Louisville Metro Council member Pat Mulvihill won’t seek reelection in 2024

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Pat Mulvihill announced he will not seek reelection to the Metro Council next year.

Mulvihill, a Democrat who represents the 10th District, told his constituents in his latest newsletter that it "is with a heavy heart that I make this difficult decision to pass the torch to a new leader" for the area near I-65 and the Watterson Expressway largely bisected by Poplar Level Road.

His current term expires in January 2025.

"It's been a good ride and it's been a pleasure to serve – it really has," he said in an interview Wednesday morning.

Mulvihill, a former Assistant Jefferson County Attorney and general counsel to former Mayor Greg Fischer who now is general counsel to TARC, said his decision was based, in part, on his eligibility to get government retirement benefits starting in 2024.

"I didn't want to commit to another four years if in that time I wouldn't fulfill the entire term," he said. "So I thought in fairness to both voters and to myself and my family, now's the time for me to sort of look at moving on."

Mulvihill was first elected in 2015 to finish the term of the late Metro Council President Jim King, who died in office after a private battle with cancer. He was then elected to the first of two terms the following year.

Mulvihill currently chairs the council's labor and economic development committee. He also serves on the ad hoc charging committee created after the Louisville Metro Ethics Commission's findings in the trial of Metro Council member Anthony Piagentini.

He listed the completion of a pedestrian bridge over the South Fork of Beargrass Creek near Bellarmine University — a project he said took seven years — as his main accomplishment in office.

Mulvihill said he's also proud of work on other city legislation, including a measure that bans celebratory gunfire and an ordinance creating penalties for panhandlers who approach vehicles on city roads.