# Urban County Council Work Session - January 20, 2009 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · January 20, 2009 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/730 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/730?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2009-01-20 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: June 17, 2026 - **Length**: 16,334 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council held a meeting on January 20, 2009, presided over by Linda Gorton. The council worked through 8 agenda items, taking action on a range of matters including requested rezonings, budget amendments, and new business items, all of which were approved. In addition to action items, the council received informational updates from the Intergovernmental Committee, the Lexington & Fayette County Parking Authority, and a Council Report. Over the course of the meeting, 11 motions and votes were recorded and 1 public comment was heard. ## Attendance The following members were present at the January 20, 2009 Council meeting: - Linda Gorton - Blues - Ellinger - James - Beard - Henson - Stinnett - Crosby - Baird - Feigl The following members were absent: - Gray - Lawless - McChord - Myers No members were recorded as late. ## Votes and Decisions All motions at the January 20, 2009 Council meeting passed unanimously. No roll call votes were recorded. - **Zoning Ordinance Amendment (Docket Placement)** [timestamp: 0:01:41]: Moved by Blues, seconded by Ellinger, the Council voted unanimously to place on the docket an ordinance amending Articles 28-4(h)(5), 28-5(h)(5), 17-3(c), and 17-5 of the zoning ordinance to allow additional signage in the Mixed-Use Community (MU-3) Zone, without a public hearing. - **Amended Docket Approval** [timestamp: 0:03:50]: Moved by Ellinger, seconded by James, the Council unanimously approved the amended docket. - **Meeting Summary Approval** [timestamp: 0:04:22]: Moved by Ellinger, seconded by Beard, the Council unanimously approved the summary of January 13, 2009. - **Budget Amendments** [timestamp: 0:04:55]: Moved by Beard, seconded by Ellinger, the Council unanimously approved budget amendments. - **New Business Items A–Q** [timestamp: 0:05:27]: Moved by Blues, seconded by Henson, the Council unanimously approved new business items A through Q. - **Citizen's Advocate / GTV3 Program** [timestamp: 0:08:44]: Moved by James, seconded by Beard, the Council unanimously directed the Citizen's Advocate office to work with the CIO to produce a periodic program on GTV3. - **Citizen's Advocate / Software Solutions** [timestamp: 0:09:46]: Moved by James, seconded by Crosbie, the Council unanimously directed the Citizen's Advocate office to work with the CIO and Council Office staff to identify software solutions for logging and tracking data. - **Outside Boards and Commissions Reporting** [timestamp: 0:10:51]: Moved by James, seconded by Crosbie, the Council unanimously required all outside boards and commissions to submit annual reports and meeting minutes to the LFUCG Administration for publication on the LFUCG website. - **Alexandria Drive Parking/Turn Lane Referral** [timestamp: 1:15:53]: Moved by Henson, seconded by James, the Council unanimously referred to the Services Committee a proposal to remove on-street parking and install a center turn lane in the 1300 block of Alexandria Drive. - **Community Correction Audit Referral** [timestamp: 1:19:09]: Moved by Ellinger, seconded by Beard, the Council unanimously placed the completed internal audit of the Division of Community Correction into the Budget & Finance Committee. - **Mayor's Report Approval** [timestamp: 1:24:33]: Moved by Blues, seconded by Henson, the Council unanimously approved the Mayor's Report. ## Budget and Financial Actions The Council addressed three financial items at the January 20, 2009 meeting, covering utility relocations for a road improvement project and an office equipment purchase. **Clays Mill Road Utility Relocations** Two contracts were approved in connection with the Clays Mill Road Improvements Project, both involving the relocation of utilities: - **Agreement 048-09** authorized a contract with **Columbia Gas of Kentucky** in the amount of **$485,913** for the relocation of gas utilities as part of the Clays Mill Road Improvements Project. - **Agreement 051-09** authorized a contract with **Kentucky Utilities Company** in the amount of **$126,085** for the relocation of electric utilities in support of the same project. Together, these two utility relocation agreements represent a combined commitment of **$611,998** tied to the Clays Mill Road Improvements Project. **Office Equipment Purchase** - **Agreement 046-09** approved a purchase from **Ikon Office Solutions, Inc.** in the amount of **$2,780** for additional accessories to upgrade a copier. --- The three items total **$614,778** in authorized expenditures approved at this meeting. ## Public Comment Only one member of the public addressed the Council during the public comment period at the January 20, 2009 meeting. - **Bill Farmer** [timestamp: 0:00:34] requested the opportunity to speak following the Parking Authority presentation. Specifically, Farmer asked to be recognized after Gary Means delivered his presentation, indicating he wished to either add to or rebut points made by Means during that presentation. No other public comments were recorded for this meeting. ## Appointments The Council took the following appointment action during the January 20, 2009 meeting: - **Michael Haskins** was appointed to the **Black & Williams Community Center Board**. ## Contested Items - **Parking Meters in the Chevy Chase Area:** Merchants in the Chevy Chase area raised concerns about newly installed parking meters. The opposition from the business community was significant enough to prompt a formal petition, and a meeting with the Parking Authority was planned as a next step to address the dispute. The record does not indicate a final resolution was reached at this meeting. ## Requested Rezonings / Docket Approval [timestamp: 01:41] Council Member Blues moved to place on the docket an ordinance that would amend Articles 28-4(h)(5), 28-5(h)(5), 17-3(c), and 17-5 of the zoning ordinance. The proposed amendment would allow additional signage in the Mixed-Use Community (MU-3) Zone. Key speakers on this item included Council Members Blues and Ellinger. The motion to place the ordinance on the docket was approved by the Council. ## Approval of Summary [timestamp: 04:22] Council Member Ellinger moved to approve the summary of the January 13, 2009 meeting. Council Member Beard was also noted as a key speaker during this portion of the proceedings. No concerns or debate were recorded in connection with this item. The motion was approved. ## Budget Amendments [timestamp: 04:55] The Council took up the matter of budget amendments during this portion of the meeting. Council Member Beard moved to approve the budget amendments, with Council Member Ellinger also participating as a key speaker in the discussion. The resolution was ultimately approved by the Council. *Note: The available record identifies Council Members Beard and Ellinger as the key speakers on this item, but does not include additional detail regarding the specific content of the amendments, any figures or line items discussed, concerns raised, or the precise nature of Ellinger's contribution to the debate.* ## New Business Items [timestamp: 05:27] Council Member Blues moved to approve new business items A through Q. Council Member Henson was also noted as a key speaker during this portion of the meeting. The items were presented as a group for consideration by the full Council. The record does not detail individual debate or concerns raised regarding the specific items within the A–Q range. The block of new business items was brought forward and acted upon collectively. **Outcome:** The new business items were approved. ## Intergovernmental Committee Update [timestamp: 07:39] Council Member James presented an update on the Intergovernmental Committee. The update included motions to direct the Citizen's Advocate office to work with the Chief Information Officer (CIO) on various initiatives. This item was informational in nature, and no formal vote or decision was recorded as an outcome of the presentation. ## Lexington & Fayette County Parking Authority Update [timestamp: 13:31] Gary Means, Executive Director of the Lexington & Fayette County Parking Authority, delivered an informational update to the Council on the status of the Parking Authority's operations. The presentation covered the implementation of new parking meters as well as responses to concerns raised by Council members. The update was informational in nature, with no votes or formal actions taken as a result of the presentation. Specific details regarding the scope of the new meter implementation, the timeline for deployment, and the particular concerns addressed by Means are not available in the meeting record summary. ## Council Report [timestamp: 1:13:07] Council members provided a series of updates and announcements during the Council Report portion of the January 20, 2009 meeting. Several members offered congratulations to President Obama, whose inauguration took place on that date. The following council members contributed remarks during this segment: James, Henson, Blues, Ellinger, Crosby, and Stinnett. In addition to the inaugural congratulations, council members announced upcoming neighborhood meetings, providing constituents with information about opportunities for community engagement. The report was informational in nature, with no votes or formal actions taken as a result of the discussion. ## Mayor's Report [timestamp: 1:24:33] The Mayor's Report was presented to the Council during the January 20, 2009 meeting. The key speakers associated with this item were Blues and Henson. Following the presentation, the Council approved the Mayor's Report. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Place on the docket an ordinance amending Articles 28-4(h)(5), 28-5(h)(5), 17-3(c), and 17-5 of the zoning ordinance to allow additional signage in the Mixed-Use Community (MU-3) Zone. - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approve the amended docket. - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approve the summary of January 13, 2009. - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approve budget amendments. - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approve new business items A-Q. - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Direct the Citizen’s Advocate office to work with the CIO to produce a periodic program on GTV3. - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Direct the Citizen’s Advocate office to work with the CIO and Council Office staff to identify software solutions for logging and tracking data. - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Require all outside boards/commissions to submit annual reports and meeting minutes to the LFUCG Administration for publication on the LFUCG website. - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Refer to the Services Committee a proposal to remove on-street parking and install a center turn lane in the 1300 block of Alexandria Drive. - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Place the completed internal audit of the Division of Community Correction into Budget & Finance Committee. - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approve the Mayor's Report. --- ## Full transcript ... to the January 20th work session, and for those viewers at home, I'm Council Member Linda Gorton, and in the absence of the Mayor and the Vice Mayor, I will be chairing the meeting. So, we will go ahead on this inauguration day and have comment from the public on issues on the agenda. Is there anyone who wants to make comment on an issue which is on the agenda? Will you please go to the podium, Mr. Farmer? Apparently, there, there's no one signed up, so if you have a comment, please. I just, I know that, uh, Mr. Means- Will you say your name and address please? Bill Farmer, 821 Euclid Avenue, Lexington, Kentucky. Welcome. Thank you. I know that Mr. Means is going to make commentary about updating you all on the parking issue. I just wanted to kind of take a moment to ask for the ability to talk after he does, just to make a couple of points, perhaps in rebuttal or just in addition to what he says. That's my only point about being here right now. So, you're asking special exemption. Is this correct? Well, I don't want to go out of order. I know- Okay. ... he has comments he wants to make and- You'd like to hear what he has to say? That's all right. Okay. And then I just had a couple of things to add. Does that suit the Council? Thank you. No. Thank you. No. Thank you . With this concession, I stand corrected. Our next item on the agenda is, uh, requested rezoning and docket approval, and we do have a rezoning, and I believe Council Member Blues has a motion. Is that correct? That's correct. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move to place on the docket for work session an ordinance amending Articles 28-4H5, 28-5H5, 17-3C, and 17-5 of the zoning ordinance to allow additional signage in the mixed-use community MU3 zone. So moved. Second. We have a motion, a motion by Council Member Blues and a second by Council Member Ellinger to place the ordinance on the docket. Do I have any discussion? All- I'm not sure if, if, uh, if that needs to be moved on the docket without, without a, uh, public hearing. Yes. Yeah. I believe that would be correct. Yes, and I- So do you want to include without a public- I would, I would include without a, without a public hearing. Then I second. Okay. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. I should add, Madam Chair, that I, I will, at the, uh, uh, at the, at the council meeting, add an, an amendment to, uh, you know, to this, to this item, and I think that, that Council Members have been sent the, uh, the amendment language, but, uh, I'll, I'll add it formally at the, uh, at the council meeting. Thank you. Okay. You're welcome. And I believe, if there are any questions, we will welcome Chris Westover, um, attorney, former urban county government attorney. Do Council Members have questions about this right now? Seeing none, thank you for being here. Now, are there any other motions for the docket? If not, do I hear a motion to approve the docket as amended? So moved. Second. I have a motion by Council Member Ellinger, second by Council Member James, to approve the docket as amended. Any discussion? If not, those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion passes. And we should be using our electronic voting, perhaps? Yes. Okay. Um, the next item of business on our agenda is approval of the summary. January 13th, pages seven through ten. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Second. Council Member Ellinger moves and Council Member Beard seconds approval of the summary. Any questions or comments? If not, those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Next item is budget amendments. Do I hear a motion to approve? So moved. Second. We have a motion from Council Member Beard to approve, Council Member Ellinger to second. Is there discussion or questions about budget amendments? If not, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Moving on to new business. Do we have a motion for approval? Move approval. Second. Council Member Blues moves approval of new business, Council Member Hanson seconds. Are there questions about new business? Council Member James? Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, on item M, if someone from community development or Commissioner Cohen, um, is here, just had a question for some clarification on one item. It says 40, and within, well, the, the brief summary says 20, and on page 32, it gives mention of the number 40. Does, if anyone can clarify how many properties will be affected. Is there no one here that can answer? I see someone coming forward. Ms. Fister. If you don't have the answer, it's not going to affect it, getting on there. I just wanted to get clarification because the language was different. No, I do not have the answer, but I will get some answer from Community Development for you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Are there other questions about new business items? If not, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, like sign. Those items pass, and now we'll go onto continuing business and presentations. And I believe the first item is the Quarters Committee, and I was informed that, uh, we do not have a report. We don't have a chair, and the committee needs to be reconstituted. So, we'll skip that if it's okay with council members. And then the second item is our inter-governmental report from Council Member James. Sure, one moment. And Council Members, this is page 38 of your packet. Ahem, um, the Inter-governmental Committee met for the first time in 2009 on January the 13th. Um, I was, um, re-elected as chair of the committee and haven't yet selected a co-chair, but still looking for anyone to step forward to volunteer for that. Um, really, we had the, um, we had a report out of the Citizens Advocate Working Group, and there were several, several of those items that needed more conversation, but there were, there were a couple of motions that came out from that. Um, of those, I will bring forward to, um, the council as a motion as well. I believe that's what I need to do. So yeah, okay. So, I bring forward a motion directing the Citizen's Advocate Office to work with the CIO to produce a periodic program on GTV3 in order to let citizens know that they have an impartial venue to report problems or complaints. Second. We have a motion and a second on the floor. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That motion passes. Thank you. And just to elaborate just a little bit more on that, that is, um, we all have our council reports that we show on GTV3 and other divisions, um, make reports. I think the Mayor's office makes reports. We just wanted to be able to give that citizen's advocate the opportunity to let folks know that she is available, um, and what her role is. So, we'll be looking forward to seeing that on GTV3. Um, we also had, um, i- as part of the Citizen's Advocate Work Group, um, they talked about, um, a software solution which may help tracking data a little bit, um, easier. And that data may also be able to be used by council members and staff, so I'll bring forward to the council, a motion to direct the Citizen's Advocate Office to work with the CIO and council office staff to identify software solutions for logging and tracking data, which could also be useful for council members and staff. Second. We have a motion by Council Member James from the committee, second by Council Member Crosby. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That motion passes. Thank you. And just to elaborate just a bit on that, um, we are aware that this may cost budgeting, if it costs some budgeting funds, and all we're asking for is just to identify what that software solution could possibly be to have that conversation during the budget session. Um, the other item that we discussed that day was some boards and commissions reporting. Um, and from this, let me review this. Oh, this came, this motion came about based on having our boards and commissions publicly note and put their minutes and have those available to th- to our citizens and have them potentially available electronically on our website. So, I bring this to you in the form of a motion that all outside boards and commissions should s- submit an annual report and meeting minutes to the LFUCG administration for publication on the LFUCG website. Second. Motion by the committee, second by Council Member Crosby. Any discussion? Council Member Blues? How will the boards and commissions be informed? I'm sorry? How will the boards and commissions be informed, and who will do the informing? Um, we were, I believe, leaving that up to the administration to do so, and Shay has raised her hand, so I think she's doing it. Maybe personal phone calls. I don't know what she's doing to contact anyone. Come forward. Thank you, Shay. In the Inter-Governmental Committee's packet that you had last week, there's a sample letter that we're planning on sending to all of the chairs of all the boards and also any urban county government divisions that staff the boards will be copied on those letters as well. Um, we'll be asking commissions and boards to submit the minutes, and then at the end of each year, we'll send them a reminder to give us an annual report which will more or less be, "Did you meet? How many times did you meet? Have you submitted your minutes?" And so forth. And if we find boards that did not meet at all, then it's certainly something that we'll bring to you so we can talk about whether or not they need to continue. But we'll notify them by mail and copy staff, um, among the divisions. If it would be appropriate, I can give a copy of that letter to all council members, um, just so that you have that. And that letter was a draft letter, but once we send out the official one, I can send it to the committee. That'd be great. Okay. Thank you. Other questions about the motion? All those in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? Thank you very much. That's it. Thank you very much- Thank you. ... Council Member James. Our third item is the parking authority update, and we have Gary Means here, who's the Executive Director, and I just, uh, did want to be sure from council members that, uh, we did just receive the information for the presentation today, shortly before noon, so is it all right to go ahead with the presentation? Make an exemption to our 72-hour rule? Welcome. Again, my name is Gary Means, I'm with the executive, I'm, I'm the Executive Director of the Lexington and Fayette County Parking Authority. And, uh, I'm glad to be in front of you and get an opportunity to kind of give you an update on some of the things that we've been doing in the last six months. And if you'll recall, July 1st of '08 was when we rolled out the LexPark program, and, um... How's this going to work here? I wanted to back up before we get into th- the conversation related to the new meters, I think was what, in the Chevy Chase area is what drove you all to inviting me back. Just to give you sort of an overview of some of the things that we've done in an effort to get out the information. Um, branding, by the way, would be just coming up with the, uh, LexPark name and the logo. We put together maps and brochures. One of the big things that we rolled out was a website. It's the first time, uh, any affiliate with urban county governments had a, a website related to parking. And then, of course, lots of press releases and, uh, TV and radio ads, especially during the month of, uh, July when we first rolled it out. And then we had that warning program where we wrote a warning citation for any first-time offender for the first three months. Uh, we had an amnesty program where you were able to pay outstanding tickets that were, uh, $30, it was reduced to $20 in an effort to help folks get their records cleaned up before we rolled out any other additional enforcement. And then just the overall, uh, ambassadorial approach with, uh, what we're calling the Outriders, and that's the parking enforcement folks. Um, this was one of the mailers that went out to businesses. We sent this to about, uh, 1,800, uh, businesses, and it, it took the take, and, and again, um, Group CJ, um, worked with us on a lot of our marketing materials, and this was something that, uh, they worked up for us in the conversation related to, um, good news, bad news, the bad news being maybe the, uh, store folks or their employees might be part of the problem. And you, you all recall all the conversations related to meter feeding, and that was kind of what we were alluding to there. This one went out to, um, residential folks, about 900 addresses in our residential, uh, permit parking districts. And, um, so that one went out. Then this is one of the things that I was probably most proud of, was that warning period where we did the, uh, ticket that was just a warning if it was the first time. And what a lot of people thought is we were doing all-warning tickets for a period of time, but even that first week of doing tickets, people were starting to get real tickets. So, our electronic database would show if you've received a warning or not, so everybody's first one was a warning, and then after that, it was a real ticket. Um, we worked up this map, um, that w- for the first time, this was back in July, for the first time, you had, um, on-street and off-street information on one map. Uh, some of the information related to garage rates and the parking program. And I'm sorry for the quality of this, um, but this is the newest one that you all have in front of you. And I've got... It, it's a four-fold brochure, and this is the map side of it. Um, and then the other side still has information related to garage rates. I've got some others in the back, if anybody here wants to pick them up, and it folds up. It, the one you all have is the flat version. And, uh, the main difference here is where we started to show where the new, uh, solar-powered stations are in the core of downtown. And then, um, the, uh, where you see the red line that says one-hour meter and then the blue line indicates two-hour meters, on the prior map, almost all of downtown were one-hour meters, and you'll recall we changed all those to two-hour meters, except for a small strip of meters on Short Street, where the Clock Shop and a barber shop, uh, that area right there, they requested that we stay to one hour. And I, I only bring that out just to mention that we do try to, uh, adapt to what that local need is by the merchants. These were in the Chevy Chaser and the Business Lexington, and then during the month of July, we ran, uh, these, these types in the Herald-Leader for, probably about every third day in different sections of the Herald-Leader, just to get the word out about what was going on. Some of the achievements, I've just noted that in July, we've got, uh, we, we opened up the storefront office, the LexPark office that's down on, uh, 114 North Upper. We b- began the on-street management, we were actually writing tickets, uh, on the 7th of July, and then implemented that first-time warning program for first offenders. In, um, August, we started overseeing the neighborhood programs and, and enforcing the permits in the neighborhoods, and then rolled out that amnesty program. Um, and we installed 50 new single-space meters in September and began to convert all those one-hour meters to two-hour meters, and that happened during the month of October, um, except for the three that are on Short Street. And then, um, beginning in October, we began the installation of the pay-and-display meters that are solar powered. Five of them actually were installed by, uh, the 15th of October. Um, we began a citation noticing, and I'll stop just for a second on this one. Um, something that our electronic, um, database is able to accomplish is also going out and getting DMV records outside Fayette County and outside the state. The government in the past never sent a letter to anyone outside of Fayette County to collect on an outstanding citation, and we are starting to see those payments coming in during the month of December, uh, from that work in November, and this will continue. Um, and then we began installing the, uh-- or we had the booting program that was rolled out in November, where if you have three or more unpaid citations, you could be booted. Um, then the last 25 meters were installed in January, and we're continuing that, um, are rolling them out right now. And then probably one of the things I'm now the most excited about is the new smart card program. Uh, just went out and purchased mine today, but this is gonna be really great for delivery people, runners from law firms, so you can, um, get to the debit card that works in single-space meters and the new multi-space meters. You can load it up, uh, and then reload it as you use it up. Um, then, uh, obviously the meter rate increase that's going on right now during the conversion process. Uh, I won't spend too much time here on the Green Initiative, but the last bullet point, um, that is very important when you combine both consistent enforcement and this rate increase. Our goal is to get an 85% occupancy in any of the areas that have meters, which would mean 15% empty, which would mean typically on a block you ought to have a parking space or two available, which was not the case before we took over. And when you think about the emissions and interstate- inter- intersection accidents that happen just from people cruising and getting frustrated looking for parking, um, that's a part of green that y- you may not think of. Then our emphasis on technology, um, obviously those, uh, electric chariots that the five outriders are riding, uh, new electronic ticket writers, the police have always over the years used a handwritten pad to write th- the citations on. Um, and then photo enforcement, the- the citation ticket writers that we've purchased also can take a photo. So if we're saying that someone's parked at a hydrant or over a yellow line and- and they want to argue that, we have a record of what happened. Um, and then online payments, um, I think is a great technology. Never before has the Irvin County government been able to collect revenue from a parking citation online. We're seeing payments made, you know, on the weekends when offices aren't open now. Um, then replacing the old mechanical meters, which over half of all the meters in the inventory the Irvin County government had were these old mechanical meters you can't get parts for, you can't change the rates, you can't audit them, and- and then rolling out the pay and display meters. So I'll slow down just a bit on this 'cause I think this is a topic of the day, and then I have some statistics right after these next two slides. Um, there are 50 pay and display meters that are solar powered. Um, when all is said and done, we- we expect to have about 1,300 paid spaces in- in the inventory. These 50 will take about 400... Well, will function in about 450 of those, so there'll still be around 800 or so single-space meters when we're all said and done, which still have to be upgraded to accept the smart card and- and- and the rate changes. Um, they're in what you might call three areas. The core of downtown has about 29 of them, the UK area has about 17, and then we propose four in the Chevy Chase area. And when we roll it out on a block that when it first gets powered up and we're in use, we've adopted the warning program again. We're gonna go for 30 days, give people a warning instead of a ticket so that they can get used to how that works without, you know, in being impacted with a $15 citation. And the- and the features are, uh, one of the, one of the great things, and I- and I think it's something that most of the merchants have appreciated is that you don't have to carry around a pocket full of quarters anymore, that you can pay with cash, coin if you- if you wish, and then credit- credit cards, debit cards, and we're going to roll out a cell phone payment program in a few months. We'll be talking about that later. Um, and it provides you a receipt. A lot of times we make a mistake if we write a ticket. If you've got that receipt, you can get that ticket voided right of- right away with that. Um, this, uh, these- these functions with a wireless communication system where they can report back if they need paper or if- if there's issues with it, they even can report if somebody's kicking on them or hitting them with a hammer. Um, and then there's a merchant validation program that I spoke with Mr. Farmer about as well and h- and he thought it was pretty interesting that the receipt that comes out, it's a two-part receipt, you can tear off the bottom half of it, and if a merchant wanted to say, "We'll cover your parking," they can leave the top part on the dash and bring in this bottom part to show the- show the merchant that they've- they've paid to park and, you know, they could establish this in any way they want. They could give them the money for it, they could give them a dollar off for, you know, if you spend a certain amount of money. I think that's a pretty neat thing because in the past if you put a quarter in a meter, you really didn't have any proof to show of it. There are disadvantages, um, of these, and I think one of the things, and- and I totally agree with- with Mr. Farmer, um, on this having to walk to the meter, pay, go back to your car, and display it, and then go on about your business. It is a few extra steps and, um, that is definitely one of the disadvantages. We think that the advantages far outweigh, um... And I- I won't go through all of them, but you can see there's- there's quite a few on both sides, but obviously we wouldn't have purchased them if we didn't feel that the advantages were gonna outweigh the disadvantages. Just a few statistics real quick. Um, there's a... When we took over, there was around 1,200 metered spaces. We've added about 68, um, in- in- in those spaces. There's 50, um, pay and display meters. We- we monitor 28 different parking or neighborhood, uh, parking zones. Uh, we sold about 905 permits this past year. Um, during the warning timeframe, we issued 9,952, uh, warnings, which equated to about $147,000 worth of citations that were- were completely free in an effort to really provide good real will and to ex- you know, explain to people how the program works. Uh, currently the citations that- that we've written, uh, there's 16,000 of them outstanding. There's 12,000 or so that's been paid, and, uh, total revenue to date in the past six months is 278,000. This is just a six months look here, six months prior to LexPark taking over, and then the past six months would take you up to the end of, uh, December. Um, so this is before any meter rate increase. ... uh, came into play. So you can see, uh, just up on the top line where meter revenue is, just by enhanced enforcement, getting the word out, getting the information out, um, it- it's nearly doubled just in that effort, not quite. Um, citation revenue's where the big, um, I guess bang, so to speak, has happened, and that is because of all the noticing, the sending out letter and- and- and letting people know if you don't pay you could receive, uh, a wheel lock. And so, we've collected that much to date, 188,000. And then- then total revenue, uh, it's gone from 94,000 to 278,000 again in the past six months. We would anticipate the citation revenue to continue to trend upward and obviously the meter revenue at some point. Um, even though you can say going from a quarter to a dollar is quadrupling, we don't expect that 'cause there would be some of a- of a thinning. Um, but for the rest of this fiscal year, we would anticipate the meter- meter revenue to climb. Um, just a- a reminder about the rates. There's different rates that we deal with. There's, uh, the citations, which th- this council in 2000, uh, the- the citation penalty for some- any kind of parking, uh, violation was $4. It went to $15 back in 2000. Residential permit program which has been in place, uh, since 1990, those are $10 apiece. That hasn't changed. I don't plan on changing it. Um, the meter rates, again, went from a quarter to a dollar this month. We're still working on that process, and i- with the council back in 1983, uh, was the last time it was raised and went from a nickel to 25 cents. I like to say that was a 500% increase. We only did 400%. Um, just for public information, um, we'd just like to throw these things out. Some people are a little bit confused 'cause the word authority sounds maybe bigger than it- than it might be, and so we just wanna remind people what LexPark does not do, and it's not, we're not in charge of any private parking lots and nothing that's non-governmental. Um, we do not write citations for parking in yards, and, uh, we don't have any control of any other parking entities in town. And- and that doesn't mean that we're saying that any of these are- are good or bad, we just don't have anything to do with that, and so some people are a bit confused that we might be in charge of them or be able to dictate to them, and we can't. Any questions? Council members, uh, we'll take questions and then we'll hear from Mr. Farmer. Council member Blues. Okay. Thank you Madam Chair. Uh, Mr. Means, thanks so much and- and you've certainly done a- a- an amazing amount of work in the- in the- in the time that you've been engaged in this, uh, in- in this transition. Uh, I do have and- and have heard some- some concerns expressed, so I- I would like to pass them onto you and maybe you could- c- c- could comment on them. Uh, these few come from a, uh, a downtown, uh, a downtown, uh, business owner who- who reported that, uh, one, the- the- the new set-up is unsightly with all of these- with all of these old poles plus the- the- the- the solar- the solar tower. And- and- and am I- am I right that the- that the- uh, uh, that the individual poles where the, uh, where the Pay and Display towers are, th- that they will be removed in due course? Yes. It's such a major project that we've taken on with just the conversion process along with the smart cards, you know, we're going to each and every meter and updating them. This is sort of what an updated version. The old meters don't have the slot and we have to reprogram them and- and, you know, take them apart, put them back together. The answer is, our goal is to remove all of those posts to get rid of the clutter. I would anticipate along with the streetscape plan that especially Main and Vine and the Lime corridor that- that we hope to get done before the 2010 games, uh, we would work along with that construction to remove them. But as we can get to that project, that's kind of the next goal to take- take those away and remove the clutter. But one of the things that we found in our original goal, if you took a block face, we were gonna put a sign at either end of the block and then the meter in the middle. We found that if you park in the middle there, some people are feeling like they don't see enough indication that they need to pay, so it may be that we need to leave a couple of those and add some smaller signage to those posts, but our goal is to get rid of that clutter. I see. Thank you. I... Uh, also the- the- uh, uh, uh, this person complained that uh, it- it's even more convenient now to stop for two minutes to pick up a sandwich, uh, somewhere and for- for just, uh, you know, stopping for a couple of- couple of minutes to do that, and I wonder if the smart card would help that kind of issue. It- it could. I think probably what- what they're getting at is, if they just wanted to run right in real quick, they've now gotta park over to the solar p- pay station and go back to their dash and then go in. And again, that could be a bit of an inconvenience, but we're only gonna put these in, again there's 50 of them, about 450 of the 1,300 spaces at this point is where these are going, so there's probably a block just before it or just after it or they could go to the single space if they felt like it was just more convenient to stick a quarter in and run and come back to their vehicle. There's still those options. With regard to the Pay and Display, uh, uh, system, uh, how do folks in other, you know, in other cities get along with this? My only experience in where- where this is widely- widely used was that... ... everybody took it as a matter of, of course, and, and, but you would probably know more about that than I would, and, and- Well, to, to relate it to a non-parking scenario, it's kinda like when the banks started rolling out ATM machines, we were all a little un- comfortable with that at first. You know, I wanted tell her, but we, we got used to it, and a lot of times it's, it's a lot faster and easier and more convenient just to go straight to an ATM. It's similar to that in the parking. Um, you know, we're just... It's a kind of a little bump to get over with the technology, but, um, I'm speaking directly with a few different cities to... And, and actually as I'm working with Mr. Farmer and the Chevy Chase folks, um, I found out about a, um, a historic district in the city of Houston. Houston ran, uh, rolled out 750s of these same exact meters that we... And there was a historic district that didn't appreciate the solar panel and, um, and requested that... They didn't mind the meter so much 'cause of its lower profile, but they felt like the solar panel took away from some of the historic value and, and, and basically the parking operation there worked with them. That solar... Uh, that historic district paid for wiring, which we didn't... We haven't planned on that expense 'cause you have to do a lot of underground to get the power to the units, but that was their way of resolving it. But that was the only complaint, and I, I was really specific in my question to them, you know, if they had specific merchant type neighborhoods that had issues and, and they didn't have anything really to speak of other than that historic issue with the solar panel itself. I'm sorry, are all of ours now solar panel... Uh, solar powered? There's 50, uh, that are solar- That are solar powered. Yeah. Any of the, the meters that are gonna be more than a single space, all those 50, uh, are gonna be solar powered at this point. I see. Okay. One other complaint I had, I might as well get them all, all to you. No problem. Lay it on. And that is that the, uh, uh... On one occasion, the, the machine was not working and this person called the parking authority and was told not to worry about that, that the weather was too cold for it to, to work. If that's the case, will, will that be a, a continuing problem or is that a... Just a glitch that can be- We're hoping it's a glitch with the... The latest of the 25, there's been some problems with, with that and we think related to the cold, so we're working with the manufacturer on that to make sure we can get over that glitch, but I think it's something related to just them being new and us working through the bugs. Okay. Thank you very- We're not gonna leave it that way, let's put it that way. I see. Good. Thank you very much. Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Chair Gary. Thank you for coming today. We really appreciate you, uh, coming on such short notice. Uh, couple things. One, when you did the research for these new solar panel, wh- wh- what did you look for to get the background and who else is using? What other cities are currently using those meters? Um, an- eh- we actually, um... We researched other cities and, and met with the vendors, and I've been to a few different trade shows and, and spoke with them and got the ideas of different cities. Um, it, it... That whole technology was, um, more of a European thing at first and has made its way into the US and even in Canada, um, which again, they've figured out a way to get past the cold issue, so I'm sure we'll be able to as well. But as it started migrating into the US, you found it more in the bigger cities. Um, Portland, um, and Seattle and, and on that, on that coast, and then obviously, uh, Miami has a bunch of them and Houston as I've spoken with. I just found out Pittsburgh, even though Pittsburgh kind of is... It's still got a pretty tight downtown and they've rolled out some of these. And then, um, back in December, over a year ago, we invited, uh, four or five different vendors here and they came to town and we, we invited everybody to come, come view them and let them kind of give us a educational, uh, presentation. We don't... We weren't at that point at an RFP point, but we just wanted to get... And so we learned a little bit about bill acceptors versus not. You, you know, and do you give change and do you not give change? So we spent some time on this, well over a year, and, um, again, put out an RFP and allowed, uh, all, all the vendors to respond, and then again as you go through that, you get ideas about signage and even if you're not gonna use this vendor, you, you learn a lot each time. So I think we went through a pretty extensive process as far as doing the research. So in, in, during your research, how do other cities deal with out-of-town people or people that are coming from like a UK game that, that aren't familiar with the new system? How do you... I know you briefly mentioned under Council Member Blue's question, are you gonna put more signage along the street? I mean, how, how are we gonna let people know that, "Hey, you gotta go to the central spot. This is not a free spot." Right. And, and again, I think that's one thing that we've realized that just having the sign on either end leaves a little room for someone to miss out on the message, so we think adding the additional signage. Most people that travel and, and they go into a downtown are typically looking around 'cause most downtowns charge to park, so it's, you know, they just need to figure out wh-... If there's not a meter out here, there must be something somewhere. I, I think that's typical of a traveler, but we don't wanna make it a mystery. And at the same time, I think if somebody really has a legitimate, um, issue with either something malfunctioning or they didn't understand it, we, we can void if we need to go that route. Do we have any free parking spaces downtown along the streets? I mean, there are still several left, aren't there? There's... You know, there's these secret hiding spaces that, that- Sure. ... people find, but, um, if, if there's an area that the demand is great enough, there's typically been a, a meter put in. Uh, there are some areas, there's still some curb line, but it really doesn't do any good to the function of the unit. If you told somebody about it, if they drove over there, it would already be taken up because people found out where those are and they'll stay there all day. And that's where you found your 68 new spaces? Mm-hmm. There's some areas, um, that, that were just some curb line that folks were parking on and we, we found that, that probably made sense to add some paid parking in those locations. And I don't anticipate a lot of growth beyond that. We, we, we kinda have a controlled environment as far as, you know, the expansion. You know, maybe Manchester one day is as booming as we hope it might be. There may be paid parking there someday, but for right now, I think, you know, five or 10 here or there might be the total growth. And then on the map that you handed out that you gave us, I assume most... It looks like 99% of our spaces are, are two-hour meters now. Yes, and it's in the first year only. And you know, before we did that, I anticipated, ju- even as a downtown user, I knew if you go to a one-hour meeting, you need about an hour and a half to, to get there, pay, and go to your meeting and get back. So we had anticipated rolling it out, uh, and, and changing it as needed. But, uh, it was a little bit surprising that everybody, especially in the Chevy Chase area, we raced, raced very quickly to swap theirs out because we realized that there was an, a real negative impact and changed those to two hour. Um, it, that, that, the merchants that I mentioned earlier, there's three meters still on Short Street and they wanted them to stay because of that type of turnover. And a lot of times in cities next to, say, a one-hour photo or a copies place where you maybe just run in and pick up a blueprint or something, sometimes they'll want less than even an, uh, an hour. And we'll try to adjust that when we feel like the need is, is, is there. And Chevy Chase is two hours? It's two hours now. It was one, th- most all of them were one hour before. And I saw on one of your slides that now you're giving a warning right now on these, the, the new solar panels? Right, so where we stopped the warning period at the end of September, uh, we've started it back up again when these come online for the 30 days after they come online to help educate. Okay, and then anything after 5:00 obviously is free still? Exactly. That's not changed? And, oh, and it used to be 6:00. Right. We changed it to 5:00 to try to enhance the nightlife, Monday through Friday after 5:00 and all the weekends, Saturday and Sundays. And any citations that your, your folks write, where does that revenue go back to? The, um, the, the citation revenue will go to support the program or any other new, uh, improvements or capital improvements. Currently, meter revenue, uh, after expenses is dedicated to pay off the bond that Irvin County Government makes about a 700 and something thousand dollar payment every year for, uh, garage bonds. Yeah, I just wanted to make that distinction- Right. ... that citation actually goes all back to you. Right. And not that you have an incentive to write more of them, but, but, but you do- Exactly. ... capture that revenue back for capital improvements. Exactly. We do, we don't have an incentive to write more, but we certainly are incentivized to try to get them paid. Uh, and, and that is definitely, uh, a, a difficult task to do sometimes, I know. Exactly. Takes a lot of work. And I appreciate all your work you've done on the Parking Authority. Thank you. I know it was difficult when we had to, when we decided to create it. And, you know, we talked about it a long time here on council and, uh, it looks like though it's headed in the right direction. Maybe a few tweaks- Sure. ... here and there, but it looks like we're, we're heading the right direction. Thank you. I appreciate that, but I, and, and I want to say I've received a lot of thanks and, and I am not a one-man show. I've had a lot of help. The Irvin County Government employees have just been incredible, which, um, I was, I was not associated with government prior to taking this position and kind of had an anticipation of maybe some pushback. But all of the agencies within the government have just been incredibly helpful in what we do. And then again, the, the LexPark team, uh, are, are bringing all kinds of great ideas to, to what we're doing. So that's certainly, I can't take the credit. I did have one last question. So any alternatives besides the solar panels and a normal parking meter? Is there anything in between, any compromises- Um- ... of systems that, uh, that you've seen around the country that may work better for like a Chevy Chase or- Right, not, not necessarily in between. The other enhancement that we feel like rolling out is a cell phone, um, opportunity to pay by cell phone. Um, and, and that, that's just, it would work with either system, but it probably wouldn't be a, a blend of the two. You're still paying to park. Right now, we just have the two options, either put one, a meter- Mm-hmm. ... by the cars or the central location. Okay. Right. Very good. Thank you. Council Member Crosby. Thank you. Um, I am gonna, as, uh, Council Member Blues, make you aware of a few situations that have been brought to my attention and then also I have a few questions. And, um, I kinda like to paint a picture and, and, um, if you could just imagine a, a mom. You know, I, I think when you were listing the benefits and, and saying that the benefits far outweigh, you know, the negatives of this. Um, picture a mom, one much like myself, in fact, it was myself, with six kids in her car on a field trip and I was very excited because I found a parking spot on the street. And I had these six kids who were very excited to be going on a field trip to the Opera House. And I got out of my car and it was a beautiful snowy sleety day in Lexington, Kentucky. And I got out and I was trying to find the parking, the little solar, you know, parking thing, and I had to cross the street. W- I couldn't leave them in the car by themselves because, um, that's against the law, so I could've been arrested because they would've said, you know, "Mommy, you'll get thrown in jail if you do that." So I had to haul all six kids out of the car with me in the snowy sleety weather, um, across one street trying to find a little parking thing to stick my money into. And we went down about half a block, I couldn't find it, so then I turned around and we all went the other way down the block. And finally, we found one and realized that I didn't have a credit card or anything on me, so I was trying to get my dollar bills all straightened out. And at this time, they're running around in the puddles, in the snow, throwing snowballs, and they were soaking wet. And I'm finally getting the thing. I had to then go back all the way to the car, get it in. It slides down my, the, the front end of my car. So then I'm digging it out from the dashboard, trying to fish it out so that I don't get a ticket because I've now p- purchased it as the kids are running around the street of Lexington, trying to get it out so I don't get a ticket, get it on the front of the car. Finally, we go to the Opera House. They're soaking wet. I'm soaking wet. And I'm a perfectly able-bodied person. The kids are perfectly able-bodied. But it was a very frustrating situation because, one, I didn't know where to find where I was going, and two, I was having to, you know, get my money out just right. And, um, so again, I, I see the benefits, but that was a very frustrating day for someone like myself. Um, the other, uh, problem that has been brought to my attention is that the machines sometimes run out of tape. And I've been told that even when that's been brought to the attention of the people, that there are cars that aren't able to go up and get the tickets and they're still being ticketed even though they put their money in and they can't get the ticket. Have you heard situations like that? I've heard a couple of receipt issues, and I... If, if they didn't communicate to the people not to write the tickets, we certainly would void a ticket, because they know when the machines are down. They get messages from the machine. Uh, as far as it running out of paper, I'm not really sure if that's been the case, 'cause they've only been up and running. There's a pretty good size roll, but it could have happened. We've also found that people haven't realized that the receipt was... They, they think that it's gonna come out, like some machines work, and it's down in the little cup down there, and people have walked off and left receipts there that didn't realize it was right there for them. And also just the fact, like I mentioned too, that they, they are so small, and that they do slide down the front. So I've had several people say that they have literally lost them down the front. They've had to go back again to get another one, because they can't... You can't always fish them out, evidently, so they've had to go back, get another ticket, pay the extra money- Mm-hmm. ... just to park for the two hours. So those are a couple of issues that have come up. Um, one question I have too is how do you determine who gets a single meter space? I know Dr. Blues touched on it a little bit, but could you just clarify? 'Cause I know a few of us up- Sure. ... here were kinda confused. If you could clarify your answer. Sure. Basically, there's two different criteria. One would be we were looking for around nine or ten parking meters in a row to, to make this investment. In some cases in downtown, you're gonna see it at a... Where there may be four or five, but typically, we're looking for nine or ten. So that's one criteria. The other would be if in... After our enforcement was rolled out, if more than 50% of those meters in that area were occupied, we felt like there was enough demand to utilize this new meter. If it was less than 50%, then we didn't opt to go to that new meter. Thank you. Council Member James. Thank you, Madam Chair. Hi, Gary. Um, thank you so much. You've been really helpful through this whole transition with parking, and you've met with neighborhoods with me, and appreciate everything that you've done, and it's definitely showing that there's change happening in Downtown Lexington. Um, a couple of questions I had. G- going back to one thing Council Member Crosby mentioned. When I first utilized the, um, machine, I thought that you'd be able to enter your space number, and then the sp- then the machine itself would read out that you were paid up or not. Is it equipped to be able to do that so that you don't have to have the little printed ticket? These, these meters can be programmed that way, but what we were trying to accomplish along with streetscape plan is to lessen the clutter. And what we'd have to do is mark every space number and leave the post with a sign of the space number, so we'd actually be adding to the clutter, uh, as opposed to... But you... That's called pay-by-space. We went with pay-and-display. Um, the one benefit that we now have is that you've got proof of your payment, um, but that pay-by-space, it, it can work. It can work with this type of meter. But again, we'd have to mark every single space in the, in the whole inventory that we're doing with both a sign up and then something down on the ground, so that they would know exactly what space. Then you have to remember- So it is required that it... It's required that it be posted up on something and not... It couldn't just be a spot painted on a curb or something like that. Because of snow then, then, and other... You know, just it wearing off and that kind of thing. Uh-huh. It's good to have two ways to inform folks. Okay. Um, okay, that answers that. What about when the machines go down? Who main- who does the maintenance on the machines? The LexPark team, which is made up of, besides their supervisors and management, there's the, the five outriders, and then there's two maintenance individuals and the supervisor. So there... If a call goes into the LexPark office on, on North Upper- Mm-hmm. ... they would notify one of the maintenance people to go out to this location, wherever it would be, to, to correct it. And at the same time, if, if we hear something like, "It's not working," they should also notify the outrider in that area not to, to write citations because it's down until we get it fixed. Okay. That's the policy. So how, how often since July has the, the main manufacturer had to come to fix something, as opposed to just our maintenance folks? Well, we haven't... Um, the new meters have only been in since mid-October. Okay. And there was only five then, and then it was, uh, late November when the next 20 went in. So we don't have a lot of track record yet- Okay. ... on the newer ones. On the older ones, we've been able to fix problems, um, with parts or replacement. The, the mechanism inside, uh, these, this style of a meter can just be replaced if, if... And we've been able to do that in-house and much faster than it used to happen when LFUCG was taking care of those meters. You'd see a meter down for two, three days a lot in the past. So the cold, being cold issue, that's a manufacturer deal. That's something they need to work on. Exactly. What are they doing right now to help resolve that? I just found out about it last week, and I was out of town. So I don't know what all the communications are yet on that- Mm-hmm. ... but I've certainly pushed some pretty serious emails to, to the manufacturer to make sure we get on it. So I'm not sure what their resolution will be. Oh, do you know what the length of that, as far as... Um, do... Are we... Are they under contract to continue to fix those- Yes. ... as problems arise? A wa- a warranty issue at this point for the first year. What's the warranty? One year. One year only? From which date? Uh, the date of installation, and they'll track e- each. Each of these have their own serial number. So some of them started in October, some in November, and then the rest in January. So basically, up through this calendar year, we would have warranty on these. Okay. So as we get closer to that, if you, um... Being an authority, I'm not really sure how that works, but if you see that there's a problem with the one, the very first ones that were put in, and, like say cold weather is about to, hopefully, not be around too long, so how is it that by the time cold weather starts again, if those issues aren't resolved, will we be stuck with malfunctioning machines without warranty? I'm not gonna live... I wouldn't live with that. Now, we'll make sure it's right. I mean, I- Okay. ... I don't wanna, you know, be listening to the problems of cold weather. We're gonna get it fixed, and we... I'm working on that real, real strongly now. Okay. Um, and is there a such thing as sleep mode on the machines? I was having lunch with someone downtown, and, and they said, "I couldn't put any money in because the machine was on sleep mode." What does that mean? Um, that, that's not exactly the way I understand that it would work, but sleep mode is kind of like with our desktop, just to be an energy saver. And with them being solar paneled, it's almost like they'll go into sleep mode. So if no one's touched the machine for a while, it'll, it'll s- sort of go into a powered-down state to save power and, and allow the solar to con- continue. So when you hit a, you hit a button, you've got to wait a little bit. I was just checking one of the new ones on Limestone and, you know, if you think it's broke, then you, you, you typically won't wait long enough. But there's a few seconds before it'll, it'll boot up, so to speak. But- And so as a- ... I don't think that it wouldn't have accepted money. I, I, you know, I'm just not sure what might've, there could've been another issue maybe 'cause if, if, if you tried right away, it may not, but j- it's just a few seconds before it'll come alive. Okay. What are you supposed to do as a motorist? If you, if you go to a machine and it's either broken, sleep mode, and you can't get it to respond, are you supposed to put a note somewhere on your car, or just leave, go on and go about your business, or- I would, I would call the LexPark office, or leave a note, one or the other. But I think calling the office is the fastest way to get proper attention. Is that what it says on... Does it s-, it says that on the machine, doesn't it? I believe so, I believe it's got- If you have problems to call- ... their phone number. Mm-hmm. Okay. And what are the hours, um, that the meters are for? I, I know, did the hours change a little bit from previous? Well, we backed off from the 6:00 PM. Okay. The u- all meters used to be 8:00 to 6:00 PM Monday through Friday, and now, these, and, and the old single-spacer, 8:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday, and that's it. Okay. What about holidays? Well, we've run into some issues with, uh, communication on holidays, and our board just adopted that we will follow the LFUCG, uh, observed holidays, and we've got that now on our website, and we'll continue- Okay. ... to try to get that word out. And so, what does that mean, for folks that are watching? Um, well, that would mean it's free parking on, uh, one of the days that was, uh, controversial was the Friday after Thanksgiving. Yes. I mean, everybody would expect Thanksgiving, um, and, and some did the Friday after, so we're gonna put that, implement that. But again, that'll only be if, if, if all of the development in downtown that we all hope for creates a lot of, uh, great merchant, um, activity- Mm-hmm. ... that Friday after Thanksgiving could become a booming day and we may need to revisit it. But for at this point, there's not enough to warrant the enforcement. And since so many people think that it's a holiday, we decided to not. So what, uh, not enforce it. So that would mean the meters are free, but you would, you could still get parking tickets for parking, um, fire hydrants, or loading zones, things that, you know, you shouldn't be doing. But any of the meters would be free on holidays. Okay. And garages owned by government as well that would be free to- I, I, I can't speak to the garages- Okay. ... at this point. Okay. Um, and let's see. On the mechanical meters that you've removed, the older ones, what did we do with those? Um, we, we have, uh, another city that has wanted to purchase a few of them. Um, we've got scrap collectors that are asking about it. And so, that's, I have to work with Brian Marcum and, and, and, uh, surplus and, and purchasing to work out what we're gonna do. And, um, there's, there's even some talk of maybe some public art with the old meters, so- Okay. ... we might see something come out of it. I was gonna say, some, some cities have done it for fundraisers, like, just have different nonprofits- Right. ... be able to put them in different locations. So I'd be happy- There's, there's six or 700 of them and we'd be open to ideas- Okay. ... 'cause it's, it's a lot of weight right now. Um, one of the complaints that I've heard from, um, people like Council Member Crosby, moms that have ba- carrying babies and want to swipe their card and things like that, is, um, could there be any type of canopy, um, attachment for inclement weather? Pouring rain and you're waiting on something to print out, and someone reported that it took 15 minutes for them to get something to actually print out when they paid with a, with a credit card. So I'm just wondering if there's a canopy attachment that could potentially be purchased. I, I really like that idea, other than the solar power- Mm-hmm. ... would be blocked by- Well, it could go under. ... we, it could, if we can figure out a way to do that, I'd certainly entertain the idea. And then, again, 15 minutes is way too long. We need to make sure that the equipment's working better than that. And then something to, uh, Council Member Crosby's, uh, comments, and any mom, uh, the cellphone plan may be a good thing for those folks. What you'll be able to do is just pull into the parking space and you'll have to have set up an account. Mm-hmm. You dial in and say, "I'm at meter number," whatever, and you can pay for an hour or however long you want right from your car and then just walk off and do the business. Okay. And are you, I, I'm sure you are, but logging the complaints that you're hearing from, from citizens and finding ways to respond to those? Yes. Is there, on the website, I haven't checked out your website lately, but do you have those kind of listed? If, if folks are, if everyone's, um, if you're hearing a lot of things like, "Can there be a canopy?" Or, "What if the machine is in sleep mode, what should I do?" Can you have kind of a question- There is- ... frequently asked questions responses there? There, uh, is something very similar to that, ab- Okay. ... about reporting a broken meter and some question and answers. Um, and you can also, when you're at the website, if you have any questions, it allows you to send an email directly. And all emails that go to info@lexpark.org, I get a copy on all of those. Okay. So I'm helping respond to those if, if the, uh, office doesn't clarify it as well as I would like them to. Sure. And for those watching, what is your, what's your, um, website address? It's, uh, lexpark.org. Lexpark.org. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair. Council Member Baird. Thank you, Madam Chairman, Chairperson. Close. Um, Gary, I, I may have already gotten this answer with the comments that, um, have been made previously about, um, disabled machines in one form or another, and, uh, the complaints I've had, I've had two of them actually, uh, perceive that it's the lack of sunlight that, uh, they're inoperable for whatever reason, and didn't mention the cold weather, or didn't mention, um... ... a-a-a-anything else but sunlight. Is -- is the lack of sunlight we have from, uh, November 15th til, uh, April 1st around here, uh, is that a problem? It has become an, an issue, and what we've done is purchased a-additional batteries. There are a few meters, depending on where... Uh, apparently, and I'm learning a little bit about solar panels, but they should be directed towards the south, and, uh, there are some areas that, that just don't get th-... because of a building or something- Right. ... that's nearby. And so we kinda know which one those are and work through those bugs, so we've purchased extra batteries and keep them on charge. They can check every morning. They're... it's just like on your cellphone. There's kind of... you can look at all of the meters and see how many bars are left basically on the battery, and if it's gettin' into critical scenario, they can take a b-... a battery out. And batteries, even if... with no sunlight, they'll go three or four days- Okay. ... without fully trickling. Well, the only other question I had were the hours, and I think it's been asked twice and answered twice, so I don't need to- I'll be glad to answer it again. No, that's fine. I, I, I got it the second time. I didn't quite get it the first time. Thank you very much. All right. Council member Feigl? Thank you, Madam Chairman, and, and thank you, Mr. Means, for coming, uh, at our request to make this presentation. And I will tell you that this is the first presentation that I've heard, uh, since I'm a new council member- Mm-hmm. ... and I'm trying to get up to speed. Um, but did I understand you to say that some of the old meters will remain? Well, there's a, um... when you're talking about the old meters, there's two different meters that we're talking about. There are a, uh, a group of them out there that are around 20-something years old. Some of 'em went in and... when the rate increase occurred in '83, they had to put in new meters. And, um, so there's a group of those that we'll call mechanical. You actually have to wind them up, and there's, there's a lot of 'em still out there. Then there's a group of 'em, they're similar to this, but there was a cover over where the smart card slot is. There was a plate there. Those had to be upgraded to accept the smart card, and then the rate change is getting programmed into those as we go. So, when we... when we've purchased the, uh, larger meters, if they were on a block where there were electronic meters available, we're taking those from that and using them in areas where the, uh, old mechanicals. So we're trying to kind of, I guess, rob Peter to pay Paul, so to speak, to save on... instead of just saying we need 800 new meters like this, we're taking the ones like this from where, uh, solar power went and moving 'em to other locations. Okay, I guess I, I should've worded my question a little differently. There will be meters, uh, individual meters for individual parking places in some areas? Yes, always, continually. Okay, individual meters? Yes. And will they be coin-fed meters? Yes. They... the, the ones that will be left will look just like this. It has a coin slot on the side and then the card slot. Mm-hmm. The, the drawback to these as opposed to some of the complaints that have come up of with the other ones is that th-this only accepts two forms of payment, and you're gonna have to go to the LexPark office to purchase the, um, the card that I showed you earlier, the smart card. So, um, with the rate increase, these are gonna require quarters or that smart card, whereas the solar powered have- But it will take quarters? ... all the other options. Will, will take quarters? Yes. Yes. Okay. Um, and are there some meters that, that... where you can, uh, park for less than two hours? There are three. To my knowledge, that is gonna be all that's left in the inventory. There are three meters left at one hour on Short Street between Upper and Limestone, where there's a clock shop and a barber shop. Mm-hmm. Um, th-there are some four-hour meters in, in a few strategic locations where maybe longer term parking is more beneficial. We've got some out in the UK area and some in some of the outskirting, uh, areas of downtown. Okay, so were those one-hour meters, um, placed in those gen-... in those specific areas to accommodate the kind of business that was there? Yes. And, and years back, um, when I first started payin' attention to this, uh, maybe back in '99 or so, there were still some 10-hour meters, and I believe we've had 24-minute meters in, in downtown, like in front of a coffee place. I think there used to be one in front of, um, uh, on Main Street- Okay. ... near, near our... near the government center here, there used to be a couple of 'em, I believe. My primary interest is, uh, the Chevy Chase area. That is within my district, and so I'm just trying to ask as many questions as I can to see if there's some way that we can accommodate those businesses. And I will be very anxious to hear, um, Mr. Farmer's comments. So hopefully we've answered all the questions. I have a, uh, a slide if you would like to look at the Chevy Chase area to might get everybody's, um, kind of arms around that area and where the meters are, um, if you'd, if you'd like to look at that. Um, the... this is Euclid comin' diagonally through and then High Street coming around. Um, so if you can, um... and then South Ashland has... uh, in, in the whole area, there's about 68 meters there. A point there. So where's that? Great. This one. Okay. Um, okay, so we got Euclid coming through here, and then this is High Street. Uh, Starbucks right about there, and, uh, Mr. Farmer's store's probably right in here somewhere. Um- The furthest from the meter. Uh, the furthest. Um, the... uh, what, what we would do is these circles indicate where we have installed the for, uh, pay and display. We have identified South Ashland as an area that's, um, underutilized, and even this area right here, by far underutilized. Um, so this is a strip that we had said we won't... we feel like it's best to only go to 50 cents there. All of these meters, we're going to, uh, a dollar. These meters right up here would probably be too far to walk to, so we'll leave the s-... our plan was to leave single heads here, and then there's four just off the map down here. Mm-hmm. Um, help me out. That's across from the, the, uh, Ch- uh, Chevy Chase Plaza and- Right. ... yeah, there's four down there. Uh, and all of these meters were a- the old wind-up meters. And when we heard the initial complaints about the one-hour issue, we scrambled and, and brought over some electronic meters, but those are really dedicated to go somewhere else, because we have, uh, 10 here, 10 here across from Farmer's Jewelry, uh, I think eight here and nine here. All, all of those meters are dedicated to go somewhere else. They're electronic meters that we had planned for them to be somewhere else, because we wouldn't need them here. So part of, uh, what Chevy Chase is asking us to do, uh, is if we remove these four, then we have to r- remount them, relocate them, find another location that makes sense, and then we're gonna have to purchase, um, about, I think it's about 38, uh, individual meters like these and, a- at the cost of maybe $13,000 that's unplanned. Again, we're open to... and I... and Mr. Farmer and I are working on a, on a meeting and I'm, you know, very open to listening to everybody and not saying this is how it's gonna be. But a couple of the issues that they have to keep in mind is, uh, where they're concerned about a few extra steps, they're actually asking their customers to carry a pocket full of quarters if we leave the single meters there, and then they're also asking us to spend about $13,000 of unplanned money to put the, the upgraded old-style meter at those locations. And did I understand that prior to implementing this new parking system, that the, the merchants in s- in the Chevy Chase area had not been, um, uh, contacted, that, that they had not actually been given an opportunity for input? That is correct. There hasn't been a direct... Um, we... I have spoken to the Merchant's Association, um, group here in downtown, that they have always been invited to. Uh, several times we're... we've tried to put out the word as much as possible, but we didn't directly contact them. We have found that m- for the most part people have said, "Oh, that... this is great, 'cause now my customers can use a dollar bill." So we didn't anticipate this type of, um, sort of negative impression of the, of the system, or else we would have. And obviously, we're holding up for a little bit and trying to, to- Right. ... to make that happen- Yeah. ... as far as the communication goes now. And I'm glad to see that you're doing that, because we were presented a petition, uh, with most of the businesses, if not all the businesses in Chevy Chase, uh, signing onto the petition. So this goes beyond just, you know, Mr. Farmer's business as well. Sure. And I would just ask that... Have you met with, uh, those businesses, um, since this has come up, since this- No. ... proposition was voted? And I was... and I was out of town last week, and we were scrambling to get this meeting put together. Mr. Farmer and I were just talking earlier today, so we're trying to get one hopefully in the next week, um, and be able to make that announcement and get everybody together. Okay. And, and I will go in and talk with them- Okay. ... and listen to their concerns. And I would like to be invited to that meeting as well. Well, of course. Thank you very much. No problem. Council Member Hanson. Thank you, Chair. Gary, I just got a few questions I wanna clarify. If I park at a two-hour meter, I can still pay for 15 minutes? Is that correct? Or... That's a great point. It... The, the rate is a dollar per hour, but you could still put a quarter in for 15 minutes- Okay. ... and, and, and run in. So if I wanna run in, pick something up... Yes. Um... On, on either type of, of machine that we've been talking about, you can pay for smaller increments. Okay. And, um, the other thing, um, it was al- it's my understanding that after hours, like after 6:00 PM, nights, weekends, holidays, are free parking downtown. Exactly. And I, I will explain something when I answer that question, "It's free after 5:00," but we would react to a request, should the nightlife get so busy and merchants say, "Gary, you gotta help me out. Um, all the waitresses are lined up at night and none of my customers can come park at my restaurant." Um, it's very common in cities that have healthy downtowns, and some of them that we've... our, our chamber of commerce trips have gone to, have, uh, meters that go until 9:00 PM, that kind of thing. Certainly nothing that I propose soon. Don't really wanna have to be in charge of things that are going on at 9:00. Right. But if it's, if it's a demand issue and, and the merchants want it, we will certainly react to that. Well, um, and then the last thing was you have the accessible parking, on-street parking. Mm-hmm. But each of the garages and the surface lots also have accessible... Uh, I can't speak to all of the surface lots. There's a lot of older lots in town that, if they wanted to make a change, they'd have to go before, uh, planning and, and get a plan approved that would, w- would force them to do an ADA requirement. But definitely all of the, uh, Irvin County government garages comply and even over-comply in some s- the annex garage has more than its need. Um, and there aren't any federal mandates for on-street parking, but in a survey we actually meet what would be an off-street requirement, um, per how many on-street meters there are, we have as many, uh, ADA spaces as required- Okay. ... as a city. Well, I appreciate everything you've done. I think you've been very innovative, very cooperative working with the community, and I'm, I'm glad and I know that as problems arise that you will do everything you can to compromise on that. So thank you. Thank you. Council Member Cosby. Um, I just have a follow-up based on the slides you showed of, of the Chevy Chase area. How do you determine a under-utilized parking area? That would go back to that 50%, you know, um, survey that we did. When we went out and looked, if you would go out in the Chevy Chase area, um, prior to these meters going into place and we were looking at where they, they would go, we did surveys at 10:00, noon, and 2:00. Um, at 10:00 and 2:00, in the areas where we put the four, uh, there's always spaces, but during the noon hour, with buddies and a lot of very successful restaurants in that area, the... all of them were full. So it, it just made sense. You had nine or ten in a row, you had full meters, um, and, and I believe that a lot of the clientele that are coming in that area are used to technology and would a- would adapt to it. So that was some of the reasoning that we went with. But when you looked at South Ashland, I never really saw that type of occupancy, and I felt like, um, it doesn't make sense to put a different kind of impact on them when they don't have the occupancy to begin with. So for example, at... ... you wouldn't take in to- to consideration that there might be a new business that comes in on South Ashland, like a new restaurant that's just come in and, you know, it may have been underutilized at the time, but now there's a new business that ex- Right. ... exists there. And again, as a mom, I- I can't get into the soccer center over there. First, I- I can't find parking there during the day hardly at one of those parking meters, and quite frankly, I cannot get in and out of there in an hour with three kids, buying soccer shoes, shin guards, and socks, and I mean it's- Sure. ... that would be im- it's impossible, so I- I, again, I don't know where some of this- Well- ... data comes from, but again, uh, that, that is impossible to get in and out of there, and to find pa- parking is very difficult over there. Um, and we changed all the one-hour to two-hour in that whole area to help with that scenario, and, um, we're hoping that between the enforcement and the new rate that you- Policing. ... would, you would be able to find parking, uh, anytime you, you go into that area and- and have two hours to do whatever you need to do. Thank you. No problem. Do other council members have questions? I have a quick question. Okay. Uh, in Seattle, and this goes back to Council Member Blues and Council Member Crosby's concern about the receipt falling down the front, in Seattle, they use a Post-It note-type receipt, and you just put it inside on the front window, where the chariot person- Mm-hmm. ... can drive by and see it. Did you consider that sort of a receipt system? I have heard of that. I think one of the things that we can, um, it- it may sound like a little extra step, but if you put a little crease, a little fold in them, they'll lay flat. Uh, but it's certainly something we can look into to see what that expense would be. Um, one of the things that I- I've really tried to do is make everything that we're doing make sense. And so if everybody's saying they're sliding down into their ... which I understand how frustrating that can be 'cause I've had it happen to a parking garage card. Um, you know, we certainly will- will look into that, and even with the one complaint, it's worth looking in to seeing what that expense would be. But I would encourage anybody that's listening, if you just put a little crease in it, it'll lay in, it'll lay there just fine. Very good. Thank you so much. Uh, Mr. Farmer had a comment or two. Thank you, Mr. Means. Mm-hmm. I appreciate it very much. Sorry. Madam Chair, members of the council, thank you for your service, especially on this historic day. It's a pleasure to be here. I'll be brief. Um, Mr. Means and I are working on a meeting of the Chevy Chase merchants ne- for next Monday night at Buddy's. We haven't, I haven't really cleared that with him yet 'cause we've been talking about Tuesday, but, uh, I think the- the biggest upshot is we're- we're- we're gonna work together, and he's proven to be amenable to what I think are some very real concerns. But to go back to the example that is, uh, part of the, um, the petition I gave you, this is what we would like to keep, because it does give us the opportunity to let customers still come to four steps from our door, feed the meter, and walk those four steps in. And as I looked on the esplanade coming across just now, it is only about four or five steps from the front of the business to the- to the machine there. And if you look at the map of the one in Chevy Chase, at least on our side of the street, you've got to walk, uh, the length of our business and the length of the business next door that is, uh, the Blue Moon that is closed for basically five days a week, and that puts you 24 steps from my front door because you're now down in front of that- that larger dot in front of what almost looks like 821, but we are 821 on this end. Well, thank you. Anyway, I- I- I think the most important thing to understand is, and you as council members understand this, in many instances, one size does not fit all, and I think that's part of what goes on in Chevy Chase. Uh, following up on the article that was in the paper this morning, I had several calls at the store from people who i- in different ways described themselves as older or not nimble or not able to get around for a certain reason or another. And Chevy Chase is one of those memory areas for a lot of people of Lexington, and it's the last place that they wanna give up going to on their own. And to give up the convenience of being able to step from their car to their destination and back is what was echoed over and over again today. The Parking Authority is doing a- a good job, but a very hard job, because to a certain degree, at some times, they lose sight of the fact that this is a commodity that is parking, and they take it as a revenue plan. And the revenue plan is what he reflected in his comments in terms of, you know, they've put these machines out there that cost between 10 and $13,000 each according ... or 10 ... or eight or 10,000? 10,000. $10,000 each, and if we had had that conversation on the front end, maybe we would have been able to say to them, "No, we don't want those. Maybe we do want these and there's a way to make it happen." I still hope that we can make that happen. I'm not gonna ask you all for any action today, but I wanna make sure that you're aware of our conversations as we move forward because it is a very challenging retail time, and as has been highlighted from the hours given, this is aimed at retail. This is from 8:00 until 5:00, and this is the time that is most important for the merchants out there, and there are a lot of merchants out there, but we co-exist very well with people who have afternoon and evening busi- businesses. In fact, many of them did sign the petition, so there's some unanimity there. There's, uh, the room for communication. Thank you, Mr. Farmer. Signed it out. Thank you. Thank you very much. And Mr. Means, I wanna thank you for, uh, commend you on the job that you're doing, and your board, and I'm especially appreciated, appreciative that the two of you will work together to find a solution in Chevy Chase. Thank you. Uh, we're now on council report, and first up is Council Member James. Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to be the first from this, um, horseshoe to say congratulations to President Obama on this, um, phenomenal, amazing, historical, monumental, emotional, um, day. It's, um, I watched the inauguration with, um, m- ... probably 100 or 200 or 300 or so folks, and, um, I didn't know that I was gonna be so emotional about it, but it was, um, to know that this is, um ... Someone mentioned earlier, yeah, th- the inauguration happens every four years, you know, and I thought, "Th- there's nothing like this. There's nothing like this. There hasn't been anything like this, and everyone needs to take a moment of pause to think about what this means, um, and I think make changes in your life based on that." And that's just my opinion from, um, not necessarily as a First District representative, but personally, um, make, look at what this means, and look around you, look at this community, and think about what we can do to mimic, um, what the nation has said, um, and make sure we're living our lives that way. So, I'm very proud, um, to be an elected official right now. I'm very proud to be an American, and um, if, um, President Obama is watching Channel 3, um, um, let me know how I can help you. Thank you. Council Member Hanson. Thank you, Chair. I wanted to share with you all, um, we have a new bottle stop bus shelter on Versailles Road. I don't know if we can get that in clearer, but this was the first project for Arts in Motion, and I went to the ribbon-cutting yesterday, and it is very, very pretty. I hope that, uh, through private and public funds, we were able to create this shelter, and I know that Lex Tran has, uh, plans for some more. So, um, just wanted to share that with you. But I appreciate everybody that was involved in that, and it, uh, is unique. I believe the next one w- is, will be going up on Newtown Pike somewhere. Um, also, I'd like to make a motion to refer to the Services Committee a proposal to re- to r- to remove on-street parking and install a center turning lane in the 1300 block of Alexandria Drive. Second. We have a motion by Council Member Second, b- b- Hanson - ... a second by Council Member James. Uh, do I hear discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Does that complete your report? Yeah, that's it. Okay. Dr. Blues? Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, I- I too would, uh, underline and, uh, and echo council members, Council Member James', uh, comments about the historic transition of, of, of power this afternoon, uh, uh, something we do every four years and, and something we always, uh, we always marvel at, no matter who the principal actors are. Uh, and this is of course, a, a, an historic election, and, uh, and one in which all Americans are, are, are challenged to, uh, to do in effect what, uh, a former president, uh, President Kennedy asked us to do over 40 years ago, and that is ask not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country to, uh, to bring it back into, uh, into a m- more of focus and economic stability, uh, and, and again, a functioning community. So, I think we all look forward to that, to that effort to being involved, uh, to being engaged, and we wish the new president all the best. He will certainly need all of our support. A few announcements of some, some upcoming meetings in the Second District on Saturday, January 23rd, the Brookfield Chase Neighborhood Association will meet at 2:00 PM at the North Side Library. Now, the neighborhood association will be discussing their bylaws for the, uh, for the homeowner's association. They'll be, uh, working on some summer and spring projects. Uh, I encourage all of the residents to come out and participate in the, uh, uh, in the organization and the programming for this, uh, relatively new homeowner's association. Next Monday, January 26th, two, uh, two neighborhood meetings, uh, Oakwood Neighborhood Association meets at seven o'clock in the Community Center at Oakwood Park, and on the same evening, the Radcliffe-Marlboro Neighborhood Association will meet in the Community Center in Marlboro Park. That's also at 7:00 PM. Thank you, Madam Chairman. That's my report. Thank you, Mr. Blues. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Chair. We recently received the audit from our internal audit on the Fayette County Detention Center, and in there, I think there were some issues that we need to address, and I think the normal process is probably putting that into budget and finance and have the budget and finance, so at this point I would make a motion that we put, um, the audit, the internal audit for the Community Corrections into budget and finance, and I would hope that we could put it on this next meeting, if we could, which will be the 27th. So, so moved. Uh, Council Member Ellinger moved and Council Member Beard seconded to put the, um, audit report of the Fayette County Detention Center in Budget Finance Committee. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Thank you very much. And Council Member Crosby. Uh, thank you. I'd just like to announce that there is a Citizen's Fire Academy getting ready to start. I believe it's Monday night, and I think there are still probably a few spots left. I know, I think Council Member Gordon has d- Have you done that? Yeah. Last one. Last one, so- Class one. Class one. Oh, I thought you said the last one. Really, the class one, the very first class. If you have any questions, of course, you can call her office, but ... Or, or you can call mine if you want information about how to get registered for that. I think there might be a few spots left. Um, two fi- I'm seeing some nods in the back of the room too. Um, but you can contact my office, and we can get you in touch with the appropriate people at 258-3214. And also, just speaking, uh, while we're on the subject of fire, um, I just wanna thank the Fraternal Order of Firefighters. They had, um, a fundraiser on Sunday for their shop with the firefighters program, um, which benefits, uh, kids going back to school, uh, providing them with school supplies. And they had some former UK football players out and firefighters, and they had a chicken wing eating contest. And I'm happy to say when I got there, I thought- ... I was getting set up to participate, and gladly, they-they did not make me do that, but, um, it was, uh, very fun to watch. I will say that, and, um, the football players can out ea- out-eat the firefighters. I did find that out. So I wanna thank them for having me out for that, and get signed up for the Fire Academy. Thanks. Council Member Stennett. Thank you. Uh, just a couple of general announcements. A couple of meetings come up. One, we have the Liberty Park, which recently we gained access to via the Starshoot Parkway Liberty Road Construction Project. And we'll be having a public meeting with all the folks in Hamburg, as well as, uh, the east or the Liberty Road corridor, uh, on February the 10th at Eastland Church of God at 6:30 to kinda go over and start the first meat in the process to brainstorm about what we want, uh, in terms of amenities in Liberty Park. So we'll be making several announcements over the next couple weeks, uh, on that meeting, but it'll be 6:30 on February the 10th, again, at Eastland Church of God, which is located there at the intersection of Starshoot and Liberty Roads. Then the second neighborhood meeting, uh, the Sixth District Annual President's Meeting will be this upcoming Tuesday, the 27th, uh, over at Spencerian College at 6:30 PM. So all of our neighborhood presidents, as well as any guests that would like to come, including our at-large folks, uh, if you all can attend. I know the mayor will plan on being there as well, uh, next Tuesday night on the 27th. Thank you. Do any other council members have a report? Uh, if not, I would simply like to report a couple of things. Um, the Stormwater Fee Task Force met on January the 15th, and the major item that was decided upon was the, uh, basic ERU, the unit for, um, o-on which the, um, fee would be based and the decision was made to suggest 2,500 square feet for residential. The next meeting will be on January the 22nd at 9:00 AM at the Central Library here downtown in the basement conference room. And the topic for the meeting on January 22nd will be expenses and costs for the stormwater program. And I wanna thank, again, um, Rama, commissioner, for... and his computer folks for getting the minutes of these task force meetings on our website so that citizens can, uh, take a look at them. And if you have any questions, I know that Charlie Martin and Commissioner Cheryl Taylor have been trying to be at every work session to answer any questions as we continue to go forward with the Stormwater Fee Task Force. Secondly, um, it's my... I- I've had information that our newest council member, Council Member Doug Martin, will be sworn in Thursday, this Thursday, um, possibly right before the council meeting. Is that correct? At 7:00? Okay. Here in the council chamber. So we will, um, have a full complement then of council members. So that'll be a good thing. Um, next on our agenda is the Mayor's Report. Do I hear a motion to accept the Mayor's Report? So moved. Which came by email. I have a motion by Dr. Blues. Do I hear a second? Council Member Henson second. Council Member Stennett has a question. Uh, if I'm not mistaken, I thought we talked about the Black & Williams Center. I see there's an appointment on that board, uh, possibly about redoing and restructuring some, uh, uh, how we manage that building, as well as the board. I'm not sure if it'd be appropriate to continue appointing people to that board, um, th- that 'cause it could change here in the- in the near future. I believe it's in one of our committees already. Um, I'm not sure which one we put it into ultimately, but does anybody have any information on that? Um... Council Member Blues. This is, uh, a nomination that I made some- actually, several months ago, uh, and the, uh, and Michael Haskins is the president of the Georgetown, uh, area neigh- neighborhood association, and, uh, and I think he can be a, a very helpful contributor on the board, uh, even if this turns out to be a transitional stage. So I would, uh, I- I endorse that nomination. Yeah, it- it's not a question of the nomination or- or that person. It's a question of the- of do we need to appoint people to boards that could change the whole structure. We could be in the process of changing that board. Right. If you're comfortable with that and he understands what- what that could mean on down the futu- on down the road- Yeah. ... then- then that's fine with me. Is there any other comment on the motion? All those in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. And finally, on our agenda, we have public comment for issues that are not on the agenda. And I don't know if there's anyone signed up. Is there anyone who wishes to speak? No? All right, do I hear a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Meeting's adjourned.