Council says Lexington Mayor Gorton waits too long to fill empty city commission positions
Lexington City Council is urging Mayor Linda Gorton to submit vacancy appointments more quickly so commissions don’t need to appoint their own members.
That’s what happened last summer, when the council denied the mayor’s reappointment of Janice Meyer to the city’s planning commission. Gorton didn’t submit another name during the 60-day window, and the planning commission filled the vacancy themselves.
The same thing almost happened again this month, when the mayor submitted a planning commission appointee just eight working days before the deadline for council members to confirm the appointment.
“Isn’t that abusing power by waiting so late and forcing us into this?” Council member Tyler Morton said at a Feb. 20 meeting.
The council criticized Gorton’s slow movement in the appointment process at a few recent meetings, including Wednesday, when they approved Molly Davis to the planning commission.
Gorton said planning commission appointments are hard to fill because the position involves a lot of public scrutiny. In this particular case, she said finding a candidate with a diverse perspective was important.
“We were losing an architect, which brings significant value to the table, and the current makeup of the commission lacks female representation,” she said. “With that in mind, I began my search and was turned down by two other candidates. Council members offered no suggestions.”
When positions open on Lexington’s planning commission, ethics commission or board of adjustments, Gorton is responsible for submitting an appointee to be approved by the council to fill the spot. The appointment process has to be finished within 60 days of the vacancy.
If the spot remains open at the end of those 60 days, the commission fills the spot on their own with no legislative oversight.
Most recently, Graham Pohl resigned from the planning commission effective Dec. 31, 2024, leaving 18 months of his term unfilled. That gave the mayor and council until March 1 to confirm an appointee. Gorton did not submit an appointee until Feb. 18.
Council member Denise Gray called the last-minute submission “extremely disrespectful” to residents at a public meeting on Feb. 20.
Council members said Gorton should have submitted her pick sooner to allow time for proper review and assessment of the appointee’s qualification, without the pressure of a running clock.
Vice Mayor Dan Wu said the planning commission is one of the most important in Lexington’s government, since they decide how the city grows. He doesn’t want to leave the planning commission in charge of filling a vacancy again.
“The system we have set up now where the mayor appoints and the council consents or not — those are both elected bodies who are elected to make these decisions … That’s a really good system and we should stick with that,” Wu said.
Morton said waiting so long into the confirmation period to start the process of appointing a new member puts an unnecessary time crunch on the council, and he wants more time in the future to make education decisions without rushing.
He also said it’s important to follow the confirmation process that’s currently in place, so elected officials are in charge of making appointments and not the planning commission.
“As a council member, it is our job to confirm or deny those planning commissions. I believe that the Planning Commission Board is one of our most important boards, because they’re deciding growth here in Lexington,” he said.
“In no form or fashion should the planning commission be the one deciding who’s on the planning commission.”
Ultimately, the council confirmed Gorton’s appointee at a special meeting Feb. 25.
Who is the new member of the planning commission?
Molly Davis will fill the remainder of the term left vacant by Graham Pohl, which expires July 1, 2026.
A native of Lexington, Davis is a landscape architect and served as the director of the University of Kentucky Arboretum for a decade before retiring in late 2024. At her confirmation hearing, she said she will seek diverse perspectives while serving on the planning commission.
“I feel very strongly that our community is not very fair to all parts of the community. There’s a great deal of inequity between those of different socioeconomic classes,” she said.
She said hosting public meetings is not an effective way to hear from everyone, and the commission needs to get more creative to meet people where they are and hear their input.
While serving on the commission, she said balancing the preservation of farmland while still encouraging development is her main long-term goal. In the short term, she wants to focus on sustainability and the effects of climate change seen in Lexington, referencing the severe winter storms across the city in early 2025.
She said economic development is an important driver for the city, and she will work to understand what makes land desirable by consulting the city’s urban growth master plan.
“I could not by any means quote that comprehensive plan backwards and forwards. I can’t even remember all of the pillars and goals and everything, but I think it’s an extremely important tool to refer to and what we have to be guided by in terms of decision making,” Davis said.
This story was originally published March 3, 2025 at 11:01 AM.