A Lexington resident has formally asked Mayor Linda Gorton to correct what he says is an illegal partisan imbalance on the city’s Ethics Commission, where voter registration records show six of the body’s eight current members are registered Democrats — one more than the city’s own ordinance allows. In a letter sent to the mayor’s office Thursday afternoon and copied to the full Urban County Council and several local news outlets, Nathan McCamish argued that Section 25-20 of the LFUCG Code of Ordinances caps the number of Commission members from any single political party at five. He wrote that the recent appointment of Trace J. Williams, a Democrat, pushed the commission past that limit and should be reversed. “As such, the appointment by your Office of Mr. Trace Williams was unlawful and now certain or even all actions by the Commission since then may be presumed to be null and void,” McCamish wrote. “At the very least, a body charged with dealing with ethical violations not following their own laws challenges the legitimacy of the body itself, and must be corrected promptly.” The Ethics Commission is the nine-member body charged with investigating alleged violations of Chapter 25 of the Code of Ordinances — Lexington’s Ethics Act — and issuing advisory opinions on matters covered by the chapter. One seat is currently vacant. The Commission meets quarterly, with its next scheduled meeting on May 7. The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent Thursday evening. This article will be updated if a response is received. What the ordinance requires Section 25-20 of the Code of Ordinances establishes the Ethics Commission and sets out how its nine members are chosen. Seven of the seats are filled from lists of nominees submitted by designated civic and professional organizations, including the Fayette County Bar Association, the League of Women Voters of Lexington, the Better Business Bureau of Central and Eastern Kentucky, the John Rowe Chapter of the National Bar Association, the Professional Women’s Forum, the Chamber of Commerce, and Citizens for Ethical Government. The remaining two seats are filled by at-large appointees. Subsection (4) of that section states that “no more than five (5) of the members shall be of the same political party.” McCamish’s letter attached copies of the voter registration records for all eight current commissioners, obtained from the Kentucky State Board of Elections. According to those records: Brenda L. Vance, representing the Professional Women’s Forum, is registered as a Republican. Cary B. Howard Jr., the Fayette County Bar Association’s representative, is registered as an independent. D’lorah L. Hughes (League of Women Voters), Christine L. Stanley (John Rowe Chapter), Nathan P. Gatewood (Better Business Bureau), David C. Blake (at-large, serving as chair), Trace J. Williams (at-large), and Chrisandrea L. Turner (Chamber of Commerce) are all registered as Democrats. That count — six Democrats, one Republican, one independent — puts the Commission one member over the partisan cap set by the ordinance. Blake was appointed chair in August 2023. Williams and Turner are the Commission’s most recent additions, both appointed in March 2025, according to the city’s board roster. A second question: the dissolved nominating organization McCamish’s letter raises a separate concern about one of the Commission’s nominating organizations. Under subsection (2)(g) of the ordinance, one Commission seat is reserved for a nominee submitted by Citizens for Ethical Government, a nonprofit corporation. But Citizens for Ethical Government filed articles of dissolution with the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office on June 14, 2017, according to a copy of the filing included as an exhibit to McCamish’s letter. The articles, signed by the organization’s vice president, state that the corporation’s board of directors voted to dissolve at an April 4, 2017 meeting and that no remaining property, assets or liabilities remained. McCamish wrote that he first raised the dissolution with the mayor’s office in a letter dated June 25, 2024, followed by two phone calls, and that he also communicated the issue to his then-councilmember, Kathy Plomin. He said no action appears to have followed. The seat nominally reserved for Citizens for Ethical Government is currently vacant, according to the Commission’s roster. McCamish noted that the last commissioner listed as a Citizens for Ethical Government nominee — former chair Shannon A. Singleton — served what McCamish described as “two possibly-illegitimate terms” after the organization had dissolved. The ordinance itself provides a procedure for when a nominating organization stops functioning. Subsection (10) states that an organization’s failure to respond to information requests from the Commission chair within sixty days is “prima facie evidence that the organization’s continued participation is not consistent with the chapter’s objectives,” and that the mayor “shall make a recommendation to the council” on whether to amend the chapter to replace the nominating organization. McCamish’s letter argues that procedure has not been followed. Recommendations to the mayor McCamish made three recommendations in his letter. He asked the mayor to request that the Council remove Williams if Williams does not resign, to ask the Council to amend the ordinance by eliminating the Citizens for Ethical Government seat and increasing the at-large seats from two to three, and to “urge the Council Clerk’s Office to keep better records of information submitted by nominating organizations.” The last recommendation refers to a Kentucky Open Records Act appeal McCamish won against LFUCG in 2024. In that decision, 24-ORD-161, the attorney general’s office found that LFUCG had violated the Open Records Act by failing to explain the adequacy of its search for records related to the Ethics Commission’s nominating organizations. McCamish has filed and won multiple open records appeals against Lexington agencies, including a March 2026 decision finding that the Lexington Police Department had unlawfully required proof of residency from records requesters. What happens next Whether and how the mayor’s office responds is now the open question. The Ethics Commission’s next regular meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on May 7 in the third-floor conference room of the Phoenix Building at 101 E. Vine St. Commission members serve four-year terms and are appointed by the mayor subject to council confirmation. Williams’s term runs through March 2029. McCamish closed his letter asking the mayor’s office to act “promptly” and signaled by his distribution list — which included Council members and multiple news outlets — that he intends to keep the question in public view. Nathan McCamish’s letter and supporting exhibits were provided to The Lexington Times by the author on April 23. The exhibits include the Ethics Commission’s current board roster from the city’s online boards portal, the June 2017 articles of dissolution filed by Citizens for Ethical Government with the Kentucky Secretary of State, and the Kentucky State Board of Elections voter registration records for all eight current commissioners. Party affiliation as reflected in voter registration can be independently verified through the Kentucky Voter Information Center at vrsws.sos.ky.gov/VIC. The post Activist Says Lexington Ethics Commission Has Too Many Democrats, Asks Mayor to Remove Newest Member appeared first on The Lexington Times. ...read more read less