The myths behind giving an unelected body control over tens of millions of dollars

At the October 3, 2006, City Council meeting, Mayor Sisk, Councilmember Don Brown and Councilmember Sheri Marsella argued that the unelected Louisville Revitalization Commission, not the Council, should hold the extraordinary urban renewal powers in Louisville. (Councilmembers Bob Muckle, Frost Yarnell and Ron Sackett argued that the Council had a responsibility to hold the urban renewal powers, and that the LRC should be an advisory body.) Among the powers is the unilateral right to control $77+ million in sales and property tax revenue that under the current proposed urban renewal plan would flow into the LRC.

None of the reasons they gave hold water.

“The LRC has expertise that the Council doesn’t.” That’s irrelevant at best, and debatable at worst. The elected Council members are citizens who ran for office against other candidates and won. They are not expected to be experts at anything relating to city government. When they were first elected, none of them had sat on a municipal governing body before. We elected them not because we thought they were experts at running a city, but because we believed they would listen to their constituents, the citizenry, work hard at representing us, and use their common sense.

It is common sense that if you don’t have expertise to accomplish something, you hire someone who does. That’s what we do at home. That’s what the City Council has always done. In the last five years, the City has expended easily more than $400,000 for consultants. Some examples:

♦ Because the Council wasn’t an expert at creating a comprehensive plan, it hired EDAW, Leland Consulting Group, PBS&J, and McCormick & Associates.

♦ Because it  wasn’t an expert on environmental assessment, it contracted with Walsh Environmental Scientists & Engineers, LLC.

♦ Because it wasn’t an expert on cable TV franchise agreements, it contracted with the law firm of Kissinger & Fellman, P.C.

♦ Because it wasn’t an expert on the identification of blight, it contracted with Leland Consulting Group.

♦ Because it wasn’t an expert on drafting urban renewal plans, it contracted with Leland Consulting Group.

♦ Because it wasn’t an expert on supervising renovation of a government building, it hired Pinkard Construction Co.

But it’s better than this even. The City has 12 advisory boards, ranging from horticulture and forestry to open space and planning. All of these advisory boards are composed of volunteer citizens who have an interest and expertise in the subject matter of the boards. Because their members are not elected, Louisville boards and commissions are by default advisory to the City Council only.

Nothing prevents the Louisville Revitalization Commission from being an advisory board. Whatever expertise it has can be shared with the City Council so that the Council can make informed decisions. That’s precisely what the other city boards do.

We should not forget that our City Councilmembers have significant business experience. For example: Mayor Sisk is a lawyer and has served on the Council for more than a decade; Councilmember Bob Muckle is a surgeon and business owner; Councilmember Ron Sackett has been a Chief Executive Officer for other corporate executive for much of his life and has participated in the construction of large hospitals; Councilmember Brown has been involved with many businesses, including venture capital businesses.

“We don’t want to start the urban renewal process over again.” This statement seems to suggest that the conversion of the LRC from a public body with extraordinary powers over city tax dollars into one that is advisory to the Council would require throwing out all knowledge and work that has been done. That’s nonsense.

A blight study has been done. An urban renewal plan has been drafted. An environmental assessment will be completed shortly. Bylaws for an urban renewal authority have been drafted. This is all useful. None of it has an expiration date. It can be used by the Council when it becomes the urban renewal authority.

“The Council doesn’t have the time to handle urban renewal activities.” It would be well to remember that the LRC’s meeting schedule is one meeting each month. It has on its payroll two lawyers, including City Attorney Sam Light, and an urban renewal consultant, Leland Consulting Group. There are five LRC members.

If it becomes the urban renewal authority, the City Council can keep the two lawyers, the consultant and the LRC as an advisory body. Additionally, it may call upon the services of the City Manager and his four assistants, the Finance Department, the City Clerk, and the Planning Department.

But the bottom line is this: The City Council must make time. The stakes are too high to allow an unaccountable body of unelected persons (who are not bound by the City's ethics codes) to handle many tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue. Safeguarding taxpayer dollars is one of the highest duties of our elected officials. This duty cannot be delegated.