Subcommittees of the Racial Justice and Equality Commission (REJC) will have their first meetings of the year on February 1st!

In January 31st’s Council Work Session, Council will vote on accepting $2.8 million from the National Opioid Settlement in Tuesday’s Council Work Session.

This week marks the start of Lexington’s Budget Season! We’re still a long ways from actually seeing a draft of the FY23/24 budget, but conversations are kickstarting this week between and within Council and the Administration.

LexPark, the agency that oversees public parking in Lexington, will present an update on their work in Tuesday’s Council Work Session.

Charlie Lanter, Commissioner of Housing Advocacy and Community Development, will present an update on Lexington’s Housing Stabilization Program in Tuesday’s Council Work Session.

In January 24th’s Social Services and Public Safety (SSPS) Committee, ONE Lexington — the youth violence intervention program created by Mayor Gorton — will present an annual update on its work.

In Tuesday’s General Government and Planning (GGP) Council Committee meeting, our Executive Director Richard Young will present our 12 recommendations on how to improve Public Input in City Hall!

Also in Tuesday’s General Government and Planning Committee meeting, Chris Woodall will present proposed changes to the names and intent statements of zones within the Zoning Ordinance.

While Council is on recess for the rest of the year, the Tree Board and Veterans Affairs Commission will still be meeting!

On Friday of last week, the Academy and Mayor Linda Gorton announced Lexington as the first Our Common Purpose community in the nation at their Reinventing Democracy Summit. CivicLex, The Blue Grass Community Foundation, and LFUCG (along with anyone else that wants to help!) will work together to implement two of the 31 recommendations outlined in the Academy’s Our Common Purpose report.

Also in Tuesday’s PPS Committee Meeting, there will be a presentation on the Lexington Hamlets Project. This project, started by District 12 Councilmember Kathy Plomin, examines ways to preserve historical artifacts and buildings relating to Lexington’s hamlets.

In Tuesday’s Planning and Public Safety (PPS) Committee Meeting, there will be an annual update on the Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) Program.

In Tuesday’s Council Meeting — the final meeting of 2022 — Council will vote on expanding the Flock License Plate Reader (LPR) Program by permanently purchasing our current 25 cameras and adding 75 more.

In Tuesday’s Budget, Finance, and Economic Development (BFED) Committee, there will be a presentation on the Lexington Public Infrastructure Program. Council allocated $ 3 million for the creation of this program, which will provide funding to developers to construct public infrastructure necessary for their infill and redevelopment projects.

In Tuesday’s Budget, Finance, and Economic Development Committee, there will be an update on the implementation of the city’s Compensation Study. The Compensation Study was conducted to compare LFUCG’s employee compensation rates to peer cities, and made recommendations to restructure pay-grades, job descriptions and titles, and other employee classifications and benefits.

In a Special Planning and Public Safety (PPS) Committee Meeting, Councilmembers will discuss a Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment (ZOTA) that creates regulations for Short Term Rentals. Short Term Rentals are units rented for limited amounts of time, generally by tourists — typically, these are AirBNB or Vrbo rentals.

In Tuesday’s General Government and Social Services (GGSS) Committee Meeting, there will be a follow-up on the Redistricting Workgroup’s plan for future redistricting processes in Lexington.

In Tuesday’s General Government and Social Services (GGSS) Committee Meeting, Isabel Taylor of Global Lex will present the office’s annual update. Global Lex works with local English learning and immigrant residents on accessing city services, finding community resources, and provides a host of multicultural services to LFUCG and organizations around Lexington.

In this week's Council Work Session, the full Council will hear a presentation about LFUCG's recently commissioned Disparity Study.

Two of the main recommendations from the report written by the Mayor's Commission on Racial Justice and Equality focused on disparities within the city's contracting process.

Election Day has wrapped up, and Lexingtonians showed out to vote for the future they want to see in Lexington! There will be a lot of new faces in City Hall in January - here's a sneak peak.