P O S I T I O N S T A T E M E N T
March 30, 2023
Statement on the Public Participation in CBA Negotiations
Last night, during a public forum, to discuss the Department of Justice’s report and Louisville Metro Government’s response, the Mayor was confronted with a question the public has been asking for weeks: would he appoint members of the community to his team in the upcoming Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) negotiations? While not answering directly, the Mayor seemed to indicate that he does not believe he can do such a thing because of state law.
Members of Louisville Urban League, the ACLU, the 490 Project, VOCAL-KY, Black Leadership Action Coalition of Kentucky (BLACK), and others have investigated this issue and believe there is no legal basis for such a claim. Here are our findings:
- We believe that the mayor and his advisors are operating under a willfully bad interpretation of the Open Meetings Act (OMA). For reference, the Attorney General’s guide to the OMA can be found here.
- The OMA does permit closed sessions under certain circumstances — and collective bargaining is one of those circumstances. However, while the Act permits closed sessions, it does not require closed sessions. This distinction is critical since both parties can agree to waive their rights under this section of the Act.
- In fact, the Mayor’s team has signed the ground rules (in secret with no public input) which explicitly state that negotiations “shall be closed to the press and public.” If any state statute actually mandated the prevention of public participation there was no need to agree to this term. The Mayor’s office could renegotiate the ground rules if they had the will and inclination.
- This leads us to a second major obfuscation from the Greenberg administration; the Mayor implied that adding community members to his negotiating team is also prohibited by a state or federal statute.
- The organizations have researched state statutes and can find no such law. The Mayor has been on notice for many weeks that the singular most important issue to the community and the organizations below is adding citizens to his negotiation team. Yet last night, when asked to state what law he relied on to prevent such action he had no answer.
We do not want to speculate on the basis of the Mayor’s decision to prevent community members on his negotiation team. As of today, his office has not called to provide us with any statute, case law, or other precedent to confirm his team’s legal analysis. Until we know what he is relying on there is no way our legal experts can provide any analysis in support or opposition.
The Mayor has to make a stand and tell the public, definitively and swiftly, if he will appoint community members to his negotiation team with the FOP. He cannot hide behind the consent decree and the DOJ. People are hurting in our community. The DOJ report reflects on a portion of where that pain comes from. The other part is the lack of accountability for those actions. “Trust” and “accountability” are words that were repeated by many last night, including the Mayor, the Chief of Police, and the FOP. Trust and accountability start with the police contract and how these negotiations are handled. We encourage Mayor Greenberg to lean into those values and stand with the people who elected him.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
[email protected] | (502) 808-1056
About the Louisville Urban League
The Louisville Urban League assists African Americans and those at the margins in attaining social and economic equality and stability through direct services and advocacy. For more information, go to lul.org or follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@louisvilleUL), or Instagram (@louisville_ul).
