The Lexington mayor’s race has attracted a great deal of attention in the bluegrass community. But running a close second at city hall is the at-large council contest. Six candidates are vying for three spots on the 15-member Urban County Council. All six participated in a candidate forum last week at Temple Adath Israel.
Not surprisingly, the first question of the night during the League of Women Voters-sponsored forum pertained to addressing violence in Lexington. The city has already exceeded a record for the number of homicides over one year. Here’s candidate Lillie Miller Johnson-supervisor of the Fayette County Soil and Water Conservation District…
“I will be contacting Washington, looking at programs that we can do to decrease crime and work with the police department in making better choices,” said Johnson.
Candidate Dan Wu-chef and entrepreneur,
“Increase and create more partnerships with the Lexington Police Department, whether its city agencies or non-profits to deal with things like mental health, substance use disorder, housing, nutrition, child welfare. All these other sort of wrap around issues, so we can really free up the Lexington Police Department to do the kind of work that only they can do like investigations into drugs, into guns, and into violent crime,” said Wu.
And longtime council member and attorney Chuck Ellinger.
“We have to look at the root causes that are looking at this from affordable housing, homelessness, strengthen our workforce development, youth programming, substance abuse,” said Ellinger.
Here are the other three candidates on the question of dealing with violence in Lexington. Starting with current First District Councilman James Brown-realtor who also speaks about tackling root causes.
“We were really diligent as a council to make sure that we put the American Rescue Plan funds in places that we know we need them to get the services and the resources out to the folks that really need them in the community,” said Brown.
Current at-large member Richard Moloney, has spent decades at city hall…
“The City can do a lot of creative ways, but the nonprofits we going to have to help them and they can help us cause we can’t do it all. I was a non-profit, know how to stretch that dollar. They’re the best tools we got to use,” said Moloney.
And former longtime council member and Jewelry store owner, Bill Farmer.
“From where I stand I look out at the Ten Commandments. It’s at the back of this sanctuary, and I wonder, what has become so hard in Lexington about Thou Shalt Not Kill. Our beautiful city is being scarred every day,” said Farmer.
The next question focused on the proper relationship between the city of Lexington and the development community and how can it promote affordable housing and not cause gentrification? Here are the responses from Chuck Ellinger who starts things off…
“I always tell developers and I’ve been on the Council for 16 years and whenever they have looked at developing an area I always say first of all go speak to the neighbors cause those are the people who are going to be impacted the most. And when you do that you find out that actually they can work with them, if you do that,” said Ellinger.
James Brown was next…
“I think we need affordable housing but we also need market rate housing. We need a mixture of both. So as we look at how we want our city to grow and develop, we got to make sure that there’s opportunities for folks across the spectrum to have opportunities to work and live in Lexington,” said Brown.
Richard Moloney spoke about city involvement to reduce residential disruption.
“Work with developers. Work with nonprofits and be able take those homes and make them first time homebuyers. And by us City buying it, we’re able to keep that number down and work with the nonprofits while the nonprofits work with the builders to build these houses,” said Moloney.
The other three candidates also tackled the the question of a proper relationship between the city and developers. Next up, was Bill Farmer.
“It’s the multi-level chess game that is Lexington Fayette County and you have to partner with folks on a long-term basis and make known the fact that you want quality product, quality outcome, and quality upkeep. That’s how you take care of neighborhoods that are diverse to all needs and all equities,” said Farmer.
Lillie Miller Johnson followed…
“We’ve got to think about What is affordable housing? And that is not what’s going on. And the developers know that and we’ve got to get them on the same page,” said Johnson
And Dan Wu wrapped up.
“I think the city’s responsibility to be the sort of mediator in this process to create a more collaborative effort between developers and the existing neighborhoods. I think it’s possible. We’ve seen it. Be possible, but it’s not built to be that way right now,” said Wu.
Those running, also discussed immigration in Fayette County. Each at-large council candidate was asked about their thoughts on how
Lexington could be more welcoming to immigrants, international students, and foreign investment? We’ll start with Richard Moloney. Lillie Miller Johnson.
“To show how important they are, immigrants helps this city do jobs that no one does and that’s why I’m a big supporter,” said Moloney.
Bill Farmer said he has some experience with immigrants.
“Within the confines of the fifth council district when I served it, we had more than one brand new group of immigrants come in and we tried to help acclimate them. Help them find a way forward and we need to continue to do that,” said Farmer.
Lillie Miller Johnson said educating people is key.
“This is on a level of individualism. We have to get people informed, so they know where to refer people to, so we can be more inclusive,” said Johnson.
The final three also weighed in on better serving the immigrant community in Lexington. Dan Wu said immigrants could benefit from city development.
“The other thing that we know statistically from immigrants and refugees is that we are very great at building small businesses. And if the city could get into more small business development help for these communities I think that would help grow Lexington both as an economy and a cultural center,” said Wu.
Chuck Ellinger said inclusivity is important.
“We have to be sure when we talk about diversity, that it’s not only that we have people that are sitting at the table, but we’re inclusive so they’re actually participating at the table too. I think that’s the most important part,” said Ellinger.
James Brown proposes to move the Global Lex multi-cultural service and the Mayor’s International Affairs Commission.
“Moving it downtown at City Hall. Putting some focus on that and putting it on Main Street sends a strong message to the international community,” said Brown.
When all the votes are tallied following next Tuesday’s election, the leading vote-getter among the six at-large council candidates will become the city’s next vice mayor. But, for now, the six are probably mostly focusing on finishing first, second, or third come Tuesday night.
