QUALIFICATIONS:A member must be at least 18 years of age, a qualified voter and must be a resident within the territory of the consolidated local government and district that he or she seeks to represent for at least one (1) year immediately prior to the person’s electionTERM:The members are elected by the city’s twenty-six districts in partisan elections to serve four-year, staggered terms.DUTIES:The Louisville Metro Council is the city’s primary legislative body. It is responsible for adopting the city budget, approving mayoral appointees, levying taxes, and making or amending city laws, policies, and ordinances. It was formally established in 2003 after the merger of the City of Louisville and Jefferson County. The Metro Council is made up of twenty-six members.
Contact email
info@josieraymond.com
Current Job
State Representative
For the last six years, I have stood up for my community's values in Frankfort in a very difficult environment. I am known as a fierce advocate for public education, workers rights, LGBTQ rights, reproductive freedom, and environmental justice - all relevant to Metro Council. I bring experience in negotiation, communications, community outreach, and budgeting. Outside of policymaking, I have dedicated my career to creating educational opportunities for low-income students.
As long as any child in our community doesn't have what they need to succeed, the answer will always be child poverty. No matter what someone cares about - kindergarten readiness, workforce participation, public assistance, or youth violence, investments in children are the answer. Ensuring that our youngest learners have access to high quality learning environments is the “silverest bullet” we have to solve a wide range of issues facing our city. Louisville can follow many of our peer cities in enacting a community-wide universal pre-k system during my time on council.
To ensure that people of all backgrounds, identities, and abilities can fully participate in our city, we must first work to identify the barriers - historic and persistent. One major hurdle is distrust between our citizens and our institutions. We must name the divisions in our city, including economic, racial, and age segregation, in order to start addressing the systems that perpetuate them. Two recent examples are cuts to JCPS and TARC busing, services that provide the most benefit to low income people in our city.
As a Metro Council member, I pledge to do the community’s work with integrity and transparency. The government belongs to the people, and the people deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent and how their representatives are making policy. In addition, I will do my best to hold accountable any member of Metro government who does not adhere to a high standard of public transparency and trust.
More guns mean more gun deaths. I have worked in Frankfort to empower cities to protect their residents from gun violence. In addition to sponsoring red flag legislation (a version of which has greatly reduced suicide in Indiana), I have filed bills each of the last few years to lift the NRA-backed state preemption and allow cities to regulate gun sales and ownership in their boundaries. I also support safe storage requirements to protect toddlers, kids, and teens. Louisville has unique challenges and needs unique tools.
I strongly support the expansion of free, high quality, full day pre-k to all of Louisville’s 3 and 4-year-olds in a variety of settings - from public preschool to private centers, faith-based centers, and home-based care. In addition, I support finding ways for Metro government to partner with JCPS to ensure that the school system that provided me with a great education continues to do so for many generations to come, with expanded options for out of school time and providing public services in schools.
