Nisbet wants ‘smart growth,’ fiscal responsibility

As a real estate agent and bro­ker, Kelley Nisbet is an advo­cate for pri­vate prop­er­ty rights and afford­able hous­ing. As a plan­ning and zon­ing offi­cial, she believes in man­aged growth. And as a small busi­ness own­er and can­di­date for coun­ty gov­ern­ment, she wants to coöper­ate with part­ners to achieve respon­si­ble spend­ing and rev­enue growth.

“I think there’s a need for work­ing togeth­er — not in a polit­i­cal way, but just work­ing with the oth­er mag­is­trates and the coun­ty judge-exec­u­tive to real­ly push Clark County for­ward,” Nisbet said in an inter­view. “We’re in a unique posi­tion, and I think the posi­tion can only be accen­tu­at­ed by those peo­ple, not nec­es­sar­i­ly like-mind­ed in the way they think, but like-mind­ed in the way that we want our com­mu­ni­ty to be suc­cess­ful, and be safe, and grow.”

Nisbet, 56, was born in Winchester and grew up in Clark County. After attend­ing George Rogers Clark High School for a year, she trans­ferred to Sayre School in Lexington, where she grad­u­at­ed, and then earned bachelor’s degrees in finance and eco­nom­ics at the University of Kentucky.

She has been a licensed real estate agent for Coldwell Banker McMahan in Winchester since 1996, and has served as chair and trea­sur­er of the Realtors Political Action Committee, through which she has worked with lob­by­ists on legislation.

Nisbet is also in her third year as a board mem­ber of the Winchester-Clark County Planning Commission.

She has two chil­dren who are in busi­ness: a son, Pearce, 26, of Lexington, who is a grad­u­ate of Transylvania University, and Elizabeth Ann, 23, a grad­u­ate of Western Kentucky University.

Although she was a Democrat until last year, she is run­ning for 2^nd District mag­is­trate in the Republican pri­ma­ry against the incum­bent and anoth­er can­di­date. It is her first time seek­ing elect­ed office.

“When you see things you think are not nec­es­sar­i­ly the best path for the whole com­mu­ni­ty, then you get involved, and that’s where I am now,” she said.

Nisbet said she wants to see a bal­anced approach to busi­ness and res­i­den­tial growth with atten­tion not only to new res­i­dents who want to come in, but also to the “cur­rent community.”

There is a great need for afford­able hous­ing not only in Clark County but also in Kentucky, she said. And as long as the sup­ply is less than the demand, home own­er­ship and rent are going to be expen­sive. When mak­ing deci­sions, lead­ers must con­sid­er not only new res­i­dents but also those already liv­ing here, whose homes are like­ly their biggest investments.

“Probably 80 per­cent of the peo­ple out there are sit­ting on mort­gages with inter­est rates below five per­cent. Nobody wants to move off that at this time,” she said.

Officials must con­sid­er how actions affect neigh­bors’ prop­er­ty val­ues, she noted.

Adhering to the city-coun­ty com­pre­hen­sive plan is the key to pre­serv­ing farm­land and the county’s rur­al and agri­cul­tur­al char­ac­ter while also pro­mot­ing “smart growth” to meet the community’s needs, she said.

“That plan iden­ti­fies where the growth is to take place and what that growth should look like,” Nisbet explained. “It’s a del­i­cate bal­ance of devel­op­ment and prop­er­ty rights.”

“Those who fail to plan,” she added, “plan to fail.”

Nisbet said she sees the county’s bud­get as its biggest chal­lenge, but added that “your biggest chal­lenges” can be “your biggest opportunities.”

Having rep­re­sent­ed 4,200 small busi­ness­es in 38 coun­ties as pres­i­dent of Bluegrass Realtors, she said, is a good back­ground for exam­in­ing the county’s bud­get, its suc­cess­es and short­com­ings, and for work­ing with oth­ers to resolve issues.

Nisbet said no can­di­date can hon­est­ly say they will low­er or raise tax­es or spend­ing until they’re in office and can see the sit­u­a­tion, but she has done some research. She’s talked with the jail­er and is impressed with the way the jail is man­aged. She is also aware of pos­si­ble solu­tions that have been brought for­ward to improve fire pro­tec­tion and emer­gency med­ical ser­vices, and thinks they should be considered.

“It’s not about who has the power—the city or the county—it’s about mak­ing sure that every­one in Winchester and Clark County is tak­en care of,” she said.

Nisbet said she wants to see greater account­abil­i­ty in spend­ing and men­tioned that “some recent pur­chas­es were not appro­pri­ate.” Not that they weren’t need­ed, she said, but “if you pur­chase things and you don’t have an appraisal and you use all of your cash,” that isn’t how most peo­ple would do things per­son­al­ly or pro­fes­sion­al­ly, and it isn’t how they should oper­ate in pub­lic office.

Whoever wins the Republican pri­ma­ry is almost cer­tain to become the 2^nd District mag­is­trate because there is no Democrat in the race.

Asked why she thinks she’s the best of the three can­di­dates in the pri­ma­ry, Nisbet answered: “I bring a skills set to the table of being a small busi­ness own­er … of being able to nego­ti­ate for a liv­ing, to com­pro­mise,” and make tough but fair decisions.

Also, she said, “I think it’s time for a female magistrate.”

Diversity is impor­tant, she said, and there hasn’t been a woman on the Fiscal Court for many years.

“I think it’s time, and I think I can help make a dif­fer­ence on a lev­el that is respect­ful and com­ing from a place of knowl­edge,” Nisbet said. “I look for­ward to this endeav­or. I think it’s the high­est hon­or to be con­sid­ered to be a civ­il ser­vant and to give back to the com­mu­ni­ty that has giv­en to you.”