The Kenton County Mayors’ Group has received an award from the American Society for Public Administration, Greater Cincinnati Chapter. It is a lovely prize, and it was awarded in 2020, but since the mayors group is still in existence, meeting, interacting and collaborating every month, the ASPA group wanted to present it to the mayors.
The ASPA-GCC partnered with Cincinnatus for this award, and the title they decided on for the winning entry is the ‘Cincinnatus Government Cooperation Award.’ Officials created it to focus on initiatives that point up the success of all the government bodies in all the regions of the areas working together in a cooperative manner.
In other words, they want to encourage groups with a lot of leaders who come together to share ideas and learn from each other, without any one leader taking over, or more than one fighting for the chance to lead. The goal is to encourage various leaders of different regions to play well together in a harmonious, productive monthly meeting.
They thought the Kenton County Mayors’ Group fit that bill.
“The Kenton County Mayors Group has become a reliable way for the cities in Kenton County to collaborate on public affairs of mutual interest,” said Julie Olberding, Director and Professor at Northern Kentucky University, in a letter. “It was formed in 1994, and has met consistently since. It meets monthly, and to anyone in the audience, looks very much like a ‘Senate of the Cities.’ There are 19 cities in Kenton County. Covington is the largest, but has a population of 41,000 in a county of 167,000, so the majority of the counties’ residents are spread among those other 18 cities.”
Three other items of note went into the decision to pick the mayors’ group as the winner of this award.
It was pointed out that what consolidated the group back in 1994 was a threat of disintegrating the boundaries of the cities by gathering them all together under a regional form of government. Twenty-six years later, the group is more solid than ever.
Even though the mayors’ group does have some basic rules that hold it together, including bylaws, when the group comes together to discuss matters of mutual interest, everyone speaks out on their position.
They also invite people in, such as representatives from the water department, the county, and state representatives and senators who can help deepen the conversation.
Olberding also observed that the group regularly discusses a variety of subjects, including paramedic service, the census, subdivision regulations, transportation demands, as well as federal funding for local projects.
She also noted that there are occasional speakers, such as the executive director of the Kentucky Retirement Systems who was able to answer questions about the pension contribution increases, a huge issue for the cities and counties in Kentucky.
Saturday the conversation started with Judge Executive Kris Knochelmann giving an update on the progress of the parking garage being built in the back of the Kenton County building, telling the other members that it is due to be finished around October or November of next year, but qualified the wait by saying when there are people around people are generally safer.
He talked about the progress of Spark Haus, a center for startup businesses, and other organizations around the county. He also brought up 5,000 acres on the southwest side of the county, by the Boone County line, where they hope to expand the exploration of what would be the best use of the land.
He talked about the new redevelopment fund which is partnering with the state to encourage more projects to take shape in area cities. Knochelmann said if the cities have a project they would love to become reality, but the funds aren’t there, they could contact the county to see if they would qualify for these funds.
Ft. Wright Mayor Dave Hatter related that the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has been to his city to talk about a roundabout being installed just off the I-75 exit. He said the first rendering of how the exit could be improved was well received, but the second rendering was less in line with what the city had in mind, and on top of that, the Cabinet has portrayed a roundabout as the answer to any and all traffic problems. Hatter is not at all sure a roundabout will be a solution where they want to put it, and he hopes the Cabinet is listening to the city.
He brought up the issue of a centralized payroll tax, and said it is a terrible idea and he is 100 percent against it.
Hatter talked about a fiber collaboration system in Ohio where if a city has experienced a cyber incident trained experts from the Ohio National Guard come and help. In addition there are educational programs where cities learn about how to handle cyber threats.
Hatter has testified in Frankfort about the program many times, and he hopes at some point they can adopt a similar program. He said they don’t have to re-invent the wheel; they can lift and shift the ‘awesome’ program from Ohio. He said he will need some help from people to make this a reality.
One by one the members contributed to the conversation, and at the end, Group President Heather Jansen, Mayor of Villa Hills, told them all about the glass engraved award that was sent to Sharmili Reddy, Executive Director of PDS.
“This is an Outstanding Public Service Award,” said Jansen. “If anyone would like to keep it in a place of honor, it is a very nice award.”