By Ryan Clark
NKyTribune reporter
A change in commission meeting protocol produced new discussion during the city’s regularly scheduled caucus meeting this week. At their last legislative meeting in December, commissioners approved a rule change to allow the City Manager to offer his updates at the weekly meetings.
“For both the caucus meeting and the legislative meeting, in which the City Manager gives a report on activities undertaken by his office and issues that he thinks are important to bring to the Commission’s attention,” Mayor Joseph U. Meyer said last month.
City Manager Ken Smith was able to give his first presentation, which actually just resulted in Smith and the Commissioners discussing several topics that had recently been brought to their attention.
“It allows the City Manager to keep us apprised of what’s going on, but it also allows us as commissioners to ask questions about things that have been brought to us in an environment all five of us can hear and answer at the same time,” Meyer said. “So, we expect this to be helpful for us in terms of the guidance of the activities of the city.”
The city officials discussed several topics, including:
• A Request for Proposal for construction of the Central Riverfront site, as it pertains to the Davis-Bacon Act, which says that all laborers and mechanics employed by contractors or subcontractors shall be paid wages at rates not less than those prevailing on similar construction in the locality as determined by the U.S. Secretary of Labor.
• Buildings that were scheduled to be demolished on Jefferson and Madison, which the City Manager said he would check up on.
• The process to develop another Covington bicycle path program. Smith said he has a final draft which is being reviewed. He also said he has a meeting Wednesday with Elizabeth Wetzel, the city’s Director of Special Projects and Governmental Affairs, who is leading those efforts. “If we can get comfortable with that, it’ll be on your next agenda,” Smith said.
• Duke assisting in paying for the electric investment at the IRS site. “Okay, we’ve got our bid out for the infrastructure for the IRS site,” Meyer said. “It’s been a priority to the Commission since 2019 that we have our franchise agreement with Duke for our electric service. Is Duke going to help pay for the electric investment in the IRS site?” Smith said he brought it up at a meeting last week with state legislators, and that another meeting would soon follow.
• Permanent signage for street sweeping.
• Homeless shelters, and the balancing act between the interests of the impacted neighborhoods and the operators of the shelters. Officials are currently trying to obtain more up-to-date data on the topic. Another discussion involved some recent ordinances that had been deemed “unenforceable.”
• A report on the disposal of city property.
Meyer then wanted to sound off on one last topic.
“Wrapping up the previous discussion here, the bigger question that many of us have had is the effect of decisions that are made by this body if we adopt an ordinance or if we adopt an order — are the staff obliged to follow it?” Meyer said. “Now, from our perspective, we’re the ones who are accountable to the public, and we believe we have an absolute right to rely on the enforcement of our orders and ordinances, yet we’ve run into a couple of situations — including this one with the cold shelter — where we’ve had staff people a year ago in the summer time calling folks associated with one of the shelters and say, ‘No no, you don’t have to follow that ordinance.’
“The real question in this form of government is about the efficacy of the rules that we make, and to me, an ordinance is a law, and it has to be followed,” he continued. “If it’s not going to be followed because of a philosophical disagreement or questions about it, the first duty is to tell the members of the Commission what the problems are so that we can be involved in the solution. It’s not just to ignore it, say it’s unenforceable, and then deal with it however it gets dealt with — if ever. That’s a real problem for us.
“Does the staff have to follow (the ordinances)?” he asked. “We believe yes, and we believe if you can’t follow it, then we need to be told sooner rather than later. And I don’t have to get into examples with you of all the times we’ve had staff — previous staff, not pointing any figures to anybody — who have ignored our policies, our ordinances and rules, and then we wind up having to pay the heavy price.”
Ordinance — Greenup Alley
Commissioners heard the proposal of an ordinance to close a portion of the first unimproved 10-foot-wide alley east of Greenup Street and perpendicular to 15th Street East.
“The owner(s) of 1514-16 Greenup St., 1516 Greenup St., and 1500 Collins St., Doug and Noah Gastright, contacted city staff to request the city vacate a portion of the 10-foot alley running between the Greenup Street and Collins Street properties,” city documents say. “The Gastrights are renovating the residential dwelling at 1514 and 1516 Greenup. If the alley is vacated, the Gastrights intend to split the property at 1500 Collins with part consolidated into 1516 Greenup and the other part consolidated into 1514 Greenup.”
The ordinance will have a first reading next week.
Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center
Commissioners heard a proposal to execute a memorandum of understanding with the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center. As in the past, the city will reimburse Carnegie up to $10,000 for operating expenses and up to $50,000 for energy/utility related expenditures.
The memorandum of understanding was placed on next week’s consent agenda.
New Hire
Commissioners heard the proposed hiring of: Toni Brown, Accounting Manager, Finance Department
The proposal was placed on next week’s consent agenda.
Appointment
Commissioners heard the proposed appointment of: Mayor Joseph U. Meyer, Planning and Development Services Council
The proposal was placed on next week’s consent agenda.
Promotions
Commissioners heard the proposed promotions of: Rebecca Blackburn, Tax Auditor, Finance Department; Police Sergeant Justin Meyer to Lieutenant
The proposals were placed on next week’s consent agenda.
Retirement
Commissioners heard the proposed retirement of Police Specialist Anthony Jansen
The proposal was placed on next week’s consent agenda.
Executive Session
At the end of the meeting, Mayor Meyer announced that the Commissioners would adjourn into an executive session, “for the purposes of discussing the acquisition of real estate.” He said no further action would be taken Tuesday night.
Next Meeting
The next regularly scheduled Covington Commission meeting will be a legislative meeting held at 6 p.m., Jan. 9, 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.