LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An effort to get Mayor Greg Fischer fired from his position as the president of the United States Conference of Mayors has resulted in roughly 1,000 emails and 100 phone calls to members of the organization, a local organizer said. And the next phase of the campaign is set to launch within the next week.

“If the city that you govern is being harmed by the policies you create, then you should not be in charge of anything higher,” said Shauntrice Martin, who launched the campaign to remove Fischer last month. A more public-facing social media push is set to launch soon to augment the email and phone effort, she said. 

Martin, the owner of Black Market KY, a grocery store in West Louisville, began the effort to oust Fischer by reaching out directly to the U.S. Conference of Mayors. She wanted to see if they “were on the same page and just needed a little push," she said.

“They’re a national organization,” she said. “They probably don't know all the nuances about our city.”

The group’s response did not satisfy Martin, so she encouraged others to reach out to the organization and some of the other mayors involved with it. Soon, the inboxes of people such as Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, who serves as the conference’s Vice President, and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, the Second Vice President, were filling up with emails from Louisvillians.

The message, repeated four times in the email, was simple: “Fire Fischer.”

The email, which makes the case why the third-term Louisville mayor should not be president of the conference, accuses Fischer of using “Black people as props to gain political capital” and enacting “anti-Black policies.” It criticizes his response to Breonna Taylor’s killing and his handling of the Louisville Metro Police Department's (LMPD) Explorer sex abuse scandal. 

“Greg Fischer doesn't care about Black people,” the email said. A spokesperson for the mayor's office did not respond to a request for comment.

The email also points a finger at the conference for choosing Fischer as president over several Black leaders. “He was chosen over Mayor London Breed and Mayor Wendell Lynch and Mayor Michael Tubbs who all rolled out much-needed and successful initiatives for Black residents,” it said.

The conference did not respond directly to a request for a comment. Instead, spokesperson Sara Durr explained the conference’s process for choosing its president each year. “Mayor Fischer’s term will end on June 11, 2021,” she wrote in an email.

Spectrum News 1 also reached out to all of the mayors who have received the email about Fischer. Whaley and Columbia, South Carolina Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin declined to comment. Several other mayors, including Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Suarez, did not respond. 

Martin said the effort to remove Fischer, who cannot run for another term as mayor, is about ensuring that he has a harder time running for higher office and stopping him from influencing policy in other cities.

“We really need to stop him now before he puts forward more of his racist policy and more of his policies that really hurt the working class,” she said.