Labor and Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

And this is Made with PureTap, a special segment where we're highlighting some amazing local businesses using water to make their products. Here in Louisville, we're proud of our drinking water. It's so good, we even gave it a name, Louisville PureTap. PureTap has won national awards for quality and taste. But more than just drinking water, PureTap is an anchor for the community. Today, we're here at Black Coffee. Let's head inside and see how they're using Louisville PureTap to make their products.

Hi, my name is Ronielle Smith, and I'm the founder of Black Coffee. I started this venture as an answer to my own problem, which was there was no place west of 9th Street to get a cup of coffee, take a meeting, use the internet. We want to support other businesses and other entrepreneurs and use local products. So our beans are sourced locally. It's roasted locally. It only makes sense to use our local water, which is local pure tap water, the best in the country. And water is like one of the single most important ingredients in coffee and espresso. And we would not be able to make either of those things without Louisville's pure tap water. So if you want to drink like a local, come by and have a cup at Black Coffee.

Rachel and I got to meet another one of Louisville's amazing, great teams when we visited the Fern Creek 8U Softball All-Stars as they prepared for last weekend's Babe Ruth World Series in Alabama. And we are here to celebrate because today they brought home the hardware. The Fern Creek team won the Babe Ruth World Series last weekend. Winning a world championship at any age, at any level, is an incredible feat. And so it's just only fitting that we're here in Fern Creek today to celebrate this library and celebrate this team, their accomplishments, their players, the coaches, and all of the families who supported them during this season that led to this world championship.

What'd you bring? Tell them!

From the Department of Transportation, we're really excited about this new partnership with Lime and TARC, and we really encourage any Louisvillians who haven't tried these vehicles to go out and give them a try and take a ride and see how you like them.

Looking to get away? Want to go nonstop? Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport can take you to Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, Newark, New York, Orlando, and a lot more. Visit flylouisville.com for all the details.

Hi, I'm Althea Jackson, the Director of Louisville Metro's Boards and Commissions. Today, we're gonna learn about one of our many Boards and Commissions.

The Louisville Hotel Partnership exists to drive incremental room nights into the hotel community, as well as to drive workforce and to drive tourism infrastructure throughout Jefferson County. We support

Madam Chair, can you hear me?

Hello?

Councilwoman Purvis? Yes, I just want to let you know that I'm on the meeting. I don't want to sign off because it's too hard to sign back in. But I just want to let you know that I'm trying to take a senior citizen to take care of some business. So I didn't want to, like, be on the meeting while trying to help him out. Okay? So until I can help him out, I'm going to stay blocked off unless you want me to sign off. What do you want me to do?

You have to be on camera.

Yeah.

Okay. We can block it so that we don't show that she's not showing her camera. Okay. So what do you all want? You can stay on. We just can't count you in attendance at the time, but you can stay on. Amy, will you change the settings for that, please?

Well, I didn't know if you needed me, if you needed a quorum.

For that, you would have to show your camera.

Yes, we only have one, two, three. Three members currently. So you need me? Yes. And then we still don't have a call.

Okay, well, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll come on camera when it's time for me to vote. How about that?

So to even get their quorum, they would have to have you in a showing.

That's what I said. I'll come off the camera. I'll come on the camera when it's time to vote.

That's not really how it works. I'm so sorry.

I mean, I will show my face when it's time to vote.

Okay, so let me just tell you, this is Sonya the clerk. If you're not showing, we can't even start business without a quorum, right?

That's right, that's right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You're right, you're right. Thank you. I'm sorry.

No, you're fine. Hello, clerk, Madam Clerk. Ma'am? I'm on but I can't get my camera to work. So I'm trying to get on on another system. Thank you.

If the three online would turn their cameras on, we would have a quorum.

Councilwoman McCraney is going to try to log off and back on or try another device. So give her just a moment.

Can you send me the on my personal phone or my council phone? Can you send me the login?

I'll send it to you now.

Thank you.

Metro TV, 30 seconds. Good afternoon. This is the regular meeting of Labor and Economic Development Committee for Tuesday, September 15th. The time now is 304. I am Vice Chair, Councilwoman Crystal Bast. This meeting is being held in pursuant to KRS 61.826 and Council Rule 5A. Looks like in attendance we are joined by our chair online, Councilman Ben Reno-Weber. We are joined online by Councilwoman Donna Purvis, Councilwoman Paula McCraney, Councilwoman Josie Raymond, and in here we have Councilman Khalil Bashan, Councilman Jeff Hudson, Councilman JP Leninger, and Councilman Ken Herndon. If you all would like to read the first agenda.

This meeting is being held pursuant to KRS 61.826 and Council Rule 5A. Item one, a public hearing, economic improvement plan and budget for 2027.

All right, do we have any speakers on this today?

Thank you, hi, I'm Andy Trinen. I am the Chairman of the LDMD Board and a member of the Executive Committee of the DDC Board. And I just wanted to speak in support of this organization and the outstanding work that they do. Rebecca and her team are excellent stewards of the assessment dollars and always working to ensure the safety and the cleanliness and the vibrancy of downtown Louisville, thank you.

all right thank you for that uh is the i have rebecca down as a speaker today okay so that's going into item two item two a resolution approving the budget and economic improvement plan for the louisville downtown management district for the period january 1 2027 through december 31st 2027 read in full All right, looks like we have a motion and a second. Rebecca, if you'd like to introduce yourself and tell us what you got for us today.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Rebecca Flyshaker, I am Executive Director of Louisville Downtown Partnership. Thank you for having me. Great to see everybody that's not here in person as well and people who are here in person. I am executive director also of Louisville Downtown Management District and we are here to talk about the economic improvement plan which is required by ordinance as well as our budget for 2027. I wanna start by reiterating that Louisville Downtown Partnership is an umbrella agency that is over the business improvement district that we have called, that we named Louisville Downtown Management District as well as Downtown Development Corporation. The downtown management district was formed in the early 90s and it is to promote economic, residential and cultural vitality of downtown. This is the most visible part of the work that we do even though we do a lot of advocating at the state and local levels and work that is mostly on paper and relationship building. But this work that we do here is about how we create a better environment for investment, for development, for employment and residential development and tourism to make our downtown the best it can be and look and feel. So I want to start with the boundary that we talk about. This is a very legally defined area. It is, uh, the assessment is drawn upon the buildings, the properties that are in this area. Uh, we did expand it last summer thanks to the council and on this committee to include slugger field city owned property as well as the wellness center and some other properties that were missing where Lou med met our Eastern border. This map shows the boundary of the management district and the bigger boundary of what we consider the greater downtown area, and that is really where a lot of our work is focused. But I want you to see these because we talk about all these acronyms, LDP, LDMD, DDC, and what does it really mean? We are always looking at the betterment of all of downtown, but LDMD, the Downtown Management District, is the money can only be spent inside of those yellow lines, and that is very important for us to follow and for you to know how those funds are spent. So our budget, we're about a little over a four and a half million dollar budget. This is a couple of years on that we have had a significant budget, and our contracts for services are more than the assessment, which is actually probably been three years this way, thanks to very generous contributions by Louisville Metro, by Louisville Tourism, and by Humana to add to our ambassadors. The assessment income is almost $1.88 million. And the other income sources is really interest. It's not much of our budget, but the way that we spend that money is mostly on how downtown looks. A lot of that is through our ambassador contract that we have with Block by Block. You'll see in the expenditures in that circle, our compensation and benefits, that is reimbursed by the other half of our agency, by DDC. So we really do spend about, 85, 87% of our budget on what you see on the streets in beautification and cleaning. So what are bid services? So we have men and women in orange shirts. Hopefully you have seen them. We have been operating with 36 ambassadors for the last three years, thanks to those generous donations. Usually we've been about 18 before that. And we do supplemental cleaning, which is supplemental to what your property taxes pay for, what the city is responsible for. So we are not doing anything that the city would be paying for in terms of fixing lights or paving roads or fixing sidewalks. We are doing other things that actually help with the appearance of those infrastructure. So litter abatement, graffiti abatement, picking up biohazards. In the fall, we are picking up leaves. In the spring and summer, we are spraying for weeds and we help with snow removal. And this is really just to make sure downtown looks clean and feels good and that you know you're in a space that you're meant to be. The hospitality and safety initiative really is by the presence of our people. So we saw a dramatic increase in what people experienced when we were able to increase the number of ambassadors simply because people were seeing more of them because we had more of them in our space. and part of their responsibility is to greet people but also go into our street level businesses, have business interactions, make sure things are going okay or help if they are not. Wanted to share some stats about what we're picking up, what we're getting off the street, making sure that your downtown looks good. So for next year, wanna make sure that you know what we're talking about doing in next year is a lot of the same. Bid services don't change year to year. We do do special projects that will change. My favorite thing is power washing sidewalks. We always want to make sure that we are getting the gum off the street and the little details that matter because it does change the way that you experience your street. We want to buy some new equipment that will help our ambassadors do more work in the public realm to make sure everything looks good. And we're always, always, always trying to raise more funds to make sure that we have, that we don't go backward in the number of ambassadors and that if money were to be reduced by those generous donations that I've named, that we are able to supplement those and make sure that we keep the number of ambassadors that we have. Placemaking is a really important part of what we do. It's really about how we make street corners and sidewalks and public spaces comfortable but also very attractive. So you'll hopefully have noticed a lot of more color being added to our streets. This is a picture of our new disco horse added on Jefferson Street right at the Hyatt Garage. And we want to add more. We want to have more public art in terms of murals. We want to start a mural fund and get more murals on downtown walls. We want to do more underpass lighting. We were successful on Main and Market Street. We are working on Jefferson and Liberty Streets, and hopefully you'll see those turn on this fall or winter. And we're continuing to grow our City Spot Network. This was a program that came out of Bingham Fellows a couple years ago. How do you make public spaces that are forgotten, that are large and underutilized into something that can be a place to hang out and a place to visit, gather, and be able to enjoy your downtown? And we wanna also make sure that we're helping our street level businesses come out to the sidewalk and engage with pedestrians. Everything that we do is getting people downtown and enjoying downtown and making sure they want to return downtown. On our economic development focus, we are looking at creating a new investment fund. This is in partnership with One Louisville. This will be announced in weeks to come. This was part of what the mayor was able to receive from state funding. We're always advocating at the state level for an expanded property tax abatement or rebate program. It's something I've talked about. The last couple years here, we've gone to Frankfurt with a lobbyist to get a tool that we need to compete with our surrounding states. Every surrounding state has a 15 year property tax abatement program. It helps developers pencil out a project and helps those projects go. And we need to be as competitive and we don't have it. We have a five year program. I know that Chair Reno-Weber will enjoy this one. We are always encouraging the redevelopment of surface parking lots. How do we get less surface parking lots in our downtown? Yes, sir.

Somebody click that skip button because we're going to lose the presentation if we don't in less than a minute. Thank you.

Scary, okay. We don't like surface parking lots. They do a lot that is not conducive to your downtown experience. They also are bad for urban heat island effect. And we want there to be more things that are built to the street level. There used to be buildings there. They were torn down. That is why we have surface parking lots. And we know they're not as full as they used to be. So how can we put those to better and higher use? And what are the tools that will help make those more developable? We also really wanna see more residential conversion of office buildings. We've seen a total change in how folks come to the office and how employers are outfitting their offices. The towers are in pretty good shape. Most of the towers are in pretty good shape, but we've got class B and C spaces that we know will never be office again. And how do we reuse those buildings? Make sure we don't lose that architectural significance and legacy, but make them tax producing again and where people can be living in them. and creating that neighborhood and vibrancy that we all want. And then we've got a couple of specific projects that we are continuing to work on, including working on the Whiskey Alley. This is the 100 block of West Washington Street. Cleaning up that block, getting garbage carts off of the street and making it more of an entertainment area, as well as creating an entertainment destination center, which is a legal designation for where you can carry an open container on the sidewalk or more easily close the street for events and we think that Whiskey Alley is the perfect location to do it. We are being patient to get these things underway and changing. And then marketing and communications and events. This is really the lifeblood of what we do. We are the cheerleaders for downtown. showing off good things about downtown and we are trying to do it everywhere that you are, which is hard to do because everyone is everywhere nowadays. So we have programs and events that we put on to invite people. The whole point is how do we get people downtown away from your home, if you're working in your living room or your kitchen still, and are away from your neighborhood's commercial node we we put on events because downtown is the one place for everyone it is the one neighborhood that is the highest tax producing tax revenue producing neighborhood in the city and where we feel like everybody has something to do and so we tell the story of other anchor institutions and venues that are putting on events, but we also are putting on events. This is a picture from Steins on Main that's coming up, mark your calendars, October 17th, which is a fun Oktoberfest event in downtown, and how we use our newsletter and social media and email blast to get the words out for everything we're doing. And we also created a new program last year, Downtown Work Perks. This is really to say thank you to the people who are working in the office in person. No offense to any of you that are not here today, but it is a way to say thank you. And if you come the fourth Wednesday of a month, you get a special giveaway that we just, it's usually small, nominal, but we wanna say thank you for working in downtown. These are our board members. There are a lot of them. There's 24, 25 of them. A lot of them are ex officio. I am a board member on this board simply because I'm also executive director of Downtown Development Corporation, and I know that's kind of confusing, but when Louisville Downtown Partnership was created, that was really important that basically I am executive director of both agencies. And I don't want people to be confused of what we do. We do everything downtown related, but I am talking to you today about the management district. And that is it, and I'm happy to take any questions.

All right, thank you for that, Rebecca. And I just want to say this, because I say it every time I've had a chance, love the Ambassador Program, and I'll advocate for that every year until we get one in Southwest Louisville. But with that said, we have our first speaker up, Jeff Hudson, if you'd like to go ahead.

Thank you, Chair. Without the economic fatality of downtown, the rest of us wither on the vine. So thank you for everything that you do. I also just wanted to advocate for the ambassador program. I don't know what you're feeding these people, but Chick-fil-A could learn from you.

Oh, wow. Thank you.

Every time I get the opportunity to, I will stop and just have a conversation with them when I see them out on the sidewalks. And these people love their job. They understand the assignment. It's not just to clean the sidewalk. actually be an ambassador for this city, and they do it well. And I thank you for that, and I'm proud to be a part of this. So thank you. Thank you for saying that.

I think it's very important. Councilman, thank you for bringing that up. They are on the streets 365 days a year, 6 a.m. to midnight. So no matter what the weather, when we can hide inside, they are outside doing something to improve our aesthetic and what downtown looks and feels like. So that's really important. I do also want to put in a shameless plug. We did request $100,000 because we increased the size of the bid last year for expanded fee in lieu. That would help actually hire one more ambassador for our team.

All right, thank you for that. Next in the queue, it looks like we have Councilman Ken Herndon.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. I think the significant positive effect of LDMD has been long established and well-deserved. as Councilman Hudson said, not just for downtown but for our whole community. In fact, downtown is the engine that drives Kentucky. This service means a lot to making that so. As you may know, for many years I was either employed by or contracted with this organization and I'm always proud of that history and know the work you do and for many years oversaw the ambassadors directly so I know in detail the kind of work that they do and how hard they work and that they understand their role, as you said, Councilman. The details matter, the big projects are great, but the details matter. I call that the kiss of finish. A fresh coat of paint, a flower pot, a friendly face, all of those things say to someone that somebody's paying attention. And I think that's the significant role that you guys play, that you're paying attention to all of that, and that means a lot to everybody, so we thank you for that.

Yeah, we're busy taking pictures and sending things to Public Works and other agencies when things are not exactly right.

All right, thank you for that. JP, I do have you in there, but I actually missed our chair. Ben Reno-Weber was in there, so we'll go ahead and get him, then we'll move over to you.

Well, and thank you, Vice Chair, for stepping in and doing this. By our new council rules, I cannot chair virtually, and you're doing a great job. Madam Director, I'd just love to hear, what are you most excited about for this coming year?

Wow. We've got a lot of projects that are about to be announced, and I don't think I can steal my own thunder. So the one thing that is in motion right now that you will see very soon are string lights over 4th Street, and I have been working on that project. Jeff O'Brien and I met before I left the city. You've been working on that project for a while. You know, these things take a long time. And of course, as it would happen, as soon as they got into the ground, they ran into an issue. And so it's still being slowed down a little bit. But I'm very excited to see that. I do think light changes everything. I'm sure I've said that here before. The experience that you feel when you are around special lighting that brings some interest to the space you're in. String lighting is one of my favorites, just because it's twinkly lights across the street is unusual. And this will be the first time that there will be string lights across an open street in our city. So I'm really excited to get this up and make sure everything goes well according to public works. And then I want to take it all the way up the street. So for Muhammad Ali walking south out of 4th Street Live all the way up to Broadway, I want that to be a tunnel of white lights that cross that street. We're trying to put a lot of love into those two blocks in particular of South 4th Street. They got devastated during COVID, and I think it's really important. We've got really nice streetscape. The public realm is really nice on those two blocks. There was a major streetscape project in 2018-19 on those two blocks. but we've got vacant storefronts. So what are we gonna do to attract businesses? And I think we actually have to invest in the public realm to do that first. And so I'm really excited about that. I can't say it's the one thing I'm the most excited about. I'm really excited about this investment fund and the future of what we can do with that, although that's TBD, I don't know yet. we've uh we're gonna be there's a lot of things that are gonna be coming out of the ground that we're not responsible for but as councilman herndon said the details around those projects will matter so if we've got murals if we've got more flower pots if we've got more city spots where we can paint on the sidewalk stuff like that i think makes for a fun environment we have public art installations that we're working on too so i do think All of those things, when you round a corner and you're surprised, something colorful, something whimsical, something that makes you say, oh, I know exactly where I am, and it's only because it's right here and no other place, makes downtown Louisville a really special place to be. Thank you.

All right, thank you for that. Next we have Councilman Leninger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I've got a couple of questions. First, what do we estimate is the potential population that we could be bringing to downtown with office conversions? Do we have an idea of how many, with these vacant units, how many people we could be bringing into downtown?

I don't think we've done the math for specific buildings because I do think build out matters on the floor plate how many units you can get. However, we've got about 10,000 residents in the greater downtown area right now. I think we can double that and that's really where we need to be. Everyone wants a grocery. We can get a couple small markets but you're not gonna get a big grocery until you've got at least 20,000.

I totally agree. I think we also have to build a downtown that is conducive. I say all the time that I've got a district that's full of young people that want to live downtown, but we haven't built the downtown that can meet their needs. Grocery is obviously one of those things and sort of a chicken and egg, but we also need a greater investment in public transit. What do we think, and to date, how many new residents have we added to downtown with office conversion?

We have not had a major office conversion yet. There are two buildings that are underway right now that we know will bring in about, it depends how many people live in each unit, but 106 plus 120 new units within like three blocks of each other. It depends. I think there are a lot on the horizon. We know we've got some conversion projects that will happen. There's a lot of penciling out that needs to be done. Interest rate matters. Costs are not going in the right way for those kinds of things. However, the subsidies that we're working on, the financial tools that we're working on, those are necessary because of that. So I think that's why we're spending time doing that too.

Now, mechanically, what are we doing to support the conversion of service lots?

Sorry, can you tell me what you mean by mechanically?

What are we doing in tangible terms? I understand that this is a goal that we want to convert service lots. Councilman Reno Weber and I definitely agree about that. What are we as a city doing to support that?

Well, there are a couple of things, and not all of these are directly being done by us. How property is valued is something that is being looked at. The state actually changed law to allow local governments to do that, so that is underway and something that I think would be very important. i also think that what's really important is socializing the idea of why surface parking lots aren't great for downtown with the owners of those surface parking lots and those are conversations i've been having for for years and the tenor has changed there are some parking parking lots that will won't be converted they're too small to be anything else and they're full and that's really typically on the north side of downtown But there are now willing sellers or willing to be development partners and that's something new. And so I think it all comes down to money and so that's part of what we have to build and those tools of being able to get that property tax abatement for instance or downtown investment fund or whatever we can put in the stack. Obviously historic tax credits won't work but things that could help redevelop a site I think are really important.

then that leads me to my last question can you expand on the property tax abatement uh what is what do we do currently what would you like to see and what would be the financial impact over on the city budget if we went that route

There is zero impact on the city budget. So basically an abatement program freezes the property value at the current value. In our state constitution it says it can be frozen for five years and then at the end of that five years the reassessment is done and the property owner would pay the new improved value, taxes on that improved value. i would like it to be at least 15 years that is what ohio has it's what our surrounding states have that makes a big difference five years is nice it is not enough to make a difference and help a project pencil out It requires a constitutional amendment at the state level because it says five years in that section of the state constitution, which is very difficult because there are state leaders who are loath to really to have to go through a constitutional amendment process. So we, last year, actually came up with a rebate, property tax rebate program that was put in a bill. It did not pass at the very last second. We're gonna try to do that again. It does not require a constitutional amendment. City still gets its current property tax on the current value. So the city is not losing anything. You could say that you're losing on that five year or 15 year, whatever that term is. But the argument of this tool is that project's not happening because they can't get enough financing or subsidy to do it. So I think this is why things haven't been redeveloped in our city. Our property taxes aren't that expensive, but there's just not enough tools to help it. And on top of that, if we want these to be affordable or workforce housing units where we want the 20 and 30 something year olds who are young in their career, aren't making a lot of money, may not be able to afford market rate, we have to have some sort of subsidy to help with those buildings as well. So I think there's a lot of things we have to consider, but that property tax abatement program or rebate program is really, really important. Okay, thank you. Yeah.

All right, did you have another question? One more comment.

Ken Herndon. JP just talked about the big stuff. Again, I'm gonna take it back down to the details. The kisses are finished. I just want you to know that I've carried forth the LDMD philosophy of detail into the other 10 neighborhoods in my district outside of downtown. For the first time this past Saturday, we introduced one of the yellow-shirted community ambassador programs from 7th Street, your boundary, all the way down to 30th on Broadway. For the first time, that team will be out there. And this past Saturday, I was actually armed with a power washer of my own self.

I saw you, Councilman. Good for you.

And I didn't know you had a passion for power washing, or I wouldn't invite you to join us.

It's so satisfying.

Yeah, if you know the limestone wall at the base of the Kroger at 20th and Broadway all the way around the block, it was black, and now it looks fantastic. So those kinds of details make all the difference, and I learned that there last year. We had all the trees limbed up on Broadway. We asked the water company to paint all the fire hydrants. We asked Ozzy at TARC to paint the old iron out front, and then he added some of your flower pots. So all those things encourage improvements, and now we're going to do a letter to all the landowners and tenants along that stretch to ask them to join us so we can really make that main drag moving west look like downtown does, and we look forward to mimicking what you've been doing for 30-plus years. So thank you again.

And you. Thank you.

All right. Thank you for that. Doesn't look like there's any further discussion. This resolution requires a voice vote. So all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. No opposed. So this will move to the consent calendar. All right, if you'd like to read the next item, please.

Item three, a resolution of the Legislative Council of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, the issuer authorizing the execution of a memorandum of agreement between the issuer and Wesley Manor Retirement Community Inc., the corporation, a non-profit corporation, and or any wholly owned subsidiary of the corporation collectively known as the borrower relating to the financing through the issuance of the issuer's bond anticipation notes in a principal amount not to exceed $6,200,000, the notes. for certain costs incurred prior to the acquisition, construction, installation, and equipping of long-term health care and health-related facilities located at 5012 and 5400 East Manslick Road, Louisville, Kentucky. The project agreeing to undertake the issuance of one or more notes to affect the project financing in an aggregate amount not to exceed $6,200,000 and at the appropriate time to pay for costs of the project and taking other preliminary action read in full.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on this matter?

Good afternoon, committee members. Jeff O'Brien, Executive Director for Economic Development. The project in front of you is an industrial revenue bond. This is a little bit different than the normal ones I present here. Wesley Manor is a tax-exempt entity, so this is conduit debt that is giving them the ability to access the tax exempt bond market so they'll get lower financing rate for their projects. This is for construction of a new building that has 147 independent senior living units at the 5012 and 5400 East Manslick Road. Happy to answer any questions but there are no pilot payments, there's no taxes that are being deferred on this. This is just giving Wesley Manor the opportunity to get lower cost financing to complete their project.

All right, thank you for that. Jeff Hudson, you have something to add to that?

Thank you, Chair. Yeah, the staff of Wesley Manor came and presented this project to me because it's in such close proximity to my district, and I've known about the organization for a long time, and I think this fills a needed gap in their services. It provides the ability for people to age in place. And as their healthcare needs increase, they can just move within the facility. And I think it's a great project and I would encourage a yes vote on this.

All right, thank you for that. Looks like we have Councilman Bashan in the queue to speak.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Jeff, for making that presentation. I'm going to turn to Laura for a second. Laura, can you touch on and explain to the folks watching at home and or on virtual today that this is and how this is a pass-through to a tax exempt different than what Jeff has kind of alluded to?

Yeah, so this industrial revenue bonds, Metro is the issuer, but at the end of the day, the debt is not paid by Metro, it would be paid by Wesley Manor, so we're not on the hook for that. Sometimes we have, like in the situation of Churchill Downs, as Jeff alluded to, there's a taxable entity that's trying to get some sort of tax exemption in connection with the industrial revenue bonds, but Wesley Manor as a non-profit is already exempt from paying taxes under Section 170 of the Constitution, So really the benefit to Wesley Manor is the lower interest rate. There's no tax savings involved.

Wonderful, thank you so much. I encourage everybody to support Wesley Manor and the great work that they're doing in our communities.

All right, thank you for that. Doesn't look like there's any further discussion. No one in the queue. This requires a voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, so this will move to consent calendar. And can you read item four into the queue, please?

Item four, resolution approving the granting of local incentives to cornbread, CBD, PBC, and any subsequent assignees or approved affiliates thereof pursuant to KRS Chapter 154, Subchapter 32, read in full.

All right, with a motion and a second, do we have a speaker?

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Abby Fletcher on behalf of One Global. Cornbread Hemp CBD PBC, also known as Cornbread Hemp, manufactures a variety of CBD products sourced from Kentucky-grown USDA-certified hemp. The company is located at 4612 Scruff Avenue in District 10. In February of 2025, the company received preliminary approval for their incentives through KEDFA. That's the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority, which told an investment of $1 million including the creation of 50 jobs and an average hourly wage of $26.56, including benefits. The company is requesting final approval for the Kentucky Business Investment Incentive, which is a 1% of the wage assessment from Louisville Metro. The company complies with all program requirements established and monitored by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, and One Louisville is supportive of this incentive.

All right, thank you for that. Does it look like we have any speakers in the queue for this?

Madam Chair, I'll just say a couple things about Cornbread if people are unfamiliar. So this is a homegrown company. It has been on this meteoric rise. It's wildly successful. And what I appreciate about Cornbread is that they're really agile. Perhaps you've seen our junior senator and our senior senator fighting over hip regulations, and Cornbread has been having to navigate that for the past couple of years. They have transitioned, or not transitioned, but added to their product line, moving from gummies to canned drinks. Maybe you've seen it for sale at the State Fair. And recently they added a walk-in retail shop, and so they've brought retail to the industrial part of District 10. And so there's just a lot to be proud of in terms of Cornbread's local growth, and we support this.

All right, thank you for that. All right, with that said, it looks like this requires a voice vote. So all the- Madam Chair. I see, go ahead.

Thank you. Because they are a client of ours in their supportive employment work, because they are wonderful supportive employers, I have to abstain from this vote.

All right, thank you for that. Okay, so this will require a roll call vote now.

Chair Reno-Weber?

I abstain.

Councilwoman Purvis? Yes. Councilwoman McCraney?

Yes.

Councilwoman Raymond? Yes. Vice Chair Bast, you have seven yes votes and one abstention.

All right, so it looks like that will go to owed business. All right, if you want to read the next item, please.

Item five, a resolution pursuant to the capital and operating budget ordinances approving the appropriation to fund the following professional services contract for Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness to obtain specialized physician services. Mark S. Jorish, MD, $183,960, right in full.

Can I get a second? All right, we got a motion and a second. Is there anyone to speak on this item?

Hello, my name is Danielle Cornwell. I am the community health manager at Louisville Public Health and Wellness Is More program. We have contracted with Dr. George for over the last 40 years, and our program is currently providing services for MOUD, so medication assisted treatment, at several of our facilities here in Louisville, including Community Transitional Services, which is a DOC-regulated program, as well as Dismiss Charities, and that is also a DOC-regulated facility. We work to provide one-on-one counseling and peer support, re-entry counseling, and all that in aftercare. So Dr. George is our MD and his responsibility is to provide oversight to our regulations, including federal and state. He works with us to have DEA, AODE, which is the Alcohol and Other Drug Entity Commission of Accreditation for Rehabilitation Centers, and he oversees all of our policies. Dr. Dorish is uniquely qualified to continue serving as the medical director for the MORE Program. He has served for the MORE Program, like I said, for more than 30 years. He has a doctorate degree in medicine, is licensed in practice in Kentucky, and is certified as American Society of Addiction Medicine. Throughout his time at the MORE Program, he has played an instrumental role in developing and supporting evidence-based approaches for medication-assisted treatment. He also provides guidance, training, and to physicians, psychiatrists, medical interns, and residents regarding opioid addiction through MOUD. Dr. George's contract is vital to our program because of his extensive experience. If we were to hire somebody else or to bring in and put this out for bid, we would lose that experience. And then also, he has not asked for an increase over the last four years that I've been with the program. If we were to try to bring in somebody else, it would, our care would maybe diminish because they have less experience than what he currently is providing or offering to us. With that said, Dr. George has provided more than two decades of clinical leadership for the Moore Program and brings specialized expertise to the program and its continued operation. Through his contract, the Moore Program can continue providing evidence-based medication-assisted treatment and related support services while connecting individuals with care, resources, and improved outcomes, both the treatment and transitioning back into our community.

All right, thank you for that. Looks like the sponsor on this is Councilman Ben Reno-Weber. Would you like to add anything to this before we get to the speakers?

I hate sole source contracts, and this is exactly the sort of thing that we should have sole source contracts for.

all right thank you for that looks like we have councilman lenninger in the queue you can go ahead thank you uh what is the uh total population of clients for these programs for the medically assisted treatment so we actually um this past year provided um 2 241 services between dismiss cts voa and seven counties and It was 125 females and 255 males, and we provided an additional 94 residents with follow-up calls. So that's one thing that's unique about our program and where Dr. Torsch's expertise really comes into hand is that aftercare. When individuals get released from these facilities, they have nothing. They have nowhere to go. Our program allows for them to contact us and continue that support of services, and he has that experience to guide them, guide us, to be able to make sure that they can return back to the community.

Okay, thank you. You're welcome.

All right, Councilman Beshon.

Thank you so much. So I'm kind of in agreeance with Council Member Weber in regards to not being a big fan of social service contracts. With that being said, is this on an annual basis for renewal for Dr. George? Is there a way that, so it's coming out of the local health department's budget.

Correct.

Right?

And we have grant funding as well.

What's that?

We have grant funding that we are working and we constantly are seeking grants to.

And we're just passing this through the committee just for approval to continue that. Correct. What would, just for curious minds, what would an RFP look like if you were to bid this out on a, you know, every five year situation?

I'll be honest, I'm not 100% sure what we would lose in experience with him. I mean, it's inevitable. We are, obviously he is older and we are looking to find support for him currently. So we actually are working with different doctors within the facility to come in and train underneath him because eventually he is going to retire.

How long has he been in?

With us for over 30 years.

This row?

Over 30 years.

So with health department over 30 years?

Yes, sir.

OK. So then, yes, it's probably time to start looking for someone that can adopt his institutional knowledge.

But we do want to be able to pass on his knowledge and his expertise. And so we've already began that. He's well on board with that conversation. And he's actually helped us in navigating those kinds of things. But yes, I don't know 100% what that would look like if we did put out an RFP.

All right, yeah, thank you. Just so we're clear, just as long as we're not adding additional funds to something and it's already coming out of your already budgeted budget, I think we are good to support this. Thank you.

all right thank you for that all right doesn't look like there's any further discussion so this is going to require a voice vote all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed all right this will move to the consent calendar thank you for coming today thank you all right if you want to read the next one in next item

Item six, a resolution pursuant to the capital and operating budget ordinances approving the appropriation to fund the following noncompetitively negotiated professional service contract for Louisville Metro Police Department concerning a coordinator for the Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner Program and requiring reporting thereon as herein set forth University Medical Center, Inc., doing business as University of Louisville Hospital James Graham Brown Cancer Center, $100,000 right in full.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there someone here to speak on this item?

Good afternoon. I'm Lieutenant Andrew Meyer with LMPD's Special Victims Unit. I believe this is an older contract. We've done business with them for several years. So UofL Safe Service provides care for over a thousand individuals affected by sexual assault, domestic violence, and family violence. go through all area hospitals, like 23 hospitals in the region. These facilities include UofL, Norton, and Baptist. They also go to the Center for Women and Families to provide SANE examinations to victims of sexual assaults. They'll even come to our office to do suspect SANE examinations on the people that we detain as suspects for sexual assault. And I'm happy to take any questions if y'all have any.

All right, thank you for that. All right, it does not look like we have any speakers in the queue for this today. So this is gonna call for a voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. I was made aware this will move to old business because we had to have someone that will have to abstain from this. So thank you for coming today.

Appreciate it.

All right. It does not look like we have anything else on here. So this concludes today's committee. Everybody have a great day.

Thanks, team.