Week of February 28, 2022

Feb 20

By: Gillian Stawiszynski & Richard Young

ARPA / LexVote / Get Engaged / Updates from Last Week / This Week in City Government

🔎 - Big topic this week: ARPA is (Almost) Finally Over!

We've been covering Lexington's distribution of American Rescue Plan Act funds for a long time. Well, the long saga is finally nearing an end! At the Special Committee of the Whole meeting last Thursday, February 17, Council wrapped up its final version of the ARPA allocations. If you watched this meeting in a flurry of confusion and distress, we've got you covered!

Weeks ago, CAO Sally Hamilton presented a new framework for ARPA allocations. Council more or less adopted this framework with some amendments by Council Members Amanda Bledsoe, Chuck Ellinger, and Liz Sheehan.

Here are the highlights:

Council advanced $73M in new ARPA projects, including $20M for parks, $9.5M for infrastructure for the city's economic development land in Coldstream, $6M for LFUCG social services and external nonprofit agencies. Also conditionally funded were two big projects - $2.5 Million for the Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center once the city gains ownership from the state, and $4 Million for the Lexington Farmer's Market facility in Davis Park if a match is secured.
Council advanced $2.5M+ in new projects through the city's rainy day fund (budget stabilization), including $1 Million for a championship-level disc golf course in Coldstream, $1.5 Million for improving Lexington's tree canopy, and $25,000 for Eureka Springs Park. Council funded these projects through budget stabilization because they didn't 100% meet ARPA guidelines.
There are still leftover dollars from ARPA ($1.5M) and the budget stabilization fund ($25M).
Lastly, you can always head over to our ARPA Database to see the complete list of allocations.

We want to make sure to say that ARPA funds are complex, and continually changing guidelines from the Federal government have made it difficult for Council to allocate ARPA funds. Here's an example of that from the COW:

Federal rules recently clarified that localities can't use ARPA funds in tandem with Federal Tax Credits for Affordable Housing and that any loans made for Affordable Housing with ARPA dollars cannot extend past 2026. Because of this, the $10M that the city awarded to Affordable Housing projects through ARPA will have a higher cost-per-unit than typical.
On the other hand, municipalities across the country are using ARPA funds for Affordable Housing, and LFUCG has already reported to the Federal Government that they plan to use ARPA funds for Affordable Housing.
In this meeting, Council considered using dollars from the city's budget stabilization fund for the $10M affordable housing allocation to get around these restrictions but ultimately stuck with using ARPA funds for the reasons above in addition to a concern about the appearance of not supporting Affordable Housing.

Now, this isn't the last time we'll hear of ARPA— all ARPA projects must be approved at a Council Work Session and through two readings, just like any Ordinance or Resolution. Neither of these meetings will happen this week, but we'll let you know here when and if it passes the approval process (or if anything changes).

🔎 - LexVote 2022 is Here!

The candidate deadline has long passed, and it's time to get down to the nitty-gritty. We're excited to re-launch LexVote, our 2022 local elections hub!

LexVote is your one-stop-shop for understanding the local elections. Over the coming months, we'll be gathering information on all candidates for local offices - from Council to coroner - and centralizing it at LexVote. Every local race will have a page that shows candidate bios, websites, questionnaire answers from organizations across the city, and much more by election time.

Here's what's up on LexVote now:

Race pages for the Mayoral, Council At-Large, and District Council Primaries
A centralized events calendar related to the 2022 primary, including our upcoming workshop on campaign finance
Our interview with Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins Jr. about how we can expect to vote on the upcoming election
Information on registering to vote or updating your registration
All the information we know about how to vote this year

You can head over to the website now to start preparing.

🏃 - Get Engaged

You may have heard, On the Table is back - and input gathered through OTT discussions will help guide how Lexington grows over the next two decades! Want to learn how you can get involved? What's the point of participating? Well, this Thursday, you can join the On the Table planning team for a quick 30-minute virtual conversation about how to best participate in this year's On the Table and ask any questions you may have about the process.

When: Thursday, February 24 at 6pm.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

On The Table is a city-wide, weeklong conversation for you and your friends, family, and neighbors to come together and talk about what is and isn't working in Lexington while getting to know one another better. The conversations are structured by a survey that will help shape how Lexington grows over the next two decades.

It will be held from April 10-16, 2022, and anyone in Lexington can host or join a conversation as part of On the Table! They can be held in homes, businesses, parks, schools, libraries, online, or in-person - wherever you want!

We need your voice at the table!

🗞 - Updates from Last Week

Last week's Council Work Session brought two exciting updates that we didn't have in the newsletter:

Police Disciplinary Review Board: Civilian Applications Now Open!
LFUCG is accepting civilian applications to the Police Disciplinary Review Board for the first time. Mayor Linda Gorton will appoint two civilians and one person as an alternate. Those appointed will serve a two-year term.

Here are the requirements for this position:

Must be at least 21 years of age.
Must be a resident of Fayette County for the entirety of the term.
Must have no felony convictions.
Must have no misdemeanor convictions within the past five years.

If you are interested in serving, go to this website, scroll down to where it says "Current vacancies" and search for "Police Disciplinary Review Board"- then, the site will provide a link to apply.

Mayor Linda Gorton has nominated members and two co-chairs for a permanent Commission for Racial Justice and Equality.
Mayor Gorton initially appointed members for a Commission for Racial Justice and Equality in October of 2020. The goal of this commission and its multiple sub-committees is the same as this newly created commission— To bring together diverse community members to develop solutions for dismantling systemic racism in Lexington.

What has changed is that this commission is now permanent, based on a recommendation made by the commission members. This new commission will be working with Tiffany Brown, Lexington's Equity and Implementation Officer.

The co-chairs of this commission are Sam Meaux, a retired educator and principal who has worked at Lafayette and Tates Creek High School, and Charlotte Turley, a former enforcement officer with the city's Division of Waste Management.

Mayor Gorton has also nominated the following commission members:

Christian Adair, Juan Castro, Emily Duncan, Marshall Fields, Timothy Johnson, Bob McLaughlin, Abdul Muhammad, Jessica Sass, Miranda Scully, Kennedy Wells, Yajaira West, Whit Whitaker, and Serenity Wright.

These nominations, including the chairs, are pending council approval.

Planning & Public Safety Committee
Last week, the Planning and Public Safety Committee heard two presentations about input for the upcoming Comprehensive Plan update, one from CivicLex (that's us!) and one from Commerce Lexington.

CivicLex presented our partnership with the City of Lexington around On the Table, a city-wide, weeklong conversation taking place April 10-16 that encourages residents to come together and talk about what is and isn't working in Lexington while getting to know one another better. On the Table will be structured to gather input for the updated Comprehensive Plan through educational materials and a survey at the beginning of each conversation.

Council Members raised several questions during the meeting, including:

Some on Council questioned whether the questions contained in the survey would gather helpful data and said that comparative questions might be better. Our Executive Director, Richard Young, said that the questions were designed closely with the Division of Planning and researchers from the Martin School for Public Policy at UK to develop the survey, which he viewed as effective.
Some council members questioned why On the Table had changed from its original, more-open concept that was more loosely themed and flexible. Richard Young said that it was a product of CivicLex - which has a significant interest in getting resident voices into public policy - now running the program and a response to critique raised from members of the public around not understanding the purpose of OTT and questioning the validity of the data.
Several council members and the Division of Planning reinforced that public input for the Comprehensive Plan was only one aspect of forming the plan. In addition to public input, other organizational input, policy goals, best practices, and data will also factor into how the plan gets created.

After CivicLex presented, Commerce Lexington presented their partnership with the city to gather input from the business community for the Comprehensive Plan. Commerce Lexington is planning to host several conversations with various business stakeholders to understand their priorities with the Comprehensive Plan, their experience working with the Division of Planning, and how they think Lexington should grow.

Council Members raised several questions during the meeting, including:

Some on Council questioned Commerce Lexington on their role with a new advocacy nonprofit, Lexington for Everyone, which is advocating for changes to Lexington's land-use policies, and how that would impact their process with the Comprehensive Plan. Commerce Lexington's Carla Blanton said that Commerce Lexington was not the only organization involved with that effort and that the two are different entities.
Some on Council questioned if Commerce Lexington's questions would be the same as the On the Table questions. Commerce Lexington's Carla Blanton said that their goal was to get different input specific to the business community, so the questions should necessarily be different.

🏢 - This Week in City Government

Monday, February 21st

LFUCG offices closed for President’s Day

———

Tuesday, February 22nd

No meetings

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Wednesday, February 23rd

Technical Committee Meeting
⏱ - 8:30 am on February 23rd
📍 - Virtual
📺 - Zoom
🗣 - No public input

Commission for People with Disabilities
⏱ - 11:00 am on February 23rd
📍 - Senior Center — 195 Life Ln.
📺 - No virtual option
🗣 - No public input

Transportation Policy Committee (TPC)
⏱ - 1:30 pm on February 23rd
📍 - Virtual
📺 - Zoom
🗣 - No public input

Lexington Area MPO Transportation Policy Committee
⏱ - 1:30 pm on February 23rd
📍 - Council Chamber — 2nd floor Government Center
📺 - No virtual option
🗣 - No public input

The Rural Land Management Board
⏱ - 3:00 pm on February 23rd
📍 - Council Chamber — 2nd floor Government Center
📺 - No virtual option
🗣 - No public input

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Thursday, February 24th

Planning Commission Public Hearing — Zoning Items
⏱ - 1:30 pm on February 24th
📍 - Council Chamber — 2nd floor Government Center
📺 -No virtual option
🗣 - No public input

———

Friday, February 25th

Subdivision Regulations waiver deadline
⏱ - 4:00 pm on February 25th
📍 - Planning Office — 7th floor Phoenix Building
📺 -No virtual option
🗣 - No public input

ARPA

Megan Gulla