Mayoral candidates focus on city improvements in second community forum

Incumbent Mayor Linda Gorton and challenger Councilmember David Kloiber share their views and answer questions

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Incumbent Mayor Linda Gorton will face challenger Councilmember David Kloiber, giving the two an opportunity to share their views and answer questions.

Mayor Gorton has served 20 years in the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. This would be her second four-year term as mayor. Kloiber has been serving as councilmember for District 6 since 2020.

At the first mayoral candidate forum in September, there was some heated debate surrounding sensitive issues like the city’s violence, the opioid crisis and affordable housing. Wednesday, the candidates discussing issues like the spike in violence, the beautification of Lexington’s north end, the lack of affordable housing in the city and plans to increase and maintain people in our police and fire departments.

“This is a seat that requires someone like myself who listens to people, who takes what they say and works through it to see where we can find a solution. I have done that all over Fayette county,” says Gorton.

“We have problems that are not being addressed adequately. I can’t say that I have all the answers, I say that I have a plan, that plan has been built through conversations with community leaders, with experts and with people like yourself at forums like this,” says Kloiber.

VIOLENCE

Gorton and Kloiber were asked several questions about their plans to address Lexington’s recent rise in violence.

“In five years, I hope to see us being a vibrant community that has implemented the best practice community policing we have in the country through GVI,” says Kloiber.

“I envision that we will have this crime coming down because of all the efforts we’re making inside government and outside with our partners,” says Gorton.

The candidates specifically talking about how they’ll be proactive in the fight against domestic violence. Kloiber says he wants to implement a program called ‘Intimate Partner Violence Intervention’, or IPVI, which works hand-in-hand with group violence intervention or GVI. Gorton says she’s started an advisory committee with people in the community who deal with domestic violence survivors on a daily basis to help come up with solutions to this problem.

“We’re right now working on Phase One of this and it’s going to be a community-wide communication effort called ‘It’s Time’ and you’ll see it rolled out in the next couple of weeks,” says Gorton.

“Even if we have all of the best resources in the world or the best program or we think that we’re doing the most, if we can’t go to where people are and help them, we’re not going to be effective,” says Kloiber.

POLICING

Some community members ask the candidates to address only two civilians being part of the Police Disciplinary Review Board, the community wanting to know each candidate’s stance on adding more civilians to it.

Kloiber says more oversight doesn’t hurt but he wants to introduce a steering committee through GVI which would be community-led and allow civilians to have a voice in their policing. Gorton says adding more would be a change to the law at the state level and when she spoke to legislators in 2020, they were uninterested in the change.

Kloiber is a strong supporter of bringing GVI to Lexington, saying it gets police officers out of cars and patrolling streets, identifying people who are most likely to be involved in gun violence. Gorton says GVI is not actually shown to work in large cities across the country and Lexington almost didn’t qualify for the program because it was classified with “very low gang violence” in 2019.

Another issue people want answers for is how each mayoral candidate plans to increase and maintain the number of police officers and firefighters in the city.

Gorton says Lexington’s fire and police training is known nationwide for how good it is and so the training process takes about a year. She says incentives for public safety officers like pay increases and signing bonuses are in the works for the near future.

Kloiber says the shortage is a huge issue in the city and the vacancy has doubled in the last couple years. He says in talking with unions and the Fraternal Order of Police, he wants to implement 36-month contracts for public safety officers and have locally focused retirement packages.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Gorton says affordable housing is one of her top priorities and has dedicated a lot of money to addressing the issue. She says she allotted $10-million of the ARPA funding into affordable housing and has created about 3,000 units since her time as mayor.

Kloiber says he would ask the community to put out a funding source for affordable housing. He says the city should incentive building houses because the more houses there are in the city, the further down it will drive the price.

CITY REVENUE

Some community members curious about how Gorton and Kloiber plan to increase the city’s revenue. Kloiber saying to get the city more money, it needs more jobs.

He says Lexington should be courting companies it wants to expand here and spend the resources necessary to get them to the city.

Gorton saying the city is already working with big companies to bring them here. She says her focus is on job training for the community and making sure people are well-equipped to write a resume and complete an interview so Lexingtonians can land the job with the companies that come in.

BEAUTIFICATION

Another topic brought up multiple times by community members, the beautification of the north side of Lexington to include Winchester Road and the “car lot alley” of New Circle Road.

Gorton says the city sits down with businesses in these areas to talk about the issues they’re seeing to figure out the best ways to directly solve the issue, like the many homeless camps off Winchester Road. Kloiber says it’s hard to do more than what’s being done but that it’s clear it’s not enough and the north end needs more money invested into it.

“Because we’re not willing to look at expanding near the interstate out here on Winchester Road, a lot of the economic factors that would help us in beautifying, redeveloping and making sure that these areas are getting the attention they deserve, are pushed aside,” says Kloiber.

“I work with your neighborhood association here on many things over the years, for beautification, a park, signage,” says Gorton.

CITY HALL

The candidates spoke about the possibility of a new city hall that is more accessible to the community. Gorton says a space study is being done to assess how much room the council would need in the post-COVID era and plans to move forward can be created once this is done. Kloiber saying the new city hall is one of his top priorities because the current historic building costs a lot of taxpayer dollars to maintain.

PRO-SOCCER TEAM

A hot issue for many in Lexington is the addition of the professional soccer team, the Lexington Sporting Club. People have argued over the best place for the soccer fields and stadium, saying the agricultural and rural land shouldn’t be disturbed. At Wednesday’s forum, the community asks the candidates where they stand on the issue.

Kloiber says he fully supports the pro-soccer team, saying it will be great for the north end of town and the city’s youth. He says it shouldn’t be the mayor’s job to worry about the location of the fields and stadium, the business should handle it.

Gorton says she’s also pro-soccer but spoke out about it being located in the agricultural and rural areas by Fasig-Tipton. She does approve of the fields off Athens-Boonesboro Road and hopes the stadium will also be kept in Fayette County.

To learn more about Linda Gorton and her platform, visit her website HERE. For more information on David Kloiber and his platform, click the link HERE.