Tagged: Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer

Louisville Metro Councilwoman Attica Woodson Scott, D-1, is welcoming Mayor Greg Fischer to her district for his ‘Talk to Greg’ forum on Monday.

The meeting will give residents a chance to talk directly with Fischer and other city officials about services such as public works, police and parks.

Scott says constituents have a number of issues they want to discuss with the mayor, such as violent crime, and vacant and abandoned properties, which are plaguing District 1.

"The lack of economic development and growth in the district with little to no retail or sit-down restaurants throughout both the west and southwest parts of the district," she says. "People are going to be very concerned about domestic violence and gun violence, and what’s really being down by the administration to address that. So a wealth of issues are going to be brought up."

Louisville Metro Government Public Works Director Ted Pullen has resigned.

Mayor Greg Fischer's office has confirmed that Pullen turned in his letter of resignation at 4:30 p.m. Friday, saying he wanted to pursue other opportunities.

Fischer spokesman Chris Poynter says the search for a new director will begin immediately.

In June, WFPL requested documents from Metro Government, including "complaints filed against Louisville Metro Public Works Director Ted Pullen by Metro employees in the department since February 1, 2012." In response, we were told a complaint was pending and could not be released.

When asked later that week about any complaints against Pullen and whether his office asked Pullen to resign, Fischer told WFPL he had not asked Pullen to resign at that time. When asked whether there was an investigation into any complaints against Pullen, Fischer replied "We have personnel issues all the time and obviously we don't discuss those."

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer entered the education debate and publicly endorsed former Humana Inc. Chairman David Jones Jr. for Jefferson County school board on Thursday.

The businessman is running for the District 2 seat, which covers the Highlands and Crescent Hill neighborhoods. He is facing Elizabeth Berfield, Phil Haming and George Tolhurst. 

During a panel discussion at the Leadership Louisville Luncheon, Fischer said there are gaps in public education that need to be addressed, and that residents should follow Jones’s lead and take those challenges on.

"Our goal is to be the best large public school district in the country, period," he says. "And you’re seeing that with this school board race that we have right now. Unprecedented amount of people are running. You’re seeing a great community leader like David Jones step up to say, ‘I want to make a difference in this as well.'"

In an interview with the Lexington-based Lane Report, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said the city needs to diversify its tax base to help combat budget shortfalls.

About 80 percent of Metro Government's revenue comes from occupational and property taxes, which have stalled due to the economy. The mayor had to fill a $20 million deficit in his last fiscal plan while the tax base has grown at a slower rate and a structural imbalance gets wider.

Lately Fischer has been pushing a local option sales tax, adding cities need more options to raise revenue. In the one-on-one interview, he cited a recommendation from Governor Steve Beshear's Blue Ribbon Tax Commission is that cities share in the state’s sales taxes as well.

From The Lane Report:

EL: Would you raise the sales tax, ask for a share of the current state sales tax, or would you have a local-option sales tax on top of the current sales tax?

GF: Whether it’s a private business or the business of government, a more diversified revenue stream has better odds of staying level or growing. Kentucky cities do not have a sales tax component to their revenue stream. The second possibility is the local-option sales tax: where the citizens of a city can vote on a specific project, for a specific time period, paid for in a specific way. Most all of our competitive cities have that option as well; Kentucky cities do not. So when you see capital investments being made by other cities in their arts district, recreation center or forensic crime lab, frequently they are funded by a local-option sales tax.