LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — On Sunday, January 3, Lexington's 12 District Councilmembers were sworn in to begin their term.
The ceremony took place at the Lexington Senior Center, and was conducted with COVID-19 restrictions.
Vice Mayor Steve Kay spoke at the ceremony and Fayette District Judge Melissa Moore Murphy administered the oath of office.
For 4 of the 12 council members, this ceremony is the first time they are being sworn into office.
Hannah LeGris is one of these new members. She says she is grateful for the opportunity to be in office during this pivotal time in history.
"As we are moving into our first term of office, I think we will have to work hard to build that connection and to humanize one another so that we can be productive and serve our community in a meaningful way," says LeGris.
Perhaps, one of the biggest challenges Lexington is facing is combating the loss in revenue during the shutdown and bringing prosperity back to the city.
"We have to move into a period of economic recovery, we have to make sure we support our small business... with our city and our revenue we have to evaluate how do we want to move forward and what our values are as a city in terms of our spending," says LeGris.
Liz Sheehan is also a newly elected city official. She is also concerned about the city's budget and says she believes council members will really have to work together in order to move Lexington forward during this difficult time.
"We are going into a budget year that was already going to be difficult without these economic issues that we are currently living in. It's going to take creativity. It's going to take us working together, and it's going to take a little bit of working across lines. Sometimes we see in politics people butting heads over topics and approaches, and I think we are in such a difficult time where we can't do that. We have to be thinking about how we can meet in the middle, how we can compromise and find solutions we can all be happy with," says Sheehan.
Members representing the Council Districts are:
- 1st: James Brown
- 2nd: Josh McCurn
- 3rd: Hannah DeGris
- 4th: Susan Lamb
- 5th: Liz Sheehan
- 6th: David Kloiber
- 7th: Preston Worley
- 8th: Fred Brown
- 9th: Whitney Elliott Baxter
- 10th: Amanda Mays Bledsoe
- 11th: Jennifer Reynolds
- 12th: Kathy Plomin
