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Public Comment for Council Meetings in the COVID Era

Public comment has been reinstated for Council Work Sessions and Council Meetings. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic additional public comment protocols have been put in place to ensure that everyone stays healthy during this time. The meetings will remain online until in-person meetings are once again feasible. There are two options for making public comment. You may submit a written comment that will be entered into the official meeting record, or you may register to speak online. If you chose to register to speak at a particular meeting, you must sign up by noon of the day prior to that meeting. You can sign up here or call (859) 258-3155 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. If you chose to submit a written comment, please send those via email to comment@lexingtonky.gov . You can view the meetings on LexTV spectrum channel 185, Metronet channel 3, Windstream channels 3 and 20, or via live stream . Here are some tips for speaking during a Zoom meeting: Download the Zoom app for your de...
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Latest Posts

Council Swearing-In

I had the honor of addressing those gathered, COVID-19 style, for the swearing-in ceremony for the four new and eight returning Council Members. Here are my remarks.Greetings and a warm welcome to everyone. Thanks for joining us, whether in person or watching remotely to accommodate COVID-19. Just …

Council Role in Police Discipline

Recently I offered a proposal to add a section to Urban County Council Rules regarding the procedure for bringing forward recommendations to Council  for discipline of police officers. Unfortunately, there has been some misunderstanding about both the procedure itself and my proposal regarding it, …

Council Approves FAR ZOTA

After postponing the issue for a month, at its September 24 meeting Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council approved a Zone Text Amendment (ZOTA) that increases the floor area ratio (FAR) in residential zones R3, R4, R5. Here is a link to a map of the county showing those zones. I posted a brief des…

What's a FAR ZOTA?

Floor Area Ratio Zone Text Amendment (FAR ZOTA)City Council is set to have a second reading of a proposed Floor Area Ratio (FAR) Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment (ZOTA) on September 24th. The proposed ZOTA would increase the allowable size and height of a building in relation to the square footage o…

COVID and the Working Poor

Here is my recent Op Ed in the Herald-Leader:Start wherever you would like in your thinking about the disparate impacts of COVID-19 and you will always end up in the same place: we have too many people in our society who live too close to the margins, too many people who are liable to have their li…

The "good trouble" of John Lewis

As an exchange student at Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1964 I did not know John Lewis but I was sometimes around him and others who became icons of the civil rights movement. John Lewis was by far the least polished among them, and the most angry, and the most willing to make some “good trouble”…

The Protesters and Police, Part Two

Last week I wrote that we need not believe that we must choose to support either the protesters or the police, that such a choice is not necessary, and such a choice is not helpful. Now I add a few words that I should have included then, a few words of appreciation for the protesters and the police…

The Protesters and the Police

I spoke these words at an LFUCG Council meeting this past Tuesday (06/16/2020). In the face of rising tensions and rising polarization, I post them now.I see a danger that people might feel they have to choose between the protesters and the police, as if you have to support one or the other, as if …

The Case for Full Funding for Affordable Housing

The Mayor’s Proposed Budget for the coming Fiscal Year 2021 includes a cut of $1.8M from the $2M annual allocation to the city’s Affordable Housing Fund. Here, in a set of bullet points, is the case for restoring full funding.Background:There is a large and widening gap between earning power and co…