Remarks by Chris Leh
208 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 7 of 9
“Other questions? Okay. I want to follow up on one of the questions that Councilmember Cooperman asked, which is when, if and when we adopt this, probably when we adopt this in some form, As to that figure 11, what are we going to be adopting? And what are we not going to be adopting? Are we going to be, I mean, is that going to set in priority, I guess, your future activity? Is that what we're talking about? Or is there something different than that?”
“Okay. Got a couple of… I think Adam has a thought, too.”
“And I think, if I'm recalling, one of the emails that we received suggested perhaps running that along 96th. And I guess I was interested if you have any thoughts about that, whether that's something that was evaluated and what your thought is around that. I'm not suggesting plural or con, I'm just interested in what your thinking process was around that.”
“So tell me if this is right, that that's sort of a, that's in the category of things to be determined later. It's not something that we would be, if we adopted this, we would be adopting that particular piece of it.”
“Any other questions? If there are any more questions, we'll take public comment.”
“Thanks. Let's take it back to council. I want to do a little bit of framing on this one. First, others can speak to this obviously, but I think I speak on behalf of all the council that this is a monumental effort and we really appreciate all the work that's gone into this by staff and by the community. I was, you know, I looked at the community engagement and we've talked about this a bit and I thought it was a really good example of community engagement following on to the comp plan. But it's actually more community engagement than in the comp plan. And I really appreciate that. I think…”
“Other comments? Yes, Council Member Fee.”
“Um, you anticipated me. I haven't made my comments yet and I want to try to bring together and try to summarize some of the things that I hear so that we can move forward and answer some of the questions that you've raised, Sea Manager, because I think those are really important, particularly practical questions about how we proceed. Um, I... I really wholeheartedly think of Councilmember Cooperman's observations and recommendations are terrific. And maybe to the point, I think part of this that is difficult is what's always difficult in this, which is the level of specificity. and the level…”
“Let me clarify one thing, just... I said I think I'm not interested in the staff doing a rewrite either, and I'm not sure Council Member Cooperman was. But, you know, these are, I think, suggestions. There's a few suggestions, and certainly the budget for this is we don't want to blow. We've already spent plenty of that. We don't have very much left. Um, and we do, you know, we trust you in terms of taking the input that you've had and you decide what you want to do with it. Um, I think the suggestions have been useful, but, um, and I think it's interesting. It's an interesting question about…”
“Others who haven't spoken? Yes, Council Member Kern.”
“Yeah, I don't think you have, actually, on this issue.”
“I guess I want to I want to push this a bit because I'm very concerned about where we are right now. I think we can take a vote about how we do it. We've given direction on this for some time. Now, there could be a question, of course, whether you followed the direction or not. I happen to think you did. Generally, there's things that we all... disagree, you know, probably disagree with. It sounds like the trails plan, everybody, I haven't heard anybody complain about that. So that one, it would be awfully odd in my view to accept the trails plan or, and not do the same with the cross plan. I…”
“I mean, when I say it's irresponsible, that's what I mean. I can't imagine anything. I certainly haven't done anything in 14 years on council. where we had an idea, and I don't think there was any question that we were headed toward adoption, where we just said, a month left to go, maybe not. I do think that that, among other things, it leaves staff out to dry. But I also think more importantly, because we are deciding how to move forward, I just don't think that's a very wise thing. I can speak to one thing that Councilmember Heffner mentioned. I think it was mentioned about the…”
“If the council is inclined to both give you what you need and staff to go back and do the reworking, the time is going to have to slip. I mean, based on where we set it, right? This is not going to get...”
“It's fair enough. It's premature. That's what I'm hearing. Well, why don't we take the... um the smaller if you will it depends whether it's a small or big issue but it's not the the big issue that councilmember hefner made how do people feel about the uh that trail 18 yes thank you i think um”
“Does that solve your issue on that? To the larger point, I guess at this stage, I mean, I think we've had good discussion about whether to adopt this or whether we're heading to that direction, whether people ultimately choose to vote for it or not. Is the direction to bring back a plan i mean in terms of something council would adopt as opposed to just receive are we going to vote on it and adopt it as a as as american one clarifying question i think also within”
“I guess I had understood that we wanted to get it back, but is that a hand up or is that a thumbs up? Hand up.”
“As opposed to bringing back one more and then making a final decision on adoption?”
“yeah, I would support both adopting when we're done and Not having another bite at the draft Apple Fair enough, I keep I keep trying to find places where you where staff might Want another chance to come back? I I think that it sounds like We want to keep moving toward, one, to get the public input, two, to keep working toward a draft that we come back ultimately for adoption. And that we will see the changes after when we are on that path. Any thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs up. Okay. Does staff have the direction that it needs?”
“Okay. If council members have additional thoughts they want to share with staff, fine. We'll have thoughts from the public most certainly and look forward to that. Good discussion. Thanks for working through this with us. Tough discussion, but a good one. Right. I think the next part is C, appointment of council committee for potential amendments to city manager employment agreement. I think those who are working on the evaluation of municipal judge and the prosecutor are I venture to say not going to be those who work on this next.”
“Okay. Second. As long as they're willing. All in favor?”
“Good evening. It is Tuesday, August 4th.”
“Tuesday, August 4th, 2026. And we're in a regular meeting of the Louisville City Council. May we have a roll call, please?”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“How many do we have? Just one. Just one? Right. I think Andy knows the drill, but three minutes. You don't have to take the three minutes, but tell us what you're going to tell us. But tell us whether you're from Louisville.”