Metro Council - Regular Meeting
The Louisville Metro Council held its regular meeting on September 10, 2026, passing several ordinances on property tax rates, neighborhood development funds, and code amendments.
About this meeting
- Government Body
- Metro Council
- Meeting Type
- Metro Council
- Location
- Louisville, KY
- Meeting Date
- September 10, 2026
Published excerpts
Only published remarks appear here. The full transcript is not published.
64 sections (from 66 segments)
Overload, fire, electrocution and that systems are properly and safely grounded.
All right, Metro TV will start in 30 seconds. The regular Louisville Metro Council meeting of September 10th, 2026 will please come to order. The time is currently six minutes after 6 p.m. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. This meeting is being held pursuant to KRS 61.826 and Council Rule 5A. Madam Clerk, call the roll, please.
Please let the record reflect that Council Members Ben Reno-Weber and Dan Syme, Jr. have excused absences. Madam Clerk, are there any addresses to Council? Yes, sir, there are. Please call the speakers.
And Madam Clerk, let the record reflect that Danarina Weber has joined us.
Let the record reflect that we've been joined by Councilman Sinema also.
Next we have approval of the council minutes of the regular meeting of August 27th, 2026. Are there any corrections or deletions? Is there a motion for approval?
The minutes have been properly moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye.
Next we have the approval of the following committee minutes. The regular Committee of the Whole, August 27th. The regular Planning and Zoning, September 1st. Regular Government Oversight, Audit and Appointments, September 1st. The regular Appropriations, September 2nd. The regular Parks and Sustainability, September 3rd. And the regular Budget, September 3rd. Are there any corrections or deletions? It's probably before us, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposition? Those minutes are approved as written. Madam Clerk, do you have any communications to the council?
Those appointments needing Council approval will be forwarded to the Government Oversight Audits and Appointments Committee. The next order of business will be the Consent Calendar. The Consent Calendar comprises of items 12 through 22. Are there any additions or deletions? Madam Clerk, a second reading of those items.
That is properly moved and seconded. Madam Clerk, this requires a roll call vote.
The consent handler is approved. The next item of business will be old business. Madam Clerk, ready for item number 23.
That item is brought before us. Let's see here. Councilman Owen, this came out of your committee. You have the floor, sir.
Thank you, President. Actually, I can't remember why we have this on old business instead of on consent. We had another one very recently. Sorry, Councilman Benson. So this was a closure of the underpass underneath I-65 that KYTC requested between Brook and First. It is a permanent closure for those of you who are interested. It's in Councilman Herndon's District 4. Would you like to speak to it, Councilman?
I've got no other speakers in the queue. This ordinance requires a roll call vote. Madam Clerk, open the roll.
I'm stopping the force. Councilman Purvis, this came out of your committee. You have the floor, madam. Hold on a second. Somebody better mute their mic. And there we are again. Thank you. Councilman, you've got the floor.
Thank you, President. I want to just kind of echo what my colleagues have said. I think it's a really good compromise where we ended up. And I think just by asking the question and having MSD come over and explain it to us, it was really interesting. Most of the people in the room said, when we were talking about the presentation that MSD made to us to explain why they had such an issue with the ordinance the way it was originally written, everybody in the room said, wow, that was really informative. And so the byproduct of what we've done here is, yes, we're requiring MSD to come over and giv
Councilman Murray. Thank you very much. First of all, Councilman Reed, thank you for your leadership in working with MSD. And I hope this is just one more step in an ongoing conversation. As noted, we got a lot out of having MSD come. And one of the things that really put to us was the difficulty that they have with trying to follow the consent decree. and that it will be many years before they're able to even start climbing out of this. I would like to see an ongoing conversations where we are able to work with MSD and see if they can come up with a plan that they can demonstrate to us that t
Okay, the ordinance is adopted. Madam Clerk, a reading of item number 25, please.
I was propped up for us. Councilwoman Purvis, this came out of your committee. You have the floor, madam.
Thank you, Madam Chairman. Thank you, Mr. President. I abstain because Brunhilde was employed with my office in District 7, and I just did not want any conflict of interest. So I did what I felt was most appropriate. Thank you.
I've got no one else in my queue. Looking around. And as such, Madam Clerk, open the roll.
Including the buccaneer from District 8, this ordinance is adopted. Aye. All right, Madam Clerk. Out of reading of item number 26, please.
Items brought before us. Councilman Joseph, this came out of your committee. Give the floor, sir.
Appreciate you, Mr. President. This is the primary sponsor of District 4 and Councilman Herndon. So I'll pass it to him. Thank you, sir.
I think I saw our buccaneer there raising his hand.
What's that? Councilman Shanklin. 500 from District 2, please. Okay. I'm looking around. I've got no one else in my queue. I'm looking around. Ken, you wanna?
The reality is I don't think we're going anywhere else because I've got no one else in my queue. I'm looking around on the floor. All right, so now we have the potential amended ordinance before us.
All right, so now we have the amendments to the ordinance before us. All those in favor say aye. Aye.
We now have the amended ordinance before us, which will require a roll call vote. Madam Clerk, open the roll.
The ordinance is adopted. Madam Clerk, I have number 27, please.
The item is now properly before us. Councilman Joseph, this came from your committee. You have the floor, sir.
Yes, this was brought to old business because of a present vote and it's sponsored by the gentleman of District 26. I don't know if you would like to speak to it or not.
Well, this is what I'm going to do because I'm going to have to relieve the chair. First, I'm going to tender it to the person who wants the present vote. Do you have any desire to speak to this?
I understand. I'm going to relieve myself of the chair, ask the President Pro Tem to take the chair, and I will speak to this very quickly. Do I have the floor?
Colleagues, the most important thing in all of our districts is public safety. Most important. Infrastructure, second. But public safety is most important. And I'm very proud of the fact that District 26 regularly spends a great portion of its money on police overtime in the district. This money, last year we spent $53,000. No one else spent any money. This year we're spending $60,000. We had 30 before, this is another 30. This money all goes towards officers that will be writing traffic violations, looking for speeders, people that are breaking the traffic laws, but there's also a secondary b
All right, I'll relinquish the chair back.
No, this is not an ordinance where we're asking for extra money. Because all this money has been allocated solely for District 26, and it's money that we've set aside. However, if you want to follow suit in the future, I think that, in my opinion,
My humble opinion is that your districts will benefit from this.
I agree. Both the traffic control, riding with speeding tickets, controlling traffic, and a greater police presence.
Absolutely. I've got no one else in my queue. What's that?
Okay. This is an order to decry as I roll call vote. Madam Clerk, open the roll.
The ordinance is adopted. Madam Clerk, a reading of item number 28, please.
The item's probably before us. I don't see Councilman Batshon on our screen, and therefore I will defer to Councilman, what's that? He's back on it. Councilman Batshon, you have the floor.
Well, hold on, before we tender the floor to someone for an amendment, I believe this is sponsored by Councilwoman Chappell, and I wanna give her the deference. Councilwoman Chappell, you are next in my queue.
Councilman Piccinini, with your ultimate wisdom, you now have the floor.
Thank you, sir. Councilman Hawkins. Nope.
Council Member Marie. Thank you very much. First of all, I'm very grateful to see this finally coming before Metro Council and seeing that we have good support for it. I often think about a story where I went to visit a business on East Broadway and I'm like, why do you have that dead tree out there on the sidewalk? And he said, the city planted it and told us to water it. We didn't want it, so we let it die. There you go. That's why we need to have a maintenance plan in place. There's no tree within 100 yards of this particular location. It was hot, it was barren, and the one chance that we h
Any objections to being a co-sponsor? Co-sponsor away. Councilwoman Parker, you're next in my queue. You have the floor, madam.
Yes, thank you. I will just say that I am a Republican, but in that, I am also a tree hugger. But I have a couple of concerns with this, and that is Metro government taking over full care and management of the trees, and how far that we take that. I would be fine if it is property owner initiated, and I would be more comfortable if, because we know the government never does anything timely or effectively, If we offered perhaps some kind of stipend to the property owner in financial assistance with them taking care of removing the tree, leave the stump, they can make a planter out of it and it
Madam, you've had a number of concerns. You've referenced a quandary. Are you making any amendments or proposed amendments? Because if not, I'll move on.
An objection to be him being added. You're a co-sponsor. I've got no one else in my queue. I'm looking around. Madam Clerk, open the roll. Okay. Let's do a voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any in opposition? Aye.
Yes, because I think there may be some people that want to vote. I'm going to vote present.
The item is property forest. Councilman Cramer, this came out of your committee. You have the floor, sir.
Thank you, Mr. President. I would say this is one of those items that is fairly simple and straightforward, but the computation of it makes it a little bit more complex, so I'll explain that. State law allows that we only raise property taxes, or that we only generate revenue from property taxes up to 4% increase. um so in a year when properties are evaluated at above that four percent we have to readjust the rate to keep it at four percent um the mayor calculated that four percent into the budget this summer so when we passed the budget we passed it with a four percent increase um in order to
Councilman Winkler, as our equal super mind on these budget issues, do you have anything to say?
Absolutely. Please explain it better than I did.
I would say I concur with Councilman Cramer. The only thing that I would add, just for anybody watching at home, just so there's no confusion, we take the countywide average assessment, and then that countywide average with the rate has to be less than 4%. So I don't want anybody to think that their individual home their rate could be more or less than a 4% change because it's not everybody, it is the collective property value within Jefferson County that's assessed. So just wanna offer that clarification that individual rates may vary.
Yeah, I believe that's true. If you look back over the last X number of years, we have traditionally lowered the rate in order to get to that 4% because our housing values have traditionally exceeded 4%. I think in my time in leadership on budget, we may have twice, once or twice, adjusted the rate up. Normally, we're adjusting the rate down. So yes, the rates are probably as low as they've ever been.
Councilman Owen. Yeah, I think it's, I get the question all the time actually.
People reach out to me and say, why are my property taxes going up? And what they are paying is going up because the value of their house is going up. And so I know that that doesn't make it any easier to pay a higher property tax bill, but it is not that your rate is going up. Your rate has gone down every single year that I've been on council, that percentage that you're paying is going down. It's just that everybody's property's values are going up which is a good thing in a way, but overall you pay more property taxes. But I think it's important. I have tried hard to explain this to my con
At the end of the day, it's this. People need to recognize their property values are going up, but the percentage they're paying on taxes has gone down. Government, in this case, this case, has worked for them.
I've got no one else in my queue. I'll give a look around. I see no one. Madam Clerk, this is an ordinance, so let's open the roll call.
The ordinance is adopted. The next item of business is new business. If you leave the chambers, please do so quietly so the clerks can read new business into the record. New business comprises of item 30 through 49. Madam Clerk, a reading of those items.
Does anyone have any announcements? Nope? All right. This concludes our meeting. Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 24th, 2026 at 6 p.m. With no further business, we are adjourned.
These excerpts are remarks by officials whose identity a person confirmed, from a transcript generated automatically from the official public meeting video and presented unedited. Accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.