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Councilwoman Shameka Parrish-Wright
601 W. Jefferson Street
(502) 574-1103
Email Councilwoman Parrish-Wright
Ben Harlan
Legislative Assistant
(502) 574-3452
Email Ben
Jocelyn Walker
(502) 494-6663
Jocelyn.Walker@louisvilleky.gov
District 3 Website
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 Councilwoman Parrish-Wright joined her Democratic Caucus colleagues to highlight the capital improvement projects she funded in 2025, including street lights, a new fence, sidewalk improvements, the Shively splash pad, and speed humps.
Last night, Metro Council met at one of their regularly scheduled meetings and adopted several ordinances. For District 3, we passed legislation that will place an honorary street sign on South 6th Street, honoring Reverend Charles Wilkerson, of N Street Baptist Church. We also submitted legislation to fund the continued maintenance of Schardein Cemetery.
Other adopted legislation included zoning changes throughout Jefferson County, funding of several nonprofit organizations, and the approvals of collective bargaining agreements (union contracts) for the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections. For more information, please visit this website: https://louisvilleky.primegov.com/public/portal
If you have legislative ideas, please reach out to the office and let us know!
 Councilwoman Parrish-Wright joined other local legislators at the Cafe Louie event last weekend at the Southwest Regional Library.
Trying to navigate the government is complicated. There are many areas of overlap, and it can be challenging to figure out who to call when you need help. So, without trying to get too technical, we're going to try and break it down a little bit.
Federalism
In the United States, our government operates under "federalism". In the simplest terms, that means there are three "levels" of government. Each level also has three "branches". These levels and branches are:
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Federal: The United States Government (for the whole country, all 50 states). This is the highest level of government, and every state must follow federal laws. Federal laws include laws about Social Security, foreign policy, and anything that concerns the entire nation.
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Executive: The President of the United States and cabinet departments (think Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, anyone the President appoints to be a secretary.)
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Legislative: The Senate and the House of Representatives, collectively known as Congress. There are 535 members of Congress. Each state has two Senators (who serve six year terms) and a varied number of representatives based on population. Representatives in the House of Representatives serve two-year terms. In Kentucky, our Senators are Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul. In the area that includes district three, our Representative is Morgan McGarvey.
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Judicial: The Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court determines cases that concern overall national law. There are nine Supreme Court Justices and they are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
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State: The Commonwealth of Kentucky. The US Constitution grants each state the power to regulate activity in their own state, so long as any laws do not contradict federal law. These are laws related to business/commerce, public safety, utility regulation, state tax.
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Executive: The Governor, who, in Kentucky, is Andy Beshear. The Governor serves four year terms. This also includes state departments, like the Transportation Cabinet.
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Legislative: Just like the Federal level, each state has a House of Representatives and a Senate. Kentucky is divided into several regions to determine representation in the State Houses. Kentucky has 38 Senators and 100 representatives. State Senators for the area encompassing the District 3 area include Gerald Neal, Keturah Herron, and Gary Clemons. Representatives for the District 3 area include Nima Kulkarni, Beverly Chester-Burton, Rachel Roarx, and Pamela Stevenson.
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Judicial: The Kentucky Supreme Court and Commonwealth Attorneys. In Jefferson County, our Commonwealth's Attorney is Gerina Whethers. At the state level, state Supreme Court justices are elected, not appointed.
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Local: This includes each city or county within a state. In Jefferson County, since 2002, we operate as a merged city/county government. Local governments generally handle property zoning ordinances, the local budget for things like sidewalks and libraries, and any ordinances that do not conflict with state law.
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Executive: The Mayor and departments like Code Enforcement, Public Health, Libraries, and Public Works.
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Legislative: Louisville Metro Council. Louisville Metro is divided into 26 districts, so there are 26 Metro Council representatives. Each Metro Council Member represents about 30,000 people. In District 3, of course, the Metro Council Member is Shameka-Parrish-Wright.
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Judicial: These are the judges downtown at the courthouse. This includes family court (like child support), traffic court, etc. In Jefferson County, all judges are elected. We have many judges in Jefferson County. In our personal lives, local judges are generally who we will engage with most often (child support, traffic, low-level offenses). Judges also set bail.
At the local level, the primary responsibility of the Executive and Legislative branches includes appropriating funds for city projects, like park improvements, sidewalk replacements; trash pickup, code and zoning enforcement, pothole repair, speed hump installation, and licensing for food establishments, to name a few. The local government is generally the level of government that handles things we all experience on a day-to-day basis. However, there are some things local governments do not handle.
- While some local legislators are licensed attorneys, they do not litigate on behalf of constituents. If you have a legal dispute with anyone, you will need to retain a private attorney, or contact Legal Aid, if you cannot afford an attorney. As a matter of fact, at any level of government, legislators, judges, do not perform legal representation for individuals, businesses, or other organizations. If you have a problem with your neighbor, your landlord, or a business, legislators cannot provide legal counsel in their role as legislators.
- In all levels of government, it is the responsibility of the Executive Branch to enforce laws. For example, if you have reported a code violation to 3-1-1, that is handled by the department of Code Enforcement, which falls under the Mayor's purview. Council Members do not personally investigate, fine, or get involved in the enforcement of zoning or code regulations. While council members can follow-up on any given violation, they are not granted the power to issue fines or interfere in the process that is determined by the department of code enforcement.
- Each council district has funding for neighborhood programs that uplift neighborhoods and help families in their district. However, Council offices do not have and are not permitted to use funding to help individuals with bills (rent, mortgage or utilities). Broadly, Council Members can allocate funding to neighborhood ministries, and those ministries will be able to help with bills for those who qualify. Council offices can also connect residents with other services, but cannot pay individual bills or distribute money to individuals.
All that said, constituents can always call the office to express their concerns. We, in the office, are happy to follow-up on your behalf on issues like missed trash collection, vacant properties, or other code violation issues. However, please keep in mind, these issues are handled by the departments under the purview of the executive branch, and they follow their own policies and procedures for investigating complaints.
In incredibly limited cases, the office can follow-up on your behalf if there is a particularly complicated issue, or if you have been waiting for a response for an unreasonable length of time. For example, we have been able to reach out to Solid Waste Management if residents notice their trash was not collected after reporting to 311.
The District 3 Team is so excited for 2026. We are planning:
- Our monthly District Advisory Board (3DAB) meetings (please let us know if you have a location where you'd like one of these meetings to take place!)
- A SPRING BOB! Our fall Building Our Block (BOB) and Chili Cook-Off was so successful that we are planning another one for March 28th in the South Louisville neighborhood!
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Summer Park Cleanups: We are planning to host park cleanups this summer for all of our D3 Parks, meaning GG Moore, William Harrison, and Watterson Lake.
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Shakespeare in William Harrison Park on April 15th at 6pm. We are so excited to host this for the third time!
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Summer Baseball: We are excited to partner with Coach English to bring a summer baseball event to District 3! In 2024 we highlighted soccer, and in 2026, we will highlight baseball!
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3rd Annual Good Neighbor Awards! We can't wait to out-do the 2nd Annual Good Neighbor Awards, more details to come closer to the fall.
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