City Commission - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon everyone and welcome. I'll go ahead and call this meeting to order on August 11th, 2026 and ask the city clerk to please call roll.

Commissioner Henderson.

Present.

Commissioner Smith.

Here.

Commissioner Thomas. Present. Commissioner Wilson. Present. Mayor Bray.

Present. I'd ask Commissioner Thomas to do the invocation and then we'll remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to come together today. Continue to guide us Give us a mind to follow your path for us and to make the best decisions for all that reside here. We thank you for your grace, and we pray in your son Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. City Manager, are there any additions or deletions to the agenda? Mayor, none this evening. Okay, we have one new employee introduction, and I would ask Kathy Bryant-Quimby to come up and introduce Leanne Armstrong. Good evening. Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor.

Okay.

And we know I'm going to pull this down.

Good evening, Mayor, City Manager, Commission, and guests. Thank you all for being here tonight. Today I have the privilege of welcoming our newest member to our Customer Experience Department. The Customer Experience Department plays a key role in City Hall. They welcome our community every day, whether by person as they come in City Hall, by phone, by email. They assist with the needs of our community, the questions they have. They're a key point to getting people to the different team members they need to be. If it's how do I connect somebody to trash service or I need a phone number just in the community. I just don't have these resources. This role is a key role to City Hall, and it's one that greatly needed filled. We had a wonderful lady, Ms. Donna Jackson, which I needed to mention her. She was a dear, dear, sweet person that we loved for so long. She was here for over 30 years, and I'm sorry, that just amazes me because we've moved around a lot. So sticking somewhere for over 30 years is a big thing, and she did a wonderful job, and she meant so much to our community. our team and our community and she did a fantastic job. So this is big shoes to fill. don't get nervous um but leanne this is leanne armstrong she is a lifelong paducah native she grew up in farley um she is a graduate graduate of reedland high school and paducah community college she brings a wealth of customer experience uh relationship building and key ingredients necessary for this role um outside of work she is married to james armstrong she has two kids jay um Dalton and Annie. You would think I'd know that. I've known her a while. Two bonus kids, AJ and Aaron, and is blessed with a daughter-in-law, Mariah, but her most favorite title of all is as Lolly to her granddaughter, Aspen. So, Leanne, if you will come on up and say hi. Thank you, Kathy.

Glad to be here. I just want to first off say sincerely thank you guys for the opportunity to be on the City of Paducah team. I'm honored and excited to be part of this organization that serves the community that I've lived in my entire life. Growing up on the south side, the community held a special place in my heart and I look forward to seeing the revitalization and growth happening not only there but in all of the city. My parents, David and Teresa Cherry, owned Ramage Auto Parts on the south side for 25 years. Working there, they instilled in me the importance of community, of a strong work ethic, and building meaningful relationships with customers. Later, I spent 20 years in the banking industry, and that helped me build relationships with many members of you know, the community and their families. I'm grateful to my new team for making me feel so welcome, and I look forward to serving the city and what the future may hold.

Thank you, Leanne. Thank you very much, and welcome, and just to... confirm what some of Kathy's remarks you know the first impression that we make for our residents coming in the door is very important the follow-up is very important and our customer experience department does a great job with that so welcome aboard thank you thank you all welcome thank you Okay, the first, I know we have a lot of visitors here tonight. The first item on the agenda is a presentation by our police chief, Brian Laird, and he's going to do a recap on this Emancipation Day weekend. Welcome, Chief.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager, City Clerk. I wanted to share some information with you tonight about our efforts over the weekend to keep our community safe. There were numerous daytime events, permitted events throughout the city, including a street dance, car show, 5K race, and a parade, just to name a few. For all of those events, went off without any issues of any kind. For many years, the nighttime hours on August 8th have often turned violent, and last year our community lost a young mother and her unborn child to gun violence. In the months approaching this past weekend, we've had many conversations with a lot of different people about how to prevent something like that from happening again. Meetings were held with business owners and community members from the Boyd Street area, the leadership of the Brick House. We had a couple different meetings with them. They followed their action plan and even closed early on both nights. The management of Home Plate Bar and Grill, located on A Street, a couple blocks away from the Boyd Street area, created a security plan which they provided to the police department on Thursday evening. This plan included eight to ten armed security guards, some of which were carrying rifles inside and outside of the business. I think it's important to note that at no time during the weekend did any of our officers have rifles out walking around with them. I want to commend both of these businesses for following their plans and working with us to have a safe weekend. While many of the officers out there working, standing on the street corners, working in their cars as well, were thanked by people, some of the folks were not happy. Our approach this year was to maintain order and prevent lawlessness like what we'd seen in previous years. I've heard some statements that we shut down a local coffee shop. I don't want to clear that up. That's not what happened. That business was selling alcohol by the drink without a valid liquor license and they received a citation from the state ABC alcohol beverage control officer that was out that weekend. Also leading up to this weekend, in the past six weeks, our community had experienced two separate shootings that took the lives of two people in our community. We had received credible information that there was a strong possibility of retaliation and that was being planned for this past weekend. Additionally, Friday afternoon there was a shooting in Mayfield. That was early this past Friday afternoon. The history of violence in the Boyd Street area along with the potential for retaliation shootings required a directed approach to maintain order and prevent any additional violence. I'm happy to stand here before you today and say there wasn't a single issue that came up either night in the 900 block of Boyd Street or previous years had seen hundreds of people in the streets which led to violence. While there were a few arrests that were made in the area for minor offenses, there was less than 10, I believe. Addressing those minor issues early is a proven method to prevent larger issues. I'm happy to report to you this year, there were no shootings, no shots fired calls, no complaints of loud music, no complaints of loud vehicles, drag racing, people doing burnouts in the street, street takeovers. The most important part of the weekend is that there was no violence and nobody lost their life. I do think it's important to mention again that it wasn't just a police effort to do that. It was an effort by the businesses and the folks that we talked to in the neighborhood. Everybody worked together.

Questions? Comments from commissioners? We are obviously going to... I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Well, I guess... And I appreciate you guys efforts. I appreciate the police department. I know this commission last year, uh, we were wanting to make sure that we did not have any violence and that we did the things that we needed to do to make sure that that took place. And that's a good thing that that did happen. What I want to try to get to is how did we maintain order? It is a concern. I think I called you right after I heard the first complaint. It is a concern of mine as to The alleged and as you say alleged because we we don't we haven't had an opportunity to see any of that. But how do we handle the alleged comments and I'm sure will come as to how the police made people feel being intimidated stopping people where you're going. Do you normally, are you normally out this late? I mean, just a mirage of complaints. And that concerns me. And again, I think I posted that we want to make sure that we want to take the complaint serious. At the same time, we want to make sure that our police like privacy issues.

There are some open records rules that would have to be followed with that.

Just one comment, too, I'd hate to leave them out, is that we did lose a favored son from the city last year, too, that was on the police department. So I know we talked about the young mother and child, which was horrible, but we did lose a police officer. We did.

Anybody else? So the comment I would make is that we did have a successful weekend from the standpoint of reducing violence and I think that there's always opportunities to learn from our experiences and I was going to recommend that we take a look at body cam footage and make sure we understood everything that went on and also I would say that I see the owner of the brick house, LG, is here. We met with LG early, probably five or six months before August 8th. And I think if there is folks in the community who would like to have a meeting with us, or if you want to appoint a representative or representatives, then we would be willing to begin the planning process early. Because I think planning early is really important to making sure we got the lines of communication opened. And so we would certainly offer that as well this next year as leading up to August 8th.

Mayor, I would add, I mean, I certainly understand that there were a lot of concerns expressed. And, you know, we can review the camera coverage. But there were also a lot of really nice events. And I don't want us to lose sight of that for the weekend. So, I mean, I was at most, a lot of them, you were at a lot of, we all were at many of the events. And it was, you know, a really nice weekend to celebrate the Emancipation Day. We had the resolution leading up to all of it. So I hope that we can just not lose sight of there were a lot of really nice events honoring a lot of different people during that time. while we still take these complaints seriously.

Good point.

And I would just add, I don't know, you didn't mention this, but I was aware of, you know, a number of people in the community that have been positive about, you know, the way, the fact that we didn't have any violence, you know, this past weekend. And I've actually received some private comments about, you know, positive about it. So... I know you put together a plan. I've seen that plan. It was very documented, very detailed, and I appreciate your leadership and your documentation of the plan and following that plan.

Thank you. Okay. And I hate to always have to say this or feel this way, but I often feel that every time there are concerns that our employees... to feel as if it's personal, that we're doing something personal. And I think I need to say that again to you, you know, because I did call you Thursday and say we'll talk after the 8th. So it's nothing personal, and I don't, I just, some kind of way we got to get past that. It's not personal. These are concerns that our citizens have, and I think that we should be comfortable enough to express those concerns without all the other stuff that can go with that.

Yeah, I agree.

I would say a lot of comments on social media are very personal. So, I mean, I do think handling it professionally, and it is a difficult balancing act because what happened last year was horrible, and now we got this year, you know, maybe things could be changed so people don't feel intimidated. You know, so I guess we'll never, ever be able to... hit that sweet spot because it moves, you know, depending on the circumstances. So I just, I think we have to recognize and sometimes you have to recognize a win. You know, some people may say this wasn't a win, but compared to last year, there were a lot of positive things that happened and negative things that didn't happen. So, you know, we, but that doesn't mean we can't improve. And so I just appreciate. everyone looking at it and looking at ways to make things better, which is what we always try to do. So it's important. The celebration is important to the city. It's a lot of great history. We really like to have people come back to Paducah, their hometown, and we really want to attract people that have moved away. We'd like them to come back, move back to Paducah. So we want everyone to have a positive experience, too. So, you know, we'll just do our best.

Thank you, Chief.

Okay. Thanks, Chief. Okay, now we're going to open up public comments. We have a few, and I'm going to let Marshall Davis talk first, but I just remind everybody that you get three minutes for public comments, and I'm just going to ask the speakers that they maintain decorum and respect and know individual commissioner can be singled out. Thank you. And when you come forward, just state your name and your address, if you would. And Marshall, I'll let you kick it off.

All right. Marshall Davis, lifelong resident here in Paducah. I live at 7 Westvale, Paducah. Excuse me. I wish to address the city's business license tax. We need a city that acts as a true partner to small business. Instead of our current model, which punishes young and often struggling businesses by taxing gross revenue rather than net profit. When you tax total sales receipts, you force local businesses often into survival mode, pushing many towards failure. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. We create jobs, sponsor youth sports, support local charities, and keep our downtown vibrant, all while operating on the thinnest of margins. Yet last August, this commission voted to place the heaviest tax burden on the smallest businesses while giving a pass to the largest corporations. You claim to promote downtown, but your actions tell a different story. I question where do your true allegiances lie? Consider this bizarre math. With the full implementation of your well thought out plan, once a business hits the initial threshold, To double its tax liability, to double its tax liability, that business must generate another 690 million in sales. If you have two businesses side by side, one meets the initial gross receipts threshold in sales, and the other doubles the initial threshold in sales, a doubling in sales, The larger business pays only a mere $580 more in taxes. The smaller business paying approximately $35,000 a year and the larger business with double the sales paying approximately $35,500. That is not equity, it's grotesque. By taxing those who can least afford it, you rob small businesses of the resources needed to reinvest, pay good wages, and support our community. Shockingly, this commission voted in unison to approve this, with the silent backing of our local Chamber of Commerce leadership, the entity that should be defending us. I urge this commission to review their regressive tax structure and implement two critical changes. Shift from a gross receipts tax to a net profit tax, and two, ensure tax rates are equitable, meaning those least able to afford the tax do not bear the highest burden. Some of you claim to be progressive, but true progressivism does not mean placing the heaviest financial burden on new or growing local entrepreneurs, taxing them regardless of profit, offering no apologies. It's a time to align your votes with your values. I urge you to reconsider your regressive policies and support your local businesses, which are trying to make Paducah a thriving community. Thank you.

Thank you.

Dr. June Jones.

No mayor and city commissioners. Good afternoon opportunity. I would just like to say thank you.

Ms. Jones, if you wouldn't mind, let's pull the microphone down there, please. There you go. Thank you.

Thank you for having the police support that we needed. We're not faulting that at all. But when we have people that drive and come in and fly into our airport, come through Nashville just to come home to have a family gathering, and then the police are harassing them, they don't want to come back. And you're telling us that you want people to come back to Paducah? They don't have a reason to come back to Paducah. I was in my bed at 2.30 in the morning on Saturday morning. And the police had my dogs started barking. And I know whenever my dogs, that's what they're out there for, to let me know somebody's around my property. The dogs started barking. I got up, the lights were shining all inside of my house, and I'm trying to figure out what's going on. Two of my granddaughter's friends had came down the alley that they normally come down all the time to visit my house. They were stopped inside of my yard. And when I went to the door, I could hardly see because I'm just waking up. And so I stepped out on my porch, and the officer said, I said, what's going on out here? They said, going back in your house, going back in. I said, hold up, wait a minute. I own this property right here. You're not going to tell me to go back in my house. I said, what's going on? The man said, do you know these two guys? I said, hell, I can't even see. I'm just waking up, I can't see. I said, send them over here, let me look at them. So they sent them over to me. I said, yeah, I know these guys. I said, they come over here all the time. Well, they told me they were looking for your granddaughter. I said, and they're on my property. You came in my yard on my property. Why are you harassing these kids? They haven't done anything wrong, nothing. They were walking down the alley looking for my granddaughter. Now, I'm getting reports, and they're calling me, calling, calling, calling. Miss June, they did this and they did that. And I'm going to tell you something. We wanted the police protection. Don't get me wrong. We need that. But we don't need to feel like prisoners or ICE victims or any of that kind of harassment. We were harassed the whole time. I had a girlfriend that lived right across the street from me. And she brought a lady in from Detroit that was from Paducah. And they just rolled through. And because they were taking their time riding through, they stopped them. One police got on one side of the car and one got on the other side of the car. Am I over time?

Yes, ma'am. Just finish up, if you would, please.

I'm sorry. What I was saying is that it was just overboard. It was too much. You know, we want the safety and all that, but it was too much. We appreciate it. Don't get me wrong. I'm a business owner. I decided not to open because I wanted to see what was going to happen. When people are not comfortable coming into our supposedly friendly city, and this is the time that we do our family reunions. We've done it for years. We've always done that.

Thank you, Ms. Jones. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Question. Ms. Jones, where do you live? What's your address?

I live on 9th Street, but my business is on Boyd Street. They said that the Brick House and my business are the only two businesses over there. And what happened this time, nobody was able to make receipts. Nobody made any money in that area. Nobody. I felt like we were targeted.

Thank you, Ms. Jones.

Thank you.

Tamara Warren.

Hi, I'm Tamara Warren. And I live right here in Paducah, and I've been in Paducah. I just want to say the August 8th is not the same. Last year, I was a victim. Now this year, a family member of mine was a victim, and she's my sister. And she was sent to jail for selling food. Not only that, she was asking why she needed to move. No question was answered. She also asked for someone else that could understand her, like a captain or sergeant. Nobody was called to de-escalate. If she was wrong, would a ticket be okay? My sister spent the night in jail. They use excessive force, so she wound up injured. Between the July 4th and August 8th, What is the difference? No disrespect. But it's just like any other holiday you want to celebrate with your family or you want to go home and celebrate and call it a holiday. You want to make it home as well to your family safely and alive. Moral of the story, I'm just trying to understand why it went the way it went. Without an adult conversation. Since it was three of them.

We'll be following up on all the remarks tonight, so thank you.

I have a video if you need it.

Thank you. Any headache.

Thank you mayor commissions. Come here tonight. Because I've had seen a lot of comments on Facebook about what was going on. But I want to say this. Last year we had a meeting similar to this because A little girl and an unborn baby was murdered. We didn't have that this year, and I'm so glad, and I thank God for it. And I drove through the brick house or down the street of the brick house, I guess that's Ford Street, Saturday night just to see what was going on. I even saw Chief Laird and one of the other officers. I stopped and talked to him, and I thanked him. for the police present because that is true. We definitely need police presence. We don't need to have another meeting like we had last year. In other words, we still need police protection. We still have to live in this city together. one another and we have to do the right thing and and I know the police seem like was was overboard but if that's what it took in order for us that we could have a 8th of August without somebody somebody all right somebody getting killed let me talk please I'm sorry everybody please respect for everybody's comments But that's the way I feel. Because maybe nobody else cared about it. That was last year. This is this year. Yes, I still think about it every day. Every day I think about it. So to say this, I know it's a lot of comments out there. Yes, a lot of people felt that they were misused or whatever. And that's understandable. That's understandable. That's life. That's life. But yet, let us also realize that things probably won't be like it was before. Things change as life goes on, it change. And it's all right if you're mad and it's all right if you're upset because Congressman John Lewis, you know what he would say? It's good to be in good trouble. And this is good trouble. And it's nothing that was done This weekend, that the mayor and the commissioners and the police chief can't work through. We can work through this. We can make it better. Let's strive to make it better. I want us to continue to have the 8th of August because I can remember it as back as anything else that I can remember in my life is the 8th of August. So let's keep it. Let's keep it going. Let's keep it where people want to come back to Paducah to help us celebrate the 8th of August. Our ancestors died. so that we could have some freedom. They died so we could have freedom here today. So let's don't take it for granted. Let's do the right thing. Let's thank God for things being as well as it was because it could have been a shooting. I'm sure. I didn't even hear that they even took any guns or anything. And that's great. That's great. So what I'm saying today, this is good trouble.

Finish up, finish up, Benny. Thank you. Okay, thank you.

Sorry, I was trying to state my name. Benny Heddy, and I'm first vice president in AACP for Duke of McCracken County.

Thank you. Rocia Keeling?

Hello? My name is Rochelle Keeling, and I'm a resident here in the city of Paducah. My family home, 806 North 10th Street, has been a home for over the past 30 years, where we have celebrated the 8th of August. No infractions, anything. We've always had a good time. And friends and family, probably a lot of these people out here know, my family know, that we do this every year. This year was very disappointing. I did reach out to one of the officials for Friday. It's not so much of the presence, because we welcome the presence. We are around the corner from the Brick House. We welcome the presence. We want the presence. We do not want what happened last year. However, there's a difference between presence and humiliation, intimidation, manipulation, and harassment, and that's what we received. That was not called for. My family, and I can speak to this, that a lot of these people will tell you, the type of family had the policeman come to us instead of, y'all get back, don't come off the sidewalk. If you don't do this, we're going to start writing tickets. Instead of saying that, there were children there. I had a picture that I was going to bring, I forgot it, of children playing ball, but three police cars at my family home. For what? Why? We're just having a gathering. I was told that the brick house and home plate were the focus and that basically I'll talk to you about it later after it's over. I would have loved to be able to come here today and say when I talked and when I spoke with this person that or messaged this person that after Friday, Saturday was better, but Saturday got worse. And with children playing in the yard and my grandson coming and saying, why are all the policemen out here? The only thing I could figure is there was no one at the brick house, but over where my block was, my family was there. We'll go sit over here. And I was told that family gatherings were not going to be targeted. If so, why was a drone flown over my family home? We are literally just trying to have a good time with our family. We're the type of family that if they'd have come up and said, hey, how are y'all doing? Just trying to keep you safe. We do ask for you all to help us by maybe not parking wherever you park. We've been doing this for 33 years. And parking in the same places for 33 years. And if you would approach this with the attitude of, hey, you know, give us your name. You know, this is who we are. We're just here to help you. Would you mind please moving your cars? You probably would have been asked if you wanted something to eat. The police officer probably would have asked, do you want something to eat? Do you want some water? But instead, we were, get back. You can't be out here. And again, three police cars was a bit much.

Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm sorry?

I said I was with her.

You only get three minutes per sheet. I'm sorry. Stanley Young? Is it possible to turn in? No, sir. I'm sorry. You can come to the next commission meeting and make, but they have to be turned in before the meeting starts.

My name is Stanley Young. I haven't been here for a while. I've been out of the state for about 40 years. Y'all might know my dad, W.C. Young. He did some things here. I'm here. I'm going to be kind of both ways. I like that nobody got shot, but I think they was a little bit too aggressive. Two of my grandchildren was... pulled out of cars. One was thrown to the ground and put handcuffs on him. The other, my granddaughter, was, as they told her to leave, I guess she didn't leave in the two seconds they wanted. So as her car was started, then they pulled her out of the car and took her and arrested her. I hope that they got her still go to court. I hope this is just going to be dismissed since everybody's so happy that nobody got killed. So since nobody got killed, let's let the people who got arrested didn't really do a lot of harm. Let's let them go too. Um, I think like the lady said, we need your presence. We didn't want to happen what happened last year either. We would sort of like the policeman, to treat that night service like they did that day service. When nothing happened, they didn't have an issue with them, we would like that same kind of service too. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Angela Sanders, is that right?

So my name is Angela Sanders and I live at 146 Clements. I've been living there for the last couple of years. And I want to talk about at the coffee shop where they said they didn't close it down. That was a lie. Two nights. So I don't know whether he was selling liquor when supposed to. That's not my business. But I do know that they did. And not only did they come up, they were walking in big groups, you know, instead of, like... Instead of, like, you know, one or two coming in, they would come in in big groups sitting outside. And then they'll walk in. They're questioning people and stuff like that. So, like, that's intimidating. I just got up and left because, I mean, it wasn't fun anymore. You know what I mean? They took the fun out of it. So, yeah. And then I wanted to ask too, I've seen a couple of firemen acting as police officers. Is that what was supposed to happen? Because I've seen, because those are the same firemen that were spraying the night, I mean the day, remember the, what was it, the fire marshals? Yeah, there was the same ones that were spraying. So I don't understand how they could act as police officers.

So I believe, and I would have to go back and check, but I believe the two individuals you're talking about is our fire marshal and our deputy fire marshal, and they have responsibility to check on.

It was more than them. It was more than two because it was like the three that I seen spraying, and it was on Northside Day. They were standing out there, and they were spraying. So I don't think y'all.

We'll follow up on that.

You know what I mean?

But the fire marshal and deputy fire marshal are responsible for ensuring that capacity limits are not exceeded, and that's what they would be doing. And then also that vendors, if there are vendors, are certified by the state.

And then I wanted to say, okay, so if that's the case that y'all are shutting him down for a liquor license, why did y'all wait for the 8th of August to do it and then go before then? That, to me, is targeting. on that day.

Again, just for clarification, the state ABC officer, which we have no control over, is the one that went to the house of Ross that found that cited him, didn't shut him down, cited him. They did confiscate the liquor is what I've been told. They did not. They did not. We did not issue a, we did not issue an order for a shutdown.

They didn't issue an order, but it was, it was kind of implied.

So I just, I just know the state for, for clarification, And we'll look into everything. But for clarification, it was the state ABC officer that cited the House of Ross for selling without an alcohol license, which is against the state law.

But I'm just saying that, too, it was one police officer on the side, one down the street, one right here. I'm not understanding why it took like almost five police cars and ten police officers. Thank you, ma'am. Yes, that black truck.

Thank you. Before I move on, I'll just say that we will be reviewing everything that was talked about tonight. I thank everybody for being here and making their comments. We'll move on 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. The City Clerk will read the items recommended for approval.

Approve minutes for the July 28th, 2026 Board of Commissioners meeting. Receive and file documents. Appointment of Emily Esaw to the Creative and Cultural Council to replace Cindy Raglin, whose term is expired. Said term shall expire March 24th, 2029. Reappointment of Matthew Turley to the Code Enforcement Board. Said term shall expire August 22nd, 2029. Appointment of Zach Barnett to the Barclay Regional Airport Authority to replace Kevin Caulfield, who has resigned. Said term shall expire December 31st, 2027. Appointment of Lacey Bolling to the Municipal Housing Commission to replace Melanie Nunn, whose term has expired. Said term shall expire July 22nd, 2030. Personnel actions, a municipal order approving a memorandum of agreement with Mary Foley, Executive Director of Women Aware Incorporated. For certain incentives and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to same. A municipal order approving a memorandum of agreement with Ken Stein of Mountain Comprehensive Care Center Incorporated. For certain incentives and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to same. A municipal order authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a contract with Paxton Park Golf Board. Doing business as Paxton Park Municipal Golf Course in an amount of $100,000. For administrative and maintenance operations and authorizing the finance director to issue payment. A municipal order authorizing the purchase of solid waste dumpsters, lids, and replacement parts in the amount not to exceed $160,000 from waste equipped through source well cooperative purchasing for fiscal year 2026 through 2027, and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to same. A municipal order adopting a contract modification number seven to the construction contract with A&K Construction, reducing said contract by $476,506, updating the contracted amount to $50,460,285 and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to SANE.

So move. Second. Call roll.

Commissioner Henderson?

Aye.

Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

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

Aye. Okay, we have two ordinances to adopt. The first one is... the authorization of the building of a step, I'm sorry, a spec building. And I'll ask the city clerk to please read it.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the City of Paducah, Kentucky approving and authorizing the execution of an interlocal cooperative agreement with the Paducah-McCracken County Industrial Development Authority related to the construction of a 100,000 square foot speculative industrial building to be considered constructed at 5800 Commerce Drive in Industrial Park West. This ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance approves and authorizes the mayor to execute an interlocal cooperative agreement between the City of Paducah and the Paducah-McCracken County Industrial Development Authority for the development and construction of a 100,000 square foot speculative industrial building at 5800 Commerce Drive. The agreement establishes the party's respective responsibilities. for the project management, procurement, construction, administration, funding, reimbursement compliance with the Kentucky Product Development Initiative requirements, ownership, marketing, sale of property, and repayment of the city's project costs.

So moved. Second.

Okay, so this is the same wording on the ordinance that we had last week, two weeks ago, I'm sorry. We did have a discussion here about the possibility of adding language that would provide some upside for the city if the building were to sell for over the cost that we had in it. But after exploring that, my recommendation is that we stick with the original language. The city is protected. if we were to sell the building at a cost below what our cost is, we are protected. The commission would have the final say and the okay on that. And so I'd be happy to entertain any comments from anybody.

I'll just make a comment. I'm going to vote no on this, but it is because the commission If this sells for more, then it goes into a pot that is actually, the pot is owned by the IDA, which is a creature of both the city and the county. I don't think it's proper to put the money in if there's a profit into that pot without the city getting credit for the profit because it is, the city's providing the money and likely, as a lot of these things go, it would be great if there is a profit as a These things do go. It may end up with city us voting on selling it at a loss, which we would agree to eat. But if there's an upside, then the upside gets put in the IDA, which ends up getting split. And we don't get credit for it. But anyway, that's it. And I understand I may have a minority opinion on that. So that's fine.

But in saying that, why weren't we able to add that word and to put that protection?

Because I think that it would have been hard to get it through the IDA. I think there is a feeling at the IDA, if you go back many years, the city and county have put in land, contributed land to the IDA, and there is a feeling on the part of the IDA that, that they are a beneficiary of what the city and county do. And so we're keeping score, and we've never really kept score before. And so I think there was a feeling that that would not go well at the IDA. And add that there was a time constraint that also entered We've got bids on the building, and we've got the notification of an increase in steel, which goes into effect August 15th, which would add $168,000 to the cost of the building. And I'll just make one other comment. I'm not sure that we would eat you know, any loss. I mean, that would be up to the commission, but I'm not sure that that, you know, that that's the way that would go. So I just should have been a city-county project. As it turned out, it wasn't for a number of different reasons. So the city stepped up. and decided to finance this, and I think this is the right way to go forward.

I'll just say, you know, I kind of agree with Buzz on it, but, you know, situations in the past where we've missed the mark and then costs go up, I definitely understand the need to push it through.

We voted earlier to allow GPED to apply for the $2 million grant, didn't we?

We voted to be the applicant of record and they'd be the beneficiary. Yes, that was an action.

They could use the benefit of $2 million from the state to build the spec building, which then we were contributing the rest. So we've already voted once on this, correct? I mean, not to the exact, but we voted to proceed with applying for the $2 million and trying to get that grant.

This body took action previously, yes, you're correct, to... be the applicant of record for that uh... and just to put in the up to six million dollars uh... towards that uh... and that was what carried that application forward carol commissioner henderson mr smith commissioner thomas high commissioner wilson may break

The next ordinance to be adopted is the cost for the spec building. So I'll let the city clerk please read it.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the City of Paducah, Kentucky authorizing the issuance of its City of Paducah, Kentucky general obligation notes taxable series 2026A. In a maximum aggregate principal amount of $6 million for the purpose of financing the cost of a commercial building and related furnishings and equipment for the public purpose of promoting economic development within the city, approving the forms of the notes, authorizing designated officers of the city to execute and deliver the notes, authorizing and directing the filing of a notice with the state local debt officer. Providing for the payment of and security for the notes, establishing a note payment fund for the notes, affirming the maintenance of the existing sinking fund, authorizing the acceptance of the bid of the purchaser of the notes, and repealing any inconsistent ordinances. This ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance authorizes the City of Paducah, Kentucky to issue a series of general obligation notes to be designated as general obligation notes taxable series 2026A in a maximum aggregate principal amount of $6 million for the purpose of, one, financing all or a portion of the cost of the acquisition, construction, installation, and equipping of a commercial building, and related furnishings and equipment for the purpose of promoting economic development within the city. Two, paying capitalized interest on the notes, if desirable. Three, paying all or a portion of the cost of credit enhancement on the notes, if any. And four, paying all or a portion of the cost of the issuance of the notes. Provisions are made in this ordinance for the payment of the notes and the security. Therefore, the application of the proceeds of the notes, the establishment of a note payment fund, the continuation of the city's previously established sinking fund. and certain covenants of the city with respect to the notes. The notes are to be sold at public competitive sale and she'll mature on September 1, 2029. The notes pledge the full faith credit and taxing power of the city and provision is made for the collection of a tax to pay the principal of an interest on the notes subject to certain credits as provided in Section 17 of the ordinance. The sale of the notes is contingent upon the satisfaction of the requirements and conditions of the city regarding the project. The following Section 17 of the ordinance is set forth in its entirety. Section 17, General Obligation. The notes shall be full general obligations of the City, and the full faith, credit, and taxing power of the City are hereby pledged for the prompt payment of the note and interest thereon. During the period the notes are outstanding, there should be and there is hereby is levied on all of the taxable property in the City, in addition to all other taxes, without limitation as to rate, a direct annual tax. direct tax annually in the amount sufficient to pay the principal of the interest on the notes. As and when due, it is hereby found and determined that the current tax rate of the city are within all applicable limitations. The tax shall be and hereby is ordered to be computed, certified, levied, and extended upon the tax duplicate and shall be collected by the same officers in the same manner at the same time that taxes for general purposes for each of the years are certified, extended, and collected." The tax shall be placed before and in preference to all other items and for the full amount thereof, provided, however, that in each year, to the extent that other lawfully available funds of the city are available for the payment of the notes and are appropriated for such purpose, the amount of such direct tax upon all of the taxable property in the city shall be reduced by the amount of such other funds so available and appropriated.

So moved.

Second.

Any questions about this one? Then I'd ask the city clerk to call roll.

Commissioner Henderson?

Aye.

Commissioner Smith?

No.

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

Aye. We have four ordinances to introduce tonight, and I'll let the city clerk read the first one, and City Manager Jordan will explain it.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to introduce an ordinance entitled an ordinance authorizing and approving a contract for services with Lifeline Recovery Center Incorporated in an amount not to exceed $200,000 for the purchase of four passenger vans, authorizing the mayor to execute the agreement and amending the fiscal year 2027 budget to provide for the expenditure. This ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance authorizes a contract for services with Lifeline Recovery Center Incorporated, providing a one-time payment of up to $200,000 for the purchase of four passenger vans to support authorized recovery-related transportation. Funding will be provided from the Opioid Settlement Fund. The ordinance also amends the fiscal year 2027 budget to increase expenditures in the Opioid Settlement Fund by $200,000. So moved. Second.

So, Mayor and Commission, as the clerk read, we've had a request and we're bringing forward the recommendation for your consideration tonight to use some of our opioid funds that we've received to the benefit of Lifeline Recovery Center. And we have Ashley here as the Executive Director of Lifeline and Steve as the Chair of the Board. And if you two would like to come to the podium and walk us through your request, please.

Well, good evening, Mayor Bray and Commissioners, City Manager Jordan, City Clerk Parrish. Thank you for allowing us a few minutes. We'll try to be brief. It's kind of been a long evening for you all. I'm Steve Pallas. I'm Chairman of the Board of Lifeline Recovery Center. And joining me tonight is the Executive Director, Ashley Miller, who will share a few remarks. Also, I guess let me start by saying I want to thank you for taking time to meet with me individually over the last couple weeks. I appreciate your questions and your insight. We modified our proposal some because of the content and what you shared with us. And all of this, I think, shows that you want to understand Lifeline even more and the people that we serve. So, each of you has had a chance to read the proposal material, so we're not going to go through that page by page. Instead, we're just going to spend a few minutes and talk about why transportation matters so much in recovery. When most people think of recovery, they think of a program, they think of treatment, they think of faith, they think of counseling, but they probably don't think a lot about transportation. But at Lifeline, one thing that we certainly learned is successful recovery is about removing barriers. And sometimes the barrier as basic as getting where recovery requires you to be is significant. Nearly 2,500 people have graduated from Lifeline and more than 60% remain sober one year after graduation. And obviously that is a statistic and an outcome that we're very proud of. And this year, our community demonstrated extraordinary confidence in Lifeline and the power of recovery by investing more than $15 million in our future. And that investment wasn't simply about the buildings on the campus, but it was an investment in transforming lives. Because recovery doesn't just happen inside those buildings on our campus. It happens when people are able to reconnect through the community, through employment, through association meetings, through church, through court appointments, through healthy relationships, and so on. So for me, the transportation issue really, I think, comes down to one simple thought, and that you cannot rebuild a life if you can't get where recovery requires you to be. And Ashley Miller sees the reality of that every day, and I've asked her to share some things about these barriers and give you some insight from her perspective.

Thank you. I want to tell you what that looks like in real life. Right now we have a father in treatment. He's working every single day, not just to get well, but he's got three young children at home. Part of that is sending money back home to support his kids for school supplies so they can start fresh this fall. If he can't get to his job, he can't send the money back home. And if he can't send the money back home, that's just one more barrier that these individuals face. We also have a mother who's working towards getting her kids back. She's also working towards getting her GED. She lost one of her children whenever he was only four months old, about a year ago, whenever she came to us. She had zero self-confidence. Now she's working on her recovery, she's working on her education, and now she's working on her confidence. Transportation is the tool that connects all of this. It makes everything possible for what we do at the end of the day. It takes her to the recovery community, to church, to employment. Without it, she wouldn't just start further behind. She might not get there at all. She needs a ride to see her kids too, because they're in state custody right now. And so they're waiting on approved visitation. She has court dates. She has DUI classes, so that someday that she can get her license back and transport herself. Every single one of these appointments matter. Miss one, and it can set back custody. Miss court, and you could potentially end up in jail, and that's more time away from her children. If we didn't provide transportation, then the clients wouldn't be starting from a fresh start. They would be so much farther behind at the end of the day. These are just a couple of examples that I'm sharing with you tonight. And you can only imagine the needs that we face when we're serving 100 plus clients every single day. Right now we're trying to meet all of those needs with 13 vehicles and 10 of them have more than 150,000 miles on them. But every single day our staff works to get these clients where they need to be. To work, to the doctor, to see their children, to court, But our fleet, it's stretched thin, and that's our biggest need right now. These four vans would help us continue to meet those needs. So I'm grateful for you, Mayor Bray, and for the commissioners, for your belief in our mission, and then also for this consideration.

Thank you, Ashley. We sincerely appreciate the partnership that we have here. So tonight, we're asking the city of Paducah to invest $200,000 in four new lifeline transportation vans utilizing the city opioid settlement funds that were mentioned earlier. And by approving the request, you can help us remove one more significant barrier to recovery. And you heard Ashley talk about it. Imagine if we did not have that transportation. The four vans will quietly carry people to work, to treatment, to church, to recovery meetings, and take them one step closer to a productive and independent life. That's what this request is really all about this evening. So on behalf of the Board of Lifeline and our staff and the men and women whose lives are going to be impacted by this decision to help them get to the recovery that they need, We appreciate that. We appreciate the partnership. We appreciate the time. I appreciate the personal involvement of all of you when I wanted to share the story of Lifeline and our vision. And you've all been very gracious with that and very genuine in your concern about what we're doing. And so with that, we'll just pause and see if there are any questions from anyone.

I think I'll just be, the funds are there in the opioid account that we received.

That is correct, and as part of us getting to this point, we shared with Ashley and Steve, and I think their board looked at it, a contract for services because with those funds come certain restrictions of how we can and cannot use it, and they have agreed that they can meet all those stipulations that are set out that are required of us to track how the funds are spent and how they're used, and they've agreed to that.

So is this... money, this opioid money, is it being reprogrammed from, did we have an intention to use this money elsewhere or is it being?

Of these dollars that we have right now, these funds have not been allocated. The only allocation of our opioid funds that we have to date are for our deflection specialist expense. But these do not detract from that. We have funds in there and we'll actually be bringing a, the finance department is working on it, of how we can ensure that that initial obligation to those funds doesn't get gobbled up by additional requests by having a policy in place and we're working on that as well. Okay. But these funds do not supplant those funds that we're using for the deflection specialist.

Does it diminish the pot that the deflection specialist... I mean, we have just the whole...

It will eventually, it takes away from the total funding that we do have, but we're continuing to get funds in as that.

But it's meant to be spent. Oh, no, I understand that.

We still have plenty of funds for the foreseeable future to continue the deflection specialist program as well.

I think it's an absolute great partnership and a great way to spend.

of those funds absolutely so i just want to say thank you for you and your team's work on and you know everything you do for those that are battling addiction so excited to support absolutely thank you for outlining all of what's the employers in the city i think that's always a question that we have about the impact on the city so thank you for outlining that who those employers are and where they're coming from your location into the city as well so thank you it's a great service

Just one other question. This doesn't have anything to do with this, but just so I understand. The opioid money, does it just come to the city? Does it also go to other cities? Yeah, the county gets it too. The county gets it too?

Yeah, there are different receipt pots from different obligations that come in, and actually the state has opioid funding as well. Other counties have it, and they do receive, I don't know if you want to speak to some of the other community partners you already have.

We do. We receive funding from McCracken County. We receive it from Ballard County, our men's facilities in Ballard, and they've been generous with their opioid funds, as the county has been since the beginning when that pot of funds is distributed by a formula that was determined nationally, and then there's a separate group that you can apply for that we do that's in addition to that. But we do have support and do expect that we may be going out a little broader. on the support for those funds as well.

Give away any secrets. So I would just add this for any commissioners that would like to have an overview of the way those funds are calculated and where they came from. I mean, there's, you know, I'm on the e-mails when the funds come in, but I'm sure Lindsey could provide something if you guys wanted something to learn more. The funds have been coming in for a couple years now. Yeah, really longer than that. I mean, the company I used to work for, you know, is part of settlement dollars. There's retail. We've got a retail pharmacist here. There's retail pharmacies. You know, the CVS and Walgreens have participated, so it's pretty broad. Okie dokie. Thank you, guys. Thank you. We won't vote until two weeks, but I don't see any issues.

All right. Thank you all. Thank you. They can start window shopping. Those quotes, right?

Don't write the check yet. Don't sign the check. You can write it. Okay, I will ask the city clerk to read the next ordinance to be introduced.

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners introduce an ordinance entitled, an ordinance providing for the closing of an 8,129 square foot alley parallel to Kentucky Avenue and Washington Street between South 9th Street and Walter Jeton Boulevard, and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to same. This ordinance is summarized as follows. The City of Paducah does hereby authorize the closure of an 8,129 square foot alley parallel Parallel to Kentucky Avenue and Washington Street between South 9th Street and Walter Jeton Boulevard, authorizes, empowers, and directs the mayor to execute quick claim deeds from the city of Duga to the property owners in or abutting the public way to be closed and all other necessary documents to effectuate the closure.

I'll move. I'm second. All right, Greg.

Evening, Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager, City Clerk. As the Clerk read, this is a proposed alley closure to help facilitate a new Paducah-McCracken County Health Department building. The closure of this alley will help allow the project to take place.

Yeah. As I think we've mentioned in previous meetings, the health department is in design phase right now for our new health department. It's really a great thing for our community. And they've got the space to do it. They're back parking lot, but they've got to close this alley and got to go through some other things in order to get it done. So this is part of the process.

Correct.

Thank you, Greg.

Did you say they're going to demolish the front building?

No, I didn't say that. That decision's not been made yet. All right. I'll put words in my mouth. Okay, I'll ask the city clerk to read the budget amendment.

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners introduce an ordinance entitled an ordinance amending ordinance number 2026-06-8879 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 that the annual budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026 adopted by ordinance 2025-06-8847 Be amended by the following reappropriations. Increase revenues and expenditures for the general fund by $20,000 and $118,100 respectively. Increase expenditures for the investment fund by $49,573. Increase revenue and expenditures for the room tax fund by $158,871. Increase revenue and expenditures for the capital projects fund by $820,449. Increase revenues and expenditures for the grant fund by $2,913. Increase expenditures for the debt service fund by $7,127. Increase revenues for the fleet lease trust fund by $98,100. And increase revenues and expenditures for the health insurance fund by $421,154. So moved. Second. Lauren. Lauren.

Good evening, everyone. This is our last budget amendment for fiscal year 2026 and includes year-end cleanup items. Most of the adjustments are to move money into projects for items that were not completed by June 30th and will cross into fiscal year 2027. So do you guys have any questions?

Is there anything that we should have a question about?

No, there's not.

It's all pretty rudimentary.

I mean, it's... Yeah.

I don't have any questions. Thank you for being... Thank you guys. Thank you for waiting it out and being here. We appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, and the final ordinance to introduce, I'll ask the city clerk to read.

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners introduce an ordinance entitled, an ordinance amending Chapter 78, Personnel Section 40... Group Life and Medical Insurance of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Paducah, Kentucky. This ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance amends Section 78-40 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Paducah to reflect that retiree life insurance will no longer be offered effective September 1, 2026. Any retiree taking coverage prior to that date will be grandfathered in according to the terms of the plan.

So moved. Second.

Good evening mayor, city commissioners, city manager, city clerk. This probably looks familiar. You've seen it removed from a couple of the union contracts earlier this year. So this will finally do away with the rest of the language related to the retiree life insurance benefit. I looked, we have currently 31 participants who would be grandfathered in, plus anyone that would retire between now and September 1st would be offered the coverage. But it's just gotten very expensive for both the participants who take the coverage as well as for the city to self-fund the plan.

So nobody's being disadvantaged, it's just we're stopping it for future?

Future, correct.

Okay. I don't have any questions. We've addressed it a couple times in the past, as you say, so thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Okay, we'll move to comments. City Manager, comments?

Mayor, Commission, we've heard some passion this evening. I want you to be aware and confirm, which I know you already know this. We take those comments, those complaints serious. We look and we investigate without fear or favor to find where we can do better. And we have that commitment on Not only this event, we have heard the comments tonight. We will take those into serious consideration and look at how we can approve. So you do have my word and my pledge to that.

Thank you.

Um, the manager, will we, how will we be, uh, party to the investigation? Will we be invited to at least see what you see? Yes, sir.

Yes, you will. And so we, um, We'll have to break that up for those that want to participate, but Chief Laird and I will get with you individually to see how best we can do that.

I just want to say I appreciate you sharing that because that was something I wanted to close on is that I'm grateful for our team here at City Hall because, you know, we can support our officers, but we can also hold them accountable, and we're good about following up on concerns like this, and we do take it serious. So just grateful for your work and everybody's work behind the scenes that are looking into these concerns.

Mr. Smith, anything? Good. Thank you. Commissioner Wilson?

No.

Okay. We will have an executive session tonight. We will not take action afterwards. And I would ask the city clerk please read the motion.

Proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to go into closed session for discussion of matters pertaining to the following topics. Future sale or acquisition of a specific parcel of real estate as permitted by KRS 61.810 subsection 1B. Proposed or pending litigation is permitted by KRS 61.810 subsection 1C. In a specific proposal by a business entity where public discussion of the subject matter would jeopardize the location, retention, expansion, or upgrading of a business entity is permitted by KRS 61.810 subsection 1G. So moved.

Second.

Carl Rowe.

Commissioner Henderson.

Aye.

Commissioner Smith.

Aye.

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

Aye.