| Metro Council Meeting Recap
Last night the Louisville Metro Council took up the resolution calling for a vote of no-confidence in the Mayor. This resolution outlined the scandals at Louisville Metro Animal Services, the many youths sexually abused through the Explorer program, the abuses of overtime, the refusal to be transparent with the facts surrounding the death of Breonna Taylor, and the failure to protect our city when riots broke out. The resolution documented the fact that our city’s murder rate has nearly doubled and we have now surpassed our previous record number of homicides, with three and a half months left in the year. Our resolution had bi-partisan support; it was based in facts that have been proven through testimony both in the Metro Council but also in various courts of law that have dealt with the victims on these scandals.
Our resolution not only stated that the Metro Council had lost confidence in the mayor, it also asked the Mayor to resign. This resolution was non-binding but would have made it clear that it is the opinion of the Metro Council that new leadership was needed to begin the process of healing and restoring our city.
During the debate, Councilman Markus Winkler and several members of the Majority on the Metro Council introduced a weakened amendment to our resolution. The amendment removed language that requested the mayor’s resignation and instead introduced goals for addressing our issues such as transparency and representation within Metro Government. With a vote of 14-11 the weaker version of the resolution passed. Following that vote, I had to make the decision to either support the watered-down version or vote against the entire resolution. After consideration, I decided to vote in favor of the final version of the resolution because it still included language that expressed the Metro Council’s loss of confidence in Mayor Fischer and makes clear that the lack of transparency and enforcement of our laws have been unacceptable. The final vote of the resolution’s weaker version was 21-4.
This resolution is separate from the ongoing investigation into the Fischer Administration in the council's government accountability committee. I will continue to keep you updated as we move through this process.
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