Louisville Metro Council picks new member to fill the Highlands-area District 8 seat

Louisville Metro Council members voted Thursday to pick Ben Reno-Weber to fill the District 8 seat that Cassie Chambers Armstrong vacated after winning election to the state Senate.

The 25 sitting Metro Council members needed five rounds of voting Thursday evening to determine the winner, with Reno-Weber ultimately receiving 14 votes and Jo Lloyd-Triplett following with 11 votes.

Metro Council interviewed 18 applicants Monday for the seat before making the appointment Thursday.

Reno-Weber, a Democrat, works for the University of Louisville as the deputy director of the Humana Health Equity Innovation Hub. He previously served as director of the Microsoft Future of Work Initiative during Mayor Greg Fischer's administration, project director for the Greater Louisville Project and in roles with MobileServe, Kentucky YMCA Youth Association, Boston Consulting Group and World Bank Group. He also has volunteered and continues to volunteer with various local community groups and boards.

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"I call myself a social entrepreneur because I believe entrepreneurship is a mindset, not a sector," Reno-Weber wrote in his application for the seat. "I believe that the issues we face are best understood by the people closest to the problems, regardless of whether those people are community members, businesspeople, nonprofit leaders, or government employees. I also believe that collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship should be at the heart of how we address our collective challenges."

District 8 includes numerous neighborhoods and home rule cities southeast of downtown Louisville. Included in the district are: Belknap, Bonnycastle, Bowman, Cherokee Seneca, Cherokee Triangle, Deer Park, Gardiner Lane, Hawthorne, Hayfield Dundee, Highlands, Highlands Douglass and Tyler Park; and parts of Bon Air, Cherokee Gardens, Germantown and Irish Hill. It also includes the home rule cities of Kingsley, Seneca Gardens, Strathmoor Manor and Strathmoor Village.

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Chambers Armstrong, a Democrat, had represented District 8 since winning election in 2020. Last month she defeated Republican candidate Misty Glin in the special election for the state Senate District 19 seat that U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey gave up to successfully run for Congress.

The 26-member Metro Council has 17 Democrats and nine Republicans.

The new District 8 representative joins recently appointed District 3 and District 6 representatives, Kumar Rashad and Phillip Baker, as the freshest faces on Metro Council. The council has seen a busy period for turnover, with seven new members also winning election last fall.

The appointment process for Metro Council could change going forward. Earlier Thursday, Kentucky lawmakers sent a bill requiring special elections for vacant Metro Council seats in certain cases to Gov. Andy Beshear's desk.

The District 8 seat will appear on November ballots as part of a special election, and all even-numbered council districts are also up for election in 2024.

Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville Metro Council appoints new District 8 member Ben Reno-Weber