# Social Services and Public Safety Committee - January 14, 2025 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Committee · January 14, 2025 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/6311 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/6311?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2025-01-14 - **Body**: Committee - **Last revised**: March 28, 2026 - **Length**: 1,166 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1, with speaker labels folded in from Granicus closed-captioning. 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 Social Services and Public Safety (SSPS) Committee met on January 14, 2025, at 12:30 P.M., with the Vice Mayor presiding over the session. The meeting featured a single agenda item focused on the organizational business of electing a Committee Chair and selecting a Vice Chair. One vote was taken during the meeting, resulting in an approved outcome on that item. No presentations were given and no public comments were heard during the session. ## Attendance The following 10 members were present at the Committee meeting on January 14, 2025: - D. Wu - C. Ellinger - T. Morton - S. Lynch - D. Gray - J. Hale - A. Beasley - W. Baxter - J. Reynolds - H. Boone No members were recorded as absent or late. ## Votes and Decisions The committee held one vote during the January 14, 2025 meeting. - **Nomination of Chair** [timestamp: 08:42]: Councilmember Baxter moved to nominate Councilmember Jennifer Reynolds as chair of the committee. The motion passed by voice vote. No roll call was recorded, so individual member votes are not available. ## Appointments The committee took action on two appointments during the January 14, 2025 meeting. - **Jennifer Reynolds** was appointed to serve as **SSPS Committee Chair**. - **Whitney Elliott Baxter** was appointed to serve as **SSPS Committee Vice Chair**. ## Contested Items - **Election of Committee Chair:** The selection of a committee chair produced a competitive vote, with two nominees put forward for the position: Councilmember Jennifer Reynolds and Councilmember Denise Gray. The presence of two nominees indicated a split in support among committee members rather than a consensus choice. No additional details about the outcome of the vote or the final margin are available in the provided data. ## Election of Committee Chair / Selection of Vice Chair [timestamp: 0:02:37] The committee opened with the election of a new chair and the selection of a vice chair. The key speakers during this item were the Vice Mayor, Councilmember Reynolds, and Councilmember Gray. - **Chair:** Councilmember Jennifer Reynolds was nominated and elected as committee chair. - **Vice Chair:** Councilmember Whitney Elliott Baxter was appointed as vice chair. The item was approved. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Nomination of Councilmember Jennifer Reynolds as chair --- ## Full transcript ["Shine It On Me"] ["Shine It On Me"] ["Shine It On Me"] ["Shine It On Me"] ["Shine It On Me"] ["Shine It On Me"] ["Shine It On Me"] ["Shine It On Me"] ["Shine It On Me"] ["Shine It On Me"] ["Shine It On Me"] ["Shine It On Me"] I would like to call to order the January 14th, 2025 meeting of the Social Services and Public Safety Committee. We only have one item of business today, which is to elect a committee chair, and I'll walk you through that process. You may nominate yourself or someone else to serve as the chair of this committee. At this time, I will open up the floor to nominations for chair. Please sign in to speak. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I move to nominate Councilmember Jennifer Reynolds as chair. So moved. Second. All right. We have a nomination, a motion, and a second from Councilmember Baxter. Let me make sure I'm doing this right process-wise. Councilmember Reynolds, are you willing to serve as committee chair if elected? Yes, I am. Thank you very much. We have another nomination signed in. Councilmember Gray. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I nominate myself, Denise Gray, for chair. Okay. Do we have a second? Second. We have a second from Councilmember Lynch. Councilmember Gray, are you willing to serve as committee chair if elected? Of course. Okay. Thank you. Seeing as we do have two nominees, I will give the nominees an opportunity to speak for up to three minutes each, if you choose to. Let me know if you're okay. Councilmember Reynolds. Thank you, Vice Mayor, and thank you, committee and fellow councilmembers. It has been an absolute honor to serve as chair of the Social Services and Public Safety Committee for the past two years. Together, we have addressed many important issues, and as we look towards the next two years, I would be incredibly humbled to be able to serve as chair again. Social Services and Public Safety are vital to the health of our city. We need to make sure that we are working with them, giving them the opportunity to present in committee, and working together in order to address issues that are important to our constituents. I think I bring a lot of experience with my six years of service to the city, and the knowledge that I have of social services and public safety, as well as experiences I have chairing various committees. My desire is for each of my colleagues to be able to have the opportunity to contribute through placing items in committee, and I have told each of you that I am committed to helping you explore any issue related to social services and public safety, and help you reach your goal with items in committee. I think my experience as a good and steady leader with passion for these committee subjects that are crucial to our city make me the right choice for chair, and I kindly ask for each of your vote. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Gray, would you like to speak? Always. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Councilmembers, colleagues, I ask for your support, and me being your chair for social services and public safety. I believe that a well-run meeting involves the opportunity for all people to engage without cutting off or moving along the meeting without everyone having an opportunity to be heard. My background is in social services, actually, and the past two years we did a great deal with public safety. However, I believe that social services got the back end of it. I believe that we need to be more equitable in servicing the social services area of it, as well as our public safety. As we all know, public safety is much needed, from our corrections to our firefighters to our police. They all deserve the opportunity to have an eye on them, and social services has somehow received a back seat, and both of those go hand in hand, as we know with our mental health issue, which goes hand in hand, we see that with paramedicine. We have everyone coming together to solve an issue, and that's what it takes with this committee to have the foresight to tackle everything. It goes along with gun safety. That's a huge part of social services, and I believe that we need to ensure that we give everyone an opportunity to be heard and resolve all of the issues at the time. For this reason, and also, I've been here for two years, so we are all on the same level of playing ground right now. I believe that we need a different eye. If not me as your chair, I would love to be your vice chair. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other nominations? Is there any discussion on either motion? Please sign in if there is. Hearing none, I'm going to declare nominations closed and call for a vote. Before I do that, I just want to clarify how this is going to work, because we have two motions on the floor. We're going to vote on the first motion, which is the nomination of Councilmember Reynolds for chair. If that motion fails, we move on to the second motion for Councilmember Gray. If that first motion for Councilmember Reynolds succeeds, then that second motion and nomination is considered moot, and we don't have to vote or settle that motion. Is that clear for everybody? All right. Thank you all so much. We're going to go ahead and take a voice vote on the first motion, which is the nomination of Councilmember Reynolds for SSPS chair. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That motion carries. Councilmember Reynolds, congratulations. You are chair of SSPS. Thank you, Vice Mayor. All right. Your first responsibility as chair is to appoint a vice chair. I would like to appoint Councilmember Whitney Elliott Baxter. It has been a pleasure to serve with her over the past two years. She has a wealth of knowledge and is extremely talented, and it would be an honor to serve with you. I graciously accept. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Chair and Vice Chair. There's no other business to be conducted at this meeting at this time. Before we stand adjourned, I'd like to move fast. I skipped welcoming our new Councilmembers to this dais. This is our first meeting of the year and our first meeting for a lot of our new folks, as well as our returning Councilmembers. First, I want to congratulate you all for your electoral victories of getting here, but I want to particularly acknowledge Councilmember Hill Boone, Councilmember Joseph Hale, Councilmember Tyler Morton, Councilmember Emma Curtis, and Councilmember Amy Beasley. Welcome to the Council. We are adjourned. We will reconvene at 1245 for the Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.