The final revisions are underway in how Covington operates its city government. A final report has been sent to the Board of Commissioners, but a subcommittee will continue working and submit a final addendum by the Committee on Form of Government Transitions' final meeting Dec. 2.
As WVXU previously reported, Covington voters approved a change to a "manager-council" form of government to a “mayor-council” form of government in Nov. 2024. That means the mayor will have direct authority over the city's staff and veto power over an expanded city council of between six and 12 representatives. But that council could override that veto and even vote to remove the mayor.
Following the vote, the Board of Commissioners (BOC) promptly created a Committee on Form of Government Transition in early Dec. 2024, and named nine voting members and seven non-voting members of the committee. The first is made up of business owners, residents and current Mayor Ron Washington, who acts as chairperson. The seven non-voting members include commissioners and city staff.
The committee already made decisions on council size, salaries, elections and other matters of the city’s government structure that needed to be approved by the BOC before the primary election this year.
Now, the committee agreed to send the final report — with departmental changes and key revisions to the Covington Code of Ordinances — to the Board of Commissioners at a meeting Thursday. See the report below.
What was discussed?
A large part of the meeting was led by City Solicitor Frank Schultz to discuss the proposed revisions. These included fire prevention, park and public property, business regulatory licensing and rental dwelling licensing fees.
Revisions expanded on obstruction rules near fire hydrants and fire protection controls, as well as firework provisions and permits.
“All of these requests came directly from the fire chief,” Schultz said.
Schultz said the changes would add detailed temporary fireworks stand permits, which pop up regularly around the city throughout the year.
Another key revision over parks and public property gives the mayor and city council executive authority over park operation and administration.
“Our focus should really be on who gets to decide what becomes a park,” said Director of External Affairs and Senior Counsel Sebastian Torres. “Whether that be the city council or mayor.”
This rings true to the rest of the revisions proposed — many seek to clarify who gets the authority to enforce what codes.
The Committee also is adding a new snow and ice removal section, in response to this year’s winter season.
“This issue came about this past winter with one of our mobile home parks, and basically the owner refusing to actually get it plowed,” Schultz said. “The residents were effectively stuck there for days.”
Property owners and operators would be legally responsible for the removal of snow and ice — and must clear emergency access lanes within 12 hours. This provision only applies to mobile homes, but committee members wanted commissioners to consider adding a provision for private roads.
“I'll make a motion to ask the city solicitor's office to come up with some proposed language for the commission to consider addressing maintenance and snow removal from private roads for residents that will expect fire, police protection, and other city services,” said committee member David Davidson.
The motion passed.
Torres also clarified the departmental changes that the committee had already talked about at an earlier meeting.
“It outlines the recommendations we made in relation to the reshuffling of departments for purposes of reducing the number of direct reports to the city manager,” Torres said.
The committee put another meeting on the books for Aug. 20, but it will only take place if substantial changes need to be made.
While this committee will reconvene Dec. 3 to finalize its recommendations for the BOC, a sub-committee will continue its work through the end of that same month.. Any findings and recommendations made by this sub-committee will be added to the final report that will be submitted to the Board of Commissioners.
“The final report outlines the basic recommendations that were provided by the committee on the form of government transition and also notes the status regarding several of the action items,” Torres said. “So, it was just really summarizing the past year and a half of work by the committee.”
Read more
