FRANKFORT, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville NAACP leaders urged state lawmakers Wednesday to vote against legislation they claim targets their representative on a west end investment board.
Raoul Cunningham, president of the civil rights league's Louisville branch, testified that Senate Bill 259 would prevent the NAACP from naming its chosen representative to the West End Opportunity Partnership, the public agency that will decide how to spend money from a tax increment financing district in western Louisville.
The bill — sponsored by Sen. Denise Harper Angel, D-Louisville, at the request of the partnership staff — would do two things.
First, it would cement in law a current partnership rule that requires the NAACP and six other organizations to propose more than one candidate when vacancies occur. Second, it would put those entities at risk of losing their board seats if they refuse.
The NAACP has in fact refused to provide multiple candidates for its seat since the bylaws were approved last fall, a move Cunningham said was prompted by partnership staff asking him not to reappoint board member Jeana Dunlap.
"There is an effort to do away with the NAACP's seat on the board because the representative we selected has raised uncomfortable questions about the board's actions," Cunningham told members of the Senate's state and local government committee.
He called the legislation an "extraordinary step" that was done without the knowledge of the partnership's board.
Laura Douglas, the West End partnership's interim president and CEO, has defended the bill as necessary because of the NAACP's refusal to comply with the policy.
She told lawmakers that she approached Harper Angel because "a motion or direction from the board is not necessary to authorize me as the CEO to approach any member of the legislature for assistance."
That move, however, has gotten pushback from several partnership board members, including Metro Council member Tammy Hawkins and Urban League President and CEO Lyndon Pryor.
Another board member, Mike Neagle, raised his own concerns at the committee hearing.
"It is my belief that our staff members should have brought their concerns to the WEOP governing board so that they can be discussed and resolved in the course of our usual work to build and operate this still new and fledgling operation," he said.
Neagle, who represents the Portland neighborhood on the board, also questioned the Senate becoming "the arbiter of squabbles or disagreements between staff and board members."
The General Assembly created the partnership and the tax increment financing, or TIF, district in 2021. It is the largest such tax subsidy area in Kentucky, WDRB News reported in 2022, and won't face the scrutiny required of similar taxpayer-funded zones.
The bill passed on a 10-0 vote and now heads to the Senate floor.
Cunningham told reporters after the vote that the NAACP will have to decide how to proceed with its board position if the bill becomes law.
Asked if she would direct the partnership board to seek the NAACP's removal from the board, Douglas said: "We would abide by the law."
"It's important for us to move forward without being burdened by disagreements and squabbles," she said.
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