City Council - Regular Meeting

Everyone will stand. We'll call this City Council meeting to order. At this time, we have a moment of silence. Thank you. We'll ask Councilman Greg Hampton to lead us in the pledge. Thank you and good evening and welcome to Georgetown City Council meeting as we conduct business for the city of Georgetown for the day's date of Monday, September the 14th, 2026. Once again, we're here to conduct business for the city of Georgetown. We ask that council remember that when you are speaking, you need to push your mic and hold it down. And audience, if you're going to come and speak, all you have to do is push the button down to talk. And when you finish talking, please turn it off. All right. That being said, Madam Clerk, will you call the roll?

Mrs. Wilkins-Brent?

Here.

Mr. Crisp? Here. Mrs. Hamrick? Present. Mr. Hampton?

Here.

Mr. Minke? Present. Mrs. Lesby-Mitchell? Here. Mrs. Tingle-Sames? Here. Mr. Stein? Here.

Thank you. At this time, item number three. the approval of the minutes from September 3rd, 2026 Special Senate Council Meeting. At this time, I will entertain a motion.

Motion. Second.

Motion made by Ms. Hambrick, second by Mr. Minke. Are there further questions and or comments? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay. LET THE RECORD REFLECT THAT THE MOTION PASS. ITEM NUMBER FOUR, RECEIVE OF THE CHECK REGISTER. COUNSEL, IF YOU RECEIVE THAT BY ELECTRONIC, PLEASE RAISE YOUR HAND. Let the record reflect that all have received it. Item number four is public comments. A reminder about public comments. When you come up, again, push the mic to start talking, and when you finish, push the mic to end. Madam Clerk will give you four minutes, time limit, which you may bring your concern to this council and address council on that issue. At three minute mark she will let you know that three minutes has a lapse and then one minute after that Once your four minutes is up. We ask that you please take your seat And be respectful so we others can finish with this first on the on the list will be mr Bill Abernathy on tax increase

Thank you Mr. Mayor and City Council. I'm back as I was half an hour ago to talk to you about taxes but a little more depth. My name is Bill Abernathy and I thank you for the opportunity to speak. Just want to take a few minutes of your time to talk about taxes since that is on the agenda. As I said earlier I know our public services and our schools need revenue. At the same time when our property taxes go up that's a burden especially to those of us who are on fixed income. We've tried to get our mortgages paid off, and yet we find the property taxes continue to climb, and that makes it very difficult. Every year the value of our homes theoretically increase, though we don't see any gain until or unless we sell. Those theoretical increases come then with rising property taxes. Closely related to that is the fact that Kentucky and Georgetown also tax homeowners insurance at above 9%. Thus our homes are appraised at a higher level, and it goes higher and higher. So not only do our property taxes go up, but so does our homeowners insurance. My fear is that with these rising costs, along with the expenses that we're all facing that are increasing, it will make it difficult for some seniors to stay in their homes. And so I urge you to consider some form of tax relief for all citizens, especially for those of us who are seniors. On a side note, I've lived in several states. I have never lived in a state where homeowner's insurance and auto insurance were taxed. It was kind of a shock to us when we moved here. If you combine Kentucky's tax with Georgetown's, it's about an 11% tax rate on those insurances. What I've discovered is most Kentucky residents don't even realize that's happening. It's kind of a hidden tax. But if you look closely at your bills from your insurance company, it's there. I've talked to both Senator Matt Nunn and Representative Grossel about this tax issue, and so now I appeal to you to consider a tax relief for all of us. Property taxes, sales taxes, insurance taxes, income taxes, real property taxes, vehicle taxes, watercraft taxes, where does it end? Ronald Reagan once said, government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases. If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. I encourage you to depart from that path. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernathy. Next, Dan Holman.

Thank you. Thank you.

So what are some of the guiding legislations of GMWSS? So on the city website, if you go there to boards and commissions, it says GMWSS operates under the provisions of KRS state statute 96.320. But that's what the city's website says. But at their last meeting, they analyzed this, and they determined through kind of a lengthy analysis, they went and talked to some lawyers at the KLC, and they determined, in fact, that does not apply to GMWSS. It's an option if we want it to, as there's many other options of ways it could be incorporated and structured, but that does not apply. Okay, so then that does raise a kind of a glaring question. If that does not apply, then how do commissioners that are sitting on GMWSS board live outside of the city limits? because that statute allows them to live outside the city limits, up to two of them. But if you look purely at our local statute, it very clearly says they cannot live outside the city limits.

That's three minutes.

Thank you. So there are currently, so then now if suddenly this thing we thought applied doesn't apply, this residency question becomes sort of an important issue to answer, to clarify. And I think this had come up before in the early 2000s apparently. So one of the commissioners on there again named Jeff Klocki from Toyota was on the board in the early 2000s and people recollect that this issue came up then and he stepped down. And he did actually step down from the board then. And then I think later they thought that this KRS applied so they put him back on, but it turns out it doesn't apply. And Jason Baird, also the chairperson. So I would just recommend you all address this fairly serious legal question that GMWSS sort of invoked at their last meeting and get it answered. And in the meantime, these two commissioners should probably just recuse themselves from being on the board, like temporarily step down. So I think you all should hopefully bring this up and give them some guidance about what you'd like to see at their board meeting tomorrow. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Next on the agenda is going to be the events application, the fire prevention parade. Chief Willett.

Good evening, Mayor, council members. I'm here to ask for a request for an event application for the Georgetown Fire Prevention Parade October 15th at 6.30 p.m. I've already gotten approval from the state to shut the road down. It'll be from Main and Military down to Main and Broadway around the corner to Broadway and College.

Okay, since y'all jumped the gun here, let me try this again, all right? So at this time, I'll entertain a motion. Motion made by Ms. Hamrick, second by Ms. Mitchell. All right. Is there a further question or comments? All those in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, say nay. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We look forward to seeing you guys there. Thank you.

All right, item number seven is mayor comments. I've got a few I want to bring to your attention. The first one here is a proclamation for Mr. Cecil Lewis. And Madam Clerk has the proclamation. And at this time, if you will read that proclamation. Thank you.

Whereas the city of Georgetown is honored to recognize the life and legacy of Cecil M. Lewis, who passed away on August 18th, 2026 at the age of 88. And whereas Mr. Lewis was a lifelong Scott County resident, respected businessman, devoted man of faith, and dedicated public servant whose life embodied hard work, integrity, and service to others. And whereas a member of the first graduating class of Scott County High School, Mr. Lewis began his career on Georgetown's Main Street and in 1961 purchased Western Auto, renamed True Value Hardware in 1979, which served generations of residents and the farming community following his retail career. Mr. Lewis launched Lewis's Locksmith in 1991, providing dependable assistance to countless residents throughout Georgetown and Scott County for more than three decades. And whereas beyond his business achievements, Mr. Lewis devoted decades of service to his community through leadership and volunteer roles with disaster emergency services, Scott Countians Against Drugs, the Housing Authority, Ambulance Service Board, Georgetown Rotary Club, Downtown Merchants Association, Chamber of Commerce Committees, First National Bank Board of Directors, and the Georgetown City Council. He also played a significant role in community development and civic improvement efforts throughout Scott County. Whereas Mr. Lewis will be remembered as a man whose life was defined by entrepreneurship, faith, public service, and an unwavering commitment to the people and community of Georgetown and Scott County. Now, therefore I Bernie Jenkins, mayor of Georgetown, Kentucky do hereby honor the memory and legacy of Cecil Lewis for his service and leadership to our community. and dedication to the city of Georgetown.

Next on the agenda is the Joint Proclamation Manufacturers Month of October 26th. And Madam Clerk, if you read the proclamation.

Whereas manufacturing is a dynamic and robust industry crucial to the health and strength of Georgetown-Scott County, Kentucky's diverse economy, and whereas manufacturing-related workers generated over $1.3 billion in gross wages from Georgetown-Scott County jobs in 2026, the largest total payroll among private sector industries. And whereas Georgetown and Scott County manufacturing and related employees account for over 58% of all employment in Scott County, and whereas manufacturers in Georgetown and Scott County pay an average weekly wage of $1,799, and whereas the georgetown and scott county manufacturing sectors continue to diversify and expand which significantly contributes to the broadening of the economy and offering unlimited potential for growth and whereas georgetown scott county's high standard of living and economic vitality are due to this strong manufacturing foundation now therefore let it be known that we bernie jenkins mayor of the city of georgetown and joe pat covington scott county judge executive do hereby recognize October 2026 at Georgetown Scott County Manufacturing Month.

Thank you all so much. This is not the first year we've done this. We've been doing this for two or three years. And as you all know, if it's not maps, it's stats. But I'm going to repeat those. But what I wanted to do is this is really kind of different for Jack. I presented to the fiscal court and they approved this also. But sometimes it's just not about the statistics. It's a little bit more than that, so. Just some notes that I made, and I'll do it very, very quickly. What do we actually mean by manufacturing month? For most of us, it's just about factories. However, it's more than a celebration of those. It's a way, all right, I'll do it without this. It is a chance to recognize the people, the businesses, and opportunities that make our communities stronger. Good jobs, flooding, Career, I love it. Now we can see. Good jobs providing careers with competitive wages and opportunities to advance. Economic strength, manufacturing creates jobs, purchases from local businesses, pay taxes, and invest in our community. Innovative. Manufacturing is highly technical, automated, and is technology driven. Workforce development. Manufacturing gives students and young adults opportunities to build valuable skills without necessarily requiring a four-year degree. Community pride. Many of the products that we make and use every day by our public are made right here in Kentucky, right here in Georgetown and Scott County. So the statistics speak for themselves. What we're going to be doing for the month of October, we have a schedule of nine manufacturers that are involved this year as we did last year. 240 students, 240, 250 students from our high school. This time we've chosen juniors and seniors. We've also tried to do the pipeline into the middle schools, but we've now found that we think that's kind of our sweet spot. So we'll do Toyota in the morning. Toyota will give us a tour. They will provide lunch, and then we go back out to the other eight manufacturers in our community. This time we're also doing something kind of unique because a manufacturing facility sometimes has a stamping operation as a good example. There's noise, hard for the students sometimes to engage, talk with the people that are leading on the tours. So Scott County United and Scott County Industrial Forum has invested a significant amount of money for headphones and receivers. We'll have two sets, 15 can go, 15 another one. So that's something that we thought was also very, very innovative. Also did one other thing. I didn't make copies of this, but they're young adults. And young adults like t-shirts. So this is the front of the t-shirt. It says manufacturing date 2024. And on the back are the companies that are supported in this venture. So we thought that's good. I wanted to get an extra large, but they didn't order me one, so I guess we'll be without that. But anyway, we really appreciate the opportunity to be here and provide this to you. Fifty-eight percent of everybody, as I said, in this town is a manufacturing-related employer, so there is return on the investment for that. So thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr. Connor. Next is on the agenda, item C, introduction to the Georgetown Housing Authority Executive Director. Okay, she's going to come up. I think she came a little bit earlier and talked with us, so we're going to give her some time to talk a little bit more, maybe a little bit what she wants to do from going forward.

Thank you, Mayor Jenkins. Is this on? Hello. Hello. Like this? Okay. Good evening, Mayor Jenkins and city council members and audience in person and online. I'm a new executive director for Georgetown Housing Authority and I started on June 15th, just a few months ago. When I was thinking what I'm going to talk about as an introduction is Just know that I'm in a public housing business for close to 25 years. I've worked in two different states, and last one that I worked in was in Iowa as a CEO over there. So with that being said, when I got into this agency, certain goals have been set up for me to accomplish now in the first year and next, and I'm working on it right now. One of them is we need to do some internal reorganization, internal kind of changes, how service is being delivered. Second goal is to update our policies for public housing, for Section 8, personnel policy, procurement policy, to meet HUD requirements that they have put on us. There have been a lot of changes in the past 20 years and some. And so those are kind of my main goals. In between of those goals, we actually voted during our last board meeting I will be opening up a new joint organization that will be nonprofit for affordable housing development. It's very much so needed in this community. So while this organization will be independent but will also work with the clientele we serve and those that we have it on a wait list. Currently we have 400 people on a public housing and 300 something on Section 8. Section 8 right now we're not issuing any vouchers due to insufficient funds. I also want to remind the public that our funds comes directly from the Congress. In 2026, the funds for housing choice vouchers was awarded an amount of 89% for each housing agency, not just Georgetown. Public housing was 86. So whenever the funds get kind of shortened, that means less services to the people in need. And it does not help that the rents in this town are outrageous. They're outrageous in entire Scott County. For somebody who came from somewhere can speak on that. So I'm hoping that we're going to make some positive changes with our current board of commissioner and mayor also is on our board as well. So that's kind of in a nutshell what we do. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. You can also call the office. We can meet one on one. There's a lot to do. It's just I need to prioritize what it is we need to do. So HUD takes priority at this time.

Any questions? All right.

Thank you. I will come back again. Thank you for having me.

So just one. At some point in time, can you elaborate more on this new joint group that you're forming? I'd love to hear more about that and the roles and responsibilities and who makes up that and just more information about that.

Sure. I can bring it up. What I know so far is that anyone really can form nonprofit organization. You just have to apply for 5013C, right? So we already checked with our attorney and our auditor. We will be applying for that and now board commissioner, current board commissioners will need to sit down, come up with the name of our organization. We can also have our current board members serve both organizations at the same time because if we're gonna work in correlation, I think it needs to be some kind of a connection between those two. Um, right now with this agency, um, the rules are we cannot, uh, collect any donations. Um, it's just a grant that we can be, you know, provided. Um, and as a matter of fact, I forgot to mention this. Uh, what I find it fascinating with this housing authority is that, uh, the utilities such as electric gas water housing authority is responsible for managing and servicing those. So what does that mean? You have a capital improvement budget in amount of $1,300,000 a year. And then you have 300 houses that need to update versus replacing the electrical pole, transformers, underground wires. So what happens if something goes out, we have to reach out to private contractor. So that costs money. which we don't get the extra money. So again, going back to congressional award of those funding. So my goal also, I actually started working on it. We're gonna be applying for certain grant as this agency to HUD to see can they help with something. They did some revision of the services and apparently is gonna need a millions to switch to it. to upgrade. The problem why I want to do upgrade is if the current stock we have needs to be updated and I need investors for affordable housing, that will add more to return money back, which we have no cash flow then. So I'm probably going to have to not also reaching to HUD. The plan also is to be reaching to city to see would CDBG grant help with some. Scott County as well. To the point I will also reach out to legislators because not just our agency, agencies across this state is in the same condition. We are not in the shape or form to take care of these utilities. You know, while taking care of that, this new company will allow me, nonprofit, to do fundraising so that will allow me to hire that developer who will then apply for the grants for low-income housing tax credits, other grants out there. So while they're developing, Georgetown Housing Authority can manage it. So it works together. We will serve the same population. Right now, if I was to go to get donations, I'm not allowed under the code this agency set up. Thank you. Anything else?

Thank you, Malia.

Thank you. I will come back again. Thank you. Please do.

All right. I got one more item to talk about. A couple of meetings ago, I think the 24th, Ms. Caitlin Adams came and talked to us about THE RENT, AND I THINK SHE REACHED OUT TO SOME OF YOU COUNCIL MEMBERS AND US. SO I HAD STAFF WORKED ON IT, AND WE DID SOME DIGGING AND SOME RESEARCHING ON THAT, AND WE FOUND OUT, AND TIM, PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I MISKEY ON THIS, OR EMILY, BUT FROM WHAT WE HAVE FOUND OUT THAT, YOU KNOW, THAT THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY SETS THIS UP, AND THEY WANTED UNIFORMITY THROUGHOUT THE STATE. SO THEY KIND OF KEPT IT IN THEIR PLAN EVERYWHERE, any change is going to be made to that particular statue of that they'll be the ones to do it so really it's not much we can do on the city council's part of it but there's something i want to bring to your attention hopefully that you will be on board with this is that i want to get a resolution and and we want to send it to our three state representatives and this resolution will be that for asking them to look into that and possibly look at some possible changes with that. So if I miss out on anything, Emily or Tim, please chime in.

I just want to clarify. So what Mayor is referring to, the City Council for Georgetown back in the 80s adopted what's called the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. And essentially under Chapter 383, cities have the option to adopt this act or not. And if you adopt this, um, you have to adopt it in its entirety. You're not allowed to adopt local ordinances or amend anything from that, um, that scheme related to the private, uh, lease relationship between landlords and tenants. So I'm going to clarify the city council back in the eighties did adopt that. And that has been the governing law in Georgetown since then. Does that make sense?

I have a question for you, if I could ask.

Yeah, go ahead. So if we adopted it, can we, like, get out of it now?

Yes, the city council, yes, you can pass another ordinance to repeal that and operate outside of that. There are other statutes that seem to also indicate, though, that the state does want uniform regulation when it comes to issues related to the landlord-tenant relationship, specifically related to rent. So there are things that indicate that essentially cities could be preempted on some of these issues related to the landlord-tenant relationship. Right now, we are preempted, I would say, because we have adopted that, but the council could do away with that, but just know there's still some restrictions or limitations that you could face.

Come on up.

So...

Tim Williams, interim CAO, just for the record. A couple years ago, the legislature actually strengthened this with another set of legislation, which basically kind of preempted cities from doing anything that would be outside of this Landlord-Tenant Act that they had already passed, even if they wanted to do their own and not follow the state statute. So we really are, as Emily said, sort of locked in in this situation and unable to go forward with something like this rent issue, the payment of the rent, because of what the legislature did. And I think that was 2024, is that correct? It's been very recent.

Mayor? So could we get that information so that we can better understand that? It just seems odd. that when we're talking about payment of rent, we're not changing the rent, we're not anything like that, it's just the activity, and it seems odd that the state would want to impose more fees on folks just for the flexibility of the landowner.

I don't think that's what the state's intending, essentially under the Euralta it's the terms and conditions of the lease or it's subject to the lease that the tenant and the landlord enter into. And so rent payment of rent, everything related to rent in that sense is governed by the terms and condition of the lease arguably. And that's the, That's kind of the point that that is up to the landlord and the tenant. The terms of the lease is dictated by state law under the Rolta. And that's a condition that's negotiated between those two parties. So definitely happy to share these statutes that appear to govern this area. Um, and we can, we can go from there. Um, I do think regardless though, um, Sending something to the state if this is a point that the council is interested in exploring There's definitely no harm in that regardless of what you do related to the rip control or sorry not we control but the The method of payment I guess There are other states that have passed state law that do require landlords to have at least one free method of payment It's just not in Kentucky and then at the federal level, um, there is some effort by the, um, I guess it'd be the federal trade commission or one of those commissions where they are looking at, um, establishing rules related to like these processing fees and these expenses that appear to be added in that, that transaction between the landlords and the tenants, but that's in process. So, um, any other questions? I will send information.

And I also, like I said, I want to, um, actually, um, We're trying to draft a resolution that we're going to send to council to look at. And so we want to send this to our state representatives to kind of, you know, as this is a concern, so hopefully they can be able to address this. So I will get that to you. So first of all, we'll get that information to you for that, and also I'll get you the resolution for this that we are gonna put together on the City Council behalf. So at this time, if someone wants to give a motion to allow me to do that.

I'll make the motion.

Okay, motion made by Mr. Hampton. Do I have a second? Second. Secondly, Mr. Chris, are there further questions or comments?

Just a comment. If we can get that information, I think it would be a great opportunity next week when we have the KLC annual conference to be able to have some conversation across the state on this and develop the necessary coalitions around this because I can't believe we're the only community that has this problem. and it's probably just not recognized yet because I think that's kind of where we found ourselves. So being able to then work with our colleagues and the Kentucky League of Cities to be able to make this a priority for them along with our local delegations.

We are a step ahead. I've talked to Tim and I, and we plan to do that now when we go up to the KLC this week to have a conversation with him on that. So he's aware of that, so we'll get to talk with him. But I still want to see if it's okay to go ahead and get this set up, you know, even though that information will be coming to you. Is there any other questions or comments? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Thank you. Next is the council committee reports. Fire is going to put theirs on the 28th of September. Next we have police, Councilman Minke.

Thank you, Mayor. The police committee met this morning due to the Labor Day holiday. We were postponed a week, so the overview of our meeting today, it was a special meeting, so it had limited number of topics. All of our members were present there. Our conversation centered around staffing and recruiting. So with the police department, we're currently at 77 of 80 positions. One of those positions that are open is a school resource officer that we're beginning to try and fill given that school's back in session. In the dispatch area, we're at 20 of 27. With seven vacancies, we have Four applicants currently in phase three will start their interview process will start tomorrow. And we still have three in training that are part of the 20. One of the items that we also talked about under staffing and recruiting is continuing our conversation around emergency responder mental health. We talked about the importance of mental health for responders, particularly with this month being Suicide Prevention Month and next month being Mental Health Month. So there are some things in the works to expand on the activities that we have here in this community for our emergency responders, and I won't steal any of that thunder. as it's still in the final steps there, but it is something that we're focusing on. The next item that we talked about was the facilities needs assessment. And so the initial review of that both for the police department as well as dispatch are complete and now beginning the next step of that activity where we would actually be expanding those entities. One of the other items that we had under facilities, there was a proposal by the Kentucky State Police to expand some of their radio capabilities with our cell towers here in this community. And there's a second proposal that is being looked at with the Bluegrass Regional Radio Network. Again, it's all about increasing the ability to communicate across the state as well as our community. And so they'll be continuing to work on that area. The next item that we talked about was the custodial services. One of the things that I reported in our last meeting or two, Basically, we lost the contract for cleaning, and so we're having to do that in our various groups now. And so there was a proposal trying to move to a private cleaning contract or hiring some temporary folks. So we did have a conversation about that and possibly some other avenues to be able to accomplish the goal of hiring. And so we talked about some options there that they're gonna look into so that we can move forward with that. The next category that we talked about was community engagement. Basically, the Citizens Police Academy is going to be starting their next session September 22nd. There are still a few slots available, so I would encourage anyone in the public, if you have not participated in that, that's a great program. Many of the folks up here on council have been through that program, and it is very worthwhile and eye-opening, so I would encourage you to do that. Um, also coming up, uh, this Thursday, the, uh, the next, uh, Georgetown police department community crime education series is going to happen, uh, this Thursday at 6 PM in the community room at the police department. It it's module eight of this training session, uh, crime scene science. So CSI for the public. So, uh, Would encourage folks to attend that. You don't have to register. Just show up. No cost. Just come and learn. The next item that we talked about was the various partnerships that are going on and the chief provided to us a large list of over 45 different partnerships that they have within the community to be able to work and so we're looking at those and I want to encourage folks to participate in that as well. The last item that we did talk about was the traffic and parking. It's something that I know we've all gotten a number of emails about or phone calls about, and so we've continued to have those conversations. First, around the Garth Elementary, there was a problem, and so that has been resolved, and some education and some... monitoring of that activity, so the safety there has been resolved. The other I know in the traffic committee, they're seeing a lot of concerns about parking tickets and things like that. So with our traffic enforcement officers that we have now, being able to look at the community or the neighborhoods where we have some restrictions in the roadways for emergency vehicles, particularly fire trucks and so on, they have been trying to educate folks on no parking on one side of the street and we've got signs and trying to help enforce that. And so unfortunately after the education piece, they have started writing some tickets. So we need to pay attention to that. So we need your help there to be able to look at that. And with that, I think that was it, Mayor.

Thank you. Next item on the agenda is item number nine, planning and zoning and zoning ordinance.

Is this the time when we can talk about some of, we can bring you all up and talk about some of the things that we would like to see you look at?

Yes, okay, so we got somebody here from planning, zoning, and zoning, planning.

Thank you. This past week, the cities of Versailles, Midway, and Woodford County passed a ban on data centers. That's something that we've been talking about in this meeting, something that we wondered about. Several council people just asked the question if we could pass an outright ban or if we and we had been advised that perhaps we needed to instead look at crafting something that would say what would make them be able to be passed and handle it that way. And so what I would like to ask is if – I don't know whether this would come from planning and zoning or whether it would come from our legal team. If we could look at what was passed in – Versailles, Midway, and Woodford County to see what that looks like. I'm interested in how they were able to find something that would pass muster and to see if perhaps we think that it does actually or if it will be challenged. I would love for us as a council to be able to look at what they passed around that.

Okay. Would you like me to respond?

You can.

At this point in time, what at least we're seeing from a national sphere is a lot of places are really taking on a regulate over a ban approach. From what our advice, from what we've talked with Cam Culbertson with the county attorney offices, that is a little bit. believed to be a stronger method to managing these types of things. We've done it previously with adult-oriented uses. We've done it sometimes with solar. And so the way that the language of the ordinance is kind of written at this point in time is a more regulate over an outright ban type of approach, and then just be very specific and very intentional about what that language looks like. So having very specific noise standards, having very specific setback standards, lot size standards, percent of prime farmland standards, all these kind of things kind of craft this ordinance, which we believe is a stronger approach potentially than a ban. Um, I have talked with the director of planning and zoning in Woodford County about things. He sent me a couple of things and I can provide that to your attorney, uh, for your guys's knowledge and everything like that. So you guys can be aware of like how they kind of approached it. Um, it's their ordinance is written just a little bit differently than ours is. And they're a little bit more, They take a different approach. It's a different community. They kind of do things, obviously, differently. So I can send that over to your guys' attorney, and we can see what that looks like. But as it stands right now, at least what we've been directed to do from fiscal court is to regulate over a ban approach. So if that's your guys' will to go in the contrary, we can always research things accordingly.

I would just like for us to be able to see and make a determination. We don't have to agree with the fiscal court. We can look into our own. And so that's what I would like to see, what it looks like.

Yeah. I think that we need to see a very organized pros and cons of ban versus regulatory because in my mind i don't want any data centers at all and so how we can make the regulations strong enough so that we would not have any of that happen if some places are able to actually ban it with with legal muster to me why not so and i agree with tammy i don't think we need to copy fiscal courts i think Georgetown proper can come up with their own planning and zoning regulation that may be different from the county.

And also at least nothing that the, the issue that I see is just like with the variances and the setbacks, you know, got a neighborhood and you know, uh, there was a large department store that's potentially coming in here and they came in, The board said, oh, yeah, we'll give you the variance, no problem. Even though it was set down to go, no, you can't, you know, that's where I have a problem. If they're going against something that is down, you know, in black and white, and they're going against it, that's a problem. That's why I would choose the band over the regulate because, you know, the regulate leaves a little – too much gray area sometimes.

Mr. Hampton?

I agree, but excuse me. I think whatever we do, it has to be defendable, whether it's a ban or through regulation, because if we do have a data center that wants to come in here, we need to be able to stand our ground, and that's first and foremost. So I think that's the most important thing to keep in mind here.

Mayor? Okay.

All right, Elise, are you seeing other communities across the country or even regionally making data centers a different zoning classification altogether? While you're thinking about that, are they currently I-2?

The current, um, language for our draft ordinance is that you would go, you have to be in the I two zoning district, which is in the city limits, really just Toyota. And I think one other site, and I always forget which the other side is. Um, and then, so you'd have to do rezone process, which is a public hearing. It would ultimately come before you guys, if it's not in city limits, which it is potentially unlikely to be, uh, you'd be looking at an annexation hearing as well. Um, from that point, if it makes it through the zoning map amendment and your guys' kind of forum, you'll be looking at a development plan process as well as a conditional use permit for that district. So it's treated with a lot of caution, with a lot of public engagement throughout that process. You're looking at two different boards from our office always coming back to you guys to say essentially, here's what the board did, here's the record, what are you guys gonna kind of proceed with accordingly? It's a very engaged process, a lot of public comment, a lot of public involvement and that type of thing. In terms of data center specific ordinances, I'm not seeing that very often. That can err on the side of potentially a spot zoning circumstance where you put this only in a zone that is brand new that you never see anywhere else and then it has really specific standards and that can become a little bit challenging in and of itself. Instead, what we had thought it was just to use an existing zoning district that is already pretty managed and very limited in application, but it's a pre-existing system that it can kind of sit within and kind of exist within our existing ordinance and processes. So I can look into something like that. I'll make a note. But I believe it would be unlikely that you would find it. But I'm happy to look into it.

Okay, thanks. That was just an idea I thought of to help create additional hurdles if we were regulating them. some more hoops for them to jump through to kind of keep them out of here, but we'll see. Thank you for looking into that.

All right. Go ahead. So the one issue that I have with this is definitions.

And I think that's part of the problem.

When we say data centers, everybody automatically jumps to these mega sites and those kinds of things. And if you're following any of the activity, there are very small... dedicated data centers that are small, that are built into existing manufacturing or other systems that take care of Amazon and those kinds of things. There are different types, so we need to be looking at what are the real requirements, what are the demands, what are the outcomes, all of those on each of those different types of plans. Obviously, if you've got something the size of Toyota, that's gonna be pretty easy to say, well, do you want that or not? Well, maybe not. But if you've got this small area that these smaller data centers that are self-contained inside buildings that have the latest and greatest technology in energy generation and cooling technology and those kinds of things where you don't have a lot of the issues that you do with these large data centers, then maybe that's something worth evaluating to see whether or not they make sense in your community or not. It just depends. But I think we need those standards, we need those definitions so that we're all aware of what's coming in or potentially coming in. It's just like any other manufacturing operation. You're gonna go through and evaluate, is it the right fit for this community or not? Do you have the right infrastructure? Do you have all the right things to make it happen? And if not, then it's not a good fit and you don't do it. So I think it's important that we just don't ban everything unless we're really clear on what it is that we're banning.

And I would say to that, you're exactly right. And that's why I would like to see what Woodford County did because I have a feeling that they didn't say you can't have a data processing in the Corning factory or something like that. That's why I would like to see what that looks like and have advice when we see that.

Yeah, I can pull together their regulations and get everything to you guys so you can have that for your records.

I will say that if and when the time comes, the record and the findings of fact that you all as a council may need to put together in addition to whatever the planning commission comes up, that's going to be really important to your process. So you're going to definitely, whether or not you stick with what may come from the planning commission, that's really what's going to be at the heart of what you all do and what will be potentially upheld or overturned. BECAUSE YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO BASE IT ON REAL FACTS AND INFORMATION ON THE RECORD THAT ARE REFLECTIVE OF YOUR COMMUNITY, NOT JUST WE DON'T WANT THIS HERE.

ALL RIGHTY. ELISE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. ITEM NUMBER 10 IS SECOND READING OF THE 2026 PROPERTY TAX AND MOTOR VEHICLE ORDINANCE. MADAM CLERK, IF YOU WOULD READ THE ORDINANCE, PLEASE.

An ordinance providing for and making the real property, personal property, motor vehicle, and watercraft tax levy for city purposes for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2027 inclusive. Whereas the City Council for the City of Georgetown, Kentucky is required by KRS 92.280 to enact by ordinance each year a tax levy on all real property, personal property, motor vehicles, and watercraft. Now, therefore, be it ordained by the City Council for the City of Georgetown, Kentucky as follows. Section 1, that the following tax levy is hereby made for city purposes for the City of Georgetown, Kentucky for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2027 inclusive to it. For the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2027 inclusive, there is hereby made a tax levy of 6.3 cents on each $100 of assessed real property, 6.3 cents on each $100 of assessed personal property, and 16.8 cents Each $100 of assessed motor vehicles and watercraft which tax proceeds shall be designated to the general fund for the general operation of city government. Section 2. Section 3. that upon all taxes for real property and personal property levied herewith, which are unpaid on January 1, 2027, there shall begin to accrue, attach, and be added from this date a flat penalty of 15% onto the total amount of said taxes, then due and payable through January 31, 2027. after which the flat penalty shall be 20%. Additionally, tax bills not paid before March 1, 2027 shall have added to them interest at the rate of 1% per month or fraction of a month until said taxes are paid. The penalty and interest as provided herein shall be added to said unpaid taxes and collected by the city clerk treasurer. Should the real or personal property tax herein become delinquent, the city financial officer, the city clerk, and or the city attorney are authorized to file suit to collect all delinquent taxes plus court costs and expenses, including a reasonable attorney fee incurred by reason of the delinquency. Section four, if any section, subsection, sentence clause, or phrase of this ordinance is held unconstitutional or otherwise invalid, such infirmity shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance. Section 5, all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict with this ordinance are hereby repealed. Section 6, this ordinance shall take effect after its passage and publication according to law. Publicly introduced and read for the first time August 24, 2026. Publicly read the second time September 14, 2026.

At this time, counsel, I will entertain a motion.

Motion, mayor, because I want to have a discussion about this.

Motion made by Ms. Mitchell. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second made by Mr. Hampton. Are there further questions and comments? Yes.

I actually asked Stacy, I'm sorry that I wasn't at the last council meeting when this had the first reading because I would have brought it up then and a better time to start the discussion. But on this, I realize the tax increase is very small compared to, you know, But I propose or would like to see us either stay at last year's rate or take it down another step. The fiscal court did that. The school board just blasted everybody with a tax. And there are taxes. Honestly, I tell people all the time. You know, I'm an anti-tax person in the first place. I think property tax is unconstitutional, but that's another story. But I tell people all the time, the city tax is not that much when it comes to your property tax, nor is the county. It's the school board that's killing everybody in our community with the taxes. I still think this is an opportunity to lease because we do have money in the bank. And just like the gentleman said that came up here and spoke earlier, I didn't think about that correlation, but he talked about us having such a high insurance tax, which I brought in front of this council before to try to reduce that by a percentage, and the council rejected it. So I would like to see us vote against this tax increase tonight, but then, of course, put it back on the table for another rate to either keep it the same as last year or reduce it from what last year is. because it, granted, we want more money for the coffers, we do, but we gotta realize who we're taking the money away from, and we didn't give a tax break on the insurance, so maybe we could give a little tax break on the property tax, because it is hard, I mean, I know when you're 65, you get a discount, you get a homestead exemption, but you're still paying a substantial amount of taxes, and honestly, here, we sat in this room and had a big discussion, three different meetings or four, about affordable housing for people or workforce housing for people to try to make it as cheap as possible. And then your taxes that we ask from them eats us up. And then we turn around and we give it to that developer instead of giving it back to the taxpayers and letting them make choices. So that is my comment for tonight. We can go ahead and vote for it. We got a first and second, but I'd like to see it changed.

You know, one of the things that we need to look at And Mr. Abernathy was right. Prices are going up. Gasoline's knocking on $4 a gallon. Diesel, and those who own diesel trucks, are knocking on $6 a gallon. Now, prices of that's going up, and there's some places you look going up and down the interstate, diesel is almost knocking on $7 a gallon. That's what's bringing... the commodities, the food to the grocery stores and to department stores and stuff being delivered, all of that's coming back around. So this would be a perfect opportunity to us to show that we have a heart and give some relief back.

Mr. Hampton.

Thank you. I totally agree with Karen and Todd. And I'll add to Council's member stone's comments with the cost but look at the property valuations in georgetown they are constantly going up and this would be you know something nice that we could do to help people out inflation of being what it is i heard this morning that the fed is probably going to increase interest rates back again so you just i think anything we can do to help is just to step up for everyone

You know, Mayor, what you were talking about with the assessments going up, I mean, honestly, if we left it at even last year's, or even go back before last year, just another, with the assessments going up in town, all the new construction coming up, Stacey prides herself on having more at the end of the year than what she budgeted for, but on this particular time, We're going to have some, there's so much growth going on in Georgetown. It's going to level out if we deny this tonight.

Even if we take the compensating rate, that it would actually be a slight decrease.

Yeah. And so maybe we are in a unique position in this town right now with the money that we have, um, um, afford us. We need to do this. It's the right thing to do right now.

The, uh, Are we under any time constraint to be able to get this done and different tonight should be an option that's on the text.

I got that address. And have that ready.

Anticipating with this might be a guy.

About the timing. When is the timing?

Go ahead, Tim.

City clerk standpoint, so. because the sheriff doesn't collect and we do it ourself and we aren't in the same 45-day restriction in a period of time. And I think the mayor was going to suggest after a vote on the meeting early next week.

This is on the second reading that just occurred.

Mrs. Wilkins-Brent?

No.

Mr. Manky?

No.

Mrs. Lesby-Mitchell?

No.

Mrs. Tingle-Sames? No. Mr. Stone? No.

To make a motion to, go ahead.

I would have someone make a motion in a second to walk on a first reading of the property tax ordinance at the compensating rate.

So if someone, we need to have a second reading and for the first reading, excuse me, first reading for the new tax rate, which will be the compensation rate, will be 6.1, correct?

Yes. Do we need to vote on this motion?

Yes, we do. Motion is made and probably second. Are they all say nay? Now, are we ready?

Give us one second. We're just getting our papers.

OK, we'll give you I'll give you five.

tax levy for city purposes for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2027, inclusive. Whereas the City Council for the City of Georgetown, Kentucky is required by KRS 92.280 to enact by ordinance each year a tax levy on all real property, personal property, motor made for city purposes for the City of Georgetown, Kentucky for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2027, inclusive to what? For the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2027 inclusive, there is hereby made a tax levy of 6.1 cents on each $100 of assessed real property, 6.1 cents on each $100 of assessed personal property, and 16.8 cents on each $100 of assessed motor vehicle and watercraft, which tax proceeds shall be designated to the general fund for the general operation of city government. Section 2. Section 3. That upon all taxes for real property and personal property levied herewith, which are unpaid on January 1, 2027, there shall begin to accrue, attach, and be added from said date a flat penalty of 15% onto the total amount of said taxes not paid before March 1, 2027, shall have added to them interest at the rate of 1% per month or fraction of a month until said taxes are paid. The penalty and interest as provided herein shall be added to said unpaid taxes and collected by the city clerk authorized to file suit to collect all delinquent taxes plus court costs and expenses, including a reasonable attorney fee incurred by a reason for the delinquent, the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance. Section 5 all ordinances or parts of ordinances of conflict with this ordinance are hereby repealed Section 6 the ordinance shall take effect after its passage and I'll clarify since it's the compensating rate There will not be another hearing.

That's not something we have to have so Thank you boom what's name we're gonna have to have we want to have a special call meeting so looking at I want to ask councils to look at the Count as well. I've got you here. I'm looking at Monday Is everybody good with 5.30? I'm out of town.

Okay.

As long as we have a quorum. Okay, so you got, would 6 o'clock work better then? Mickey said you'd be out of town, that's correct. And so we're missing. So we still will have six here. We still got enough for a quorum. So we'll go and set that up. Madam Clerk, if you will go and get that information out, let the paper know. And also we need to put in the paper for this new conversation change so everybody in the public will know. All right. Thank you, counsel.

Thank you, Mayor, for having that back up ready to go.

I'm learning. I'm number 11 is these Okay now All right item number 11 to the city engineer municipal order sidewalk rehabilitation change order number one mr. Hightower Thank you there is this No

This is a change order to the construction project that we've had on Main Street with the bricks. And what it is is for two items. One is the Tourism Commission sold 251 new bricks with names on them. We charged each person $42 and change per brick. So that's a pass-through cost So there's no no additional cost for that part which came to 10,000 and that goes into the voids between the the gaps that are there and it's a specialized type of sand that the brick layer so that is for the cost of That sand that we would like to add to that to fill in those void spaces and Everything is completed on Main Street with the exception of punch list items. We have a small section on South Broadway over by Chaco Mania, that old building that's left to do. So we'll be off Main Street except for the finish work and the change order work. So I ask for you all to approve this change order number one.

At this time I'll entertain a motion.

Motion.

Motion made by Ms. Ms. Sames.

Second.

Second by Ms. Mitchell. Other for the questions and comments?

Yeah. Quick question, Mayor. So this sand, is this a new addition to it or just more sand of what was originally planned?

It's a change. It's a new addition. We didn't have it included in the specs to use this product down there. So it's something that was suggested to us to use. We looked into it. I thought it was a good idea, and so it's an add to the contract.

And it's throughout the entire length?

Everything, yeah. And if I'm clear on this, is that this?

That's exactly right. It's specially made for these brick pavers. Mr. Hampton?

Eddie, I noticed there was an adjustment of 45 days. That was 45 additional days?

Yes. We gave that to them because they had to – we didn't have – initially we weren't going to order new bricks with names on them, new memorial bricks. So they had to go and find them, get them made up, and that took some time. So we added those days onto their contract for that, that extra work that we asked them to do.

So that's the $6,217? No, that –

No, the 6217 is for the sand.

Process for labor.

Yeah, labor and materials, yes.

Just a comment.

We definitely had some periods that they could have been working and they were not there. And we're going to work on our contracts going forward in the future to make sure we have some teeth, some better... ways to address that. Thank you. Fair point.

Just to add on that, because the problem with that, though, is because it inhibits our businesses downtown when they don't have the parking available and things like that. It's all been blocked and no work's going on.

So again, we need to be properly, motion being properly made and second, and no more questions and no comments. Let the record reflect and it pass. Item number 12, this is the Parks and Rec Joint Resolution, Georgetown-Scott County Parks and Recreation Quality of Life and Related Improvements, Brooklyn Parks Playground, Great Crossings. To kind of tee it up a little bit is that, and I got Drew Beckett here who can also come up, but as you know, and we have, we had brought forth through the interlocal committee and also through council previously to add some quality of life projects here. These projects were included based on the recommendations of the interlocal group as well as council were to do the following. One, the cloverleaf baseball softball fields, and number two was do the pool, and the eight-lane lap pool plus also doing the diving well. That was it. And it was approved by council and also by fiscal court. But having a conversation with Mr. Beckett, and others there had some issues come up with Brookings Park. Brookings Park is one of the oldest parks in here now, but 20 something years old to be exact.

25. Okay.

Sorry about my math. 25 years old. And as you all know now, Brookings Park used to be one of the most widely used parks in our system. And there are some concerns and issues that had to be addressed. So coming back to both talking with me and also talking with Judge Covington, to see if we can get council to look and actually change the order so the order is now is that to and he can elaborate more about this to actually take the booking parks up first and do whatever updates and changes there. And then over the next three budget cycles, we will be doing the cloverleaf and the, Mr. Rebecca talked more about that and questions, and we can go from there.

Yep, thank you, Mayor. Again, the list, you've had the list for years. It's probably what I gave you when I first started, prioritized in just about that way. everything came from our master plan that we did with the parks department so nothing was pulled out of thin air you know the interlocal group kind of did a little rearranging of of the order i think originally to kind of do like like for like cost projects if that makes sense the city was going to do the pool and the county was going to do the cloverleaf of fields what we desperately need is a new playground at Brookings Park. I presented to them and I'll reiterate to you, you know, in the busy months, which we're still having, you have about 60,000 people a month at Brookings Park. So it's heavily used. I think a conservative estimate is probably 200,000 for the year are going through that park using the playground. And that's just what you can track. Not like we can track every child that goes and plays on the playground. So it's probably a conservative estimate with those numbers. We're at the point now it's 25 years old. The presentation I gave more in depth to the interlocal group for the amount of traffic that's at that playground. It's probably a 15 or 20 year playground at best. So at a minimum, we're probably five years past life with that. And we're at the point where we're starting to remove department, remove some items from the playground, and then we've tightened bolts down the best we can and move panels and all the things. So we're safe to operate, but in desperate need to move forward with the playground first. As far as the other items on there, I know the cloverleaf is still desperately needed again. We're totally out of field space for the county. We've discussed that at length as well. And then the pool, we have already had the initial kickoff meeting with Brandstetter Carroll. So that is already in progress, that design, that contract that you approved. So we've started that as your point for that.

interlocal committee as well as on the finance committee and all we had in the budget this year for the cloverleaf and the county had the design fee in their budget and we had the design fee for the swimming pool in our budget. We did not plan to do any work yet on either of those projects. They were down the road. And what we're asking to do, what seemed like the logical move, we debated and debated which order to do them in to begin with. And the playground is significantly smaller in cost than the other two projects. And it also is something that we're We're at a point where we really need to do something. So the urgency is there. And so that's what we talked about in our interlocal meeting is to just sort of slide this project in make room for it, and then we'll continue with the design portion of the next two projects. They didn't have a set date anyway. They were pushed into the next budget cycles, and so I think that this is important to do. Mayor, I'd be glad to make the motion.

Okay, Ms. Hammers made the motion. Do I have a second? Seconded by Mr. Chris.

and the lap pool third in the order. I believe the dates were 2027 for Brookings Park.

That's what we're talking about, the joint resolution.

Okay. So this came up. So the county on Friday... They have read a joint resolution to this effect. Mayor Jenkins wanted to have discussion on this issue with the council before bringing that joint resolution forward to you all. So if this is something that you want to consider, I have a copy of the joint resolution that I can read or we can circulate it. And if you want to move to place it on the agenda potentially at the next council meeting, and then we can take a vote then. Or we could add it on Monday. We can add it to that agenda as well.

Yeah, because my intent was just to have discussion on it, so then give you an opportunity to put it in your hands. If we can just put it in your hands, I think it would be better for you to have it in your hand. And that way, if you had questions and so on, relay those questions to us so we can have an answer for those and be able to talk about that. on Monday, okay? Okay. Does that work?

Yeah. Okay, so that... Ms. Hamrick does need to withdraw her motion.

Well, Ms. Hamrick, why don't you withdraw your motion?

I didn't realize we had the resolution.

Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't make that clear. That's on me. But now, so you need to withdraw your motion.

I did.

Okay, she withdrew her motion. Thank you. All right, so now the plan is that I will give the resolution to you all.

I think you have a couple more questions. Sorry.

Yeah, so Mayor, so Drew, for total clarity, because we've never said, at least tonight, what is the cost of the playground, total and then obviously 50-50 from there.

One and a half million is the cost.

And just from being on the interlocal committee, when it was presented to us, the overall costs were given to the interlocal committee. And I'm sure they've done nothing but go up. But when they were originally given to us over a year ago, it was the same price, the same cost, and the swimming pool was somewhere in the neighborhood of $6 million, and the cloverleaf was $6 million as well. It had only gone up. Another factor in thinking about this from the city's standpoint is that we have a capital project of the fire station coming up as well, and that's a big outlay of money at one time, and so to be able to do one of them that is less costly but more urgent, it makes good financial sense as well, in my opinion, in the opinion of, we talked about that somewhat on interlocal committee meeting.

Mayor, I have another comment, if I could. Go ahead. So with the cloverleaf and the lap pool, it seems to me like we are going to have a greater capacity to have other communities come here and participate, which, correct me if I'm wrong, could open up an opportunity for tourism dollars to help with these costs. Is that correct or incorrect?

I would say correct on both.

Excuse me. I think we should investigate that as we look at the cost of doing these. It could lower the cost significantly. I don't know that we even talked about that much at the interlocal meeting that Tammy and I are on, but I'd like for that to be part of the discussion. Absolutely.

And we'll make that happen. I will have a conversation with Lori and we'll see what information we can derive from that. So everybody's clear what we're doing here. So we're going to send you the resolution, the joint resolution, and you'll have it in your hands sometime this week, if not sooner. And then that will give you enough time for you to look at it and have any questions. If you have questions, just email me what those questions are. and I will make sure I get people on it to be able to answer it and then get back to you all.

I've got a question. I understand everything that everybody's saying, and I understand with Brooklyn Park being 25 years past it, but isn't the pool also 20 years past it? So how does the clover come before the pool?

Yeah, so the way I came to that was use and need. I don't know if I've explained to the full council, but definitely at the interlocal, kind of tried to rank them. The pools used three months of the year, best case. I even have numbers with me that this last year we have about 35,000 people that use the pool. way more than that use the playground, and way more than that are using these fields over nine or ten months' worth of time. Yeah, you could ask all the constituents that are involved with field sports that they'll all echo that we are totally out of space and desperately need those. I mean, we do have the pool, leisure pool, and the slides and all those things, and, yep, we always need to make improvements. But as far as need, that was kind of how I ranked them.

And I've talked with several that are associated with baseball teams, travel teams, that would love to have tournaments here, and there's just not enough fields, specifically at Suffoletta, to host larger tournaments. There's a lot of people that would love to come here, tourism dollars, spending dollars in our businesses and such. So, you know, I do get that.

Because they stay. Sandra, that...

When the original list, it was based on a survey that the parks did. And then also there were five or six items. And so the interlocal committee picked the top three. So all three are, we, on the interlocal, we have to have the county help. I mean, we have to do this together. And it, they're all three important. They really are. It's just you got to put them in order. And so.

Mayor, just one other thing. So just for absolute clarity, could we put together a matrix or a schedule, something that breaks down each one of these projects, the year and the amount of money that it's gonna cost for each phase of each of these projects so that we have that as clarity for all of us as well as for the general public?

Something like this.

You haven't done that, but I'd like to take what Kim says and actually go a step further and take that plus the fire station, plus the police station, plus all of that. And I think I've mentioned that before too. So we can kind of see just a chart that we can kind of say, okay, this is coming, this is coming, this is coming, this is coming so that we can keep in mind what years are following all the, you know, from design to the next step to the next step where it's coming. So, yeah.

One point I'll make real quick, Kim, for your... The playground, the amount's the amount. I know that one. The pool and the cloverleaf haven't been designed. I mean, they've roughly designed, so it's just a guess at this point. So even to give you those amounts right now would not be truthful.

But you're putting on that, because I understand what you're saying by the time we get to it, it's probably going to be more. But if we even put on their... the approximate cost in 2026 would have been. So then we're thinking to ourselves, okay, we're going to be more than $6 million for that, and it's going to be more than $6 million when we get around to that year.

And I would say that's more a function of our, like maybe our finance committee, not necessarily the parks.

I think it is, too. You just need the information from them, from the police department, from all that.

Yeah, we can get that to you on that. We'll work on getting that done. And I think that's something that we can do. So, you know, with all our capital projects that we're working on. Okay, I think you knew that. Emily, you got something you want to say?

Yeah, I was just going to clarify, just so focusing just on what is in the joint resolution, the timing that it would be looking at would be, so the Brookings Park playground, what's proposed and what the county has approved would be to undertake that during the third quarter of fiscal year 27 and complete during fiscal year 28 for the clover leaf fields. And those improvements undertake during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 27 to be completed during fiscal year 28. And then the Cephaleta, the lap pole addition to be undertaken during fiscal year 29.

All right. Okay, next will be item number 13, council discussion, old business.

A matter of old business, Mayor, if I may. Okay. Piggerbacking on what Todd was saying about variances, we have wanted to have one of the changes that we look at be a discussion holistically and specifically on how to better control this variance issue. And so this is the second or third time I've I'd like to fast track that, especially in light of this data center stuff. I mean it is never a good thing when we think we're getting one product and then suddenly a variance is thrown in there and something else is actually made and produced and built. And so if it needs to be changed to put more order with that by changing the variance ordinance, then I'd like to see that fast tracked a bit.

Sorry, respectfully, if that's something that the council would like to see fast-tracked, I would recommend you all make a motion and have that be a directive as a council that can be delivered to either the planning commission or staff through the mayor's office.

Okay.

Well, I'd like to make that in the form of a motion.

All right. Motion is made that you want to address the variance issues to planning and zoning. Okay. Seconded by Ms. Sames. Are there any questions and or comments?

So to clarify, the council is wanting to ask the planning commission to research and come in with recommendations on how to improve the variance language that's currently in our regulations. Is that accurate?

Okay. Tighten it up and clarify. Yes, to make sure that there can be guarantees on. Tighten it up. Yes. Yeah, get rid of the gray area.

Okay. you would like for them to assess the current language as written, our current text, and propose recommendations that could maybe improve. Okay, just wanna be, just being clear with the language. We want an assessment of what it currently says and options to potentially improve the language to address some of the concerns that you all have raised.

Yes, yes that probably if Willow's in agreement that probably sounds a little bit better, but honestly I put that language to Maybe it's not the best language, but to tighten it so they cannot be adjusted as quick as easier Yeah to see if they can be tightened legally I Think the question is sorry

I don't know what tightened means. So I'm sorry.

So you can't go in there and say A and you end up getting C. That's what we all feel like we've been doing.

To more fairly regulate.

Or just show us, or just show us, just let us see what the language is in recommendations because they've heard what we've said and not, and you don't have to say what they have to come up with.

Mayor, if I may. Okay, so hold on just a minute. So I think what everybody wants is they want the regulations to be kind of tightened up, but I think what it is, first of all, is that we can have them go look and define what are the regulations showing right now. about that. Then the next thing we need to do is after you look at those regulations and so on, we can look at, this could be a working document. It's not, and then we can look and say, okay, here's where we need to see some improvements made. Okay, that's what needs to happen, okay?

So we will have, and you want to change your, to where, get them to investigate. Could I still have a comment in this? Well, yeah, you can have comment. So I think it's important for us first to understand what does the reg and the latitude actually have? That needs to be defined first. The second thing then perhaps is what we need to do is then do an audit against that from past projects where there have been changes and what were those changes, what latitude was granted, and does that comply? Then we can look at if there's any change that needs to be made to be able to adjust, to be able to then have the true intent of the pleasure of this body.

Okay, but still we need to go back and put the, so that we can get the language right here on this particular motion.

Let's put the motion somewhat this way and you can clean up the language. I'd like to make a motion that we look at the current variances ordinances. If there's more than one, I don't know if there's just one, but we look at the current ordinance that deals with variances. And then we look at the history of how the variances have been changed. have changed the initial intent and do some kind of an audit like Kim has stated. We investigate that and then based on what we have investigated, make any changes or tightening or adjustments so that the original intent is as close as possible to what we thought that we had already given consent to.

Okay, thank you. I think that's better and offers some more clear direction, so thank you.

Okay, so the motion has been made. Second still stands. Okay, and then are there further questions and or comments?

Comment. I would basically like the data center to just say, no variance, no data center, cut to the chase, but I know we can't do that, so all right.

All right, moving right along. Is there any other questions and no comments? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Let the record reflect that it passed. Item number 13B, this was brought in.

I still had one under old business.

Okay.

So in our last council meeting when we talked about affordable, one of the things when I made my motion and withdrew that we would at some point soon begin the conversation about the various policy discussions around potential inducements and the who, what, where, when, why around those and the communication and transparency of these types of projects.

We have already started working on that. And I will get that back to you when my staff and I have been working on that. And we hope to have something to bring with you all sometime soon to

I think the intention is to call for a work session. So the council, what staff has put together and evaluated just based on the conversation today, we can present that as just an initial baseline to start the conversation. And then at the work session, we can have a fuller conversation and go from there. And it could be multiple conversations. It could be, I imagine it won't just be one and done, but that is the intention is to call a dedicated opportunity to talk about it.

And we're going to slow walk this. We're going to make sure this process works, and we're going to try to cover every avenue of it. Tim and I have been working on that along with other staff. So, Tim, come on up if you've got anything else to add. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

ANY OTHER ITEM ON OLD BUSINESS? THANK YOU, TIM. THANK YOU, EMILY. NEXT IS ITEM 13B, AND THIS IS THE NEW BUSINESS, AND THIS WAS ASKED TO BE PUT ON THE AGENDA BY COUNCILWOMAN Mitchell, so I'll let her lead this discussion. She wants to start with this, and it's on a topic that nobody's talking about. That's flock cameras.

Well, what I would just like to do is I would like to ask, we had a presentation a couple of months back, and it was a really nice presentation, and I, for one, thought that everything that was presented, I was very pleased with the way that our police force was using the flock cameras and didn't have any concerns whatsoever. Still don't have any concerns about how our police force honestly is using the flock cameras. But since that meeting, I know it's in the news and almost every city around our city has had a public meeting and some of the cities have decided that it's not worth it to use them cost wise or Some findings have been brought down by the Supreme Court that sort of question the constitutionality of how flock is using the data, not necessarily how the police department is using the data. And so what I would like... It's happening too often, and there... what I would like to see is, um, I would like for us to have sometime within maybe in the next 30 days, we could have a community, um, question and answer, uh, you know, a chance for people to voice their opinion on it. Um, we, we, many of us have heard from people, um, asking us where we stand on it. And, um, you know, I need some more clarification myself. Um, I would like to ask if it's appropriate that our legal team look at what has been passed down through the Supreme Court and some of the other cities that have found reasons to do away with them. I would like for us as a council to take another look at that. And that's why I ask that it be put on the agenda tonight.

So are you asking council to actually, um, council is asking staff to actually take about 30 days to look into get information and also, also from the staff perspective, uh, some of the language about the flock cameras, their uses and all that, plus then also somehow during that timeframe schedule a actual public forum so they can come and do a, is that what you're asking?

Yes, that's what I'm asking. If that's appropriate, that's what I would like to do.

Okay, you want to make that in the form of a motion?

Yes, I would like to make a motion that we over the next 30 days that we have schedule a public forum to discuss this topic and I would like to ask the administration, the staff, to gather, to look around at the cities that are surrounding us, at the reasons that they are giving for giving up the flock cameras, and to review the constitutionality if there have been cases that have been cited, to look at those and give an opinion on whether they're legal or not.

Mr. Stone, and then I'll come back to you. Mr. Stone? In motion. Okay.

Yeah. Sorry. Second. Sorry. Before you, can you clarify your motion? You're directing that request to Mayor Jenkins, not staff? Yes.

Okay.

Yes. Thank you. Me? Yes.

Do that and I will assign staff. Probably second. Second. Nobody second yet? I'm going to hit it myself. Somebody second?

Second.

Thank you, ma'am. Second by Ms. Sames. Now, are there questions that will comment? Mr. Stone.

Thank you, sir. I would like either Chief Allgood or Captain Lodal to come forward because not that I worked with a lot of these guys over here, trained this one, kind of helped train the other one back in the back.

So you're saying you're old?

I have no problem saying that. Not saying that our guys are doing anything illegal. There are some cases across the country where some officers have used these for nefarious issues. Currently, are we local, regional, statewide, or nationwide sharing information? All of the above. I have a problem with that. We should not be We should at best be.

I'll encourage everybody here to go on to our transparency portal, and we list everybody that shares their information with us and everybody that we share with. It's not every agency, federal, state, and local. It's a specific. It's ones that we have reciprocal agreements with, but all of that is outlined on our website.

How many?

I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it's a couple hundred overall, a couple hundred.

Okay, so that information is still going nationwide? Yes.

Which information?

Anything that we record on those flock cameras?

So there's two different types of agreements. So there's the nationwide agreement, which allows us to search everybody else that's opted in, license plate only. And then there's the search function that allows us to do a little bit more of an in-depth search that we have to have a reciprocal agreement with that specific agency.

And I just, the thing that, and I talked with the mayor from Cynthiana and he did state that they're terminating their agreement just for the simple fact of the cost didn't, cost outweighed the use. How many cases so far have we been successfully used?

I don't have, I mean, I shared a lot of the, or several of the bigger success stories. I'll have to actually sit down and do a deep dive to give you specifics. But I can at least say for us, maybe compared to some of the smaller communities around us where we do have both interstates that come through and our proximity to Lexington, we have seen a lot of success. I feel like we're probably dealing with, you mentioned Harrison County, Cynthiana, we're likely dealing with just some different issues than maybe they're dealing with. But we have seen quite a bit of success.

How many cameras do we have currently?

We have, currently we have, so at the end of the day, once all of them are online, we'll have 19. But right now I think we only have nine that are active today.

And I would say that this is the exact kind of conversation that I think that we would want to have at a public forum, you know, where we talk about how they're used and we all, the understanding that we got when we had this presentation before the council, It was really good information, and I hope you know that it's the sharing of the information and the privacy that I'm asking about. Sure. Okay.

So you all were asking, so I was pulling that up. It lists them out, but it doesn't actually total them for me. But I can have a total for you guys.

That's not a problem. And Nick, you know me. I'm all about you all having the best tools in the toolbox. So, you know, I just, I want to make sure that we're happy to answer any questions that you all have.

So, and, and mayor, if I could, um, when we're thinking about this for the discussion coming up, I think we need to figure out whether or not the businesses in town are, are using actual flock cameras or if they're just using, um, and whether or not you had the ability to tap in and get information from their cameras that are also shared in other precincts. I just wonder about the synergy of all of these cameras and where all the privacy issues come into play with it.

So I will say on our transparency portal, it also does list all of the private entities that share with us. Where it is, where we kind of talked about just the sensitivity of it, We aren't allowed, nor would we be sharing with any private entity, so that is a one-way sharing agreement, if you will, where they allow us to be able to get access to their system, but they do not have access to ours.

I think that needs to be brought forward again before this forum, because I think that's also where problems arise.

And I think, too, that from what I understand, the community at large sort of thinks that all of the flock cameras are the police cameras and when it's a very small portion of the number that are in our town.

Yeah, I've had some questions about some of them that flank some of the private entities or private businesses. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. We don't have access to those and we don't own those.

Nor could we legislate those.

Correct.

Mr. Crisp.

Mr. Mayor. Um, and thanks for answering the questions. You did such a great job a couple months ago too, uh, for the demonstration. Uh, like everybody up here, we, I think we all have a deep respect for the police department and we're all biased. You guys are amazing. You always do a great job. We know this has been an effective tool, uh, for you and yet as elected representatives, our job is to listen to the people and be their voice. And over the last several weeks, I know all of us have received a lot of feedback from the community. I've received quite a bit of it myself, not just online chatter, but also calls, texts, all that kind of stuff. It seems to be just overwhelmingly something that the citizens of Georgetown do not want. like it or hate it, no matter what's going on with the technology and the sharing, as elected representatives, I'm inclined to really think that the time of flock should be over in Georgetown, and it's not any sort of slight against the Georgetown Police Department. I feel that just nationally, the temperature of the program and ALPRs It's just really taken such a PR beating over the summer and even beyond there. There's bipartisan legislation, I think, going through Congress right now to essentially defund quite a bit of the program. Based on the conversations I've had, and I know you all have had several as well, I was amazed at how many different people from all walks of life that are citizens here are just anti-flock and they want the program gone immediately i had toyota workers people in the arts reach out to me former city council members uh current judiciary members locally that reached out and said get rid of it now and up until then i was a little bit kind of on the fence wanted to hear some information i think the program could have a lot of benefits but Unfortunately, I'm a strong no. I do want to see the program end. I'm fine with us having some sort of discussion about it, but just I wanted to thank you for your work with that, but I do want to see the program end.

Okay. All right, so like I said, this is on the discussion on it, so we have some information that we'll get out to you all. You will give me some information that is requested and get that to me, and then like anything else, we will collect this information and then also schedule an opportune time for us to have a public forum on this to get some more information and go from there.

I guess on that, are there some specific things? I know you kind of alluded to just who we share with, the numbers. Is there anything else that we can be pulling together to help you guys? Case law, just some other... Mayor?

Go ahead.

Or if that's something that you'll be giving to me.

Right, just give to me. Just tell them to me. Mr. Minkie.

So would it be possible to be able to identify all of the hits where there's actually a crime or an alert or whatever, whether we've seen them or not in this community?

I can tell you, yes. So I can tell you we've had 348 hot list hits on our cameras over the last 30 days. And all of this information is viewable in our transparency portal. But yes, there are some metrics that allow us to audit our own network versus those that, these would be ones that are just the cameras that we own. Right.

So I think it's important to Todd's point about Cynthiana, being able to identify what is that return on investment for the cameras that we do have here and you know, the number of cases and the number of successes and those kinds of things so that we, again, we have the full picture of what's going on and can weigh the pros and cons of this tool in the tool belt because I think, you know, the cameras are taking information from a vehicle on a public highway and that's public. So I think we need to balance some of this as we begin to walk through it.

And you've got to take into consideration, you've got Sintiana that's getting rid of them. You've got Lexington in serious discussions about getting rid of them. So, you know, it's not just small towns. It's big cities as well that are looking at, at getting rid of this program.

Like Todd said, some of the big cities are going after it too, which has surprised me. But I think probably a lot of that's feeling pressure now too because of what the Supreme Court has said, what is coming down out of Washington. So if we could get some of that, a little bit of that information too to kind of look and see what the national picture where they're going after the flock cameras. But yeah. Right now, they're very negative for the majority of the public.

Okay. I think we got that information down, and we now need to vote on that because we had a lot of discussion on it. We had a motion and a second, and then we had conversation. Now we need to vote on what was asked of me to go and get this information. That's what we're voting on, okay? and having a public forum. So that was what we were talking about. So if there's no other.

And will that information be shared in plenty of time so we can digest it before we have that meeting?

Yeah, we'll make sure we get that in plenty of time. All right, so any other questions and or comments? All those in favor of this motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Item number 14, council comments.

I have some other on new business. Since it's been brought up about the water company and the boards and the confusion on the boards, if you would take some time and maybe explain or have the water company do it at the next meeting to explain the understanding, what the legal understanding is, what's going on, what we're doing, what we have been doing, give us an explanation from the water company or from your staff.

All right, so I will make sure I get that. I will get with Chase and our team and others, and we'll address that. Need a formal motion for that?

When you say the next meeting, the special meeting or the next regular meeting?

Sorry, let's put it on the next regular meeting because I think that's when the water board presents. I mean, the water company presents things to us anyway, so.

I don't think we need a motion on that. I don't think. I think we just something that council wants me to look at and we get that doing and I will get with Chase and his staff and we'll work on that. Thank you. Now, item number 14. Council comments. Mr. Crisp.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. Festival of the Horse, Best of the Bluegrass, whatever they're calling it these days, it was still great. A lot of rain, but a really fun time. Brought my family down there, and it was so good seeing so many of you all there and so many folks out there enjoying it. So that was great. And also wanted to say props to Save-A-Lot for opening, and their store looks great if you haven't been there. Just absolutely phenomenal. It's so nice to have them back in the community to give us one more option to shop, especially downtown for groceries.

Ms. Sams. I went down to the chili cook-off, and it was great, great job, great turnout for that. I did discover a sidewalk situation, though I was down there on South Hamilton Street. There's bricks there right beside West Banco, and they're kind of a tripping hazard. So maybe that needs, and I'll try to remember to send you an email on it.

All right. Mr. Minkey.

I'll just give my thanks as well. Great weekend for the community and shown through with bright stars.

Ms. Hambrick.

Just a point of clarification. There is a public forum September 17th. Is it on the data centers? That's correct. Can we give the date and the place for that? Who is running that? Is it fiscal court?

No, I believe it's at Great Cross High School. And planning zone is doing it. And I think it starts at 6 o'clock. 6 to 8, I believe, is what it's going to. 6 to 8 at Great Crosses High School. Planning, zoning.

Is in charge of that? Yes, correct. I think that'll be a very important time for people to express their opinions. And I encourage people to go out to that. And I think we've had a lot of really good discussion tonight. And I appreciate it.

Ms. Brent.

I don't have anything, but I do want to say the Festival of the Horse was wonderful. I'm always happy to see it, but I'm always happy to see it go because my grandkids and I have really enjoyed all the rides. Completely. Thank you.

Which means you spent a little bit of money, so that's what it is. Mr. Hampton?

Yes, just to concur what everyone else has said about the Chili Cook-Off and Festival of the Horse or Professor Bluegrass. Great time. It was a good turnout. And for tonight, I think it was a lot of great discussion. So it was a very good meeting, I believe.

Ms. Mitchell.

Thank you for the great discussion tonight. That's a lot of important topics, and it was a good meeting.

Mr. Stone.

Thank you, Mayor. To answer one question that was brought up, the surcharge, the Kentucky State surcharge on insurance. What that goes to pay for is the training incentives for police and fire, state troopers, unless it's changed, state troopers don't get that. Just city police officers, deputy sheriffs, and firefighters get that. Mr. Holman brought up the fact of North Hamilton going to Champion Way and that it would go towards the...

I didn't get that. Could you try again?

I don't know. We'll try. North Hamilton Street, that it would go through that development. It does not. North Hamilton goes over the railroad tracks down the hill to Pete's Hole and across what used to be the Garris Mill Road. That was the Garris Mill Road, so That's where that would go. And then I found out from Drew that a tree at Boston Community Park was taken down that was in bad shape. So that was taken down today so that park is safe once again. So other than that, good to go.

All right. If there's no other business, Bob, for this council, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.