Yates fights back against robo-calling incumbent

Wednesday morning at 10:30am David Yates, Candidate for Louisville Metro Council, District 25 will be hosting a press conference in front of City Hall on Jefferson Street. Yates will address the robocalls that his opponent has been sending across south Louisville in response to the issues set out in Yates' direct mail pieces.

Over the past three weeks voters in Louisville's 25th District have been receiving Direct Mail literature from democratic candidate David Yates. The second piece sparked a great deal of controversy and even lead to Yates receiving death threats at his office. The second piece called "Apples and Oranges" set out the difference Yates sees between himself and his opponent.

"Voters in the 25th District have a clear choice in this election, and we're showing that these differences are like apples and oranges," Yates said.

Today Yates dropped a mail piece telling voters about the $7,000 worth of neighborhood funds that Hawkins has spent on the Private, East End Soccer Club, Javanon. "Doug Hawkins took dollars designated to rejunivate our neighborhood and gave them to his friends in the east end so their families could play soccer in a private club," Yates delcared. "That's unacceptable. Our neighborhoods and community deserve a partner on Metro Council who will reinvest our neighborhood dollars in our community, not the east end."

Javanon is the same 23,000 sq. ft. Soccer Club that was constructed in a residential neighborhood (Tucker Station) without city approval, and resulted in an illegal, secret backroom meeting to get off the ground. Allegations unearthed by The Ville Voice "exposed a routine way of doing business in the city’s Planning Department, one that all-too-often favors developers at the expense of the actual rules and the rights of neighbors. It exposed the fact that attorneys for developers exert pressure on BOZA members and the too-easy access they have, to the point that if requested, they can persuade officials to hold illegal meetings to make sure things go the way they want in public."

"We learned two important lesson with this one debacle: First, south end neighborhood funds need to be reivested into the south end. Period.

Second, our system of government must be more transparent and accountable to taxpayers. No more back room deals or secret meetings," Yates said.