Metro Council - Regular Meeting

MSD, ensuring safe, clean waterways for Louisville and the surrounding region. MSD does more than you might realize to protect the health and safety of our communities, and the work is really quite extraordinary. It is our mission to provide quality wastewater, stormwater, and flood protection services to protect public health and safety. Let's talk about MSD's three key services. First up, wastewater treatment. This is the water we send down the drain from sinks, showers, tubs, and toilets. MSD treats more than 170 million gallons of wastewater every day. water quality treatment centers ensure that the water meets or exceeds regulatory standards before it's released back into local streams and the Ohio River. Next up, stormwater management. What happens when we get heavy rains or after it snows? All of that water has to go somewhere. MSD makes sure the runoff flows into drainage channels to underground pipes that transport water away from homes and businesses and into area creeks, streams, and the Ohio River. Now let's talk about flood protection. MSD flood protection infrastructure includes 29 miles of flood wall, 16 pumping stations, 150 flood gates, and 80 flood wall closures. It all works together, keeping the community safe when river waters rise. MSD also closely monitors water quality within the system to make sure pollutants don't contaminate our waterways. Plus, the innovative technology and engineering of MSD's Waterway Protection Tunnel and underground storage basins further protect our community from dangerous overflows and pollution. There's more to MSD than you imagined, right? MSD is dedicated to our community's health, a cleaner environment, and a better quality of life for all area residents today, tomorrow, and for years to come.

And now for a public service announcement from your friendly MSD ball patrol and their bathroom buddies. Did you know there are only three things you should ever flush down the toilet? We call them the three P's. Pee, poo, and toilet paper. That means no paper towels, diapers, cleaning wipes, dental floss, or anything else. These could mess up your plumbing and cause damage to the sewer system. So do your part and flush like a pro. Unless it's the three P's, just say no.

I'm glad everybody gets to see me today.

Thank you.

Metro TV will start in 15 seconds or 20 seconds, whatever it takes. Action. All right, this is the regular meeting of the Little Metro Council's Committee on Communities. Today is August 11th, 2026. The time is currently about 4.03 p.m. This meeting is to be held pursuant to KRS 61.826 and Council Rule 5A. Madam Clerk, I call the roll.

President Ackerson. Present. Council Member Hawkins. Council Member Piagentini. Per. Council Member Chappell. Present. And Council Member Batchan.

Here. And to ask to go to quorum. Councilman Hawkins has an excused absence. Folks, I'm going to read the legislation assignments we have. If anyone has an objection, make it known. If not, we're going to roll with them. First item of business is new business. The following legislation will be assigned to committees. Items 1 through 8 will be assigned to appropriations. Items 9 through 16 will be assigned to the budget committee. Items 17 through 20 will be assigned to government oversight, audit, and appointments. Items 21 through 24 will be assigned to labor and economics developments. Items 25 and 26 will be assigned to planning and zoning. And item 27 will be assigned to public works. Any questions, concerns, or comments? Hearing none, so assigned.

Can we get a 29 first?

What's that?

Can we do the legislation first?

Yes, we can. We're going to jump from item 28 directly to item 29. We'll come back to 28 in a second. Madam Clerk Arim, item 29.

A resolution amending the Louisville Metro Council policies and procedures regarding image usage and approval of mail-ins. Motion.

Second. I was probably before us. County Attorney's Office? Yes, sir.

President Ackerson, thank you so much for agreeing to sponsor this. It's two parts here. One is a cleanup piece that got inadvertently removed when we did the massive policies and procedures change two years ago. And that is the requirement for approval of County Attorney approval of a print mailing to be sure it satisfies public purpose. And it was in the old policies and procedures in about four places. And in taking it out of the extra places, it inadvertently came out of all the places. Everybody's still been adhering to that policy, which is good. But we wanted to be sure it was baked back into the policies and procedures. So we're just putting back in something that was inadvertently removed. So that's part section one. Section two of the legislation puts into the policies and procedures guidance that we have sent to council members for the last three or four years over using images in your newsletters. easy to go online and see images, a great picture, this will look great for whatever in my newsletter, but often those are not free despite the fact that they say they are. Then you wind up with the situation that we found ourselves in a couple of times with someone bringing a claim saying, you didn't pay me for it, you got to pay me, you used my image. We thought the guidance has been helpful for members and their LAs, but because of turnover, particularly among the LAs here, it needs to live somewhere permanently. So this section two spells out that policy, lets you know where you can get items for free, truly for free. Metro has a license you can use for images. Any images you take yourselves, you can always use, not an issue. You can also use images if you get express permission from the image owner. And that's the guidance put into a permanent policy with a sample permission slip to get somebody's permission if you want to use an image that you did not create, your office did not create, LMPD did not create. So any questions?

Council Member Mincini.

Thank you. Just real quick. I assume this is Metro-wide. In other words, if Metro owns it, we're fine. For example, the mayor will put out things and then I will repost them. I just want to make sure it's any image that anybody from Metro has used. Because, I mean, if I can't repost what the mayor's posting or a colleague is posting without some trust that they have done that.

I think he's saying, could he justifiably rely upon the fact that another metro agency has the same responsibility as we have as far as verifying the use of such images. And as such, if another agency uses it, we don't have to double down and recreate the forms asking permission for something that should have already been permitted.

I believe that is correct. I will confirm that is correct because Metro's IT policy is you can't use material pulled from the Internet that's protected by copyright, and you can't use a legally protected image without the permission of the owner. So your question is a good one. Can we rely on the fact that they got it? That would be your defense. if someone sued you over using the mayor's image.

Two things, that and Metro is the owner. So in other words, if the, I'm just going to put it up like the mayor's communications person took the picture, their employee of Metro that is owned by Metro.

And if I reshare that picture or use the picture, that's like LMPD taking a picture for you at one of your events, any Metro department that takes a picture. I will, I will email you all to confirm that between now and Thursday, but I believe that's true.

Worst case scenario, the mayor's office takes a photo. We use that photo. They didn't want to sue us for the use of that photo. They're suing themselves. It's coming from the same pot of money. I got you.

I don't believe you need the mayor's permission.

No, that's everything about the legislation. Anyone else with a question or concern? Hearing nothing, is this going to require a voice vote or a roll call? Voice vote? It's going to require a voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any in opposition? Any opposition? This passes. We'll send it to the consent calendar. Holly will get answers to those questions that were posed by Councilman Pacentini. All right. The next item of our business is going to be item number 28. which is gonna be a special discussion for this committee put forth by Councilman Piagentini. Sir, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. President. So whenever we pass legislation here at Metro, that legislation, whether a resolution or an ordinance, is signed by all the applicable parties, including the mayor's office, That legislation is then digitally recorded and archived. The original legislation is then archived. But what we have done for many, many years, and I think we stopped doing it in the clerk of clerk 2013, we'd stopped doing it up, but up till 2013, and I'm gonna show you an example of this in a second. We had also kept a library in the clerk's office of all past ordinances and resolutions bound to look in a bookshelf, right? And this is an example of it. So in this beautiful, hard bound, version, right, this is ordinances from 2013, and there's another volume that's resolutions from 2013, and this one literally has a copy of every ordinance we passed in that year for archive purposes, right, so it's readily available to council members, staff, and the clerk's office to use if we need to reference it. But we wanted to update this, we stopped doing it in 2013, there's no explanation to why we stopped doing it, We have looked at what the cost, to be super clear, the cost is almost all in purchasing the bound book. The paper and all of that can actually be managed by the clerk's office, so it's just buying the material is really where the cost is. We're not paying third parties to bind these and do all kinds of other work, but the clerk's office can do it, but we need to buy the material. We've spoken with the clerk's office. We've estimated the cost at around $10,000. That will catch us up to 2025, so from 2014 to 2025, so 11 years of ordinances and resolutions, and our library will be completely up to date. I just wanted to see if there were any questions about that. Otherwise, have the clerk pursue updating our printed library of our ordinances and resolutions. Yes, and if we want to, if we have a moment here, Ms. Stenberg's online and she can explain where some of that funding come from within our Metro Council budget.

At the end of the rules, identify yourself with a record and hit the floor.

Yes, Beth Stenberg with Metro Council. Every year, the cost centers, admin cost centers of the council budget, any remaining funds is saved into what we call a restricted admin account. That restricted admin account has grown over the years because this committee is the only committee that can decide how to use that funding. To date, as soon as FY26 closes, we have a balance of $909,000 in that account. This committee has to approve that. I would recommend that we use that funding for this, and I would buy more than the 48 books needed because you're going to have 26 and 27 coming up, but um the the price she has said is ten thousand four hundred seventy five dollars for fifty books so you know if we wanted to buy more this is the account that i believe it needs to come out of there was a second option there was a funding left over at a metro tv account sixteen thousand dollars but that money has now been used so it's not available so this really is our only option but a good one

Mr. President, if I could. Yeah, what I would recommend is we just purchased the books to catch us up at this point. This would be $500 a year moving forward. This would just be baked into the clerk's budget moving forward. So I think that would be diminished. I will say, I appreciate Beth for bringing this idea up. I think we should approve this now. And then this committee should probably have a conversation what to do with the other $900,000 sitting in that account. Exactly. But yes, I think it's a good use of the money. This is internal office-based money that was for the purposes of administrative use of Metro Council. This will update our printed library for the purposes of the clerk's office and Metro Council use.

Thank you. Any questions or concerns for anyone?

Do we need to make a motion to that?

Nope. Unless someone has a problem, it's going to happen. Let's roll with it. Be my John Hancock on that signature line.

But it does say in our policies that this committee has to approve it, so you may want documentation that was actually approved by the committee. So do we want to go ahead and make a motion to approve?

Well, I'll make a motion that we approve the funding for these books.

Second. All right. The motion is probably before us in discussion on the motion. Hearing none, this is a motion that requires a roll call vote or a voice vote. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Any in opposition? Any in opposition? It's adopted, accepted, we're moving forward. Anything else for the committee? Hearing nothing else, we stand adjourned.

students who are from Eastern Africa and that is definitely my biggest motivation for learning Swahili with this group and Nancy has been a great teacher so I'm sure that anybody can learn a lot from her. I'm hoping to use Swahili at work this year in JCPS in order to reach my Eastern African students who speak Swahili. So, so far we have had a combination of