Lexington District 8 candidates say crime, traffic are some of biggest issues for residents
.png "Incumbent Fred Brown, left, and Kenya Williams are running for the Urban County Council District 8 seat. The election takes place Nov. 8, 2022.")
In the 2018 Fayette County general election, 8th District council member Fred Brown had the widest margin of victory out of all the council members up for re-election, defeating Christian Motley and Phyliss McKissask handily.
Brown will be up for re-election once again this November, going up against candidate Kenya Williams. Brown has spent nearly 20 years representing the 8th District on the city council and believes his experience and knowledge makes him worthy of the public’s vote again.
“I’ve just got a wealth of experience and that helps because we’re going to have pretty new council members regardless,” Brown said. “There’s five openings on our council that are going to be new people.”
But Williams believes it’s time for a change in representation from his district and thinks he’s the man for the job.
“I feel that in my district, there was so much more that can be done, essentially, and that’s what kind of prompted me to do it, and then the fact that I’ve always had the want to get into city council,” Williams said.
Brown was first elected to city council in 1994 and stayed there for 11 years before deciding to step down to focus on his accounting career. When Brown retired, he felt his spare time would be best served on the council again. So he ran in 2014 and defeated LeTonia Jones by more than 700 votes.
Williams was interested in being a civil servant at a young age. His grandmother was an activist and used to be in a group called Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, he said.
Brown said he used to go to the capitol in Frankfort with his grandmother and drew inspiration from their work.
“I just always thought it was so cool because people don’t realize how much those types of individuals make a difference in their lives,” Williams said.
If elected again, Brown said he wants to continue the work he’s done as a city council member. One of his main focuses is making sure his district is safer by helping reduce crime, and one way he thinks that can be done is investing more in the police department to help fill vacancies.
“I’ve always been mindful of public safety,” Brown said.
Williams said he thinks one way to slow down crime is to invest more in the high-crime communities, saying poverty breeds crime and a way to combat it is to address it at its root.
“A lot of times you need that investment because I think that gives community buy-in,” Williams said. “If we invest in high-crime communities and high-crime areas, you get to the point where people enjoy living in those areas and want to be in those areas and they want to protect their area.”
Both candidates also want to address traffic safety in their district. Brown said he was a leader in implementing the speed monitor readers that display a driver’s speed compared to the speed limit as someone drives by.
“It seems to be a deterrent,” Brown said. “We don’t have any real facts on whether it is or isn’t, but anytime I see it, I’m watching my speed and I assume I’m a normal guy, an average guy and other people are too.”
Fred Brown
Age: 80
Previous work experience: Retired certified public accountant, worked for over 40 years in Lexington.
Any offices currently or previously held: Incumbent 8th District city council member, previously on city council from 1994-2004.
Family: Has a wife, three children and seven grandchildren.
Kenya Williams
Age: 39
Previous work experience: Pharmaceutical & medical device salesman for Johnson & Johnson.
Any offices currently or previously held: On the Site Based Decision Making board at Bryan Station Middle School.
Family: Has a wife and three children.
