Gorton touts Flock cameras, public safety efforts in annual State of City speech
Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton championed the city’s efforts to curb fatal shootings, expand services to domestic violence victims and tackle the city’s affordable housing problems in her annual State of the City address Tuesday.
“Lexington’s government has one and only one focus — meeting the needs of 325,000 people,” Gorton said. “It’s that simple and that complicated.”
Gorton spent much of her speech, delivered in front of the Lexington Forum at Central Bank Center, discussing public safety. Last year, the city reached a grim milestone — 44 homicides in a year, the most ever recorded.
More troubling, many were directly tied to domestic violence, a new trend, she said.
“Last year, there was a significant increase in the number of homicides related to domestic violence. There were 13 homicides related to domestic violence in 2022, compared to just one in 2021,” Gorton said.
The city has focused more resources on addressing the needs of domestic violence victims and is also pushing a city-wide public awareness campaign to get more people to talk about and understand domestic violence.
There has been some good news.
Teens and young adults involved in homicides have decreased even though homicides overall have skyrocketed, Gorton said. Gorton said the work of One Lexington, a youth and young adult violence intervention program, has helped curb youth gun violence.
“We have greatly expanded One Lexington, and it is getting results,” Gorton said. “Between 2021 and 2022, we saw a 50 percent decrease in gun-related homicides among youth and young adults, and a 15 percent decrease in shootings.”
Gorton also made the case Tuesday for the expansion of the Flock license plate reader cameras, which have been controversial.
The cameras take still photographs of license plates and then compare those license plates against databases, such as for stolen cars or missing persons.
The city recently expanded the program to an additional 75 cameras before a one-year pilot program was completed, prompting concerns from some in the community. Soon, there will be 100 cameras on Lexington streets.
The program has been a success, Gorton said.
“To date, over 200 success stories have been attributed to the license plate readers, resulting in over $1.8 million of stolen property being recovered and more than 40 guns seized,” Gorton said.
In November, there was a string of burglaries where thieves broke into several homes, including Lexington resident Greg Padgett’s house.
A home security camera captured the license plate number of the suspect. Using the Flock cameras police were able to locate the suspect and arrest them, she said. Police recovered more than $7,000 in stolen goods.
The cameras are helping police solve crimes they wouldn’t have been able to solve before, she said.
“Greg’s experience is becoming more common, as difficult cases that might have remained unsolved in the past now instead end with justice for the victim,” Gorton said.
Fifth State of the City speech
Tuesday was Gorton’s fifth state of the city address and the first of her second term. Gorton, a nurse who spent 16 years on council prior to becoming mayor, won a second term in a landslide victory in November.
In 2021 and 2022, Gorton gave her annual speech in the council chambers in front of a limited audience due to the coronavirus pandemic. Those speeches largely focused on the city’s COVID-19 response, the hit the city’s finances took during the pandemic and the economic recovery.
Tuesday was the first time since 2020 she delivered the speech to a packed room of hundreds of Lexington Forum attendees at Central Bank Center.
‘An enormous investment’ in housing
With the coronavirus pandemic largely in the city’s rear-view mirror for now, Gorton’s speech made only passing reference to the pandemic during her approximately 30-minute speech.
The city is focusing on tackling another thorny and complicated issue — affordable housing, she said.
“This year we are making an enormous investment in affordable housing, including over $11 million in federal funds and $4.8 million in local funds,” Gorton said. “Currently, 846 affordable apartments are under construction and scheduled to open next year. All of these units are designed for people who really need assistance.”
The city has spent north of $41 million in federal eviction prevention money to keep more than 6,000 renters stay housed through rental or utility payments.
“We are currently working to refocus this program to concentrate on residents with the greatest risk of housing instability,” Gorton said.
A new program also helps low-income homeowners with code violations make needed repairs that will keep them in their homes, Gorton said.
Code enforcement cited homeowners Judy and Joey Hensley earlier this year because their house’s porch was falling down. The Hensleys couldn’t afford to replace the porch but qualified for funding through the new program paid for by federal coronavirus relief funds, she said.
“Long-term, the program will protect homeowners and lift up neighborhoods,” Gorton said.
‘A banner year for parks investments’
Gorton said the city has dedicated more than $25 million to expanding and improving parks throughout Lexington.
Recently, new climbing boulders were installed at Northeastern Park.
The city is developing its first large, regional park in decades, she said.
“Thanks to federal funds, we are designing and developing Cardinal Run North, a large community park that will be a real game-changer,” Gorton said.
Cardinal Run North will be located off of Versailles and Parkers Mill roads.
The city also recently purchased property on the Kentucky River, the first large public water access for Fayette County paddlers.
“One of our greatest transformations has come downtown at Charles Young Park, where there’s a new playground, resurfaced basketball courts and construction is underway on a spray ground,” Gorton said.
Return of recycling, low unemployment
Gorton also spoke about the city’s restoration of curbside paper recycling, the completion of the widening of Clays Mill Road, which started more than a decade ago, and the start of a new 200-acre business park at Coldstream.
The city’s finances have rebounded since revenues plummeted in the early days of the pandemic. Unemployment is now at 3.1 percent, which is lower than it was prior to the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. The number of people working in Fayette County continues to set records, she said.
The city is continuing to expand its work-related job training programs and is trying to expand its agricultural technology sector. The city has socked away $1 million toward its effort to attract the fast-growing agricultural sector. It recently received an additional $1 million from the state, Gorton said.
Next year, the city will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the merger of the city and county government “a landmark change for our city.”
“(The) merger created increased efficiency in responding to the needs of our residents, and that’s important … all 325,000 of them,” Gorton said.
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman James Brown, who along with the 15-member council, attended Tuesday’s speech. Brown said Gorton was finally able to focus on the nuts-and-bolts of city government instead of the city’s response to the pandemic, which has taken much of her and the city government’s focus over the past two years.
“I think she did a real good job putting an emphasis on our commitment to public safety,” Brown said, which has been a top concern for residents.
The city has allocated $121 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act money over the past several years. Much of those projects will be completed in the next several years, Brown said.
“There are a lot of projects under construction, you couldn’t name them all,” Brown said. “We’ve got a long of things in the works that is really going to make this community better in the next few years.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2023 at 12:17 PM.
