Mayor Ignores Election Results!

Appoints his own nominee to PRP Fire Board!

Abramson clearly violates intent of law!

Residents who live in the Pleasure Ridge Park Fire Protection district went to the polls on September 19, 2009 to vote for a representative on the fire board.  By law the citizens are to elect four people to the board of trustees.  After the election, the votes were counted and verified that Michael A. Priddy, Sr. had won the election.  The PRP Fire Protection Board of Trustees certified Michael A. Priddy, Sr. as the winner and sent his name to the Mayor for nomination to the Metro Council.

The Mayor, however, ignored the results of the public election and has nominated his own person to fill the vacant position on the board.  The intent of the law is for there to be four people elected to the board and three more appointed by the mayor.  In this way, there is no political majority.  What Jerry Abramson is doing, while not illegal, very clearly violates the intent of the law

Priddy has lived his whole life in PRP and has over 20 years of working experience in the fire district.  He is a decorated life-saver and only retired from the fire department due to a work-related injury.

The Mayor’s appointment, Rosemary Mattingly (a political insider), has no firefighting experience and is the former legislative aide to Councilman Bob Henderson.

The Mayor’s decision to disregard the election results establishes a dangerous precedent.  This tells the people of PRP that the Mayor wants to run this autonomous board – instead of the voters of the district.

“My fear is the Mayor is positioning himself to take over PRP’s fire taxing district, which has a multi-million dollar budget,” says Councilman Hawkins.

The Louisville Metro Council’s Contract and Appointments Committee reviewed the Mayor’s nomination for this position on Wednesday, December 9.

The Metro Council will now vote on this issue this Thursday, December 17, 2009.

What Jerry Abramson is doing very clearly violates the intent of the law.

Please call the following four council members and ask them to reject the mayor’s nomination

and stand up for the will of PRP residents.

Bob Henderson        574-1114

Vickie Welch           574-1113

Rick Blackwell        574-1112

Mary Woolridge     574-1103

Don’t let them side with the mayor like they did with the Arena, Library Tax, Cordish, and Bomb Storage Facility!

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COUNCIL MEMBERS BLACKWELL, HENDERSON, WELCH, AND WOOLDRIDGE JUST SAY NO TO VOTERS IN PRP

By: Ed Springston

…  The PRP Board of Trustees decided in the best interest of the voter and community to rectify this situation they would hold a special or second election.  This election was held on September 19 a full 3 MONTHS after the first. Trying to be above board and transparent they advertised it as they would the first by law and proceeded to have this election.

Kudos to the Board for trying to make this right but then this too became a problem apparently.

Since Abramson DID NOT do his job after the first election the Board carried the second and after the results were known certified this election and made the recommendation to appoint Mike Priddy, Sr to the Board based on these results.

Seems simple enough doesn’t it?

Not in the Abramson regime it isn’t.  Abramson refused the recommendation citing his authority under KRS 75 as being able to appoint the Board member at his discretion thus telling those who voted in PRP to essentially _____  themselves.

Blackwell decided to muddy the waters even further by complaining about so called lies from Hawkins in an email blast and saying this second election was not anything but a straw vote.  A pathetic argument at best if you were there.  Henderson couldn’t do anything but keep whispering to Blackwell and holding up papers seemingly to say “look at me, look at me.”  Truly a work of art if one were in preschool.  …

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