LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- In a break from precedent, Louisville Mayor-elect Craig Greenberg named four deputy mayors for his administration that takes office in early January.

Greenberg drew heavily from current and past Metro Council members in appointing those and other members of his senior leadership team. He announced Tuesday that Metro Council President David James, former council member Barbara Sexton Smith, council member Nicole George and Dana Mayton — district director for U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth — will serve as deputy mayors.

Council member Keisha Dorsey also will join the administration as deputy chief of staff, as will attorney David Kaplan, who will be general counsel and chief of staff. 

"They all share my sense of urgency, commitment to transparency and reflect the diversity of age, experience, geography, race, gender and opinions that will create an entirely strong team to make our city safer, stronger and healthier," Greenberg told reporters in unveiling his leadership team. 

The moves are the first part of changes to city government that Greenberg said include "a new organizational structure to more effectively and efficiently serve our community."

The appointments also will shake up the Metro Council with the pending departure of James and Dorsey, both Democrats. Dorsey was reelected last month to a four-year term that is set to start in January and end in 2027, while James most recently was elected in 2020 to a term ending in 2025.

Greenberg said they will resign their seats on January 4 and start working in his administration the next day. Under state law, Metro Council must vote within 30 days to appoint a replacement member from the council district when an elected representative leaves office. The mayor would fill the vacancy after 30 days; there would not be a special election. 

James also is the interim chair of the West End Opportunity Partnership, a public agency that will oversee spending tax revenues from a sprawling tax increment financing district in the city's western neighborhoods. Kaplan, a partner in the law firm Kaplan Johnson Abate & Bird, also is a member of the partnership board. 

James said he will resign from the board; Kaplan plans to resign on January 2, according to Greenberg spokesman Kevin Trager. 

Each of the deputy mayors in the Greenberg administration will have a different responsibility.

James, a former police officer first elected to the council in 2010, will have oversight of emergency services such as Louisville Fire and EMS, as well as the embattled Metro Corrections.

He has served five terms as president of the 26-member Metro Council, but he announced earlier this month that he was not seeking another term as president.

A former CEO of the Louisville Fund for the Arts, Sexton Smith served one term on the Metro Council as a Democrat from 2017-21. She did not seek reelection in 2020 and was named Greenberg’s campaign chair in 2021.

She will serve as deputy mayor -- a term defined under the state law that created merger city-county government. Her role will include overseeing new offices and working as a "key advisor," according to a press release.

George, a Democrat, did not seek reelection this year for her seat on the council after one term in office. As deputy mayor for public health and services, George would be in charge of agencies such as the health and public works departments. 

Mayton, who will be deputy mayor for operations and budget, most recently was the district director for Yarmuth, a Democrat who did not run again this year. Among other former roles, she was a deputy attorney general in the Kentucky attorney general’s office, a vice president of governmental affairs at the University of Louisville and commissioner of the Kentucky Revenue Cabinet.

She also served on the the Kentucky-Indiana Tolling Body, which oversees toll rates on the RiverLink bridges.

Greenberg is set to take office January 2. He previously has hinted at how other aspects of Metro government could be reorganized, expressing interest in creating a city transportation department to streamline decisions that now cut across multiple agencies.

Asked about new agencies that could be established, Greenberg said: "Stay tuned." 

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