No one wants to think about anyone's death, but the Metro Council's Kelly Downard thinks it's a good time to think about succession in local government.
In national and state government, there's no doubt who takes over if the top official is incapacitated for any reason. We elect a Vice President and a Lt. Governor.
American history is rich with stories of transition when the President has been killed or incapacitated.
But if the Mayor were to fall over today, we'd be without a Mayor until the Metro Council met and selected a successor. That could take as little as two days or as long as a month. And whoever is selected by the Metro Council could serve up to two years.
Downard doesn't think the government can afford to wait that long.
"I'm not as concerned about long-term as about what happens the next morning," he said. "There could be a lot of people acting like they're in charge. The police, fire department and EMTs need to know who's in charge."
He said it's important beyond that reason.
"The public would know who it is, the Council would know, and if they had problems, they would scream and yell," he said. "It gives a predetermined understanding form everybody who that person is."
Downard is introducing a resolution at tonight's Metro Council meeting that will stimulate discussion on details of a new succession plan.
The main point of the resolution is that the newly elected Mayor would designate a specific individual of his choosing as Deputy Mayor, who would be designated to be in charge if something happened to the Mayor.
Whoa!@!!! There needs to be more input on that subject then letting the MAYOR pick the successor!....can you imagine?....Maybe Mayoral races should be run with the identification of a Vice-Mayor on the ticket!....That's the problem now with the administration, those appointed Deputy Mayors are not concerned for the voters or taxpayers, just the Mayor's self help list!....Plus lets Say that this was to start now, and Mayor Happy Pants appoint whoever he wanted to , that he could control(say like Tandy?)....then the Mayor steps down for some reason.....Would that manipulate the system to inject Someone of his choice as Mayor , while Jerry goes off to Campaign?.....I'd say the Mayor HAS to Die, to trigger something like this...There definately needs to be a plan, but and I think Downard is thinking with best interest at heart. He's one of the best Councilmen, that's for sure.....But I wouldn't trust the majority of them to decide something this critical that could have the effect it would have on the city!...Hell Look at how the council has reacted to all the stupid & Bad choices the Mayor has made the past years.Sounds Shakey!
Has Louisville ever had a Mayor die in office?....
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