List of mayors of Louisville, Kentucky

History of the office

The first election under the Act of Incorporation took place in March 1828. All free white males who had lived in the city for at least six months prior to the election could vote, although mayors were not elected directly initially. The two top vote-getters were referred to the governor, who selected the mayor from the two, with senate approval. The early mayor was relatively weak, acting mostly as a Justice of the Peace, serving a one-year term, and lacking a vote on the City Council except to break ties.

A change to the charter in 1838 allowed for direct election of a mayor, extended the term to three years, and prevented incumbents from running for re-election. The term was reduced to two years from 1851 to 1870, then returned to three, and was finally set at four years by the Kentucky Legislature in 1894. In the early 20th century, corruption and political machines were rampant, causing mayors of both parties to be removed from office by courts. All legislative power was given to the Board of Aldermen in 1929. Mayoral term limits were set at three in 1986.

On January 6, 2003, the city of Louisville and Jefferson County governments merged to form the government of Louisville Metro, and the office of Mayor of Louisville Metro was created.

Numbering

No official numbering of mayors appears on the Louisville government website. A "Mayor's Gallery" of various officeholders denotes them only by their mayoral terms. However, the same website refers to Craig Greenberg as "the 51st Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky", while his predecessor, Greg Fischer, was referred to as the 50th mayor. A 1986 newspaper report explained that the city archivist saw three possible ways to number the city's mayor:

• Total mayoral administrations (e.g. count the total number of terms served, regardless of who the office holder is)
• Changes in mayoral administrations (e.g. count "tenures when people didn't succeed themselves")
• Number of different office holders (e.g. count the number of different people who have ever served as mayor, regardless of chronology)

The latter two methodologies have appeared in newspaper reporting, typically at the time a new mayor is being inaugurated. At the time that Jerry Abramson was first taking office, the city archivist felt he could be considered the 73rd, 55th, or 48th mayor, respectively, per the above noted methodologies. Greg Fischer being deemed the 50th mayor is consistent with the lattermost methodology.

Incorporated city

Louisville Metro

Notes

References

• Memorial History of Louisville, 1896, Volume 1, page 77 by J. Stoddard Johnson.

References

1. "Welcome to LouisvilleKY.gov".
2. "Mayor's Gallery: Portraits of Louisville Mayors".
3. "Mayor Craig Greenberg".
4. "Mayor Greg Fischer".
5. (December 1, 1969). "Burke Administration Taking Over City Hall". [[Courier Journal]].
6. Lively, Kit. (January 1, 1986). "Mayoral numbers game is a hard one to figure". [[Courier Journal]].
7. (January 3, 2011). "Louisville Mayors". [[Courier Journal]].
8. Died in office in August 1858.
9. Served as mayor ''Served as mayor pro tempore''. Left office in April 1859.
10. [[Impeachment in the United States. Impeached]] by [[Louisville Board of Aldermen. Board of Aldermen]] for failure to approve an infrastructure bill tainted by bribery
11. Resigned on February 14, 1867, after the Kentucky Court of Appeals restored Tomppert.
12. Served as mayor ''pro tempore''.
13. Left office on January 14, 1896.
14. Removed from office in June 1907 as election was found to be fraudulent.
15. Appointed interim mayor
16. Removed from office in June 1927 as election was found to be fraudulent.
17. Died in office on February 16, 1948.