MR. DISTRICT 15
Why do you think you are the right person to represent your district on the
Louisville Metro Council?
I am a life-long educator and social justice advocate. I believe in building the frameworks of society and supporting them with the infrastructure needed to sustain and make them flourish. I have strong background in organizing people of all backgrounds. In my everyday life I mentor and teach students from all backgrounds, religions, and nationalities.
On a larger scale, I serve as an elected Board of Director member for both Jefferson County Teacher Association and Kentucky Education Association. We are the governing body for educator unions in Jefferson County and Kentucky. I run a free tutoring service for KEA to recruit and train potential minority teachers. I also serve as treasurer on the Board of Directors for A Future in Hope and Youth Services, Inc. a local non-profit group home also located in District 15.
I believe in developing all community stakeholders. I have a specific plan to do this through equity in education, community service, and rebuilding the infrastructure in District 15.
How would you include Louisville in the process of creating the Louisville Metro Budget?
I will use various media to include Louisville in the process of creating the Louisville Metro Budget. I believe in transparency in most government affairs is necessary to maintain a true democracy. We will form a committee of residents from diverse neighborhoods to help us in this process. This committee will help recruit more citizens to come to our frequent town hall meetings across the district to discuss budget and other issues. We will use our website for Metro Council, along with social media and emails to disseminate information and stay in contact with our constituents among our community. Your voice is the most important voice and I want to hear from you.
What is your position on an independent civilian review of any police shooting resulting
in a death, and what initiatives will you support to decrease the use of deadly force by
law enforcement officers?
Employees who are paid with public funds should be very transparent in their duties. I support an independent civilian review of any police shooting resulting in a death or other cases of bodily harm. This is one measure to decrease deadly force by police.
I would also promote the decrease of deadly force by police by supporting funding to local police that allows them to all have functional body cameras for accountability purposes. It is not only our duty to hold our public officials accountable, we must also work diligently to work together to improve the communities.
We will push for more training for officers to become community focused and culturally sensitive. by intentionally creating community events that will allow our law enforcement to interact with citizens as humans and neighbors instead of adversaries. We must seek to understand each other work together to create a community we all want.
Air pollution from the power plants and chemical companies in West Louisville and the
tiny particles (PM2.5) produced by truck and automobile emissions from our streets and
interstates have caused an asthma crisis all across the Metro area. What would you do
to address this issue?
According to KRS 77.170 in relation to a community’s ability to regulate its own emission, the local government is allowed to give ordinances that are stricter than the ones imposed by the General Assembly. We would form a committee in connection with the Air Pollution Control District of Metro Government and review the ordinances we have and enlist community members to make suggestions to strengthen our local regulations. In that task, we will also charge the committee with creating a list of incentives to be used by the city to encourage less pollution and emissions.
We also want to encourage and monitor that all businesses in our area are compliant with all EPA and Clean Air Act regulations. The incentives for them to do this will be created by our community panel which may be a community recognition day for our partners who help with our environmental causes.
Jail overcrowding is a huge issue in Louisville, and one that disproportionately impacts
Black Louisvillians. What role do you think that ending cash bail and supporting
alternatives to incarceration can play in addressing it?
Do you support a dedicated funding source for the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust
Fund, and if so how should that funding be obtained?
Black Louisvillians are targeted by systemic discrimination from economics to education and the judicial system. Because this impairs a community’s ability to improve it’s civic responsibility, I will support alternatives to jail crowding like restorative justice, banning the box, and supporting the reinstatement of all rights (voting) to people who have paid their debts to society.
Restorative justice gives people a fresh chance to maintain their dignity by righting wrongs and paying debts without becoming an added cost to society. Banning the box will give people confidence to apply for jobs and impact their communities positively.
Denying people opportunities leads to overcrowded jails. Cash bail incentivizes incarceration and improperly impacts people of color and low income. I would support a restructure of this system so it is not so limited. I will enlist the opinions and help from community to restructure this.
Supporting a dedicated funding source for the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund is synonymous with supporting humanity. The funding should be raised using local metro, non-profits and other relevant businesses to commit to writing grants to support this initiative.
We also must commit to researching creative ways that other cities are doing to address this issue. An example is using our abandoned buildings as places to renovate and make new homes. We can also encourage business development with the use of an inclusionary housing program. Inclusionary housing programs are in 27 state and the program allows developers some incentives for building homes that are below housing cost.
We also need to review all of our local tax laws and see which reforms are out there that can provide us the opportunity to create a consistent flow of revenue.
