LEXINGTON, KY - In his third State of the Merged Government Address, Mayor Jim Newberry expressed optimism for Lexington despite the nation's faltering economy. Within the week Newberry plans to announce a mayoral commission to help secure and ensure the proper spending of federal recovery money as a part of President Barack Obama's stimulus package.
Made up of members of the mayor's administration, council members and members of the public, the mayoral commission will "determine our spending priorities and oversee the expenditure of the recovery plan funds. Further we will use our Web site to provide regular updates on the status of each project, on the number of jobs created by these projects, and on how we address the problems which inevitably arise. I will ask the commission to report regularly to the council, and I will probably be asking the council to hold special meetings over the course of the next six months as we initiate our efforts," Newberry said in his speech before a special meeting of the Lexington Forum, which hosted the event. "We will work with the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities to identify other steps which we can use to assure a high level of accountability and to ensure that we utilize the best practices available to maintain the public trust in our efforts."
After attending the Inauguration in Washington last week, Newberry announced LFUCG had compiled a list of 196 projects, with a cost of $556 million, to seek funding for as part of the Obama stimulus package. "We are fortunate to have a president and congress that understands the crying need to invest in our cities, and I thank them for their efforts to address these pressing needs."
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The mayor also implored those gathered to contact their Washington delegates to express support for the Obama plan. Kentucky's senators may be tough to convince of the projects. Sen. Jim Bunning has been one of the staunchest opponents of the previous economic stimulus package passed under President George W. Bush, and Sen. Mitch McConnell likened state and local officials around the country to kids at Christmas time making a list of what they want when asked about the Obama plan by last week in Washington.
Newberry is also planning to ask local business leaders to step forward and support the city's efforts during next year's Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. "For the last couple of years, we have been gradually getting ready, but now is the time to accelerate our efforts. I will be asking the council to provide increased staff support for those efforts, and I will be asking the business community to provide financial support for our downtown festival," he said. The Games run from late September through mid-October of 2010 at the Kentucky Horse Park.
While the mayor pointed out the bright spots in the city's future, he did address the challenges faced by Lexington in our gloomy economic times. "We soon must prepare a budget for FY10 which, at the moment, presents an estimated $27 million general fund shortfall just to continue existing services." The mayor acknowledged a recent agreement made with the policeman and firefighter's retirement funds to defer money which would have had to be paid out of the upcoming fiscal year.
Lexingtonians will soon have the ability to see who is lobbying LFUCG, along with the organizations for whom they are lobbying and how much they are being paid to do so, according to Newberry, who said he plans to install more transparency in local government.
"Lexington's citizens need to know who is getting paid to lobby Urban County Government just as citizens know who lobbies both the state and federal governments. In 2009, we can make that information available," he said.
Also Newberry said he wants to make Lexington a leader in reducing greenhouse gasses, especially in light of a recent study that said local residents left a larger carbon footprint here than anywhere else. "It is imperative that our city, our state, our country and our world move without delay toward combating the effects of global warming. I am past the point of debating whether our climate is changingÖ even if you reject that idea, we should aggressively pursue every form of energy efficiency to achieve the benefits associated with lowering our utility bills."
The mayor called citizens and UK researchers alike to join together to find new efficiencies and enact them, which in turn could create new jobs and local industry.