What’s going on in City Hall? CivicLex weekly newsletter

CivicLex has released their weekly newsletter. Lots of good information to read up on. Check it out:

CivicLex Weekly Week of December 12th, 2022

In this week’s CivicLex Weekly: – We’re less than $6,000 from our end-of-year fundraising goal. Can you help us out? – Council is over for the year. – Lexington is named as the first Our Common Purpose Champion Community – We’ve got our eyes on two meetings in city hall. – Get engaged by taking a new survey out from the Lexington Health Department. – Updates from last week’s 5+ hour final Council Meeting of the year. – Finally, last week, our Executive Director spoke on Strengthening Democracy. This week’s CivicLex Weekly is a long read. It was written by Adrian Paul Bryant and Richard Young. – Lexington named first Our Common Purpose community in the nation In 2020, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a historic institution founded in 1780 by John Adams and John Hancock, released a report called Our Common Purpose, which contained 31 recommendations to strengthen American Democracy. The report resulted from a bipartisan commission, which held listening sessions across the country, including in Lexington. Since the report’s release, dozens of organizations across the country (including CivicLex) have signed on as “Champions” to help advance one of more of these recommendations. On Friday of last week, the Academy and Mayor Linda Gorton announced Lexington as the first Our Common Purpose community in the nation at their Reinventing Democracy Summit. CivicLex, The Blue Grass Community Foundation, and LFUCG (along with anyone else that wants to help!) will work together to implement two of the 31 recommendations outlined in the Academy’s Our Common Purpose report:We will design new processes to encourage resident participation in public meetings and hearings.We will also invest in civic education opportunities for residents of all ages.Lexington’s status as the very first OCP community is a recognition of so much of the hard work everyone in Lexington has done to advance a healthier local civic life. We’re hopeful that we can add more of the recommendations to our goals in the coming years. We’re excited to continue our work at CivicLex to build a Lexington in which ALL residents have the ability to meaningfully shape the decisions that impact their lives. Also at the Reinventing Democracy Summit – CivicLex’s Executive Director spoke about our work here in Lexington. Read more about that at the bottom of the email! – This Week in City HallWhile Council is on recess for the rest of the year, there are still a few boards and committees meeting this week! Tree Board The Tree Board will be holding its last meeting of the year on Wednesday, December 14. The Tree Board advocates for and advises the city on the planting and care for trees across Lexington. The Tree Board will meet in the Government Center’s 5th Floor Conference Room at 10:30am. Commission on Veterans Affairs The Commission on Veterans Affairs develops and recommends programs and services to improve the lives of Lexington’s veterans. The Commission will meet On Wednesday, December 14 at 11:30am at Lexington’s Senior Center.  – Get Engaged: How do you feel about health and wellness in Lexington?The Lexington Fayette-County Health Department has a survey out asking residents what they think the biggest health issues in the community are and how best to solve them! The survey is anonymous and can be taken here.  – Updates from Last Week Flock Camera Vote In last week’s Council Meeting, Council voted to expand the Flock Camera Program. Vice Mayor Kay and Councilmembers Kloiber, LeGris, and Reynolds were the only no votes. This means the Police Department will move ahead with acquiring 75 additional Flock Cameras and begin installing them over the next few months. For background on this vote and Flock Cameras generally, you can head here. Other Notes From Council’s Final Meeting In the same Council Meeting, over 25 residents organizing with KY Tenants came to speak during public comment in favor of their proposed Tenants Bill of Rights. You can learn about KY Tenants here. There was no vote on the Tenants Bill of Rights or any measures related to it, but speakers wanted to remind Council of the organization’s goals before the end of the year. A small number of landlords spoke in opposition of the Bill of Rights. We will follow the Tenants Bill of Rights when it moves through City Hall. Here are a few other measures, along with the Flock Camera vote, that Council passed on Tuesday:A Complete Streets Policy, which will require the city to look into ways to make its streets more accessible for multimodal transportation.As part of the Compensation Study recommendations from the Administration, Council voted to give all LFUCG employees a 3% raise, and all full-time employees will receive a holiday bonus. You can read about the Compensation Study and how these proposal came to be here.  – From the CivicLex Desk CivicLex’s Executive Director Richard Young speaks about CivicLex at American Academy of Arts & Science’s Reinventing Democracy Summit Last week, at the aforementioned Reinventing Democracy Summit, CivicLex’s Executive Director spoke about our work here in Lexington to bring government and residents closer together.  The conference session, titled Beyond City Hall: Community Groups and Civic Infrastructure, was moderated by Martha McCoy, former Executive Director at Everyday Democracy, and also featured Maria Perez – Co-Director of Democracy Rising, Max Resnik – Documenters Network Manager for City Bureau, and Lynn Ross- Founder and principal at Spirit for Change Consulting, LLC. To watch the session, you can visit the Reinventing Democracy Summit’s AirMeet page

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