West End Opportunity Partnership Interim Board Establishes Process, Timeline to Select Nine New Members
December 3, 2021 LOUISVILLE, KY – The West End Opportunity Partnership recently adopted a plan to use “Neighborhood Nominators” to help select the final nine members of its board of directors.
The Neighborhood Nominators will include West Louisville business representatives, faith leaders, civically-engaged residents and representatives from established neighborhood organizations to help identify the final members of the West End Opportunity Partnership board.
“It is important that we include vested residents of West Louisville neighborhoods in the process to select the final nine members of this West End Opportunity Partnership board,” said DeVone Holt, who is a current board member leading the process to select the final appointees. “Giving the community control of the front end of this selection process will help ensure we have people on the board who are credible representatives of each of the nine West Louisville neighborhoods.”
The West End Opportunity Partnership is a public corporation established earlier this year by the Kentucky General Assembly to operate with 21 voting members who will manage financial resources for a newly-created West Louisville Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) district. The initial 12 members of the board were appointed by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, Simmons College of Kentucky, the NAACP and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
State legislation requires that the remaining board members come from one of each of the nine West Louisville neighborhoods, which include Algonquin, California, Chickasaw, Park Duvalle, Park Hill, Parkland, Portland, Russell and Shawnee.
At their November meeting, the current West End Opportunity Partnership interim board agreed to invite three people in each of the nine West Louisville neighborhoods (27 in total) to serve as separate working groups of Neighborhood Nominators.
The role of the Neighborhood Nominator groups will be to review applications submitted from residents in their respective neighborhoods who desire to serve on the West End Opportunity Partnership board.
The nine Neighborhood Nominator groups are scheduled to be established the week of December 20th. They will be tasked with working together to submit their top three nominees to the West End Opportunity Partnership board by January 31st.
After receiving recommendations from the Neighborhood Nominators, the Board Development committee will rank the nominees according to the board selection criteria and submit its slate of candidates to the board for a final vote at the Partnership’s February 12th meeting.
Residents can submit applications to the Neighborhood Nominators from December 6th through January 14th. The application is accessible online at westendpartners.org or in hard copy form at the Louisville Urban League located at 1535 W. Broadway.
“We designed this process to maximize community input,” said Jeana Dunlap, vice-chair of the West End Opportunity Partnership. “Involving the community will help us properly vet the candidates who apply to serve on the board. We also believe it will also help us solicit a well-rounded group of residents who take interest in helping shape the future of their neighborhoods by becoming decision makers on this board.”
The application process recently approved by the West End Opportunity Partnership utilizes a weighted evaluation system to examine candidates based on their professional experience, ethnicity, generational status, digital literacy and the length and type of residency they’ve held in West Louisville.
Long-term renters will be weighted more favorably than owners in this process to ensure the disproportionately high number of renters in West Louisville have an increased opportunity to be represented on the board.
Members of the West End Opportunity Partnership interim board will be on hand to explain the application process at online community meetings hosted by the Louisville Central Community Centers (LCCC) on Thursday, December 2 and Thursday, December 9 and online meetings hosted by state senator Gerald Neal and state representative Pamela Stevenson on Saturday, December 4 and Saturday, December 11.
Zoom link for the Thursday sessions at 6:30pm: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5960723563?pwd%3DYlg1MnA 3WHJNZ2RTdUxWWFlxMFB2UT09&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1629158201959721&usg
Zoom link for the Saturday sessions at 9:00 am: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83398284843?pwd%3DejdiUDFuRGh EQjBiK3VFUExMcmFxZz09&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1628731475872097&usg=AOvVaw2 kTg64bq8aoAObPWwvCK06
Google Forms link for Online application for West End Opportunity Partnership Board accepting applications December 6th through January 15th:
