Week of August 30, 2021

Written By Richard Young

The Highlights:

💡 - Big topic this week: Redistricting Lexington 📐

Last Wednesday, the Redistricting Committee for Lexington had its first official meeting. The Committee approved the redistricting guidelines and received presentations from the Division of Planning, GIS staff, & the County Clerk's office. The Committee's next meeting will be Wednesday, September 1st.

Here are a few things to know about last week's meeting:

  • Planning and GIS staff gave presentations in which they unveiled a Redistricting Data Hub, where residents can access past maps and census data, learn about the history of redistricting, and even draw their own maps.

  • The planning staff also presented two preliminary maps of new district schemes:

    • The first map was more traditional and represented the "onesie twosie" method of redistricting. The districts are kept as close to their current form as possible with necessary adjustments for population changes.

    • The second map, labeled the "Compact" plan, would shake up the districts substantially, giving new representation to the rural areas of Fayette county.

So far, the Committee has been working to meet the deadline of November 3rd, 2021. 

  • This deadline would allow the new districts to be known before candidates file for a City Council seat.

  • At last week's meeting, the County Clerk introduced a potential alternate timeline.

    • Under this timeline, the Committee would wait for the state legislature to redraw voting precincts and finalize the new districts by April 1st, 2022.

    • Council candidates would file under the current districts, and the new ones wouldn't be used for two years.

  • There are pros and cons to either timeline. It will ultimately be a decision made by the current Council in the next couple of weeks.

LFUCG also unveiled a new redistricting page, which you can find here. Don't forget we also have some resources, including:

Lastly, we're organizing some Redistricting Workshops with the Council and Redistricting Committee members from each district. 

🏢 - This week in City Hall: Budget, Finance, & Economic Development Committee

This week, we're highlighting three presentations during this week's Budget, Finance, and Economic Development Committee meeting.

LFUCG Small Business Stimulus Program

Last year, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government allocated two tranches of funding to support small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • The justification: the average total monthly payroll and average total monthly FTE employee numbers took a hit from the pandemic in March of 2020; these numbers stabilized and somewhat recovered by May of 2021.

  • LFUCG contracted with Commerce Lexington to disburse the funds.

  • Council set a goal of awarding 50% of this funding to women/minority-owned businesses.

  • Here's a breakdown of the funds awarded:

    • A total of $11,080,415.60 has so far been requested, with 416 applicants representing 269 businesses.

    • Hispanic, Latinx, Asian, Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern are the International ethnicities were represented.

    • Of all businesses awarded, 37% were women-owned, and 29% are minority-owned.

    • The total amount funded through August 2021 is $3,749,653.00.

Bluegrass Farm to Table

We'll also hear an update on LFUCG's Bluegrass Farm to Table program.

  • Bluegrass Farm to Table is an LFUCG program established in 2014 to promote the development of a more vibrant local food economy by supporting food-related agricultural development.

  • The program is run by Dr. Ashton Potter-Wright. It is housed under the Chief Development Officer, Kevin Atkins.

  • Since its creation, the program has connected Kentucky farmers with distributors, processors, restaurants, retailers, schools, and institutions, totaling over 90 buyers.

  • The city estimates the program has had an over $8M economic impact for Kentucky farmers since 2014.

    • Sub-programs created by Kentucky Farm to Table include Double Dollars, used at 49 Farmers Markets, 19 Fresh Stops, and 5 retail locations in 2021, the LFUCG CSA Farm Share Program, and the Mayor's AgTech Initiative.

Budgeting, budgeting, budgeting!

Lastly, we'll hear a presentation from the Division of Budgeting about how exaclty Lexington budgets, and approaches for moving forward. This is deep nerd land for CivicLex and our friends at LFUCG, so excuse us...

There are four basic approaches that organizations (or in this case, cities) can take to budgeting:

  1. Incremental - for this approach, cities build off of the previous year's budget, making percentage or dollar adjustments.

  2. Budgeting for Outcomes - for this approach, you set specific outcomes or goals that you would like to see reached, then create design the budget around the financial path to get to those goals (this is mainly how CivicLex budgets, with a dash of incremental and...)

  3. Performance-Based Budgeting - for this approach, you score/evaluate the performance of programs and services and then make budget decisions based on pre-set goals.

  4. Zero-Based Budgeting - for this approach, you start from scratch every year.

LFUCG takes a hybrid approach to budgeting, combining Incremental, Zero, and Performance-based. Here's why:

  • First, the city has a lot of fixed costs, like staff salaries, taxes, insurance, etc. this means part of their budgeting has to be incremental.

  • There's also a healthy dose of Zero-based budgeting, because each year, Departments build their budgets from $0, and then have to justify every expense. This includes salaries and other previously-mentioned items.

  • Also, any new program or project of the city is treated as starting at zero. It is thought of as being self-contained in what they call a "decision package".

  • Lastly, there's performance-based budgeting, in which the city uses the past performance of Departments and Divisions to determine future allocations.

Back in 2019, the city held what was called a Collaborative Budget Review. At the review, a few goals were set to improve the budget process:

  1. Change the budget calendar

  2. Create a new summary booklet of the city's annual budget for internal use

  3. Create a new public-facing document to help the public understand the budget (like the CivicLex budget guide 😉)

  4. Build a more collaborative budget process that brings council and the mayor together earlier.

  5. Pass some minor legislative changes to make it simpler to make small budget adjustments (for example, if the city receives a small $5 donation, it must pass a budget amendment).

  6. Change the process for funding Capital Projects

Goals 1 and 2 have been accomplished, 3 and 4 are getting very close, and 5 and 6 are still in process. Read more about the City Budget and what's in it here! 

🏃 - "Mornings with Planning" Lexington History: Looking Back to Move Forward

Two big things this week to get your civic engagement fix. 

First - our very first Redistricting Workshop focusing on District 1
It's at: Wednesday, September 1  | 6pm | Living Arts and Science Center

Care about local redistricting? Interested in how your council district has changed over time? Want to know the priorities of LFUCG's new redistricting committee? Come to our Redistricting 2021 workshops!

We'll review all of this information and have the opportunity to talk with the Council Members and Redistricting Committee members for the district. Special Guest for this workshop: District 1 CM James Brown

Please RSVP here. 

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Next, we recommend checking out the Division of Planning's next installment of Mornings with Planning. It's at: Wednesday September 1 at 9:00am on Zoom

This week’s MWP (we coined that just now) will focus on the city’s history and understanding where we have been. 

Here's who is on the panel:

  • Dr. Douglas Appler, Chair and Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Historic Preservation at the University of Kentucky

  • Peter Bourne, Lexington Historian and Blogger

  • Holly Wiedemann, President and Owner at AU Associates

  • Hal Baillie, AICP, Senior Planner at the City of Lexington

Register for this webinar here.

🗞 - Updates from Last Week: ARPA & Shopping Carts


💰 ARPA
During last week's Committee of the Whole meeting, Council discussed potential methods for narrowing down and selecting proposals submitted for ARPA funding. 

  • There were different ideas on how submitted projects should be sorted for consideration - or whether they should even be sorted at all.

  • Council also discussed whether or not minimums and maximums should be set for funding requests.

  • No concrete decisions came out of the discussions, so we'll be watching for updates in subsequent ARPA-related meetings.

🛒 Shopping Cart Retrieval Proposal 
CM Kloiber's shopping cart retrieval proposal did not make it out of Tuesday's Environmental Quality and Public Works meeting. 

  • Council was concerned that the plan would put too much of a financial burden on businesses to receive fines for their abandoned shopping carts.

  • There were also questions about how difficult the plan would be to implement.

  • Ultimately, the Committee felt that there were too many unknowns in the proposal, the Committee voted against passing it to a full Council Work Session by 7-2.

  • CMs Kloiber and Kay voted in favor, CMs Sheehan, Bledsoe, Fred Brown, Worley, McCurn, Ellinger, and Moloney voted against.

  • Read more about this in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

🏢 This week in City Government

Monday, August 30

☀️ - No meetings!

———

Tuesday, August 31

💰 - Budget, Finance & Economic Development Committee
⏱ - 1:00pm on August 31
📍 - 200 East Main Street, Council Chamber, 2nd Floor
📺 - Watch via LexTV
📖 - Read the agenda
🗣 - Give input in person
🔦 - Highlights:

We’ll see three presentations during this week’s BFED Committee meeting: 

  1. Summaries of the 2020 LFUCG Lexington Small Business Stimulus Grant and the 2021 Small Business Economic Recovery Program’s funding breakdown

  2. Bluegrass Farm to Table Update

  3.  A Review of Budgeting Models and LFUCG Budgeting 

—

🏢 - Council Work Session
⏱ - 3:00pm on August 24
📍 - 200 East Main Street
📺 - Watch via LexTV
📖 - Read the agenda
🗣 - Give input in person
🔦 - Highlights:

  • A presentation about the 150th anniversary of the Lexington Fire Department

———

Wednesday, September 1

☕️ - "Mornings with Planning" Lexington History: Looking Back to Move Forward
⏱ - 9:00am on September 1
✅ - Register for this webinar here.

—

📐 - Redistricting Committee Meeting
⏱ - 10:00am on September 1
📍 - Government Center – 5th floor conference room, 200 East Main Street
📺 - No viewing option available
📖 - No agenda available
🗣 - No input process available

———

Thursday, September 2

🗺 - Planning Commission - Subdivision (Sub) Committee Meeting
⏱ - 8:30am on September 2
📍 - Digital
📺 - Watch via LexTV
📖 - No agenda available
🗣 - No input process available

—

🖼 - Public Arts Commission
⏱ - 12:30pm, September 2
📍 - Caucus Room, 200 East Main Street
📺 - No viewing option available
📖 - No agenda available
🗣 - No input process available

—

🚧 - Planning Commission Zoning (Sub) Committee meeting
⏱ - 1:30pm, September 2
📍 - Phoenix Building – 7th floor conference room, 101 E Vine St.
📺 - Watch via LexTV
📖 - No agenda available
🗣 - No input process available

—

🏢 - Council Meeting – Zone Change Public Hearing
⏱ - 5:00pm, September 2
📍 - Council Chamber - 2nd floor, 200 E Main Street
📺 - Watch via LexTV
📖 - Read the agenda
🗣 - Give input in person

———
Friday, September 3

☔️ - Stormwater Stakeholder Advisory Committee
⏱ - 9:00am on September 3
📍 - Digital
📺 - Watch via LexTV
📖 - No agenda available
🗣 - No input option available

—

🚲 - Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee
⏱ - noon, September 2
📍 - Phoenix Building – 7th floor conference room, 101 E Vine St.
📺 - Watch via LexTV
📖 - No agenda available
🗣 - No input option available

🏃 More ways to get engaged

CivicLex Redistricting Workshop - District 1

Wednesday, September 1  | 6pm | Living Arts and Science Center

Care about local redistricting? Interested in how your council district has changed over time? Want to know the priorities of LFUCG's new redistricting committee? Come to our Redistricting 2021 workshops!

We'll review all of this information and have the opportunity to talk with the Council Members and Redistricting Committee members for the district. Special Guest for this workshop: District 1 CM James Brown

Please RSVP here. 

—
☕️ - "Mornings with Planning" Lexington History: Looking Back to Move Forward

Wednesday September 1 | 9:00am | Zoom

This week’s MWP (we coined that just now) will focus on the city’s history and understanding where we have been. 

Here's who is on the panel:

  • Dr. Douglas Appler, Chair and Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Historic Preservation at the University of Kentucky

  • Peter Bourne, Lexington Historian and Blogger

  • Holly Wiedemann, President and Owner at AU Associates

  • Hal Baillie, AICP, Senior Planner at the City of Lexington

Register for this webinar here.

—

🍃 - Provide your input for how Lexington should treat Open Space

🏃 - Give input here

The Division of Planning is proposing a Zoning Ordinance Text Amendments relating to Open Space.

What is open space? In the context of a city, think about small parks, greenspace, communal gathering areas, and other parts of our civic fabric. Open space provides opportunities for increased social cohesion and connection between neighbors and cultural events. It also has positive environmental impacts, including reduced water runoff, easing of heat islands, and more.

The Division of Planning's proposed changes to the Zoning Ordinance will set new definitions for open space, set open space requirements for new developments, and more.

🅿️ - Give your input on parking in Lexington

The Division of Planning has put out a call for community members to help gather data to evaluate the current parking situation in our city. Learn more and take the Parking Survey here.


Richard Young
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