By Ryan Clark
NKyTribune reporter
The Covington city manager, as well as the Mayor and the Board of Commissioners wanted to make one thing clear Tuesday night: No one is reducing the number of firefighters in the city or banning their overtime — even though there is a budget problem.
Because of that, the Commission agreed there should be a third-party audit to better help everyone understand just how the city’s fire department overtime works and whether or not the city even has enough firefighters at all.
Several residents came out to the Commission’s regularly scheduled legislative meeting Tuesday night to voice their concerns over the city’s handling of overtime and personnel issues for the fire department. City Manager Ken Smith addressed the topic during his weekly report.
Covington Commission (Photo by Ryan Clark/NKyTribune)
“Last Thursday, I directed our Fire Chief to stop backfilling positions when individuals call in for unscheduled time off unless it is critical to the operations or safety,” the City Manager reported. “I asked the chief to manage the remaining staff as he saw fit in order to have the least disruption to the services as possible.”
Smith said it was not an easy decision to make.
“I did this for the simple reason that the overtime cost associated with backfilling unscheduled time off is completely unacceptable — it is at completely unacceptable levels, and it would be so even if our budget wasn’t in the condition that it is,” he said.
Smith reported that the city budgets $400,000 in unscheduled overtime for the fire department per year. However, last year, the overtime ballooned to $1.3 million, and with pension and Social Security costs, was actually a lot more.
“My first reaction here is that this is a serious budgetary management problem within the fire department,” Mayor Joseph U. Meyer said.
“Halfway through this fiscal year we’ve already exceeded the unscheduled budget overtime by $220,000 — that’s not sustainable,” Smith said. “That’s going to cost jobs in the next budget because we’re going to have to lay people off. So, we’re trying to minimize the overtime. And I want to say — I want to emphasize — that we have not taken $1, not $1 from the budget. We’ve not laid off one firefighter. We have not cut anyone’s scheduled hours. We have not cut anyone’s salary.”
Commissioner Shannon Smith suggested that possibly a third-party consultant could come in and possibly decide whether or not the number of firefighters in Covington — currently 122 — were enough for a city of this size, as well as educate city officials on just how the distribution of overtime should work.
“Have we considered some sort of independent third party to do an audit of this issue so we can determine if they are understaffed?” she asked.
The other commissioners agreed that an audit would be beneficial, and Ken Smith said he would continue to talk to them to see what might be the best solution.
In January, Steve Webb, the city’s finance director, explained how the city will have to find a way of making up for millions of dollars in lost payroll tax because Fidelity 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.
So, the city is cutting costs, and so far, Smith said the city has cut all unnecessary travel and instituted a soft hiring freeze. He said every open position is being evaluated.
“On my end, whenever someone asks me why we make a decision, I like to be able to explain it and I like to be able to understand it,” Commissioner Shannon Smith said. “I would like the body to entertain just getting pricing from a third party to take a look and see whether or not we’re understaffed and see what we can do from there — I want to understand the overtime issue.”
Homeless shelter audit
Mayor Meyer made a recommendation to the Board, requesting a management audit for the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky at 436 W. 13th St.
In January, Deborah Zeph and Annie Alig, two former employees of the shelter, communicated to the Board about various issues they had witnessed while working there. Tuesday, Meyer responded by first saying that no one wants to close a shelter.
“Now, I want to say this, just flat-out: Anybody who ascribes to the notion that the city wants to close down the shelters is either trying to sell newspapers, raise money, or just stir the pot,” he said. “It’s simply not true.”
However, there is a balance that must be maintained, he said.
“The city has a responsibility to our vulnerable populations to work with the health and social service agencies in this case to ensure that people who don’t have stable housing are treated in a way that respects their dignity and helps them with their immediate needs,” he said. “We absolutely have that responsibility, but we also have an equal responsibility to our citizens at large to insist that agencies be good neighbors and that they do not drain city coffers by requiring city services far beyond what is reasonable and acceptable.”
And he had the data to back it up. “The impact of the 13th Street shelter on the West Side neighborhood has not been good,” he said.
Emergency service calls from 2021 in the neighborhood were 1,305. In 2023, the first full year of operation of the shelter, the calls totaled 2,050. And while supporters of the shelter will argue that not all calls can be associated with the shelter, Covington police and fire departments recorded 640 runs to the shelter’s address, including about 400 police responses for active disputes, 71 to deal with people refusing to leave the facility, 27 for general trouble calls and 15 where employees needed help dealing with their clients — in one year.
Meyer also commended the whistleblowers.
“(Deborah Zeph) struck me personally as credible and sincere,” he said. “I thought she was courageous for bringing her concerns to our attention.”
His solution? A management audit.
“I recommend we start with a management audit to review the shelter’s compliance with the city ordinance program operations and make recommendations for improving services to the homeless, reducing the demand for public services and lessening the negative impact on the residents and neighborhood,” he said. “An independent review will go a long way towards restoring the city government’s credibility.”
“I think it’s a good idea to bring an outside firm to take a look at it,” Commissioner Ron Washington said. “I understand the problems with the neighborhood and the experience the neighbors are having, but I think it’s also fair to run the best homeless shelter possible for the people that are temporarily there, so I think I think it’s an important move for our city.”
Port Authority Resolution
Last week, Mayor Meyer proposed a resolution that requested, in part, that “the Northern Kentucky Riverport Authority commit in writing that it will abide by the requirements of Covington’s neighborhood development code, historic preservation standards, public realm streetscape design standards and infrastructure requirements.”
Tuesday night, the Board passed over the resolution, due to ongoing discussions.
“Since last week, we have been in further discussions with the Port Authority’s representatives and they’re very amenable to discussing and trying to work out a deal where they will acknowledge their obligations to abide by our historic preservation, zoning and other local codes,” Mayor Meyer said. “So, I would like to make a motion that we pass this item over and allow it to keep its place on the agenda for further notice.”
Resignations
Commissioners approved the resignations of: Officer Eric Lomax, Police Department and Casey Barach, ARPA Manager, Administration Department
Short-term rentals
The city manager noted Tuesday night that the city had already written 12 citations for illegal short-term rentals, the first ones under the new ordinance, which means those affected should be getting their notices.
IRS site Phase One Infrastructure
The city manager, Ken Smith, also noted that the city received four proposals for the Phase One Infrastructure at the former IRS site, now known as Central Covington Riverfront.
“We have narrowed those down to three for presentations this Friday,” Smith said. “So, we will be meeting with those three contractors and hopefully we’ll have a recommendation for the Commission in the coming weeks.”
Economic Development Agreements
Commissioners approved 10 economic development agreements:
Pasquale Performance, LLC, dba Southside Strength Company, 319 Madison Avenue, Rent Incentive — $6,000
4 Hounds Pet Services, LLC, 339 West Pike Street, Rent Incentive — $6,000
Bridges Covington, LLC, 11 West 7th Street, Rent Incentive — $6,000
Noteworthy Tattoo Company, LLC, 521 Madison Avenue, Rent Incentive — $6,000
Kealoha’s Kitchen, LLC, 529 Main Street, Rent Incentive — $6,000
Covert Furniture Company, 25 Shaler Street, Façade Incentive — $6,000
Auto Body Works, Inc. dba Kelly’s Trim Shop, 2445 Madison Avenue, Façade Incentive — $6,000
Riley and Williams, LLC dba Hat Tricks Sports Bar, 902 Madison Avenue, Façade Incentive — $6,000
Landwehr Flats, LLC, 824 Madison Avenue, Façade Incentive — $6,000
Landwehr Flats, LLC, 826-828 Madison Avenue, Façade Incentive — $6,000
Board Appointment
Commissioners approved a reappointment for Molly Costello to the Covington Motor Vehicle Parking Authority Board.
Next Meeting
The next regularly scheduled Covington Commission meeting will be a caucus meeting held at 6 p.m., Feb. 20, 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.
