Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG)

Elizabeth McGee, budget officer senior, is the winner of the spring 2024 SPOKE Award! The award is given to an individual or a group of employees to acknowledge their outstanding performance and contribution to the job. It is a way to recognize employees who exhibit a high level of commitment, initiative and dedication to their profession.  "This year's recipient is an individual who's a very important part of our government and a very important member of our budget team and has been for a long time," Mayor Linda Gorton said. "It's my distinct honor to present this year's SPOKE Award to budget office senior in the Department of Finance, Elizabeth McGee." Elizabeth has a degree in economics and a minor in art history. She wanted to be a museum curator but ultimately took a job with the City and has remained here for 27 years. "It's been great," Elizabeth said. "I love it here. It's a great place to work and our office is wonderful." Director Melissa Leuker praised Elizabeth for the job she's done through the years for the City. "It's really hard to put into words what she does for our office and the entire government," Melissa said. "There are a lot of times when people come to Elizabeth because they don't know, it may not be a budget question, it may not be a finance question, but they know Elizabeth is going to know the answer because she's been here, she's researched it and she's dealt with it already. She keeps us on track with the budget process... I don't know that there's anyone more deserving in government. She's not in the front lines or come to the podium often, but a lot of what we present at the podium she has her hands in." Here's the full nomination for Elizabeth from her colleagues in Finance: "In looking at the words that SPOKE stand for, Elizabeth exemplifies every single one. Though often overlooked as most members of support teams, it wouldn't be farfetched to say that not a dollar leaves this government without the direct involvement of Ms. McGee. She pours heart and soul into budgeting each year making sure all Ts are crossed and Is are dotted...She has and continues to work with divisions to make their projects reality with Budget Amendments, Budget Adjustments and overall guidance on how to manage the process. Elizabeth is an exceptional trainer who is patient and thoughtful. She continues to mentor members not only of the Finance department but also acts as a guide for division staff. Elizabeth always has a positive attitude and a can-do spirit. If there is something she can't do it's usually because she already knows Law has issued an opinion on it." Congrats Elizabeth! We're so lucky to have you as part of the team! #LFUCG #LexingtonKy

🎉 We've been named an All-American City by the National Civic League! The award recognizes communities that leverage civic engagement, collaboration, inclusiveness and innovation to successfully address local issues. “This award celebrates community-driven efforts that address challenges, and create opportunities,” Mayor Linda Gorton said. “Lexington is proud to be considered an All-America City. We are proud to showcase the great work going on in our city, and to share it with communities across the country.” The City partnered with Fayette County Public Schools (KY), CivicLex, and Blue Grass Community Foundation to apply for the All-America City award. Superintendent Dr. Demetrus Liggins said “This collaboration underscores our commitment to fostering a strong, vibrant community. One of the key promises in our Portrait of a Graduate is that students will graduate not only well-prepared academically, but also as civically engaged individuals. Together, we are creating a future where our students understand the importance of community involvement, and the impact they can have as active citizens.” The winning presentation showcased the work of the Mayor’s Racial Justice and Equality Commission, and the Clean Slate Lexington Expungement Clinic and Job Fair, an opportunity for local residents to begin the expungement process for low-level criminal offenses, providing second chances for employment, education, and housing. Representatives of CivicLex promoted the organization’s mission of enhancing civic life through education, fostering relationships, and enhancing resident participation. Richard Young, Executive Director of CivicLex, said, “CivicLex is excited for Lexington’s win and very proud to be part of the delegation. This award is a meaningful recognition of the work happening all across Lexington to strengthen our community's civic health, and a reminder of why we are committed to ensuring that every resident has the ability to meaningfully participate in the decisions that shape where they live.” A partnership between Blue Grass Community Foundation and the Lexington Black Prosperity Initiative was featured to promote philanthropy and partnership in addressing pressing community challenges, like historical racial injustices. Blue Grass Community Foundation President and CEO Lisa Adkins said, “Congratulations to Lexington! Blue Grass Community Foundation and the Lexington Black Prosperity Initiative were honored to be part of the All-America City team. From resident engagement opportunities like “On the Table,” to the meaningful work of the Lexington Black Prosperity Initiative and CivicLex, Lexington is removing barriers to participation in civic life, and creating a stronger sense of belonging and community. By engaging in the essential work of strengthening democracy, we become a place where everyone can have a voice and make a difference.”

Sixteen grassroots organizations active in violence prevention are receiving grants from One Lexington. “Nonprofit organizations have been active in our community for many years, working to stop violence among our young people,” Gorton said. “While these organizations take different approaches to reaching our youth, the message is the same: be safe, make good choices, and enjoy a bright future ahead.” One Lexington Director Devine Carama said, “One Lexington’s goal to address youth and young adult gun violence relies on our partnership with many grassroot nonprofit organizations. Over the last two years, our violence prevention grants have supported programs focused on sports, transitioning into adulthood, mentoring, conflict resolution, trauma support, art therapy, re-entry, and much more. This program allows us to put resources directly into the hands of those on the frontlines doing the work.” This is the third year for the grant program. The City estimates approximately 1,200 young people were served by programming funding by last year’s grants. Organizations submitted applications for the funding through Community Action Council, which vetted each proposal and recommended organizations for funding. There were 42 applications originally. The 16 organizations represent a variety of approaches to helping young people. The organizations that received funding are: • Charlotte Court Inc. (CCI)  • Community Inspired Solutions  • Exhilarating Inc.  • FoodChain Inc.  • HEARTS for Basketball  • Casa de la Cultura Hispana de Lexington  • Kentucky Center for Grieving Children and Families  • Kentucky Foundation for Black Women and Families  • Lexington Raven Football  • Lexington Leadership Foundation  • Lexington Rescue Mission  • MPower Rhythm  • NAMI Kentucky  • Operation Making A Change (OMAC)  • Resolve Fitness  • Trauma Informed Counseling Center (TICC) 

We're hiring! Apply now! lexingtonky.gov/jobs

Paul Stewart recently took over as the director of Computer Services. A 20-year veteran of the Lexington Police Department, Stewart spent his last 13 years working in the police department’s computer information systems unit, which is the equivalent of computer services for the City. But following Mike Nugent’s retirement, Paul applied and was recommended for the job. He was a good fit because he had worked on wide-scale projects while in the police department and had some familiarity with the Computer Services team. “There was a large-scale project over the course of a couple of years to build a new public safety network, which is how it exists today,” Paul said. “Over the course of the next 13 years of my career, I was in that position overseeing operations and helping to oversee operations with another employee, Clifton Grimm. He’s awesome. Over the course of that time, we built out and it kind of evolved into what it is today." Paul’s job now is to oversee operations in IT. “My role, while the folks on the individual teams are doing the real work, my role is operations, budgeting, project management, working with the commissioner’s office, working with the Urban County Council, that sort of thing, to make sure we’re steering the decisions that we’re making in the right direction for the residents of Lexington.” Paul wanted to take the first few months to listen and learn about all aspects of his job. While he’s sure there will be some room for improvement along the way, his focus now is to better understand how everything exists within the division today and figure out where to go from there. His favorite part so far has been the people he’s working with. “In my previous role, I had the unique opportunity to work with a lot of these folks over the years because of the commonalities of what we were doing in Public Safety and how it intertwined with Mike over here,” Paul said. “One advantage I had stepping in was that I had some existing relationships with a lot of the team members over here… I was able to sort of hit the ground running, although I’ll say the scope of what I have in this role is just a lot larger than it was at public safety. I’m really enjoying it. I would say part of the reason is each of the individual teams here in computer services are really great at what they do. They all bring different skill sets to the table and it really works well together. I have to give them credit in that aspect.” Originally from New York, Paul moved to Lexington in 2003 to join the police academy and has remained here since. When he’s not working, Paul enjoys camping, golfing and hanging out with his two daughters. “We’re shuffling between soccer and volleyball and things like that,” Paul said. “We like to travel when we can.” Congrats on the new position, Paul! #newposition #LFUCG #LexingtonKy

Lex Grow Trees is thrilled to unveil the recipients of their inaugural grants, which will aid the initiative’s efforts to bolster Lexington's tree population and foster community engagement in urban forestry efforts. Of the 22 applications received totaling $2.8 million in requested funds, nine organizations were awarded a combined $491,131.55 in this first round of large project grants. Funding came from an allocation of $1.5 million set aside for Lexington’s tree canopy by the Urban County Council. Funded proposals, subject to Council approval, include: • Andover Forest HOA - Granted $100,000 to plant 350 trees, enhancing the tree canopy in Council District 6, with a focus on creating shaded community areas and engaging residents in tree care. • Friends of Wolf Run - Awarded $97,935 for the "Large Trees for Private Lands" project, aiming to plant up to 175 large trees in high-need areas within Council Districts 3, 10, and 11. • Bluegrass Greensource - Granted $95,312.50 for a two-year project enabling residents to plant trees and learn to maintain them, with a focus on equitable distribution in underserved areas identified by the 2022 Tree Canopy Study. • Trees Lexington! - Awarded $86,655 for a comprehensive program focusing on tree planting, maintenance, and educational initiatives in historically underrepresented areas. • Hartland HOA - Granted $76,785.20 for the "Growing Together: Trees for a New Generation" initiative, aiming to restore and expand the urban forest by planting 284 trees within the Hartland community and by hosting a community-wide Hartland Arbor Day event in April 2025. • Eastland Parkway Neighborhood Association - Awarded $18,271.85 for a project to enhance the historical entrance walls with additional trees and to add street trees along Eastland Parkway. • Pensacola Park Neighborhood Association - Granted $6,000 to counter the loss of mature trees in their historic neighborhood by planting new ones and increasing the tree canopy by 7% by September 2025. • Bread & Circuses Media - Awarded $6,000 for an oral history project to engage and educate the youth in Lexington’s 6th District about the importance of tree maintenance and the tree canopy's impact on community health. • Friends of the Parks - Granted $4,172 for a tree planting project at Clays Mills Elementary to improve the canopy of the school’s green spaces. Lex Grow Trees, managed by the volunteers and government employees who comprise the city’s Tree Canopy Ad Hoc Committee, aims to address tree canopy inequities in Lexington and promote the numerous benefits trees offer to our environment, society, economy, and health. The initiative is informed by the 2022 Urban Tree Canopy Study, identifying areas most in need of tree canopy expansion. 

🎉 Lexington’s award-winning Town Branch Commons has received the National Recognition Award in the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) 2024 Engineering Excellence Awards competition! This is the third national award the project has received. “Town Branch Commons has been a transformational project for our downtown,” Mayor Linda Gorton said. “The linear park and trail system provides safe, accessible transportation for pedestrians and bicyclists, creating a connector for neighborhoods, people, and public spaces.” Town Branch Commons, a City project led by Gresham Smith engineers, and based upon SCAPE Landscape Architecture’s design concept, was completed in 2022. It runs the length of Midland Avenue and Vine Street to the front of Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. It connects the Legacy Trail to Town Branch Trail, providing 22 miles of uninterrupted walking, jogging, and cycling trails. “Being awarded a national ACEC award for the Town Branch Commons is a testament to the project's excellence, and our commitment to innovation, collaboration, and the vision of a more accessible and beautiful city for all residents and visitors,” said Brandi Peacher, the City’s Director of Project Management. “This project will continue to have a profound impact for decades to come, serving as a highly functional piece of infrastructure and an exemplary complete streets initiative that promotes safety, accessibility, and economic vitality for our entire community.” As the business voice of America’s engineering industry, ACEC organizes the industry’s leading awards program. The National Recognition Award ceremony, held in Washington, DC last month, celebrated exceptional engineering projects across the nation.

🔥 Battalion Chief Jordan Saas became the first member of the Lexington Fire Department to complete the Executive Fire Officer Program offered by the National Fire Academy (U.S. Fire Administration) in Maryland. The course took two years to complete, and participants “undergo a transformative journey, becoming enhanced decision-makers and innovative collaborators.” “It was a lot of work to go through this program,” Saas said. “It was the equivalent of roughly 15 to 18 graduate credits. I would say the most rewarding thing was the reflection that it caused me to participate in. A lot of times we’re go, go go, and we don’t slow down enough to be able to reflect on where we’ve been, how that’s impacted us, what we could’ve done better, what went well. It was a great experience… looking back on the two-year journey, it’s been hugely helpful.” “The Executive Fire Officer (EFO) Program provides a unique residential professional development opportunity for senior-level fire and emergency medical services leaders,” said Erks Gabliks, superintendent of the National Fire Academy. “During the EFO Program, participants gain leadership skills they can use to strengthen their organization and help make their community more resilient… Acceptance into the internationally recognized EFO Program is through a competitive selection process.” Members of the program were required to complete five executive-level courses of leadership: self, organization, community, capstone I and capstone II. The capstone courses required students to come up with an adaptive solution – something that isn’t solvable by a simple policy or procedure change – to an issue within the fire community and write a research paper on their findings. Saas focused his study on “retirement and the loss of identity.” The inspiration came from a former coworker who served in the Lexington Fire Department for a number of years but whose retirement process took just 20 minutes. “The fact that we invest 26 weeks into the academy as a recruit, plus an additional year of probation and on-the-job training, to just onboard somebody just for it to be 20 minutes for them to retire and sign four pieces of paper,” Saas said. “To me, that seemed lopsided.” In his 123-page study, Saas interviewed 14 retired Lexington firefighters with topics focused on their “retirement transition, how the Department can improve its separation process, and how those changes can improve the quality of members’ retirement.” He proposed that Lexington lacks a holistic approach that transitioned firefighters from active duty to retirement. Saas has been with the fire department for 18 years. He’s held numerous positions through the years and now works as a Battalion Chief. Originally from Arizona, Saas moved with his family to Ohio when he began high school. He graduated from Eastern Kentucky University and has continued his education through programs like the Executive Fire Officer Program. #Firefighter #Leadership

Officer Dalton Black is Community Corrections' latest recipient of the Valor Award. Ofc. Black was at his home when he noticed that a neighbor's house was on fire. Ofc. Black knocked on the door, but when there was no response, he entered the home and assisted the resident out of the building. But he wasn't done there... In the commotion, the resident's dog ran away. Ofc. Black was able to locate the dog, secure it and returned it to his neighbor! Great work Ofc. Black!

Last week, eight dedicated members of the Lexington Fire Department successfully completed the Swiftwater Technician class in Campbellsville, KY. Our newest Swiftwater Rescue Technicians are Firefighter Brandon Abney, Firefighter Britton Pendleton, Firefighter Phillip Powell, Firefighter Colin Pinkston, Firefighter Travis Eckman, Firefighter Katie Bauer, Firefighter David Wall and Firefighter Kyle Sutter. They have now furthered their ability to conduct swift water rescue operations, ensuring the safety of Lexington's residents. Over four demanding days, they demonstrated their commitment and resilience by mastering new skills such as survival and rescue, boat operations, and vehicle rescues. Special thanks to Campbellsville Fire & Rescue for hosting this exceptional in-state training. #Firefighters #LexingtonKY