City Commission - Regular Meeting

And whereas the Kentucky Heritage Council honors small businesses, historic preservation efforts, and vibrant downtown districts across the Commonwealth during Kentucky Main Street Week each May. And whereas Paducah Main Street transitioned into 2025 to an independent organization with support from the city of Paducah. And whereas since July 2025, Twenty-one new businesses have opened in downtown Paducah with more than a dozen additional projects under development. Whereas outreach efforts to promote downtown events and business have resulted in 495 local business promotions, 3.4 million social media views, and contributed to an average of 140,000 monthly visitors to downtown. Whereas to bring people downtown and celebrate culture, music, and community, Paducah Main Street is launching Fridays After Five, a concert series held on Friday evenings from June 5th through August 7th. Now, therefore, I, George P. Bray, Mayor of the City of Paducah proclaimed May 2026 as Paducah Main Street Month. Congratulations, ladies.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, we have, well, first of all, okay. City Manager, are there any additions or deletions to the agenda? Mayor, none this evening. Yes, there might be. Oh, okay. We have Ms. Betty here. Oh. And I was wondering, where is that item? Is that the consent agenda?

Mm-hmm.

Item N. N. I would suggest that we remove N and talk about it.

All right, so when you get down to that section, you just remove in.

Okay.

Yep.

All right, very good. We have three people who want to make public comments tonight. The first one is Bonnie Koblitz, and who lives... Well, I'll let you come up and tell us where you live, Bonnie. You've been here before?

I have been here before. A few times.

Thank you for giving me your attention and time for my remarks this evening. I saw that you were going to be discussing later in this meeting the AI data center that's proposed for Western Kentucky. And so my remarks have to do with that. I am totally against this project. We don't need it. Although it was said that the water use that a data center uses is a closed system, and there won't be any water pollution, no leakage. No one can guarantee that there won't be any leaks. And when it does leak, who knows what contaminants will end up in the groundwater, the drinking water, or the river. Data centers make noise. They use an enormous amount of power. I don't think anyone knows where that power will come from and what effect it will have on homeowner electric bills. Burning natural gas to power the center will be a very significant cause of air pollution. And then I have here a list of comments that have been made by the so-called experts in this technology. The first is from Elon Musk. And he says, I quote, AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilization. It's potentially more dangerous than nukes. It scares the hell out of me. By the time we react with legislation, it'll be too late, end quote. Sam Altman, quote, I'm a little bit afraid. I'd be crazy to not be a little bit afraid. End quote. Data centers can build data centers, which can build more data centers. Then what? Geoffrey Hinton, grandfather of AI, warned AI could wipe out humanity. Newsweek reported that 96% of the time, AI will blackmail its user when threatened. And 96% of the time, AI chose the nuclear option in war games. Our current administration would like to use AI to collect data on American citizens. Me and you. Do we really want this in our backyard? Do we really want to invest time, money, land, and trees in something that contributes to our own demise? You may think I'm like a mouse running scared. But other communities have stopped data centers from being built in their backyards. I doubt they are the stupid ones. You've made a pact with the devil. Thank you.

I will. Thanks, Bonnie. Just to clarify, the discussion tonight has nothing to do with data centers. It's about, and I've had a couple of inquiries on this today from news organizations. So it's a discussion about artificial intelligence and how that can be used to improve services and efficiency in governments. So it has nothing to do with the data center. So I just wanted to clarify that. Our second person tonight is Stephanie Shepherd. Stephanie, welcome.

Good evening, mayor and commissioners. Thank you for your time. My name is Stephanie Shepard and I'm standing before you tonight to advocate for a capital investment that could transform our community's health and recreation by installing an inflatable seasonal bubble over the noble park pool. As you know, the only indoor pool in McCracken County was recently condemned by the fire marshal. Currently, the Noble Park pool sits unused for nine months out of the year. By enclosing it, we can maximize our existing infrastructure and turn it into a year-round aquatic center. Right now, Paducah does not have year-round lane space or indoor water facilities. Our local swim teams, including McCracken and Tillman, will be left without a facility. And based on conversations with school administrators that I had today, our students cannot simply join other schools that already have pool access. There is also no place for year-round swim lessons in McCracken County. Senior citizens who rely on low impact water aerobics for mobility and wellness have lost that resource as well. A pool bubble directly aligns with the city's commitment to improving community wellness and expanding recreation opportunities for all ages. I understand that building a new aquatic center is not a realistic option currently. An inflatable dome, however, is a fraction of the cost and offers a practical, proven way to extend the use of the existing public asset. In Paducah, this would help meet an immediate community need while creating opportunities for revenue through high school lane rentals, winter swim meets, lap swimming passes, and expanded cold weather programming. This is not simply an added expense. It is a strategic way to make the city's current investment in Noble Park work harder for the taxpayers while restoring an essential community service. I know this commission is dedicated to smart, forward-thinking capital investments. I am not asking for a check tonight. Instead, I'm asking the Commission to take the first formal step by directing the Parks and Recreation Department to conduct a preliminary feasibility study or issue a request for information to evaluate the structural requirements upfront cost and operational logistics of a seasonal dome. This is a responsible way to determine whether this solution is feasible, sustainable and beneficial for Paducah families. Let's explore how we can keep the Noble Park pool open, active and serving the community all year long. Thank you.

Thank you very much. That is actually the first time that I've received that suggestion. So there is no question that we have a gap in this community as far as indoor swimming goes. And there's definitely, at some point in time, there needs to be something done about that. But all that takes planning, so we'll discuss your suggestion.

Let me ask you, where... Do you live in the city, Stephanie?

I'm not in the city, but my son swims at McCracken in the county.

I understand. Just a global comment. Is it the city? The city represents 37% of the population of the entire county. So any, I mean, you may want to make the same comment to the county because, you know, they would have to be a very broad to do that.

But isn't Noble Park, though, the parks and recreation?

Noble Park is owned by the city, but you'd be taking city taxpayer money to provide a service for a much greater population than just in the city. So it would take a broader source of funding to do something like that, in my opinion.

trying to think bigger I'll add to to that with a comment that You know this is Depending on the project and what kind of project that we would end up doing in the long run I think it would require broad support in the community city county private investment so it's a Again, we'll follow up on your comments, but I think it's much bigger than maybe just putting a bubble over Noble Park. I don't know that for sure. We'll look into it, but I appreciate the suggestion. I really do.

We do have a gap.

We do have. And Mayor, because I know we've had similar conversations in the past about YMCA, and I've been told it takes community effort to get something like that. So what steps, I'm not saying decide that right now, but I guess how would the community get behind something like that to invite a YMCA to Paducah?

Well, we looked into that, you know, five or six years ago. There was, you know, there was a move about, you know, an indoor swim facility. They included some other things as well. And that didn't pass. And so then YMCA was kind of nosing around in the community. And I did a little bit of research. But what I found out was that YMCA is going to come in here and we're still going to have to raise the money. I mean, the requirements, and if you stop and think, the indoor facility that we talked about five, six years ago was projected at $20-plus million, and it was escalating already at that time. Today, that same facility would be at least double. and even a smaller facility. So you're talking about a lot of money. There's a need. There's a gap. We've got to figure out how we can fill that gap.

Just to have it in the minutes, Crittenden County High School does have one of these over their pool. We did have a swim meet there with the bubble last fall or last winter.

We will investigate.

Thank you so much.

And finally, Mr. Shaw, Paul Shaw. Welcome. Thank you.

Thank you all. I've never done anything like this, so I didn't write no notes or nothing. You're fine. Just me and the people in my neighborhood. I live over on 24th Street, North 24th Street, by the Easter Seals. For the last five years, fireworks have been getting extremely dangerous in that neighborhood. Last year... The Easter Seals grounds caught on fire. The fire department had to be called to put out the fire. The people across the street from my home, their house caught on fire due to fireworks shot in that neighborhood. Two young men got arrested in that neighborhood due to a bunch of people just coming to the neighborhood and having a big get together that don't even live in our neighborhood. And I was not even home. And when I come home, there was eight police officers or eight patrol cars there, two fire trucks and two rescue vehicles at 1.30 in the morning in our neighborhood. My neighbor across the street actually called and told the fire department and the police department that someone had posted on Facebook, come to the 29th Street area. There's going to be a fireworks party there. But nothing was resolved from that. We are sick of it. We want something done this year prior, before it even gets there this year. And we don't know what to do. We've called, we've complained, and we get one or two callers drive through, and that's about police officers patrol the neighborhood, but... That's about it. And we just don't want nothing to happen this year. These people are coming in that's not even from our neighborhood and just destroy it. I mean, fireworks displays are all over the neighborhood. I've got a pool. My pool is covered in Roman candles and all kinds of stuff. My neighbors, like I said, their house caught on fire last year. If their son wouldn't have been home, their house would have burnt down. And... We don't know what to do. And we need some kind of full-time patrol around there on the 4th of July, not just a car driving around 7, 8 o'clock. That's it. I mean, and that needs to stop. I mean, the law says nothing above, nothing but fireworks, except sprinklers, sparklers, and firecrackers, nothing that can go into the sky. These people are shooting mortars and everything. There are people running through the yard doing bottle rocket wars and everything, and we just don't know what to do. And all my neighbors asked me to, I told them I wanted to talk to y'all about it, and all my neighbors in the neighborhood said, said, please do. So that's why I'm here.

First of all, thank you very much for being here and alerting. I'm sure we have probably fireworks all over the city where people take advantage. Is there a particular area in your neighborhood they always use?

29th Street, right in front of the Easter Seals building. Always. Always.

I've received calls as well, several calls, and have inquired, and it's Langstaff, all those streets.

24th Street, 23rd, 25th, every year.

It's an absolute mess over there. I've taken the time to drive through to see it.

I've lived there six years, and every year it's gotten worse. Every year. Like I said, prior to, well, 24, I was home, and the house next to me was vacant at the time, and pine needles were all on top of the house, and if I wasn't home, that house would have caught on fire, and I luckily had a... took a ladder and put it in and grabbed the rake and put the pine needles off of that house would have caught on fire because it was vacant so it's just it's ungodly what they do around there and it's people it's not in in our neighborhood it's coming there that's the problem thank you paul we will follow up we will get with the police chief thank you very much for being here thank y'all

Okay, we will move to the consent agenda. Items on the consent agenda are considered to be routine by the Board of Commissioners and will be enacted by one motion and one vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a board member so requests. In which event, the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. City clerk will read the items recommended for approval unless any commissioner would like an item removed for separate discussion. And we have already removed one item. So I'll go ahead and ask the city clerk to read the items recommended for approval.

Approved minutes for the May 11th and May 12th, 2026 Board of Commissioners meetings. Receive and file documents. A municipal order appointing Michael Youngman to fill the vacancy created by the late John D. Williams as a member of the Board of Trustees for the operation of Municipal College in the City of Paducah, Kentucky for a period of four years. Personnel actions. A municipal order approving a contract with DWA Recreation in the amount of $87,202.00. for the purchase and installation of new shade canopies for the public pool and tennis court facilities in Noble Park, and authorizing the mayor to sign all documents related to same. A municipal order approving a contract with Miracle Playgrounds of Kentucky and Tennessee in the amount of $198,743 for the purchase and installation of new playground equipment at Cobb Park, and authorizing the mayor to sign all documents related to same. A municipal order approving the First Amendment to a contract for services with Rightway Janitorial to provide certain janitorial services and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to same. A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute an application for a Kentucky Office of the Attorney General stand by the badge peer support for law enforcement grant in the amount of $5,000 to develop or enhance peer support programs that address chronic stress. and promote officer mental health and wellness, accepting any grant funds awarded and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to Zane. A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a memorandum of understanding between the City of Paducah Police Department and the Paducah Independent School District to allow school district resource officers to conduct law enforcement activities beyond school property to fulfill official duties. A municipal order approving a contract with Hannon Supply for purchase of light fixtures for the Marine Way Improvement Project in the amount of $86,757 and authorizing the mayor to sign all documents related to same. A municipal order approving a contract with World Tower Company Incorporated to complete an E911 tower remediation in the amount of $42,665 and authorizing the mayor to sign all documents related to same. A municipal order approving a contract with Allied Contracting in the amount not to exceed $249,491 for the City Hall administration renovation and authorizing the Mayor to execute all documents related to same. A municipal order approving a contract with Window Energy in an amount not to exceed $175,360 for the City Hall Window Film Project and authorizing the Mayor to sign all documents related to same.

So move. Second. Call roll.

Commissioner Henderson?

Aye.

Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye. So I'm going to move to the municipal order. I'd ask the city clerk to please read it.

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners adopt a municipal order entitled a municipal order approving a contract with Ray Black & Son Incorporated in the amount of $499,028 for capital improvements to the Hotel Metropolitan and Purple Room and authorizing the Mayor to execute all documents related to same.

So moved. Second.

You want to tell us about this.

Good evening commissioners mayors city manager city clerk. So tonight we are requesting you to approve a contract with Ray Black and son to conduct renovations to the hotel metropolitan into the purple room. Now this is a result of the Mellon grant that we received in 2024 which was for capital improvements and capacity building for the hotel. In the co-stewardship agreement in 2025, it was agreed that the city would take the lead in helping facilitate those capital improvements. And so now we are to this point with Ray Black and Son in order to approve a contract to have those renovations done. And this would include renovations to the exterior and the interior of the hotel, as well as to renovations of the interior of the Purple Room.

When will it begin, and what's our projected date for completion?

We do not have a projected date for completion at this time. In speaking with Chris Black, he said as soon as we were able to approve this contract, they would be ready to begin moving forward with the project.

Thank you. Ms. Petty is in the audience. Ms. Petty, would you like to come up and? You've talked with Chris about the project. Does he have any projections on how long it's going to take?

He did not. But what he said is that after the approval was made that he could start that following week. to begin work and so he would start with the windows which are in horrible shape and really need that and he said that he would work with us so we can still do tours and things of that nature but it's I have to say, it's just so exciting and bless y'all. I mean, I almost felt like dancing coming up here.

That's why we wanted to see you dance.

Not tonight, but I almost felt like it. I truly have to say that. I just can't tell you what that will mean, not just for the hotel, but I really believe for the community as a whole. And we had the Secretary of Tourism and Arts to come a couple of weeks ago, and he just really bragged on the hotel and was proud of it. So, I mean... You are doing a great thing here. And over the years that you had supported it, you know, to think that we're at this moment, this junction of the hotel's development is just a blessing. Amen. I want to thank y'all. I really want to give you a hug. I don't know if we can do that, but just pie works well.

Your pie works well next time.

But if I catch you, I'm going to give you a hug.

This has been going on for quite some time, really, to try to get this all pulled together. I think it kind of started with the purple room and getting fun, so it's really come a long way. Congratulations. Let's get it done.

Just to remind all of us, I mean, this is an historic black hotel that was owned by a female back in the...

Early 1900s.

Early 1900s. Thank you. I didn't want to make a mistake. But it's very historic, and so it's got lots of potential. People come into town and seek it out. And, of course, I guess when you're not there, there's a sign on the door where you can call. Yeah. So somebody's not there all the time. But, you know, we're getting very close to hiring an executive director. We've got a lot of things going on. And so we're on the journey, but we're getting closer and closer and closer.

And I just want to say this. It's a possibility that the Hotel Metropolitan is the last green book stop that was built for that particular function. You know, there's others that have been repurposed and there are no parking lots or whatever the case may be, but the hotel is still standing and it was on the Chitlin Circuit, a green book stop, and it's still standing.

Yeah, it's amazing.

It is amazing. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Thanks for being here, Betty. I like dancing. I like dancing.

Anybody good? Seventies. Thank you, Hope.

Thank you.

I'd ask the city clerk to please call roll.

Commissioner Henderson. Aye. Commissioner Smith. Aye. Commissioner Thomas. Aye. Commissioner Wilson. Aye. Mayor Bray.

Aye. Okay, we have two ordinances to adopt tonight and one to introduce. So I'll ask the city clerk to please read the first ordinance that we're adopting, which we read two weeks ago.

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners adopt an ordinance entitled, in Ordinance Amending Chapter 126, Zoning, Section 104, Medium Density Residential Zone, R3, of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Paducah, Kentucky. This ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance amends the R3 Medium Density Residential Zone to create a more appropriate transition to the R4 High Density Residential Zone. By expanding permitted residential and neighborhood serving uses, the amendments reduce minimum lot size and width requirements to better reflect the historic development patterns found in established neighborhoods, such as the Southside and Northside historic districts, while also encouraging infill development and reducing nonconformities. This ordinance further introduces neighborhood corner stores as a permitted use to provide walkable access to goods and services, encourage community interaction, and support neighborhood revitalization. The Paducah Planning Commission held a public hearing on April 6, 2026, and subsequently forwarded a favorable recommendation that the City Commission approve the proposed text amendment.

I'll move.

Second.

Any questions from commissioners? All right, I'd ask our city clerk to please call roll.

Commissioner Henderson? Aye. Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye. So the second ordinance we are going to be reading and voting on tonight is approving a budget amendment, and I would ask our city clerk to please read that.

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners adopt an ordinance entitled an ordinance amending ordinance number 2025-06-8847 entitled an ordinance adopting the City of Paducah, Kentucky annual operating budget for the fiscal year July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 by estimating revenues and resources and appropriating funds for the operation of city government. This ordinance is summarized as follows that the annual budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026 as adopted by ordinance number 2025 be amended by the following reappropriations. Increased revenue and expenditures for the general fund by $58,901. Increased revenue and expenditures for capital projects fund by $2,471,988. Increased revenue and expenditures for the grant fund by $638. Increased expenditures for the debt service fund by $772,843. Increase revenue and expenditures for the bond fund by $572,757. Increase revenue and expenditures for the health insurance fund by $247,475. So moved. Second.

Questions, anybody? Please call roll.

Commissioner Henderson?

Aye.

Commissioner Smith? Aye. Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bregg?

Aye. And we have one ordinance, a big one, to introduce tonight, and I'll turn it over to our city manager and let him take it from here.

So, Mayor and Commission, one of the tasks of the commission, probably the most important task of the commission, is to adopt a budget each year. And as you're well aware, and as we have been talking for the last several Commission meetings the budget process has been ongoing in earnest for the last several months and tonight we get to the point of a first reading of the budget for the presentation for the fiscal year 2627 budget and statutorily The Commonwealth requires city management, former government, to present a budget message, and so I will read that first. Then we'll have the clerk read the language for the ordinance introduction, and then Audra will take it from there to answer any questions. So, Honorable Mayor Bray, commissioners, and residents of Paducah, Kentucky, it is my privilege to present the City of Paducah's proposed fiscal year 26-27 annual budget. This year's budget is guided by a central theme, strengthening today, preparing for tomorrow. This theme reflects the thoughtful balance required in today's municipal environment of maintaining the high level of service our residents expect while strategically preparing Paducah for future opportunities, challenges, and long-term community needs. The FY26-27 budget recognizes an important financial reality facing local governments nationwide. Revenues remain stable and continue modest growth, but operational costs continue to rise at a pace that demands discipline, prioritization, and intentional planning. Rather than simply reacting to these pressures, this budget positions the city to respond proactively by strengthening core operations today while building financial and organizational capacity for tomorrow. As with prior years, the budget is grounded in the city's six organizational values, solution-driven, customer experience, every person matters, action-oriented, fiscal responsibility, and personal accountability. These values continue to guide how we allocate our resources, deliver services, and make decisions on behalf of the residents and the businesses we proudly serve. In strengthening today, the fiscal year 26-27 general fund balance budget totals approximately $51.9 million and is supported primarily through occupational, license fees, property taxes, and insurance premium taxes. Across all funds, the city's total proposed budget is approximately $116.4 million. It supports the broad range of municipal services, infrastructure, capital projects, and community priorities necessary to sustain Paducah's continued success. The proposed general fund appropriation reflects disciplined stewardship of taxpayer resources through conservative revenue forecasting, thoughtful expenditure management, and operational efficiencies. Major cost drivers continue to include personnel, insurance, software and technology systems, fuel and inflationary operating expenses. In recognition of long-term financial stability, nine currently unfilled positions have been frozen, allowing the city to manage cost pressures while protecting the central municipal services and maintaining our operational effectiveness. At the same time, the budget continues to support the commission priorities including downtown vibrancy, neighborhood revitalization, south side investment, street rehabilitation, economic development, and quality of life enhancements that reinforce Paducah as a thriving regional center. Through the investment fund, projected at approximately $7.9 million, the city will continue advancing projects aligned with these strategic priorities. As we prepare for tomorrow and while meeting today's needs is essential, responsible government also requires preparation for the future. This budget continues the city focus on long-term capital planning, facility modernization, infrastructure investment and financial resiliency. Significant future obligations remain, including public facilities, infrastructure renewal, stormwater management and long-term asset replacement. Some of these capital projects, like the City Hall stabilization efforts, a new police station, planning for future replacement of Fire Station 4, are all currently unfunded. But these needs reinforce the importance of strategic planning and careful prioritization. To strengthen Paducah's long-term financial position, this budget also recommends increasing the General Fund Reserve target from 10% to 25%. This policy enhancement reflects municipal government best practices and will better position the city to navigate economic uncertainty, unforeseen emergencies, and future capital investment needs. In closing, the fiscal year 26-27 budget represents more than just a spending plan. It reflects a strategic commitment to strengthening the services residents rely on today while preparing our community for tomorrow. It is disciplined. balanced, and intentionally aligned with the priorities of the Commission. Together, we continue building a stronger, more resilient Paducah by honoring our history while confidently preparing for the future. I'd like to take a moment to express my sincere appreciation to Finance Director Audra Kyle, the entire finance team, for their professionalism, expertise, and dedication throughout this budget process. Their work ensures that the City's financial planning remains transparent, responsible, and strategically focused. I also wish to thank the assistant city manager, Michelle Smolin, the executive leadership team, and our whole team for their continued collaboration, thoughtful planning, and commitment to responsible stewardship of public resources. And finally, I extend my gratitude to the commission for your leadership, your guidance, and encouragement and engagement throughout the budget process. Your commitment to thoughtful governance, strategic investment continues to position Paducah for the long-term success.

Thank you, City Manager. And now I think we'll let our City Clerk read the ordinance.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to introduce an ordinance entitled An Ordinance Adopting the City of Paducah, Kentucky Annual Operating Budget for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. by estimating revenues and resources and appropriating funds for the operation of city government. This ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance adopts the City of Paducah annual budget for fiscal year July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 by estimating revenues and resources and appropriating funds for the operation of city government as follows. General Fund Revenues $49,713,352 Appropriations, $51,882,954. And reserves utilized, $2,169,602. Rental fund revenues, $142,513. Appropriations, $142,513. 911 fund, $3,491,103 in revenues. And appropriations, $3,491,103. CDBG fund revenues $574,275. Appropriations $574,275. Opioid settlement fund $277,957 in revenues and $113,397 in appropriations. Municipal aid program fund revenues at $2,540,300 in appropriations at $2,000,000. $800,300 with reserves utilized of $260,000. Investment fund at $8,025,000 in revenues with appropriations at $7,917,352. Tax increment financing fund at revenues at $123,000 and appropriations at the same. Grant fund at $0. Court award fund at $50,000 in revenues and $141,490 in appropriations, with reserves being utilized at $91,490. Room tax fund at revenues at $1,855,000 in appropriations at the same. Debt service fund at $5,539,717 for both revenues and appropriations. Capital projects fund at $1,365,000 and appropriations at the same. Bond fund at $5,435,000 in revenues and appropriations at $21,012,654 with reserves being utilized in the amount of $15,577,000. $654. Solid waste fund at $7,243,500 in revenues and $8,543,207 in appropriations with reserves being utilized in the amount of $1,299,707. Transient boat dock fund at $148,822 in revenues and and $326,822 in appropriations with using reserves in the amount of $178,000. Fleet Maintenance Fund at $1,004,000 in revenues and appropriations at $1,033,022 with reserves being utilized in the amount of $29,022. Fleet Lease Trust Fund at $1,664,311 in revenues and $2,492,345 in appropriations, with reserves being utilized in the amount of $828,034. General Insurance Fund at $1,594,006 at revenues, appropriations at $1,594,006. Health Insurance Fund at $4,098,200 in revenues, and $4,743,033 in appropriations, with reserves being utilized in the amount of $644,833. The FPF Pension Fund at $651,850 in revenues and the same in appropriations and other trust funds an amount of $85,435 in both revenues and appropriations. For a total amount of revenues at $95,622,341. Appropriations at $1,000,000.

one hundred sixteen million four hundred twenty eight thousand four hundred seventy five dollars and reserves being utilized in the amount of twenty one million seventy eight thousand three hundred forty two dollars so moved second okay audrey well i'm here to answer what lauren and i are here to answer any questions you all uh... may have we've done presentations at each of the last several meetings and tried to cover everything uh... in as much detail as possible. We've had our one-on-one. So at this point, I think any questions you all might have for us?

I think we've been involved in the process. I think all the commissioners have been involved in the process. I know that you and the finance team have done a great job under Darren's leadership to make sure that we were informed, shall we say, the good, the bad, and the ugly about next year's budget and where there's pressure and what we're going to do about that in the future. So I appreciate that. Are there questions from any commissioners? A lot of shaking heads, so I guess you guys did a good job.

I've appreciated the process this year. Darren made some changes to it, and I've enjoyed having – well, enjoy might be not the right word. I've appreciated having more opportunities to speak about the budget. I like the way that we've had the presentation at the meetings, and I just feel like it was a more well-rounded process, if that's the right word to use. I think it's been a good one. And I also want to brag on Lauren here. So Lauren came in as Comptroller in February. which is a terrible time to come into the finance department.

There's never a good time, Lauren.

Well, you know what? I hear that a lot. When I want to plan vacation, there's never a good time like that. But, yeah, always busy. But it's a really difficult time to come in because it's not, we'll spend this week learning about this function. It's just hit the ground running. And so she did a fantastic job. And I'm really excited that we get to have her.

Great. Well, congratulations to you, and Lauren, welcome. I mean, you've done a great job. Thank you for all your hard work and the team's hard work.

Oh, yes.

Thank you. Okay. I think the last item on the agenda for tonight is a discussion item, and it's an artificial intelligence update. And as I mentioned earlier, we've got some questions about it, so looking forward to Hearing what you have to say.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioner, City Manager, City Clerk. This is, as the Mayor said earlier, Darren asked me what I wanted to title this, and I just said AI Update, but I didn't really think about the timing of... all of the data center talk, we probably should have made a better title. But the mayor said, this isn't about data centers. This is about how the city is currently using AI in various departments. It's about what Darren and I learned when we went to the ICMA conference in early April. And then what our next steps are kind of in our AI journey. So that's what this is about. And then everybody knows AI stands for artificial intelligence, but Google says the definition of it is it's a technology that gives computers the ability to think and act like humans. The biggest thing to understand is AI is not one thing. So when people say AI, it is a wealth of things. It's not one individual thing. It's just an umbrella term that people use. It's about a collection of distinct technologies, techniques, and systems. What Darren and I learned about at the ICMA conference is a lot of the various types of AI that is used in government. And so that's what we're going to talk about. There's a lot of bullet points on here. I'm not going to give you all of the definitions. This really slide is to kind of prove the point. These are all the things that Darren and I heard about. There's not one thing that's driving local government. It's a multitude of things. So when someone says AI, the question then needs to be what type of AI are you talking about? There's generative AI, which is the most common right now. That's your chat GPTs, your Geminis, your Claudes, that you ask it to do something and it generates something for you. So generative AI. Computer vision. So if you have an autonomous vehicle or if you've ridden in an autonomous vehicle, it uses computer vision. It sees things on the roadway, identifies them, sees your lane departure, things like that. That is computer vision. There's natural language processing, which are your chatbots generally. If you're interacting with a chatbot on a website, it's natural language processing. It's input, you're putting something into it, it's interpreting that and then giving you back information in a natural spoken language. There's optical character recognition, which has been around for a really long time in businesses. Think of any multifunction device that you scan a piece of paper in and it takes everything that you scanned in and converts it to text. That's OCR technology or optical character recognition. There's intelligent automation, which is robotic process automation. And robotic in this sense doesn't mean robots, but it means something that you repetitively do over and over and over. You can use RPA to automate that process. So if it's something that you always do the same every time, you can put it into AI and just have AI do the functions for you. Um, behavioral AI, um, this is, you're going to most often see, see it on your streaming services. So you watch one thing and then it says, Oh, because you watch this, we're going to recommend this. That's behavioral AI. So it's, it's interpreting your behaviors. What do you watch? What do you listen to? Uh, what do you say? And then it's going to recommend things based on that, uh, behavioral, um, behavioral AI is also used in cybersecurity for email filtering so threat detection monitoring systems use behavioral AI so it looks at all the data that's in your emails it sees something that is an anomaly it'll flag that as well you normally don't send these things you normally don't receive these things then it's possible that it is some type of malicious email And then there's machine learning, which is your Alexas and your series that are on your phone, also used in cybersecurity defense systems as well. So again, it's learning. It's a lot like behavioral systems, but instead of looking at your behavior, it's looking at the device's behavior and looking for anomalies. And then there's agentic AI. When you hear people talking about, like, I created an agent for AI, that's agentic AI. So it's agent-based AI. You're seeing this a lot for customer support and HR functions. So things that can be automated by an agent you're going to see that. So those are all the different types of AI that we learned about at the conference in Orlando. And so the other thing that we also learned about is just local government use cases. So how are other government entities using AI? And so this slide is about those things. So urban blight. So there's AI out there where there's a city in San Jose where they're using the cameras that are on their city vehicles, and it's detecting graffiti. It's detecting large trash piles. It's detecting buildings that are in disrepair and then automatically entering cases for people to follow up on that. So that exists out there. I talked about it in the cybersecurity space. Cybersecurity uses AI now to detect viruses, ransomware, spam, phishing detection. Freedom of Information Act and Redaction, we saw Holly AI, I think, is the company that's doing this in the space now where it is taking all of your data from disparate systems and by you putting in the terms of the FOIA request, It's compiling all that data, but then it goes a step further, and it's looking for personally identifiable information, protected health information, or criminal justice information. It's automatically redacting that information before your clerk or your attorneys get it to then have to spend the hours that they often have to spend to read every piece of email and redact information. So there's AI out there that's doing that for cities now. Plan review and code compliance. So someone wants to build a commercial building, they enter or they submit to the city a large set of plans. There's AI now that is interpreting those plans. You program into it your local building codes. and it's scanning those documents to make sure that the plans are, number one, complete, and number two, they're compliant, before your code enforcement team ever even sees it. And then it can report back to your citizens or whoever submitted the request. It can say, oh, well, the permit you applied for involves something electrical. There's no electrical plan in this package. And it notifies them, you know, we don't have the electrical permit. And so there's plan review software out there that's doing basically your kind of your, I would call it, I guess, a pre-plan review using AI. Meeting minutes, kind of simple. A lot of you may have been on Teams calls or Zoom calls where somebody says, do you mind if I record this meeting? And then there's somebody else in the meeting that is a bot. It's an AI agent that is basically sitting there and it's converting everything that's said into text. And so your meetings, meeting minutes where you might spend hours after re-listening to what was said and typing it back out, AI is doing all the writing for you. And then all you would have to do is review that. Financial auditing. There was a company there that was talking about looking for anomalies in your financial software. So not financial auditing in the sense that Audra talks about it where you're hiring a firm that comes in and audits more for compliance. This is for detecting fraud. So it's looking at your financials and the transactions that are performed on a routine basis and then saying, this one looks out of the norm, flags that for human review. Resident inquiries. So, you know, just like you might call and you get a phone tree, so press one for this, press two for this, and you get lost in that, there are AI agents out there now where you call a number and you're talking to a human, human-like AI agent, where you just simply say, this is what I'm calling for, and then they route you to the appropriate department or give you the information directly they just give you the information over the phone. So you can ask it questions like, you know, I'm building a fence. Do I need a building permit to do that? Well, it just gives you the answer instead of you having to press one for this or press two for that or potentially not get anybody. There's agents out there that are just giving citizens the information that they need 24 hours a day, seven days a week to simple questions that they might ask. Law enforcement. So we use flock cameras. That's using OCR technology where it's reading the license plate, programming that in there. But There are cities that are taking that a step further and they're using facial recognition to find missing or exploited children or missing persons. So you give the AI agent a picture of someone who is missing and then the cameras in the city that are normally recording, they can do facial recognition and potentially alert you that someone matching that description is located in that area wherever the camera is. Call handling and citizen requests, we kind of touched on that with the resident inquiry, but I think I actually flipped the two. Call handling is what I talked about earlier. The resident inquiry is agents that you can put on your website where you can ask it questions, and then it will respond back to you with citing the source of the information on the city's website. or even in the Muni code, that local municipalities code. And then the last one that we heard about was pay and comp studies. So I'm not sure how often the city does their pay and comp study, but there's AI agents out there or AI out there now software that is getting publicly available information whether it's union contracts, employment contracts, published information, you can program your size of city in and it will look at cohorts and then it will automatically tell you where you stack up against your cohorts in the community. So AI is being used to do faster or make changes faster for pay and comp as well. So those are the things that we kind of learned about. And then there were a lot of sections about how to implement. So how do you go about implementing AI in your city or your local municipality? The biggest takeaways from that is start small. And have a purpose kind of goes hand in hand with that. So don't just introduce AI just because you want to introduce AI. find a specific use case, make sure that it's small, and then implement that and build off of that success. If you try to cram AI down people's throats, it often fails because AI is a change. And so a lot of what happens in implementing any software or any technology is change management. So change management 101, is kind of the snowball effect. Start small and build off of those successes. And then establish governance. So you need to have a policy and I'll talk about that in a little bit. But have a policy, mandate human review. So make sure that there is a human in the loop is kind of the term that we use in technology is. So you don't need an autonomous AI agent or technology that no one is ever reviewing. So it is spitting out information that could potentially be false information. or it could be biased information, or it could just be flat out wrong. You need a human to review what is being produced so that you can make sure that you're being responsible with your AI technology. And then disclose AI use. So if you're using AI to produce something, you should disclose that, that you're using or what you used in order to produce it. So I'm going to shift, that's kind of what Darren and I learned about, kind of in a nutshell. I'm going to shift now to kind of where we are. So for our city, we're using AI, whether our employees actually know about it specifically or not. So we talked about OCR. Well, that's built into our document management system, which is called LaserFish. We also use Tyler Technology Software, and they have a content manager system OCR is built into both of those systems where you can scan documents into it and it's reading all of the text and then indexing that, the terms. So that's how you can go to Laserfish and you can search for an ordinance or a municipal order. You can just search a term and it will find that information for you. We're using email security, so we're using behavioral AI and natural language processing. It's looking at our emails and trying to determine whether or not it's a potential red flag. We have endpoint detection and response on all city computers. This is machine learning. So your city computer normally operates in this way. And I'm not talking about what you're doing. I'm talking about what the processor is doing, what is stored in memory, really on the hardware and the system side. It's looking at that and saying, okay, this is how your machine normally acts. It's now acting in a different way. And it sends an alert to us in technology and says, hey, you need to check this computer out because there may be something potentially wrong with it. There are departments that are using generative AI for policy review. So you want to kind of study a policy. You can ask a generative AI, whether it's Copilot or ChatGPT, give me a summary of this policy. And it will read all of the text and give you a summary of that policy. You can ask it things like how would somebody interpret this policy? How would a citizen interpret this policy? How would a team member interpret this policy. Generative AI will do those types. It'll respond to those types of prompts for you. We're using it for meeting notes and presentations. So again, to take notes, or you can ask a co-pilot to generate a presentation based on an outline for you. And it will do those things for you. It's generative AI. And then as I already talked about, law enforcement is using OCR technology on all of the flock cameras that we have throughout the city for license plate reading. There are a wealth of resources available to us as a city. One of the things that I was introduced to and we're now members of is the Gov AI Coalition. It was started by the city of San Jose, California. It has 900 agencies that are currently in it. We're now one of them. So there's a monthly meeting that you can join that I join where if you have a question about AI, you want to know how someone introduced it, what they're using, it's a time for you to network with 900 other cities, municipalities across the United States. But they also provide a wealth of documents to you as well. So you don't have to, you want to write a policy, you don't have to go write it from scratch. You can go out to the GovAI website, download policy templates, and then make those match your organization. There's also, you know, we're members of the Kentucky League of Cities and the National League of Cities and then also ICMA, which is the group that put on the conference that Darren and I attended. They have a wealth of information as well on AI and how cities are introducing it. Obviously, colleges and universities, there are now degrees on artificial intelligence that go hand in hand with your traditional computer science programs is now Our local community college and our nearest state university, they both have classes or even minors in artificial intelligence now. And then obviously AI experts and vendors that are in our community that we can lean on for resources and have talked to about various topics in AI. So what are our next steps as a city? I asked AI to generate this, so I'm citing my source. I just asked Copilot to generate me an image that says crawl, walk, run. This is what was generated, but that's our approach. Again, we go back to start small, have a purpose. We don't need to be running out of the gate with AI. We need to start small. We need to pick something that can be a success, that we can snowball on that success in this crawl, walk, run approach. And so that's kind of where we are right now as a city. We have an AI policy in draft form that Darren and Michelle are both reviewing with me. We're right on the cusp of releasing that. I did want to, obviously I'm not going to stand here and talk about the entire policy, but I did want, I brought some quotes from the purpose statement. enable effective use of AI technology by providing clear guidance. We want to make sure that it states what measures we're taking to protect the public from potential adverse consequences of these AI systems. We want to promote responsible and ethical use of AI technology. We want to ensure the compliance of AI systems with all applicable federal, state, and local laws. And we want to establish processes that encourage effective and responsible use of AI. AI is using data that is available to it. If the data is biased, it will give you a biased answer. Someone needs to be reviewing that to make sure that that does not happen. We want to be responsible with our use of AI and we want to make sure that the information that it's giving back has been vetted. The last two things is we want to form an AI working group internally. that meets regularly to discuss our use of AI in the city, how we can be promoting that to gain efficiencies, but also look at some of the pain points that our departments have and if AI is a potential solution to those pain points, again, kind of under the tent of gaining efficiencies in our departments. And so the last thing is to assess areas for specific use cases. Again, don't just implement AI to implement it, but let's look for something that we can use to have a success and then build upon those successes. So I told Darren I would keep it brief, and that way you guys could ask whatever questions you would like to ask.

Where would we potentially begin crawling?

Crawling. Some of the things that I talked to a gentleman that was in the city of Reno, and he said that one of the biggest successes that they had was implementing an AI utility on their website where citizens can type in what they want. and they don't have to go scrolling through the website or clicking through the website to find specific information. And the particular technology that they use sites where the source is for the information. But that same AI technology also exists for what I was talking about with the citizens' ability to call in and ask a question. You know, maybe it's, you know, you get off of work at 6 p.m., city hall's not open, no one's going to answer the phone, but you want to ask a question. Well, you can call the number and you could ask. You know, here's my simple question. Can you get the answer without having to wait until the next day? Sure. You know, or really even interacting with the human if you didn't want to. So that's an area where I could see a big win for the citizens, but also help us internally from an efficiency standpoint. And so that's maybe a potential place to start.

We do.

So one of the areas that I think would be, and I've mentioned this to Darren before, but I'm in a lot of meetings and there are a lot of things talked about. And I make some notes. Of course, I meet with Sandra a lot. She makes lots of notes. But there are tools out there. as you pointed out earlier, that can capture what's discussed and then provide meeting notes for that. And to me, that would be very useful for me. I think we need to learn how to use that, though. I think if we start using it on our own, I think that... I think there's probably a better way to do that so that we can kind of have a, for lack of a better word, a standardized use of how we do that. That would be extremely helpful to me. And I really like the idea about the website. I know Pam does a great job on our website. But it's deep. It's deep. And there's so much information out there. And if there was a way that somebody could type in a question, where do I find this, and Very quickly, that would be super helpful. So I think that's something that's worth pursuing. Did you say it was San Jose that did that? Reno. Reno.

But there's a lot of cities that are using the technology that we encountered at the ICMA conference.

So, you know, really, I mean, Darren, I've had discussions about this. AI is here. I mean, it's coming like a house of fire. And if we don't adapt, adopt, you know, then we're going to be left behind. And that's, you know, sometimes government, you know, adopts things a little bit. the private sector depending on not always but sometimes and I think that we have to stay you know out there as far in the front as we possibly can you know to become as efficient as we can to provide our citizens you know with as much data as possible to give us you know we're all busy people if there's a way that you can give us assistance So that would be my, I guess, challenge to us, all of us.

I think it's great, but I think one of the other challenges that we have is to make sure that AI does not replace the human touch, being able to talk to somebody, a live person, if they need to, if they want to. I get it. After hours, yes. But if you're in the day, we want to be able to talk to Lindsay, you should be able to talk to Lindsay.

For sure. And that's where, you know, and Eric brought it up there, is that, you know, the tagline about human in the loop, not only reviewing what's being put out, but still being involved in that aspect of it. And I think that's also to where, you know, by us taking the opportunity to get a policy to continue to move forward, that we put the human in the lead on that aspect instead of just being in the loop.

Yeah. Is it possible even to if someone calls in and ask a question about something is it possible that we can go back the next day and contact that person To see if they got all the information they need to.

Yeah, 100%. A couple of the demos that Darren and I actually did, live demos there at the conference, there's a transcript that is logged. So the conversations, if you will, are logged so you can review them. But also kind of along that same point, let's say that I called during the day and I got the agent. But I will speak to the human because I don't want to speak to an agent You can literally say, you know, let me speak to an agent and it immediately routes you to a human so that you can talk to human I think Commissioner Henderson's points are well taken.

I mean we do not want to replace human beings, you know that personal touch I think that's something that you know, we've got a customer experience department and Under Lindsey's leadership, I think we do a great job with all the things that we do. We just want to make us more efficient, you know. So I appreciate, we all appreciate the presentation and, you know, and the research and work that you're doing. So bring us along with you.

All right.

Bring the elected officials along with you.

We'll do.

Okay.

Any other questions? No. Okay.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, we'll close the meeting with, start with comments from city manager.

Anything?

None this evening. Okay, we'll start down this way. Commissioner Henderson.

If you happen to call my phone, I already have an AI assistant answering my phone calls. Okay. So I'm already progressive.

Actually, it's a lot more courteous than the real thing. No comments. That was my comment.

You invited him. You invited him. I'll walk right into it. Commissioner Wilson, any comments?

If you wait long enough, he eventually answers it if he wants to. I think he says, stay tuned. Say your name and stay tuned and see if he's available or something. She's very thorough. Yes, yes. No, I don't have anything else.

Commissioner Thomas. Just one thing. I was able to attend that soft opening at the sports park and You know, I talked to some of the patrons that were there, and they were really enjoying it. And it was a really nice facility. Like, I'm really excited for it to be finished. And I also got a message from a restaurant. I don't know if she's a manager or whatnot, but she told me how her servers, they made a lot of good money because of the foot traffic that was in town. So...

I wish we'd had a time that we all had gone out there at the same time because I was out there. I was out there. I posted pictures. I wanted to say, I was out there too, but at a different time. And I mentioned that to one of the board members this morning. I think that that was the decision whether or not we would wait until July, Amy, for the big opening or just wonder out there. So I did. I saw Chaz and just kind of waved at her and gave her a thumbs up. But it is nice. There's still a lot of work to be done. A lot of work. I hope we can make it in July. But, yeah, it was a great time.

Yeah, it sure was. I was going to say I think that the indirect economic, and I was sharing this with Commissioner Smith earlier, the estimated, and, of course, it's hard to get hard numbers on it, but the estimated just from this last weekend indirect benefit to Paducah and McCracken County, a million dollars for those 60 teams coming in.

You know, I also had someone say to me over the weekend about, boy, there's just so much stuff, you know, construction downtown, kind of in a negative way, and I was like, but it's progress. So, I mean, there really is a lot when you see some of the sidewalks have been torn up, you know, some of the downtown, the riverfront, some of the buildings that are got... Fencing around them, but it is really progress and construction that's going on So I think that's just said but it's progress and you know, you just have to remember that when you're did they buy it around Yes. Yes. They did kind of change their chain. I think they didn't want to just keep arguing with me

All right. Well, thanks, everybody. I would entertain a motion to adjourn, or I ask the city clerk to read a motion to adjourn, or I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved. Second.

Call the roll.

Commissioner Henderson. Aye. Commissioner Smith.

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas.

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson. Aye. Mayor Bray.

Aye.

Thank you.