By Guy F. Smith
June 23, 2003

After years of lobbying effort to merge the city of Louisville with Jefferson County, Louisville Metro on Jan. 6, 2003, became the nation's 16th largest city.

The history of the merger was the subject of Louisville-Metro Mayor Jerry E. Abramson at the Saturday June 7 Plenary Session at the 71st Annual Conference of Mayors in Denver.

Abramson, a past President of the Conference of Mayors from 1993-1994, was Mayor of Louisville from 1985-1998, presiding over the old Louisville-then the nation's 61st city in terms of population.

In his remarks, Abramson, describing "The Tale of Two Cities," traced the years of history in accomplishing the merger before which the county and the city, "Éhad no common agenda, no common vision in advocacy efforts before the Kentucky legislature and Congress."

That has now changed, and Abramson is confronted with the difficult task of integrating the complete range of services for the Louisville Metro area of more than 700,000 people.

Abramson chronicled the 40 years of work to achieve the merger which, on the ballot, lost by 2,000 votes in 1982, and by 7,000 votes in 1983.

With the population of Louisville declining, issues in the merger focused on public safety, concerns over increased taxes and other negative issues.

These were overcome by an aggressive political campaign centered around such themes as "Keep the kids at home," and the positive aspects of change.

Abramson also spoke about the successful lobbying effort by the Conference of Mayors behind the Crime Bill in 1993 when he was Conference President during the Clinton Administration.

He closed his remarks by urging the mayors to work hard to achieve a coordinated strategy on Homeland Security efforts.

Abramson's role in pushing for the merger has received widespread national publicity, including a cover article in the December 2002, Governing Magazine.

In January 2003, the article noted that the merger ended years of rivalry and duplicated services for city and county residents.

Abramson was term-limited out in 1999, but won the newly created office of metro mayor in November 2002, with 74 percent of the vote.