Covington commission: Mayor sounds off on Bridge, short-term rentals, occupational tax, more

By Ryan Clark
NKyTribune reporter

As can sometimes happen, Mayor Joseph U. Meyer and the Board saved their most newsworthy items of the city’s weekly Commission meeting for last.

“I want to take advantage of this to raise a couple — actually three or four points — for discussion,” the Mayor said, as they wound up their regularly scheduled legislative meeting Tuesday night.

First, he thanked the city for its hard work in hosting President Joe Biden in a memorable visit last week. Of special note, he said, was the presentation of the original ribbon that was cut when the Brent Spence Bridge was opened in December 1963.

“It was a really positive thing,” the Mayor said.

But not all were as excited about this celebration of the new bridge.

“I think that it was amazing to have the president here in Covington,” said newly elected Commissioner Nolan Nicaise, who wore a custom T-shirt to Biden’s speech that read ‘TRANSIT, NOT HIGHWAYS!’ “I do have fear that with more lanes there will be more cars, more traffic and therefore, more possibility for safety issues, accidents etc. But it was a good day. I, of course, am heavily opposed to the expansion of highways, as anyone who knows me very well already knows — thank you.”

The Mayor responded.

“To wrap this up, I think it is important that we address and remind everybody of the city’s response to this,” he said. “I mean, we’re all still getting emails from people asking us to stop the Brent Spence Bridge corridor project. Look, the simple fact is that stopping the Brent Spence Bridge corridor project is way above our ability, above our pay grade.”

He then focused on what the city was able to accomplish by participating in the conversation.

“What we have been able to accomplish is little short of miraculous,” he said, describing how two states, two governors, two Chambers of Commerce and the entire transportation community came together — and how Covington, specifically, was able to make sure there would be no tolls. The city also negotiated to make the bridge narrower, which meant more than 100 families and seven businesses would not have to be displaced.

Even the transportation cabinet agreed to take care of some of the city’s environmental issues.

Why?

“Because we were willing to engage in the process,” Meyer said. “When this starts, we wind up having two options: We can either say no, and be against them and get run over and lose, or we can engage and negotiate and be involved in a process that winds up in compromises. That’s the choice that we made and that is the choice that is, in fact, in the best interest of this city and the people in this city.

“You know the bridge project is going to be a nightmare during construction — we all know that,” he continued. “But it will be less of a nightmare because of our engagement, and it will wind up being a much better result for our city because we have taken the time to engage to negotiate and work to improve its impact on our community.”

He then spoke on the responsibilities of a Commissioner.

“We, as elected officials, we often get in these difficult positions where our personal opinions don’t carry the day or we have to adjust our personal opinions to deal with the community responsibilities that we have,” he said. “We have to put our personal opinions aside in order to work for what’s in the best interest of the community — and I think that’s what we’ve done and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”

Commissioner Nicaise wasn’t finished.

“You had spoken about putting your personal beliefs aside for the good of the community,” Nicaise said. “One, I want to say that it’s amazing that you were able to work with the state to reduce the width of the road and it’s making a huge decrease in negative impacts, but I do believe that my resistance to the expansion of the highway overall is not a personal belief. I do that on behalf of the community and of the public. As everyone knows, cars create pollution and noise — bad for the people who live in the area of highways, which runs through the middle of Covington. So, when I resist this, I am doing so on behalf of public health and general welfare. I just felt like I needed to respond to that comment, Mayor.”

“One other comment,” the Mayor said. “The case when we, as commissioners or mayors, are at functions in our role as commissioners, it is important for us to represent the city as a whole and not our personal opinions on things — that’s, I think, the essence of what we’re trying to say here. Sometimes our obligation to our community and to our responsibilities as elected officials rises above our own personal opinions.”

It was an obvious reference to Nicaise’s shirt at the President’s speech.

“I do not believe that my clothing choice was just a personal opinion,” Nicaise said. “I have gone through a lot of education and work with cities across America, worked in the environmental field and I think that this is something that is important to not just me. I received a lot of positive feedback from other people as I walked down the sidewalk to that meeting, so I don’t think it was a personal opinion.”

The Mayor then adjourned the meeting.

Interplastic Corp.

But prior to all that, there were other topics discussed, and other business completed.

“We’ve had tons of complaints from Latonia residents about the smell, the odors, the noise, the disruption to their quality of life,” Meyer said regarding the Interplastic Corp.

Last week, the Division of Air Quality held a public hearing at the Latonia Elementary School. Officials from the around the area were there.

“Interplastic is in the process of having their air quality permit renewed,” Mayor Meyer said. “This is an opportunity for us to take a deep look at the content of their air quality permit so that we can make sure that the standards they are proposing are high enough to resolve the issues of the people who live in Latonia.”

Meyer said he has asked the city’s council to take a look at the permit application, to work with the attorney for the Latonia residents, and — “if our people feel that this new permit doesn’t have standards that are high enough to eliminate the noise and odor and the other pollution problems” — then the city would file complaints and ask for a further appeal, he said.

Short-term Rentals

“Next, I want to mention short-term rentals,” the Mayor said.

“We’ve got a moratorium in place, I am afraid, because of our past problems with enforceability — that people who are not licensed will continue to rent out their places during this period of moratorium. They’re going to continue to be scofflaws, so I would like for us to consider as part of our process going forward publicizing the fact that during the moratorium, people who don’t have a license — they’re not allowed to operate.

“And then, further, to say simply if they do continue to operate during the moratorium, we’ll know about it because we’ll have the software and access their advertising and then we can prohibit them from applying for a license for two or three years after the moratorium is lifted,” he continued. “If we are going to enact these laws then they have to be enforceable and people have to live by them — and if they’re not going to live by them, then there needs to be penalties sufficient to discourage them from ignoring the law.”


Occupational License Fee

“I got complaints today from people that the city has gone and raised its occupational license fee,” the Mayor said. “I want to ensure everybody that the city has not raised the occupational license fee — our Fiscal Court has raised the occupational license fee for everybody in Kenton County significantly. To wit, they have raised the rate by 28.1 percent, and they have raised the wage cap by 220 percent. People who live and who work in Covington will be paying an occupational license fee that starts at 3.36 percent.

“This creates major competitive problems for us,” he continued. “I hope we can have more of a discussion about it next week because this has a serious impact on our community and tonight, I want to tell the people Covington: It’s not the city. We didn’t do it. Not our fault.”


Budget Director

Commissioners approved a proposal by Finance Director Steve Webb that asked for an updated job description for the new position of Budget Director.

In November, the Chicago-based Baker Tilly firm made 55 recommendations to improve the city’s finance department. One recommendation was to add a position that focused on budget development and monitoring, as well as coordinating the city’s budget development and budget monitoring processes.

The Budget Director, who will have a salary between $90,000- $100,000 and a probationary period of a year, will assist the Finance Director “in the management and operation of the city’s budget,” city documents say. “This is a highly responsible, professional position assisting the Finance Director in the development, implementation, monitoring and administration of the city’s strategic plan and annual budget.”

While there will be no direct reports initially, the position will be required to:

• Lead the development, implementation, monitoring and ongoing maintenance of the city’s annual budget and strategic business plan.
• Forecast revenues and expenditures for specific periods of time; and consolidates information for the Finance Director.
• Meet with departments to review work plan goals and objectives.
• Evaluate departmental programmatic performance, supplemental budget requests and/or transfers for need, and interprets Finance • Office policies, practices and procedures as required, making appropriate recommendations for administrative review.
• Prepare ad-hoc analyses for senior management.
• Assist with the City Manager’s budget presentation to the Board of Commissioners.
• Assist in the preparation of mandated advertisements and documentation required for public hearings and the adoption of the final budget by the Board of Commissioners.
• Train all levels of staff in budget principles and techniques.
• May be required to attend Council meetings, community meetings and public hearings.
• May be required to attend city staff meetings.
• Makes oral presentations when required.

Retirement

Commissioners approved the retirement of:

Dennis New, Light Equipment Operator



Resignations

Commissioners approved the resignation of:

Michael Martinez



New Hires


Commissioners approved the hirings of:
Tatum Abercrombie, Police Officer
Garrick Wells, Police Cadet


Presidential visit


The Commission as a whole thanked the Public Works Department and staff for making the President’s visit a memorable one.

“It was a very exciting time for our city,” Commissioner Ron Washington said. “The bipartisanship that was seen — our country, it seems like on a national level, is so divided between, you know, red and blue. It was nice to see major players come to our little Covington.”

Next Meeting

The next regularly scheduled Covington Commission meeting will be a caucus meeting held at 6 p.m., Jan. 17, 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.