Lexington's First Civic Assembly Delivers Three Recommendations

Well, we did it! Over the past month, Lexington's first Civic Assembly came together, built relationships, learned new things, worked through problems, disagreed, found common ground, and ultimately, advanced three recommendations, each with 80%+ supermajorities of the assembly.

I'll have more thoughts in the weeks to come about the process, what we learned, how it will shape our work, etc. but for now, I'm still sitting in awe of our 30+ assembly members who gave up their nights and weekends to spend time with strangers and wrestle with complex problems.

They were generous, thoughtful (sometimes thought-filled!), kind, empathetic, and good spirited, even in their disagreement. Watching people change their minds with new information, come up with compromises on the fly, and express gratitude for a process even if they didn't get their way is so reassuring about the future of our world.

So what did they recommend?

Recommendation 1: An 84.6% supermajority of the Assembly recommended increasing annual Councilmember pay to $59,987 per year, the average annual wage in Lexington, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They cited the need to broaden the pool of potential elected officials and encourage more competition in council races. They recognized the job has changed significantly since its original inception in the Urban County Charter in 1972, and believe competitive compensation will lead to more effective governance.

Recommendation 2: An 88.8% supermajority of the Assembly recommended that the Charter be amended to mandate that Council create publicly viewable attendance and accountability expectations for the Urban County Council. They recognized that the best accountability tool for Councilmembers is reelection, and wanted to give voters more information about the performance and reliability of their representatives.

Recommendation 3: Lastly, An 88.8% supermajority of the Assembly recommends that the Urban County Charter be reviewed every eight years by a deliberative body of residents selected by representative lottery. They said there was a need for regular, public review of the Charter to keep local government structures responsive to constituent needs over time and that a review body of everyday residents that is demographically representative of Lexington would avoid the perception or reality of a conflict of interest when government sets its own rules.

While the Assembly may be over, there's so much work left to be done: taking the recommendations to council, stewarding the trust and relationships of our assembly members, building ballot language, educating our community on the issues... so much!

I can't express enough gratitude for all of the people who have made this possible. Especially, our amazing team led by Kit Anderson and our facilitator Tanya Torp. There are too many to name here, so they're just going in the comments.