City Council - Regular Meeting

If you are one with stand, we'll call this meeting to order. At this time, we have a word of silence. Thank you. I will ask that if Councilman Craig Hampton lead us in pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. And let's be seated. Council remind you again that when you're talking, please make sure your mic's turned on and when you're not talking, please make sure it's not is that it's turned off so we don't pick up any background noises. Uh we're here to conduct business um for the city of Georgetown. On today's date is uh May the 11th, 2026. Uh we'll follow the agenda as written. Uh next time, madame clerk, would you call the role? Yes, sir. Mrs. Wilkins here. Mr. Chris here. Mrs. Hamburg present. Mr. Hampton here. Mr. M present. Mitchell here. Mrs. Tingle here. Mr. St

here. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Uh, council. Item number three, the approval of minutes for April 27th, 2026 city council meeting. At this time, I will entertain a motion. So move. Motion made by Miss Ham. Do I have a second? Second. Second made by Mr. Stone. Are there further questions and or comments? All those in favor of this motion signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay.

Let the record reflect that this motion pass. Item number four, receipt of the check registry. You should have received it. Electronic copy. Please raise your hand to show that you have received it. Thank you. Let the record reflect that all council members have received it. At this time, public comments item number five, you will have four minutes in which to come to state your business for that. Uh, and please, when you come to the podium, please uh identify yourself and then again, madame clerk will keep the uh time at three minute mark. She will let you know that three minutes and then uh you have one minute to finish up and then at the four minute mark, she will tell you that you have completed your time. Mr. Alonzo Allen, parking and various topics.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you, council, for the opportunity to speak tonight. Parking is a concern that many downtown merchants are is probably our number one issue. And in the mayor's forum, we talked about one long-term solution, which is the parking garage. Great idea, but it's going to be down the road. So, a short-term solution is to look at the parking that's behind Cravens and Lewis Jewelry. Uh that area behind there is a area that I think that most residents don't even know is there and I'm sure that most um visitors don't know that parking is available, but that could alleviate some of the parking issues. Uh currently the the signage is pretty poor and some of the signs some of the lettering has fallen off. So sorry, allergy still got me. So the the signage needs to be improved and also the striping needs to be improved. So probably pretty not much money, just a little bit of money could really enhance that area back there. So I would encourage council to take a look at that. Some of the parking behind Cravens is also private and council could take a look at doing a negotiation or enter an agreement with some of the private owners that maybe from 5:00 to 12:00 that could be city property. Uh so again, just an opportunity to alleviate some of the parking uh that the merchants are concerned about. On my second topic tonight, I want to uh address the concerns that citizens have had in terms of not being able to speak with council members. Uh this is a forum here in council where public comments are four minutes. And I wholeheartly agree that it's not an opportunity for dialogue. Uh four minutes isn't. So I would encourage council to look at an opportunity to create some listening sessions for the community. Uh this could be held in the library that holds 250 I think seats in the large community room. Um this is also uh council could set this up on some by

annual frequency where uh you have identified some topics you want to talk about but also just let the citizens come in and engage with council members who are the elected officials. So, um I'd also encourage council if you take this upon uh yourself to do this to look to get some of the citizens involved in what this might look like. So, again, I think there's opportunities for us here to alleviate some of the concerns of the citizens. Just want to express this and put it in your hands. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Item number six, the regional competitive competit uh plan update and right with us we have from Commerce Lexum, Miss Andy Johnson. Thank you. Thank you. And I think we've got a presentation and you all got a copy of that in your packet.

Perfect. Thank you very much. Well, we appreciate on behalf of Commerce Lexington the opportunity to come and give you all an update on where we're headed with the regional competitiveness plan, what we accomplished last year and where we're headed in 2026. And then to share with you all, we've done a a midyear check-in, a key performance indicator report, which is in your packet, but just give you an overview of that to really answer the question, is this working? Are we seeing progress from when we started until now? So, um, and this is just a reminder with the map that this is our nineounty region. It's it's beyond our MSA. This is a 700,000 population. This is the workshed from the the flow of our workforce in and out. Um this is a 30-mi radius and we're really able to compete um against larger metros when we market ourselves as this nineounty region unit from the competitive advantages just leveraging all those advantages that each of the communities have to offer. from the site development, the education resources, the housing availability, quality of place as this unit, we really are stronger together. So, just wanted to give that quick background. And next slide, please. This is um as you all may remember, these are the three primary goals of the regional competitiveness plan. These are the three goals that regional leaders determined a couple of years ago that these are going to be the benchmarks of success that we'll be monitoring each year. And so these were based on the challenges that we saw back in 2022 for the nine county region. So we're focused on are we increasing jobs, are we increasing our wages that people make, our GDP, things that we produce here in the region to at least the national average because you may remember we were below the national average a couple years ago. And then also workforce. Are we increasing that regional labor pool, particularly with our young professionals? And then are we continuing to be intentional about how we attract investments from state and federal government into infrastructure and business climate policies that help support competitiveness for all communities. Next slide, please. And so these are the seven action items. This is the lowhanging fruit. These are the

things that regional leaders said. If we work on these together as a region, resources, resource these things together, we can see benefits that are mutually beneficial for all communities. And as you can see, several of these items are around marketing, how we market ourselves as a region for job creation and for talent attraction and getting more sites ready. And then just continuing that policy advocacy. Next slide, please. And so, and we may have to click this three times, but um we divide the seven action items into three different buckets. Talent, workforce, economic development, and public policy. Commerce Lexington is that administrative entity. we're kind of keeping the train on the tracks just making sure we're staying focused on achieving these goals. There are certain deliverables that we're tasked with implementing um on behalf of the region, but then there are other areas where our local government partners are taking a lead like with the site development and some of the quality of place things in your community. Next slide, please. And so we'll start with talent and workforce. And I I'll pause here because I should have recognized the team members that that are here today. This is a team effort at Commerce Lexington. Jenna Great House is our She can wave. She is our EDP for economic development. She is handling implementing our economic development as aspects of the plan um along with the Bluegrass Alliance members and that's Jack Connor here in your community. And then Betsy Dexter is um the head of our talent initiatives. And so she is handling the leadership of the talent workforce initiatives along with our tourism and economic development partners. So for time I'm just the spokesperson and then I'm working on the policy side of this initiative. So, in review and recap of 2025 and where we're headed in 2026 with the talent initiatives, what we're continuing to do is maintain and elevate the talent attraction website. Look at lex.com with new resources. Again, this is that 30 pages live, work, play content. It's the digital front door for people to our region and it showcases each community. Last year, what we added were county specific pages that allowed

you all to tell your story more fully. um a community quiz feature that if people were trying to figure out where would be the best place for them to live, there's a series of questions they can answer. Pulls up a series of community cards that helps profile your community as well. So really proud of those additional resources. And so what we're doing is taking that attraction awareness phase of the campaign. We we're continuing to do the awareness to tourism partners, to our visitors to the region, and to the alumni of the 10 colleges, universities. But then what we're going to do is also layer in an evaluation phase. So the people that we know are interested in content about Greater Lex, serving them more detailed messaging about living or working here, whatever is their interest, and we're going to learn that through surveys and just some additional email messaging to try to get them more information so that they may choose to make that step to locate here in the region. Next slide, please. The other pieces of this campaign are the stakeholder engagement. We can't do this alone. are continuing to engage with our regional tourism partners, economic development professionals, HR, business leaders to provide them with these resources to help with their attraction and retention efforts, but also to get ideas from them about what they need and how we can help fill that gap. Um, additionally, the business student connections on the retention piece are very, very important. So, u, Betsy has launched a new synergy series where we're bringing together um, education leaders with those key industry targets. We've hosted advanced manufacturing actually here in Georgetown at Toyota and then just recently did a healthc care series as well. So just trying to make those connections where business and education can talk can figure out ways to be more in alignment. And then additionally just having resources through Handshake and Indeed platforms to make sure businesses are utilizing those resources to connect with potential workforce or students more easily. Next slide please. And so how do we know it's working? What are those success indicators? So since the start of the digital marketing campaign

in October of 2024 through December of 2025, so the end of last year, um over 7 million unique impressions, unique individuals reached, 20 million impressions overall across the country, again to visitors and to tourists. And then more than 80,000 people had visited the Look at Lex website. And so that's where Betsy is going to be working with Kismmet Marketing to retarget messaging to those individuals that have been on our site looking around to get more information about them. Um, and you can see some of the top pages that are viewed and that's that marketing funnel of how we're trying to take people on that marketing journey. Next slide, please. So, now we transition into the second component of the plan, which is economic development, the job attraction retention. So, Jenna is leading this effort again along with the Bluegrass Alliance members. And so, we have a separate regional website for economic development. its targeted audience like site selectors, industry targets, local officials, people that want information about locating a business in the region. That website is targeted towards that group of people and that is locate lex.com, but it has a regional focus, a regional map. There's information about each community in the region. Um, it has the property database where all the sites are listed. All the important data um that people are looking for are listed and it's been refreshed and we continue to update that site regularly. In addition to that, what's really important with economic development work is having those relationships with the national site selectors that are really the gatekeepers or projects for projects. So, the team engaged last year with over 130 national site selectors on behalf of the region to share the story of what we have to offer. Um, in addition to that, we continue to host internal economic development briefings like the regional summit just to make sure that we're all educated about the changing landscape and economic development and how each of our communities can be more competitive. A lot of things we're seeing, it's not just about sites any anymore. It's having that workforce and also the energy advantage. Having available energy has become one of the most important things. Um, in addition to

that, it's just continuing to do that digital marketing is just as important from a job creation perspective as it is to talent. So, the next slide, please, will show you all some of the things that Jenna and her team have been working on to highlight our key industry sectors, those areas of growth for us, and they're doing a really a targeted digital campaign to seuite executives, economic development professionals, national site selectors to raise awareness of our region within these areas. And so you can see a sample of some of those ads and some of the um results of the campaign over the last year. So over 40 million impressions raising awareness about the region and then over 30,000 new individuals have come to the locate and Lex website as a result of this digital marketing campaign in year one. So the awareness phase is working. The team is doing a brandled study that should be available this summer to show are we making progress? are people more aware of greater lex the nine county region within these key industry sectors and we will be sharing those results with you all. Next slide please. One um key asset that we wanted to highlight from 2025 is the nine video series. Video content is really important. So Jenna's team has worked to create four different videos. Actually one is still in progress, the food and beverage which will highlight the bourbon industry. But creating this video content helps tell the story of the region and we can use these resources in email updates. We're doing those to site selectors each quarter um on the website in our some of our digital marketing just gives us additional resources and you all can use this resource as well. So what we're going to do is hopefully be able to show you the um advanced manufacturing video because it features Toyota and BCTC. I think if we Yes,

I have a saying that we're not just building cars, we're building people. We're here on our Georgetown Scott County campus and we are very proud of this. It is a facility that you all were a major part of as well as many of our other industry partners in helping us in the design of it. This location has been a gamecher for us in serving the counties that we work with in this region. What they learn in this building gets us that much further into a lot of the skilled work that we do. So, I feel like it's a really good stepping stone for them to learn and to feel comfortable about the culture, but then being able to problem solve and feel good about what they're doing. Our students are stronger because of it.

We know that we could take those students and even improve their knowledge and their skill to make it not just a job, but an actual career for them. Workforce is the heart of TMMK and we are so thankful that BCTC is here to support us. It's making Kentucky stronger. Yeah. So, that's just one example of the video assets. Uh, next slide, please. We have a saying that we're

So, the third component of the regional plan is our policy advocacy. And this is just a reminder of the things that we're focused on as a region. We have a regional policy group that is made up of local officials and business leaders and they help us uh craft our state and federal advocacy agendas on behalf of the region each year. And the goal of that is again to just identify infrastructure investments that are important and policies that will help improve that overall business climate. And then we continue to work to expand connections and relationships doing things like this, connecting with our local leaders, um talking with our state officials and our federal officials about re what really is important to the region. And we there are three signature events I just wanted to highlight for you all. Um our greater lex day at the capital, Washington DC flyin, and of course the annual regional summit in November. Next slide please. This is just a highlight from the this past session in Frankfurt. Some of the things that we advocated for on behalf of the region, things that we feel like are wins across the board. Um, from a transportation budget perspective in that two-year state budget, over 340 million invested in projects across the region. 50 million is invested over the bienium in the Kentucky product development initiative, which has been really successful at getting more shovel ready land across the nine county region. Over 18 projects have benefited from that program. $30 million investment in the Bluegrass Terminal expansion which will be really helpful for getting more flights online. Um the Central Kentucky Business Park received funding and then of course we advocated for the creation of a new Kentucky talent attraction grant program $5 million to help get that off the ground and so we're hoping to apply on behalf of Greater Lex to get additional funds that can help support our talent attraction marketing efforts. Next slide please. And so one of the challenges that that we continue to have as a region, and we'll talk a little bit about that in the report, is just the housing piece. Cost of living is an advantage, but housing continues to be an issue. We talked a lot about it in the session in Frankfurt, but didn't quite make headway, and we expect that to be an issue that comes back up in 2027. Just really got to keep an eye on um the cost of living factors and the

the rise in home prices across the region. It's definitely a problem in Faget County, but we're seeing those increases across the region as well. Next slide please. And then this is just a reminder of the funding breakdown. This is a a private sector local government supported effort. So 2 to one businessto government still nearly a million dollars is coming from the private sector from businesses to support the effort. But we really do appreciate the investment from our local government partners across the nine county region. And this is a breakdown of what we expect in the coming year. We are um moving to a fiscal year in terms of how we budget to make sure that it's on the cycle with local governments. So these are we are going to continue to make that ask based on the dollar per person formula for each community and so we've got the city of le L le Lexington's investments and what we expect from the regional governments. We've got nearly 100% participation across the region which is really exciting to see and we appreciate your all's investment in this plan. Next slide please. And that just gives you a listing of those government partners. And then the final thing that I will um to talk about today in the briefing is um the key performance indicators report, the KPI report. You've got a full copy in your packet, but this was our midyear check-in to say how are we doing? Is this working compared to what we saw as challenges when we started this effort? And so the good news is it is working. So these are five of the key highlights from the report. Regional economic performance is improving. We're seeing economic momentum across the nine county region. Jobs, GDP, wages are all at the national average. So that is a very positive trend line that we want to continue. We're seeing particularly strong growth across the key industry sectors where we're making those marketing investments. advanced manufacturing, far pharma and um medical manufacturing, automotive manufacturing, aerospace, business and professional services, logistics, all of those are seeing growth and we just want to keep

that going. The workforce, the labor force is growing across the nine county region and we're seeing strength in that 20 to 34 year old cate category, excuse me. In the last three years, 7,000 individuals have moved into the labor force in that category. So, we want to continue that momentum. Quality of life, again, key advantage for us. We've got it off the charts, but we've got to watch the housing piece and continue to work on solutions there to make sure that we are monitoring how those costs are increasing. And so, finally, you know, one of the challenges were the job ready sites, but we are seeing significant progress across the region to get more shovel ready land ready to go. And so, you know, it's working. We just want to keep it going. And again, we really do appreciate your all support of this effort. We believe that all of these things are mutually beneficial for all of us and we just want to keep keep the progress going. So our final slide is just we are better together and we hope that these are things that just come alongside you all and help elevate this community and all the wonderful things that you're doing. And I will pause there because I know we're all warm and um open it up to questions and then again Jenna and Betsy are here to help answer any specific questions about their areas of work. Thank you.

All right. Thank you so much Andy for the update and uh council is there any questions or yes mayor just a quick comment. Thank you all for providing the regular updates because that's really important that we stay on track with that. One of the things I just want to remind council and and our folks in Georgetown is at the same time that this initiative was going on, Georgetown, Scott County actually did the same deeper dive with the same company to even further strengthen our strategy for economic development, workforce, and marketing here in this community. And so a lot of the changes that you've seen over the last several years uh with Scott United at tourism and workforce is because of this effort on a regional basis and we're even stronger now at a local basis and it allows us to compete at a much greater uh level across the country to be able to look and bring in those highpaying jobs in and more folks into this community. So, thanks for that coordination of that activity.

Just a question. Yeah. Um, and so the brand name is Greater Lex and so do you find that the different uh counties and cities compete with one another based on the people that are going to the website or how how does that even out? How does it mean? I I can even And that's not a negative. It's just I'm trying to figure out how it Yeah.

I think the important thing was creating that universal brand that gave us all an umbrella to live under. And so what you will see on both sites is that we are showcasing each community on the site. And depending on what whether it's a site selector or um a a person, there may be different things they're interested in. And so that may lead them to one community over the other. And we just want to make sure that there's equal representation and that the information is being presented as a unit. And then people can follow the journey of the website to get to each place, which to Kim's point, the the stronger your marketing is if they click on the link for this community,

if that information is is stronger, too, that helps with that journey of their information gathering. But we have been very intentional about the way we put information on there to make sure that it's balanced and that each community um is being showcased whether we're talking about housing or education or outdoor amenities or the job sites or the property indicators that everybody has a presence. And so the thing to remember is that a business or a a person or a family, they're not necessarily looking at county lines. They're looking at the region as a whole. And so they may be just exploring different communities as they're thinking about what may be the best fit for them. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

And there was actually a marketing analysis done around all of that as well during your process, right? So because it's not it's not the folks in this region, it's the folks across the country and around the world. So differentiating between Lexington and Georgetown or Winchester. Yeah, people have heard Lexington much more than Georgetown or Winchester. So all right, welcome. Any other questions or comments? Again, thank you Andy for your Thank you all. Appreciate it.

All right. Item number seven is mayor's comments. And I got a couple items I want to bring to you way before I go over my mayor's proposed budget presentation along with my uh staff with this. Uh the Georgetown Housing Authority has uh hired a new executive director and she's coming on board on June the 15th. Right. So there you go. I think the Georgetown News Graphic put something in the paper on her I believe. So, uh, if you have not want to know more about her, she she's got front page cover coverage. So, there you go. Uh, uh, council, as you know, the 25th, which is supposed to be our next meeting, uh, is on a holiday. So, and of course, that's Memorial Day. So, at this time, I would need a motion to cancel that particular meeting.

Motion made by Mr. Hampton. Do I have a second? Second. Second made by Mr. Stone. Are there further comments and or questions? All those in favor of this motion signify by saying I. I. I.

Those opposed say nay. And of course, just an update here. As you know, June 1st is going to be the first uh actual reading of this budget that you were going to talk a little bit about tonight. also keep on that uh on May the 18th there are some um with by having a uh special call meeting because there are some items that has to be is timely that we have to get done before because if we go with the meeting like we supposed to do the next meeting is June 1st that's three weeks from now but there's a couple things that we have to get done and so uh staff going to send something out to you all about May 18th providing this facility is open okay so Stay tuned for that. All right. Next, if is item A is executive order for airport board is Michael Neck. Uh you all saw his resume and I've had a good conversation with him and also with Judge Covington because this is a joint appointment and so uh council at this time I would like to have a um motion to accept this recommendation from the mayor. Motion made by Miss L, excuse me, Miss Mitchell. Do I have a second?

I'll second. Uh, second made by Miss Brent. Are there further questions in or comments? Mayor, just a quick question. Uh, thanks for sending the resume u for him. Uh, the one question I have, does he have any connection? Is he a pilot or yes, he is experience because that wasn't in his resume. Yeah, he is. He, matter of fact, he's a customer out there and that there he he flies. Okay. Okay. That that's a great point that should be included in his resume. All right. Thank you. All right. Any other question or comment? All those in favor of this motion signify by saying I. I.

Those opposed say nay and let the record reflect it. It pass. All right. Item B, the 2026 2027 mayor's proposed budget presentation. And uh first of all, let me thank my staff for assisting me here with this endeavor. So here we go here a little bit. Council, you've been provided a copy of the full budget message and proposal for the fiscal year 2027. Here are some key points. one's revenue raising and expenditure goals. The general fund revenues are projected to be approximately $47.7 million. This is $580,000 increase over last year's projected revenues. Based on the potential slowing trend of occupational license fee for employment withholding growth projections are more conservative than in recent budget years. The general fund operating expenditures are projected to be 47.6 million with an additional 8.8 million in capital one-time expenditures. My staff is actively in reviewing citywide compensation and promotional policies to compare Georgetown to the market and continue working towards addressing any challenges related to hiring retention compression. After final review numbers from fiscal year 2025 26 are available for review. I will be considering compensation structure adjustments balancing budget

sufficiencies and policy. I intend to bring forward a workable approach to the council in early fiscal year 2027. activities anticipating this fiscal 2027. This budget proposal includes a 2.7 cost of living adjustment for city employees with an additional 1% to offset the increased employment contributions to the public pension fund. We had additionally six additional positions which are one assistant finance director, three police officers and two maintenance workers, various facilities and equipment maintenance items such as IT hardware and software, park maintenance and repairs, fire station interior projects, replacement of dump truck, sidewalk park and street maintenance projects, storm sewer infrastructure maintenance and projects and the replacement of uh lease fleet vehicles. design and planning costs for facilities expansions and or additional for our public safety departments have allocated $500,000 to match the general assembly of 3 million appropriation for public road improvements surrounding the proposed legacy run commercial park projection. some changes. Previously identified goals such as the extension of Lexus Way uh extension of Old Oxford design fees

and equipment for fire station 4, expansion of the Georgetown Cemetery, the West Main Street sidewalk project, and more remain part of this budget proposal. With the needs assessment for these projects underway, I have prioritized funding for the design phases of a new dispatch facility and the expansion of the police department in addition to support buildings. Over $4 million is included for the construction of fire station 4. Over $1 million is allocated for storm water infrastructure projects. On the staffing side, the addition of an assistant finance director, which has been long discussed, will be will improve operations citywide and more effectively distribute the workload in this critical city function. The two the addition of two maintenance workers will serve as the first step towards creating a full storm water maintenance crew. Lastly, three additional police officers are included as we aim to sufficiently staff our police department to meet the community's needs and continue growth. Last year's last fiscal year, the city implemented one change of to the fiscal policy that will impact the administration of this proposed budget. An amendment for the nonprofit agency funding policy which was updated for process for submitting, reviewing, improving requests for funding agencies funding to allow for the contingency funds to support additional requests throughout this

fiscal year. One thing I want to say, I I'm very much excited about this particular budget. I think it's addressing some of the needs that we're trying to do. being fiscally responsible with taxpayers money. And if you look at it, we're in in surplus, taking our surplus and actually putting it back to people. We don't want to be sitting there holding this money. We should be doing something with it that will help make the quality of life for people in this community moving forward. And that's what this budget has done. Like I said, I'm excited about it and I appreciate the the all the effort of our our different departments coming together, our finance department, our chief administrative officer and others that came together to put this together. And as you can see, I think it's it's it is something that will be attainable for us to be able to do and then look for down the road to address any other issues that may come up. That being said, I'm going to ask that uh Stacy come up. And in your packet, you got some additions, but one thing I want to uh bring Stacy come up. There is a typographical error on the major mayor's funding agency proposal. Uh the bluegrass community action was for 60,000 requested and it was 60,000 given. And as you all know that was part of the uh initiative that we was going to do as for providing where uh for the bus rides on the on the buses where now we are taking the the lead on that where it doesn't cost anyone any money to ride the bus. Remember we put 20,000 in to cover the rest of the year in June. So from July on for the full year is 60,000. So we are implementing that. That's what you call getting back to the

the public because this will help also with people with barriers for even getting to from work or anything else to do going to a man house or the gathering place or all the other places that is compacted by not having transportation. So that being said, Stacy, I'll turn it over to you.

Yes. Thank you. Um we'll go on to the next slide. We'll get to the budget assumptions slide. I believe there's our agenda. Mayor's given his budget. There we go. And I certainly cannot read that. So, I have it printed out as you all do as well. So, with our budget assumptions, uh the mayor went over a few of these in his budget address. Uh I'll go over it in further detail. If anyone has questions as we go, feel free to stop me and let me know. Um, as the mayor said, a cola of 3.7% including the 2.7% that was recommended by Department of Local Government for elected officials and the 1% as a little over half of our employees will see an increase in their employee contributions to the pension fund. So, this helps offset that for them. For the general fund, that cola is just under $723,000. The CS rates did decrease again, not as significantly as they did the year before, but we did save around 145,000 on that. If the rates had remained the same, uh we would have had that additional cost. Property and liability insurance is estimated at 10% higher than last year. Um as anyone else's does, our property values go up as well. Uh and of course allowing for any claims, modifications. Uh looking at that, our city contributions towards employee health benefits increased 12%. Uh this was something we discussed especially in finance committee and possibly at the April 14th work session that we would look at if we could reduce or not. But we had a couple of bad claims years. the pharmaceutical program that we put in recently with the savings sharks helped kind of catch up, but we still don't have that little reserve fund that we like to have in case of bad uh fe claims years. So, we want to build that back up

just a little bit. So, after looking again, didn't feel comfortable recommending that we reduce our contributions to our medical fund. We are partially self-insured, so we pay our claims directly. And lastly, just as always, a reminder, the fund balance policy adopted by council establishes a desired minimum of 30% of operating expenses or revenues, whichever is greater. When we get to the slide in the back, you'll see this year operating revenues are greater by small margin. So, that's the number that we will use when calculating that minimum fund balance. Uh, we started something new. Uh, next slide, please. When we did this budget presentation last year, uh we we took out some of the things that maybe were a little more revenue focused on some measures that we're not quite ready to do right now, but we wanted to keep in some of the historical data that we presented last year, update that from year to year as we go on just for context as we continue to grow and um address that with our current revenues. So again, just a screen showing the Georgetown population growth from 1990 to 2026. And you can see we've grown from 11,414 to estimated 41,882 as of 2026. Data is taken from the World Population Review. We are currently growing at a rate of 1.66% annually. So you can kind of see slow but steady growth over the last five or six years. With that, our revenues, our total general fund revenues have been on a fairly steady incline since 2021. You can see the spike in 2025. That was due to our large net profits returns. Uh those are unusual, but generally speaking, a general uh steady incline. As the mayor mentioned in his budget address, when you look at what we

budgeted for 2026 versus what is projected for 2027, we'll talk about it a little bit more in detail here in a minute, but our payroll tax revenue growth has slowed a bit. So, we're projecting a little more conservatively for next year to try to see how that comes in at the end of this year uh before addressing some other things. and and making those uh projections any higher. So the next slide is payroll tax revenue and you can see again this is nearly half of our revenue budget. Our revenue budgets around 47 million. We're projecting in fiscal year 2027 22.4 million. So not quite half but almost. Uh obviously this is dependent on our local economy. uh how our businesses are doing across the board. Uh if our businesses have a lot of retirements, that can affect us just like with us. If you have a lot of retirements, uh higher salaries fall off, lower salaries come on board. Uh and then just a couple of places slowing down a little bit. So in the last few years, our growth had been more around 9 or 10%. Um from 2024 to 2025, it dropped to about a 4% growth. Um, obviously I didn't have that end of the year number when we were developing last year's budget. So in developing this year's budget, that's why we've been a little more conservative using about a 5% growth rate instead of that 9%. And again, once we see how that comes in at the end of the year, we'll be able to revisit some of those measures um that our departments have requested. Next slide just shows that same graphic for some of our other major revenues. These are the ones I typically present to you on at our quarterly financial reports. You can see our property tax revenue slow and steady. We typically um in the past council at least in the most recent

years has adopted the 4% rate which allows for a 4% growth in revenue for existing property exclusive of any new property. You can see the insurance premium tax growth. Um there was a big jump in growth especially between 24 and 25. Even on that one we went a little bit more conservative. That one has had pretty steady growth in the 9 to 10%. That was a big jump between 24 and 25. It was about a 17% growth. Um we still at the time I looked at this we had about half of year's data we were running about 2% ahead but our last quarter of the year is usually our biggest. So again, if we're able, once we get that last quarter put in, uh we can adjust that. Uh as the mayor mentioned, we'll be doing more of budget amendments more often. So we'll have the opportunity if these revenues come in stronger at the end of the year to adjust as needed earlier in the fiscal year, but just keeping that conservative. So this is about a 6% growth rate that was used to project for the insurance premium tax. just a little bit more conservative uh than the last year was. General fund projected revenue. As you can see, I've got most of them broken down by major categories. You do have the line item detail that backs all of this up. Um you can see property taxes u projecting about 160,000 more than the year before. Employee withholding that projection is actually down from this year. Again, we had used a 9% growth rate uh for this year and it's coming out to be around more like 5%. So, that actually decreases that projection. Our net profits, keeping that the same. Our base uh net profits returns are hovering right around 4 million. Insurance premium tax um projecting about a 700,000 increase. Other licenses and permits are down just a little bit. Franchise fees are up about 60,000. We

do have a little bit of increase on say the electric, water, those type of franchise fees, the garbage, uh the cable franchise as we've talked about recently. We used to get around 150,000. It's just continuing to steadily decrease each year as everyone cuts the cord when it comes to cable television. So, we get a little bit from that. Um investment income, I've got about 500,000. We've collected a lot more than that this year, but based on having to we're about ready to close out council approved closing out that $20 million CD. Uh looking at what we want to keep invested if we have that 30% minimum fund balance interest rates have gone down a little bit. They're somewhere between three and four around three or 3.5. But um just kind of look thinking about getting if we can have that 3.5% rate on that fund balance reserve completely invested that would be about 500,000 intergovernmental revenue for the most part this is where the county reimbures us for their portion of our interlocal departments or they provide us we receive half of the ambulance income half of the electrical inspection income and a portion of the animal control fees. So that's what's in that category. And other income down about 8,000. We've done a lot of surplus over the years, but it's kind of slowed down just a little bit. So you can see total revenue projected about 580,000 more than the year before. Okay. Now that we've talked about revenues, we'll start getting into our main expense, which is personnel. Obviously, the vast majority of what we do to provide services to our citizens is in the place of our workforce, uh, especially public safety. Uh, I think usually almost over half of our budget or close to it is public safety, public works, dispatch. Um, you can see total

city employees from 2021 to 2027. In the little box in the upper right hand corner, it goes back to 2000. So you can see our proposed budget has 254 positions and we're starting to get back up to where we were in about a little more than where we were in 2005. Now I think after last budget year we finally caught back up to where we'd been. You know, again, you kind of have to go with the flow of what the economy is doing and some hard decisions had to be made in the past and we have thankfully been able to build back up, but the mayor is always trying to do this in a conscious way to make sure that we don't strain our recurring revenue resources. So, he already mentioned the six positions uh that would be added. Next slide, please. Breaking this down just kind of into our three main general fund departments. sworn police personnel. With that one, you can see, as the mayor mentioned, the proposed addition of three new uh police officers. And in the upper right hand corner, you have that comparison. Uh back in 2018 is kind of when we had our peer uh study done. We probably need to update that, but our peers at the time had 2.2. Uh checked in with Captain Loadal. The FBI national average is still at 2.4. police officers per 10,00 residents. So with the addition of the three officers, we'll be at 1.93, which as you can see back in 2018, we were at 1.69. So slow but steady progress towards that. Next slide. Firefighter personnel. from 2021 to 2027. Last year, we added uh fiscal year 26, we added three new firefighters, which was the first actual frontline firefighting headcount we've added in a while, but that was obviously in

preparation for fire station 4. Um, you can see our peer average was 2.22. With 2027, we're actually at 1.4. However, we all know in just a couple of years, planning in summer of 2028, provided everything goes as planned is when fire station 4 would be coming online, assuming this budget's approved and a construction contract is approved subsequently. And then we would be adding nine additional firefighters to this headcount at that time. Uh just a reminder, I know we've talked about this in the fire uh finance committee. I believe we talked about it on April 14th, our work session. But just a reminder for the public as well that the reason we are not adding those nine firefighters in this budget is because the hope is to apply for the safer grant in spring of 2027. And by the time the life cycle of that application plays out, we would expect to hire those nine firefighters in winter of probably 2028, right around January, giving them time to be trained and to come online for that new fire station. So in the 2728 fiscal year is where you will start to see those nine firefighters be added on. Next, public works staffing. You can see uh 2021 we went from 19 to 28 and 2022 that is when our sanitation department was privatized. Uh we moved all of those employees over to public works through attrition. We got down to 26 which was the level we had uh desired at that time. But obviously a lot of discussion has been had about storm water and a lot of the maintenance items and small repair projects that can be done by our public works staff. So, uh, Robert Bruin with his budget proposal,

uh, submitted a crew of five, but, uh, just looking at our budget and what we have, thought starting with two maintenance workers would be an ideal start to kind of get us going on that storm water crew and we can continue to build on that in future years. So, the 28 positions proposed in 2027 do include the two new storm water crew maintenance workers. This next slide is just a snapshot of just the personnel cost for each uh department in the general fund. And at the bottom you have a little bit of some of those incentives that the mayor put in place last year carrying those over. Sick buyback, police and fire certifications, cell phone stipens. Those are not new, but they're mainly used in our public safety departments. uh they often use their cell phones. Uh if they choose not to have a work phone or don't need a work phone, we do offer a cell phones stipened. Um typically those have been budgeted covered with vacancies, but I wanted to make sure those were accounted for. So it's not a new initiative. Just making sure that we've budgeted for it specifically and not just letting vacancies cover that amount. Uh I'll make a couple of notes on a couple of the decreases with um building inspection. That is just due to converting vacant positions to filled positions. Sometimes people choose a different health insurance plan than what we budgeted. So the budget for the next year changes. And then code enforcement. That difference is based on how that has now been structured with a senior code enforcement officer. The assistant chief of prevention will still be over that department, but reducing the allocation of that position's salary to just 10%. So it used to be that 45% of their salary was charged to code, 55% charged to fire. Now we've reduced 10% charge to code and 90% charge to fire

just to keep that fair and equitable for all parties since it is mainly a high level uh administrative function. Next, outlining the personnel request. The mayor already mentioned the six brand new positions. One additional addition is the code enforcement administrative assistant. They've had a part-time assistant for a while and are in need of a full-time assistant. So, the 66,000 is inclusive of additional salary and adding benefits as that position was not eligible for benefits before. Positions deferred until we're able to see um where things come in at the end of the year were five police officers. So, a total of eight were requested. three were uh funded in this budget, a crime analyst which would be a civilian position for the police department and the other three members of the stormwater crew. So, as you can see with the stormwater crew, uh the mayor and brewin chose to go with the maintenance workers who would be more of the boots on the ground doing the work and the crew leaders and equipment operators from other crews can can kind of oversee and help with that work in the meantime until we're able to fully fund that crew. Okay, we kept this slide in from last year and updated it. Kind of dropped off a couple of the older ones, but just keeping it always at your all's forefront. There's been a lot that the city's done over the last six years with large capital projects, the radio system, Cardinal Drive, West Main, uh Old Oxford land purchases for that future project. We have uh obviously city hall and lanes run business park phase three in construction at the moment. Fire station 4 is in the design phase. The west main street sidewalks phase two is also in the design phase. Um Lexus way and old Oxford our funding has been awarded for

design phase and I think we're very close to being able to given the green light to put that design out for procurement. Our facility needs assessment for PD and 911 is in progress and we have procurement out on the street now for the lappole design. Um that was part of the county and city's initiative to try to work towards some larger quality of life projects. They were doing I believe some ball field um cloverfield type projects and we were procuring design for the lap pool. So next proposed capital expenditures in the general fund. This is quite a list like the mayor said u trying to make an effort to we have thankfully over the last several years had good economic growth. We've been able to put some money away in reserves while still maintaining our minimum fund balance uh trying to look towards addressing some of our needs. I won't go through every item on the list, but we have some IT projects on there. Um, mobile and portable radios for the three new officers that would be added. Uh, the fire station continues to need different fire stations continue to need equipment, gear washers, phase two renovations for station one as they continue to get that ready for their headquarters. Uh, small bedroom renovation, the training center sewer line extension. this was kind of a found condition with their sewer line that needed to be taken care of. Um can't remember if they mentioned that at fire committee, but it is some connections that need to be done there to kind of get that completely um operational, but to get it done in in the appropriate manner. The uh SCBA cylinders and masks, public works, a new dump truck. We were able to replace one of their dump trucks this past budget year. They had two that were both over 20 years old, rusting bodies. So, um

that was his highest priority item for capital was to replace that second duck truck. Uh replacement of a mower, parks maintenance and small capital projects, our half of that, this comes from the parks and recck budget is 341,922. And then for the police department design, this is what the mayor was talking about in his budget address. So, these will be treated as transfers to capital projects. You'll see these in the transfer to capital projects line. The design fee for the renovation and expansion of the main police department building 640,000. The design of a support building that would hold a lot of their equipment um and larger vehicles 160,000. And our portion of the 911 FH facility design since that's an interlocal the county would be a partner on that. Our portion would be 316,953. The mayor mentioned the 500,000 to match the Senate appropriations uh for the business park that's uh going out in that direction. Fire Station 4, this is one, just as a reminder, um you know, we've talked about using cash so far for fire station 4. Uh $4 million is in here for the construction and 56,000 for the construction administration. When we approve that contract, we only approved the design fees. So, we need to bring in the construction administration of 56,000. Uh at some point, council can choose to adopt a reimbursement resolution for any of these projects, these larger projects. does not commit you to issuing any debt or bonds, but just reserves the right for you to do so and go backwards to capture some of the design fees. Again, it doesn't commit council to anything, but at some point in the near future, maybe something the mayor want to bring may or may want to bring to you all to consider so that if you don't want to spend down cash that much, you

can choose whether it be on the fire, police, PD, 911, any of that. And lastly, carrying over the cemetery land purchase, we've actually budgeted 200,000 that is an interlocal. So, our portion is 100,000 for that. Um, and again, they're working through uh some different things to find property. Uh, trying to see if we can work jointly with our other local agencies that may purchase park land that would be eligible to transfer those land and water uh conservation fund restrictions to. But if not, we still have that money sitting there to be able to make a purchase. And next, um, this one focuses on our engineering and storm water projects. The entry, you can see that a few of these are marked carryover. So, the entry point signage project, design and construction, Washington Street sidewalks. Uh, this is something that was approved kind of at the very near end here for council. So, we'll be carrying that over. Uh, they're working on I think design now, but uh, the construction will carry across fiscal years. East Main Extended Road improvements, some smaller uh storm water infrastructure projects on Tiger Way, the Indian Hills project that public works will be assisting with. Then three larger storm water projects, the 503507 South Broadway project carried over. There's a Colony storm water project. This was mentioned in the storm water presentation that Eddie gave to you all probably about a month ago or a few couple meetings ago. and uh an estimate. This is an estimate on design and construction for the Clayton Broadway project, which is that corner that we own there in front of G. Just looking at doing a storm water feature there. Uh and this design and construction cost would be just for the storm water feature at the moment. And then I know there's obviously some interest in doing other projects there, but uh again, this was an estimate. We'll see what we're

able to do with with the money allocated. So agree in total between these two slides, as the mayor mentioned, 8.8 million of capital projects in this budget. So that is a large number, but we've got a lot of large uh projects coming up that we're trying to get ready for. The biggest portion of that obviously being the fire station. Okay, next slide. I won't spend a ton of time on this slide, but this is just a summary of each of the general fund departments. So, this is inclusive of all expenditures, payroll, uh, personnel, operating, capital, everything in total. So, you can see that the current year budget was just under 51.6 and next year's budget at 56.4. And, uh, couple of the swings in numbers on the biggest one, the fire department. The reason for the large reduction is because they have purchased some fire engines this year that are not in their budget for next year. Those are moved to the capital projects fund carried over and on the interlocals we had a lot of money in there for parks capital. Uh the lappole design will be moved to capital projects fund as a carryover from this year. Marshall Park was a big project that we finished up this year. So there was a lot of that. Obviously, the much larger number in transfers is due to transferring all of that money for capital projects for the design fees and construction into the capital projects fund. Okay. Next, and just as reminders from the work session, what was requested but not included. Um, again, this is not for the personnel, but this is for the uniforms and radios for new police officers. We deducted uh what that cost would be for the five officers not funded. The construction administration fees for the

actually I'm sorry the design and construction administration fees for the old 911 center police department is still through their facility needs assessment deciding exactly how much actually needs to be done to that building to what extent uh and what extent we might be able to do that um almost in-house like we have with some other projects. um since it is just a big open space. Police construction administration fees for the renovation and support building and construction administration fees for the 911 facility. In keeping as we did with the fire station, we're just including the design fees. Construction administration fees will be added to the budget when and if a construction contract is approved in a future budget. Public works had also requested a will loader with attachments. uh that piece of equipment is being deferred and 250,000 was included for additional street paving uh and traffic calming, but we want to spend down our MAP funds first. We still have a pretty decent balance there. So once we get that money spent down, uh then I know it is the mayor's desire to try to include additional funds in the operating budget each year to supplement our municipal road aid funds, but we want to spend down what we have first. Okay. Next, we'll talk about the bottom line. So, just a graph showing our general fund balance 10-year trend. And this is total fund balance. This is our minimum plus any cushion. Um, and as you can see, the 2027 budget does propose using a lot of our reserve balance for these onetime capital projects. So, we'll talk more on the next slide, which is kind of the breakdown. I've done my best to try to keep this in an order and flow that makes sense. I know sometimes. So, starting at the top, we have where our fund balance ended June 30 of 25, which was just under 31.9 million.

If budget amendment three, assuming if it is approved tonight, our current budget reflects using $5.7 million of our fund balance uh to balance that budget. Again, mostly due to capital items, which would have us anticipating ending this year with 26 just excuse me, under 26.2 million. For the 2627 budget, I did break it apart into two line items. So, you will see, as we mentioned on that earlier slide, 8.8 million of capital or one-time expenses. That would be using up some of our reserves to take care of those items. our operating budget. So pulling out all of those capital one item capital and one-time expenses, our operating budget actually has a 30,000 surplus. So the net effect of that is at the end of June 3027, we would anticipate our general fund balance being just under 17.4 million. And then the other thing I wanted to note, we've talked about payroll taxes. Um, I'm being very conservative here because I won't see these ending numbers until late July, early August. But, um, based on we had used a 9% growth projection, it's looking more like 5%. So, being very conservative, there could be up to a $1.8 million budget shortfall for this year. So, I've accounted for that, showing that as a reduction. And then the 887,000 that's being added back is because of all the projects that you saw that said carryover. They're double counted in both budgets. So I'm adding those back because they're in this year's numbers and they were also in the number for this year. So potential ending fund balance just under 16.5. Those last two lines are calculating our minimum. If our operating revenues are just under 47.7, 30% of that is 14.3, which still leaves

us in excess of just under 2.2. Always keeping in mind the 14 million is what's set aside. We're not touching that. That minimum was set by council at any time. I'm not saying to do it, but I'm saying council can control that policy to determine how much you want to keep there if anything's needed in the future. right now. Uh, keeping that 14.3. Uh, I know the mayor's proud of this budget. The biggest thing with budgets is you want to keep recurring revenues and recurring expenses as close as possible. Um, we don't want to save up too much money, but we do want to keep our expenses within our recurrent recurring revenues. But since we have built up a fund balance in the past, using those funds uh to do some capital and one-time improvements for facilities and infrastructure and other things um is possible. So that is ending the general fund. We'll talk a little bit here about some of the other smaller funds, but that is the biggest piece of everything. The next piece is dispatch or 911. As a reminder, right now this fund does have a fee that supports the city share. It's currently $8 per month per occupied residential, I'm sorry, per occupied unit. So that is what supports the city's portion. As you can see, since 2021, we have increased our headcount in 911 by about three and a half. Uh this is one of the departments the mayor talked about obviously having some challenges that we want to revisit once we see where revenues come in. Um obviously once this balance is spent down that's when potentially general fund would have to kick back in and support this fund like it used to do. Right now we're good. It'll be a couple years before we have to consider that.

But um this budget, if you'll flip over to the next page, does show about it's not calculated, but if you look at the proposed revenue of 4,571,000 and proposed total expense of 5,183,000. So it's about a $600,000 budget. we'll say the word deficit but it is there is a fund balance sufficient to cover that. So just um a lot of that hap we have a large maintenance contract with AMK so we were able to build up a little of a bit of a fund balance before that kicked in once that half a million a year maintenance contract kicked in that kind of started spending down a little bit. Um we've done a lot of capital improvements with the cloud migration. Uh now the prepared by Axon, there's some additional capital items in here. So out of that 600,000 that we're dipping into fund balance, you can see the capital broken down at the bottom. So 64,000 for LED lighting upgrades at four of the towers. A one-time fee for the migration of CAD to the enterprise records. So cloud migration got it off of a hardware server in our building out onto the cloud. This would be updating the enterprise records. It is a portion of the CAD system that while Tyler will continue to support, they will no longer update. So this is a one-time fee to get that particular portion of that software updated. and then the phone system refresh of 132,000. And the next slide, you can see the positions not included. Uh the shift supervisor, they've had some vacancies in their shift supervisor position. So giving them, as the mayor said, some time to stabilize uh in that. And then

the open records clerk that was requested. They they foresee that in the future that one shared open records clerk between PD and 911 may not be sufficient. But we're going to give that one a little bit more time to see how it goes. And then, you know, if there truly is still a need due to the volume, then that can be addressed in the future. And I know this is one of the departments that the mayor mentioned uh wanting to look at salaries, starting pay, and things once we're able to to look at some of those things that HR is doing as well as seeing how our revenues all come in at the end of the year. Next slide. The cemetery staff, uh we were able to add a little bit of staff over the last about half a position. I think we converted a part-time to a full-time and they were able to fill that. So they are staffed at five and no request on personnel side from them. And the next slide showing their budget. No significant changes on their expenses again carrying over the 200,000 for the land purchase. They do have a request for a new mower and some other small equipment that they use in supporting the cemetery. And as you can see um with the the cemetery services is about the same but our lot sales has decreased quite a bit. Um some of that may be how some people are choosing to um to manage that whether it be cremation like you said instead of a actual burial plot. Uh they still do some interments even for cremations but uh and we did address our fees a couple of years ago so that helped a little bit. uh anything that revenues don't cover the city and county split equally for the maintenance of the cemetery fund. Next, this is just a highlight of some of our other small funds. Again, you've got all

of the line item detail. The business park fund, uh we do anticipate the phase three expansion carrying over a little bit past June 30 due to some rain and weather delays they have had. Uh our alcohol fund, we use that to fund 25% of the clerk's office and about 13 and a half percent of our sworn police personnel only. We don't charge any administrative staff uh or SRO's uh to the alcohol fund. It is strictly our sworn full-time police officers. Municipal road aid fund. Um this is down a little bit from last year. We did receive that agreement. Uh, and after taking out the 3% for the emergency fund, this was the amount that was in the agreement, the LGA fund. Um, we've got a carryover about 168,000. And although it's not I don't know if it's called out in here specifically, but I know the mayor is looking at some possible uses for that fund for the bus stop shelters, uh, hopefully partnering with some of our other local government agencies uh, to do some projects. uh LGAA has a little more flexibility in what it's allowed to be used for than MAP funds do. So that's something that we can look at doing out of there. Federal and state grants. This is mainly carrying over a lot of our large grants such as the rest of our KPDI money, the Lexus Way Old Oxford CPF funding, the West Main Street TAC program, as well as our VAWA and JAG and uh the opioid funds that cover our recovery support specialist, the medical self- insurance fund. That is just a holding fund where we hold all the money that we budget for claims and pay those out. And lastly, capital projects. Uh about 2.9 million of that expense is carryover projects such as um the rest of the fire station design, the $1.2 million fire truck that

won't come in for a little bit of time, lapole, and if you flip over to the next page, you will see most Next slide, please. Yes, you will see most of those carryover projects in each of the funds. So that the capital projects includes our matching for a lot of those as well as well as the fire station design and equipment. Okay, last couple of slides. Uh future personnel needs. So just the note at the bottom, this is kind of a compilation of for example the police officers, the crime analyst, um the storm water additional crew members, the dispatch positions. Those were positions requested in this budget but not funded at this time. The code enforcement officer and the staff engineer, they're not positions that have been formally requested in this budget, but they have been identified as something we may need in the future. So, just a note on there. And again, with the police department, just noting this is reflective of what they requested, but it's not necessarily reflective of what we would need to get to those FBI standards. um that number would be higher than five, but five is what they had requested uh that wasn't funded. And next slide is just always just trying to keep that last reminder of some future capital project needs. Obviously, we have design fees in for the police department expansion, but at some point we would have to pay for that construction as well as a new 911 center. We've talked about we're working hard towards fire station 4, but fire station 5 will be looming in the future. Additional storm water infrastructure and although we've budgeted for the design fees for the quality of life projects, we still need to consider funding for those projects in the future. All right, any questions?

And as the mayor said, uh the first reading will be on June 1st. Uh so, you know, we will continue to review revenues, like I've said, if there's any any additional that can be done there once we've got another month's worth of data. We'll see if we can work on that. Thankfully, the operating is balanced. Um provide any feedback you have to the mayor and uh we will do first shooting on June 1st. Thank you. Thank you, Stacy. Let me know if you all have any questions in the meantime, and I will get you an updated copy of the nonprofit uh funding appropriations since that had a typo on it.

Yep. All righty. Thank you again. All right. Next is council committee reports, item number eight. I'll start with finance.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, we had our uh special finance committee meeting on May 4th, 2026 at 4 p.m. Um, everyone was present at that present for that meeting. Um, all members of the committee and mayor staff as well. The minutes for the April 27th, 2026 meeting were approved unanimously. And the only topic of discussion that day was the mayor's proposed budget review. Um, I won't go through every I'm not gonna go through all this here. Um, just refer back to what Stacy just said. That's what we talked about. So, thank you. All righty. Uh, next will be police.

Thank you, mayor. Um the police committee met on May 4th and uh prior to our starting the uh the meeting we were able to be part of the swearing in of our new safety officer uh Rebecca Lewis. the um hiring and staffing uh report. Um so for the police department, we're currently at 70 of 77 uh with two uh conditional offers pending and five applicants in background check. So if all of that plays out that we could be uh fully staffed, knock on wood. Um the one of our safety officers I as I just mentioned Rebecca Lewis uh has been hired and the second officer uh is in background check right right now. So hopefully we will be um in good shape there before long. Uh for the dispatch area u currently at 20 full-time employees out of 27. Uh another hire will start on May 18th. Uh we currently have one in the academy of the dispatch and three of the six new hires have completed their training. So they're in their process. Um so we still have seven vacancies there with dispatch. the uh one of the things that we talked about there um for both police and dispatch uh a lot of success in potentially recruiting through Georgetown College and a lot of the uh work that's being done there with job fairs and things like that. We did talk about potentially uh having some additional conversation

with Elkorn Crossings, the uh law and public safety village there, especially as as it pertains to our safety officers because those can be transitional and and is intended to be hopefully uh a a pipeline for police officers as well once they turn uh 21. Um but then also looking at it potentially from a dispatch perspective uh as a way to help recruit as well. The um the next item that we discussed was the traffic unit update. Uh and just reminding folks the whole idea behind that traffic unit was for education, enforcement, and criminal interdiction because when they do do a stop, uh we're we're seeing some results from that as well. Um some of the areas they're focusing on high-risk problem areas uh as they uh target or for look at trying to improve safety in our in our community. Uh they are doing some some outreach as well with teen driving courses um to help our young drivers in in their activity. Um and then we have three K9 officers that are in training right now. Uh Pey is a narcotics canine. Uh Clayton is an explosives dog. and Flash is an an electronics detection K9. So, uh they're progressing very well in their training and hopefully we'll have them on board before long um to to help our officers there. The uh the last item that we talked

about was the safety officer ordinance uh because now with safety officers uh we need to empower them. And so the ordinance that um you have in the packet today will be one that we will be addressing. Um one of the things that was u important as we talk through that ordinance and the difference between a safety officer and a sworn police officer. Their their powers are significantly different. And so if you noticed in the ordinance, there were a lot of sightings of all the various um statutes that give authority for the safety officer. So one of the things that uh we asked Emily to send you a little primer, so you should have received that on Friday that helped kind of break down. So thank you Emily for doing that. of what all those sightings really meant and what the powers of that safety officer uh would be. So, just quickly, I'll just give you the highlights there. The safety officer is primarily for non-moving voter motor vehicle violations, things like registration and licensing issues, insurance violations, those kinds of things, parking and pedestrian related violations. they they could do some collision investigations that are in the non-fatal uh perspective. The um fire lane enforcement around our uh buildings and things like that. And then there are some areas for potentially local code provisions for things like directing traffic and emergency situations. um parking uh if you're parking illegally and handicap parking and things like that and impounding vehicles. So, just to give you a sense of what they could do, funeral details, those kinds of things. Um so, we're

excited uh with with Rebecca starting and then hopefully our second officer coming on board shortly thereafter. Um I'll go ahead and make a note at this time. Uh but when we get to the ordinance um I'll just go ahead and mention it today or right now. So there is a um a typo. So we'll fix that in the in the ordinance. But if you look on the let's see the first pa first page section one B one the third line from the bottom it says um it states 304 K 39.110 that should be KRS so it should be a Kentucky revised statute statute u not a regulation so we'll make that modification in that uh that ordinance as well. But I just wanted to give you a heads up on that. That's all I have, Mayor. Alrighty. Public works. Thank you, sir. Um we called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m. on April 15th. All members were present with the exception of Miss Wilkins Brent. Uh the minutes were unanimously approved. Um, Chief Breuan gave an update on public works. Um, there are currently four people short after recent retirements. One person had started that day and three people were in the hiring process. Um currently they had 800 tons of salt on order uh to be sto stored at the county park and uh then they would look at getting another 15 that they would have around 1,500 tons in storage. Um the leaf compost and wood chip program uh

has started uh first Saturday of each month and they're looking for alternate locations to have a compost pile moving forward. uh Main Street brick rehab project. As everyone has seen, they have moved to the south side of Main Street on the third block up by um planning and zoning. Um so that's progressing nicely. uh storm water projects. They began began with projects in Indian Hills uh cleaning out ditches and cle competing completing work in other areas that as weather permits. Um they're working with um the tap grant project. Um Eddie reported that the city's working with the Kentucky Heritage Council in to navigate the historic walls up on West Main Street. Um also moving forward with street paving which we had the map hearing uh before this meeting began. Um also be looking at pavement striping on Gnau and Sho Walter uh with as traffic calming measures. Um, finance director Clark reported to that the current 5-year franchise agreement with Republic expires in February of 27. Under the agreement, the city has the option to extend the franchise for an additional two-year period. Um, and looking for feedback um information moving forward in this discussion or consideration. Um, we also proposed an alternative option for bulk item pickups as it relates to multi-unit uh residential customers. Um, had a lot of apartment buildings that have set stuff out um and they are not customers of the city and that the city

is having to go out and pick those up. So, um we'll be looking um for conversations with Republic as that is um discussed in the future. Um Eddie reported that the contractors me mobilized for the uh Sims Sims Pike landfill pipeline cleanout. Um also there is a large tree on Cumberland Drive that they uh it's possibly going to be an issue. they may be looking at taking that out. Um, and discussion was held uh in regards to the 5 acres that the city owns on Tripport Road and the potential future uses for that um as well and that the new street sweeper had and vacuum truck has arrived and we adjourned.

Thank you. Uh, Chief Brun, correct me if I'm wrong. The tree on Kumlin would have we already taken care of that or was that something new? The dangerous part, the limbs and everything's down. We do still have the stumps there we got to take out later. It's probably about 20 ft tall still, but okay. It's uh not going to fall or anything and it's uh we'll get that later this fall.

Thank you. Appreciate you. All right. All right. Next, um, let's move on down the line here. Item number nine, first reading of the safety officer ordinance, sponsors Kim Minky and Karen Tingo Sains. All right, madame clerky police department. Summary one establishes the qualifications, supervision, duties, and limitations of the position of safety officer within the Georgetown Police Department in accordance with KRS 83A. 088. This ordinance sets out in particular the city ordinances and the sections of KSA 186 and 189 for citation authority for safety officers. two provides for separability of the provisions and effective date on passage and publication. The full text or is available for examination clerk's office or at www.town.gov Introduced a public read for the first time May 11th, 2026.

1026 budget amend ordinance. Oh, don't you go. No, I'm just here if somebody had a question, but you go ahead and read. An ordinance

an ordinance amending the annual budget ordinance for fiscal year July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. Summary general fund. Prior year revenues are increased by 1,279,49656. Intergovernmental revenues are increased by $32,500. General government expenses are increased by $5,400. Information technology expenses are increased by $21,5156. Fire expenses are increased by 1,232,500. Public works expenses are increased by $50,67. Transfers to other funds are increased by $1,974. Environmental services fund transfers from other funds are decreased by $19,776. Storm water expenses are decreased by $19,776. Capital projects fund transfers from other funds are increased by $21,750. Capital expenses are increased by $21,750. All ordinances or parts of ordinances in copy with this ordinance are hereby repealed. This ordinance shall take effect after its passage of publication according to law. The full text of this ordinance is available for examination in the city clerk's office 629 North Broadway, Georgetown, Kentucky 40324, or at www.jeorgetownky.gov. Publicly introduced and read for the first time, April 27th, 2026. Publicly read the second time, May 11th, 2026. At this time, council, I request for a motion for for the second reading of the 202526 budget amendment ordinance.

Motion, mayor. Motion made by Mr. Hampton. Do I have a second? Second. Second made by Miss Miss uh Mitchell. Are there further questions and or comments? Madame clerk. Roll call. Mrs. Wilkins. Brent. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mrs. Hambridge. Yes. Mr. Hampton. Yes. Mr. Mickey. Yes. Mrs. Lesby Mitchell. Yes. Mrs. Tinglesain. Yes. Mr. Sh. Yes.

Thank you. Let the record reflect that it pass 8. Next. Item 10, affordable housing and homeless prevention resolution application for ES26 EG funds. All right. And I have slides. I don't know if there's a person in the Wizard of Oz room or not. Okay. Um, so I um I'm supposed to do my quarterly report, but you all had a very heavy agenda this evening. So I'm going to put put most of that off. But I am here tonight to um request uh to apply for the third round of emergency solutions grant funding. Um, and just as a reminder, those funds go into two programs. Um, the first one being our rapid rehousing uh program. Uh, that is a uh short-term rental assistance program, medium-term rental assistance program that serves folks who are literally housed and um the goal is to get them to be housed. And so since we have um if you could go back to the other slide, Wizard of Oz,

it was it was out of order. It wasn't the first slide. Okay. Start on your text. Cool. Cool.

Um go back if you go back to the slide that we were on because I was just rolling. There we go. Um so since we got this grant on July 1st of 2024, we were we've been able to serve 40 clients through our rapid rehousing program. um eight of those households, so not eight clients, but eight households have been are ongoing rental assistance households. So meaning that we for the up to 12 months um possibly up to 24 months will provide their either all or part of their rent depending on um their income situation, how many folks are in that household, um abilities, things like that. Um so we have eight households that are on that. The goal of that is to move them to housing that they can sustain on their own. So, a requirement that they have is that they need to be on the like public housing authority waiting list um if they're able to get on there when it's open, the section 8 waiting list, incomebased housing waiting list. Um and so we're working with them to hopefully move to uh housing that they can sustain and not depend on us. Um so it's a very important piece of the program. Um, again, those folks were literally unhoused when we started working with them. They are now in housing and we are trying to move them to sustained housing. 20 households since July of 24 have been assisted by the move in assistance program. Um, and that is kind of a a section of the rapid rehousing program that I think it's talked about not enough. Um, but Heather and I have really utilized these funds. Um, I've talked about it before, but just a refresher, it is folks who could sustain their own housing, they have an income, they have the ability, um, but they cannot get over the initial move in uh, costs. And so things like the fir uh, first and last month's rent, um, security deposits, utility deposits, um, the big price that that is on moving

into housing. And so this movement assistance program helps them with all those initial costs. And then we um do not financially support after that. We do uh offer case management uh on paper up to 90 days is the requirement but heather and the gathering place are available for past that if they would like to continue with their case management. Um these folks a lot of times are um just just have found themselves in a tough spot and cannot get into housing on their own. And so this has really unlocked a lot of housing opportunities for folks in our community and specifically it has moved a lot of folks out of the gathering place who maybe could not have moved into their own housing um without that just little assistance to get them and so then that opens beds up that then um can serve other folks. It's all very interconnected and has really uh opened up a lot of opportunity um there both in our low barrier shelter and at the gathering place program. So if you go back a slide, the other part of the emergency solutions grant is the emergency shelter funds which help fund what we call in our community our low barrier shelter. um that is in partnership with the gathering place and um since July 1st of 2024 we have served 323 clients that is an unduplicated number um through our housing management system that we have to um enter data into. Um we are still seeing numbers very high numbers at the low barrier shelter. Um a lot of nights Heather is reporting that they are full despite the milder temperatures. Um, so that is a very high used resource that we have in our community. Something that I've touched on before, but I always think is really important to point out is that a lot of low barrier shelters

and a lot of communities are open maybe 12 hours a day um and then they ask residents or clients to um leave property um for a duration of the day. and Heather and her staff because of this funding have been able to um keep our low barrier shelter open 24/7 which just allows folks to always have somewhere to be during the day. They can access resources, they can get food, um they can I think easier access case management. Um because Heather and I have always been baffled by how are you providing case management if they can't be here during the day. Um and so I think it just is a much more wraparound service. Um, and it it allows people in our community to have a place to be. Um, and I know that can sometimes cause community stress when people who are unhoused are looking for a place to be during the day. So, I just want to point out what a service that they're doing there. So, those are the two programs that our emergency solutions grant fund on an ongoing basis. So, if you skip ahead two slides, um, we are trying we are asking um, to apply for the third round. Um, and so that is the match breakdown. That has always been um the way that we we've broken it down since we first applied. It is a little bit confusing. Um, so hopefully that helps um break it down. The city and county are equal and then the gathering place also um provides match as well. If you move to the last slide, the even more confusing part maybe is that the grant timelines overlap. Um, and so our first cycle was July 2024 to December 25. The second cycle is July 25 to December 26. And then the cycle I'm asking about tonight is in the yellow. It's July 26 to December 27. So they do overlap. Um, which I think makes uh

things on Stacy's end maybe a little confusing at times. Um, and then I did want to also mention that we did apply for an extension for the first round. And so technically our first round now does not end until the end of this month. We did that because we did not get notification of the grant until months into the cycle. And then being brand new, it took us a few months to get all the way trained to get all of our um documents in order to get programs put in place for us to build relationships with landlords, things like that. And so the rapid rehousing truly didn't get rolling until probably around March. And then um the emergency shelter um that one started a lot quicker, but again we got notification late and had to get trained in order to access that. So we applied for an extension and we're granted it and all those funds will be expended by the end of this month. Um but that also adds another little blip in there. So hopefully this chart is helpful. Um but I'm happy to answer questions about the ESG. All right. Uh, you have heard the request. Do you need a motion?

I'll make a motion, mayor. Motion made by Miss Brent. Do I have a second? Second, second by Mr. Chris. Are there further questions and or comments? All those in favor. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. All those in favor of this request uh this motion signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. that the record reflect that it has passed. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Item 12, planning and zoning and zoning ordinance. Uh overview, proposed zoning ordinance text amendments, Mr. Holden Fleming. So, I'll get this kicked off and then it's a pleasure of the council. I'll then pass it off to my senior planner, Miss Luis Katz. So, uh I believe this has been a long time coming. Starting last year, my office began forwarding a a couple zoning ordinance text amendments to this body. Uh, six in total were forwarded in the year 2025. Two of which had a first reading, a second reading, and then uh, no action was taken. The other four we just I don't think had a good understanding of what was going on yet. And so we had a couple joint work sessions. This body formed a committee to review it. A memo came out of that with a list of priorities that the council could take up. Planning and zoning responded to that. We had a second joint work session between this body and planning and zoning. And so uh at the kind of uh tale of all of that, we find ourselves here today to discuss the zoda 2025 number one and zoda 2025 number three. There is significant overlap with these two recommendations, but at their heart, they're I believe they're very important for the community. Uh, and they're really things that I think that everybody can get behind. Primarily, what we're talking about with this first set of zoning ordinance tax amendments is renumbering and changing definitions. As many of you are sure uh that you're aware of, recently the state of Kentucky passed legislation that required planning and zoning to review applications ministerally if they meet all of our requirements. As a part of

that process, we took a comprehensive review of our zoning ordinance to try to remove as many maze and make them shallows as we can and take out as much discretion as there is to provide clarity for the public. And so with that in mind uh for a little bit more detail and then hopefully to answer any questions obviously I'll be here I'd like to ask Miss Katz to come up and talk about these two specific text amendments.

Um I'll first kind of leave it open to you guys if if you have any questions about what Holden statement is before kind of going into anything as kind of needs u require. Um, so do we have any anything for me that I can hopefully explain? Alisa, do you want to clarify? Um, of the six proposed text amendments, there was only one that was brought forth for first and second reading and it I'm sorry. Yeah. Uh, so I just wanted to clarify that. Yes.

Okay. So Zoda 202501 um as described is involving changes to section uh 2.1 which has to do with our definitions and section 25 which has to deal with specific use regulations. So, our definitions um while we identified on the letter that we may want to pursue some additional definitions or potential modernization of some of our existing language, um we identified that in our current ordinance uh specifically related to 21 and 25 that some definitions were nested in a section that would be inappropriate to put them in where you were reading about, for example, small cell towers and then you were reading definitions and then you were also having the definition section which is section 21. So just the goal of that one is just to move everything from two spots to one spot and then to just correct accordingly. Um if there were duplicate items, for example, the word applicant comes up a couple times, application, board, those types of things. So a lot of that work was just cleaning up what that kind of discrepancy was. Um, we also numbered them accordingly so it' be a little bit easier for in the future whenever we were to pursue modernization of some of our definitions. We could just say I would like to modify definition number 27 and instead of saying what it says today, it says 27 is going to now say this. So I think it cleans up a lot of our records. It keeps it a lot uh more straightforward for our purposes in terms of administration and in terms of your guys's purposes when we're going in and we're we're taking some corrective modernization processes for our definitions. Um section 25 is an reing mechanism. So previously our definition or our section went 2.51 2.52 etc. But once you hit 2.59 and you have to transition to somewhere else there's nowhere else to go. If you start adding additional numbers to that process, then

you start kind of characterizing that as a subnumbering system. So what our transition was for that instance was to say, okay, you do 2.5.1 and then you just concede up or continue up. When you hit 2.5.9 and you have a new text amendment, you just make it 2.5.10 and you just proceed with that. So um an impacted section of this would be our medicinal cannabis ordinance which was voted upon and everything. Uh technically under the previous provisions because we had used 2.51 to 2.59 there was no natural landing space for this item. And so by kind of allowing and kind of facilitating this renumbering process it allows for when we have these kind of special uses which is what 2.5 is you can now just have a natural landing spot for them every single time kind of proceeding up. And then as we pursue additional um potentially housing associated items or plan unit development standards or those types of things, we have a naturally kind of occurring location where we can just say this is just going to become a new section of 2.5 and as opposed to having to debate what happens now. You just you just know it's just the next sequential number in the system. Um does anybody have questions about that? Okay. Um Zoda 202503 is um as Holden stated um it's referenced as House Bill 443. Uh it has now been codified as uh KRS 100.275. Yeah, 275 um which is again that Shell test. Just making sure that it is a clear articulation of the expectations for applicants and for us as staff to just make sure that it's a clean line. a lot of some of the component of it and this is where kind of there is some redundancy. So we did do a lot of the numbering part of uh 21 that I

referenced in zoda 202501 for both that 2.1 and that 2.5 section just kind of reinccorporated those items. So there is some duplication in that. However, it does go through the full extent of the ordinance and identify those areas where it's a little bit ambiguous on what is happening here, what's happening there. We just kind of clean it all up and try to again produce a document which um is a little bit more straightforward for those users that are trying to figure out can I do this here and and that type of thing or what when we're looking at things we can just make again a easier corrective measure. Um yep. So that's what I have for for those items. Uh they're very administrative in nature. They're really just it makes it a little bit straightforward to fix things going further.

Just points of information. This is a very dense document was going through it. Um on page 70. Um it talks about the pre-application conference being optional and not required. Um, why wouldn't that be helpful all the time? It can be like for larger sites or for developers that may not be familiar with the area. They can kind of sit down and say, "This is what we want to do. What does that process look like?" So, we can explain this is your fee. This is your timeline. This is what when you'll have to go to a meeting and and that type of thing. But we identified that not every applicant needs to do that every single time.

Okay? So it's for their information more than for what we need to know. Um I mean it it does twofold. It does inform us on what is going on from an administrative side of things but it is mostly for their knowledge that they are aware of this is the process. Okay. And the procedure that you'll be operating within. Another point of information. Can you tell me what a small cell tower is? I could tell you what the definition is. Um, I mean because it seems like they could become ubiquitous and I and they they could be put on a lot of different polls and yeah, it it talked a lot about them in the document. What

I do want to state kind of before I get into it that that is a pre-existing ordinance that predates me that section and so a lot of me was just translating it over. So um at least as defined it's those structures which are under 50 ft. So typically cell tower like the large cell towers are those which exceed that which are those big mono pole structures. So this is kind of those smaller addition pieces that you see kind of potentially on the side of a building or or something along those lines. Um again it's it's very long section. And I can read all of it if we'd like, but um it is just kind of a transmitter smaller antenna type situation.

It seems like they could be like become everywhere is my point. And maybe run interference with a lot of other cell towers. And I mean I I'd have to do a little bit more research on that. Holden, you may have more exposure, more knowledge of I mean I think we're all aware big big ones. Well, a few years ago, um, we had issues come up out in the stables. They were wanting to put the small scale towers in. So, you know, they were very small, but they were Yeah, it's they weren't, you know, like what's out by Georgetown College baseball field. They very small towers. So, yeah.

Uh, you know, that's that was the issue we ran into then. So it's important when we're talking about cellular communication facilities to understand that we're only one level of review on those, right? And so we are primarily concerned again about the implementation from the planning and zoning level, but if you're worried about interference, there are obviously other state and federal regulations that regulate that side of of the uh the issue. I also know specific to the state of Kentucky, we're relatively limited in how we can and where we can restrict the installation of those facilities. And so, uh, as Miss Katz pointed out, uh, this is an existing regulation.

The the reason you're seeing a lot of red is, as Elise said, when that ordinance was originally written, it was written as kind of an addendum, a plug-in kind of thing that was selfindependent. And so it had all the regulatory language as well as all the definitional language built into itself. Okay. And so what that resulted in is when somebody opened up our our regulations, they'd read 2.1, not find that definition that Alise just read, go down to the 2.5 section that had the that specific regulation, and now we're adding extra definitions. Mhm. And so, um, if it's the will of this body, I'd love to provide you more information about the creation of that ordinance, but at this point from a a administrative side, we believe that it's

clearing it up beneficial just to and again, the other thing that we're doing in this is we're looking for consistency between the different sections of our code. Right? As I'm sure many of you are aware, we've had our code for a while. As long as we've had planning, and it's always been a process of adding additional regulations as we went. Yeah.

What kind of happens and and if you've got an eye for it, you can kind of spot it. You can see where the different language has come in and it's written in different kind of ways. And so, a lot of what we're talking about with one and three here um kind of makes consistency across the language and the formatting of the different sections. Well, I'm just going to flag that in my brain for later later council concern if it comes up. Um, so thank you. Thank you. All right.

Mayor on this, what you're asking us really is to let you organize the definitions that they are, and you've added some definitions. That's what you've added in the red to clear it up. So, as the council once we ever get into it and really get into it, if we want to change because it's one of the things that we actually talked about in the in the group is that our definitions to change the definitions, modify some definitions, the council will be able to come back and do that at a later time if there is a definition that needs to be changed and modified. Yes. Okay. Please,

that was it. It wasn't complicated. It was a yes or no answer is all it was. So these are these are not as complicated as we may think they are. They just seem complicated because you got like 800 pages. And that's part of it too is when we're looking at as as Lee said with the new state language, uh it requires us to take a look at the entire uh ordinance as a whole. Yes. And so if there's one red line on one page and then one at the very end, that means we're covering the entire thing. Um it is it is thick. Yeah, it is dense,

but it's very much an administrative uh kind of recordkeeping activity that we're engaged in for one and three. Now, another question, Josh, and I don't have a clue about this this answer. I'm just throwing it out there. You know, we talked about in the committee, too, about putting things that are Georgetown and Scott County. Is there any way in the definitions because I'm sure there's some things in here that are just for Georgetown, some that maybe are just for Scott County. Is there any way to put in the definitions of that that under it it's Georgetown, Scott County kind of thing? Well, so I'll I'll take a crack at and then I'll pass it to Miss Katz.

The way I look at it on that in particular is you're not going to get in trouble for having too many definitions,

right? Um if uh I'll give an example where where this might be something for this uh commission to consider is we have a use that's called homebased occupation and it's an allowed use uh or a conditional use rather in some of the R zones in our A1 or agricultural zones. uh underneath conditional uses, we allow for homebased occupations that exceed the definition of such. And the reason that came about was Georgetown took the lead, defined what a home occupation was, how it fits into an urban setting. the county. I think recognizing that home occupations in the city are different from home occupations the county just instead of creating their own definition said we're going to take what Georgetown says and then it can be in addition to that. It can exceed what Georgetown has allowed. What you might be talking about is better defining what a home occupation is for Georgetown and then having a separate definition for what a home occupation is for Scott County. Mhm.

If there are definitions, uh, this goes back to can you can Georgetown change definitions. If there are definitions that you would like to see specific to the city, then absolutely, we'd love to entertain those. And that's as simple as saying this definition applies within the city of Georgetown.

Okay. And I would like to just add to that very briefly that there are several ordinances which the county has adopted in which the city has not. Um distilled spirit storage for example is an item which is it's rick houses potentially or it's other mechanisms and they have a series of definitions which are afterwards we just say in effect in county only per this ordinance and so it would be something along that line where it is a scribers type note where we identify that this is not your guys's ordinance unless you wanted a distilled spirit storage which is up to you guys please direct us we'll do what you what you would like us to research but um it is something along those lines where we just would identify like while they're still nested in one another, the two ordinances or the two functions that we serve. Uh we just put the notes on the end that says this one applies here, this one doesn't apply here. That type of thing.

It just that that has just bothered me because of the night that we had a a workshop and Kentucky leagues came in here and they were unclear of some of the zoning issues to try to help educate us. They were unclear of it because they kept getting it mixed up which what was county what versus the city and kind of causing confusion and I thought well maybe they're that's Kentucky Leagues is doing that maybe it would be clear if we could do that. So that's all

but but I think the key point behind this definition is of a homebased business for instance at what point you know being able to define at what point are you doing your homebased business that really kicks you into that next level of zoning to be really more commercial or out in the county you're in an A1 and you're really doing a lot more than just repairing stuff and you're actually manufacturing widgets and components and things like that. So, you bump into potentially light manufacturing and those kinds of things. So, I think that's the key point that you have to be clear on.

Yeah. And I'll I'll clarify for you guys. Um, your definition of a homebased occupation is relatively restrictive and I think does a good job of preventing exactly that conflict that you were just talking about. As it's currently written, homebased occupations can occupy more than 300 square feet. So, um, it very much is designed to help protect the residential character where that occupation may be going on. Yeah. So question on the house bill 443 reformatting.

So basically these are very complicated and complex and you got to dig you know to and interpret. Is there a clear flow diagram that says if if you comply with the regulations, right, check, check, check, check, check, then okay, here's the intent of 443. Do we have a clear sense of that with the way we're drafting our uh

Yes, I do believe that is the case. In addition to the plain text of the ordinance which with this uh with this zoda should become very clear what are requirements and what are not requirements. In addition to that we provide a number of supplementary documents to our development community and to members of the community at large. One of the things that's identified early on in a process is what kind of notice is going to be sent out to the public related to a development. We have two different notices. We have a notice if variances are requested and it's going to come before the planning commission. And we have a notice that is sent out if it's going to be ministerial because no uh variances are requested and there has not been identified threat to health, life or safety. And so in those situations, yes, we have a flowchart and it splits.

Uh and we try to and I believe that we we already in compliance with 443. This just I think adds clarity and transparency to the process. Well, and I I think that's one of the things that we really tried to focus on in our work group was trying to make things as simple and as clear as possible uh and make them as automated as possible. Yeah. So that it it just helps us move forward and identify areas of potential conflict. So,

and I can I can state uh briefly from just being part of the team that kind of has been administering the code. Uh we have like printouts and we have documents available in our office that are explicit like visual bubble flowcharts saying like this is on this date, here's the rough date that this is going to occur, this is on this date, here's what this is going to occur. So, as part of those optional pre-iscussion meetings, we pull out our schedule, we pull out the forms, we pull out all the fees, we pull out checklist,

checklists, we pull out the flowchart, and we just have this kind of package that we create for community members to utilize. And then we have it available on our website under I I'm not exactly sure the title, but there's a a lot of information and a lot of transparency in our process to help people understand kind of this is what this process looks like. this is what you're on bubble this one. We'll check this one off. This one's done. You don't need to worry about this one because this one is not your path that you're going. So, we have kind of these built-in illustrations to help um the general population and our developers and ourselves understand what that process looks like. Yeah.

All right. So, just one other quick comment. Sorry. So, with 443, the uh I think one of the things that's really important is being able to have a place to go and find it that if somebody has applied for something, it doesn't have to come before commission, but it's still happening. And so how the public and other interesting bodies uh is able to get that information and know that it happened so that they can ask a question or they can challenge or whatever the case may be. Uh I think that's one of the things that I know I struggle with in trying to keep up with the things that do go before commission and getting the packet and you know highlighting because of notification zones are are very tight

and sometimes it's only the property owner and maybe not subs within the property that and it's up to the property owner to inform them. And so there's a great potential for breakdown in communication. Yeah. Uh and so being able to beef that up, I think is really important. And I'll I'll just tell you, uh as you're aware, I'm looking at you three because we really did appreciate the the work that you guys did to to make those recommendations. One of the recommendations in the memo that was uh subsequently produced by the committee and shared with the rest of the council was to consider finding options for online uh portals as well as applications

and so we are actively engaged in looking for solutions related to that.

Uh we clearly see the the need for that. I will also state that since the passing of the house bill and the changing in our language, we've also made a kind of form available on our system where it allows for the community members to look at the agendas, look at our packets and everything like that and then provide kind of written comment in it as well as our letters contain our personal staff emails and uh the office line numbers. though even when we have ministerial review projects we try to keep that accessibility open as much as possible by again having here's my name come to the office and talk to me here's our phone number give me a call here's my email me here's this form online please uh fill us out so we try to keep that communication route open while we are still entertaining and reviewing this kind of digital processing process

and obviously all records are open to the public as well Mr. Chris. Yep. Um, do you see any or anticipate any conflicts or challenges from stakeholders with these zoning updates? I I read over one and three. No. Okay. Because they're because they're that good. They're that on the money, right? Well, number one, yes. Yeah,

but but number two, I believe if there's conversation to be had about either the renumbering um or or the definitions, it is primarily what council member Tingle Sames brought up, which is is this the best definition that we can create for this item or is this actually applicable to Georgetown Countywide or even, you know, just Stamping Ground or Sville? Uh we we serve them as well. And so at this point again, staff's primary intention is is to get the the format right. And the the great thing about engaging with a process like this is it doesn't have to be one and done. Planning by nature is iterative it iterative and incremental. And so we we can work on these definitions. If we find something that works better, we can go and and implement that. And and frankly too, from a staff perspective, there's a lot of great information out there uh and research that that we can pull from when it comes time to to crafting something specific for this community.

Thank you. All right. So, mayor, um so at this point, so these are proposed tax amendments that the planning commission has referred to you all. So, these two, this was an overview to talk about it. There are still four others. um the council if you'll consider thinking about if you would like to move forward with a first reading on either of these or if you want to wait until you hear the other four and how you want to approach that. Um I think you'll be back at the the June 8th meeting. We we'll come back anytime you want us to. I think that's the current plan um with the next round, but um just we're trying to keep the the flow and track this legislative process. And if I could just add one additional thing,

because there is substantial overlap between number one and number three that we're talking about tonight, it may be beneficial to come up with some sort of reconciliation uh document that just reflects the both of them together. We believe at this point that three would would pretty well accomplish that. Uh but as you look to to maybe make a decision on what you would like to consider in front of yourselves, just keep that in mind. And obviously staff is available to assist as as you uh find appropriate.

So So Emily had brought the idea. So you can look at these two and bring it up for a first reading at on that eth or would you would just wait and just um continue on each one separately. Aren't these two the easy ones? Yes. Let's let's do that. So yeah, that is what I I would propose that we go ahead and do first reading of these two and get the ball rolling and then identify the schedule for the remainders um so that we can have that conversation.

All right. So a motion has been made by Mr. Minky. I'll second to uh take the first two here and and bring it to get the ball rolling. Probably second by Miss Brent. You're a little late on that one. Um properly second by M. Brent. So are there any further questions and or comments? I do have a question who would like to sponsor. All right, we got one sponsor,

Mr. Mingy and Mr. Crisp. All right. So, uh, Emily will draft us a, uh, a first reading ordinance for that. All right. And then the sponsors have been listed, Mr. Mickey and Mr. Chris. And then we will go from there. So, are there any questions and or comments? All those in favor of this motion signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. Item 13. 13A. Old business. Anybody got any old business? All righty. Anybody got any new business?

Well, I got a question. I don't know if it's be new business or my comment, but with Mr. Allen came up for public comments. I didn't realize the building behind the Cravens. I thought that was all private parking. Is there some way we can look into how many parking spaces are there? Yeah, we can do that. I was going to say something about that, too, son. just didn't know when I I'm parked over there tonight and it is I I I knew it was a place and parked there often and it is um kind of scrambled up, but I it's not something that uh would take a whole lot of manpower to fix, I don't think.

And so maybe just, you know, it's it really is striping and the little bumper things you run into. And it's just not real clear how you're supposed to park. I just always thought it was private parking. I didn't know public was It says clearly that which ones are private. Okay. Okay. And but the ones that are public are kind of scrambled up. So So what's the who's the ownership of that? Craven. Yeah. We have to find we have to look and see who owns what. That's probably the first thing we need to find out who owns what part of it. Then what part of the city

probably need to do. Okay. in in I I think this is new business, but we've been asked to identify areas for P&Z going forward that we might want to emphasize and uh hand over to a larger committee. And I'll just put on record that um the the hybrid zoning is something that I would like to um emphasize going forward. And this is going to take council discussion. I'm not trying to tell everybody else what to think.

Um, and then promote diverse housing options. And then two that I think would be fairly simple to concentrate on are the variances and the traffic counts. Um, so just as a start, I mean there's a lot here that you all came up with. We need a starting point and those are places that I think um might be good to start with. All righty. Any other new business? All right. Now come to item number 14, council comments. Uh Mr. Stone,

Mayor, thank you, sir. Um, great work for you and your staff on the budget. Looks great. Um, you know, you all deserve a big pat on the back for that. It's a heavy lift. The other thing is, uh, and I wish we could have done it. I would have liked to have seen and I want to do see about doing it for you know not only the police but the fire ambulance service. Uh I think we need to do a proclamation every time their uh their annual week comes up

to celebrate that. Like this week is the start of National Police Week. We have been very lucky that we haven't had anybody go on that list. That is a very sad list to be on. So, um, but it happens daily. So, uh, but just want to make sure that the police officers know that we're behind them and support them 100%. So, Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you all. All right, Miss Mitchell.

I just wanted to say that it was a pleasure to work on this budget and uh the way it turned out, there was a lot of hard work, a lot of back and forth, and uh it looks great. Stacy, you did a great job in explaining everything. And uh Mayor, thank you for your work on that.

Mr. Hapton, uh same here, you know, as part of the finance committee. Um you know, the mayor and and his staff, Stacy and everyone did a great job. Um and I don't really remember, I'd have to be corrected. I believe this may be the first time in a long time that we've actually had a surplus operating level. So that is I think that is a great accomp accomplishment. And we're also, you know, being able to to take those reserves and invest back into the city, you know, for for for everyone out there and and uh and and show uh show what we can do to make Georgetown a vibrant and a great place to to raise your family. So, thank you, Mayor,

Miss Brent. See, thank you and for all the hard work you put into and the rest of the staff. Miss Hamburg,

you know, there are cities that um are not as stable and are not as vibrant and are not as fiscally sound as we are. And we can take great pride in that. And I'm not saying that from a city council standpoint, although it takes great work from the mayor to the finance committee to Stacy and and all the department heads. Um, but it it should give us confidence as a city that we are able to increase staff and increase safety and do a lot of things like that. I've had some calls this week on another uh topic that the Sage cannabis um marijuana dispensary is getting close to opening and um I'm glad about that, but I I'm just wondering um how we are going to keep it secure. I'm just throwing that out there from from a safety and a police standpoint. I know a lot of the dispensaries. Not that I know a lot about marijuana dispensaries, but um

do say they have I don't even like taking Tylenol. Um they have police inside of them. Are is that private security that the dispensaries or is is it um our own police force? When y'all want to come up and when you want to answer that, that's your kid or what? They're very secure. They're very secure places. Well, I probably We can answer this later, too. Yeah, let's just do that. Let's just Let's let this way. We'll just let you come. We'll look into it. You got your assignment. We'll look into that. Okay. All right. So, I I do think it's something we have to think about, right? Thank you. Yep. Anything else? Thank you, Mayor.

All right, Mr. Mickey. Well, um Stacy, thank you for the the presentation. I think great improvement. I think that's it. It it was easier to follow. So, thank you for that. Um, if we could get Candace's um slides, you know, I think that's important.

Um, and I I look forward to the quarterly report because I think there's a lot of things going on right now. There are um tax credits out there right now for affordable housing and workforce housing and those kinds of things that have a deadline coming up uh within the next week to 10 days. Um and we have a census track for that. So I'm curious of activities that we are looking at there um for any potential projects for affordable housing and workforce housing. The um the second item I have um is there we we missed our our last um interlocal committee meeting and with the budgets going and the the interlocal agreements that we have and changes that for areas where we have uh responsibility as a city and vice versa with the county. We're making changes on our own and it seems like we ought to be having at least some dialogue with our partners on the other side of the interlocal to at least be aware of what's going on back and forth, whether it's personnel, salaries, benefits, capital projects, those kinds of things. that we ought to be having those conversations so that we're both aware of that and any impact that that would have to our 50% of whatever that interlocal is um so that we can plan appropriately for

I do know that um we we had the conversations about the interlocal agreements um when we were doing our budget budgeting we we had reports in finance committee on you know what part the the county was taking and so forth. I mean, I know there's other outside of that, but we did have the conversation just because we didn't have the meeting, but we did confer with them before putting things in the budget. And I have conferred with with Judge Coven and his staff on this, too. Okay.

I think it it would be helpful for the rest of the council to have that as well. Thank you. Uh just uh since Eddie's here, the sign on Highland Avenue is still there. And I got another phone call from resident there. Let's see if we could get that moved. And uh Mayor Stacy, it's a hard job to to do a budget. Uh I know that for sure. Make it make it all work out. So you both did a very nice job on the budget. I remember the times Georgetown is in a really good financial shape. you know, we hope the economy holds out and things continue, but uh because I remember when we had $3 million in the bank and had obligations to do, not as many obligations as we had now, but $3 million. So, Georgetown's in a lot better shape than it used to be, for sure. But you all did a very nice job with the budget,

Mr. Chris. Yeah, thank you, Mayor. Three quick things. First off, thank you uh for the budget presentation. One great thing uh I like about it is it definitely balances the needs that the community has now with the needs of the future. So great work uh everyone involved committee and of course Stacy, thank you for that.

Um number two, the citizen who reached out to us uh first about the tree on Cumberland has been thrilled with uh public works and everyone's job of taking care of the tree. It's great to hear that that tree will probably, you know, if it has to come down this fall, that's great, but at least the most dangerous part of the limbs has been taken care of, and he's reached out to me several times to thank us for doing that. So, we appreciate it. And third thing real quick on parking. Um, I'm really glad that we were able to discuss parking a little bit more this uh evening. You know, we have a lot of exciting things going on in the community. lots of future developments from Publix to lots of other things on the horizon. And one of the things that makes our downtown so special are all the businesses, the restaurants, all of the different uh boutiques that people come to Georgetown to enjoy from tourists to places that uh we as a community support and go as well. So, you know, a lot of people love to go to shopping centers. They like the ease of parking uh really close to a store. Downtown offers a little bit more of a challenge typically for that. So, anything that we can do to help our downtown merchants with parking, we should always put that on the forefront of us in order to assist with that. So, that's all I have.

All right. If no other business to be brought for this council, this meeting is adjourned.