Ep. 8: Council Organizational Mtg., Deep Dives on Policing and Housing

This week, we’re unpacking the (somewhat surprising) Metro Council Organizational Meeting, where Brent Ackerson was elected as Council President. Next, we dig into the Louisville Metro Police Department’s collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). These contracts shield misconduct and limit accountability, from erasing complaints to protecting officers under investigation. We’ll explain how the secretive negotiation process works and why the River City Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is fighting the DOJ’s Consent Decree, which aims to enforce police reforms. Finally, we explore the history and impact of zoning laws, from their discriminatory roots to how Louisville’s Land Development Code is shaping the city today. We break down, Euclidean zoning, performance zoning, and form-based zoning, and why zoning reform is overdue in a rapidly evolving society.