Louisville, Kentucky
From Sunshine Review
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Louisville is the largest city in Kentucky. It is the county seat of Jefferson County.
The city's estimated population as of 2006 is 557,789.
[edit] Governance
Louisville is governed by an executive, who is known as the Metro Mayor, and a city legislature, known as the Metro Council.
The Metro Council consists of 26 seats corresponding to 26 districts apportioned by population throughout the city and county. The residents of the semi-independent municipalities within Louisville Metro are apportioned to districts along with all other county residents. Half (13) of the seats come up for reelection every two years. The council is chaired by a Council President, who is elected by the council members annually.
Democrats currently have a 61.5% (16 to 10 seat) majority on the council.
[edit] Mayor Jerry Abramson
The Louisville, Kentucky mayor is Jerry Abramson. [1]
[edit] Support for spending transparency
Ken Fleming, R-7th District,and Hal Heiner, R-19th District, announced on January 24, 2009 that they were introducing an ordinance to require the city to build a searchable online database that reports on how tax dollars are spent, by which agency, who received the money, and where that money comes from. The ordinance passed the council 25 to 0, with one member not voting. [2]
The website also would be a storage vault for past financial reports, audits and contracts, while also tracking tax dollars spent by nonprofit agencies such as the Downtown Development Corporation, according to those early reports.
As of September 2009, Louisville residents have access to LouisvilleCheckbook.com, where they can watch all that their tax dollars are doing in the city. At this time, the financial information on the site only goes through June 30, the end of the last full city fiscal year. The city will update the information only at the end of each new fiscal year.[3]
Mayor Jerry Abramson's spokesperson, Chad Carlton, criticized the creation of the site. The site was initially proposed and paid for by Republican council members. He said the administration is developing a separate site that will be linked through the city's official website, to be ready by November. He says the November site will provide financial information to be updated and downloaded automatically at the end of every month.
Fleming and Heiner also said that they were going to put as much spending information on their own websites until the city was geared up to provide the information.[4]
[edit] External links
- Louisville Metro Council website
- Louisville-Jefferson County, Kentucky Metro Government Code of Ordinances
- Louisville Metro Council Database — shows the voting history of each member of the council
- Louisville, Kentucky on FreedomKentucky.org
