Gorton has the temperament, track record for another term as Lexington mayor

Lexington has suffered through the same traumas as many cities during the pandemic and now faces many of the same problems: inflation, increased crime, a skyrocketing housing market and questions about growth and development.

But Lexington endured much less pain than other cities, and under the steady direction of Mayor Linda Gorton seems better poised to meet future challenges. Her calm and effective leadership is an easy pick for the Herald-Leader’s endorsement as she seeks a second term.

In this primary, voters get to make one choice for mayor, but the top two vote-getters will advance to the General Election. Our second choice is Adrian Wallace, a tireless public servant whose work as both a chaplain for the Lexington Police Department and as a chairman for the local NAACP, as well as a public education advocate and veteran, gives him unique insights into many of the economic and social justice issues that plague our community.

We applaud both Wallace and Council member David Kloiber for getting in the race, and pushing the mayor on numerous issues. Kloiber, who has served less than two years on the Urban County Council while running his family’s foundation, is clearly bright and energetic, but needs more seasoning in negotiation and cooperation before he is ready for the top job. Candidate William Weyman did not respond to a request for an endorsement interview.

But we choose Gorton for a second term in part because of her leadership through the COVID pandemic, one of the greatest crises Lexington has ever faced. Her career as a nurse helped provide a reassuring hand at the helm when our infection numbers spiked. Thanks to her administration, the city moved quickly to leverage federal COVID dollars to largely avoid an eviction crisis.

At the same time, Lexington faced a racial reckoning in the wake of police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Gorton listened to Black Lives Matter protesters. She assembled the Racial Justice and Equality Commission and has begun to adopt many of their recommendations, including a minority business incubator, new job training programs at the Charles Young Center, two civilian positions on the police’s Disciplinary Review Board, and body-worn cameras for all police. In February, she made the much-needed step of making that commission permanent with a full-time director. She also help negotiate between police, their union and opponents of no-knock warrants until that practice was banned from Lexington’s police force.

With her recently released budget, Gorton has laid out an impressive blueprint for another term. It includes more money for public safety that will help recruitment and retention in the wake of numerous concerns about our current rate of crime. Gorton correctly notes that our homicide rate has decreased, but it is still an issue of deep concern to residents. She has expanded One Lexington, the innovative violence prevention program with more dollars for personnel and programming, including a plan to hire recreation leaders in 16 neighborhoods parks.

Her opponents are pushing a different crime prevention program, but Gorton believes it will target minority neighborhoods with over-policing. (We have concerns with her adoption of Flock cameras as crimesolvers, but we will wait to see how the pilot program plays out.)

As more people move to Lexington, the need for more affordable and accessible housing has become a constant refrain.

Gorton recommended and received $10 million in federal funding for affordable housing, and has included $2 million on top of that for the city’s affordable housing trust fund. The city has helped finance more than 3000 affordable housing units since 2014, and hopefully that number will increase.

She has also proposed $1 million for the Lexington Neighborhood Investment fund, a zero-interest loan program that will help nonprofits take blighted, dilapidated property and turn it into affordable housing and $200,000 in funding to help low-income homeowners fix code violations.

A big fight is coming over Lexington’s Comprehensive Plan. Gorton has been consistent in her opposition to opening the Urban Service Boundary until better use is made of the land that was opened the last time around because she understands that more open farmland is not an easy answer to Lexington’s affordable housing struggles.

To aid with infill and development, she has proposed $3 million for an infrastructure investment fund that would provide repayable zero-interest loans to developers to develop infill properties. In addition, permitting will be streamlined.

With 16 years on council and four as Mayor, Gorton has that seasoning, diplomacy and wisdom to know when and how to fight for Lexington. As we noted in her first campaign for mayor, she has helped Lexington’s march forward on issues like the smoking ban, storm water improvements and increased diversity on boards and commissions. She is able to bring people together. There are flashier candidates out there, but they lack the track record, the temperament and the solid plans for Lexington that Gorton has demonstrated. She deserves your vote.

This story was originally published May 6, 2022 at 12:06 PM.