The Louisville Metro Council Budget Committee met on Thursday, September 17, 2026. The agenda listed a 4:30 p.m. start; the minutes state Vice Chair Markus Winkler (D-17) called the meeting to order at 4:31 p.m. in Council Chambers and virtually, with adjournment at 4:51 p.m. Chair Kevin Kramer (R-11) presided. Ten members were present: Kramer, Winkler, Shameka Parrish-Wright (D-3), Ken Herndon (D-4), Ben Reno-Weber (D-8), Jonathan "JJ" Joseph (R-12), Jennifer Chappell (D-15), Marilyn Parker (R-18), Anthony Piagentini (R-19), and Ginny Mulvey-Woolridge (R-24). Five members attended virtually (Kramer, Parrish-Wright, Reno-Weber, Parker, Mulvey-Woolridge). The committee reviewed five budget transfer ordinances and one budget language amendment concerning fiscal years 2017-2018 through 2026-2027 budgets. Items placed on the Consent Calendar are scheduled for the full Metro Council meeting on September 24, 2026.
To eight. They're gonna be festivities for kids, for families. You'll hear from Coach Redman and others that are part of the Kings championship victory. As you can tell, there is a ton going on around our city as we move from summer into fall. It is great to have so much activity, so many reasons for people to visit Louisville, and so many reasons for Louisville's to be proud and enjoy our great city. With that, we're happy to take any questions that you all might have. When it comes to college, you're not necessarily having to go over the lighter on our emissions to actually follow this for what happens with the kind of all hands on there. So the question was essentially about coverage and how does it affect other areas of the city? And it's you gave the example of Derby. It's very similar, it's just a little longer. It's it's Derby has multiple events over the course of a month. These are two huge events back to back, and all hands are on deck. So uh rest assured, the rest of the city is covered, and we're gonna have certainly have a large presence in and around the festival events near Churchill Downs near the football stadium, and there's also some private security help from off duty at all of those events as well. I have a question for Kelly about just about the water model thing. Um you said people can bring empty water bottles. Do they have to be like a clear water bottle or there's been a lot of controversy on hard water models or whatever? Yeah, I think mine the question was about the water bottle policy. My understanding of the water bottle bottle policy is that you can bring a empty, reusable water bottle like you're describing, or you can bring up to a 20-ounce clear water bottle uh from the store that as long as it's sealed. And so there will be six water stations across the festival grounds, and so that's why we're encouraging folks to bring uh that what that reusable water bottle because these days can be very long and we want people to stay hydrated. Oh, you actually look at that. There are reports that racing will and the ownership, possibly considering selling the all of it. What is the city do? Yeah, okay, at all. Sorry, keep the tea here in the goal. What is the status of the developer around the state? It was the announcement last year about the apartment complex. So the question was about racing Louisville and the future that the some reports that have been made about the future of racing Louisville in Louisville. Uh and Paul, I'm very committed to doing anything I can on behalf of the city, on behalf of the city government to retain racing Louisville in Louisville. They and Lou City are important parts, not just of our sports community, but of who we are as a community. And the fact that we have racing Louisville playing at the highest level of sports in the NWSL. Uh, we, as far as I can tell, are the the only city in America where the team playing at the highest level, the only team playing at the highest level of professional sports is a women's team. That's something to be proud of. It's something that Rachel and I support. We encourage the community support, and I've had conversations with the owners to see if there are additional things that the city can do to support them to ensure that they grow and prosper right here in Louisville. So we'll continue to do that as well. In terms of development, uh, the ownership group is looking at several options right now. Uh, my goal is to help support efforts to bring more residential, more entertaining options, potentially more sporting options around Lynn Family Stadium. And so we're actively working on several possible projects that could be built around the stadium. Still on still on track that all you guys made the announcement. Uh the project that was previously announced uh has run into some challenges, and so that one is not currently being pursued, uh but there are lots of other conversations that are going on uh about other projects that could bring residential uh people living around the stadium in addition to lots of other entertaining sporting and hospitality options. So stay tuned on that front. I've got another topic question. Um, that shooting the shooting that happened Saturday night uh on Whiskey Row. Um first off his comments on that. Second, uh Metro Cox Wellman uh Ken Hurden had brought up maybe the subject of potentially inferencing a curfew for 18-year-olds and understand what are your thoughts on that? The question was about the shooting that happened on Saturday night at Dasha Barber's uh as well as Councilman Herndon's uh recent proposal to uh have discussions again about curfew. They should always be on the table, uh, we should continue to look at all options to do everything we can to reduce violent crime because notwithstanding the positive progress that we've made in reducing homicides and shootings and the reduction of violent crime. You see things that happen like this month, this weekend, and that just means we need to continue to redouble our efforts. We need to keep doing more of what's working, and we need to do even more new things to continue to work on that. Uh, we as you're aware, we issued ABC issued an emergency suspension order.