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Boards and Commissions, New Legislation, Infrastructure Improvements
This past week we had a full Council meeting. Here are a few highlights:
- We formally passed this year’s USD tax rates which were assumed during this past year’s budget debate
- One appointment to the Louisville Metro Housing Authority was passed and another was denied
- Economic incentives for the expansion of UPS were passed
- Updates to the land development code for short term rentals were passed
I would like to comment on the unusual denial of a person appointed to the Louisville Metro Housing Authority. I fully support the Metro Council pushing back and checking the Mayor’s appointments for Boards and Commissions. This is a critical part of our oversight role.
With that said, what was unusual here is that these two candidates had similar complaints against them (both from one district) and yet the Democrat passed the Council while the Republican was rejected without any explanation as to why some council members approved the one candidate and not the other. The only difference that I could see was their political party.
Further, the Mayor has appointed 2 more people to the Airport Authority. This is one of the most important and powerful boards in the city. The law indicates that all boards should have racial, geographic, gender, and political diversity. The entire board is currently Democrat or Independent and both candidates are Democrat. I will be calling on my colleagues to hold these appointments until the Mayor appoints qualified Republicans to this board (and I know qualified Republicans who have applied and were inexplicably overlooked).
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