I let our City Commission know this month that I will not be running for re-election as Mayor in the November elections. My wife has accepted her dream job as an attending NICU Physician at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital starting in August and we will be leaving Bellemeade late this summer. We bought our house here expecting this to be our forever home but sometimes life doesn’t work out exactly how you planned. I will miss this city and my neighbors greatly.
I also know we have other Commissioners who either do not plan to run again or who cannot run again for various reasons. The filing deadline is Tuesday June 2nd. Applications require filing out paperwork that can be obtained from the KY Secretary of State’s website (the site has been running slow lately so be patient) or in-person at the Edison Center Jefferson County Board of Elections office. I would call them to check their hours as I am not sure what they will be on any given day. Our City Clerk also has some copies available. The paperwork involves some information about yourself, signatures from two other residents of the city and a $50 filing fee. I am happy to provide a signature for anyone who wants to run.
The candidate requirements for a legislator (Commissioner) are as follows: Must be at least 18 years of age, a resident of the city for not less than 1 year prior to his or her election, a qualified voter in the city, and shall reside in the city throughout his term of office.
I know it feels like we have had a lot of turnover on the Commission lately. None of this turnover is being caused by conflict or issues within the Commission as we have all gotten along very well for the last 4 years that I have been involved. It has just been a mixture of personal issues and life getting in the way. If we are not able to field a complete Government then it would fall to the remaining Commissioners to seriously consider dissolving the Bellemeade City Government and look into joining Louisville Metro or the City of Lyndon. Certainly we would still receive city services under those scenarios but we would lose a lot of our autonomy and would see much higher tax rates.
If you ever considered being involved in city government, now is the time to get involved. If you want more information about what is involved in being a city commissioner then reach out to me. I am happy to have a phone call or virtual meeting to discuss it in detail. There is a very real possibility we will need to have four new Commissioners filed to run by June 2nd.
We still have a lot of work to get done this spring and summer including our 2020-21 budget. At this point I anticipate our May meeting will be via telepresence again. Stay tuned for details in the coming weeks.
Thank you
Mayor Andrew Miller
