The Louisville Board of Aldermen was the legislative branch of government for the City of Louisville prior to its merger with Jefferson County in 2003. It comprised twelve wards.
Louisville is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 29th most-populous city in the United States. It is one of two cities in Kentucky designated as first-class, the other being Lexington, the state's second-largest city. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2010 census, the population was 741,096. It is the most populous county in the commonwealth.
From its earliest days Louisville was governed by a board of trustees. In 1828, when it became Kentucky's first city, government shifted to a ten-member "Common Council". In 1851 the city was given a new charter, keeping the Common Council as a "lower house" to the Board of Aldermen, an "upper house" of the city's legislative power. Originally Aldermen had to live in a ward and be elected by its residents. Reforms in 1893 aimed at reducing corruption allowed citywide election of all Aldermen, who could live in any ward.
In 1929 the larger but less prestigious Common Council was eliminated, leaving just the Board of Aldermen as the city's sole legislative body, in an arrangement that would become familiar to Louisvillians over the next 75 years.
Hattie E. Hoffman became the first female Alderman in 1929. Eugene S. Clayton became the first black Alderman in 1945, and W.J. Hodge became the first black president in 1977. The first female president was Melissa Mershon in 1990. Denise Bentley was elected the first black female president in 2002. Tina Ward-Pugh insisted on being referred to as an "Alderwoman" in 1999.
Party primaries in the individual wards began to be held in 1981.
Aldermen served a two-year term, and the salary was not intended as compensation for a full-time position, but merely to allow them to spend less time at their jobs in order to serve the city.
In 1981 Aldermen were each given a full-time assistant, and in 1994 a pool of nine additional aides was created to be shared by all Aldermen.
Wards were also created with the 1828 city charter, with five total wards initially. A new charter in 1851 increased the number of wards to eight. The number increased to 12 in 1893, and remained there until city-county merger 110 years later.
Wards were originally split contiguously on an east-to-west axis across the city. Due to the nature of the local geography, the city could only expand south in most places, making most wards very long and thin by the mid-20th century. In 1961 boundaries were completely redrawn to reflect traditional neighborhood boundaries, and were to be redrawn after every census to keep the population of each balanced.
Louisville is a city in Jefferson County, in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is located at the Falls of the Ohio River.
The history of Louisville, Kentucky spans a bit over two centuries since the latter part of the 18th century. Prior to arrival of Europeans, the region was depopulated from the Beaver Wars of the 17th century, and no permanent Native American settlements existed in the area. It was used as hunting grounds by northern Shawnee and southern Cherokee. The area's geography and location on the Ohio River attracted people from the earliest times. The city is located at the Falls of the Ohio River, then a part of Kentucky County, Virginia. The rapids created a barrier to river travel, and settlements grew up at this portage point. The earliest European settlements were during the latter stages of the American Revolutionary War by Virginian soldiers under George Rogers Clark, first at Corn Island in 1778, then Fort-on-Shore and Fort Nelson on the mainland. The town was chartered in 1780 and named Louisville in honor of King Louis XVI of France. That year it received an influx of 300 settlers.
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council member elected by voters.
The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 aldermen elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms. The council is gaveled into session regularly, usually monthly, to consider ordinances, orders, and resolutions whose subject matter includes code changes, utilities, taxes, and many other issues. The Chicago City Council Chambers are located in Chicago City Hall, as are the downtown offices of the individual aldermen and staff.
Kenneth Allen Schmied, a Republican, served as Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky.
Liverpool City Council has existed since 1880, when Liverpool was awarded city status. Prior to this date the local authority was a town council.
The Council Wars were a racially polarized political conflict in the city of Chicago from 1983-1986, centered on the Chicago City Council. The term came from a satirical comedy sketch of the same name written and performed by comedian and journalist Aaron Freeman in 1983, using the good vs. evil plot line of the film Star Wars as a device.
The London Government Act 1899 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the administration of the capital. The Act divided the County of London into 28 metropolitan boroughs, replacing the 41 parish vestries and District Boards of Works administering the area. The legislation also transferred a few powers from the London County Council to the boroughs, and removed a number of boundary anomalies. The first elections to the new boroughs were held on 1 November 1900.
The Louisville Metro Council is the city council of Louisville, Kentucky. It was formally established in January 2003 upon the merger of the former City of Louisville with Jefferson County and replaced the city's Board of Aldermen and the county's Fiscal Court. Louisville City Hall houses the offices and chambers of the council.
The County Borough of Leeds, and its predecessor, the Municipal Borough of Leeds, was a local government district in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, from 1835 to 1974. Its origin was the ancient borough of Leeds, which was reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. In 1889, when West Riding County Council was formed, Leeds became a county borough outside the administrative county of the West Riding; and in 1893 the borough gained city status. The borough was extended a number of times, expanding from 21,593 acres (8,738 ha) in 1911 to 40,612 acres (16,435 ha) in 1961; adding in stages the former area of Roundhay, Seacroft, Shadwell and Middleton parishes and gaining other parts of adjacent districts. In 1971 Leeds was the fifth largest county borough by population in England. The county borough was abolished in 1974 and replaced with the larger City of Leeds, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire.
The government of Louisville, Kentucky, headquartered at Louisville City Hall in Downtown Louisville, is organized under Chapter 67C of the Kentucky Revised Statutes as a First-Class city in the state of Kentucky. Created after the merger of the governments of Louisville, Kentucky and Jefferson County, Kentucky, the city/county government is organized under a mayor-council system. The Mayor is elected to four-year terms and is responsible for the administration of city government. The Louisville Metro Council is a unicameral body consisting of 26 members, each elected from a geographic district, normally for four-year terms. The Mayor is limited to a three consecutive term limit, while members of the Louisville Metro Council are not term limited.
John George Baxter Jr. was the nineteenth (1870–1872) and twenty-first mayor of Louisville, Kentucky.
Charles F. Grainger was Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky from 1901 to 1905. He became president of Grainger & Company, his family's iron foundry.
Henry S. Tyler was Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky from 1891 to 1896. His grandfather, Levi Tyler, was a founding father of Louisville and successful businessman. His family continued to be wealthy and owned, among other properties, Louisville's Tyler Block. Henry Tyler attended Schatlock Hall Military Academy in Minnesota. He returned to Louisville to work as a clerk and bookkeeper and eventually established his own insurance company.
Bridge is a small ward in the City of London and is named from its closeness to London Bridge. Since boundary changes in 2003, Bridge is bounded by the River Thames to the south; Swan Lane and Gracechurch Street to the west; Fenchurch Street to the north; and Rood Lane and Lovat Lane to the east.
The Royal Commission on the Corporation of the City of London was a Royal Commission, established in 1853, which considered the local government arrangements of the City of London and the surrounding metropolitan area.
The Board of Aldermen is the legislative body of the independent City of St. Louis, Missouri. The Board of Aldermen is charged with passing legislation, known as board bills, which after passage of the Board are sent to the Mayor to be signed into law. The Board serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government model. The Board monitors performance of city agencies and makes land use decisions as well as legislating on a variety of other issues. The Board also has sole responsibility for approving the city budget. The presiding officer of the Board is the President, who is elected separately city wide. The President of the Board is the second highest ranking official in the City directly behind the Mayor. The Board is made up of 28 aldermen representing the city's 28 wards. The Board meets in the north wing of City Hall in the Aldermanic Chambers.
The City of London is divided into 25 wards. The City is the historic core of the much wider metropolis of Greater London, with an ancient and sui generis form of local government, which avoided the many local government reforms elsewhere in the country in the 19th and 20th centuries. Unlike other modern-day English local authorities, the City of London Corporation has two council bodies: the now largely ceremonial Court of Aldermen and the Court of Common Council.
An election to the Carmarthenshire County Council was held in March 1937. It was preceded by the 1934 election. Due to the Second World War no elections were held in 1940 and 1943 therefore the 1937 election was followed by the 1946 election.
The New York City Board of Aldermen was a body that was the upper house of New York City's Common Council from 1824 to 1875, the lower house of its Municipal Assembly upon consolidation in 1898 until the charter was amended in 1901 to abolish the Municipal Assembly and its upper house, and its unicameral legislature from 1875 to 1897 and 1902 to 1937. The corresponding lower house was known as the Board of Assistants or the Board of Assistant Aldermen from 1824 to 1875, while the upper house was known as the Council from 1898 to 1901. In 1938 a new charter came into effect that replaced the Board of Aldermen with the New York City Council.
The City of Chicago has held elections to its City Council since its incorporation in 1837. Elections were held annually from 1837 through 1921, biennially from 1923 through 1933, and quadrennially starting in 1935. From 1851 through 1922 the Council was staggered and half of it was chosen at each election, but before 1851 and since 1923 the entire Council has been elected at each election.