| If we need urban renewal, shouldn't our elected council members represent us? |
| They should. Here’s what’s at stake. The urban renewal authority in this city, known as the Louisville Revitalization Commission, or LRC, has extraordinary powers in the urban renewal area. The LRC is an autonomous body, and the Louisville City Council is essentially powerless to control it. Before December 2003, the LRC had been inactive for years. It was “reactivated” in large part to accomplish the goals of the Hwy 42 Revitalization Plan. When it was reactivated, the Council concentrated the power of each unelected Commissioner by reducing the number of commissioners by half—from nine to five. The Hwy 42 Plan encompassed a relatively small area—east of the railroad tracks, south of South Boulder Rd, west of Hwy 42 and north of Pine Street. The LRC in August recommended a dramatic expansion of the urban renewal area. Under the LRC’s proposal, the following areas would be added to the urban renewal area and, therefore, placed under the LRC’s jurisdiction: the south side of Main Street from South Boulder Road past Pine Street; all of the crown jewel of our community—downtown Louisville; the entire Safeway shopping center; the entire Christopher Plaza shopping center; the entire King Soopers shopping center; the Pow Wow/Rodeo grounds; the Mayhoffer Farm. The LRC proposes that its jurisdiction over the urban renewal area should last up to 25 years. There are concerns the LRC is trying to expand the urban renewal area for improper reasons. To repeat, no one on the LRC was elected to serve on that body. None of them are accountable to the electorate. Yet, the LRC has the power, among other things, to effectuate longlasting and dramatic changes to this community’s crown jewel, downtown Louisville, to initiate the process of condemning land, and to manage many tens of millions of dollars of tax revenue. The LRC alone will decide what developers should be given tax-dollar incentives to build, and how much. As we’ve pointed out, the funding for the LRC activities is not “free money.” Much of the money comes from tax dollars that would go to the City but for the LRC. In the face of the City’s budget problems, giving an unelected body control of millions of dollars of tax revenue seems at best ill-advised. Our representative government. Each municipality in this state has the power to create an urban renewal authority. If it chooses to create one, the municipality has a choice over who will constitute the authority—the city council, or unelected council appointees. This is the question for us citizens: In light of the stakes involved here, who should make the urban renewal decisions—the Louisville City Council, or the unelected persons who comprise the LRC? Subject always to the supervision of the People, our representatives are elected to do what’s best for the community. Our entire system of representative government is premised on the powerful principle that elected representatives, not bureaucrats and appointed officials, must make the hardest and most important decisions. When they run for office, they are telling us they want to be leaders, and can and will make the right decisions on our behalf. In return for their promises to us, at each election we the People, who hold all the power of government, entrust to our representatives a measure of political power to serve our needs. Here's what Chuck Sisk said on December 22, 1999, when as a Council member he opposed a citizen-proposed open space advisory board: "I don't see how Council can abrogate their responsibility and give their responsibility to a (non-elected) board. Council is the one vested with the responsibility of making decisions based on the best interests of the citizens who elect it. I don't see how we can abrogate that." ("Open land standards?", Louisville Times, Dec. 22, 1999). Safeguarding the public treasury. One of the highest duties of elected officials is to safeguard tax dollars entrusted to them. The proposed urban renewal area will generate $77+ million in tax increment revenue over the course of 25 years. The LRC’s consultant has said it is the LRC’s intent to take all of this revenue for its use in the urban renewal area. There is no precedent for entrusting more than $77 million to unelected officials who have no experience in operating an urban renewal authority. Those we elected to the City Council cannot avoid the duty to safeguard these tax dollars. The relevant questions. In deciding whether our elected representatives or a group of unelected persons should hold the extraordinary urban renewal powers, we should consider these questions: First and foremost, is there any compelling reason why our Council representatives should give up to an unelected body the powers we entrusted to them? Why should our Council representatives give to unaccountable appointees the unchecked power over how to invest, use or otherwise dispose of more than $77 million in tax revenue to the City? Since we entrusted the Louisville City Council to manage the tax revenues and budget of this community, why shouldn’t the Council make the important decisions about how many tens of millions of tax dollars should be saved or spent? If the LRC takes a direction we the People disagree with, what guarantee do we have that this autonomous body of unelected officials will listen or respond to us? If our neighbors—Lafayette and Superior—have their own council or town board serve as the urban renewal authority for their communities, is there a good reason why Louisville’s City Council shouldn’t serve as the urban renewal authority? As citizens, we have a right to insist that our elected representatives remain accountable to us and to refrain from giving away to unelected officials for up to 25 years our right to control the use of tens of millions of dollars of tax revenue generated in the proposed urban renewal area. |
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