By Ryan Clark
NKyTribune reporter
A former employee of the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky spoke to city commissioners Tuesday about investigating mismanagement at the shelter.
In the public comment portion of the city’s regularly scheduled legislative meeting, Deborah Zeph, a retired nurse and former employee who worked at ESNKY for three years, made an impassioned plea for commissioners to look into several concerns at the shelter, located at 436 W. 13th St.
Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky. (File photo)
“The shelter is unsafe, and staffed mostly by women tasked with overseeing at least 68 men with criminal backgrounds, drug addictions and who suffer from mental illness,” Zeph said. “This is why police are constantly called for aggressive behavior, fights, and drug use.
“Staff are scared,” she continued. “Guests aren’t being brought to a place properly managed or where services are set up to help them succeed. The shelter seems more like an organization dedicated to fundraising than to the wellbeing of people. I’m a retired nurse. I did the work there for as long as I could because I care. And I care about the people there now. It is my opinion that the Executive Director mismanages the shelter and mistreats the staff.”
Both Zepf and another staffer, Anne Alig, resigned from the shelter because they said their safety concerns were not addressed.
Alig, who worked at the shelter for a year and a half, provided a statement to commissioners: “I’ve witnessed attempted suicide, overdoses and multiple fights, often only with one other female on staff. One particular instance was when I was only a few feet away from a guest, a male who was 6-foot-5, very large and experiencing a mental breakdown. He threatened staff with a box cutter. He destroyed the property while we hid in a room in the back…There is no real training offered at the shelter. We are understaffed. There is no security. The wands used to check guests for items like the box cutter that was used in the event described earlier, don’t work. ESNKY is a sham. The building is a shell for a fundraising scheme to profit off some of our most vulnerable people.”
“I’m hoping you hear me when I say: If the shelter isn’t properly investigated and regulated, someone is seriously going to get hurt or killed,” Zepf said. “I appreciate the opportunity to shed some light on the seriousness of this situation. Thank you.”
Commissioner Tim Downing then asked for a recommendation from city staff about their thoughts on the shelter and the complaints, to “get an understanding from staff what their perspective is.” He said he’d like to hear something within the next two weeks.
Budget and Fidelity Update
“Give us a dose of reality,” Mayor Joseph U. Meyer said.
Steve Webb, the city’s finance director, did exactly that, explaining how the city will have to find a way of making up for millions of dollars in lost payroll tax because Fidelity has changed their local tax withholdings to home jurisdictions because of the time their employees work from home.
Because of that change — which Fidelity officials have said they will not change back — the city will be forced to make up about $5 million initially, with another possible $11 million the following year.
Even with the new IRS site providing revenue streams with possible companies bringing in new jobs, the city may not be able to take advantage of those for three to five years, city officials said. So, Webb provided the commission with ways the city plans to combat the fallout.
Those could include:
• ARPA funding, under the category of “revenue replacement”
• Updating the net profit tax thresholds and taking the allowable rate for property taxes
• Considering an adjustment to the solid waste fee
• Considering recommending temporary ordinance changes to reduce the nearly $3,000,000 transferred out of the general fund for TIF funds .
• May also recommend a reduction in the funding in the infrastructure fund
• Consider a policy recommendation to temporarily underfund contribution to legacy pension funds
• Soft hiring freezes, backfilling positions
• Examining overtime hours
• Taking funds from the rainy-day fund.
“Staff have already taken a large step in this direction on the fiscal ‘24 budget and will continue to make recommendations on what we can pause,” Webb said.
Mayor Meyer said the Commission would need updates, beginning in early February, to know exactly what recommendations they should make by the time the budget is due April 30.
“We can really not overstate the seriousness of this situation, which was created by circumstances completely outside of the control of the of the city government,” Meyer said.
Bike Trails
Executive Director for Tri-State Trails Wade Johnston and Project Manager Brad Bowers gave a presentation for commissioners on a bike infrastructure study — a Bicycle Transportation Plan for Covington and Newport.
“Tri-State Trails has been developing a bicycle transportation plan for Covington and Newport, using recognized best practices, referencing previous plans, in coordination with KYTC and communities of Covington and Newport,” city documents say. “The Plan makes recommendations for implementation of bicycle transportation infrastructure along roadways, trails and shared use paths throughout the two cities.”
The plan hoped to:
• Identify key gaps in the bicycle transportation network
• Identify streets conducive to bicycle infrastructure with practical and cost-effective implementation strategies
• Increase bicycling access to businesses and community destinations
• Create a prioritized list for possible funding sources.
Some of the recommendations included:
• Establishing and implementing a bicycle count program and user intercept survey
• Evaluate staffing and operating/capital funding needs for bikeway implementation
• Strengthening the ongoing relationship between Covington, Newport and OKI
• Evaluate and update the boke plan every five years
• Set up a responsive public feedback system for bikeway maintenance requests.
And possible funding strategies include:
• Federal grants
• State grants
• Local funding opportunities
• Private fundraising
City Manager Ken Smith wanted to make sure and point out these were only recommendations.
“We are not asking for approval tonight, obviously, for two reasons,” he said. “We wanted to get your feedback before we just presented it and asked for a yes or no vote — also, this is a joint plan with the city of Newport, and they’re just a step or two behind us, so if Newport wants to make any changes or have any comments, we certainly don’t want to bring this back to you.”
He noted that this would appear on an agenda sometime in the future.
“I did just want to note that to set expectations for citizens and visitors — this is a series of options and recommendations, as opposed to a prescriptive plan. So if you all approve this, I don’t want to give the impression that we’re going to be able to go out and do everything that’s in here — it’s very ambitious.
“We’re going to have to work within our limitations, obviously, and those include financial, staff capacity, or existing building environment, which we’ve mentioned in terms of our narrow streets and the fact that a lot of these routes are state routes and ultimately we don’t control what happens on those streets,” Smith continued. “There’ll be a lot more discussion before we do anything.”
Additional KYTC Funding
Commissioners approved $50,000 in additional reimbursement funds from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for specialty repairs on state routes within the city limits.
Closing Portion of Alley
Commissioners voted unanimously to close a portion of the first unimproved 10-foot-wide alley east of Greenup Street perpendicular to 15th Street East.
Dirt Artisans Contract
Commissioners approved an agreement with Dirt Artisans Inc. to expand the trail network in Devou Park.
In early 2021, members of the Devou Park Advisory Board decided that they would like to expand the trails. In June 2021, the board was awarded $96,694 from the R.C. Durr Foundation which combined with the allocated $53,000 from the Devou Trust Fund is enough to add more than three miles of additional back country trails to Devou Park. Over the last two years, the new layout for these trails has been established, and in Feb. 2023, the project was taken out to bid. It was awarded in July 2023 to Dirt Artisans Inc.
Derrick Barnes, Detroit Lions (File photo)
Congrats to Derrick Barnes
Mayor Meyer also congratulated Derrick Barnes, the linebacker from Holy Cross High School who starred at Purdue before being drafted by the Detroit Lions. This weekend, Barnes made the game-clinching interception in the Lions’ playoff victory over Tampa Bay.
“In the event that anybody from Covington is curious about what professional football team they should be rooting for as we look to the finals in the Super Bowl, there is an answer to that question and the answer is the Detroit Lions,” Meyer said. “We should take this occasion to revel in the success of our citizens are the products of our school system, the products of our neighborhood and supporting the Detroit Lions.”
Meyer on City Hall Committee
Mayor Meyer nominated himself to be the Commission’s representative on the new City Hall Committee that will continue the city’s ongoing efforts for a new building.
Executive Session
At the end of the meeting, Mayor Meyer requested the Commission go into an Executive Session based on “the purpose of considering proposed or pending litigation.” Meyer said the Commission would not reconvene or conduct any more public business on the floor.
Next Meeting
The next regularly scheduled Covington Commission meeting will be a caucus meeting held at 6 p.m., Feb. 6, at the City Building at 20 W. Pike St. in Covington. The meetings can be followed live on Fioptics channel 815, Spectrum channel 203, the Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky (TBNK) website, the TBNK Facebook page @TBNKonline, and the TBNK Roku channels.
