# Confirmation Hearing - Ethics Commission Appointment - March 6, 2014 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Commission · March 6, 2014 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/3278 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/3278?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2014-03-06 - **Body**: Commission - **Last revised**: July 16, 2026 - **Length**: 1,431 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government held a Commission meeting on March 6, 2014, presided over by Vice Mayor Gordon. The meeting included one agenda item: a confirmation hearing for an Ethics Commission appointee, which was approved. During the meeting, the Commission took three votes and heard no public comments. ## Attendance The following individuals were present at the Commission meeting on March 6, 2014: * Vice Mayor Gordon * Councilmember Ellinger No members were absent or late. ## Votes and Decisions The Commission took three votes during the March 6, 2014 meeting, all of which passed by voice vote. **Motion to go into closed session** — This motion passed by voice vote. **Motion to commit to open session** — This motion passed by voice vote. **Motion to adjourn** — This motion passed by voice vote. ## Appointments The Commission appointed Wesley David Berenger to the Ethics Commission. ## Confirmation hearing for Ethics Commission appointee Wesley David Berenger was introduced as an appointee to the Ethics Commission during this confirmation hearing. Berenger provided background information about himself and his career, with particular emphasis on his experience with ethics in the banking industry. Vice Mayor Gordon and Councilmember Ellinger participated in the hearing. The appointee's professional background and expertise in ethics matters were discussed during the proceeding. The confirmation hearing resulted in approval of Berenger's appointment to the Ethics Commission. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Motion to go into closed session - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Motion to commit to open session - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Motion to adjourn --- ## Full transcript But we will be closed. The rest of the golf course will be open for more information. You can log on to the city's website That's Lexington KY dot-com. Well, that's all for this edition of Lexington Now we'll return next week with more news from your urban county government but in the meantime You can keep up with what we're doing by following us on Facebook Twitter and YouTube for the staff and producers at GTV3 I'm Shirelle Roberts, and that's it for now You You You You You You I'm hearing and Today is March the 6th, and we are here to have a confirmation hearing for an appointee to the Ethics Commission. And we welcome Wesley David Berenger. Is that correct? That is absolutely correct. Okay. And the way we usually do this is that we'll give you a minute or two to tell us a little bit about yourself, whatever you would like to tell us, maybe why you'd like to serve. And then we'll give council members an opportunity to ask you questions. Okay, is it on? Hello? Perfect. We can hear you. And after council member questions, if there's anything else that you think of that you meant to say, that'll be the time to do it. And we do have a 6 o'clock meeting in here, so you'll be off the hook at 6 for sure. Okay, welcome. And is there anything you'd like to start out with? Thank you, Vice Mayor Gordon. Just wanted to give you a little background on who I am, why I'm here. I'm a Lexington transplant. I grew up in Southern California. And as I was telling Mr. Beard, I'm from a town called Arcadia. And most people in Lexington know exactly where Arcadia, California is, because it's the Santa Anita racetrack. And throughout all my travels, most people are like, where are you from? I say California, and then obviously 30 million people it's hard to find. But I say Arcadia, and everyone from Lexington knows where I'm from. So it was a great place to grow up. And then my parents are from North Carolina, and I grew up really enjoying U.S. history. And unfortunately, my father went to Duke and my mother went to North Carolina, so I know about rivalry. And I just wanted to put that on the public record so you knew. But I didn't go to Duke. Well, I went to North Carolina for grad school, but I didn't go to Duke at all. So I walked around the grounds in Charlottesville, Virginia at the University of Virginia and decided that's where I was going to go. So ever since I left home, I've been out on the road. I've been working as a banker pretty much my whole career. I had a brief stint in graduate school in Chapel Hill, and then I went to work for General Electric. And at General Electric, one of our big things was ethics and what that meant. And obviously, GE is a huge multinational company that deals in a lot of interesting locations, to say the least. And week one, they say, you're going to be confronted with a lot of things that are on the up and up and fine, but we want to make sure that when you're confronted with things that aren't, you know what to do. General Electric has a very strict policy of obviously not taking bribes or making bribes. And in some of the countries that we operate in, that is standard operating procedure. And they say, you know, no matter what, you can't do it. We don't care what the competition is, but that's our rule. So, you know, at a young age and an old age, it's always been drilled into me about thinking about ethics and what that means on a micro and a macro level. So when I was approached by my boss, Laura Boysen, who's on the Commerce Lexington as well, to be maybe appointed or to look into the Ethics Commission, that was one of the things that kind of led me to be in favor of it and to appreciate it. So having worked at three different banks, I know all about regulation. I know about doing things the right way. And I've been enough compliance meetings in my career to know what to do, what not to do, and more importantly, why. So that's kind of my career in a nutshell. And how I got to Lexington was my wife is from Lexington. So she slowly but surely, as we paraded around the country, kept nudging me back here. And I absolutely love the area and love the community. So I'm happy that she did. So that's me. And I'm happy to answer any questions you might have or expand on anything. Okay. Councilmembers, do you have any questions for Mr. Berenger? Councilmember Ellinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. The ethics financial interest that you gave us, the thing you filled out, on number three it says conflict of interest. Yeah. And you've given a little explanation. Can you kind of go through that and explain that to me, what you see as the issues and whether it's not a conflict? Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that. In my role at U.S. Bank as a commercial lender, I do call on government entities throughout central Kentucky. We do call on the component units of the city as well. And for instance, I did the deal for Lex Park when they did a financial transaction last year. I was the banker on that, along with other bankers as well from U.S. Bank. But I just wanted to get it out on the open record that I do call on component units of LFUCG. Obviously, everything comes out in RFP, and then the banks respond to the request for bid. I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that. And I don't see that as affecting my role on the Ethics Committee. I don't think being on the Ethics Committee would sway a decision one way or another on which financial institution to choose on a request for a proposal. I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that that is part of my day-to-day job, is calling on municipalities throughout central Kentucky. Are there other questions, council members? I see none, so I'll ask one. Okay. Just a curiosity question also on your statement of financial interests. I notice you've listed USAA. Are you from a veteran family, or are you a veteran? My father was in the Navy in the late 60s, early 70s. He was second lieutenant in the Navy, served on a supply ship. Okay. So I got my USAA through him. You've seen the commercial. I have seen the commercial, absolutely. Thank you so much. If there are no other questions, what we do at this point is I'll ask for a motion to go into a closed session, and we will remove ourselves. So you can just stay put. Okay. And then we'll come back. Okay, great. So is there anything else you want to tell us before we get that motion? I'm good, thank you. You're good? All right. Thank you again. And do I hear a motion? So moved. Second. All those in favor of going into closed session say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? And we'll just go right inside the door here. We'll be right back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Do I hear a motion to commit to open session? So moved. Second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? All right. Do I hear another motion? Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. So thank you so much for your willingness to serve, and I'm not exactly sure when your first meeting will be, but someone will contact you. Okay. Great. Thank you very much. So thank you so much. We appreciate it. Have a wonderful evening. Thank you. All right. Wesley, let me... I'm over here. I just wanted to tell you that we did a good job at first security training your boss. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. She's been a great influence on me as well. Thank you. Thanks again. All right. Do I hear a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All right.