Budget Committee - Regular Meeting

Artwork that the kids did in the neighborhood and I laminated. Now I'm going to find a better way to put it on the trees. I'm going to start wrapping them with a bow. And started planning events. Our first event was a neighborhood barbecue and it had to be 50 or 60 people there. This is where we had our barbecue and I remember Miss Tammy Hawkins walking from that way.

She was so impressed.

She said, you said his alley was clean, but until I saw it with my own eyes, this is crazy. It's a new sense of space, dignity. I have one neighbor who was upset that we just now meeting. The neighbors want this. I have a lot of support, especially from Beargrass Thunder. They've been extremely giving, extremely helpful. They help with the barbecue. It keeps me driven. I've already adopted two other Allies. There's one down the street from here, and the other one is Isaac Alley that I'm working on. And that is an extreme... I consider myself a cleaner and a leader. The neighbors, they really want this and they support this and they are waiting for the next event, which is next Saturday. I need volunteers. The neighbors, they know they're going to come. They can't wait for it, but I need as much help as I can get.

It's very rewarding. SOS is a medical surplus recovery organization.

Every day is recycling day here. That's one of the main things we do. We keep things out of landfills.

We collect medical surplus from hospitals across six states in the whole country, supplies or equipment, and we donate to places that need those supplies and equipment.

I just go through each piece individually and put them in the boxes where they belong. Saline goes in the back with liquids. I was a practicing internist for 30 years. Every day I come in here, I find something I've never seen before, even after 16 years.

After all, the egg got cut. We are busier than ever, local and international.

They keep moving the merchandise. So I walk back and forth a lot. Get a lot of steps in.

We can't stop.

Very interesting place to work. Gotten a bunch of people to volunteer here, medical people that I know. They usually like it.

Without volunteers, we could not do what we do here because most of the work on supplies and equipment, it's all done by volunteers. We have regulars that come and then we also have groups. More now because we're so busy, we're shipping so much, we need more volunteers to help store our supplies and just help us reach our goal, our mission to help people wherever it's needed.

It's really a plus for the community.

If you walk into a restaurant and you see an A, A's represent a passing grade under our placarding system of a score between 100 and 85 with no priority violations. Priority violations are going to be the violations most likely to get somebody sick, like cold holding or hot holding not being the right temperatures. So A's are going to represent a generally safe facility. You're going to be able to see their history as well. The big block is going to be their current score, what they got at the most recent inspection. And then the next two scores down here are going to be their last two inspections, routine inspections. So you can look at their history and see how they've been doing so you can see if they failed in the last year.

Thank you.

Metro TV, 60 seconds please.

Instagram. Instagram. Thank you.

Welcome to the regularly scheduled meeting for government accountability oversight. I am the chair, Councilwoman Donna Purvis. I am joined virtually by my co-chair, Councilwoman Marie Woodridge, as well as Councilman Bratcher, Councilman Reed, Councilwoman Hawkins. I'm joined in chambers by Councilman Herndon, Councilman Owen, Councilman Piagetini. Clerk, can you please read the disclaimer?

This meeting is being held pursuant to KRS 61.826 and Council Rule 5A, read and full.

And for the record, just wanted to let it be known that Councilman Cramer has an excused absence. Gonna kind of switch things around today. We do have the first item on the agenda is for discussion with ELIFA. Just want to let you all know, just be patient. We're gonna go through with these quick apartments real quick. Item number two on the agenda is going to be held. So we will go through the apartments, which is the first one is item number four, the reappartment of Stephen Miller to Transit Authority of River City Board. Term expires June 30th, 2029. Any other motion and second, please? Thank you.

Couture Morrow, Greenberg Administration. Mr. Miller is out of District 7. He is currently serving as the treasurer on the TARC board, and he is here tonight to speak to you. Hi.

Welcome.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm Steve Miller. I'll correct this a little. I'm a vice chairman. We don't have a chair. Our chair, Ms. Gilbert, is here as well. And so I'm here for reappointment and happy to make a statement or answer questions, whatever the chair and the committee prefers.

We know that you all are facing some challenges at TORC and we hear it all over. I'm hoping that things are getting better. I would like to know, When will you all or will you all reconsider adding back some of the routes that have been discontinued?

Yes, Madam Chair, as many of you have been briefed before, but let me reiterate this. I came two and a half years ago as the Finance Committee Chair and brought with me a document called the 17 Facts. And so one of those facts was that without some significant new revenue or significant expenditure reductions or both, that we were going to face a fiscal cliff and insolvency within two years. And so we worked diligently during that time, reduced our expenses by about $27 million, but that still wasn't sufficient. And so we were faced with a decision about rerouting the entire system. And over a year period of time, we held dozens and dozens of public meetings about this, reached out to individuals, organizations, went through the communities and held local meetings, and we found with the work of our consultants and their advice that we really were faced with two options. Either we could keep an expanded geographical map and have the buses run much less frequently, or narrow the geography and have the buses run much more frequently. And so one of the things that we did when we had the public meetings was ask folks who were TARC riders, which do you prefer? And overwhelmingly, they said, we would like to have the bus run more frequently and be reliable. That reliability was the number one issue for most folks. But we do recognize, Madam Chair and members of the committee, that when you shrink the footprint of your system, that there are gonna be some people who are disadvantaged by that and who no longer have access. And let me tell you, just speaking for myself, but I think it's true for the other seven board members, we are very attuned to those stories of the people who are no longer being served, there's rarely a board meeting that goes by that one or two don't come and share their stories about what they're trying to do to to maintain jobs or be able to get to the doctor or whatever so we are mindful of that these are very difficult decisions because people's lives are being impacted but we found that the the tough but better choice was to shrink the footprint and try to have buses run more frequently and create a downtown transfer center so that people could switch buses faster and not have to walk as far a distance on occasions. So directly to your question, Madam Chair, we will consider certainly when we have more revenue to be able to deal with this issue Our feeling was that our first responsibility to the taxpayers, the citizens of the community, was to make sure that we were running TARC as efficiently as we could. And that meant having a hard look at everything from an expenditure standpoint. And we've done that, not completely yet, but significantly more than when I appeared before you three years ago. There's more work to be done, but a lot of the lifting on the spending side has been done. And we will be evaluating over the next year how this new system works. speaking for myself, we would love to expand the footprint again and begin serving people who have been served in the past, but this was a necessary step to avoid insolvency. So it's on the table, it will be considered here, but it's gonna take some additional revenue for us to be able to do that. Am I being responsive to your question?

So, thank you for answering that question. I understand that something had to be done. and I know that you weigh the measure either more frequency or, like you said, change the footprint, the constituents that I represent, they are being affected by less access to the public transportation. And we have a lot of seniors that have to take public transportation to the doctors, to the grocery stores. And some of these seniors have been Facebook walking nine blocks one way to get access to public transportation. Um, and and that's just not good and, uh, I know that you all are waiting to sort this out, um, financially. Um, but, um. I hate to say, I know you're doing the best you can, but that. is just not good enough. My constituents, and I would say all of these constituents that live in these economically challenged neighborhoods that do not have transportation, they have to rely on public transportation, they much rather have access to transportation and work around that instead of having more frequent transportation that's not even in their area. And so I'm hoping that you all go back to the drawing board and that you all can come back within a month or two and say, hey, listen, we're going to reconsider this. Access is everything. Frequency really doesn't matter if you can't have access to public transportation. So that is my take on it. And I'm hoping that you all can come back within a month or two and give us an update on how is it looking When can you look at revising their system so that people can have access to the buses? Thank you. Councilman Piagetini.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to thank you so much for what the direction you're going in. I may be, and I was double-checking the map, the only other district could be Danceheim Junior's district, but don't quote me on that. As far as I can tell, I may be the only district or only one of two districts out of 26 that has now zero TARP service. And I am fine with that, even though that is going to disadvantage some of my constituents because this was the only option after years of failure and mismanagement by people that did not bear your name. And my frustration over the last several years has been that we had people running TARC who were unserious, appointed by failed leaders, and now the day has come for reckoning. And we cannot build a successful network of public transportation until we can do the basics properly. And I want to tell you how much I support, albeit as difficult as this is, again, I've got affordable housing developments in my district and they took a hit on this. There's no question about it. And I know TARC has done some things to try to consider that and there's some exceptions and we've been working with other organizations to try to mitigate the impact. But at the end of the day, it was not this board, it was not this leadership that put us in this position. it was really I would argue decades of prior leadership who whistled past the graveyard, who I would argue lied to the public and to this council about the fiscal condition that TARC was in. And eventually the adults in the room have to make the hard decisions about how to save this whole system, otherwise it's just gonna go under. And so I just wanna express my appreciation to you to Abby and the whole board because nobody wants to, I don't think any member of this board wanted to reduce service. But if we didn't stop or at least try to mitigate the fiscal cliff, which would have been a bankruptcy cliff, and prove that we can have reliable service, that reliable service will drive ridership, will drive money, will drive reliability, and then success begets success. So I think this is the right thing. I know it was somewhat controversial in my district. And again, I might be maybe two of 26 that literally have zero routes. I mean, there's not one bus that drives through any square inch of my district at this point. But that is the unfortunate short-term price that we must pay in order to fix this train wreck, or what was the train wreck. And now I do hope, you know, when you think it's appropriate, that when we do start to look at this again, that Shelbyville Road right in that Middletown corridor can get somebody to come back out. But I also appreciate that I know TARC, when this was getting rolled out, came to Middletown and stood face to face with the people this was going to impact and said, look, we know this isn't ideal and we know this isn't great, but it was the right thing to do. But my ask is that when you are successful, when it has proven itself out, We would love to get at least get one line along the Chubbiver Road corridor, but I know it's not going to happen immediately We'll talk about when it's going to happen. And again, I just I Appreciate people that are realists that live in real Ville and this is real Ville, right? We have to make this sustainable and then we can expand so thank you very much for the hard work. You guys been doing Thank You, sir

And I just want to say thank you for your courage and being brave and showing up with everything that's going on. Thank you.

No, ma'am. Three and a half years ago, you told me two things. You made me promise two things you were setting up there. You said, number one, you were concerned that the TARC board was not running TARC and that Metro Council was being looked at to run TARC. And you made me promise that if I served on the board, we would do everything we could to make sure that the board and the management ran TARC. And we worked hard to do that. So I've been finance committee chair for two years and vice chair, so I've tried to take on that leadership role. And secondly, you said, if I summoned you, will you come? And so here I am. And I'm happy to do so.

Thank you. Councilman Ornn.

Well, I mean, that's exactly when when when things are hard and people are willing to step forward and I mean, there's serving on boards and then they're serving on boards. And this is a I've had enough conversation with Abby to know that this is very much a working board and that you guys are very involved in. running TARC and I appreciate that and especially when you have to make hard decisions that have blowback. We know what blowback feels like and I'm sure you guys have gotten some and so again we appreciate anybody who's willing to step forward to sit on a board but particularly one that requires this level of work and also potential blowback so thank you.

Thank you. And the blowback is okay. It really is for me and I think others. The frustration at not being able to fashion the entire system we need so that the courier ran a story today about Mr. Chapman who Takes him 90 minutes each way to get to work. He's trying to turn his life around. He's trying to maintain a job, become a manager so he can have a car so he doesn't have to rely on public transit all the time. So it's more of the frustration at not having the resources that we need based on, as Mr. Pietrangeli said here, decisions that have been made through the decades here that have led us to this point. We'll all take the blowback. It's just that we wish that we could do more to address the kind of stories that Madam Chair and you all have heard from your constituents. Well said, thank you.

Councilwoman Hawkins.

Thank you. I just want to say thank you for your, I'm going to echo off my colleague, Councilman Pangentini, for your realness. You know, that's very rare. And just jumping on board, I remember when I first came on the council, maybe a year in, And, you know, and you was just talking about how long that it was going to take. And just to see you do exactly what you said you was going to do, you know, that speaks value, you know, for me. And I just want to say thank you so much for, you know, helping move the needle. Thank everybody that sits on the board now. You know, I had a big question, you know, back when I first came on Metro Council. I'm like, oh my God, you know, but it seems like that you, the board, Ozzie, you all are doing a phenomenal job. A lot of my stops were cut. Hopefully, you know, once things continue to move along, maybe we can get some of those stops added back. So I'm just glad that we're moving in a better direction. Thank you so much for all the work that that board, and the leaders over there have been doing. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. And I'll accept that on behalf of the other seven board members. I'm now the longest serving at three years and six months. So we've had almost complete turnover to the board. And I would also tell you that I believe I've seen a lot through the years in government service. Ozzie Gibson is doing a really good job as our executive director. and he is firm, he is fair, he's willing to take unpopular positions. He has worked extremely well with the union. When I came on the board, there was a toxic relationship between the TARC management and board and our union. That's no longer true. He's done lots here and we just did an evaluation of him and gave him excellent review and so his leadership's been really important to this too.

Thank you. If there aren't any other questions.

Madam Chair.

I'm sorry.

You're good. Can I speak? Sure. Okay. I just wanted to reiterate what the other team members have said. Tony, I don't think I'm as bad as you. I don't have zero, but I think I've been limited down to one in my district. But I will echo what others have said, that I've actually had a lot of conversations with Ms. Gilbert on this topic, and Ozzie is doing a great job to be able to circle back around. As has been said, I would welcome the opportunity when ready to have TARC come back and speak to this board on what are some other options and what can we do together and the things y'all are working on now. But again, thank you for taking the time to serve on the board and thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

If there aren't any other comments or questions, we're ready to vote on this reappointment. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. any oppositions the eyes have it thank you mr miller thank you committee the next department is the reappointment of abby gibbert to transit authority of river city board term expires june 30th 2029 and i need a motion and a second thank you miss gilbert hi good afternoon

I'm so sorry that Steve had to go first and take all of your questions. But I was just taking a few notes to just make a couple key points. We hear you. I think it makes me so happy that three years ago today when I stood here, the biggest thing that you all talked about was lack of communication with you. and clearly we're having a lot of the board members are talking to you the staff is talking to you there are no surprises anymore um i just echo steve's comments that we are having to make very hard decisions and sometimes it's what is we don't have any good options to choose from right and that's never easy but i think um the most important thing though is moving forward we're able to collect a lot more data than we have in the past so there were a lot of decisions that were made for a long time that we didn't even know how many people were getting on buses and getting off buses and so with new technology we're really going to be able to real time understand who's getting on them and who's getting off and make better decisions moving forward. So with that, I will just take any additional questions.

No, I think Mr. Miller did everything for you.

I have to do the hard things sometimes too, so. Okay.

All right, if there aren't any. Oh, yes. Yes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do want to point out something that Mr. Miller said toward the end, and that was about the relationship with the union and just all the workers there, including not just the union workers, but even the leadership team. And again, I mean, I could sit here all day long and talk about Ozzie, and at this point, he has saved half the departments in Metro Louisville at some point in his career. So I think he hasn't run LMPD and maybe one or two other, and Corrections or something, but he's run just about everything else, I feel like.

Animal Services.

Yeah, Animal Services is a perfect example. And actually Animal Services is a perfect example because TARC also had this problem too. One of the first when I was vice chair of this committee one of the first things That we did was launched an investigation of TARC more specifically related to the executive director and Not only I mean there was all kinds of fiscal impropriety but also his sexual harassment and sexual assault of Women that worked for not just Union and I think I don't know how many people people union but in the leadership team within TARC so I'm really happy to hear that the relationship with Union is can you talk a little bit about progress that have been made to gain the trust of the whole team and to create a real atmosphere where this is a productive safe working environment maybe you know what Ozzie's been doing in that realm can you talk about that a little bit because I that's you know we can't run TARC if we don't have people that right feel like they're safe to go to work

I think the biggest thing that Ozzie's doing is there's big picture decisions that we have to make every day, but really the critical piece that I think that we really had to focus in on was all of the tiny little operational details that ultimately lead to our buses coming on time our routes being filled are um they're you know appropriate just tiny little operational decisions that i think often have to have the same level of scrutiny that we're doing for big decisions and so i would just say that his focus for this last several years on that operational excellence while instituting things like leaderboards of great performance and recognition culture at our board meetings, never losing sight that those are the people that are doing the hard work, showing up at three o'clock in the morning when the drivers had to to celebrate the launch of the new system. And I think all of those little tiny things that we're really doing back to the basics of saying we have to get all of those little things right to get the bigger things right. And I would just say he's excellent at that. The board, like I said, when Steve, I was on a couple months after Steve, there wasn't really much of a functioning board at that time. And I know that there's not a single day, generally, even a weekend that goes by that we're not in communication with Ozzie and we understand what's happening. And it's just, it's really taking a whole team. But I do, I think, just echo everyone's comments that He does do an excellent job, and so much of that is just, the devil is in all those details of running a big organization like this.

Yeah, thank you for that. I just wanted to remind everybody again, we talked about some of the financial stuff, but I mean, this is how bad the leadership was. We had women coming to work, being abused and you know it was rock bottom and so again board's leadership and also ozzy's work again thank you for putting this all back on track and again adults running the place so thank you for your service

Councilwoman Hawkins. Thank you. I want to say thank you. I remember I was fresh on council, and it was just something about you that stood out. I kind of felt that you were going to be a mover and a shaker to move that board along. You spoke very well. And I appreciate you just keeping your word and being authentic as well. And it's always good to hold, whether you consider them a boss or not, but just holding those other leaders accountable. I believe that you are doing that. So I just wanna say thank you.

Thank you for your hard work. Thank you.

Okay, there aren't any other questions, comments, so we're ready to take a vote on your reappointment. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any oppositions? The ayes have it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, we're gonna go back to number three on the agenda and ordinance amending the Louisville met work metro code of ordinances relating to the Juneteenth Jubilee Commission. I need a motion and a second. Okay, I'm going to pass this on to Councilwoman McCraney.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. And for the record, I don't know that I was counted in as present. If not, please add me to the agenda as present. I want to speak to this adjustment to the ordinance for the Juneteenth Jubilee Commission. It was established several years ago to host different activities and events in honor of Juneteenth. And when it was established, we did not notice that the expiration dates for most of the commissioners would expire before June. Most of them started in another month prior to June, and then it expired their term on the commission expired before June, which meant that the work that they had done throughout the year would land after they are now off of the board. So we are extending the dates for board members and adjusting it for them not to expire before they are able to involve themselves in the fruits of their labor come June. So that's what this adjustment is. It's basically saying the terms of the board members have changed so that they can remain on the board after June in order to take advantage of the work that they had done the prior year. So I ask for your support. It's just a technical change.

Are there any comments or questions? No. Okay. We are ready to vote on this. We're going to do a roll call vote.

Okay.

Council Member Woolbridge.

Yes.

Council Member McCraney. Yes. Council Member Reid.

Yes.

Okay, the legislation passed. This will go on the consent. Oh, business. Consent, okay. It passed, motion passed. It will go on the consent calendar. Thank you. We're going back to item number one, which is a special discussion. We have Elifa here to give us an update. On third. Good afternoon, good evening. Good evening. You're welcome.

Thank you so much, Madam Chairwoman. If I could just introduce some additional colleagues that are with me today. Brian Core is with me on our deputy monitor, and he is the liaison for community outreach and engagement. With me is also Azalee Johnson, one of our subject matter experts. She's been in town doing some work. And our CEO and founder of Alefa, David Douglas, is here.

Can you repeat the name, please?

David Douglas. Oh, I'm sorry. For the record, sorry. Cherie Briscoe-Stewart, lead monitor for Alefa. you may begin. Thank you so much. Chairwoman and members of the committee, thank you so much for having us this evening. We're here to give you the summarization of our first semiannual report. I am your lead independent monitor for Louisville's community commitment. This is our first semiannual report and it covers the period of January through June of 2026 and it encompasses the beginning of our contract from October the 14th of last year. It was published in August and we stand before you today ready to provide an update. Next slide. The process Louisville committed to The community commitment sets the requirements, what has to change, the implementation plan sets the sequence, what order and by when, and compliance is earned phase by phase. Those phases, the 13 sections move through four phases. Policy review, training review, data and audits, and then compliant assessments. The order isn't a simple formality. For each section, a later phase generally cannot begin until the one before it is complete. You train on the policy that is written, and then you audit the policies and the training, and if it is sustained, you go into compliance. Next slide. The five-year implementation plan is an annual document that gets updated with each year. Two things that you can take away from this. Each section moves on its own timeline. This isn't one process. It's 13 running in parallel and at different speeds. The second column you look at is year one is almost entirely orange. This denotes policy reviews. That's by design. The plan front loads rule writing because everything downstream depends upon the rule writing. The two rows with asterisks, officer and employee assistance and recruitment and hiring, are auxiliary sections. They're held to a narrower standard and aren't subject to some of the additional components of review as the primary sections. Where things stand. There's been one completed policy review of the 13, and that has been use of force. It was approved in early July. And as of the 14th and yesterday, that policy is now out and live to the public. There are no key objectives as of yet that have been rated in compliance. nor should they be at this juncture because we are focused on the policy review. Substantial compliance requires revised policy, then training, then sustained proof through data and audits is a multi-year path and no section has had the time to walk through it completely. Seven of the 13 policies as of June 2026 have had policy work moving. Six had not started at that point. And the goal for 2026 was to receive the beginning of all of the policy suites under the 13 areas of focus. The monitoring activity during this period. There have been over 200 outreach contacts from January to June, listening sessions with faith-based communities, the Urban League, NAACP, ACLU of Kentucky, the immigrant and refugee serving groups, neighborhood associations and residents. Those public meetings that included Spanish and ASL interpretation offered support to communities that are often not included or overlooked. We have participated in two other, well as of today, or as of yesterday, three now, community meetings, and over 115, about 115 attendees over the course. We've participated in ride-alongs of four different patrol divisions, officer conversations, and meetings with the FOP lodge. We've observed performance review board meetings, the first Behavioral Health Coordination and Oversight Council Incident Review Subcommittee, and the Community Safety Commission Subcommittees. We have observed in-service training and toward the summit. That is just a snapshot of the things that we had done up until June of 2026. The findings. Early progress identified. Use of force, the full policy suite, was completed. Multiple working sessions with us, posted for public comment, officer comment. If inconsistencies were resolved and the policy was approved by ILEFA in June, July. That's no easy lift. When you see a suite specifically use of force, that was over 13 different policies that we had engaged in with LMPD. What we saw, there was a willingness to examine itself. The performance review board conducts structured multidisciplinary review of critical incidents. We approved and revised policy and now observe monthly. That's a department that reviews its own critical incidents and how it performs with real scrutiny of every situation. Tracking and facilities. A comprehensive compliance tracking system, we have been able to view such. That shows what they've been able to keep account and track of in terms of all the different policies and each phase that each policy and process may be in. For officer wellness, the summit, if counseling, peer support, a full time chaplain, a psychologist, and additional services and support to be able to support officers and their issues and concerns as they navigate the responsibilities of their duties day to day. Here are some areas that we found that need urgent improvement. Number one, progress on behavioral health. Progress remains at the earliest stage. It was scheduled ninth in the policy review sequence. We urged immediate acceleration for that policy to move forward. We received the materials for that policy in July after the period had closed. Training isn't yet connected to the commitment. In January, we observed in-service training, the template that would have rolled out for the rest of the year. It was well delivered and the instructors knew their material, but the content didn't consistently link to what the community commitment requires. What is needed there is stronger curriculum governance, more real-world scenario practice, and a way to measure what officers learned. Now we can confirm training happened. What we can't quite confirm yet is what has changed. Third, and this is one of the areas, policy revision. It's been early progress and it's been limited in terms of policy revision. that writes these policies has been running with two writers and a supervisor after losing a third. And the same unit carries accreditation duties. The year end goal of opening policy review when all 13 sections runs through this unit. If staffing isn't improved and changed, the changes are likely to slow. That's a resource question. Fourth is the area of communication and coordination. They had not been studied. Collaboration didn't always precede key steps, such as posting policies for public comment. On two occasions, the opportunity, Alifa's opportunity to present to the Community Safety Commission was cut short or removed from the agenda. Behavioral health, the most urgent gap. LMPD does not yet have the advanced behavioral health resource officer the commitment requires. The crisis intervention team instruction is led by a full-time patrol sergeant. The department acknowledges the need to a dedicated full-time role, but cites the challenges around staffing. The 40-hour CIT course is required in the academy, but the refresher curriculum and the specialized response protocol training are part of their challenges. We have requested observation of the Behavioral Health Coordination Council, Oversight Council, and during that period, there was not availability for us to view it. Since that period, we have had opportunity to view it. We participated in the first one, but we have not, during this period, seen it in full swing. Next slide. The road ahead. The road ahead looks like the focus on the additional policy suites that we have not yet received, and this month, We gave our third quarterly community meeting which we did last night at Simmons College. In November we will be here for the fourth quarterly meeting. The ongoing focus for us will again be our policy review that will include street enforcement, fair and impartial policing, and deeper reviews with the additional policies. The priority for formal review of the behavioral health materials received in July and getting collaboration with LMG and LMPD is our priority. And since this report, we are able to report that we have momentum moving to that end. Our year-end goal is to initiate policy review for all 13 topics and suites before the end of December. That is a truly ambition goal, but we will not stop for the strive. If we do not achieve that, that means everything downstream will have to be readjusted. That is the summary of the first semiannual report, and I stand ready to answer any additional questions you may have.

So if we could go back.

Yes, ma'am.

The one before that one. I am concerned about that. as you've identified, the most urgent gap. And I notice that we have our Chief Humphrey here with some of his officers, and I don't know if you're comfortable speaking on some of these deficiencies that was noted in the outline.

I'm sorry. I'm saying. So I can start with, and I welcome my LMP, do I welcome Chief Humphrey? If you'd like to come forward and share anything, I can start with it. We've had some progress since this report is why I was trying to, as I am reading it, I was trying to give a segue to since June the 30th of 2026, I wanted to make sure we didn't stop there, and I give a little semicolon. We've had some progress in that way, and I welcome Chief Humphrey if he wants to come forward to share any specific details. But I can tell you that We've had an opportunity to get some notes from the BHCOC in terms of behavioral health, and I don't want to leave anyone else out there, but you may choose.

Madam Chair, before we switch to Chief Humphrey, can I clarify something on this slide? Because actually my question refers to the same slide with you. Is that okay? If you don't mind. I don't mind. The top right corner, quote, I just want to clarify something. It says, LMPD does not yet have the advanced behavioral health response officers, the CC, the community commitment requires no policies guiding them. We've gone 24-7 and countywide on the LMPD. Crisis center.

The diversion program, correct. So are we referring to something else here? So let me be clear. So the advanced behavioral health officer is not the 40-hour basic CIT that someone is changing. I might be using a different vernacular in terms of. So every officer gets the standing 40 hours. A voluntary officer has more advanced training to do that more difficult work. That is, for instance, Sergeant Oberhauser. She is the one qualified in that area. So that becomes the conundrum, if you will. The CC requires very specific things concerning the more advanced training, and that's what they're working on.

Just to clarify something. I think the word deficiency was used. Does this slide indicate deficiency or just you haven't gotten to it and you're trying to prioritize it?

This slide denotes deficiency because it does not yet meet the requirements of the community commitment in that way. I'm not suggesting they have not started some programs. The deficiency is we've taken a look at it and it is not to the standard of the community commitment. Happy to pull that up and read you the paragraph if you need.

Yeah, I just want to dig into this clarity because the way I understood the overall program here is that initially what you're doing is policy review.

Absolutely. As in there's no policies guiding them, so the policy for it is not available to us as yet during that rating period.

Right. That I understand, right? If you're saying that there's a missing policy and currently you're doing the policy review, the execution of, are you saying, no CIT refresher curriculum, are you saying that there was a date certain that LMPD was supposed to have done this, but they haven't done it?

we asked for the acceleration to come forward, there was a request made that we prioritize looking at behavioral health. So in it, when we started taking an exam of behavioral health, recognizing that yes, it was ninth in the priority list, but with recent events, we made an ask for that ninth item to accelerate up and we took a review of that, just a topical glance of what's happening and this is what derives from that.

OK, thank you for clarifying. Maybe it's just a semantic disagreement. I would not call it a deficiency. I appreciate that you're accelerating it due to circumstances. I'm hesitant to say, at least in my humble opinion, that that's a deficiency when we're saying we're moving it up, that LMPD was going down a pathway, that pathway shifted, of course we should all shift with the times, but it seems to me they didn't miss the date, the date changed.

Semantics, but I think that's why we're saying deficiency. Let me clarify. The slide says gap, right? Right. The most urgent gap.

Yeah, gap I'm with.

I hear you. Okay, thank you. Yes, yes, sir. Sorry about that. No worries.

Yeah, my apologies for that.

So what I would like to do is invite Chief Humphreys up and if... I think Deputy Chief McKinley wants to join or whatever you. We'd like to have an open discussion and I'm gonna let Councilwoman Hawkins start. So it, you know, just gonna do something a little different than we normally do, just to have an open discussion. on some of these what I call deficiencies or things that appear has not been addressed, but if they have some updates since your report period ended, we'll be more than happy to hear these updates.

Yes, ma'am. Chief Humphrey, Louisville Metro Police. To Councilman Piagentini's point, The sections related to behavioral health were not slated to begin until towards the end of this reporting period. So a lot of the information specific to that section of the community commitment hadn't been gathered or gotten over to them. We've been doing a lot of work in that area for an extended period of time. And when you look at the results of what we've done, the level of uses of force that we use and CIT runs is very minimal. We have a lot of success in that space. And a couple of things that have happened. We had already been working on the Behavioral Health Coordinating Committee. So that was something that, as you know, standing up a committee, getting volunteers, getting people, members of the community to participate in that and be part of that, get that structure laid out, that takes time. By the time we made the decision to move this up, we had already had a meeting of the Behavioral Health Coordinating Committee. So we were already in the process of getting that done. Another thing that we've done is we've actually changed, this is something that I don't think the public knows at all at this point, Our HNT, our hostage negotiating team that deals with people in crisis very often, but traditionally it has been dealt with from a criminal barricade, hostage situations. They're the negotiators for the department. We have changed their mission to being a crisis negotiation team. And so they are some of our behavioral, our advanced behavioral health officers from the standpoint of they have a lot of additional training in dealing with people in crisis. We've actually started a pilot program that we're working on with them right now to get a better idea of how we can insert them into places of people in crisis. The other thing when it comes to advanced behavioral health response officers, that is a very specific thing that we had discussed during negotiations with the Department of Justice surrounding the CIT program. CIT program is a copyrighted program. So the state controls when that program, when that additional training happens. They have it once a year for everyone in the state, which means we can't do that. So we had to build our own class from scratch. To build that class from scratch takes time. Dr. Lederman, Sergeant Overhausen, and others have been working on that curriculum. And that is set to have our first class of advanced behavioral health officers start in December. So that is something that has taken time that we've had to build. But we have done a lot in this area, even though there are gaps identified in the report. I think it's more of an understanding gap than a lack of effort and activity gap.

Councilwoman Hawkins wanted to say something.

Yeah, thank you. No, I did not have any questions for the chief at all because we can bring the chief up here anytime. He's here, he's local. My question is, I heard, thanks for being here, first of all. I heard too early, not yet, No, no, end of year goals, and nine in sequence. That's what I heard. So the community is solely relying on you and your team, right? And for the, I can't speak for everybody's district, but I know that my district was affected by some of the actions of officers. And we know in anything, there's bad actors, not just LMPD. I wanna clear that up, right? But for the taxpayers' dollars that is being spent for reporting, for me, And I don't know, and I'm gonna say this in the most humbling, transparent way. You gotta come in here like you've really overseen LMPD and the processes so the community can trust you all. If this is a deficiency, it doesn't matter what I said, what District 19 said. If that's what you meant, that's what you stand on. I just wanna know, you all said you did ride-alongs. One of the questions that I wanna know with the ride-alongs, what areas did you ride in?

We've been in the fifth, the eighth, the, hold on a minute, let me look up my notes. We have been in quite a few of the different divisions, at least seven of them, and as a matter of fact.

Divisions or districts?

Divisions, you all have divisions.

Yes, so you've not been in the districts, right?

In the communities. So when we ride along, we ride along based on patrol divisions which cross your councilmatic districts. So without having a map in front of me, I don't know the councilmatic districts off the top of my head. I can tell you what divisions we've been in.

Right, and which leads me to my next concern. My next concern is, you know, Because I need the people that I represent to have a clear understanding of how often are you all here? How many times have you all been here since this has been put in place?

We've been here, a part of our team or another has been here at least eight times. Eight times? Yes, ma'am. How many months apart since? So we have to do our required by community commitment. We have to do our semi-annual reporting. I'm sorry, our quarterly reports. That's why we're here this week. We came in October of last year. We were here in November. We were here in, part of our team was here in December. We came in, a team member came in January. We did the observations for training. We were here in February. We came in, I think it was April we were here. We were here in May. oh, sorry, June, not May, June, and we're here now.

Okay, so how often are, how long are you all staying when you come?

We are here, that varies depending on the task, the assignment. So sometimes it's up to five or six days, and sometimes it is a day. It depends on what it is.

Okay, and how many team members do you have? 13. 13? Okay, so do the same team members come?

No, ma'am. For instance, I know you were virtual, so for instance today, we have two additional team members that I introduced that had not previously been here. And that is our subject matter expert, Azalee Johnson, standing behind me, and Mr. David Douglas is standing behind me.

So do you have a whole list when you all first came? Because I know somebody left and then you stepped in, right? Yes, ma'am. Do you have a list of consistent who is all on the team that you have?

Absolutely, we do. Yes, ma'am. We can gladly provide that to you.

And if any of those team members change at any time, who do you report that to?

We report that to... the Community Safety Commission. We're required to give notice to Louisville Metro and let them know that a team member's changed and the Community Safety Commission and let them know that a team member's changed and who they're being replaced with and we followed that rule.

Okay, how many team members has been swapped out?

Two.

Two, okay. And you replaced them with new team members? Yes, ma'am. Okay. So you said you report that to the mayor's office? To Metro government. The mayor's office? Yes, ma'am. Okay.

To our liaison, Deputy Mayor Kemper.

Right. So is there any way that when those team members change that you can report that to government accountability? Yes, ma'am. We certainly can. Because we don't get that information from the mayor's office. So my next question is, has the chief... you know and and not that i don't think that he has but i'm just being just asking the questions that need to be asked has he complied with you with everything that every tool that you've asked him and everything that you've asked him for no okay my next question is have you worked very close and how often do you work with ed harness yes we have and we meet on a regular basis all right thank you

I'd like to know, I know that you say you've written the fifth district, the eighth district. Who assigns the ride-alones?

So our team member normally gets a ride out to the district as in an Uber. We normally get transport ourselves. Sometimes we get a ride from an LMPD team member, and I can't tell you who assigns who we're riding with. We have Deputy McKinley. Deputy Chief McKinley is our point person on the team, through her office the assignments are made.

Yes, ma'am. So whoever wishes to do a ride along from their team will contact myself or somebody in the chief's office that will ask what division they would like to ride in and then that lieutenant will set up and coordinate that schedule for them.

Is it possible that they can ride in divisions, the first division and the second division?

Yes, whatever divisions they would like to write in, we can accommodate.

I think we have. I don't have my notes in front of me. I want to say we have been in the second already. So I know we're here at a public hearing. If I'm happy to get the factual information to you, about all of the various divisions that we've ridden in. I myself was in the eighth.

I know Jason was at four or five different ones this visit. Think of this. They've ridden in every patrol division with the exception of the third.

I'm sorry?

They've ridden in every patrol division with the exception of the third division.

They've been in the second and the third, okay.

They have not been in the third.

Is it possible that they can do the first? They've been in the first.

The third division is the only one they have not been in. Okay, all right.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a couple clarifying questions. Yes, sir. The community meetings, if I remember you said you've done two so far?

We have done three. Yesterday made three. We're back in November to do the fourth.

Yes, sir. Is there any feedback or documentation, the results of those meetings that have been provided to LMPD or the administration related to what came out of those meetings?

So I will not say by way of documentation. I will say by conversation. Oftentimes those meetings have been streamed by a community member that is here today and you can see that, you can watch in what's happening. We're going to start to put those on our website so that members of community can watch what happens. The feedback comes directly from community and we normally debrief or have discussions about them.

So let me be clear about my concern. And I do think we need to document it. Look, I'm not the mayor's office, to be super clear. The mayor's office runs your contract and technically report to him. The reason I'm saying that is because I actually hesitate to do public meetings and ones that are literally just like these open forums with the public, unless there is going to be actionable things that come out of it that can be measured, documented, and shared, because if we're just saying verbal, the problem with that is it gives, and this is for the public, not so much LNPD or big people, they can take care of themselves, but I get concerned that if we're just posting what happened publicly and just discussing it orally, that that people will voice things in there, and then if we're not documenting it, following up, and maybe incorporating to the plan or taking action or circling back with the community on, yeah, we did this, but no, we can't do that, that they'll feel like their voices weren't heard. Does that make sense?

I absolutely agree. Let me clear something up in terms of documentation. When we're holding these public community meetings, they're a requirement for the community commitment. They're documented. That is a part of our duty. So when we're showing up, we take, cards for questions if the members like to write them. We take questions out loud and we have team members that are raising those questions or documenting what those questions are and answering them. So when you say documentation, are you saying video documentation or written documentation? I want to be clear.

No, I'm saying like some kind of summary documentation that summarizes the answer.

What came out of the meeting? Correct. Oh, happy to provide that. We do that, but it has not been a requirement to provide it. So we can... to gladly share what comes out of the public meetings, but they're open public meetings, don't have a problem doing a debriefing or a document to show what comes out of it. We answer the questions that are asked, we provide slides and give content, and we provided a one pager to say this is what the premise of the meeting is. No problem at all.

Again, to be clear, if it's not part of the contract, this was all negotiated by the mayor, and we really have no say so over it. So it's just a thought process. I hope we can do it. If we can, that'd be great. If we can't, if it's not part of the contract, I'm not giving you an order, to be clear, because I can't. But my only other question right now, again, I'll refer to this slide. Top line, two individuals in behavioral health crisis, loss of lives and officer-involved shootings during the review period. Both incidents remain under investigation. I'm a little more familiar with one of the instances than the other instances. I just want to be clear about what we're saying here, particularly clear for the public, right? We are not saying that we have any evidence that there is wrongdoing at this point. In other words, I know in one of the cases that I saw, I saw somebody certainly in a mental health crisis, but police officers were literally trying to save their life and this person unfortunately charged at them with a weapon and police officers are allowed to defend themselves i don't think it's been these investigations are ongoing so we don't have any evidence that anybody has done anything wrong yet we're just pending the investigation is that what we're saying here what i'm saying is what's on the slide councilman

I'm not drawing any conclusions. We're not making any inferences. What I'm stating is just on the slide. Yeah, okay. Just making sure, yeah. We're not drawing any conclusions. Yeah, exactly.

And I think, unfortunately, when people will make the default position, which they shouldn't, and this is for, not just LMPD, but people are... who are involved in the criminal justice system, when you say somebody's being investigated, people automatically assume guilt when we have a system that is innocent until proven guilty. But yes, thank you for clarifying that. Just wanted to make sure.

No problem, sir.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Councilwoman Hawkins.

Thank you, Chair. I wanna be very clear on this. I understand that you can only do your job if you're giving the information and the tools that you need, right? And that is why I asked you a lot of the questions that I asked you, okay? But my next question is to you, Chief Humphrey. Why are you not complying with giving her the documents that she needs to be successful in the role that she has been placed in?

Madam Chairwoman, can I clarify something? Yeah. When you asked me the question, have I been given everything, I'm not stating that those are documents. In this process, there are things that happen in terms of setting up meetings or getting access, so everything is in a document. I just wanna clarify that.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, I appreciate that. Okay, so going back to that, whether it's setting up meetings, whether it is whatever that is, is there a reason why you're not giving her the tools that she needs to excel in her role?

First of all, I would disagree with that assessment of it. We've had meetings after meetings after meetings, and often we have meetings to talk about meetings. and so i prefer to have meetings to talk about policing at a certain point and so um but we have an entire structure built around making sure that we accommodate that i am not in all of those meetings i do not participate in all those meetings however assistant chief kerger is in a lot of those meetings we have compliance directors that are in those meetings we have people that are giving them information on a regular basis. We have a system to exchange documents. We use the box where documents, policies, drafts of things are dropped into there so that they can have access to them. We have disagreements on certain things, but I'm not sure at what point we have not provided them the opportunity to evaluate or review what they need to.

Which leads me to my next question. And Councilman Purvis, is it okay? Is it somebody from the mayor's office? Because my next question is, if for some apparent reason, if Alifa is not being given the tools that they feel like that they need to be successful in doing what they came here to do, whether they're agreeing, not agreeing, what happens? Because it looks like that Metro Council don't have a say, so it was by the grace of God that we got you all to be able to come over to report to us, but the public needs to know what is going to happen if you're not being given the tools that you need to be successful, whether it's meetings, whatever that looks like, We need to know through this process, and I believe my colleague, he said something about this, if this happens, what will we do? We've never gotten that answer.

Can I add a statement before Chief General Counsel come forward? You asked me the direct question, have you ever not gotten something? My answer is, are you getting everything? My answer is no, and I'm looking at that period. That is an accurate statement. However, since we've not gotten things, in this working relationship, that issue was resolved. So this isn't an ongoing issue. This isn't a continuum. You ask the question, I answered it, and it's been resolved. So while she comes up to speak, I want to not let it sit there. So if you ask me a closed-ended question, I want to make sure I give it context. There are times that we disagree. There have been plenty of times that we disagree, but in terms of the work going forward, we've been able to work through it. But when you ask me a question like yes or no, There have been times, but we have since resolved those and worked through it.

Could I interject quickly? There's a statement on slide seven that I think is an important statement. It says much of this is typical. Slide seven is areas needing urgent attention. It says at the bottom, much of this is typical when starting a major reform process. and all parties have worked together to strengthen channels of communication and coordination over time. So I wanted to give you an opportunity to kind of add more color to that because I think what we're concerned about, you're gonna disagree about things. That's totally fine. What we're concerned about or what we wanna know is Is the relationship working? Yes. Are you getting responsive feedback when you ask for it? And when you don't, is it being addressed? And it sounds like you were saying that yes, it is.

Yes, that is correct. So that's why we have the four areas that needs improvement. And when I spoke, and perhaps I glazed over it, to the smaller fine point that you just read, that is true. There have been times, and there still are, and there will be, because this is a process. And so we are not gonna always totally agree, but this is a working relationship. And so when we have those working sessions, we're still getting what we need. I've already cited in the report that certain things came after the close of the period, but we still got what we needed. And this is a relationship that is working. It is a relationship in process and progress. So when we initially started, there was a lot of push and pull. That is not atypical for this type of process. It is very typical. So I don't want, this is a public forum, and I don't want any dispersion cast as if we are not working together or working well together or able to resolve issues. That's not it at all.

Okay, I understand that, but I'm just gonna say again, just mean what you say and say what you mean. Whether it's, if it's something that, because when you build relationships, there's gonna be disagreement. So when I say, is he giving you the tools that you need? You didn't even have to say anything about anything past. I'm saying right now, is LMPD giving you everything that you need? Yes. Because the public doesn't understand that. That statement would make somebody think that you still have not been given what you need. Okay, so... LMPD is giving you, I want to be very clear with the people that are listening, everything that you need, great. I needed to know that part. Now, Misty, I don't know if you want to answer this question, but what happens in the event that if LMPD is not complying with Alifa? What happens there? If it ever happens. It doesn't mean that it is, but that question has, you know, everybody has asked that question. Even we don't even have that answer.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Misty Wright, General Counsel to the Mayor. So there are protocols that apply to the relationship between LNPD, LMG, and Alifa that specify how we resolve issues that come up as they do come up. I can tell you in practice what that looks like is we have weekly meetings. LMG has weekly meetings with Alifa. LMPD has their own meetings with Alifa where we make sure that we understand any issues that have come up and that we get them everything that they need in order to do their job. So I'm not aware of any instance in which we have... not followed through with giving them access to individuals they wanna speak to, promoting access to materials, whatever they need, they can have to get their job done.

Okay, so a Louisville Metro government has been counted the mediator in the event if it's a slow, I mean, because I know that people say, well, we get time, but it's easy to say that in this setting, but the community, You know, they don't want to hear that, you know, we get time. We know that this is going to be a process, but I need them to be able to trust Alifa. Understood.

Thank you, ma'am.

So we've been here open and transparent, and I noticed the officer, and I'm sorry, Sarah, I don't have your title and your name. I saw you shaking your head, so that gives me some concerns. Do you mind sharing with us if you have any concerns or anything you want to add to this?

Assistant Chief Brian Kerger. My concerns are, not really concerns, it's agreement. There are some challenges, especially when you don't have an entity that is on site. That is a huge challenge when it comes to dealing with this process. The other challenge is that sometimes we just don't know what they need. And they may say what they need, and we think it's one thing, but it may be another. But the open line of communication is there. Anytime that I need a meeting with them, they are well working around. I just send an email to one of the monitors and say, hey, I need to set up a meeting in regards to this policy that we're working on. And within a week, week and a half, we'll have that meeting and collaborate on the issues and everything. So it was more of me shaking in agreeance to what was going on.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman McCraney.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. I would like to speak to the presenter. Yes, ma'am. Hello. Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure to... know that you all are in town and you're executing your mission and i would like to offer some assistance at some point in getting more of our citizens to attend your meetings yes ma'am Yes. Is there any way we can find out when you will be in town in advance? And perhaps can we consider I don't know if this is in violation of the contract, but I would like to consider having all 26 districts put things in their newsletter. We have one big Metro Council district meeting with you all, and we invite our constituents to attend. And I think that would bring more than 100, 115 people to the meetings. And I think that would do a good service for the community. And they need to be more aware and hands-on seeing you in action, understanding what you're here to do. If that is something that can be done, can we make that happen?

Yes, ma'am. I know we send over the notices and the information to, I'm going to blank on a name.

Up to every council member in their age.

to every council member and their aid. I didn't wanna just name one. And there was another party that we, but we send that information over whenever we're coming in town, whatever meeting we're having, we send that information over. If it's not getting to you or something's happened, please don't hesitate to let us know. I get it, I get it. Okay, all right, I'm seeing here it's not, okay. So I just wanna make sure if something's changed and you're not getting it, please let us know. It might be a technology issue. We're happy to make sure you get that information and share it out.

Well, and so how do we, do we go through you to coordinate a massive meeting or do we go through the mayor's office? How can that work?

If you all would like to meet with Alifa, you can simply say we want to meet and we're happy to meet for whatever your meeting rules are when you all come together. I know there's public meeting rules. We have no problem at all meeting. If you'd like to meet, we're happy to meet, whether that's in person, whether that's virtually, we're just happy to meet.

Well, if that's the case, then my next, I call it Muffins with McCraney meeting, I'm going to reach out and see if you can be one of the guests at the meeting. If that is, if it's that simple, I would certainly like that to happen.

Yes, ma'am.

So that means you'll fly in just on the date that I... Is Muffins with McCraney virtual?

No. No, it's not.

Councilwoman McCraney, can I make a suggestion? The next scheduled time to be here, then maybe you will schedule a muffins with McCraney at that time.

Well, that would be fine. I'm just needing to know in advance when they will be in town next.

No, no. At the top of the year, we provided our entire slate for the year. We only adjusted a week this visit because of the holiday for Labor Day. But otherwise, we provided that. Happy to resend it out. We provided that in, I think, January. Can you resubmit that?

Yes, we can resubmit that. And I know that... Councilwoman McCraney said, schedule it with all 26 council members and then she said, Muffins with McCraney, how about Muffins with Metro Council? So we can invite all of our constituents in a setting, you know, maybe like this. I mean. Councilwoman. Because I just want to know, I just want to know like for the meetings that you all have been having, what has been the most amount of people that you all have had at any of the meetings and which location? Was it the Newburgh?

Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm looking back to my colleague that kind of keeps track.

That's fine.

We had 75 in Newburgh. You can step on up, Ron. Okay. Yeah, just give me the data on how many people showed up at which site and that would help me a little bit.

All right, good evening and thank you. When we had the meeting in Newburgh at the regional library, we had approximately 74, 75 people. And then last night at Simmons College, we had about 65 people.

Okay, so there's not been more than 100 people in any other meetings yet?

Not yet, but looking forward to that, especially as council members can help us spread the word.

I definitely want to help you all get more people, because we always get calls and stuff.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Can you introduce yourself for the record, please?

I am so sorry, Madam Chair. My name is Brian Corr. I serve as deputy monitor and community liaison for the Aletha monitoring team under the community commitment. Thank you.

So who's choosing? Is it the mayor's office that is choosing the locations for you all? Or is it LMPD? Or are you all just randomly saying, let's go here, let's go here? Who's coming up with the locations? And how soon are you getting it out? And how are you doing that to the community besides giving it to us?

Thank you for the question. So the answer's actually not quite any of those. The community commitment states that we need to rotate them throughout different communities in Louisville Metro, and so I am the person responsible for actually setting up and organizing the meetings. So it's been a process of talking to various people, including many people on the council, but also non-profits and community groups talking to the mayor's office and then doing outreach to other organizations to find venues that can accommodate us, that can do the places for people to come park, places that have the AV equipment. And so Simmons College, through a connection with Reverend Dr. Cosby, the president of the college, we were able to secure that. The Newberg Community Center, we were able to secure that through contact at the city, through Parks and Recreation, after, again, trying to find different places that were available on the specific nights. and the South Central Regional Library we were able to get through a combination of talking with the library and with help from the mayor's office. So the mayor's office has been helpful in terms of outreach and connecting us to the right individuals and then in terms of our next meeting will be the week we are planning to be here in November. We have not started to work on that yet and I've been in conversation with various people about where we might do it. As you can imagine, there are different opinions about the best location. We thought that with the semiannual report being an anchor, it was important to do that someplace that was relatively central. And my general sense is that we should look at the east end. And I know that we've heard from various people about how far out in the east end would be a place where people can reasonably attend from all of Louisville Metro.

Okay, I beg to differ with that. Newberg, I think you said the library. None has been in the West End. The Goodwill is in the West End, too. So that's safe. It's centrally located. So I think the Goodwill would be a great option. I'm not sure why the mayor's office didn't recommend that location. So I would recommend the November's meeting to be at the Goodwill. It's in the West End. I think that you all have went everywhere else. And I'll make sure y'all safe. if that's the concern. And I will make sure that I will try to get as many people there as possible if I know the data ahead of time. I don't think that you all have been to the West End since you all jumped on board.

Thank you, and I should have been clear that we had one meeting that was not an official quarterly meeting, which we had at the Passport by Molina Healthcare at 2028 West Broadway, which I guess is Russell, California in the West End. But that was an introductory meeting because we had just been hired. So I should have included that in the list. I sometimes think too literally because it wasn't a technical community meeting. And then of course the first time we appeared in the community was in September at the Republic YMCA in the West End. So we've been conscious of, both the specific reality of having a quarterly meeting in the West End and the other times we've appeared. So to your broader question, you're exactly right. We have not had a community meeting in the West End, and I appreciate the very specific suggestion I just wrote down about the goodwill.

I appreciate your transparency.

Councilwoman McCraney, I do apologize. If you want to finish your question, I'm sorry.

Well, thank you, Madam Chairman. I am just very adamant that we know in advance when you'll be here and that we we as a council, all 26 districts will have an opportunity to know that date and then just agree to one location, one big location where we can invite our constituents. Now, I mentioned muffins with McCraney because you suggested that you could do it at any time. And I thought, well, if if if it's no problem for you to come in town and do a meeting, then you can certainly come to one of our specific meetings. But I am really encouraging all 26 districts to come together and then know where the location is, the date, the time when you will be here so that we can put it in our newsletters and invite our constituents to one central location, one big, massive meeting.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Thank You madam chair I got a question for miss Wright actually so thank you just curious something dawned on me as the conversation was going on obviously we want the taxpayers are paying for this, so we want this to be efficient. Right, we want information to be shared, information that can come back, and that whole loop to work. Who is ultimately, and maybe it's you, and if the answer is you, how are we doing this? How are we kind of refereeing this? And by that I mean, for example, our LMPD officers are, how you doing? Our LMPD officers, have work to do on the streets preventing crime. They also have work to do to comply with the community commitment. Obviously, there's going to be some meetings involved. I get concerned when I hear meetings for the meetings. Look, I've grown up in corporate America. I know exactly what that nonsense is. Anybody that's seen the movie Office Space, they know what I'm talking about. There is a certain bureaucracy and nonsense that comes along with it, but is somebody from the mayor's office and how are they doing it, if so, making sure that both LMPD and Alifa, right, these are the two primary entities, are doing this in a way that is efficient so that we are not creating a scenario where we are either not complying with what we're trying to do or unnecessarily taking LMPD officers and using them for things that really when we could have them out in the street or investigating crime. You understand? Is my question clear? I don't know if this is clear.

It is very clear and the answer is yes, we are. And with me up here is Deputy Mayor Shan Kemper. She is our liaison for the purpose of the community commitment with Alifa and I think she would be better suited to answer your question with greater detail.

Deputy Mayor, thank you very much for being here. It's good to see you.

Thank you. Apologies for being late. I was at an event for our task force for small local businesses. Very good. Small plug. Going on until 7. We love small business, so yes. So I think, thank you for your question. Sure. I think that LMG and LMPD and Alefa, but I can only speak to LMG and LMPD, are very cognizant of the fact that we don't want to take time away from officers on the street. The meetings that we have with Alifa and LNPD are very, we make sure that they are time constrained and that they are clear. What is the agenda? What are we gonna be talking about? In addition to that, I think LNPD leadership is very protective of the officers that are involved with engagement with Alifa. so we are making sure that scheduling is happening in a timely manner. I am working with Dr. Lederman who is heading the behavioral health aspect of it and making sure that that is being done in a timely manner. Also, the community commitment has a mechanism so that if there is a disagreement on this issue or similar issues, the community safety commission and people on that community safety commission would be the one that we would bring this issue to to review. Does that answer your question?

It very much does, and I appreciate your comment specifically about time-constraining meetings, having agendas when you're walking in. Nothing drove me more crazy than walking into meetings and nobody ever, I would just cancel the meeting, I wouldn't go, right? So I think it is important that when we are scheduling these, we have them, agendas are posted ahead of time, I mean, as bureaucratic as some of our Open Meetings Act things are, it actually requires you to have an agenda posted. It's posted a certain time beforehand. Everybody knows what they're walking in there for. That means both parties can make sure they have just the right amount of people there. And then to your point, we stick to that, say, look, this should take 30 minutes. It's going to take 30. We're going to miracle it into that 30 minutes or an hour or whatever that meeting is. Thank you for saying that. I think that's an important part of this process, again, to make sure we do it, and at the same time make sure we're not being inefficient. Look, taxpayers have to pay Alifa, so we don't want to overspend there, and we also want to have officers doing their job, taking care of making our city as safe as possible. But thank you. That was very helpful, and I appreciate that. You're welcome.

Yes, sir. Councilman Herndon.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. I just wanted to say I've had the pleasure of attending all four meetings, including the one in Molina and the three quarterlies. And I think the size of those crowds was pretty workable. It wasn't so big that you couldn't really get to everybody. I thought all three or four meetings had different personalities, which is also a good thing as well. So just generally, I just think that size is good. I think it would be helpful to have one on the east end, one on the far west, but I think other than that, I've gotten something out of all the meetings I've attended.

Thank you, sir.

Are there any other questions, concerns?

I'd like to say, I just have to ask the tough questions. I have a really tough district, so I got to ask those questions. I got to get the answers that they need. We don't mind the tough questions, ma'am.

At the end of the day, what we're all here for is transparency. When you ask me a question, I want to be able to answer it, and I want to be able to state exactly what's happening.

And I appreciate that. I just want to make sure that the needle is moving, you know, because I got people that I got to answer to and they want to know. So thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Ms. Emily, for being here.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for being here. If there's no further questions or comments, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.