ONE Lexington will present annual update to Council, address internal audit

In Tuesday’s Council, Work Session, Councilmembers will hear an update from ONE Lexington, an initiative of the Mayor’s Office that aims to reduce gun violence in Lexington among youth aged 10-29.

ONE Lexington’s services include crisis response, such as Neighborhood Engagement Walks, the It Takes a Village in-school and summer programs, scholarships for students interested in addressing gun violence in their future careers, as well as community training and programs aimed to educate, mentor, and help youth and young adults.

The presentation includes some statistics concerning youth gun violence since 2021.

• In 2024, there were 10 homicides and 37 shootings caused by youth and young adult gun violence.
• This is a decrease from the 11 homicides and 62 shootings that happened among youth and young adults during 2023.
• 2021 and 2022 represented peak years for gun violence: 2021 had 81 shootings and 24 homicides, while 2022 had 90 shootings and 13 homicides.

The presentation also includes financial breakdowns of how ONE Lexington spent money on programming, events, grants, and more in 2024. You can find more details in the presentation slides, but by broad categories, here is how ONE Lexington allocated its resources:

• It Takes a Village In-School Mentoring Program: $41,667.85
• Grants and scholarships to community organizations and FCPS students: $137,110
• Gun violence prevention and intervention community trainings: $16,900.00
• Marketing for ONE Lexington programs, events, and services: $15,841.89
• Travel costs: $15,841.89
• Staff salaries: $158,271.00

Last week, the Lexington-Herald Leader reported on an audit of ONE Lexington’s financial activity that is not addressed in Tuesday’s Work Session materials. Internal audits are a common mechanism in local governments to help ensure that programs, divisions, or departments are complying with the city’s internal regulations.

Some of the findings of the audit include:

• $1,200 in personal expenses for ONE Lexington Director Devine Carama on an LFUCG credit card.
  • Carama says that he paid back those expenses as soon as he realized he had mistakenly used the wrong credit card during a May 2024 trip.
• 44 expenses that did not have appropriate paperwork proving that the expenses benefited victims of gun violence, such as hoodie purchases, hotel room reservations for victims of gun violence, and gift cards.
  • ONE Lexington was eventually able to provide documentation for 36 of these purchases.
• Violations of an LFUCG policy setting a maximum of $2,500 total in purchases credit card purchases to a specific vendor or company per day.
  • ONE Lexington spent more than $2,500 per day on multiple occasions. In these cases, the purchases consisted of multiple charges that, individually, totaled less than $2,500 to a specific vendor, but together totaled over $2,500.
  • Carama says ONE Lexington thought the $2,500 rule applied to individual charges, not total purchases for a day.

According to the Herald-Leader’s report, LFUCG officials indicated that many of the issues that the audit uncovered had been addressed.

Moving forward, ONE Lexington plans to update their Strategic Plan with the input of community partners, surveys and feedback from It Takes a Village participants, and upcoming community forums.