Government of Louisville, Kentucky

The Louisville Metro Council is a unicameral body consisting of 26 members, each elected from a geographic district, normally for four-year terms.

The Executive Branch of the Louisville Metro Government is led by the Mayor, and contains approximately two dozen distinct agencies.

Under the Kentucky Revised Statutes, they are responsible for the appointment and removal of all unelected officers and shall "broadly exercise all executive and administrative powers" vested in the city except otherwise prescribed by law.

Each agency has been created by the Louisville Metropolitan government to provide the city and its inhabitants with a specific service or to fulfill some other function in the public interest.

The largest public library system in the U.S. state of Kentucky with seventeen branches,[15] the LFPL serves the entirety of Jefferson County.

The library's main branch is sited at Fourth and York streets, south of Broadway in Downtown Louisville.

[16] Founded in 1928, the Louisville Regional Airport Authority (LRAA) is an autonomous municipal corporation established by Chapter 77 of the 1928 Public Acts for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Under the provisions of Kentucky Revised Statutes Chapter 183, the LRAA is responsible for the establishment, ownership, operation, development, and promotion of airport and air navigation facilities within the Louisville Metropolitan Area.

[19] In 1974, one year after the passage of a controversial referendum pushed by then-mayor Harvey Sloane which raised the occupational privilege tax by 0.2%, TARC acquired the Louisville Transit Company and the Louisville Railway Company, which at the time were suffering severe financial difficulties and had planned to cease operations.

The board is responsible for managing, controlling and conducting the business, activities and affairs of the Transit Authority.

The TARC Board of Directors is also responsible for overall planning of the mass public transit in its service area.

Each member of the board is appointed by the incumbent mayor and approved by the Louisville Metro Council for three-year terms.

The seal was designed during a citywide competition by William Glenn Heck, an art director native to Louisville.