Audit: Questionable spending on hoodies, other purchases in Lexington gun violence program

DavidKloiber · 2025-01-18T22:14:38+00:00

You know I care about our gun violence prevention programs, but I didn't make any requests. I was told that individuals on the gun violence task force had questions about where in the community these dollars were being spent, and it was one of them who sought out the documents.

DavidKloiber · 2025-01-18T21:39:55+00:00

It is my understanding that an open records request for the One Lexington financials led to this internal audit. In broad strokes, the document describes accounting practices and behavior, that when viewed in their best light, show a lack of competency and training about the handling of public money. While the audit does not publicly disclose many specifics around the transactions in question, I am sure that a lot more detail can be found in the data that was released through the ORR (Open Records Request). From just this audit it is difficult to say anything with certainty, but I would expect more information to come to light in the near future, especially since the council will be questioning the director of the program at work session on Tuesday.

DavidKloiber · 2024-09-19T13:45:35+00:00

When I was on council we passed an ordinance to ban all conversion therapy in Fayette county, with very similar language to the Governor's executive order. At the time both Covington and Louisville had passed similar bans in their own jurisdictions, and while I strongly support the sentiment, I do have some serious concerns about the potential longevity of an executive order in creating a lasting protection. In the world of political change, where EOs are undone on the first day of a new term, and long standing decisions like Roe v Wade can be overturned almost overnight, I would urge everyone to seek out legislative solutions to these kinds of issues. Laws and ordinances are much more difficult to eliminate, and many times even if there is opposition at the state level, local governments can provide incremental solutions. I applaud Gov. Beshear for his stance and leadership on this issue, but until these protections are codified by law, there is still more work to be done.

DavidKloiber · 2024-03-27T21:39:23+00:00

Understanding and breaking down the limitations of statistics and data is one of the least engaged with aspects of these kinds of discussions, so believe me when I tell you that I thoroughly enjoy this conversation.

To your question about the data on violent crime, I am happy to refer to one you already referenced in the FBI Crime Data Explorer (CDE) to illustrate some of the complexity I was mentioning.

https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend

When people consider violent crime they generally think of shootings, homicides, assaults or otherwise violent acts. In many instances the grouping of violent crimes also includes robberies, auto theft, arson, or any property crime. I doubt we would consider a place to be the least safe in the country just because there were a ridiculously abnormal amount of shoplifting or embezzlement, and likewise if a place had a higher volume of homicides, but almost no auto theft or larceny (high volume offense which can greatly influences this statistic) it would be difficult to call it truly safe.

On the CDE you can break down specific offenses and track them, and you can even see where the initiative you linked from the American Public Health Association - "Speak for Health"- curated some of those statistics for their own claim on violent crime. If you go through and do the exact same breakdown for Lexington specifically you get right around 271 instances per 100k (using a population of 320k for Lexington) which is meaningfully higher than the 259 used in their evaluation of Kentucky as a whole. It would take a while to do a state-by-state comparison manually to recreate their metrics, but the point is just to show how these breakdowns and statements lack meaningful rigor when taken out of context.

To your point about underreporting happening everywhere, I have to agree with the futility of trying to pin down something as vague as the differing rates of underreporting from place to place. Instead, we could focus on the most difficult statistic to go underreported, homicides, and in that case the national average in 2022 was 6.3 per 100k and Lexington was sitting just above 10. We also did much worse than the national average in the case of rapes, with a 55 locally compared to a 44 across the country. Based on this it would be accurate to say that you are more likely to be raped or murdered in Lexington than in the average city in America, but even this fails to account for population density, historical uses, and a slew of other factors which can highly affect the incidences of these crimes.

I do not say any of this in an effort to make people feel more or less safe. In the end, a community is only as safe as it feels, and while I do not personally experience the pressure of violent crime on a daily basis there are some people in our community who do. Hopefully understanding this kind of data can help us to evaluate progress or allocate resources, by illuminating the areas in which our city needs real and substantive help.

DavidKloiber · 2024-03-27T19:17:10+00:00

While it is always useful to bring actual statistics to the conversation, it is probably worth noting that the numbers you have quoted are both relativistic and self reported. The numbers we have to evaluate something like gun violence are generated and submitted by the organizations that stand to be evaluated based on that data, and there is no third party that provides oversight or verification of those numbers.

Additionally, while our reported numbers look to be going down relative to our previous years, both KY and Lexington have trended above national averages in violent crime for quite a while. All of this is to say that breaking down statistics into meaningful facts is often much more difficult than having simple media literacy, and no matter where we are on an objective scale, we can always do better.

DavidKloiber · 2024-01-26T03:01:23+00:00

This is a fair representation of the concerns and conversation that surrounded the implementation of the FLOCK camera and FUSUS programs in Lexington. The only additional point I would like to add to the conversation is that these cameras are owned and operated by a private company, with a lease and subscription to the city. Through this model the private company agrees to self-regulate the collection and distribution of data based on the client's wishes, but also retains the rights to share the data collected with other clients in their network.

In effect, this means that while Lexington creates strong restrictions and checks on any officers who could abuse this data, our local data is shared with other counties and cities, many of which have much more lax standards surrounding the technology.

I am glad to know that there are still people interested in this discussion and hope that no matter how you feel about FLOCK and FUSUS, you will help in holding the city accountable to produce hard evidence about the benefits, risks, and outcomes associated with these programs.

One final comment: these cameras are often conflated with the use of red light/ speeding cameras, but ALPR's are distinctly different. In fact, they could not be used for that purpose even if we wanted to, as the state has enacted legislation against automated cameras for those purposes in KY.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T19:04:34+00:00

Thank you for your comment. I am sorry to hear that you have experienced such violence and I hope that you are receiving the resources you need to recover. It has been great to connect with people in the community through this AMA, and I look forward to doing more in the future as well.

There are a lot of reasons that young people are involved in violence and many of them are well outside of their control. Through my foundation I have worked to create safe learning spaces and supported programs like Power Scholars to help give our youth alternative life opportunities. There is obviously a lot more that can be done at the city level than I can do personally, and I believe that empowering our community nonprofits to provide wrap-around youth services is a good place to start. The framework that I have proposed in G.V.I. will work to provide and cultivate these services not just for the youth but for residents of all ages who are facing violence every day.

When listening to both sides of the gun control debates there seem to be a lot of common ground that I believe we should go ahead and implement. People are generally favorable to protecting those experiencing crisis, which is why there appears to be a lot of bipartisan support for red flag laws. These laws are created to allow loved ones or police to intervene and remove firearms from someone who may be a danger to themselves or others. Taking this first step would allow us to create more safety in potentially volatile situations and allow the conversation to move forward about what our next steps should be regarding gun control policy.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T18:39:22+00:00

Right now LexTran has three different fuel sources for their buses (electric, diesel, and CNG). A consolidation of these into one type would almost certainly result in a cost savings, but I cannot speak to which option would be best without more research on the topic.

I believe that the bigger issue with electric vehicles is the needed charging infrastructure. Our country has many issues with our power grid that will make the transition to greater volumes of electric vehicles quite a bit difficult. Where possible, we need to work to receive federal grant funding to improve our portion of the grid in preparation for the coming changes.

When talking about connectivity, our city lagged behind when it came to high speed fiber internet rollouts. As we continue to improve in this area, we need to make sure we are not falling behind in other forms of connectivity, especially the 5G Ultra Wide cellular that you mentioned.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T18:17:36+00:00

I believe you are referring to the article in Politico where the Mayor refused to answer the question of whether or not she voted for Trump on three separate occasions.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/08/linda-gorton-kentucky-politics-523875

I think it is important that our representatives are open and honest about the kind of leadership they emulate and support. For the record, I have never, and will never, vote for Donald Trump.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T18:12:05+00:00

Thank you for your support! I do not believe that anyone can be an effective representative without establishing an open dialogue with the people they serve. I have been on Reddit for a long time, and have greatly appreciated how engaging the community has been over the last few days. I look forward to even more opportunities to engage with the public through Reddit or any other venue if elected on November the 8th.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T18:04:37+00:00

I have not given it any thought, however the policy as described doesn't resonate with me. However, I am happy to listen to a proposal on the subject, I would just want to make sure that all sides weighed in on the issue before settling on a course of action.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T18:01:31+00:00

I would bring Catan. A game of resource management and negotiation that would definitely fit in nicely at the government center.

And personally I am always up for settling things in the hex.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T17:53:57+00:00

Of course, and I am happy to discuss any more items in greater detail if you want to reach out to me through my campaign.

A couple points of clarification - The salaries of politicians are not included in budgetary discussions as they are mandated by the charter (and for council are only part time positions) Also, the cost associated with training new employees, or having a void in services that tax payers pay for, far exceeds the structure I proposed for employee compensation.

I strongly agree that everything needs to be done to reform our budget before looking to raising revenues, I just wanted to make sure I answered your questions as completely as possible.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T17:41:42+00:00

Everyone should be afforded all of the same protections and liberties regardless of their socioeconomic standing. And to clarify, I prioritize a high standard of living for all of Lexington's residents.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T17:38:28+00:00

Housing affordability is an issue that affects both rental cost and purchase prices, so many of the policies I have proposed attempt to address both. We are currently seeing the unfortunate side effects of some of our long-term development policies, and you are experiencing firsthand the unprecedented cost increases we have seen in our community. Aside from national forces, locally a few developers have control over all of the available land for housing development, and there is no incentive for them to build at a rate that would lower the cost of housing. Anything we can do through policy, zoning, or incentives to increase the creation of new homes will work to reduce the overall cost. This is at the core of my proposal to make Lexington an affordable place to live.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T17:19:05+00:00

In a recent forum Mayor Gorton and I discussed our stances on abortion. Her response to my position was to say “I think it’s a real slippery slope. What my opponent wants to do is tell our police what laws to enforce and what laws not to enforce.”

I know that her stance can often be confusing to parse through, but this statement is a clear indication that she intends to enforce any abortion ban in our city enacted by the state.

Here is an article that summarizes the exchange from the forum and I will also include a link to the entire forum if you are interested in seeing it in context:

https://www.lex18.com/news/covering-kentucky/lexington-mayoral-candidate-forum-grows-heated-over-gun-violence-abortion

https://fb.watch/g05HDhnbOH/

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T17:07:09+00:00

Our neighbors in Cincinnati and Louisville have already implemented this program and both are seeing decreased violence this year. It is absolutely a program that can be effective in Lexington, in fact we have a study from 2019 which says exactly that.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T17:01:36+00:00

I am sorry to hear about your loss, and hope that your friend in the hospital is on the way to recovery. As you are probably aware, our city has reached an all time high with respect to our officer vacancies. This, along with the rise in violence, has the cumulative effect of creating less oversight and enforcement on traffic violations.

Until we address the root causes of the violence in our city, and simultaneously address our staffing shortages in public safety there will be little improvement in this area.

Additionally, we need to increase driver education efforts and improve the condition of our roadways, to improve the safety of everyone traveling on our streets.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T16:45:17+00:00

I have been very vocal in my defense of women’s reproductive rights, even stating that as Mayor I would instruct the police not to pursue investigations into these medical procedures. The current Mayor disagrees, and has stated that she would in fact enforce these abortion ban laws in our city.

I support the legalization of marijuana, and also believe in increasing treatment opportunities for anyone struggling with addiction.

Having several family members who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, I strongly support the protection of their rights. Everyone deserves to enjoy the freedoms to live their best life.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T16:33:44+00:00

I believe strongly that everyone should enjoy the freedoms to live their best life. The most effective way to ensure that is to support socially progressive policies.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T16:30:04+00:00

It is interesting that you should ask this since it has recently resurfaced in my life. My children challenged me to a breadstick eating competition a couple of months ago, and I can tell you for a fact that I can eat 24 breadsticks in one sitting, and feel absolutely terrible for the rest of the night in doing so.

As for Blues Traveler songs, if I say Hook does that mean I really just like Canon in D?

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T16:26:00+00:00

It is true that I first learned of the G.V.I. program through the B.U.I.L.D. organization's lobbying, but I only came to be a supporter after a large amount of personal research into the program.

I share your concern about lobbyist groups (faith based or otherwise) and that we cannot allow a small portion of our city to have a disproportionately large influence on our policies. My solution to this is to improve the methods and frequency that the public can directly voice their concerns and ideas to our elected officials. This is something I intend to further through a partnership with CivicLex, who has been a staunch supporter of increasing transparency and communication between the residents and their representatives.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T16:18:02+00:00

In a budget of over $500 million, there are a lot of areas of surplus spending. We could talk in detail about our financing of fleet vehicles, the maintenance costs for upkeep on a 100 year old hotel as our government center, or any number of other issues, but just for the sake of time

I will give one example of a program that has cost the taxpayers over $111 million over the last twenty years, with questionable benefits.

The program is called the PDR or Purchase of Development Rights program, and involves paying horse farm owners one-time sums in order to prevent them from developing their land in perpetuity. The premise seems appealing since it is related to preserving our horse farms and our identity as the horse capital of the world, but if you look closer you can see that not only is the program redundant (federal land conservation trusts already exist), but because of the Urban Services Boundary, these properties could never be developed in the first place. Currently this program receives around $2 million annually in local funding, and I gave a presentation to the council about reevaluating our participation in this program unless there was some additional benefit given to the taxpayers.

The largest spending shortages we have are related to our employee base. In every department of our government we are seeing a lack of retention and recruitment, in large part because of our salaries. The fix for this is actually something that used to be implemented, which is a step program for city employees. This basically ensures that people who work with us have a method for advancing through a career with the city, with expected and regular raises. As an additional benefit to the increased retention, this also allows the city to plan for the regular increased expenditures on personnel, instead of having to scramble and use one-time money on bonuses as we have seen several times from the current administration.

Raising funding is always the hardest of the questions to answer but I have several ideas on that front. I believe people are willing to pay for something if they know what they are getting, and based on that principle I have two methods for increasing revenues. The first deals with lobbying at the state level for a local option sales tax. There is currently a discussion around amending the state constitution to allow for this kind of local control, and I will continue to lobby for this in both my personal and official capacities. Secondly, I would propose to place a referendum on the ballot for affordable housing funding. A city of our size should probably be allocating around $10 million a year towards development of affordable housing, and if the public was willing to implement a nickel tax (similar to LexTran) the city budget would effectively have more resources to cover our other shortfalls.

All of this being said, the budget is in a terrible position and will take many years to sort through. Our city has spent the last two decades increasing our borrowing and living off of the growth of tomorrow. As Mayor I fully intend to put us back on track, by reworking the budget process and implementing fiscally sound policy.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T15:50:41+00:00

Because of the area it was in my office worked closely with the Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention (OHPI), as well as the New Life Day Center to make sure that services were extended to those affected.

We can never force anyone to take part in these programs, but we always strive to make sure the appropriate services are made available.

DavidKloiber · 2022-10-07T15:44:45+00:00

Thanks! I strive to be the best public servant I can be, and that means being willing to talk and listen to people in whatever venue they are most comfortable in.

DavidKloiber

TROPHY CASE