On Tuesday, August 12th, Vice Mayor Dan Wu announced the creation of a Boards and Commissions Subcommittee. This Subcommittee – a Subcommittee of the General Government and Planning (GGP) Committee – will review Lexington's 67 Boards and Commissions and make them more efficient, accessible, and impactful.
The Subcommittee will be co-chaired by Vice Mayor Dan Wu and 2nd District Councilmember Shayla Lynch. At-Large Councilmember James Brown and 4th District Councilmember Emma Curtis will also serve on the Subcommittee.
Lexington’s 67 Boards and Commissions are volunteer bodies that provide oversight of departments and organizations, recommend legislative actions to Council, and make some legal decisions.
In 2024, CivicLex was contracted by LFUCG through a competitive RFP process to create a Boards and Commissions Report that evaluated Lexington's Boards and Commissions and made a number of recommendations to improve their overall representation, functionality, and accessibility. This Report, published earlier this year, will serve as the basis for the Subcommittee.
Some of those recommendations from CivicLex's Boards and Commissions Report include:
Increasing the overall effectiveness of Boards and Commissions meetings through tighter and better-planned agendas, increased participation from members, and establishing stronger connections between Boards and Council.
Improving the experience of attending meetings for members of the public by providing friendlier seating options for the public, having clear signage for where the meeting is located in a building, and including dedicated public comment periods.
Evaluating the use of seat designations. Many Boards and Commissions require a certain number of seats to be held by a specific demographic of person, sometimes based on the field they work in, or some other trait. A further evaluation should be done on a board-by-board basis to see if this strategy is working as intended.
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Attend the first meeting: The Boards and Commissions Subcommittee's first meeting will be held on August 28th at 1pm in the Council Caucus Room. You can attend in-person!
Disclosure: CivicLex is an independent nonprofit that reports on local government and civic issues in Lexington. We also collaborate with civic institutions to make public participation more meaningful and rewarding - both are core to our mission.
The Boards and Commissions Report was produced through a contract with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) as part of an open RFP process to evaluate the effectiveness of the city’s Boards and Commissions. While LFUCG provided input on the feasibility of the report’s recommendations, it had no editorial input on the findings. CivicLex does not receive ongoing funding from LFUCG.
As with all our work, our reporting is governed by strict editorial policies to ensure independence, and funding relationships do not influence our coverage. You can learn more about our funding and editorial policies here. If you have questions about this report, feel free to reach out at richard@civiclex.org.
Developer Ross Boggess has been nominated by the Mayor to fill the current Board of Adjustment vacancy. Council will decide whether or not to approve his nomination.
