Remarks by Chris Leh
208 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 9
“Over you where I think Planning Commission basically is every month is almost a hearing Are you would you draw a distinction between that and when those committees are acting in their quasi judicial role?”
“I think in a quasi judicial role. I think there's advantage in to, I mean, people are presenting evidence. I think the kind of seriousness deserves a distinction in the way that people are arrayed in the room. And I'm also thinking from a, you know, an audiovisual perspective that I think that is a better record. You know, I don't know if the city attorney has any comment on Development of a record as you know on the on the ground versus on the dais. I That's certainly worth thinking about too. Do you have any thought?”
“Let me try to do one thing to try to move this forward, because I take Council Member Heffner's comment, and I think the way we've worked together, all of us, to try to make some of the hard decisions now, if there are some of these that we don't want right now or don't think we want to... I think getting them off the list right now or putting them off, not necessarily getting them off the list, but just simply putting them off might be a good thing. I think another is some of them seem like to me, maybe not to you, but you'll tell us, seem like sort of, oh, do this, don't do this, as opposed…”
“Let me ask staff, is it helpful, would it be helpful for us to at least prioritize or is it just fine to leave the ones as one? I just want to make sure if we can help you to make this easier the next time you appear before us and to move the project ahead.”
“Okay. One that I would say is kind of interesting is it's like council liaisons, but the recommendation is not to have council liaisons. So I'm not sure whether... What I would say is I don't think we should counsel liaisons, and I would just mark that off, which is to say I agree with the recommendation. I don't think anything more needs to be done with it. But I, because we made a decision years ago not to do that. I think it was a good decision. It's not without disagreement, maybe even on counsel about that, but that's what I would offer if anybody has any thoughts about that.”
“Yeah, okay Do you have the direction that you need for the 20th?”
“I guess I disagree with the notion that these boards are advisory to staff. I may not be following that exactly. But if... I'm sort of trying to think how to describe this. One, I think it's really important for us to encourage people who are creative and have ideas to be on boards. I think that's good. I think it's good for us. I think not constraining them too much to just say you have to You can't think independently at all of what's on the work plan, I think is probably a mistake. I think giving us the ability to say, no, that is outside, really, we don't want you working on that is…”
“Actually, I think councilmember Dickinson started but then councilman.”
“I mean, I'm comfortable with that. I think my question to you, and it's rhetorical, really, based on your folks' experience and your liaisons with those boards, is whether that's workable. Whether, you know, and I hope it is. That is, I hope... that that can be a collaborative process and not an adversarial one. And I know it can, you know, the issue of direction versus advice, sometimes it's a tough call. I guess if there's any guidance that you all can build into that, I think hopefully you're hearing what our concern is and what our limit in that is for you.”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Okay. But I think you've, my recollection of talking to you with you when you were interim and it was that you've had this on your, you've been thinking hard about this for a long time. And I really, I appreciate the same people, but I really appreciate your leadership. Are there others that would like to say more?”
“Very good point. Anybody else? Okay. Let's move on to the city attorney's report.”
“Okay. Upcoming agenda items and identification of future agenda items. Yes, we've got Council Member Kern and then Council Member Fahey.”
“OKAY. COUNCILMEMBER DICKENS. ACTUALLY, COUNCILMEMBER, WELL, COUNCILMEMBER FAHEY AND THEN COUNCILMEMBER DICKENS. SORRY. IT'S LATE.”
“Why don't we, I mean... This is just to get them on the agenda, but the agenda that we have doesn't include them. I think that's accurate, and there may be an urgency to it. I guess just based on your raising these, do you think that drone delivery is more urgent than data centers? Is that your thought?”
“Others? Thoughts? And one possibility on the data, I mean, I think drone delivery is great. I agree on that one, that that ought to be a, I think that ought to be a 2027 issue. But I think it's important that it's not important. I think data centers, it would be nice to have, I wonder if it's possible to have some kind of presentation of just information about that that would help us to know whether we ought to be, more urgently considering it? I don't know their staff. Is it something that staff could provide? Would that just be a lot?”
“I don't want, we're getting perilously close. The city attorney has not yet turned to me and said, but we're getting perilously close to kind of having a substantive discussion about a very, very important, potentially urgent issue. complicated in some respects, very emotional issue in the area kind of thing. And I guess what I maybe make a suggestion, which would be that we, We considered sort of monitoring this. We'll have another meeting in a couple of weeks. Maybe part of this is I and perhaps others have you have or are going to presentations concerning data centers and it may be good…”
“I tell you what, why don't we raise this then, and what I would encourage, does that sound acceptable? All right, and what I would urge the council to do, everybody who's interested, and even if you're not interested, to be thinking about this and doing a little bit of research and reacting on your own. There's gonna be a lot of measures, I am confident, in this area, around the area, which is measures that different municipalities that you could consider. I think that'll be useful stuff. And I think November 2nd, we can talk about whether to add it. If so, or if need be, to reconsider the…”
“Good evening. This is the Tuesday, September 8th, 2026 special meeting of the City Council of the City of Louisville. If we could get a roll call, please.”
“Here. All right. If you join with me as able, I'll say the Pledge of Allegiance. Great. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, Thank you all. Tonight, we have a couple of matters on our agenda, but the first one is meeting with the Cultural Advisory Board, and we're really excited that you're here. Why don't we, just in case you don't know everybody, why don't we go around and introduce ourselves? I'm Chris Lay, the Mayor.”
“Thanks. I thought I would sort of introduce this, and I'm looking forward to a good conversation with you all. between us and you. Really appreciate, Cav, as you know, over time, this committee has evolved, right? Many of you know the history. If you don't, it's just as well, or it's just as well that you're kind of helping to make that history right now. We have about an hour tonight, no more. So that's a fairly short period of time in which to talk about a number of things. So if council members aren't able to address every question that you have tonight, it's not because we're not…”
“Can you hold for just a second? Yes. Can you hold for just a second?”
“Maybe we can continue as we are but after the break we really need it to be broadcasting. So maybe we can take a few minutes to see what we can do.”
“Just one. One thing before we answer that, I just cannot say enough how impressive what you've all done. has been. I mean this, I and probably others know about these things but put all together and hearing your descriptions both of the staff and I really appreciate your comments about staff because they are jewels here on this but you are too and the working board is Really, really impressive. So before we do anything else, I want to make sure you all know that.”
“That's the heavy load that you're carrying on this is very much appreciated. Where do we start on answering the question you raised? I can ask for council comments on this. Go ahead.”