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As per usual, the recent meeting of the Winchester City Commission featured some of the city’s highest ranking officials. 

However, another high ranking official – also local to Winchester – also joined. 

Kentucky state senator Greg Elkins, a Republican representing the 28th District featuring several counties including Clark, provided a legislative update. 

“It’s important to me that you and the public know what we do [in] Frankfort,” said Elkins, who previously served as a member of the Clark County Fiscal Court before being appointed to the Senate after a special election in 2023. “Accessibility and transparency have always been two of the highest priorities for me.” 

Elkins focused on presenting a number of legislative accomplishments during the past year, with many being broken down into topics for others’ understanding. 

Among the house bills, joint resolutions, and more that were mentioned, topics included those geared toward economic development, law enforcement, elections, and more. 

For example, House Bill (HB) 606 is set to be beneficial for real estate. 

“[It] allows local governments in two or more counties [to enter] into an interlocal agreement for development of real estate,” Elkins said, noting several local examples. 

Other bills designed to benefit the local economy and promote growth included HB 160, HB 321, and Senate Bill (SB) 25, which will respectively allow for more manufactured housing, extend time for orientation training with Planning Commission members, and deal with bond financing. 

In terms of law enforcement bills, such examples include HB 10 – with a focus on addressing squatters – as well as HB 622 that amends budgeting so that local school districts are reimbursed for having a school resource officer (SRO) in their facility. 

Another bill, HB 520, excludes certain law enforcement records from open records requests. 

Upon hearing more during the process of legislation, Elkins acknowledged that he changed his personal vote to being in favor of the passed bill. 

“[House] Bill 520 excludes law enforcement records from open records requests when the law enforcement agency determines that it is a danger to their informant or to the investigation if they release those records,” Elkins said. “It was a bill that we took a lot of heat from…because everybody portrays that as reducing transparency…it’s actually increasing safety because it allows law enforcement officers to conduct good investigations.” 

Regarding election-related bills, one such example – HB 684 – requires video surveillance during the voting process and removes certain forms of identification that might be considered inadequate. 

Another bill, HB 455, addresses investigations of potential electoral fraud. 

“I think we’ve done an outstanding job here in protecting our election integrity,” Elkins added, complementing the state. “You’ll hear of complaints and things that happen, but very rarely do we actually find that something really did happen.” 

In addition to a number of other bills passed, Elkins mentioned that there were some that didn’t. 

Among those were ones detailing short-term rental regulations, and a school bus safety bill introduced by Elkins. 

The latter did not get voted on by the House of Representatives. 

“I will bring that back and push that again next year, because it’s a good piece of legislation,” he said. “With some of the amendments that were attached, I was kind of okay that it failed. I love what I wanted the bill to do and what I designed it to do.” 

Answering a question from Commissioner Shannon Cox about what he anticipated being dealt with by the legislature in the next year, Elkins provided a preview. 

“I think we will continue to work on…public education issues. I think we’ll continue to work on housing issues. I think that’s probably going to be the two biggest [issues],” he said. “I’m a policy guy. That’s what I like.”