Lexington council adds $3 million to Gorton’s budget. Here’s what it’s for
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The Lexington council made some minor tweaks to Mayor Linda Gorton’s proposed $505 million budget Tuesday including adding more than $250,000 for four new safety officers for police.
In total, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council added $3 million in new spending during a marathon Tuesday council budget committee meeting.
Some of the additions include:
$1 million for new roof for the Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center
$260,000 for elevator replacements at Dunbar Community Center, Picadome and Kearney Hill
$263,816 for four traffic safety officers in police
$21,000 for a traffic radar trailer
$104,000 for design of expansion of Valley Park Community Center
$125,000 for Greenways Master Plan (Last update was in 2001)
$100,000 for LexArts for new grant writer position
$400,000 for two small area plans, a type of planning document for certain neighborhoods or areas
$57,000 for new domestic violence coordinator focusing on youth intervention
$72,014 for a housing navigation specialist who can help people in crisis find new housing.
Council will be able to find the changes in Gorton’s budget through some current-year savings, Finance Commissioner Erin Hensley told council members.
The four new police safety officers — who can respond to accidents and other traffic safety issues — can be funded through a decrease in police overtime.
The Lexington Police Department is still struggling with a shortage of police officers. Vacancies in the department have hovered around 100 over the past 18 months. Traffic safety officers, who are not sworn officers, can help cut down that overtime, said Public Safety Commissioner Ken Armstrong.
It takes less time for traffic safety officers to be trained, so it’s much faster to get those people hired and working than with sworn police officers, Armstrong said.
With the addition of the four officers, the city will soon have 20 traffic safety officers.
The city has also not spent as much as it budgeted in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, for personnel, Hensley said.
The city is projecting $8 million in savings in personnel costs, she said.
Gorton’s $505 million budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 includes a 5% raise for city employees not covered by a collective bargaining agreements, $6 million for designs and other work for a new city government center, and money for design work for a new senior center and therapeutic recreation center in Shilito Park.
Councilman James Brown, who chairs the Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee, said the first reading of the budget will be at the June 13 council meeting. A final vote is expected June 15.
