After years of false starts in the General Assembly, Amendment 1 finally made it to the ballot earlier this year, and now it will be added to the state's constitution.
The amendment, which places limits on the governor's pardon power 60 days before a gubernatorial election and through Inauguration Day, came about in response to controversial pardons issued by former Gov. Matt Bevin. State
Sen. Chris McDaniel was the most vocal champion of the amendment, arguing the new rules will hold governors and their parties more accountable.
He told WUKY during the session that the lengthy process of getting it passed may have benefited the final product.
"Frankly, with the change to early voting and things like that, it's probably not a bad thing that it has had the delay because it let me make the shift from 30 days to 60 days to account for the early voting folks so that they would be informed as well," he said.
Meanwhile, in Fayette County, voters agreed to boost City Council members' pay to $59,987 per year, effective January 7, 2031. The change was one of three revisions to the city's charter, which acts like Lexington's constitution. Two other amendments, one requiring more transparency of council members and another requiring a review of the city's charter every eight years, also passed.
Haley Wartell with Civic Lex, the group that oversaw a Civic Assembly that made the recommendations, said the process was an experiment.
"The idea of a civic assembly is to kind of create a mini-Lexington in one room and so we had a variety of different perspectives and opinions that closely reflected the demographics of Lexington," she said.
The Civic Assembly process took years to organize but has now resulted in an update to and new oversight of the city's key document.