Tagged: Louisville Metro Government

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 Metro Government’s new five-year plan for solid waste includes proposals to ban the use of plastic bags for yard waste and a plan to expand composting.

The five-year plan is required by state law, and is up for discussion at the Solid Waste board meeting tonight. Environmental engineer Sarah Lynn Cunningham is on the solid waste advisory committee. She says she’s in favor of ambitious goals, but has yet to see any evidence that Metro Government will commit to the goals it lays out in the plan.

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.

A new smart phone app currently in development would allow Louisville residents to participate in cataloging the city’s trees—as well as create a wish lists of sorts for more trees in their neighborhoods.

The “Louisville Tree” app will eventually allow users to peruse interactive maps of the city, along with pinpoints marking the locations of different varieties of trees. There’s also a way to report dying or unsafe trees to the city.

Louisville Councilwoman Barbara Shanklin, D-2, has spurned an invitation from Mayor Greg Fischer, citing his administration's comments regarding the use of city grants for an upholstery job training program.

Last Friday, a Fischer spokesman told The Courier-Journal  the program for ex-offenders should have ended on November 14 as ordered by the city and that it appears "city tax dollars are not spent as they’re intended to be." It was discovered that Shanklin continued to fund the program and personally signed an $836 check despite Metro Corrections ending it due to a lack of former inmate referrals.

"The published reports raise concerns with Dr. Shanklin over how the mayor's office has responded," says Democratic Caucus spokesman Tony Hyatt, confirming that Shanklin called Fischer's office to reject an invitation to celebrate renovations at Petersburg Park in District 2 later this week.

According to Hyatt, Shanklin says corrections tried to kill the upholstery training while two people were still going through the course, and that the neighborhood association decided to finish out the last month of training.