Everyone in our community is impacted by these issues; everyone should have a say
As the tide of spring came to Lexington, we assembly members entered into the first stages of deliberation. We had spent several days studying the mandates of Council compensation and charter review in the context of Lexington’s charter. Now, we had two main objectives: vote on whether or not to change how or how much Lexington’s Council is paid and if new mechanisms for reviewing the city charter should be implemented.
Most of us were in favor of making changes to the processes for both Council compensation and charter review, though with more contention on the former than the latter. The majority, including myself, favored a pay increase to reflect a full-time salary in Lexington, while others believed compensation was adequate as is. I did feel a little awkward discussing this issue, as being a high school student, I lacked much practical experience others had in the workforce. I did gain new perspective when Vicki asked another young assembly member and me if we would be satisfied with making one of our proposed figures as a salary when we enter the workforce. I realized this decision holds important implications for people in my generation who will consider Council as a career. I understood that everyone in our community is impacted by these issues; everyone should have a say.
For those of us in broad agreement, differences lay mainly in the specific details of group proposals. This was particularly true for charter review, where it was near unanimous that a process for regular review should be established, but we were split on what that schedule would be and the composition of a review body. Like with compensation, we compromised and consolidated proposals to achieve a supermajority consensus, which I saw strengthened our ideas.
We also were bound by many legal constraints, particularly state law and the potential challenge from lawsuits. I think this heavily influenced our decision to only change the cap on Council compensation, as that would be best in compliance with existing law, and to include measures of government accountability as recommendations to Council rather than in proposed amendments.
From the Civic Assembly, I was inspired by the keen value of democracy — however difficult or time-consuming it may be — and its importance in ensuring the diverse citizenry of Lexington are heard through everyday people. Some of our proposed amendments, if passed, may even have the potential to set new precedents in our city. The wealth of viewpoints, opinions, public comment, and debate all carefully shaped these recommendations, which when combined with Council and voter decisions, will hopefully produce the best outcomes of efficiency, fairness, transparency, and accountability within our government.
