By Andy Furman
NKyTribune reporter
He is the mayor – really. Ron Washington is Covington’s new mayor, but some people don’t believe it.
“I enjoy walking through our city,” the new Mayor told the Covington Rotary Club at their lunch meeting at the Metropolitan Club this week. “Actually, I was looking for something to put in our time capsule.”
Washington said he was on Sixth and Scott when he saw a couple and greeted them with, “Hi, I’m your mayor.”
The response, “Yeah, sure you are. . .I get more responses that I look like NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, than the Mayor,” the former Holmes High School basketballer told the Northern Kentucky Tribune.
“This is a different city from the one I grew up in,” he continued, “That’s because now people want to be here, work here, and play here. In fact, I’ll walk on Seventh and Madison and not a soul knows me, and that’s a good thing – we have new growth here.”
That new growth starts with Ron Washington who was elected to a four-year term as mayor in 2024, after serving two two-year terms on the Covington Board of Commissioners. During those elections, in 2020 and 2022, he was the highest vote-getter in the election, which led to his role as Mayor Pro-Tem in addition to commissioner.
He’s a proud product of the Covington Independent Public Schools, graduated Holmes High School in 1986, and still serves as PA announcer for all Lady Bulldog basketball games.
In fact, Dave Meyer, past president of the Covington Rotary, was Washington’s sixth-grade teacher at Third District School, located at Fifth and Philadelphia.
“Oh, Mr. Meyer,” the mayor exclaimed at the lunch meeting, “I remember you were a great dodgeball player.”
But for the rookie mayor, it’s not all fun and dodgeball.
“We started a transition committee,” he said, “to make a more efficient form of government.”
The Mayor-Council form of government will take place in two years, he says. It’s a system of local government in which a mayor who is directly elected by the voters acts as chief executive, while a separately elected city council constitutes the legislative body.
It is one of the two most common forms of local government in the United States and is the form most frequently adopted in large cities, although the other common form, council-manager government, is the local form of more municipalities.
At present, the system has the mayor and four city commissioners acting as partners.
“When the new system takes over,” Washington said, “commissioners will get a salary cut, and I will not get a pay increase. That’s for the next mayor.”
And, if you’re wondering, Mayor Ron Washington earns a salary of $33,000.
He was proud to point out the City of Covington has 114 police officers and 140 firefighters and has been pleased to announce the addition of Fischer Homes as a new business coming to Covington in about six months.
“Some 350 people will have well-paying jobs with that move,” Washington said.
It was also perfect timing for the mayor to shine some national light on his city.
Food and Wine Magazine just released a list of their top small U.S. cities for food and drink and Covington has been named one of the publication’s top small U.S. cities for food and drink in its 2025 Global Tastemakers awards.
But there’s more than food and wine on the mayor’s plate.
The Covington Recreation Commission plans to work with the school system, he says.
“We’ll partner with the athletic departments. We’ll be meeting with them, soon and putting team together.”
Washington claims the schools have the facilities, so why not have the community use them.
Let’s not forget the 123 acres of land that was once the IRS Building on Fourth Street. A hotel is planed there, Washington said, with some 250 rooms.
“The name will not be released yet,” he said.
Also, some 12 townhouses – half are sold — Washington noted, and about 250 market-rate apartments. Northern Kentucky University’s Chase Law School will have a home on the site, as will the University of Kentucky Medical School.
“We’ll have a land-bridge promenade park there as well,” he said. “We’re embraced as a city.”