We can have different opinions and constructive conversations without dissension

If you have not seen my initial story when we first started, here is a quick recap.  I came to KY 14 years ago and still was not on top of the city of Lexington’s charter, how it came to be or the importance of it. My name was pulled out of a hat by demographics in Lexington as part of a 36-person committee to review the Council’s pay and also how often the charter should be reviewed.

The charter was formed in 1974 when Fayette County and the city of Lexington were conjoined to one entity to avoid duplication of services. The only time in the last 50 years the Charter was looked at was in the ‘90s. So we were charged to look at whether this should be reviewed more often, or not at all. It was the thought of most of the members that the charter should be reviewed on at least a more specific time frame. Our recommendation will be presented to the Urban County Council, and if they approve will be headed to the ballot this November.

Regarding Council compensation, that had more differences of opinion. But like all our deliberations, it was calmly discussed and had multiple votes until we came to a supermajority approval of at least 70%. This issue probably took more time and effort to come to a conclusion than the Charter Review question.

I felt every one of the members took their responsibility very seriously, and we grew as a group together and learned we can have different opinions and constructive conversations without dissension. I think it is very important in the future to have public representation to review the charter regularly and get involved in how our city is run. If we don’t want to be part of our city’s decisions and how they are arrived at we don’t have the right to complain when it is not going our way.

Not everything went my way, but I was given the opportunity to give my thoughts and my equal vote on all the decisions made. CivicLex is the nonprofit organization that ran this process and was very supportive and ran it with great integrity and efficiency. I am very glad I decided to participate in this and recommend it in the future.