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Yates Confident Mayor Won’t Veto Landmarks Bill

The author of a controversial landmarks ordinance is optimistic that Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer will not veto the legislation.After months of debate, the council voted to change the city’s longstanding process to declare historic sites. But a group of preservationists is urging the mayor to reject the ordinance, arguing that it violates the state constitution and encroaches upon the executive branch’s authority.Councilman David Yates, D-25, who introduced the measure, says the mayor isn’t likely to veto the law."If you veto it then you lose the improved legislation. We hopefully don’t have to go that route and I don’t think that would be his intention. But I can’t speak for him," he says.A Fischer spokesman says the mayor continues to consider whether to sign or veto the ordinance and has about a week to make a decision.Any veto would require 18 votes by the council to override that decision, which could be close when considering that the council passed Yates’s landmarks ordinance by a 16-7 vote. Three members—Councilwomen Barbarba Shanklin, Attica Scott and Cheri Bryant Hamilton—were absent from last week's meeting.Yates says he worked to reach a compromise before the bill was passed, but that if Fischer vetoes the ordinance he has the necessary two-thirds vote to override that decision."On the day of the vote we were missing a few members—three Democrats. Two of which have committed to vote for it both before and after. So that would be 18 votes,” he says.