lexington Forum has hosted the, uh, State of the Merged Government Address off and on for probably 10 or 15 years. Um, the first one that I did in 2007, we did at Henry Clay High School in the evening. Last year, we moved it to the, um, uh, Opera House, again in the evening. And so in the interest of trying to provide some alternative venues and some alternative times, uh, we decided we'd go back to what had previously been a traditional format for it, which was to do it during the lunch hour. One of the criticisms that approach, um, encountered in the past was the fact that you had to buy the lunch to, to attend the, the presentation. And so in the last several events that were held at lunchtime, there was an opportunity to go to lunch, and if you wanted to pay for lunch, you could do that. But if you didn't want to buy the lunch, there was also an opportunity for the public to come at no charge. So, uh, there will still be, as I understand it, that opportunity for people who wish to attend only the State of the Merged Government Address to do so. And the idea is that by doing it at lunchtime, we would, this year, make available to some people who could come at lunch but couldn't come in the evening for whatever reason. It will also be available, uh, on, uh, GTV3 and, um, be streamed live on the website, so if people prefer not to come but they'd rather sit at their desk and, uh, watch it live or at some later time, they can do that. Does that answer the question, Ms. Slootradish? Um, yeah, I believe so, and I, I just wondered, I mean, there are some real creative things that can happen. I talked to Shay a little bit about that, that I'm sure she'll talk with you about engaging Fayette County Public Schools and having, um, youth have the availability of watching that right from school since it's right in the middle of the school day. But I wonder if there's maybe a, a place such as, you know, the Kentucky Theater shows things every now and then, um, games, um. I wondered if there was a possibility of just some kind of public space that could be available. Um, I don't know, sometimes it just feels uncomfortable if there are people sitting around and certain people eating and certain people not eating. Um, I just wondered, I just would ask for folks to put on just a creative cap and, and think even more. I know that you all have done a lot of thinking about how can you do this the most cost-effective for the public, but maybe just a little bit more of some public venues, um, and maybe someone watching wants to offer a venue, um, to watch. I just think the State of the Merge government is a very, very important, um, it's very important for us to participate with that so that we kind of have a vision for the rest of the year and beyond. Um, so I'll just ask, ask that of you. Um, my last thing is, um, also for you, Mayor, is to ask for, um, you to see if we can get an update from LexPark or the Parking Authority on how the new machines are going, um, what are, what kind of revenues are they collecting, what kind of complaints are they hearing, and what changes and updates need to happen? So I'd ask you to request that, um, update for us. Thank you. Mr. Green, if you'd call Gary Means at LexPark and ask him to come make a presentation to us at a future work session, I'd appreciate it. Um... I, I think at a minimum in terms of a public viewing spot, we could make the ballroom, um, available- Right. ... if, if that would be helpful. All right, um, Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, just a couple of announcements, but first, uh, I just wanna congratulate our, our police, uh, department and, and Chief Baston. Uh, next week, 56, uh, sworn officers from our police department will participate in the 56th inaugural of, of President Obama, and what a real honor it is for us to be, uh, at that. And so I just wanna congratulate, um, Chief Baston on this award, uh, this honor, and, and also those 56 that'll be a part of that. Uh, I wanna make an announcement that tonight, at six o'clock at the, uh, Loudoun Street YMCA is the public input session for the Legacy Trail. Uh, it's, this is one of the last opportunities that, that the public has to, um, to look at the trail alignment, uh, before certain things start to become more permanent, so I'd encourage everyone to come down, uh, to that. Also, there is a meeting on January 26th, uh, for the South, uh, Nicholasville Road Small Area Plan. Uh, this will be held at Southern Acres Christian Church on Harvard Drive, uh, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM, and this is the public input session for that Small Area Plan. Um, as we talk about 2040, one of the things I misspoke on, and I wanna make sure that, that we, uh, we address it, is, uh, those 3,000 folks that were engaged civically, uh, I, I accidentally spoke and said 10 to 15% of the population. That's 1 to 1.5% of the population. Um, so there is 99 to 98% of the population that may not have, uh, have spoken or who may see it differently and so forth. And so, I, I do agree that, by taking it through the planning process and planning committee and, and working through some of these issues, uh, that the council is, is definitely taking this baton and, and working through it. Uh, I, I agree with Council Member Lawless that we need to continually con- try and bring more and more people into that, uh, into that discussion and that vision. But one of the, the immediate things and the things for our future is, it's all about jobs, and, uh, our economy is driven, this government is driven by jobs. And, uh, Lexmark is, uh, is announcing, and, and it will become public probably tomorrow morning, uh, the loss of couple hundred jobs, 370-some, um, as, as we move along. The bottom line is, is that we are in a situation where, um, we've got to do everything in our power to create a city that is attractive to, uh, to high-wage jobs, and to have Lexmark come in and Toyota come in and say we as a council need to do more, we need to do more. Uh, we need to focus our energies during this budget cycle on those things that are, uh, important to building a city that is attractive to this demographic. Um, and as we talked about earlier, we need to do things that will drive other things. So at the end of the day, um, while, while we have, uh, a number of challenges ahead of us, that is the challenge. Now also, on the flip side of that coin, there's a ton of things going right in this city. There's a ton of things that are very good. Last Wednesday, Sotheby's, uh, opened up a brokerage, uh, a real estate brokerage house in Lexington. Uh, Sotheby's doesn't exist in, in roughly the six states around us. Um, it, for them to come in and see this as an opportunity for Le- uh, them to provide a brokerage house in Lexington is huge. So, at the end of the day, what we're looking at is, there's a number of good things and a number of really challenging things, and we as a council have to, uh, take a running start at this year's budget and really focus and prioritize and be willing to look constituents in the eye and tell them what our priorities are, collectively and individually, because everybody's important, but there are certain things that we have got to focus our collective energy on. And so I would just say that as we move forward, uh, our, the cooperation we're asking from the community could start here, and I would encourage that from us. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Gort. Uh, Vice Mayor Gray. Uh, thank you, Mayor. I've got, uh, two items I'd like to bring before the council. Uh, first I'd like to comment on continuing issues at the airport, and then second, I'd like for us to get our calendars out, if you would, 'cause we've got to coordinate calendars, and this may be the most efficient way to do it for the retreat that the mayor asked us about. Um, as for the airport, um, two entities deserve our continued praise. First, the Free Press. As irritating and as ob- objectionable and as contrarian as the press can often be, and we know that the press hollers at us and sometimes bangs at us and knocks us down, but somehow we manage to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and get up, get back up again. But for those in elected office, the press can often be objectionable. But in this case, the press has done a public service in exposing this scandal. And second, the council too deserves tribute, the tribute for going against the grain and calling for an independent audit, an intervention which has now quickly shed sunlight on an institution which has clearly been operating with an infection that runs deeply into the system, challenging the very core of the institution. So consistent with the leadership that this council reflected by calling for the audit, through our invitation to State Auditor Llewellyn to initiate the investigation, I'd like to make a motion today to ask the council to invite the auditor to present her report to the council when it's complete, in either a regular or a, or a special session. So moved. Second. Second. I have a motion by council... by Vice Mayor Gray and a second by Council Member Gorton. Um, any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Okay. On our second issue that I've got is the retreat that the mayor invited us to, and, um, we checked with the... we've checked with the mayor's calendar and the mayor... mayor's got, uh, February, Jan- I'm sorry, January 23rd. That's a Friday. Um, and that would be before the, um, State of the Merged Government Address, and that's really the only day that, um, that the mayor's got available right now. I believe that's right, Jim. And then Wednesday the 28th or Friday the 30th. So if... Friday the 30th. I know this is a little awkward, but I talked to Rebecca and she said this would be the fastest way, so y'all forgive me. Yes, sir. How about let's try on the Friday the 23rd. Again, that would be before the State of the Merged Government Address. Uh, everybody who's available on the 23rd, how about raising your hand? I'm sorry, I said February. I mean January. January 23rd. All right. Is that... All right. How many is not, how many is not available on the 23rd? Two, three. All right. How many not available on Wednesday, January 28th? That'd be roughly 9:00 till 2:00 or 3:00. Not available on the 28th either? There's a MPO meeting. Yeah, I know. I was thinking that we might not make it if we need to do this. How many- Okay. How about Friday, January 30th? Who's not available on Friday, January 30th? Uh-oh. Can you make it, Diane? Well, I can change the one I have. Okay, you can. Okay. Is that okay, Jan- Okay. It looks like January 30th. Okay. That worked. Thank y'all. We're up, uh, 9:00. Okay. Is that good? Okay. 9:00 till, go through lunch, two-ish, three-ish, right, three. Uh, TBT, to be determined. All right, we'll get... we can handle that one. Okay, we'll let y'all know. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Thank you, Mayor. While Mr. Farmer's here, I guess I had a couple of questions, if I could. You said you spoke with Mr. Means and, and he said that he would like to do it his way and then come back if that didn't work. What, what... But he has the opportunity to do, um, two-hour meters there? Is that my understanding from what you said? Well, it's not so much... It's, it's not, um... He wanted to go ahead and activate the muni meter and let the people get used to it. And, and that's the loop I don't want us to get caught in, is, I have a picture from 1963 of work being done in front of our family's business that took time away from the ability of people to get in the door. And I think right now, having people walk away from someone's business to end up in someone bi- in someone's business is the gamble that we would prefer as merchants not to take. Mom and Dad had gone down to Sleepyhead House to buy a new bedroom suit for my sister, who had just been born, and they came back and the street was torn up like this. And that represents a, a, a, a construction project that came through, went, and was over and was done, and you can see our, our stores in the center and, and now off to the left too. But the change in the parking situation to make people walk from that very meter down two doors to get a ticket and back up to that meter to then step into that door is what I'm so worried about, because just today I had two elderly ladies from Winchester who came and parked right in that spot, fed that meter, came into their business, and left. On a cold, searing wind day, those ladies would not have been well-served to walk three doors down to get a ticket and walk back up and put it in their car to then come in Farmer's Jewelry. And that's the point I'm making multiple business-wise in Chevy Chase, and that's what the list also shows, is everyone's concurrence along the way. And if they don't do that, what's the other option that he said that they can do instead? The other option he has, which is a great option, is they have new meters to go on the meter heads. They're larger- ... because they have a bigger vault in them, 'cause they would take more quarters for, you know, a dollar an hour. But likewise, they'll also be able to take a, kind of a magnetic card, kinda like an E-ZPass card that you would get from LexPark, and you could put money on it. And then when you were gonna have to go in a place of business, you could get up, slide that card into the meter, it would read an hour's time. And the most beautiful part about is it, about it is, if you come back out and you, you only used a half an hour's time, you put the card back in, it gives you half an hour back on your card. And as a merchant, I have the option of getting those cards and using them on behalf of my clients. Whereas walking down the street to get a ticket for anything, I think ruins the ability to have the quick in and out that a lot of people associate with the convenience of Chevy Chase. I see the concerns you have. Could, uh, Mr. Green, could you talk to Gary Means and maybe get back with us and, and see if we could... I don't know if a motion would be appropriate at this point 'cause I think, I don't know if we would tell the Parking Authority. I was going to, I was gonna make a motion after everybody finished their council reports. Okay. Well, I'll let you go ahead and do that then. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now is the time? Now, I guess. I would t- uh, move to suspend the, um, installation of the new parking system in the Chevy Chase area and request that, uh, Mr. Means, um, come to the next council work session to address this issue and descri- describe to the council exactly how this system works. Second. Well, let's, um, talk about this at a couple of different levels. First of all, for the, the board, for the council to act, it would need to put a resolution on the docket for the next council meeting. Uh, that's the first point. Second point, I'm not sure given the fact that the Parking Authority has been charged with the responsibility of managing our parking facilities, that we've got the ability to tell them to suspend the installation of the meters or not. Now, I'll, I, I don't recall exactly how that authority got divided. But, uh, I'll defer to someone from the Department of Law if they know offhand. If not, we can, we can look at that while a resolution is being prepared over the course of the next 10 days or so for consideration at the next, uh, council meeting. Okay. Mayor, I'm not sure, but we can look into that. Uh, the next meeting, we could, um, have a report back for you for the next work session if that would be helpful. And then that would allow us time to get it on for next Thursday, if y'all decided to proceed with some action. All- May I ask a question? All right. Could I amend my motion then to have Gary Means just come to the next meeting and give us a, um, a status report on how this is working? Second that. Uh, well, we've... Okay. We've got... All right. I think what, uh, Council Member Feigl has asked to do is to amend her motion to request Mr. Means attend the next work session for purposes of discussing this issue with us. That would be appropriate, uh, now. And I don't recall who seconded the motion originally. Council Member Stennard, I think. Is that satisfactory with you? All right. Um, then that's the motion on the floor. Council Member McCord, uh, Gordon. Uh, I just wanted to ask Mr. Farmer if he knows when these are to be installed. Well, they, the, um, the meter, the, the consoles appeared about two weeks before Christmas. And trying to do the best I could during the holiday, I didn't have, didn't co- you all had gone on break. I tried to come last Tuesday to make this presentation, uh, but was unable to get here before the end of the meeting. Since then, the solar panels have gone on top of them, which- Mm-hmm. ... makes me think that that transfer is imminent. Mm-hmm. And I would just like for him to just, in a gentlemanly fashion, not turn that system on until he's made a presentation here. Because I, I th- Thank you. ... people do not kno-... Business people do not know what's going on right in front of their door. And when you tell them, they're not real happy about it. Thank you. Well- Uh, I, there are good, good applications for these machines. I don't believe this is one of them. I, I guess, Mayor, I, I wonder, eh, I was not in favor of the first motion, so I appreciate that you amended it. But it would be good for us to hear how the downtown merchants have also handled this, because this, this has gone in on Esplanade, for instance, where there are several small businesses and, um, I, I'd appreciate that Gary could come here soon. So I think this is a good amendment. All right. Question on the floor is, do we wish to adopt the motion, uh, requesting Mr. Means to attend our next work session? Um, any, uh, discussion? Council Member Crosby. Um, I'm not sure, Mr. Farmer, if you could possibly tell us how many parking meters there are, um, and how many businesses are affected, um, by the parking meters. Well, on our side of the street, there's probably ten spaces. On the other side, there's seven spaces. There aro- there's another set of machines around the corner in front of Great Clips, which would probably give you another eight or nine spaces to go up that side. And then there's another machine across, actually on the Fifth District side of Chevy Chase, and that would probably be another eight or nine spaces on that side. So it's, um, it, and one of the other subtleties of all this is that in some parts of Chevy Chase, there will still be the old meters at the, at a rate of 50 cents. There will s- there'll be n- new meters at a dollar, and then there'll be these new machines. And I, I'd like for us to be treated a little more holistically than, l- than, than I feel like we're being treated as a unit at Lexington's first shopping center outside of downtown. Will they be eventually, um, maybe -- I don't know if the mayor knows this, or anybody, um, will they eventually be changing over all of those parking meters or is it just the Chev- we don't know at this point? Probably when it becomes- Thanks, Kevin. I, I can't answer that question right offhand, but we'll try to have him here next week. Mayor. All right. Council Member Ehlinger. Thank you, Mayor. I... Th- that's why when I was asking, I didn't know if it was really necessary for a motion here, 'cause we were just gonna ask him to come speak. And if we do that, we're... I don't know if... The motion won't be done by the time we want him to come speak next Tuesday. I think if we just ask the RD to, to contact and put him on as a presentation to come speak to the council, I think that probably would be sufficient and we can then address that issue next Tuesday in our council meeting probably. I have no reason to believe he wouldn't be here, but, uh, if you want to have a cou- a motion that's- If we do the motion though, we'll never... W- we don't have a meeting Thursday, so we won't be able to actually put it on the docket and give it the readings to have him come in here. So it... He would be here Tuesday, so- Well, I think the motion is just a motion. It's not to put it on the docket. It's just a request from the council that he come next Tuesday. Th- that's it, right? Okay. Ah, well. So I, I, I think that would be in order if, if you wish. Any further discussion? All in favor- Could- ... of the motion, please say aye. C- C- Can you restate the motion please? The motion is to request that Gary Means attend the next work session and visit with us about the plans for the Parking Authority. Right? Okay. Those in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. Uh, any... I, I... Council Member Ehlinger, do you have a report or is that leftover? All right. Um, anything further in the way of council reports? All right. I just have one item on the mayor's report, and this is a matter of, uh, some consequence to a number of people in our community. Tomorrow evening, due to the, uh, adverse weather conditions, we will be opening three shelters. Uh, one at Salvation Army, 736 West Main Street, one at the Hope Center, which is at 360 West Loudon, and, uh, one at the Catholic Action Center, 400 East Fifth Street, in order to house, uh, folks who might otherwise not have shelter during the, uh, uh, inclement weather that is expected tomorrow evening. Um, w- we'll be sending out a press release, but I wanted to go ahead and make this information available this afternoon so that, um, to the degree, the word of mouth communication process that is frequently more effective in this, uh, arena c- can be engaged. Um, we have already had a series of fires in vacant buildings where, um, fires were initially started in order to, for people to keep warm. We hope by of- offering an alternative to the vacant, uh, buildings that, uh, we'll have some folks who'll be able to take shelter at any one of those three locations. So if you know any social service agency that may come in contact with folks who could, um, possibly be interested in availing themselves of, of that, uh, service, please pass that information along to them. That's all I have. Um, Mr. Farmer, is there anything else you wish to, uh, s- address the council about? You had signed up previously- Thank you for reading my body language, Mayor. Yes. I was just gonna ask you, sir, if you would kindly ask Mr. Means not to turn on the system until he's been here next week. That's all. Y- you know, this is a real interesting dilemma because, um, I think in 2006 when, when you were on the council, uh, uh, Bill, this entity was created for the very reason of trying to keep the parking business separate and apart from the council's, uh, business. We have a number of independent boards and commissions who are charged with the responsibility of running things around our community, and, uh, the reason they were created was so that they could run things around our community. Now, this is a situation where I'll be glad to give him a call- Thank you, sir. ... and relay to him your request. Thank you. But I'm not going to actually make the request because I don't think it's appropriate for us to be injecting ourselves into, into a business that they've been given the responsibility to conduct. I, I just think that one of your pillars has been ignored here in terms of communication with the business community, probably not just in Chevy Chase, but this affects a retail area, I think, far more than a, a more of an office area where you know you're gonna walk a long way to where you're going. There are good places for these machines. I'm personally not convinced that Chevy Chase is one of them. Thank you, sir. All right. Mr. Cobb, if you'll, you'll step to the podium. You'll have three minutes. Peace and love to the council. Uh, I was asked to bring my movie down here so to give every councilman an opportunity to view it. I was wondering if I could make it available, would you, will you look at it? Would you? Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. Would you? Can you make sure that all of them get a copy of it tomorrow? Uh, because I want them to understand why I'm gonna do certain things in the near future, because from one perspective, it may look like waters are calm, but we living in critical times. Um, I'd like to ask the vice mayor if he plans to keep his word, his obligation to me. You hired me to help you get elected and, uh, I put your name on my back. I carried your... ... cars around. I put your shirt on my shoulders. I walked -- as you, I went in my hood. I told you what I needed. I told you I need a thousand dollars and I never asked you for no money, but you did help me. My brother died and you was nice enough to get the tuxedos. I will forever love you for that. But I'm gonna ask you tonight, will you cl-- le-- uh, honor your word? You promised me you was gonna pay me to help you. I'm asking you in front of everybody. Can we get that taken care of out of the way? Can we? And then, uh, I'm gonna go on to say what I was gonna say. 'Cause the only reason why I have access to you is up -- openly. I asked you openly to call me, but you put police on me, so I can't approach you. So I don't want to bring it up in the open, but I'm asking will you please take care of your obligation to me so you can maintain the respect and the integrity that you still have with me? Okay. Tonight, please. Uh, I think it was Hitler who said that if you tell a lie, tell a big lie. Tell it long and tell it loud, so even you might believe it yourself. Uh, we got to look at the vision of Lexington. If it don't include real minorities, then the vision of Lexington is long. It's wrong. I've been back seven years and like I say, I love everybody that I come across their path. And we have to look at it for what it's worth. We got to get more involved in our future. And Lexington has to help us. There's a march that's gonna take place on January 19th in honor of Dr. King and, uh, it's gonna be a march like no other march. I've been marching downtown Lexington for every day for five years. I've been marching against racism, against hatred, against sexism. I've been marching for the people. And, um, during my march, I ran across a lot of enemies and I had to stand my ground. And it wasn't me standing, it was God in me standing ground. After y'all view my movie, I hope y'all feel the same gratefulness that I feel for my life right now. I lost a friend yesterday on the highway on the way back to Lexington. Her name was Big Sexy. And, uh, when I got the call that she passed, strong as I think I am and, and as much strength I got -- think I got in my body, I fell to my knees. Mr. Cobb, your time has expired. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Can I -- can I stand outside and wait for my money, Vice Mayor? Mayor. Uh, Council Member James. Yes. I, I forgot. Uh, thank you for reminding me, Louis, um, about the Martin Luther King Day celebration. I did want to make that announcement for those folks that are looking for a way to become involved, um, and looking for the opportunities to become involved. Um, the University of Kentucky sponsors the Martin Luther King Day celebration and if you get on the UK website, www.UKY.edu, and look under, um, I believe it might be Diversity Programs. I can't remember what the link is, but if you just query that site for Martin Luther King Day events, um, everything should come up from the event on, uh, Sunday, which is held at Central Christian, to the breakfast which is at 7:30, I believe, that morning at, um, Heritage Hall. Um, is that where it is? Heritage Hall? Did I say that right? Um, and then the march which, um, the lineup begins, um, there at Heritage Hall at nine o'clock, leaves there at 10:00 and marches around Vine Street to Main Street, coming back at 11:00. And then the, um, program begins. But there's also these opportunities for service day events and you can, um, if you contact my office at 258-3216, I'd be happy to give you that connection or if you just query online, the Martin Luther King Day service day events in Lexington, you can find all these volunteer opportunities, um, uh, community places where you can go and do painting, shelving. Um, there's a pet event. Um, the leash, um, it's called Leash of Love, um, event. So there's all these things we can do, but there is a march, there's all these activities, so if you're looking for something to do, you can't find it on the web, feel free to call me at 258-3216 and I'll make sure you get connected. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Vice Mayor Gray. Thank you, Mayor. I've got a motion to go into closed session. I move that the council enter into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.8-10(1)(c) to discuss and ratify settlement documents in Kentucky Public Service Commission Case Number 200800251. So moved. Second. Have a motion by Vice Mayor Gray and a second by Council Member Crosby that we, uh, go into closed session as outlined. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no? Motion carries. Motion to return to, um, open session? So moved. Second. Have a motion by Council Member Lane and a second by Council Member Beard to return to open session. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, no? Motion carries. Now, who has the motion? I move to, uh, place on the docket for the Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 council meeting, a resolution ratifying the Department of Law's execution of a settlement agreement, stipulation, and recommendation and any other necessary settlement documents in k- in Kentucky Public Service Commission Case Number 2008-00251 pertaining to the rates of Kentucky Utilities Company. Second. Have a motion by Council Member Figal and a second by Council Member Blues to, uh, put that item on the agenda for the next council meeting. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no? Motion carries unanimously except for Council Member James who votes opposed. Any, um, discussion? Uh, more business to come before the, the work session? We'll entertain a motion to adjourn, then. Have a motion by Council Member Meyers, Meyers and a second by Council Member, uh, Beard to adjourn. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no? Motion carries. Thank you.