‘I deal in facts.’ Lexington mayoral candidates spar over crime rates, solutions in forum
Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton said Monday the city has prospered during tumultuous and uncertain times under her leadership as she laid out her case for voters to elect her to a second term.
“As mayor I have met every single one of those changes — including a world-wide pandemic, probably the greatest crisis Lexington has ever had,” Gorton said during a televised mayoral forum Monday at Transylvania University. The forum was sponsored by WKYT and The League of Women Voters.
It was the last public forum before voting begins in the nonpartisan primary race for Lexington’s top job. Early voting begins Thursday and continues until Saturday at University of Kentucky Kroger Field. Early voting times are from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Regular polling locations will be open on primary day on May 17.
The two men vying for Gorton’s job said Monday she has not done enough to address rising crime rates and skyrocketing housing costs. It was time for new leadership, they argued.
Adrian Wallace, who runs a development corporation and has served on numerous nonprofit and city boards, said there have been 15 homicides since Jan. 1. That’s roughly the same number of homicides for the same time period last year, despite Gorton’s comments two weeks ago that homicides had dropped by 50%. Those comments were made during an April 26 forum at the Lyric Theatre. Since then, there have been five homicides, including the stabbing deaths of two Lexington children, Deon and Skylar Williams.
“We are set to out pace the record 37 homicides that we had last year,” said Wallace.
Wallace, 36, said the city needs to up the recruitment of police officers, who are struggling with officer retention and recruitment.
Gorton, 73, shot back: “It’s easy for you to spew out generalities and numbers. I deal in facts. A mayor does not have the luxury of not dealing in facts. Right now violent crime, which involves rape, arson, murder and aggravated assault, is down 5% from this time last year. Gun homicides at this time last year were 15. Today, there are 10.”
Four homicides, including Deon and Skylar Williams, were the result of stabbings and one homicide cause of death has not been determined, according to Lexington police statistics.
One Lexington, the city’s crime prevention program, is working with police, social service groups and others to intervene and prevent crime, Gorton said.
For those people, the volunteers and “All of our sworn police officers, who are on our streets every day, it’s an insult to them to say they’re not working because they are,” Gorton said. “They are making a difference.”
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman David Kloiber, who was first elected in 2020, said although overall violent crime rates may be down, homicides and aggregated sexual assault are up.
“When Adrian and I say things aren’t working we are not talking about hard working officers who are out there every day,” Kloiber, 39, said. “We’re talking about the policy that your administration implemented. The policy that has not been proven. The policy that has not been vetted.”
Kloiber and Wallace also said the mayor has been slow to adopt group violence intervention, which targets groups of people involved in crime. It’s a crime prevention policy that has been pushed by BUILD, Building a United Interfaith Lexington through Direct Action, a collection of churches.
“Some have seen a 30 to 60% reduction in violent crimes where GVI has been implemented,” Kloiber said.
Gorton said cities across the country have seen a spike in violent crimes during the coronavirus pandemic, including cities that have implemented group violence intervention models.
“Their numbers of homicides while using GVI are going up,” Gorton said. Some of those cities that have implemented group violence intervention and continued to see spikes in violent crime include Buffalo, N.Y., which in 2020 had one of the highest per 100,000 murder rates in the country. Chattanoga, Tenn., has also implemented group violence intervention, and it too saw a jump in homicides during the pandemic.
Gorton has previously said there are concerns the group violence intervention model targets minority communities.
Gorton, Wallace and Kloiber also tangled over what needs to be done to increase staffing at the Fayette County Detention Center. The jail is struggling with more than 100 vacancies. The jail union recently took a vote of “no confidence” against leadership at the detention center.
Kloiber said Gorton’s transition team in 2018 said the detention center and increasing pay for jail employees was a top concern. Yet it took more than two and a half years for the city to get a new contract with the jail union to increase pay.
“That pay was held up for over two and a half years,” Kloiber said. “I can’t imagine where we would be two and a half years ago if we had better wages in place.”
Gorton said the city was struggling with a global pandemic, which slowed negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police Town Branch Lodge, the jail union. That new contract, which also included a starting salary increase, was approved by the council in February.
Gorton countered the city has upped its recruitment efforts and is slowly starting to chip away at the number of vacancies at the jail. The jail union has taken a no confidence vote against its leadership multiple times over multiple years, Gorton said.
There was one area of public safety the three candidates agreed on— marijuana.
Gorton said as a registered nurse she would support legalizing medical marijuana.
“I do believe from the studies I’ve seen that it can relieve intractable pain,” Gorton said.
Kloiber said the council and the mayor have little say over legalizing marijuana. Efforts to legalize marijuana including medical marijuana have failed in the General Assembly. Still, some cities have stopped pursuing low-level marijuana possession charges, Kloiber said.
“I am not opposed to pursuing the idea,” Kloiber said. “I don’t think the mayor and the council have any say in it.”
Wallace said he would work to decriminalize marijuana. “Far too many people, especially minorities, have been incarcerated for low-level marijuana offenses,” he said.
Opening up the growth boundary
The candidates also differed on whether opening up the city’s growth boundary would help with housing affordability and affordable housing. The city has not opened its growth boundary since 1996.
Gorton said she has proposed adding money to incentivize infill development in her proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. She also recommended and the council ultimately agreed to add $10 million in federal coronavirus relief money for additional funds for affordable housing.
Gorton said opening up the growth boundary will not mean the city will have more affordable housing.
“The last expansion of the urban service boundary resulted in zero affordable housing,” Gorton said. “It’s just a smokescreen to say that.”
Low interest rates on mortgages drove up housing prices in Lexington and all across the country, among other factors, Gorton said. Cities without growth boundaries such as Raleigh, N.C., and Austin, Texas, are also seeing a housing crunch, Gorton said.
Kloiber said increasingly supply of housing will help the city address housing affordability.
“I believe that right now our people need more housing,” Kloiber said.
Wallace agreed.
“We are pricing people out of Lexington,” he said.
