Kloiber says Lexington ‘clueless’ on stopping crime in first TV ads in mayor’s race
Lexington mayoral candidate David Kloiber started running two television advertisements Monday in the race for Lexington’s top job, in which he questions Mayor Linda Gorton’s record on crime.
Kloiber, a first-term Lexington-Fayette Urban County councilman, said he’s running for mayor because Lexington deserves “better than just O.K.”
“With gun violence rising we owe it to our families to do something about it,” Kloiber said. “ And the current mayor doesn’t know how to solve the problem. I do.”
Kloiber, who has loaned his campaign $275,000, said he will increase community intervention efforts and up patrols in areas where there is violent crime. Kloiber runs his family foundation, the Kloiber Foundation, which focuses on technology and education.
In a second ad that also began airing Monday, the narrator says: “Crime is up and the city is clueless about stopping it. David Kloiber will be the strong mayor our families need.”
In that ad, he also pledges to work with anyone on violence intervention efforts.
A local group, BUILD, which stands for Building a United Interfaith Lexington through Direct Action, has pushed for years for the city to contract with National Network for Safe Communities to set up its group violence Intervention program, which targets certain populations for services and interventions.
BUILD is an interfaith group that has pushed for other reforms including the establishment of the affordable housing fund in 2014.
The city set a record for homicides in 2021 with 37, shattering the previous record of 34 homicides in 2020.
Gun violence and homicides have increased during the pandemic across the country.
Gorton and Lexington police have said they had concerns about the strategy because most group violence intervention programs target minority communities. Those minority communities have expressed concerns about over-policing in certain neighborhoods.
Gorton said crime rates are dropping.
“Rather than picking out obscure statistics from 2021, let’s talk about what’s happening now,” Gorton said. “ This year, gun related homicides are down 50% (7 this year to 14 this time last year) and 28.6% overall (10 homicides this year total vs 14 last). All violent crime is dropping. We are expanding One Lexington, and Flock license plate readers are helping us solve crimes”.
During a Tuesday press conference, Devine Carama, director of One Lexington, said since he was hired in June 2021, the city has implemented programs that have worked in other cities and launched others that are specific to Lexington. The city is using the PIER model which focuses on prevention, intervention, enforcement and re-entry.
Carama said the city is still focusing its efforts on re-entry programs for those leaving incarceration. They hope to have more programs started in the next year. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, jails and prisons have only recently started working with nonprofits.
The city has been able to make gains in its intervention programs. Every week, the police, prosecutors, the school system and One Lexington discuss all gun-related and violence related incidents of the prior week. The group looks at the root cause of the problems and then connects the individual or family with services.
“We are seeing a spike in domestic violence,” Carama said. They need to get services to those families quickly. With the group’s help, those services can be delivered to that victim or that family within 24 hours. When One Lexington was trying to deliver those services on its own, it could take days, Carama said.
The University of Kentucky has a trauma based hospital intervention program that connects gun shot victims with services. That program can also stop retaliatory shootings, Carama said. UK social workers can refer that victim and that family to other services -- such as mental health treatment or housing.
Carama has recruited 100 Black men to help him with a mentoring program, “It Takes a Village.” The program started in the summer of 2021. It has reached out to 3,000 youths and teens, facilitated 14 juvenile meditations where violence has occurred and served 24 families affected by gun violence. It’s now in eight schools.
Kevin Payne, principal of Southern Middle School, played baseball against Carama when the two were young. Carama is a Southern Middle School alumni. When Carama approached the school about starting a mentoring program at Southern Middle School, Payne’s answer was simple: “When can he start?”
“Since the group started meeting weekly, we have seen a 75 percent increase in academics and a 52 percent drop in discipline referrals,” Payne said.
Jamarlon Grffin is a seventh grader at Winburn Middle School and has participated in weekly mentoring sessions with Carama over 24 weeks.
Griffin said Tuesday that Carama and the “It Takes a Village” program taught him techniques to live a more positive life.
“One of the techniques I learned was not to take the negativity of others so personally,” Griffin said.
The city is also talking more about its violence intervention strategies at a meeting later Tuesday.
In Gorton’s $460 million proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, she has included additional funding for One Lexington, the city’s violence prevention efforts, added money for additional staff in 16 city parks to provide more activities for teens and youth and put money toward buying additional license plate reader cameras, or Flock cameras which the city has recently installed under a pilot program.
Police have not released the location of those 25 pilot cameras, which has raised questions from many in the community. There are concerns those cameras will also be placed in predominately minority neighborhoods. Police have said those cameras have been placed through out Lexington.
Kloiber is the first mayoral candidate to air television ads.
Gorton, who is in her first term, faces Kloiber, Adrian Wallace, who has run a development company and has served on multiple nonprofit boards, and William Weyman, a frequent candidate., in the May 17 primary.
The race is nonpartisan.
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 9:46 AM.
