Let's go ahead and call the meeting to order, if we could. Are we recording now? The, uh, first item on the agenda today is public comment on issues that are on the agenda. Does anyone wish to address the council? Very well. We do not have a docket to approve, but we do have a summary. Is there a motion to approve the April 21st summary? So moved. Second. Councilmember Crosby has moved the approval of the summary. Councilmember Ellinger has seconded that motion. Any discussion? Second. All right. All in favor of approving the summary, please indicate by saying, "Aye." Aye. Oppose, no. Motion carries. There are no budget amendments. There are some new business items. Is there a motion? Move approval. Second. Councilmember Stennett has moved approval of the new business items. Councilmember Blues has seconded the motion. Any discussion? Then all in favor of approving the new business items, please indicate by saying, "Aye." Aye. Oppose, no. Motion carries. Um, we're now down to a report on the planning committee. Uh, gather Councilmember Gorton is still in transit. And, um, was it Councilmember Blues that was going to substitute for her? I think it was Councilmember Blues who was gonna do that. All right. This is, uh, this is Planning Committee Part A. Uh, the morning meeting, nine o'clock on April 21st. We had a presentation by Parks and Recreation Director Jerry Hancock on the, uh, the master plan update for parks and recreation. And this discussion led to two, uh, to two motions. Uh, the first motion related to, to the question that, of course, we always get around to, and that is, how do we, how do we try to pay for all of the, the, uh, the projects in, in, in parks that are, are still outstanding? I think at, at one point, Jerry mentioned in the course of, course of our discussion that we still, from the original master plan, still have about $100 million in projects yet to, yet to be funded. In any event, the motion was made to establish an ad hoc committee, uh, within the planning committee to work on economic and funding mechanisms for parks and recreation. Uh, this motion was passed unanimously, and, uh, all councilmembers, uh, who would, would, uh, be interested in participating in that, uh, in that enterprise should see, uh, Chairwoman Gorton, uh, who will, uh, I think appoint this sub-committee. The , as the, as the, as the discussion w-, uh, went on to, uh, some of the administrative aspects of the report, the motion was made to ask General Services Link to look at Parks and Recreation master plans, personnel and administrative recommendations for reorganization. Uh, this motion was passed without dissent, and I believe that already the General Services Link has taken up this subject, if I'm not mistaken. Is that correct, Councilmember Lane? Yes. I'll take that as a yes. Yes. Yes. Just trying to keep all members of the horseshoe informed here. Um, uh, the second part of that, of that discussion took up the Hisle Park Master Plan, and we saw, we saw the map, we saw the details of this, uh, of this plan. It's a six, $6.4 million, uh, uh, project, which of course, uh, is going to, uh, is going to be, uh, you know, very much long, long term. Uh, this discussion led to, uh, a motion by Council Member Allenger to accept in concept the Hisle Master Plan, uh, and this was passed also without dissent or in, in, in subsequent discussion in, in, in terms of now where this would, would, would go, it was agreed that the planning committee would, would, uh, would send this to the council as a whole for, you know, for review and subsequent approval. So I don't know if this requires from me a motion to, uh, you know, perhaps put that forward, uh, to request a, a presentation to the whole council and, and to, uh, and then to ask the council to adopt it, which presumably would enable, uh, Director Hancock to, to begin to implement the plan stage by stage as funding is available. So if, well, let me just make that... Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Oppose, no? Motion carries. And that was the principle business of the morning session. Are you ready for the afternoon? The afternoon session, uh, took up three items, and the first was the, the, the matter of the electrical inspection fee, uh, which, uh, which Director of Building Inspection, Dewey Crow, presented. Uh, the short version of this is that the fee would be, uh, would be raised by, I think, $10 on most, most items, uh, of, uh, of inspection, and this is impelled by the, uh, uh, by the fact that these state building codes have recently been revised, uh, for both commercial and residential construction, which is going to require, uh, more d- more detailed and, and perhaps more time-consuming, uh, uh, electrical inspections. So the motion was made to, to forward approval of the proposed contract amendments and the base electrical inspection fee to the full council to be implemented upon adoption of the 2008 code. Uh, this, this motion was, uh, was passed, uh, uh, by majority, but not unanimously. I should note here, uh, that, that, that these proposed adjustments in the, in the fee are contingent upon approval at the state level of the 2008 state building codes. Uh, so that if the council approves this, uh, the matter will not come before the body until, uh, un- un- until the new codes, the new, the, the 2008 codes have been approved at, at state level. In any event, I forward them, uh, uh, the motion, uh, and let me state it again, to, to, uh, to approve the proposed contract amendments and the base electrical inspection fee to the full, uh, to be implemented upon, uh, adoption of the 2008 code, so moved. Do I hear a second? Second. I have a motion by Council Member Blues, second by Council Member McCord. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Oppose, no? Motion carried. I have one dissent from... Was it... Did anyone dissent besides Council Member James? All right. That dissent is noted. Council Member Blues. A second related motion to amend the electrical inspection contract to allow the number of inspectors to be adjusted to reflect workload, and that also passed by majority, and I would move this forward to the whole council for approval. Again, uh, it would not come before the council until, if and when the, uh, the 2008 codes are approved by the state, so moved. Do I hear a second? Second. Second. Again, Council Member Blues has moved, Council Member McCord has seconded that, that motion. Vice Mayor Gray. Could you just repeat the... Ask to repeat the motion. Council Member Blues. Yes, sir. The motion is to amend the electrical inspection contract to allow the number of inspectors to be adjusted to reflect workload. Any discussion? All in favor of approving that motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Oppose, no? Motion car- All right, let's just go ahead and record a vote. Those in favor, vote aye electronically. Those opposed, vote nay electronically. Thank you. The motion carries. Council Member- Thank you, Mayor. The, uh, uh- The second item on the -- on the agenda was a discussion of the -- of the -- of the, uh, 2040 Project, uh, Shae Rable spoke for, uh, the administration. And following a, uh, a fairly -- a fairly comprehensive discussion of the project, the following motion came forward. And I bring this motion to -- to the council. I move that the council create a resolution to acknowledge the work of the Destination 2040 project team, steering committee, work team, participant groups, and individuals. The resolution should include the statement, "Council supports and adopts the value statements derived from the work of Destination 2040 visioning process." The value statements are as follows. "A place where all people can thrive, a community always in balance, a fertile field of new opportunity, exploring artistic expression in all things." So moved. There- Is that Council Member Crosby who seconded the motion? No, it's, um- Council Member James. All right. Any discussion? Council Member Crosby. The work ... This vision statement is based on, um, the work of less than 1% of the participants of our population, right, in the, um, surveys? Is that correct? Uh, I think, uh, Council Member James has a comment on that. Um, yeah, it's actually not a ... It's not a vision statement. These are the value ... It's the value statements? These are the value statements, yes. And it's based on that ... It's based on the -- the 3,000 that participated? The ... Yeah. All of the, all of the, the 3,000 folks and participants, yes. Um- So less than 1% of th- our population? Um, yeah. Okay. R- Yeah. That's all I wanted to know. Well, I wanted to add, too, um, that the -- the committee, um, had a lot of discussion about the vision statement, um, and there was a, there's a vision, then there was a vision statement. And the committee as a whole, uh, it seemed like everyone was, had some issues with the vision statement. And the ... But the value statements were, um, what we could get our arms around. Uh, it passed unanimously, um, in the committee to accept those vision statements, because they were so ... They were broad and almost, um- Value statements- ... seemingly better. ... or vision statements? The value statements. Okay. They were, um ... I, I, we all, w- you know, it passed unanimously. So the vision statement we had issues with. The value statements, we felt like we could, um, agree that those could move forward, and that we could honor the work of the Destination 2040 group. Can you please restate the value statements? I'm sorry? Will you please restate the value- Yes. ... statements? Be happy to. Not the vision statements. The value statements are as follows. "A place where all people can thrive, a community always in balance, a fertile field of new opportunity, exploring artistic expression in all things." Those four. Can you repeat the last one, please? "Exploring artistic expression in all things." Thank you, Council Member Blues. Uh, and I think, uh, uh, the spirit of this, of, of, uh, of this resolution would be, is, uh, essentially to- to acknowledge and compliment, uh, the work of the people who did participate in this. The steering committees, the project team, the members of the public, the civic groups, and so on, who, uh, who participated in, In 2040. Council Member McCord. A- a- and to that point, let me just get some clarity, because I- I think unless you were at the meeting, you- you wouldn't really know that we went round and round a- about this for probably, what, Council Member Spadafore? An hour? Um, because of the very thing that Council Member Crosby's bringing up that, hey, you've- you've got 3,000 people, which is a- a lot of folks, but it's one- represents 1% of our population. There's 99% that may not have had a say or, uh, may not agree with, uh, a mission statement. Um, and- and, again, we have issues of where do you house 2040, what do you, what do you do with this vision? It was something that was a, um, uh, certainly took a lot of work, but it also has a- a number of, of holes in it. I think Council Member James offered this as a motion, uh, that would acknowledge, hey, work has been done, uh, and that these are value statements that came out of that that we don't really have a problem with. These are things that, you know, we, we agree that these are, are good things for the community. But as it relates to the specific vision, and here's how we're going to implement, and here's exactly what, who's gonna house that and- and do those things, uh, that is still something that- that this body is- is wrestling with. So I think that's the spirit of the motion, if, uh, if- if I'm correct, uh, Council Member James. Just to give some clarity for those that may not have been at the meeting. Thank you, Mayor. Any further discussion? Those in favor of the motion, then please indicate by voting aye. Those opposed vote nay electronically. Motion was carried unanimously. Council Member Blue. And ... And there's one, one further item. We, um, we discussed the, uh, the matter of, of Blue Horse branding. Uh, as you know, the, uh, Lexington Convention and Visitor's Center, uh, working with, uh, uh, with Pentagram, came up with the idea of, uh, of the blue horse as a, as a logo. This led to a, um, you know, I think to a fairly lively discussion of the, of the horse as a logo, as a, uh, as a brand. Uh- ... and led to a, a, a motion by council member, uh, like Council Member Lawless, uh, referring to the blue horse as a visual logo. Uh, but in conferring with Council Member Lawless, uh, uh, bef-before the, uh, before the work session, it, it seems that the minutes of the, uh, of the planning committee meeting did not capture the intent and the, and the, and the wording of the m- of the motion, so I suggest we defer this motion until its intention and its wording have been, have been clarified. And that was the final topic of discussion. That concludes my report. Thank you, Mayor. We will give Council Member Gordon a, a good report on your effort in her absence. Thank you. Anything further for Council Member Blues with the planning committee? All right. Let me ask Mike Webb and Clete to, we- we'll start with Mike. If you'll step to the podium, we'll get the streetscape presentation underway, and you can involve, uh, Clete or Harold or whomever is appropriate. Mayor, at the... at the request of the council, and at your request, uh, we were asked to look at the benchmarks for one-way to two-way street conversions for three, uh, three pairs and then Main Street. And what we did, we, we met with Clete and, uh, Council Members Blues, Lawless, and, uh, J. McCord, Linda Gordon, who was... and Andrea James, and reviewed, reviewed the document that Clete had presented at a previous council meeting and started refining it to get it in a... an acceptable, um, format that could be accepted by the council as a process that we would move forward with and would show the, the different actions that take place in each conversion. So just turn the meeting over to, uh, Clete to explain how we modify the document. Thank you, Commissioner. Um, thank you, council members, for, uh, allowing us to come back and clarify some of the confusion that, um, w- was created, um, in, in large measure through our, um, uh, I guess, unpreparedness to fully communicate w- what we were proposing with the conversion and, and benchmark strategy. Um, on the 24th at the work session, we spent far too much of your time talking about what we were asking you to do. Um, and there was question and concern among you all about what you were signing the city up for. Um, and I don't think we did a good enough job of communicating that what we were there to present then and what we're here to present today is more a process and a methodology than it is a decision-making schedule. Uh, it, it is a s- it is... it's a process that you will use to reach decision on the incremental conversion of any street pair, any one-way pair of streets that you choose to consider in the future. Um, we talked about, uh, Short and 2nd, uh, being the logical first target. We, uh, covered the fact that many in the Western Suburbs neighborhood are in favor of that. Most are in favor. Councilman Blues spoke to the overwhelming support for that strategy, but we were unable, at that point, to leave with you a cost estimate that showed what the cost of that conversion would be, and I trust that you now have that in your, in your packet. Um, and if you don't, we can, we can certainly provide it. Um, and, uh, while I'm talking about it, I'll just let you know that the estimate that, uh, that I have right now, um, shows a, a total cost for that, uh, pair, Short and 2nd, to be about $263,000 in cha- and give or take. Um, so that's, that's not incon- that's not in- it's, uh, non-substantial money. That's, uh, it's real dollars, uh, a quarter million dollars, uh, should receive, uh, due consideration by the council. Um, in the grand scheme of things when you're looking at what's at stake with the downtown, with the quality of the neighborhoods around downtown, it's, um, it's not a lot of money, to be honest. A quarter million dollars to have a higher quality downtown is, is money well spent. Um, but it's not our decision. It's not the consultant's decision. Uh, it's your decision as council to decide whether or not that you want to see that conversion move forward. Um, in order to do that, um, you will, um, and should expect to see a study, um, a scientifically, uh, prepared, well-reasoned, well-supported study of the impacts of that conversion. Um, that study and every subsequent study would and should include, uh, some measurement of public sentiment over whether that should happen. Um, specifically, and, and most importantly, in the area where the conversion has the greatest impact but also, uh, where it impacts the city at large, where it impacts stakeholders of the downtown, not just those that live in the downtown. It also should include, uh, a, a, a consensus. ... uh, measuring component, so that you know that there is truly public consensus for that. That is not to say that each and every person that lives here in Fayette County is going to support it. They won't. That's the nature of decision-making in the public sector. Um, so anyway, l- l- let me, uh, just get to what the Ad Hoc Committee that, uh, Commissioner Webb discussed arrived at, the conclusions and, and decisions that, that we came away from that meeting with. Number one, um, council, um, it is in council's interest to support a strategy that leads to the support of the transportation cabinet and the Federal Highway Administration. Um, we don't own the right of way, the city does not own the right of way, uh, and we are responsible to the Federal Highway Administration for those roadways, and we need to communicate clearly to those, um, um, entities that there is, uh, consensus for how this conversion should take place over time. And I'm here to tell you having sat in some of those meetings with those stakeholders, they really need to hear a clear message from council. So that it is important that you take a stance on this strategy, and I wanna start with that. Secondly, um, that does not mean that in supporting a resolution to support the strategy that you are, um, passing judgment that all of the streets should be converted. That is not the case. You are simply in so supporting this resolution, uh, the one that hopefully will follow my comments, um, you are saying that you simply support the methodology that would be used, uh, and I'll get to that methodology shortly. It does not confer approval on any particular street conversion. Each of those will be judged on their own merits, and you will be fully informed of what those merits are or are not, as the case may be. Um, as I mentioned, the process used for each and every proposed conversion should include a thorough and analytical approach to determine the inherent impacts and costs of that conversion. Um, fourth, uh, studies relating to the proposed conversion of any given street should follow, uh, as I mentioned, in uniform and acc- and accepted process, uh, which employs a scientific approach. Um, I would like to ask that we get this process projected, uh, for you to see. This is a process diagram which is in your packet, um, and it, it's a decision tree. It shows the steps that would be taken, uh, for the consideration of the conversion of each and every street, and I don't, uh, really need to get into the fine-grain detail of it, but I want you, uh, hopefully you've had a chance to review it and, uh, to, uh, to weigh whether you think that it's a logical approach. Um, in summary, i- it starts with, um, council's decision that the study move forward or not. Um, it is something that, um, the consulting team, f- uh, would need to know if we're talking about Short and Second early on, if it's going to be done as part of the, uh... Are we, are we gonna be able to project that, or... I'm working on it, Your Honor. Okay. Okay. Um, l- l- let me just say that first and foremost you need to tell us, do you want us to move forward with Short and Second? That could very well be a resolution that comes out today. If you do want the city, want the administration, uh, and staff to move forward with the conversion of Short and Second, we would follow this approach. Now, for Short and Second, much of what is on this chart, which is illegible to you from there, is going to be already done. Uh, we already have cost estimates. We already know a lot of what, uh, is involved, uh, uh, entails. Um, uh, can we, can you read that from where you are? Any nods? Not really. Okay. Is it in your pa- you've got it in your packet. Okay. Um, uh, so I, I, I'm not gonna read this off. Um, uh, you know, you all can read it just as well as I can, but, uh, to make a long story short, um, we're going to involve the transportation cabinet. We're gonna involve city staff. Um, there are loops that you see in that. Those are check-offs where we come back when we find out that there is an issue or a hurdle that has to be overcome and a decision has to be made. Things, it's not linear, okay? It just doesn't move all the way through as though it's a foregone conclusion. If we discover an issue that requires council's, uh, uh, um, um, buy-in early on before we get all the way downstream, we're gonna come to you, or the city is gonna come to you, the administration is gonna come to you, and they're gonna present those findings. It won't be until we have all the information that is necessary that you will ultimately be asked to weigh in with a resolution, a vote, to approve that conversion or not. When you get to that point, it says, "Council review for approval to implement," there are three possible, uh, resolutions to that. One is that you say, "Yes, we wanna do it." The second is that, well, we're interested in doing it, but we don't have enough information. Give it some more study. Go back and talk to the stakeholder group, or go back and work with, uh, this institution that has an issue. Um, it's, it's not a foregone conclusion. The, the third s- possible resolution is that you say, no, we do not support it, in which case, at least for that point in time, it's a dead issue. Okay? Now, if... It, it's, it's entirely possible that any of those three scenarios could happen depending on the date and time, and depending on all the things that are in place. So, with that said, um, we believe, as the consultant team and the... believe the entire project team believes, that that approach reflects what the Ad Hoc Committee asked for. The Ad Hoc Committee has, uh, had a chance to review that. We have not received any comments back that says that that doesn't make sense to you. So it's our understanding coming here today that that is a well-reasoned approach that can be applied first on Short and Second, and if you move forward with the strategy, um, the next ones that would be considered would be Limestone and Upper. Um, I'm gonna, uh, assume that this page isn't gonna read much better, but I'll try it for the sake of, um... Uh, well that way's not gonna work. There we go. Thank you. Um, these all read the same, by the way. Um, so whatever the name of the street pair at the top is, it starts with Council authorization to conduct the feasibility study. Uh, it then moves into, um, really starting to, to dig in and understand what the issues are, um, how any particular pair is gonna be converted, talks about engaging, uh, the city's, um, uh, Metropolitan Planning Organization, uh, regarding the issues that aren't just about, uh, boots on the ground or people on a sidewalk. It's also about air quality. Uh, it's also about congestion mitigation. So there is a... There's already a, a body that you have in place, um, to look at the impacts of traffic. Uh, so they would be engaged. Um, each and every one of the various departments that has a say in safety, traffic function, um, waste management, you name it, anybody that's impacted by a conversion, um, is going to have a seat at the table, and is going to be able to comment on it. So there's a long list of people that are involved in that, including both public and private stakeholders. Um, there would certainly be discussions with the Transportation Cabinet and the Fire... Federal Highway Administration. Um, and, uh, this is important, there would be an outreach, uh, initiative designed to engage local public, public at large, and businesses that are impacted by the conversion. Um, and then, uh, it's not on Short and Second, um, um, but l- yeah, well, let me just say what is on Short and Second. Um, we believe that the conversion of Short and Second, if funding was approved, uh, could be completed by this summer, by the end of 2009. As a case study, that's gonna tell us a lot about how this process, as it's been designed, works. We would have the opportunity to make improvements and refinements to it if you felt it was necessary, or if the administration felt it was necessary. Each and every one of these, using that methodology, has an, uh, has a chance to be improved for the next go-round. So, you're gonna learn, we're gonna learn, the public's gonna learn how the impact, uh, or what the impact of the conversion of Short and Second were. We believe that it's not gonna be much impact, that you're going to have, uh, people with greater choice, the ability to get to their place of destination by more than just one route. Um, we think it's a great case study and a great example, and we hope that it becomes the example that could then be used on Upper and Limestone. Um, in your packet, you'll notice that there are some dates that are applied to this strategy. One word of caution about the dates, okay? Um, each and every one of these conversions, um, is going to have an impact. It's going to have a, um, an impact on the way traffic functions in the downtown, we believe for the better, um, but we're not gonna prejudge that. So there'll be data that comes out of this, traffic counts, um, there'll be, um, you know, reporting of accidents that, that the City monitors already. So there'll, there'll be lots of good information, useful information that can be applied to the next case study. Um, and there'll be a track record. The public will be able to say, "Hey, you know what? That worked out pretty good." People in the neighborhoods will be able to say, "This is how that worked out for me, and gee, when you go to do it the next time, if you go to do it the next time, consider this." So, it's gonna build a case record. It's gonna build a track history that you can use to apply to every subs- subsequent conversion. I think I've beat all the flesh off of that horse and can probably move on. Um, are there any questions about that strategy? Council Member James. Thank you, Mayor. Um, thank you, Cleet. And I did wanna extend, uh, gratitude for- I know this is probably taking more time than you expected it to, but you've really worked with, um, the council members, um, and other LFUCG divisions to really make sure that this works good. And, and I think you spoke to it, that this could be that example and that model. So if we fail the first time, no one will ever want to do it again, so we've gotta take our time. So I appreciate that. Um, I love the flow chart, and this really does help to put it in perspective. And I have a suggestion, but it only... but it matters to which, um, how you perceive public input related to the conversion. Um, you did mention you can't get everybody to support it. I do understand that, being a, you know, around the horseshoe, I think we all do. But I'm wondering if the public outreach and public meetings are a little late in the process. Um, seems like from our meeting at North Limestone, uh, something in advance helps. And the meetings with the schools, something in advance helps. And I'm wondering, because a lot of the issues don't have anything to do with conversion. They have- Uh-huh. ... something to do with traffic flows other places. Mm-hmm. I'm wondering if you would think it'd be appropriate to have, on that same bracket where you have the outline str- strategic phasing scheme, excuse me, and you have the internal stakeholder involvement, if you could have another branch that, um, is an external stakeholder involvement. And those are, you know, a representative of the residents, the businesses along that corridor, um, but folks that have their ear to the ground, um, at that conversion. I apologize I wasn't able to get back with you earlier- Yeah. ... to, to talk about that. No, I, I, I think that's a good add, and, and I'm assuming that you have neighborhood associations that are active, and that would be a logical add in order to get the general public and, and, you know. At least at the early stage, while you're trying to gather information, maybe speaking to the representatives of the neighborhoods at large is, is a good approach to take. But- Mm-hmm. ... it, it was our intention to have that kind of communication in there and, and on the, um, on the case by case listings, where we list out the steps on each street, we did, um, put, w- we, we, to your point, we need to have, uh, more outreach to the general public at that point. But we were saying that there are private stakeholders that we need to, to hit as well- Okay. ... outside the city government. Okay. Um, is there a significance, on your flow chart, to the different colors and the... Or is that just for fanciness? Um, Mike Woolam from Strand & Associates, who, um, I should have credited with the, um, the development of that flow chart, they are... Strand is our traffic consultant and the, the brains behind... I'm the public face, but in terms of the brains behind that strategy, uh, Mike could probably answer that better than I can. Okay. Mike, if you don't mind. Uh, as far as the flow chart's concerned, Council Member James, um, I'm not a flow chart specialist. We have other folks that can speak more fluently about this. But they are... The different shapes of the boxes represent different types of activities in this whole process. And, uh, like, like the, uh, the trapezoid there is a... That, that gray shaded box is a... is sort of a data input. You know, that, that's an input, um, point in the process. Uh, the blue boxes are steps. There's a, uh, I guess, a kind of a... With the, the, the triangular or the diamond shaped boxes are decisions, uh, decision points, you know, where you're doing sort of a, a yes/no or, in the case of the Urban County Council, making a decision whether to move forward or reassess or, you know, d- decide on a no-go. Okay. So they are somewhat symbolic of the activity that would take place. Um, so we tried to, you know, try to map it out in a way that it makes sense from the standpoint of process and how we would integrate, uh, some of the key things that would need to happen along the way. This is a very complex, uh, process when you think about all the different players involved and the fact that, that obviously any conversion of one-way pairs in Lexington affects a great majority of the population, not to mention just the local neighborhoods, but the commuting public as well. And, and certainly you have to have a process that reaches out to all of those. And what we tried to do here is to basically show a framework of how that can occur. And, uh, it can be easily adjusted, to your point about, um, you know, getting some of the external stakeholder participation involved a little earlier. I think part of the, the thought process here was that at least in the initial, the initial discussions, that, that there's gonna have to be a certain amount of background information prepared before you go to the public to, to, you know, to be able to inform them and educate them on exactly how this might evolve. But I, but I think the thought is that it would be an iterative process and there would be opportunities for, for any decisions or any proposals to be, to be revisited before that ultimate decision is made by the, by the Council to move forward. Okay. So you do see that advantage to the early on- Yeah. ... because the way it's set now, public meeting would happen right before Council. And if you needed to twerk something, um, you know, if we said, "Well, all the traffic's backing up on Martin Luther King, and so how's this gonna help us-" Right. "... um, if you convert," it seems like it would be more... make that a, a worse situation. You could capture that early before you even talk to- Right. ... the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet- Absolutely. ... and deal with some of those issues early on. Absolutely. So you, you think it would be within that same bracket? I, I think it could, and, and maybe it would be appropriate for us to, to maybe add that other input box and put that in here and speak specifically to external stakeholders early in the process, just to add strength to that in terms of a visual, uh, understanding of what our, what our process really is intended to mean. And external stakeholder's probably the wrong... I'm using the wrong language because it's not... they're not really external, but- External from the... from the... from the urban- Right. ... county government, yes. Right. I'm sure you'll think of a perfect name for it. Oh, yeah. We will. We will. Okay. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Thank you, Mayor. Other questions from the council? Yeah. Council member, uh, thank you, Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, Clete, thank you and, and Mike and Mike, and, uh, you know, when you came away from this body last time, eh, you know, we, we gave you a charge of doing exactly what you've done, which is clarifying a, a process that we go through. And one of the things that I think the, the public needs to understand, uh, is that nobody's gonna wake up tomorrow and see all the one-way streets converted to two-way streets. You're talking about a, a, a multi-year, um, over a decade for, for all of those things potentially to happen. Um, so getting that out on the table first and foremost, but it is important, as you said, that we have, as a council, adopted s- a, a plan, a procedure that we can show to the state, to the federal government that, hey, we, we do, we are serious about this, and we do have intentions to look at this very seriously. And when it makes sense, we're gonna, we are gonna move in that direction. And I think that you've, you've gotten at that, minus a couple of, of maybe changes, eh, as Council Member James has pointed out. Um, you know, I appreciate you also having this in, in folks' box so they can chew on it for a couple days and so it's not something that they just are seeing right here, uh, immediately. The, um, let me tell my fellow council members that as with regard to 2nd and Short, as I've said before, I'm, I'm very much of the mind that, uh, folks are wanting us to see... uh, wanna see action, wanna see implementation. 2nd and Short provides a very unique opportunity in that it isn't a state route, it isn't a federal route. We control that. It is something that the neighborhoods, uh, have, have voiced support for. Um, but I also ask you, Clete, give me a number because I didn't know how much that cost. And we were a part of, of an internal stakeholder's meeting that kind of ran this process. What, what does this even look like? Uh, and we had a number of, of folks there from all divisions and a couple of council members. And I'm... Mike, I just wanna thank you and I wanna, uh, uh, tell you how impressed I am with your staff. And for council members that weren't there, uh, th- traffic engineering basically got in... uh, streets and roads folks got in a car and videotaped the entire length of 2nd and Short. And we went block by block, stopping at every block, talking about what could and couldn't be done with all the stakeholders in the room. And what, what came out of that was that on 2nd and Short, while there's a lot of ease to, to us doing it and having the control here, there are probably four or five blocks that pose a unique issue. And so what they've been charged with is to pull those four or five blocks out, then come back to council and say, "Okay, now let's work through this issue." And what I saw was, uh, something that gave me a great deal of comfort to talk to citizens about that, "Hey, look, this isn't something that's just gonna happen one day in a very flip fashion." What, what we're saying is now we have a process that allows for us to look in detail, block by block, and allow council members to sit at that table, uh, and, and voice concerns, allow police, fire, Lextran, everybody that's got a stake internally, then go to, go w- work through the public part of it. But I think that what we see here is, is an opportunity to, um, uh, take that and put a process around it. So after other council members speak, I'm prepared, Mayor, to come back and make, uh, a couple of motions with regard to this. But I, I'll pause there and, and let my colleagues speak. Okay. Council Member Blues. Well, thank you, Mayor. I, uh, I anticipate being able to s- second, uh, Council Member McCord's motion when he, when he comes to it. I think that this is, uh, uh, a powerful start to a, a, a process that really is going to be a meaningful transformation of our, of our downtown. And I too would, would add my congratulations to the way that, uh, the, the, the consulting team and, uh, and our various divisions have, have, have worked together to bring forward this, uh, you know, this proposal and this, and this systematic sensible, uh, procedure. So, uh, I know that, uh, I know that as far as, as, as speaking for a part of my district that's, uh, includes Short and 2nd, and I know we have also the 3rd District and also the 1st District, uh, but the, uh, the western suburb neighborhoods are, are eager to be involved in this, uh, in this process. Um, I certainly want to, uh, congratulate all of you for your work, and, uh, and I certainly heartily support, uh, uh, moving forward in this, in this, uh, step-by-step, uh, procedure. Thank you. Council Member Wallace. Um, I think I just wanna probably echo what, uh, Council Member Blues and McCord said. Um, it's been really exciting working with you, Clete, and Mike and Mike, and all the rest that were involved in this. I was at the meeting Council Member McCord talked about with the video, and, um, I think it's exciting because we have come up... you all have come up with and with, you know, listened to our concerns with the way we can do this with lots of public input, with an opportunity for great transparency. And, um, it's exciting to see a plan that's not just, "Let's do this n- next month and this the next month." So, uh, kudos to you, and also thank you all for the work you've done at the History Museum, which is housed in the old courthouse. Uh, the farmer's market there on Saturdays with free parking at Fifth Third Bank, little plug, is absolutely fabulous taking those fountains out and, um, it, it's really great. So thank you. Council Member Stennet. Thank you, Mayor. I'll echo the same sentiments, Clete. Thank you for, for getting, getting us through this process and the method in which we can start tackling the real problem, and that's making a final decision to move forward. I've got a question on the other half of the problem, though. Money. Mr. Webb, how much of this is already in the FY2010 proposed budget? We have an idea of what you all have asked for. We saw some today, but it wasn't clear about what pieces this, that that entailed, because I think we have to make the decision as a body first whether or not we want to pursue that. And I think the second leg is the money, and as we deliberate this budget, this could play a big role in that. Yes, that was an estimate that was just generated, and was not part of the 2010 budget specifically. W- whether, if I'm not mistaken, earlier we had a list of debt projects in there, and there was streetscape money in the budget proposed by the mayor. What, what was that for then? The, there is streetscape money, uh, there in the capital plan, uh, for 2010. This, this conversion of Short and 2nd was not a part of that. However, uh, Short Street is a part of the streetscape plan, but that money was designated specifically for the phase one projects. So none of these would be considered part of that? These would all be in addition to, if we were to choose to do this today, we'd have to find the money? That's correct. Okay. I just want to make it clear, 'cause I think some people thought the money that we talked about earlier today had been identified to do some of this. But right now, we're still missing the most, probably the most important piece at this point. There is some money that's programmed in in 2010 for signal work, eh, but it, we have not gone back and specifically s- said, "Th- these intersections will, we can use this money for it." And I as- I assume, Cleat or Mike, once we do this analysis, it would tell us the price tag, 'cause we don't have those on all these pieces yet. If we wanted to pull one out of the order or, I mean, do we have a ballpark figure? The only estimate that we have, and, and Cleet and his team did not produce those estimates. Those estimates were, were produced by Streets and Roads and Traffic Engineering, and they include, I, I feel very confident that we have pretty good estimates for the signal work, the striping work, but there could be, as we work through some of the intersection problems, there may be a curb or two that has to be moved a little bit. That w- that's a rough estimate and does not include that. But that should be the majority of the cost. Okay. For Short and 2nd. Now, we have not gone through this exercise for the other streets. However, as in the streetscape phase one, we are designing streets that can work both one-way or two-way, so some of those curb changes and those types of items will be dealt with as we install the, the phase one streetscape work. That was my next question, but you answered it. Thank you. And then I'd make one last comment. A- as we go through here and elicit i- you know, input from the neighbors that live around these streets, which is a great, great idea, and we need to do, don't forget about the other people that live in Lexington that use these streets to commute to, to and from work. They need to be given a chance to give input too, because it's their tax dollars that we're spending, uh, to change these streets. So as many public meetings as we can have on each of these segments, we need to do so, 'cause I represent a district that has zero downtown area, but, uh, they all, a lot of people work downtown, live downtown, come downtown. We want them to, so we want to make them part of the process too, 'cause the big feedback I get is, "We're never part of... No one ever asks us about downtown." I, I, I wish everyone could have experienced the video drive down Short and 2nd Street that w- that a couple of our council members took, along with the internal stakeholders. As you move down the street, you didn't only identify intersections that may cause a problem, but you identified things like churches that may use a lane for parking on Sunday, and that's gonna impact them, and businesses where how they receive their deliveries will change from if, when you go from one-way to two-way. So it also helped us identify also neighborhoods that have parking issues. It became very apparent, and you were able to stop, go back. One inter- interesting thing that did occur, uh, on the video is we were heading down a one-way street and somebody turned into it , into the vehicle that was doing the video, so... Uh, all, all the way down to areas where we need additional tree trimming to get larger trucks, because today, trucks are moving to the center to get down some of our one-way streets, where we need to go in if we're two-way, they have to be trimmed. And, of, of course, neighborhoods are gonna be interested in that too, so... Well, in talking about our streetscape plan, have we looked at doing the streetscape changes first before we talk about one-way or versus two-way? Or is it recommended to try to do it at the same time? Because, I mean, we're gonna do Main Street in Vine, major changes. Right. Main in Vine are, are... Main and Vine are in the phase one projects. Right. So I mean, is it better to change them? And those curb lines will be set so that some, sometime down the road as you work through that phasing plan, if there is a decision and a study that would support going to two-way, the curbs in the intersections will be built such that you'd be able to do that without going into that expense. Right, but if we do it the opposite, change it to two-way, then we gotta come back in and change the streetscape. Is that advisable? We should probably do the opposite, streetscape first, then one-way, two-way? Or same time? Councilman, the, uh, streetscape is designed so that it works with either one-way or two-way. So our recommendation is do the streetscape now. That's gonna cause economic development, uh, private investors to come down and re-invest in the downtown. Uh, that's most, what's most important. Um- ... making those conversions are going to make it better. But we can tackle the immediate need, and that is to have safer, more accessible sidewalks now. It is not a redundant expense. You will not have to go back and change anything about the streetscape. All of the work will occur from inside a curb to inside a curb, um, and there will be some signal work. Right. But the opposite, if we change Short to Second Street to two ways, and we come back later and do the streetscape plan for that area, will it have the same effect? I mean, we'll have to redo things again. Uh, no. No, the, the, not all of Short and Second are ... As Mike Webb mentioned, not all of them are in phase one. It's not- All right. But I'm saying, even phase two, three, four, if on down the road, we do a streetscape plan for Short and Second, and we go ahead and make them two-way today, find the money, we come back and do streetscape, how much more will that cost? Will that be redundant work? Um, w- we presented budgets for that in the, in the Streetscape Master Plan. And heretofore, we have been able to maintain that level of budgeting, uh, even with more detailed design. So I don't have that to, to quote to you a- at arm's length, but if, if you wanted to know what the expense was, it is in the master plan. Well, I'm just trying to save money. If we can do them at the same time, change it two-way, if that's what we choose to do, and do streetscape, does it make more sense? Um, I'm gonna take the easy out and say that they really work independently. So if you have the financial capacity to do them, by all means, do them. If you don't, uh, there's no harm in doing them independently. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Council Member Feigl. Thank you, Mayor. Um, first, I, I would also like to compliment you on the plan. Uh, I think it, it, uh, it behooves the city to do more long-range planning, and, uh, I really appreciate the efforts that went into this. I'm a little confused about one thing, though. Um, I think what we're asking for here is a resolution for a feasibility study, and I don't see the cost for the feasibility study. I think the numbers that we've gotten, in terms of cost estimates, are for actually implementation. Is that correct? No? Uh, you correct me if I'm wrong, but what I think we were charged to do was take a benchmark document that Cleet had put together, and that there seemed to be a lack of understanding how that related to how fast we would convert one-way pairs to two-way into something that was logical that, that the council could use as a process to work through that. And what we were looking for was acceptance of, of our modifications to that. It's no longer called a benchmarking document. It's, it's a process document that works you through how you would ... and all the steps involved in each pair of conversion. And if you, if you follow it through the end and you get to Main Street, you'll see that everything before that has to be done, Newtown Pike has to be done before you'd even wanna consider that. So not looking for a resolution at this point to do Short and Second, or to authorize, but to accept the document as a pro- as a process the council would use. Okay. I, I'm, I was actually reading from a handout that I'd received for today's meeting, and it says, "The council to, uh, council do a resolution to authorize feasibility study." So that's what I thought we were working on. Yeah. Well, well, that, each one of those, each one of those begins with a resolution by the council to start the process. Now, on the Short and Second, that's, that's been out there for quite a while, and I was asked to go ahead and do some preliminary work on that with internal stakeholders. You almost have to to generate that cost estimate that there was also a request for that. So we got the ball rolling there, but, uh, I think what our intent was to bring a document back that, that showed the process that you could use to work through the pairs. Okay. Thank you. That cleared up my confusion. Council Member Martin. Thank you, Mayor. I took about a ha- hour and a half and met with Cleet and, and Harold Tate from the Downtown Development Authority and Commissioner Webb this morning, and, uh, to go over, um, some of the, the plans and some of the Downtown Development Authority's, uh, operations, and I appreciate y'all taking time to meet with me. And, uh, and I think one of the thing that helped me understand this is, is in the, uh, the council update memo that says, "Approval of the conversion strategy does not confer additional, uh, confer approval of any particular street conversion." So, so right now, uh, as I understand it, we're just talking about the process itself, uh, and that if we, we approve this, this just means that when we come to do it, our first step will be to re- have a resolution to authorize a feasibility study. And so, and it won't be until that, that, that, that, the council takes action at that time, but ... Uh, and I thought that, th- that helped clear this up, and I'm very pleased that, uh, there's a lot of consensus building in this, the timeline, the, the flowchart, and, uh, appreciate the work that's gone into this. Um, and the one thing I came away with this morning, that it, it really is baby steps. There's, there's a lot to do to, to, to bring these about. Uh, there's not gonna be a magic wand and folks are gonna show up tomorrow with, uh, with two-way streets. It, it really be, is a process and a chance for, for public input. And- And that, that's exactly what, what we were looking for, is just to produce that, that process that was available to the council to get each one of these started and to give you a timeline where they could be done. Uh, again, that's an estimate right there, uh- Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member McCourt. Thank you, Mayor. Wi-- with that, uh, one of the things I wanted to point out again to council that was a-- that came out in the, uh, kind of going block by block and so forth was, there's a number of, of hotspots that have traffic problems as is right now. Some places on 3rd Street. And, and one of the interesting things as we talk about impact, a lot of folks think impact in the negative sense, but one of the things that kinda came out through that discussion was in converting 2nd and Short actually could lessen the impact in some of these other streets because you're giving them a different way to go and so forth. Uh, one suggestion that I would give you, Mike, uh, to Council Member Stennut's point, um, that exercise was so good that that video drive was so good, uh, and, and we've got the capacity to do it online. I think that's one great way that we can take constituents in my district and some of these outlying districts and put the drive on there with commentary showing some of these hotspots, putting that in, in, in a video format so that people can say, "What about this? What about that?" And, and got a lot of eyes and ears on it. So just as a suggestion. But with that, uh, what I wanna do is make a motion to accept this process flow chart, uh, with the amendment of or the addition of Council Member James's, uh, box for, for public involvement, uh, as Urban County government's process for any two-way street conversion. So moved. Second. Is the motion to put a resolution on the docket- Yes. ... at the next council meeting to that end? Please. All right. Uh, with that clarification, I think we had a second by Council Member Lawless. Any discussion? Council Member Martin? Uh, Mayor, I, I guess I'd like to add the pro-... Are we gonna vote separately on the process? No. No. That... All of this has our process moving forward. Right. So the flow chart plus the, uh, the outline? Yes. Yes. A- And if there's a friendly amendment to that or a- Yes. ... an amendment to that, we... Okay, so the reso- the motion now is to put a resolution on the docket which would adopt both this process outline and the flow chart as the council's process. Is that correct? All right. Any discussion? All in favor, please say, "Aye." All opposed, "No." Motion carries. Mayor, I have one, one other motion that I'd like to make. Because 2nd and Short provide us a great laboratory, for lack of a better way of saying it, to see what works and what doesn't work, um, I would also move that we, uh, continue pushing 2nd and Short through this process. Uh, so moved. Second. Um, again, there's a motion to put a resolution- Mm-hmm. ... on the docket next week. Any discussion? Council Member Martin? Thank you, Mayor. Uh, I, I think the may- maybe the appropriate motion is to authorize the fe- the feasibility study since that's the, the first box on our, our, on our chart now so... That'd be fine. All right. Um, any further discussion? With that modification, the motion now is to, uh, place a resolution on the docket at the May 7th meeting which would, uh, authorize a feasibility study for converting Short and 2nd. All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying, "Aye." Aye. Opposed, "No." Motion- Uh, let's see. I heard a, "No." Council Member Figal voted no. All right. Thank you. The motion carries. Thank you, uh, Clete, Mike, Mark, um, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike & Mike. So, uh, thank you. All right. Uh, I'll now welcome to the podium Bob Quick for a presentation on Commerce Lexington. Thank you, Mayor, Council Members. In lieu of, uh, the fact that we have not, uh, met in the Economic Development Committee, we still thought it was important and appropriate that we come before this body and, uh, share with you, uh, some snippets of things going on in the economic development community, at least in, in our purview. And, uh, we have with us this afternoon, uh, sitting back behind me, members of our Bluegrass, uh, Business Development Partnership. So as we go forward, if you have questions, we brought all of the, uh, folks in who can answer, ho- hopefully answer your questions. In the essence of time, since we have, uh, 15 minutes and I think the clock is running, we wanted to break this presentation down into two, uh, respects. One is to give you an economic snapshot of those indicators that we can have some form of measurement on, but to show you what's going on in the local economy. And then second, after that, um, just to mention to you some of the things that we've done to change because the economy or, uh, as business is dealing with the economy has had to change. So to begin with, I'd like to have Josh Fenter, who's our Director of Research, to come up and to provide the, uh, eco- economic snapshot. Thank you. Um, we have a PowerPoint presentation, okay? Um, currently unemployment is one of the main indicators we have data on to give us a sense of where the economy is going in Lexington. Uh, all the numbers on this slide are based on February of 2009. We received March's, um, numbers this morning. The unemployment rate in Fayette County is still 7.4%. Um, it is unchanged from last month. You can see in the chart, uh, below the large 7.4 that, uh, Fayette County, which is the blue line, is, uh, trending below both Jefferson County, which is Louisville and Northern Kentucky and the state of Kentucky as well. Um, we expect Fayette County to continue to have the lowest unemployment in the state. It currently does have the lowest unemployment rate of all 120 counties, despite having the highest unemployment rate, um, in the past two decades. On the left, there's a table, um, that just is kind of a quick breakdown, excuse me, a quick breakdown of some of the industries, uh, in Lexington and the change in employment from February to February 2008 to 2009. This is something that we're starting to, uh, take into account and we're gonna be, uh- ... analyzing this trend as it moves forward. Um, we should, next quarter, have some more data about this to help show any trends that are starting to develop. Um, and I can answer any questions about this later. Um, two other indicators that we have some recent data on, number one is construction. I like to, uh, do construction costs as opposed to the number of building permits, and that is up 16.3% overall for new construction, which is new buildings and additions. Um, commercial new construction is up 29.3%, and residential new construction is up three and a half percent. Um, this is all Q1 of 2009, uh, compared to 2 -- Q1 of 2008. Um, we take this as a good sign, but again, we will be ki- taking a closer look at it and seeing if any more trends develop. On the bottom is a chart that shows cost of living index. This is done quarterly by a national organization called C2ER. Um, Lexington participates along with most major metropolitan areas. Um, as you can see, the blue line, which is at the bottom of the chart, uh, is below the US average, which is the red line, which is set at 100. Um, the cost of living in Lexington continues to be low, and we find that as a very positive sign as well. And we will continue to keep tracking this, uh, as the days go by. Thank you, Josh. Moving forward, just some general things in economic development. What we have tried to do is, uh, whenever times are difficult, most communities, or many communities, um, start to pull back. And when they pull back, they start to lose the contact that they have. So, uh, some of the things that we said is we have to be far more personal. Uh, and I'm gonna ... You'll hear that theme throughout, uh, on the next couple slides as well. But what I mean there is typically with the gatekeepers, the people have the information and that can direct and guide where projects go. We're talking about the projects that fit our community. We're not talking about smokestacks or companies that have low, uh, in jobs, which jobs, though, we still deal with many different projects that, that come to our, um, our desks. But for the most part, these are the people that we're going after because they have ownership or they work with the projects that can get steered to, uh, to Lexington, Fayette County. So we s- we are spending, uh, more time, or I guess what we say is we're visiting and revisiting all these consultants. In a down economy, the consultants have more time to spend with you. And as an example, uh, we had a trip to Dallas. A year ago this time, we had the same trip. One of the key consultants there gave us 15 minutes. Now, we, we deal with many, many consultants while we're in a city, but this particular one was a very important one to us. And, uh, that's just, you know, you get your 15 minutes, you make sh- you make 'em count. This year when we went back, we got two hours. And that's good windshield time with that individual and with their company, their group. So, um, we just keep working and working at, um, uh, making those contacts and then reaffirming those. More aggressive. Uh, only about 10% of our contacts come from the state. So that means we have to do an awful lot of different things to try to get our name out there and to, to stay out there. But one of the other things that I wanted to show you is that, uh, uh, we spend a lot of time, uh, aggressively targeting existing companies and startups. And you can see from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009, the, the total number of projects we've worked on have, um, it's actually gone up a little bit, but, uh, it's, it's remained very consistent, which many, many of us would have thought that would have gone down. Um, but I think when you're out there and you're hitting it hard for new projects, and as I'm gonna point in a ... point out in a minute, when you're out there working with your existing companies, there's a lot of people that many are not doing well, but quite frankly, others are doing okay. And you got a lot there in the middle that are positioning because this economy will turn and they want to be on the front, front edge of that. So on the new projects, um, you can see we have 25 in the first quarter. Existing projects, we have 10. Now, that doesn't mean all 10 of those are gonna expand here, but we're in the running. Uh, we're working with companies that have multiple locations in many cases, or companies that may have one location here, but they're trying to figure out how to prepare to go forward, um, as the economy turns and goes up. Startups. These 10 that I'm referring to here are, these are what we call very sophisticated high-tech companies that, uh, ha- have a lot of promise. So we're not just going on every little thing here and there. We're talking about the ones that we, um, th- that we see as very serious and, uh, ones that fit in our market here. So again, uh, we think by being more aggressive, by being more personal, we're actually turning more things over. More diverse. And when I say that, the message here is we're looking at a variety of methods and channels to market Lexington. Now, many of those channels are very traditional channels where you have, um, your, um, direct mail campaign. And I'll show you a couple of the postcards that we sent out to keep our image out in front of people here in a minute. But, uh, we also do a lot of monthly emails, uh, advertising on WKY and on GTV3. And then also we're getting into, uh, uh, using, uh, Twitter, using, uh, Facebook and other means to try to push our message out there as much and as often as we can into, uh, new markets, new places. So we're finding a lot of traditional community is starting to move into the Facebook era. We're trying to stay on the front edge of that. And something else that I think is very promising, and I, uh ... It's just something that makes a lot of sense for Kentucky. We're a commonwealth of four million people. We don't have the same assets as many of the people we compete against, and we need to pool the resources and leverage those resources the best we can. A great example is how we're working with the Greater Louisville Inc. and the Northern Kentucky Triad, their economic development group, and we're doing joint trips. Uh, we've had a trip to New York where we met with consultants. Um, we've had a trip to, uh, Dallas, and we're planning one for Chicago. Uh, in the past, the thinking always was that we were gonna try to go after each other and not be, uh, maybe good partners. But, uh, we're finding that the three of us working together can actually sell, uh, in a very promising way the assets that we have. With the University of Kentucky here and many of the private sector assets, we, we have a lot of, um, uh, things to sell here and a lot of reasons why. And for example, one area we're working together on is pharmaceutical. ... uh, companies, we're finding that, uh, working together makes a lot of sense. These are the, uh, image pieces, uh, postcards that we sent out. Uh, they're a little hard to read here. We do have packets for you, and in that information, you'll be able to read more clearly, uh, the messages here. But it's an image we're trying to give people, and a positive, uh, uh, thought about who we are. And we just try to keep these up in f- out in front of people all the time. Re-engaging leaders. Uh, y- you have to always work hard on a relationship. You've gotta be able to be trusted by that contact that you have, to where they'll share with you what's going on inside their company. If you don't have that kind of relationship, you're not gonna know if they're hurting and need help. You're not gonna know if they have opportunities 'cause they don't have to l- uh, expand here, uh, or locate here. So we spend a lot of time with our existing, uh, companies building relationships. And we're positioning Lexington for the return to, uh, a growth economy. Let me give an example of what I'm meaning here. We went and called on, uh, several of our, the parent company of, uh, entities that are located here in Lexington. When we got up to Oreville, it was Smucker's. Uh, typically, we wait out in the hallway like everybody else would, and you wait for someone to come get you to take you back to a conference room somewhere to meet with the executive team. Uh, the president and CEO of Smucker's came to the lobby to greet our team and took them back. And the comment that he made to us is that we're the first community. Now think of Smucker's, they were, I think, the number one best place to work in United States, uh, several years back, a very prominent company, very good company to work for. Mr. Smucker said to us, "You're the first community that's come here and showed interest in what we think at our corporate headquarters." Now, what will that lead to? I don't know, but that word will get out on the street, and we know what the impression was for him. We also know that Jeff has done a lot of expansion work here, so keeping in front of our, um, uh, corporate citizens, we think, is important, and, uh, and just good- goodwill. Retaining talent. Uh, many companies are trying to figure out, do I lay off? Do I hang on? Will the economy turn? Um, it's a timing issue in many respects, but you don't want to lose your talented workforce. Uh, our staff is working with these companies to connect them with Kentucky WINS, to Kentuck- uh, to, uh, Bluegrass, um, Workforce Investment Boards, and try to provide training funds that they can keep these workers and train them, and also look at new markets they might be pursuing. So we look at a variety of options, uh, to, uh, try to connect and keep our company's, um, um, uh, to keep the, allow them to, uh, keep their workforce intact. When you start losing your trained workers, it's very difficult when the economy turns, to be able to get forward, to go forward aggressively. Many times you have to go out and hire and then start the retraining process. We're trying to prevent that. In the healthcare sector, we're pursuing stimulus funds so that we can work with our healthcare sector in areas of training that they all have in common. But again, it's just something different, different with the times. Responding to crisis. Um, not everybody is doing well. Many companies are struggling. We try to assemble all the resources that we know that are available in the community for them to help them. And you gotta tailor them to each company, so it's not like you just take a package out to them and you throw it at them. You gotta sit down and work with them one on one. And we have a rapid response, uh, services team that's for large company, um, layoffs, and that's through the Workforce Investment Board. So we're always trying to make sure we're out there. If the, uh, the downside happens, a negative thing happens, we're trying to be there and be an asset to help those individuals that they have to lay off to find other jobs, other places of employment. Or, um, we hope they'll become entrepreneurs. Uh, back on the slide when I was mentioning we've got 10 very sophisticated, good high-tech companies we're working for, that's a larger number than we normally see, and the result of that is because, uh, there have been so many layoffs, many of these folks have taken their idea that they've talked about for a year, five years, 10 years, and they're putting them into application. We're trying to be there to help them to build those, uh, opportunities out. In the minority and small business development areas, you're always look- we're always looking for additional options. Uh, helping small and minority business owners expand their services and product lines. It- the biggest thing we hear from people is, "Connect me. Connect me into maj- with majority companies. Connect me to the opportunities." And, um, the creation of Small Business Development Center, they worked on plans to help distressed businesses with consulting with them, again, to help them find the- the resources that they need to sustain themselves and to, um, uh, hopefully survive to go forward. Additional value, making large companies aware of the capacity and diversity of services through minority businesses. Uh, a lot of times, this right hand left hand just doesn't know each other, and we're always trying to connect up companies, large, small, different size, different type, because everybody has value. And as you'll see on the last, um, point here, additional partners, since 2006, we've connected companies, uh, to opportunities to the tune of over $12 million for new business. Connecting is, uh, probably the most significant way, but e- e- everybody has to know each other. So we're always looking for new networking venues and options to- to bring individuals together. These are just a few of the things that we're doing, that we're trying to do. I think the word here is we're trying to do more and more. We're trying to be more aggressive. But overall, you have to have the trust, you have to have the connections with companies before they'll really be honest with you and level with you with what their needs are and their opportunities. So with that, I will, uh, throw it open for any questions you may have. As I said, I have members of our Bluegrass, uh, Business Development Partnership team with us, and we'd be more than happy to try to answer your questions. Would also point out that, uh, two members of the council on our Economic Development Committee, um, Vice Mayor Jim Gray and Councilman Kevin Stennett, and we try to keep them apprised of more of the specific individual information that we're dealing with so that, uh, they know when we show a number, what that means, what's behind it. Councilmember Meyers. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Quick. Um, for the- is- let me ask you first, is this your quarterly report? Uh, we have the quarterly reports in packets to hand out to you. Okay. We've got a packet of information for you at the end of this presentation. Oh, okay. Well, I guess, could you go and pass those out? Sure. And then I'll just -- I'll hold on for a second. And I'll -- I'll turn the mic back over to the mayor. Certainly. Any other questions for Mr. Quick? All right, um -- Okay. Well, since there's no other questions, I guess I'll -- could I ask one question? Well, uh, yes. Or -- Or are they gonna stay for a while? Or we -- we can ask them to stay for a few minutes while you digest what's being circulated and then -- Okay. ... come back, if that works. That works. All right. Thank you. Thanks. And any of you who have questions about any of the materials, uh, if not today, other days, let us know. We're more than happy to sit down and go through all that with you. Thank you. If you would, hang around until we -- we have a chance to get back with you. Sure. We'd appreciate that. All right, that takes us on the agenda down to council reports. Uh, does... Uh, all right, Councilmember Hinson. Thank you, Mayor. I have a couple motions. I move approval of the Neighborhood Development Fund. Second. Council Hinson has moved to approve the NDF. Councilmember Crosby has seconded the motion. Any discussion? All in favor, please vote aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Also, I move to refer to the Planning Committee a review of Article 16 of the zoning ordinance pertaining to approve services for rear your -- rear yard parking areas in residential zones. Want me to read it again? I think that would be helpful. If you could. I want to refer to, uh, the Planning Committee a review of Article 16 of the zoning ordinances pertaining to approved surfaces for rear yard parking areas in residential zones. Got it. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Councilmember Lawless has seconded that motion. Any discussion? All in favor of referring that item to the Planning Committee, please indicate by saying, "Aye." Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. You're welcome. Councilmember Blues. Thank you, Mayor. I have some upcoming, uh, neighborhood association meetings on Monday, May the 4th, the Georgetown Street Neighborhood Association will meet 6:00 PM in the O'Hara Center in, in Douglas Park and on the same evening, 7:00 PM, in the community center in Green Acres Park, the Green Acres/Hollow Creek/Breckenridge Neighborhood Association will, uh, will be meeting. They'll be taking up, uh, an, uh, an issue of a community garden in their neighborhood park and I'm hoping that the neighbors will, will turn out for that, for that discussion and, um, and, and be ready to, um, to dig up some ground and, and, uh, and move forward on a garden. On Tuesday, May the 5th, the Woodward Heights Neighborhood Association will meet. That's at 6:00 PM in the Community Action Building on High Street. Uh, there is a new slate of op, uh, a new slate of officers, uh, in the neighborhood association. Hope to be there and congratulate and, and, and, and them on, on taking office and moving the neighborhood association forward. Thank you, Mayor. That's my report. Thank you. Councilmember Crosby. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Uh, first, I just wanna publicly thank Crossroads Christian Church. Um, they're a large church located in the 7th District and, uh, they have been phenomenal at doing, uh, several service projects, uh, within the district. Um, they work with our office, oftentimes coming up, picking up trash and calling us to target specific areas that we might need help. And I just really wanted to recognize them publicly because they do so much to help out the 7th District and oftentimes they're not recognized, so I just thought it might be appropriate to give them a little recognition for all the help that they provide, uh, to Lexington and more specifically, the 7th District. Um, also, I think, um, all councilmembers received a letter from, uh, Girls on the Run. I know many of you all gave neighborhood development funds to support this group and, in fact, um, the, the... If you're not familiar with the program, I think most of us up here are, but ar- are, are familiar with the program, but for those in the audience, this is, uh, a group of girls. They're third through fifth graders and, um, they're training to run a 5K and they all, they have a lesson that goes along with their running and a lot of them have learned a lot of important things and based on the, uh, money that LFUCG provided to these girls, um, Northern was able to provide scholarships for all of their runners and their race is gonna be May 9th. And so I think everybody received registration forms so I'd like to encourage all my fellow councilmembers to come out and join us. For this, you can run or walk. Um, I've helped coach a team and it's just amazing to see these young girls and how far they've come with their running. Um, but again, you can run or walk and I'd love to see you all out there, May 9th, it's at, um, the Coldstream Campus at about 8:45 is registration. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Wallace. First of all, I'd like to, again, announce that the Lexington Farmer's Market is now located in Cheapside Park and there is free parking at Fifth Third Bank and thanks to them for providing that. I also wanna thank the fusion group at UK for their neighborhood projects they did last week and remind people that there's a public hearing tonight at six o'clock here at, in council chambers, um, and Thursday night at six o'clock on the stormwater. ... uh, fee. Um, now to, um, more serious matter. Um, first of all, I wanna thank the mayor for sending in the city auditors to the library to, um, examine the books and those expenditures. Um, I spent many years as a manager of a non-profit quasi-governmental agency, and, uh, have sat on many such boards over the years. Um, I also am, uh, have been an accountant and have a degree in Business Administration as well as Social Works, a Master's in Social Work. So, I kinda see this from, um, both the educational training as well as my careers of way more years than I probably need to tell you about. Um, it seems that a systemic problem is emerging, and we, I think, I'm hoping that the council and the administration can work together to solve some of these problems before they arise. Um, the budgets of quasi-governmental agencies, for which we have oversight, um, I would like to see those submitted to the mayor and the council, regardless if they get money from us or not. Um, but if we are appointing their boards and we are, um, giving them financial support, either way, I feel like we need to see those budgets annually. Um, also, uh, uh, a copy of the audit and the management letter from these quasi-governmental agencies for which we have oversight. Um, it... Having been through many, many audits as the director of the Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center, it, it's, um, astounding to me that some of these audits didn't have documentation randomly pulled, and that management letters were, were missed, especially in the airport situation. Um, I think we need to look at, um, a real good training for our boards and commissions that have fiduciary responsibility. Uh, I think probably one of the things that has gone on too, is many of these boards come from the corporate world where maybe social service boards, uh, people are there about their passion on the issue. Um, but this isn't the corporate world, so, uh, the kind of winning and dining and gifts that are given to employees and to board members, um, it's very different in a non-profit... in the non-profit sector, at least in my opinion it should be. Um, and I do understand the need to show appreciation for volunteers and board members, and keep moral, morale high with employees, but you don't need to do that with money. You can do that in many other ways. Um, think maybe looking at board makeup, making sure rather than appointing people that, for whatever reason, that there... We need to look at maybe, uh, that there's a CPA, that there's an attorney, that there's, there are people on that board, there are people who are users of the product, general public. Um, and, um, I think, also, in part of that training and, uh, the budget presentation to the council, is that all board members and employees sign a, um, a conflict of interest. We all do as elected officials. Do you do any business outside or with this agency? Um, getting those letters signed and submitted. Um, there's certainly a lot of times even if there isn't any wrongdoing, there is a perception of wrongdoing, which is in the public's eye, you know, perception is reality. So, that protects the employees and the board members and volunteers, as well as protects the, the organization. And lastly, um, I would s- I'm still hoping that we can get an update on the airport board and what's being done and what's being changed and how that's going. So, I guess my request is, uh, Mayor Newberry... And also, I wanna be clear that until the audit is done by the city, uh, of the library, I'm not suggesting any wrongdoing, um, but I do see that the expenditures in the non-profit sector seemed out of hand. So, uh, I guess what I'm asking, Mayor, is, um, can we have f- further dialogue about some of these suggestions and ways to improve this so that we can gain further trust of the community? Sure. In what setting do you want to do that? Just one on one, or in a committee meeting, or in a work session setting, or? Well, I think it might be good just to have a meeting and any of the council members that would like to show up can come. Um, uh, I'm open to whatever b- uh, you know, a task force, you know, but I think it really needs to be in combination, the council with the administration, to solve this. That'd be fine. Why don't, why don't the two of us sit down and- ... come up with a bit of a game plan, and then we'll schedule a time when others can participate. If it is such that we need- ... to have a special meeting designated in order to comply with open records, we'll do that. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Mayor. If I, could I add something into this conversation? Sure. When Krit Llewellyn came and presented her audit findings, I had asked that when she had a chance, she'd take the findings for the airport and kind of homogenize that, if you will- Hmm. ... so that we could look at that as a set of standards and guidelines. Right, right. And then the hope was that we could take that document and then implement that into our board and, uh, commission's training process, and maybe even that the United Way would adopt that in their, a part of their training as well. Mm-hmm. Can you get an update from her as to where she's at on, on switching that document into a set of recommendations? I'll, I'll be glad to inquire. I have not heard from her about that, but I'll be glad to inquire. Okay. See what we can find out. Thank you. All right. And while you've got the microphone, have you had a chance to look at the materials adequately to ask questions of Mr. Quick, or you need a little more time? I, I do. Okay. 'Cause I'm sure we're holding up half his staff here. Uh, just a couple of quick questions. Um, in outside agencies today, we, one of the things on our agenda was to look at the PSAs, uh, moving forward, and the discussion came about with respect or regard to some of the attachments that we're putting on the PSAs. And one of them that came up, up in discussion was you guys' PSA and the matrix that, um, the council adopted. Is the matrix part of this report that you submitted- The- ... today? Yes, the, uh, quarterly- Yes. ... matrix, the measurements that we give you? Mm-hmm. Yes. We just compiled, the third quarter was just compiled last week. The two other preceding quarters, we hand-delivered to you. Okay. Since it was not an Economic Development Committee Meeting that, which is where we typically present those numbers. Okay. One of the things that we asked for in that matrix was just sort of, um, a simple, um, number of jobs created, number of jobs lost in Fayette County, and the number of jobs created and then lost in the region, I guess, in the quarter, and then on out for the entire year. Could you put that together? Like, and that might be what this, this address is created or businesses- ... new and expanding businesses for the fiscal year. And maybe I haven't been able to drill down enough to see where you have... The long sheet, this one is the new and expanding businesses that we have personally had input on. There are a lot of other companies that have grown here, not just because of us. Okay. But this is new and expanding industries. The last quarter when we gave you a report, it looked like, it looked a lot like this one. Okay. It was a six-page document, and on the back of the page, it had the jobs lost that we know about, and these are ones that have been reported in the newspaper or we found out through existing business visits and those kinda things. So that is, um, that was in the last quarter's report. Okay. Is there anything in this newsletter that speaks to that, or will you wait 'til the next quarter? We can give you an update at the next quarter. I can give you an, a list tomorrow of the jobs that we know, and there haven't been that many announced in the last three months. So we had major job losses from Circuit City, and we haven't been able to identify those exact numbers on what they are. We've tried. Um, Circuit City was a big one retailer-wise, Linens 'N Things and a couple other large retailers. Okay, so when you get a chance, could you put that together and kinda compare that so we know what we lost and what we gained? Yeah, and that again, that's only the ones that have been announced. We won't- Right. ... necessarily know of other job losses that are over, in the overall labor market, other than we know the number in the labor market that drops each month. We can give you that perspective, but that doesn't say which, which companies have lost jobs. It just gives you the perspective overall, like when the unemployment rate drops- Okay. ... or goes up. Sorry. Okay. Thank you. And w- and again, we're glad to come and spend more time i- in front of the Economic Development Committee. We tried to do that, and we're told that the committee hadn't been meeting. We didn't think 15 minutes was enough to give us perspective to get into detail, so if you look in the folder, there's a note that says we wanna individually sit down with you guys if we can and answer any personal questions, et cetera, but we, I mean, we'd love to do it at the Economic Development Committee. Okay, I think the, the two co-chairs are here, and maybe they can schedule another meeting. Okay. We'll, um, as Vice Mayor Gray and Council Member Stennet, right, we'll, uh, look to you all to try to find a time that works and let everybody know of that. All right, does anybody else here... Council Member James. Thank you, Mayor. Um, Bob, thanks for being here. Um, I had two things. The first one was, let me remember what the first one was. Oh, um, on the slideshow, and we saw the unemployment rate, those are unemployment rate based on folks that went and applied for unemployment or had lost a job, right? So just unemployed, there, so there's a larger group probably that exists that are just unemployed that- Very well. ... we don't have a record of. Let me have Josh come up- Okay. ... the technical expert here, and he can explain that to you. The, uh, unemployment rate is based off the labor force. So, to be in the labor force, you'd have to be employed or unemployed and looking for work, so there is a n- a larger pool out there of people who not necessarily have a job, but they're not considered part of the labor force if, for instance, like, they're too old to work, they're too young to work, they're either a student or they have stopped looking for work, they're not considered part of the labor force. So 7.4% of the labor force is currently unemployed, and that's what these numbers represent. Do we have... ... access to more detailed information about who's unemployed in Lexington? Demographic information about who's unemployed is very difficult to access real time, so month to month. Um, it typically is part of a survey that the Census Bureau does every year, so we do know it about a year to a year and a half behind. And so unfortunately, that's just the way the government reports it 'cause it takes a long time to aggregate all that data. We just know the raw numbers on a month to month basis. Okay. Is that anything that Commerce Lexington could pursue on their own as opposed to waiting on the government data from Census? Is there some kind of surveying that could be done to help with that? Um, there certainly are surveys. Um, the government is, and the state is actually who does this labor force, um, calculation and then reports it to the national government. Um, it's a very sophisticated kind of a thing. It's not, I'm not saying it's impossible. It is certainly something we could look at, but it would probably be very expensive and very time-consuming. Okay. Thank you. Um, Bob, as we're, as we're thinking about that, I know based on, um, our general fund is based on payroll. So I, I'm looking to see how we can be more aggressive with dealing with unemployment and people that aren't working because if we increase the number of folks working, we increase our general fund. Absolutely. What's Commerce Lexington's thought on that and what are ... I mean, I know that you've given the job creation, um, and your focus is high-tech, but how can we, how can we focus on some of the things that maybe aren't high-tech, just for- Sure. ... folks like, you know, Louis Cobb and just- That's a great question. ... regular folks that wanna do something. Wha- what's your angle on that? Uh, I, I'm smiling a little bit because when we come and we talk about, uh, other, uh, types of more the traditional businesses, we typically get criticized for talking about traditional versus high-tech. We talk about high-tech, it's the whole community, uh, councilwoman. Um, we have in the Bluegrass Business Development Partnership an arm that's called a Small Business Development Center. And, um, there are several individuals in that that work with us, with the access loan, with Tyrone and, and others. And we're working with all different jobs. So what we're trying to measure typically are the jobs that we, I think, we've been asked to try to measure as far as the efforts that we provide. But in that, in these numbers that you're gonna find are also all of the other types of assistance that we provide too. We work with, um, uh, not just the high-techs, we work with anyone who wants to, has an idea. Uh, they'll come in, we can help them develop, and when I say we, that's the SBDC, Small Business Development Center, we can help them develop a business plan to understand the mechanisms of, of trying to get into business, a marketing plan. Um, they work, they're really, really good at working with these individuals. They also, uh, and we try to reach out as much as we can into all areas of the community so that anyone who has the idea that they wanna get in, they wanna become an entrepreneur, we try to provide them all the resources that they, that we can. And then ultimately, they have to be able to come up with the investment and say, "I wanna do that." But we work with all types of businesses. And that's part of the, the Bluegrass Business Development Partnership. It's not just to only single out one area, it's to have kind of a broad brush of how we can help a lot of companies, a lot of businesses. Sure. And so with, um, you know, many places like, say, Austin or some other places, they have a lot of local, um, businesses that keep their city going. I, I think I asked this before and I can't remember the answer, but do you work with our local, like, uh, there's a local Lexington group, Lexington First, Local First or something. Are you, do you have a strong relationship with them and what resources can you provide to large groups of local businesses that want to do something- Sure. ... and that are really part of our sustainable, you know, economic, um- Mm-hmm. ... development here in Lexington? Uh, it's, there's so many pieces in the community that some we work more active with than others. You know, we have the chamber division as part of Commerce Lexington that gets involved with our membership. Many of the, um, Lexington First type individuals are part of that as well. Um, we interact, uh, a few times with, uh, Lexington First, but we've told them we're there to help and as they've told us they're Help- they're there to help us too. So I, I think we're gonna find in a marketplace like Lexington, Fayette County, we all have to try to figure out how to work together as closely as we can, to share the resources that we can with one another. Uh, and there's many other organizations out there too that we try to work with, support, uh, it may be a phone call every now and then, but ultimately, we're trying to be able to reach out to those who want help and to help them. Okay. Whatever capacity of that help that they need. Do you have a goal that you want to create a certain number of small, locally owned businesses to make a sustainable economic development of local businesses and, and develop a local economy? Yeah. The, the goals that we've set forward for Commerce Lexington with the Business Development Partnership are the ones that we've outlined on this sheet. Um, have we set with sustainable, locally-owned type businesses? No, because we have to work with all, uh, businesses, whether Lexington-based, uh, if they have, uh, their franchise. I mean, we, we try to work with businesses who wanna grow and prosper, who has, who have challenges, and we try to figure out how to help them. So that, that's, that focused attention- Our goals are all right here. ... that focused attention is probably a lacking element because y- you're doing it as part of a whole thing, but have you seen communities where their local economy, it really sustains them, like locally grown businesses, small businesses sustain the area? I think what we have found, uh, is that most communities of our size or larger, not all of them, but many of them have a local sustainability, uh, local groups that do that. And that's great. Um, also a lot of those communities will have other, o-other wrinkles, other, uh, resources that they offer just like ours does, and we try to provide, we try to support wherever we can. Um, you know, it takes a whole community working with different types of businesses, small, medium, and large to make a go. So- My only -- my only thought is that we -- we support Commerce Lexington financially. Mm-hmm. So if there are other groups that are out there that are voca- focusing on something that would help our immediate community sustainably, how can we e- how is it that we can feel confident giving money where it's not focused in an area that could be really sustainable for the local economy as opposed to the region? That specific, uh, answer to that question is that we lay those goals out here in the matrix that you have in front of you. And those are specifically when we set the PSA up, that's what we said we're going to focus, those are our targets. So that's what we are going after. When you mention a lot of the other groups or individual businesses in town, a lot of that is we try to help as much as we can, but we know where our targets are as far as what we're trying to do for the funding that we receive. Okay. And speaking of targets, um, the -- the marketing material you gave us is, it's beautiful and it's... Who designed these? Uh, we work with, um, oh goodness, Brady & Childres, yes. New name, new company. The -- the one thing that's missing is minorities. Um, so if I were to see these laying somewhere and I were a Black business owner, um, wanting to expand to Lexington, this -- there's nothing here that looks like it's marketing to me. So I - I would, you know, ask you to go, go back and- Sure. ... just kinda, I mean, think about it with minorities being a grow- a growing demographic and trying to tap into minority, um, participation, um, it would, it's really critical what they see, um, when they pick up- Okay. ... something. And just so you know, we do, uh, other, I think we're very limited in what we can do, but we do do several other different types of PR campaigns and we try to show the mix of the community so people have a good representation and good feeling of who we are too as well. Okay. But good point. Okay. Thank you. Councilman DeLangue. Mayor, I don't have any questions for Mr. Quick. I just want to comment on something else, uh, if you want to pass over to me, uh- All right. Let me just say great job, Bob. Thank you. Nice your work. Mm-hmm. Does anybody else... Uh, Councilman McCourt. Thank you. Uh, thank you all for - for coming down. I think just a couple of quick comments. One is, you know, we - we want to hear from you all as much as possible, so I - I don't think that sitting back and - and waiting for, uh, you know, economic development for there to be a slot on the agenda or those types of things, I don't think you need any excuse to present to this group. You, you know, what - what you all are doing is, is critical and - and that's how this body views it is, you know, what is the return on investment for the - the monies that we're given? It's - it's become very substantial. We - we've made a very substantial commitment over the last four or five years. Since some of us have been on council, it's dramatically changed. And so we want to hear from you as much as possible and we want to see what's going on. But two comments to that. One, uh, Councilmember Crosby made a comment about a month ago when Cleet came forward and presented this - this process for downtown, uh, two-way street conversions and she, you know, he did this great presentation and then he passed out all the stuff at the end and you said, you know, "I wish I'd had this at the beginning so I could be - be looking through it while you're talking." I - I would say put whatever you're gonna put in our hands as soon as possible and as early as possible because it's impossible, it is impossible to digest all this, uh, while a couple of people are talking and - and ask questions that need to be asked. Um, but - but secondly, that's why, um, you know, I had made the motion to put a matrix that was simple to understand into this. And, um, you can call this all metrics and matrix and so forth, but the council, uh, 15-0 vote, put a metrics into your PSA that ne- never shows up. And - and the reason why is is that, uh, it was a very simple metrics as Councilmember Meyers pointed out so that if we did get something like this and we only had a moment to brief over it, you can look at it and we can formulate questions that can be supported by all this other stuff. And I - I love everything that Dr. Coombs has done for us and where we can drill down indirect and - and deferred and - and, uh, all kinds of other impacts. But I - I just would say, um, to please make sure that you - you put that in there from now on because that was a - a vote that we passed to be a part of that. And - and it's never showed up. I - I... Commissioner, I ask you, I mean, it was a part of the package. I mean, I am correct that we did pass that and it is part of the contract and as Councilmember Meyers said, it came up in outside agencies today. Um, and as - as we go through this budget process, um, every outside agency, everybody that - that receives money outside this government is, you know, we're going to go through and look very hard at how - how are we interacting, how are we interfacing, what - what's happening. So I'm just... I - I encourage you all to give us more information, uh, but give it to us in ways that we can ask questions off of, uh, and - and come to us as much as you possibly can because we want to make sure we're working very closely with you, um, so there isn't any miscommunication or we don't know because we have citizens asking us all the time and sometimes I don't feel like I've got an - a - a very easy way to explain it. So I - I appreciate that, Mayor, just a couple of comments. Thank you. Councilman DeLangue. Yeah, I... As a matter of fact, uh, I'd like to see you come once a month to council and give us a report because you could update the number of people in the workforce, the unemployment rate, any new business activity and - and we'd have a little bit more time to digest that. And I mean I would... I can even make a motion. Would you - would you like a motion on that, Mayor, to pass it- That'd be, that'd be appropriate. Okay. My motion is to request that Commerce Lexington make a monthly meeting with the, uh, council to update us. And I would suggest that somewhere towards the middle of the month would be good. That way, the unemployment data and some of the, uh, you know, tax revenue data released by the state, these are all available at early part of the month. We could get... You could sort of compile that and bring it in with the meeting, sort of give us an overview of what's happening. Mm-hmm. Second. Have a motion by Councilman DeLangue and second by Councilmember Martin to, uh, request Commerce Lexington to make a monthly report to the council on- ... economic data for our community. Any discussion? Council Member Stennet? Ca-Council Member Lane, a-are you asking for that report in person or just a report distributed to council? That would be their option. Uh, I mean, I don't think we need to have a, you know, 15 or 20-minute report. We could have a five-minute report, and then if there's questions by the council. You know, just an update, very streamlined, simplistic, not too complicated, but just to keep the dialogue with the Commerce Lexington, uh. Thank you. All right. Council Member McCord? Council Member Lane, can I make a, a friendly suggestion that maybe once a month they would, if this motion passes, that they would present a, or, uh, supply a report and just be in the audience should there be questions or should we want to just ask you something personally. Uh, that way it's not- Sure. ... uh, chewing up 15 minutes or, or getting in some of these other things. Is, would that be acceptable? Yeah, I mean, any, anything that makes the pleasure of council would be good, but just to have them here monthly- Okay. ... so if we have questions, then we can get a, a quick update on how things are going. Yeah. I, I strongly support that. I, I don't think that- Particularly with the economy being what it is right now. Yeah. I think their input more frequently would be beneficial. All right. Any further discussion on that motion? Council Member Wallace. Um, that, that seems like a lot of time for Commerce Lexington once a month, um, but I, I can support it. Frankly, I'd rather see a report, somebody from the airport board reporting every month. And I'm not saying that to be flip or sarcastic, but that's my comment. Coun- Council Member Feigl? Um, thank you, Mayor. I would really like to see a presentation done, whether it be, you know, just a brief overview, but, uh, I think just for the, the benefit of those who watch the council meetings, I think that would be very helpful to them as well. Okay. I guess, um, the motion as it currently stands is that Commerce Lexington would prepare a, a monthly report to the council on the status of the local economy, but there's not a requirement that they, uh, make a presentation. All right. A-any further discussion? Council Member Stennet? Council Member Lane, one suggestion might be to have that part of our monthly budget and finance meeting as part of our report out, that we could report out any of those economic numbers along with our own financial data. And that, that may chime in well and give them a, a, a-nother floor if they wanna come and present. I could go with that too. I'm, I'm pretty easy. You're accepting that as a friendly amendment, to have them report to the Budget and Finance Committee on a monthly basis? I accept a friendly amendment on that. All right. And Council Member Martin, you okay with that too? Uh, I agree with, uh, Council Member Feigl that, uh, it's good for the public to hear what's going on. Uh, I met with the folks at Commerce Lexington last week, and, uh, there's just some amazingly good things that we have about Lexington. And it's good that they hear those things, and it's good that we know that we have world-class things here in Lexington. And so, um, while I will, uh, defer to my, um, more ex- experienced members of the, of the council, uh, be nice to hear from you guys once in a while. 'Cause the public would like to hear these things, and they'd like to know, you know, th-that we're doing so well. Thanks. So you, you accept a friendly amendment as the second? Okay, I do accept a friendly amendment, Mayor. Thank you. Okay. All right. So the motion now is to request Commerce Lexington to appear at the Budget and Finance Committee meeting, um, and to make a report to the Budget and Finance Committee on a monthly basis. Council Member Hinson, you, you had a... Okay. Any further discussion on that motion? Then all in favor of, um, requesting Commerce Lexington make a monthly report to the Budget and Finance Committee, please indicate by saying I. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Can I just make a quick comment? Yes. If you guys have specific things that you're looking for, like I know unemployment rates is one, downsizings is one, new company expansions would be one, but if there are other specific things that you would like to see, if you'll just email me, and we'll have something prepared. And if, if it can be a regular piece, or it can be anything else that you might wanna see. Thank you. A-and, and finally, if I could, I, I wanna thank the council for your support of, um, we have, we are working with a lady named Rebecca Ryan, consultant out of Madison. And, um, when we do our leadership trip, but even more so when we come back, uh, Rebecca is known nationally. She kind of picks up where many say that, uh, uh, Mr. Florida leaves off, which is not necessarily true, but she works a lot with the millennial generation. It's a generation we're trying to figure out how do we keep the talent, uh, the creative innovation talent here. And, uh, she's gonna also work with the different, uh, age groups as well on how do we develop a plan with an action plan attached to it when we're done on, uh, how we can, uh, keep our creative talent here, but also the things that we need to be doing to our city infrastructure-wise to make it better and, uh, uh, uh, more promising for that group too. So, but I just wanna thank you for that support. All right. Any final questions for Mr. Quick or any of the Commerce Lexington folks? Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. And I think we'll return now to, uh, council reports. Uh, Council Member Lane. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Uh, as you are, are well aware, you appointed me to be your representative on the airport board. And, um, I would just like to say, I think the progress at the airport is doing very well. I, um, was going to ask the, uh, executive director and the chairman of the board to come out, which at the 60-day anniversary of the, uh, auditor's report, 'cause they were due to make a report about that time also. And I thought at the time that we do that, they could also brief the, uh, council. ... um, I know that, at the board meeting that's gonna be on the 14th of this month, y- you know, there will be a vote to approve a new auditor and a new finance director. So, those issues will be addressed and a lot of policies and procedures have been put in t- uh, they've l- eliminated credit cards and a whole lot of, uh, other things at the airport board, which encourages me to feel that they're on a very good path and are doing very well. Uh, but I would like to suggest, if it would, uh, please the Mayor, that perhaps we ask them to visit the council on the 16th of, uh, June, or the 9th of June, I guess, would be ... the 9th of June would be our next, uh, work session because we have a ... there's a break in there for the Memorial Day week. Uh. That's perfectly okay by me. Is anybody have any objection? Council Member Lawless? I don't have an objection. I have a question. Is that okay? Oh, you have a question for me? Yes. Yes, Ma'am. Um ... uh, so the new director, the new executive director has been hired? Well, we have an interim director who's gonna be on our, uh, payroll through the end of the year. That's the arrangement we have. Eric Frankel, who is here, and then at the end of the year, we're going to, you know, being an RFP for, uh, a new director and Mr. Frankel has been, um, told that he could apply for the permanent position at the- So, there is gonna be a, a nationwide search and ... That's right. Okay. That, that's ... right now, that's the intention of the board, would be to have a search for a new airport director. Um, and I understand that it's the board's responsibility to hire that person, but I think it would be very helpful and interesting, to me at least, to see who applies and how that process goes. Right, well, I think the response will be very good. For example, for the finance director, there were 140 applications made and 40, over 40 of the people were certified accountants, and, uh, so we had a very good feel of people to select from, and, um, you know, as I said, that would be coming before the board for final approval, I believe, uh, at the, at the next meeting. Um, but I, I think having, uh, maybe Mr. Frankel, Mr. Owens to come, you know, to the council meeting, they'd have both the executive director and the, uh, chairman of the board here, I think they could answer any questions, so we should have some, uh, data available that's been prepared for the auditor that we can present at that time. Okay, thank you. I, I still would be very interested in the process for the search for the new executive director. Thank you. Uh, well, you can ask that question- Okay. ... when they come, if you'd like. I think both Council Member James and Council Member Meyers have some questions for Council Member Lane. So, Council Member James? I just had a quick point that we d- we don't have a break after Memorial Day. We have a meeting on the 26th and then we have another meeting on the 2nd, so you may not need to wait til the 9th unless you want to. Okay, well, I, uh, I was thinking on the line, so we aren't gonna have a council meeting that week. Uh, I'm, uh, personally I'm gonna be out of town that week, so that's- Mm-hmm. ... why I, I was recommending we do it the week following. Oh, okay. I just thought I heard you reference that there- Yeah, well, my inference was the week of Memorial Week, there will be people out and there isn't a council meeting. There is a- There's a work session. ... work session. Okay, thanks. Uh. All right, Council Member Meyers? I ... Thank you, Mayor. I guess my question is, when the board gets here, you know, before they were supposed to answer questions and we ran out of time. So my question is are they gonna have, I guess, their attorney present with them to answer questions? 'Cause I still have some questions I wanna ask 'em. I still think that the board needs to be reconstituted. And I've got some questions that I'd like to ask them, if they're still available to answer. Mayor? Well, I think it's- Excuse me. Point of order. Council- Um, discussion of the airport board is not on the agenda. I, I think we're doing council reports, but I, discussion of the airport board is not on the agenda. Well, that's a fair point. But, a- we've pretty liberally permitted council members to talk about whatever they want to talk about during the course of their, uh, council report, so I'll, I'll continue to grant Council Member Lane some latitude in that regard. Okay, Council Member Meyers, I, I think that they would make a presentation and then, a- as normal, the council can ask as many questions as they want and there's no time limit, so I feel like they would be happy to answer any questions you might have. Okay. Thank you. All right. Next on the list, I have, uh, Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of things. Uh, one, it was mentioned in, uh, Council Member Blue's report out from the planning committee meeting, the first one, uh, that we had kind of broken out two different pieces and parts of Parks Master Plan. One was the, uh, uh, Hisle property and accepting it in concept and so forth, and the other was, uh, is we were looking at the Parks Master Plan itself, and one of the key pieces, I think, for this body, uh, to really take up and, and sometimes it kinda flies by us and we don't necessarily, uh, hear all the, the nuances and, and report outs, but one of the key things that was, uh, asked is for council members that wanna see the economics, if you will, of, of our parks system change, um, to be involved in that process, and I, I certainly have a, a great concern over that, in that we, we don't have a dedicated stream of income, therefore we have to be a lot more creative right now in, in how we fund certain things, but yet we don't have a lot of good mechanisms for taking in money. If someone wanted to donate lots and lots of money and call every park, um, their last name, we don't have e- really a process or a group that could say yes or no to that. So, I would just encourage council members as, as- ... that starts to form, uh, whether you serve on it or not, I would certainly welcome your thoughts, uh, about what other communities are doing, or what we could do in the interim, uh, short of, uh, changing a tax code, or changing a tax, or, uh, a major bond issue, which, again, uh, uh, I'm very vocal about the... I had said those were two options that, certainly we need, but they weren't really on the table right now. And I was very disappointed in the Parks Master Plan when it came back with not a lot of creative thought. So I'm asking you, as my colleagues, uh, as we look at that particular piece of it, to offer whatever suggestions you have, uh, and, and really lend your cr- uh, collective brain power to that. Secondly, uh, when the airport thing came up, uh, back, uh, in November of last year, and, and there was a number of folks who were very zealous about, uh, passing motions and, and inviting the auditor to come in by resolution. I was somebody that voted against that, because I didn't think that we had to pass a resolution to see that done. But I had said at the time that I fully supported whatever the auditor found, uh, and, and I fully supported that process, if they felt like there was something there. Um, when the library situation came up this week, um, I was very curious to see how m- many folks here that were zealous for the airport board would be as zealous. I appreciate Council Member Lawless, uh, being very consistent in that, and I would support whatever folks going in and taking a look, uh, at that situation as well. Because now we're talking about a group that we actually give direct money to. Uh, the airport board, our airport is a place that we don't necessarily give direct money to, but now we're talking about direct money. The other thing I said at that point, um, and I want to reiterate it, is that this body needs to be ready and to be as zealous as they, as they were for the airport, to look at any and all places inside our government. Uh, and I would expect that all of us up here, especially those that were very, very out front on the airport situation, would be that diligent about the other places where we give direct taxpayer money to. And so I just want to reiterate that. Now on a positive note, last Tuesday I had the great opportunity to be involved with, uh, the Society of HR Managers, uh, the Kentucky chapter, Kentucky Chamber, excuse me, uh, awards ceremony of the, uh, best places to work in Kentucky. And I just want to compliment all those 50 plus companies from around Kentucky that are doing a good job, despite the circumstances of our economy, but especially those companies here in Lexington. As we've had Commerce Lexington reporting, you know, jobs are our lifeblood in this, uh, in this government. And so for those companies from Lexington that received that award, I just want to extend, again, my congratulations and how much I appreciate the job they're doing. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Vice Mayor Gray. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Earlier, um, Council Member Blues mentioned the Radcliff-Marlboro Neighborhood Association met last night. Council Member Gorton, Council Member Ellinger and I were there and appreciated those, that invitation. And a lot of kids were playing out in the park. And it reminded me of, um, looking on the streets today in Lexington, seeing a lot of people on the streets. Spring has sprung, so to speak, and the flowers are blooming and the buds are on the tree, never, trees. But nevertheless, we still have a gigantic hole in the middle of the city, about two football field, the size of two football fields. And we really don't know where it's going. And three weeks ago, we, on the council, and I think the mayor, we got a letter telling us that the mysterious investor for this project is now deceased. We really don't know when the investor passed away. We regret that, of course. But this city, its citizens, this council, the courthouse area design overlay board, the judge, the judicial system, relied on the representations of the developers that the money was unconditionally committed. A little over eight months or nine months ago, from the podium, the developers promised us that the footers would be coming out of the ground on this project on a fast track in December. Soon that will be six months ago, and there is still no evidence of construction on that site. Now, a sign has gone up this week with surveillance cameras, appropriately, I guess. But this is not a construction site, this is a speculation site. And I, maybe some of you all have gotten letters and calls and emails from people lately, since spring has arrived in the downtown. People want to be able to walk on the sidewalks. Not an unexpected expectation, unexpected request. Well, on three corners of the Center Point block, you can't walk on the sidewalks. If this were a construction site, it would have sidewalks that are protected with temporary- ... cover. Temporary structures, which allow our citizens to use the sidewalks. We can't use the sidewalks today. Nobody can use the sidewalks. Now, I'd like to put this in a little bit of context, and then I'll finish up. We all talk about the economy. We all talk about the struggles of the economy, that Lexington has maybe narrowly esc- escaped some of the very difficult, most difficult adversity of this economy. But we've still got a 3% increase in unemployment. That represents 8 to 9000 people. So we still struggle. Across this country and the world, this recession has been characterized as the closest that we've come to the Great Depression. And it's been characterized as a giant reset button on consumer behaviors, on purchasing behaviors, on the very psychology of the public. When we look at what we have been promised, I don't think it's a stretch to say that as we move forward, which is really what my commentary is about today, as we move forward, we, we will not be going back to the future. We will not, we will be running as fast as we can from a period of excess and extravagance, which is what five-star hotels and luxury condominiums represent. So something else is very likely to occur on this site. So with that, I'd like to ask that the mayor, the mayor and Joe, who've worked with the Webbs on this project, meet with the Webbs, and in the spirit of the regular routine reports, that we get a report on what they're going to do. And in the meantime, please tell them to please fill in the hole and put a little grass on it and open up the sidewalks. Thank you, Mayor. I will share your sentiments with, uh, Mr. Webb, and, uh, invite him to come and answer your questions directly. That'd be great. Council member Stennet. Thank you, Mayor. I'll try to stay out of the grandstand today, and, uh, maybe we need to include that in the new government center, put a nice big grandstand in our council chambers, 'cause, um, wow. Um, I do have a question on the library issue. Logan, can you come to the mic for a second? Through our discussions through budget and finance, uh, and looking at different revenue streams that we're dedicating here in this community, uh, I think the issue came up, we just started approving the LexTran budget a couple years ago, um, based on ordinance, which we hadn't been doing. Can, did we take a look at that ordinance on the library board? And are we, as a body, supposed to be a- approving their budget on an annual basis? And have we made contact with them to let them know that? Yes, we have. Council member Stennet, on the LexTran approval, that's actually by state statute. And also by state statute, the library is to submit its proposed budget to you. My recollection of the statute is you're not required to approve it, but they are to submit it. Also, after the close of the fiscal year, they are to come and make some report about the condition of the library. Uh, I know that Mr. O'Mara has sent a letter to the library, uh, asking them to come and present that budget to the council. And it is my understanding today that we may have a date that that's going to happen. He invited them to come before the end of May, is my recollection. I think, I, I want to say it's May 12th, but I'm not sure. Excuse me, it's May 13th. They're in a work session, I assume, we've scheduled that? If that's the work... Yes. As long as it's a Tuesday. I'm not sure if the 13th- I was thinking the 13th would be, uh, wouldn't that be, uh- That's a Wednesday, yeah. Wouldn't the 12th be a Tuesday? The 12th? The 12th. It's May 12th, that work session. Okay, so we will have it this year. Yes, you will have the proposed budget, and you will, they will be here, and you'll have an opportunity to ask questions. That's what's been requested. I mean, w- without digging up the past, I mean, what is the explanation for why we haven't been getting it? I am not sure. Okay, well, we can- I, I don't know what the historical practice is, but you're supposed to receive that information. I believe this is Mr. Carey, and he may want to speak to that. I, I don't know that there's been a requirement that they make a presentation, but there is a requirement that they submit that. Well, but the second part, at the end of the fiscal year. Yes, now, I don't recall them coming at the end of the fiscal year, is my recollection. That's what I was referring to. It's submitted every year, and you all get a copy of it. Right, but, but the second requirement. For you to approve it? No, uh, the submission at the end of the fiscal year, how the funds were spent. Uh, we have submitted, this is Kathy. I'm sorry, I'm Burgess Carey. I'm the chairman of the library here, and I appreciate the chance to speak with you all. Kathy Reynolds is the chair of the audit committee. She's a CPA and a board member as well. Uh, we do submit the budget every year. I believe you're correct, it's not voted on for approval, uh, but we do invite comments every year. Now, at, at the end of the year, I don't think we've submitted a review of the actual versus the budget, but we're happy to do that. Okay. I mean, if that's part of the requirement, then let, let's go by what the requirements are, um, because again, as, as Councilman McCord alluded to, it is taxpayer dollars we're dedicating to a, to a source and, um, rightfully so, but we need... just need to make sure that we are, that we're responsible for the board appointments, scrutinizing the end-of-year payments as well, or purchases, expenditures as well. Now, we do also produce a monthly report on our budget versus actual ongoing, and that is copied to the city as well. Uh, that's presented at the board meeting. Very good. Yeah, and, and again, this has been in the works for at least two to three weeks, so this is not as a result of the Herald-Leader article. So the mayor and, and, and Logan have a- already began this footwork, um, two or three weeks ago. So they've been, and the board has cooperated with us ahead of the curve. So just wanna give you an apology for doing that before the article broke, because a lot of people are gonna think this is because of the article and we're all... But this had, uh, had already been in the works, so thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Does any other member wish to report? Okay, I've just got a couple of, uh, matters, uh, rather briefly. I'll ask Mr. Kelly if he would, uh, come up to the podium and give us just a, a real quick rundown on the status of the Recovery Act efforts here. While he's coming, let me mention that I mentioned, uh, to you previously that I had requested Betty Kerr to do an inventory of the downtown, uh, historic buildings. She anticipates having that work completed and we'll have a public meeting on May 12th at seven o'clock in the basement of the library. If anybody would care to participate and hear the results of her survey of the historic buildings in the downtown area, I hope you will do so. All right, Mr. Kelly. Thank you, Mayor and council members. I'll be very brief. Uh, uh, the progress relative to the stimulus programs has, uh, has been, uh, uh, steady and, um, quite a bit of information has flowed. Uh, we have made, uh, applications for grants, not just us, the government, but also people across the community, um, University of Kentucky, the county schools, and others. And we've tried to gather that information together as best we can, but, but, uh, sometimes we, we're aware and sometimes w- we are not. Just taking a quick look at, uh, the amount of money that's been either allocated to us, we may not know yet how it's to be spent, but, but at least we know that there's a pot of money that's available to us and, and that we will be allowed to spend. Um, plus the applications for competitive grant dollars comes to somewhere in the neighborhood of about $56 million, which is a significant m- amount of money. Um, we have, um, approximately $22 million in, in water quality, uh, applications out there. And, um, there's been some public safety, uh, grants applied for. We've been made aware of, of, um, the, uh, cop's, uh, money, which I, I think you'll find interesting. Um, there's a billion dollars that was set aside, uh, through the stimulus process, uh, to hire police officers, uh, across the country. Um, roughly that billion dollars would, would hire about 5500 police officers. Um, the requests so far, uh, to the stimulus, uh, through the stimulus process is for 30,000 officers. So you can see there's a, a lot of competition for, for these dollars. But, um, uh, Commissioner Bennett, uh, and, and the chief have applied for, uh, for 50 positions. We don't know how many we will be fortunate enough to get, but, uh, but are hopeful that we'll get, uh, as many as possible. Um, and, and just, uh, to let you know that, uh, in the area of, uh, the, uh, um, community health, uh, University of Kentucky, uh, research folks got $170,000 in, uh, in health grants and the Fayette County Health Department, $286,000. So that's just a sampling, Mayor, of some of the, uh, activities that, that are going on. The deadlines for applications are, are rolling up pretty quickly and the departments, the federal departments who are handling these, either the allocations or they're handling the competitive grant processes, are working very hard to try to get that information out as quickly as possible. But it's a, it's a bit of a challenge for them. It, it's, uh, it's a major job. But, uh, the commission, uh, that, uh, that, uh, the mayor's put together has been meeting regularly. That's been very helpful, I think, informative to the, to the, uh, community and, and, and the people who are serving on that, uh, have been very, very good about, uh, coming to the meetings. Thank you. Let me, uh, specifically mention that at the May 21st meeting, we'll be focusing on community development block grants and energy efficiency and conservation block grants, which are two areas that we'll be bringing a recommendation to the council on in, um, probably early June. So if you have any questions, feel free to, uh, touch base with, with Mr. Kelly directly. Yes, ma'am. Nurse Gordon, I need all the help- Sorry. ... you can professionally provide here. Go right ahead. Didn't mean to have that effect on you. Thank you, Mayor. I have just a couple of quick questions, Joe. Um- I, m- based on what you just said, is this stimulus money is one-time monies, right? Yes. I mean, I know there's several pots and several grants and, but in essence, it will be given one time for X program or X project. So- Yes. ... uh, what you said about, uh, funding police, um, made me wonder, um, if we accept one-time money for hiring people- Hmm. Yes, ma'am. ... we take on the future fiscal responsibility for paying for those positions. Before you- Is that correct? Y- yes, and it's a three-year. It covers three years for the officers if I, if I'm correct. Uh- You're- Commissioner. That's right. It's th- it, the cops money takes care of the, um, officers for three years, but there d- there has to be a commitment on the part of the community for continuation, uh, of, um, maintaining tho- those officers. There might be additional grant money that will come available following the stimulus that could, could help defray some of that cost. I'll defer to Commissioner Bennett, who knows a lot more about this than I do. D- and, and while he's coming up, I mean, I'm a, a strong supporter of public safety. Yes, ma'am. Um, I've always had a little bit of concern about accepting one-time money to fund recurring expenses. Sure. And so that does concern me, but I would be interested to see what the commissioner says about this. The Mayor and Mr. Kelly are correct. The c- the COPS grants funding, uh, this round is for, to cover three years worth of salary for each of the officers that we're authorized to hire under the program. There's a, a further commitment from the government to keep those officers for at least the fourth year. There's not a commitment to keep them forever, but there is a commitment to keep them for that fourth year. One thing that's a little bit different, uh, in this round of, of grant funding under the, the Recovery Act as opposed to th- what had been the, the COPS program in the past, is that it gives us the ability to fill not only expanded positions, but current vacancies. So that gives us a little more flexibility than we normally would have, uh, and gives us potentially to the extent we otherwise wouldn't be able to fill the vacancies, it gives us some, some kind of extension of our budget, uh, capacity. So you're thinking this would be toward vacancies that we haven't been able to fill. At this point, yes. Uh, because as, as the, the current, as the fiscal year 10 proposed budget currently stands, there are some unfunded police sworn positions. If we're able to get the COPS grant funding, that would allow us to fill some of those positions. And so- Al- also, I, let me add one more thing. This is the first phase of the COPS program. Uh, the, the House just passed, I think last Thursday, a five-year framework, uh, for hiring 50,000 police officers nationwide to supplement the 5,500 they're looking at hiring now. So this is kind of the first piece of a long-range plan, uh, that President Obama, uh, has for expanding, uh, the police force nationwide. So then if we were awarded this, you said this covers the first three years of salary, but we would be paying for the training. Is that correct? Well, this would pay their- Or is that included as the first year of salary? Th- that's included. Okay. This would, this would cover their salary while they're in training. It covers benefits. Um, there's a few miscellaneous things that it doesn't cover, fairly small things that we, that we would cover through other sources of revenue. Uh, so we think we can cover all of those, uh, without additional general fund dollars for those first three years. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Joe. Council Member Lane. Yeah, uh, Mr. Bennett? Yeah. Yeah, I just, I wanted to ask a question. Um, my concern about taking the, you know, the COPS program is the pension fund, and as you know, the, um, police and firefighters union have not agreed to support the revised plan for new employees, and if we put all these new police officers into the existing fund, this is going to exacerbate our already serious problem we have in the police and firefighters fund. So I would have a tendency to be opposed to adding these people on a temporary basis because of that. But on the other hand, you know, if we could get some type of a modification to the police and firefighter pension fund, then I think we could go forward with that. Sure. Understood. So that's my big reservation. And we would, uh, put these people in the pension fund, it would be nice, so they would- Yes. ... end up being a long-term liability. Valid point. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Bennett or Mr. Kelly? All right. Well, thank you all very much. That concludes my report. We have two people who've indicated a desire to address the council on issues not on the agenda. First is, uh, Mr. Carey. So Mr. Carey, you'll have three minutes. Uh, thank you again. Uh, I've got some handouts I'd like to pass out to you all, if I could. Uh, thank you. As way of background, and I really appreciate the chance to speak. Uh, I'll be brief. Uh, thank you, Councilperson Lawless, for your comments. I think they were appropriate and well said. Um, in this environment of financial accountability at local, state, and national levels, the Lexington Public Library commends the efforts of the Lexington Herald Leader to help our citizens stay informed about the fiscal responsibility of institutions funded in part or wholly by their taxes. The Lexington Public Library Board of Trustees takes our fiduciary responsibilities with the utmost seriousness. ... and we work diligently to ensure tax dollars are spent in a way that benefits the entire community, both tod- today and into the future. We are committed to making sure that the library thrives and grows, and is just as vital a part as... of our children's and grandchildren's lives as it is our own. We make decisions based on our knowledge of the community, and our combined experience and expertise in our chosen fields. We acknowledge that both... both that not everyone will agree with those decisions. However, we can always improve. I wanna make it clear to everyone that we have in the past, and continue to endeavor to conduct all of our dealings in a fiscally responsible and open manner. Officials within our organization, as well as our board, and I as its chair, are willing to meet with anyone interested in examining the manner in which we conduct our primary business, which is providing free access to information, to learning, and to services and activities that enhance the quality of life in our community. To that end, our entire public library organization has in the past, and pledges to continue to fully cooperate with any and all audits or analysis of our financial records, and to become a model of transparency for any public agency. Like any responsible organization, the Lex- Lexington Public Library changes and updates its policies and procedures to meet the changing needs of our growing organization and our expanding community. If other changes in our procedures need to be made, we will make them. Financially, the Lexington Public Library System is on sound footing. We are stewards of both the public's tax dollars and the public's trust. We have numerous and mandatory safeguards in place for expenses system-wide. Recent newspaper articles question the expenses attributed to our executive director, Kathleen Imhoff, over the past five and a half years. We'd like it to be known that our executive director's career spans more than 35 years within the art and science of libraries. She's internationally known and respected for her depth of knowledge and her innovation. We have 61 librarians on staff throughout our six Fayette County locations. Each librarian, including Ms. Imhoff, must pass rigorous recertification testing and compliance every five years. Conference and workshop attendance are a primary means of achieving this certification. Mr. Carey, your time has expired. Um... May I pass this out, the remaining part? Certainly may. Well, if there are any questions- Uh, Mayor? Yes? I'd like to make a motion we give an additional three minutes to Mr. Carey, since this is an urgent issue in front of the press. Have a motion, second, to extend Mr. Carey's time by three minutes. Thank you. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you. To that end, our entire Lexington Public Library organization... Excuse me, page back . Um, because libraries worldwide have the same mission, to share in knowledge and foster the love of reading within their respective communities, our executive director's often asked to be a mentor and speaker to libraries and librarians worldwide. By undertaking these commitments, she presents our system and its unique programs to other libraries across America and beyond. In exchange, she brind- brings back to us ideas, procedures, and programs which are successfully in place elsewhere, a huge bonus for our system and for our city. Great cities are built on great libraries, and many of them have great universities as well. We share the un- University of Kentucky's quest to become a top 20 institution in America. Our libraries aspire to that same level of achievement because we believe the people of Fayette County deserve the best from the library. The questions raised by the Herald-Leader article are legitimate, and have been, and will continue to be answered with documented fact, not with cover-up or excuses. The city's own auditors are receiving full cooperation in their audit of our financial affairs, and we want to assur- to assure them, and you, the urban county government, of our due diligence in handling public funds. In closing, I'd like to thank you for your time, and reid- reiterate that just as the library's books are open, literally and figuratively, so too is our library board open to suggestions and questions from you about how we can be better stewards of both the public trust and funds, the public tax bo- dollars which enable us to serve this wonderful community we're all proud to call home. Uh, the information I passed out addresses more specifically some of the allegations that have been made, and I hope, uh, can generate questions and dialogue between the council and the public library. Thank you, Mr. Carey. It, it might be helpful if, um, at the end, you could hang around for a few moments in case any, um, member of the council has questions. Thank you. But I appreciate you coming. The other, um, individual I have who has signed up is Mr. Cobb. Mr. Cobb, if you'd, uh, step to the podium. You only have three minutes. First, giving honor to the most high. Thank you, mayor, for another opportunity to speak. I wanna thank Ed Ling, uh, personally for supporting me. Appreciate you. Uh, got a lot going on in Kentucky, the derby, center point. I think I mentioned earlier that I was the center point of Lexington. How ludicrous that may seem, God made me that. God gave me that position. He's not concerned about a building. He's concerned about the hearts of men. Just as we got a hole in the middle of our city, we got a hole in the middle of our civilization that's lying dormant, and just like we need to replace that hole in the center of our city, we gotta replace that hole in the city in the hearts of the young men and women in our city. We've been neglected. We just had that hole in the middle of the city for a little while, but the lyric been dormant for years. A lot of the policies, a lot of the programs that would help us have been lying dormant for years. ... so with the same eagerness, with the same boldness, we need to address all holes in the city. I'd rather not even see a building downtown than a big building where there's arrogancy. Where moral degeneracy is fading. We got to lift things up. Let's lift our character rather than a building. And if we do lift the building up, let's have a nice building for everybody to come in and love everybody. Thank you, Ma'am. Thank you, Mr. Cobb. Does anyone else wish to address the council? See none, so I'll entertain a motion that we adjourn. So moved. I had a question about library... Oh, cou- Council, Council Member Lawless, um, had a question she'd like to raise Mr. Carey, and... Uh, first of all, I wanna thank you for your volunteer work. I know that it can often be long and thankless, and especially given this situation. Um, I have a couple of questions for you, uh. Were you all aware of the gifts that were being given to employees and, ah, how was that justified, I guess? The, uh, gifts that have been referenced are typically given to employees who are retiring after 20, 25 and 30 years of service. We have an annual retirement party for them. They're typically under $50. Uh, there was a comment made about gifts being given to board members. I've never been given a gift. Uh, in fact, the only board members that I'm aware of that w- been giving gifts were retiring board members after service. Uh, I... Ah, ah, you know, one example that was reported in the paper, which may or may not, you know, uh, was a $500 limit on a baby gift for, um, her assistant. That was approved by the former chairman- Okay. ... uh, three years or two or three years ago, when our, uh, the executive assistant to the director came back off from maternity leave to fill in for another employee who, employee who was out. Uh, it, it's my understanding the director asked the previous chairman for an amount, and that's how that was given, and, and the gift was given at that time. So that policy would be changed now? Yes. Um, the other thing that, I, I got this in the form of an email, and it, and it gave me great pause. Um, are you aware that Ms. Imhoff, is that how you say it? Imhoff. Imhoff, uh, works for a library consulting firm out of Minneapolis. And, um, this person was really quite the sleuth. Um, one of her, uh, she had stated in The Herald-Leader that one of the things she found out when she went to Scandinavia was the electronic checkout service that's now employed. Um, one of Ms. Imhoff's, uh, clients is the Bellingham Washington Library, who also now has that same system. And, um, the system was, um, purchased by a company, TechLogic out of Minneapolis, which is right next, w- w- very close to, or I think it's in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the library consulting firm that she works for is in Minneapolis. And, uh, amongst their list of customers was the Lexington Public Library for their electronic checkout system, and the Bellingham Library that she is a consultant for. And I guess the question I have, and that there were also many libraries across the US that were using that electronic checkout system before 2006, uh, are you aware of and are there any limits placed on her activities and travel to these conferences proportioned out for her consulting fees versus her work for the library, and how is that reported? Is that reported to you all and how is that reported? Uh, y- There's several questions there, and I'll try to address them all. Right. It was a long email. Uh, regarding the, uh, travel to conferences, some of the travel that she does, the library is reimbursed for. She is, uh, uh, as far as I know, involved in at least five national and international, uh, library-oriented, uh, groups, uh, and when she speaks and is a, uh, presenter there, she does and we do receive reimbursement for her travel. The consultancy that she did, I have recently become aware of. I understand from her that it was something that was done early on, uh, when she's, uh, soon after she first, uh, was hired by the Lexington Public Library, uh, and that her, the sum total of her income from that is, uh, less than $7,000. Now, that's recent information to me. Uh, the Scandinavian trip, uh, I understand that that was where she actually met the suppliers of some of that equipment, and we were the first to order from those suppliers, that it was not supplied domestically at that time. Now, I'm not aware of her relationship specifically with Bellingham, Washington or with Minneapolis, but that's the report that she gave back to us. Yeah, that company actually is based out of St. Paul, Minne- ... Minnesota. I c-- I can't dispute that. Yeah. I'm only repeating the information that I know, or that I've been told. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just giving you information that I just got, so... Right. Um, as far as her travel in general, um, yes, uh, early on, uh, she -- she's, she's given a budget, a travel budget. She's been under it every year. Uh, however, uh, in light of changing economic circumstances for the past two years, the level of scrutiny, not only, uh, the public, but certainly by the board and, uh, uh, staff, uh, th-- uh, has, has increased. And, uh, we have asked Kathleen to pr- prepare justification reports and get any travel approved by me prior to, uh, going anywhere. Uh, and prior to that, uh, we had asked her to give reports any time when she returned as to what the benefits were to the Lexington Public Library, and she'll continue to do that. Okay. And again, I'm certainly not making any accusations toward you or the board members. I'm just curious if you all were aware of this, and the policies and I really appreciate your service. Thank you. Thank you very much. Does anybody else have any questions for Mr. Carey? Mr. Council Member Lane. Uh, w- have there been, you know, any what you call major irregularities, uh, in the operation of the library board? I, I mean, some of these issues that are, are maybe issues of judgment, whether we should have spent money for this or that, but have there been any things you would call criminal or illegal or improprieties like that that have been reported before? No, not that I've seen. Okay. Uh, one of the pieces of paper that I passed out there was regarding the audit. There's been quite a lot of misinformation out there about the audit in 2007. It was actually our director that brought it to the attention of the auditor at that time, that she had found an irregularity of the use of credit cards by one of our employee, employees. That employee is no longer with the library. Uh, we asked the auditors at that time to review our procedures, and the note that has been publicized w- did suggest that we could improve our procedures. That was in 2007. 2008, new auditors... And, and our old auditors were not fired. We'd had the same auditors for six years, and we felt like it was a ti- time for a change. And that's something, in fact, that the mayor has now asked all public agencies to do. We did this, uh, early in 2008. Uh, we had, we put out an RFB and we interviewed three different firms, and we happened to choose the same firm that the city uses. That 2008 audit did say that we had implemented the procedures as recommended in 2007, and there were no other irregularities found at that time. Thank you, Mayor. That's it. A- anything further? Let me also thank you for serving on the, the board as a volunteer, non-paid person, because, um, there are a lot of people in our community to do that. And, you know, it's sometimes very awkward when issues like this come up, and I don't want you to be too discouraged. Um, and hopefully everything will clear up and be fine. I appreciate your comment. And I'm here because I love libraries, and we have an outstanding library. And I hope that the result of this is a n- more open line of communication between the library and the council, because I've heard mention of Richard Florida, and I've heard mention of, uh, the creative class and attracting people, the streetscape stuff, all that today. This is something we have now in Lexington that we can be proud of, and they can attract people to th- our city. And it's vital, I think, that the right information, accurate information be put out there, because, uh, a national search for a director... And, and our current director came as a result of a national search, but should we ever have another one, we want that dir- potential director to be just as excited about coming to Lexington as our last one was. Council Member Wallace. Um, again, I wanna thank you very much for coming here. And, uh, if there's anything I can do to help, I would be more than happy to do so. Thank you very much. Anything further? Do I hear a motion? We adjourn. Council Member Stennet has moved, Council Member Blues has seconded. All in favor, please say aye. Oppose, no. Motion carries. We'll reconvene at 6:00.