Republican Rep. Chris Lewis of Louisville is the primary sponsor of House Bill 607.(Sylvia Goodman / LPM )A proposal from state Republicans to reshape oversight of city officials in Louisville has passed its first hurdle.House Bill 607 passed out of the House Local Government Committee Tuesday morn ing. Among other changes, the bill would dismiss Louisville’s current Ethics Commission and replace all of its members. The power to appoint new commissioners would be split among the mayor and Metro Council. The bill would also require half of the commission’s members to be Republicans and the other half Democrats.The bill is sponsored by seven Republicans, each representing parts of Jefferson County.Republican state Rep. Chris Lewis, the primary bill sponsor, said HB 607 would also move control over Louisville’s Office of Internal Audit from the mayor to Metro Council. Lewis said the change makes sense because Metro Council is responsible for oversight of city agencies.“It simply defies common sense for the person in charge of auditing those agencies to be hired and work at the direction of the chief executive, whose very agencies they are charged to audit and investigate,” he said.HB 607 would also specify that Metro Council has the authority to review any regulations passed by the Louisville Metro Board of Health or the Solid Waste Management District Board, also known as the 109 Board. The council could override any board decision within 45 days of issuance.Lewis said the changes are intended to “establish proper institutional processes” and should not be seen as a slight to Louisville’s mayor, Democrat Craig Greenberg.While he said state Republicans have “consulted with” a bipartisan group of Metro Council members, Greenberg and the Jefferson County Attorney's Office, not everyone is on board with all of the changes being proposed.The bill sponsors did not consult with the current chair of the Ethics Commission, who said some of the provisions in HB 607 threaten its ability to conduct independent oversight. At least one Metro Council Democrat has also criticized the changes as solidifying partisanship.Asked about HB 607 during a press conference last week, Greenberg did not endorse the changes. He said he’d prefer to “focus on the system that we do have,” rather than continue to make changes to Louisville Metro Government.“There have been a lot of changes in place over the years,” Greenberg said. “So, we’ve been in touch and have provided some feedback to Rep. Lewis.”The bill passed out of committee largely along partisan lines, with two Democratic state representatives voting against it. Rep. Beverly Chester-Burton, a Democrat representing the Shively area, passed on the vote.It will next go to the full House for consideration.Other proposed changesOutside of changes to oversight and ethics enforcement, HB 607 would also establish new guidelines for redistricting.Louisville Metro Council redraws the boundaries of its 26 districts every ten years, following the U.S. Census. By law, each district must be roughly equal in population. That means districts in areas of Jefferson County that are growing tend to shrink in size, while districts that lose population tend to expand.During the last redistricting in 2021, the new political boundaries were drawn by a bipartisan committee.Sponsors of HB 607 criticized the maps that came out of that committee, because they split up existing voter precincts. Lewis said that causes “unnecessary expense for the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office, strains resources and causes confusion among voters.”Republican state Rep. Jason Nemes, a cosponsor of the bill, took the criticism a step further, saying Metro Council members split up precincts “for nothing except for political purposes.”The bill in its current form requires Metro Council to keep voter precincts intact unless breaking them up is necessary to keep the population of each district roughly equal. The proposed legislation also codifies the standard for equal population, saying districts can’t “vary from the ideal population by more or less than 2.5%.”Critics of HB 607, like Democratic state Rep. Rachel Roarx of Louisville, noted the bill also removes the requirement that the council “shall” respect neighborhood boundaries, potentially allowing new districts to cut through neighborhoods to preserve voting precincts.“I think that is one of those fundamental pieces,” Roarx said. “Keeping neighborhoods and those generally agreed-upon areas together is really important.”In general, Roarx said, it's unclear what problems the various changes proposed in HB 607 are looking to solve.The initial version of the bill would have made it easier for people to create new independent cities within the boundaries of Jefferson County, lowering the number of petition signatures needed. The General Assembly already lowered the signature requirement in 2024.That section was removed from the legislation during the committee meeting Tuesday morning.Another provision, which gives proponents of forming a new city just one year to gather signatures, rather than unlimited time, is still in the version of HB 607 heading to the House floor. ...read more read less