LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Gov. Andy Beshear has vetoed a bill that would let the West End Opportunity Partnership strip board seats from institutions that don't follow internal policies on vacancies.
Senate Bill 259 was backed by the leadership of the partnership, which will oversee investments from a public subsidy in western Louisville called tax increment financing.
Beshear, a Democrat, wrote in his veto message that SB 259 would let the partnership replace an organization with a statutorily defined seat on the board with another entity not specified in the law.
A rift on the board involving the NAACP' of Louisville's seat prompted the legislation.
“The bill could allow outside influencers or organizations to take control of the board,” the governor wrote.
The bill easily cleared the Senate on a 32-2 vote, with two other members not voting. Sen. Gerald Neal (D-Louisville), who represents a swath of Louisville’s West End and is a supporter of the partnership, voted against the bill.
The measure then went to the House, where it was approved on a 51-39 vote.
The legislature can vote to override the veto when it resumes for its final two days on Friday.
Laura Douglas, the partnership's interim president and CEO, advocated for the bill without the knowledge of most of the board, she said at a board meeting in late March. At issue is a bylaw change that the NAACP of Louisville has acknowledged not following.
That change requires the NAACP and six other organizations on the board to provide more than one candidate when vacancies occur. But the civil rights group has refused to provide multiple candidates for its representative’s seat since the bylaws were approved last September.
That’s because partnership staff asked him not to reappoint the member, Jeana Dunlap, according to the local NAACP president, Raoul Cunningham.
Douglas has defended her action in approaching the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Denise Harper Angel (D-Louisville), saying it was necessary to be able to enforce the bylaws. But several board members argue that her actions were improper, and she should have told the board beforehand.
The NAACP was one of the organizations with an automatic seat on the board when the Kentucky General Assembly created the partnership in 2021 to oversee investment in nine western Louisville neighborhoods from tax increment financing and other public funds.
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