The debate over Covington’s administration shakeup is heating up as the election approaches

Debate over the ballot question asking Covington residents whether they want to overhaul the city’s governing structure has been growing since the petition to put the question on the ballot was first circulated in July.

The conversion would change Covington from its current city government form to the more common mayor-council form of government.

Additionally, thanks to the recent release of the donors who helped the committee bring the measure to a vote, it is now known which people and organizations are supporting the change. It is therefore worth reviewing the discussions that have led to this topic.

The committee pushing for the conversion is called Covington Forward and is led by Richard Dickmann, local business owner and owner of Smoke Justis restaurant. Dickmann himself put $15,000 of his own money into the committee’s marketing and operations. Other top Covington Forward contributors include Fischer Homes Chairman Greg Fischer and his wife Amy Fischer, Marilyn Scripps of EW Scripps Company, Corporex and St. Elizabeth Healthcare.

The conversion has many proponents, including current Mayor Joe Meyer and sole mayoral candidate Ron Washington (read LINK nky’s explanations to learn how Covington’s city government works and the difference between the city council and mayor-council council). form of government to get an idea of ​​the underlying politics (mechanics in question).

Five of the eight City Commission candidates — Tim Downing, Shannon Smith, Cari Garriga, James Toebbe and Tim Acri — have also expressed strong support for the conversion. Several former commissioners, former Covington City Manager and attorney Loren Wolff and several prominent business leaders, such as C-Forward (the company is not affiliated with Covington Forward) Chairman Brent Cooper, have also expressed their support.

Proponents of the transition have touted the mayor-council form of government as less complicated, more efficient and more conducive to economic development. Opponents, however, fear that a transformation could lead to an excessive concentration of power in the mayor’s office or that it could serve as a vehicle for the capture of local government by special interests.

One of the main differences between the city manager form and the mayor-council form is that in the mayor-council form the mayor has more authority to hire and fire city workers, as opposed to the current system where every personnel decision is subject to a law Commission vote.

“It’s easier to influence one person than five,” said Larry Klein, former Covington city manager.

Klein served as city manager under Mayor Sherry Carran, who defeated Meyer in 2016.

This election cycle has been tense, and Meyer’s criticism of the government as opaque and inaccessible was evident in his campaign; Meyer has publicly claimed that Klein instructed city employees not to speak to him after he took office.

Meyer was an outsized supporter of the change. At Tuesday’s City Commission meeting, Commissioners Washington, Downing, Smith and the mayor specifically urged Covington residents to vote for the conversion. Meyer and Carran have both written editorials urging people to vote for or against conversion, respectively.

Klein resigned as city manager in 2017. Klein was city manager during a scandal involving the city’s former finance director, Bob Due, who embezzled about $80,000 from the city over a 10-year period. Meyer argued that Klein should have resigned after the scandal.

City managers are frequently transferred between mayoral administrations, regardless of their performance in their role. Klein continued to advocate for the city manager form when speaking to LINK nky. Other Kentucky city managers have also championed the system’s supposed benefits.

“Not all mayors are the same,” said Ron Scott, a former Danville city manager and senior adviser to the International City Management Association, a professional consortium of city managers.

“The introduction of an elected board of directors and an appointed city manager really came about out of an intention to emulate or follow companies that would have a board of directors and an appointed CEO,” Scott told LINK nky. “It’s similar, very similar to your local school boards where you have elected board members and they appoint a superintendent to hire and manage matters.”

Scott argued that despite proponents’ position that a mayor-council form of government would be better for economic development, the city manager would be better for the economy and more efficient overall.

He pointed to a 2011 IBM study that said, “Cities with city-manager forms of government are nearly 10% more efficient than cities with strong mayoral forms of government. This result appears to confirm the assumption underlying city manager forms of government, particularly that “investing executive power in professional management protected from direct political influence should lead to more efficiently managed cities.”

On the other hand, companies in Covington tend to be less corporate and more entrepreneurial. People with direct experience in Northern Kentucky politics have argued that companies sometimes have difficulty navigating the specifics of the city manager form.

“Whatever form of government you have, the mayor-council is probably a little clearer because most business people in particular think the mayor is in charge,” said attorney and former Newport City Manager Jim Parsons.

Parsons also served as Newport’s city attorney. These days he helps developers work with cities, particularly around municipal financing mechanisms like bonding. Parsons was one of three panelists at a public forum on the possibility of conversion Thursday, along with Erlanger Mayor Jessica Fette and Dayton City Manager Jay Fossett, who formerly served as Covington’s city manager.

The panel discussed the pros and cons of a government transition, as well as the procedural differences between the two systems. Panelists did not specifically speak for or against the conversion, but statements from the forum suggested that, in their experience, the mayor-council form was easier to manage.

“I have a boss in Dayton,” Fossett said. “It’s the mayor and I have to work with him. The council members, I involve them and engage them, but it’s not like the city.” [of Covington] where I have five bosses. And it’s really difficult to reach consensus with five people on anything, especially when politics is involved.

Parsons also argued that state administrative agencies such as the Department of Transportation often have difficulty with the form of city manager.

“I’m telling you the state government doesn’t understand the city manager form of government,” Parsons said. “State agencies and things like that: If they want a decision from Covington or someone from Newport, the first person they usually call is not the city manager, but the mayor.”

Proponents of the city manager form view the need to build consensus within a group as a virtue rather than a hindrance.

“The city manager himself in this form of government requires collaboration and interaction with the entire board, not just the mayor,” Scott said. “This gives you a broader perspective on both neighborhood issues [and] the goals that the entire city wants to achieve.”

Fette, on the other hand, said that even under the mayoral council of the government, there are measures and policies that can be introduced to ensure cooperation between the legislative and executive branches of the city administration and the city’s professional staff. She cited the example of the city’s recent hiring of a new economic development director, a position she could have filled herself. Still, she decided to create a hiring committee to ensure that all aspects of city government could be included.

“I try to be very cooperative with the council,” Fette said. “Although Director of Economic Development for the City of Erlanger is not one of the positions that requires Council approval, I still formed a committee in our hiring process, a Hiring Committee, that included two of the nine Council members. I had that.” the managing director of [Kenton County Planning and Development Services] part of this committee, and then our human resources department, our finance director and then our city manager, our city attorney and myself.”

Steve Hayden, the only Covington City Commission member not running for election in November, has been relatively quiet on the issue. He made a brief statement on the issue Tuesday as the mayor and other commissioners urged people to vote for the conversion.

“It’s beneficial to have more eyes on a situation than just one, and in 1930 they chose the commission government for a reason,” Hayden said. “My only comment would be – and this is neither for nor against – but be careful when it comes to voting for the mayor because he will have his hands on the wheel.”

You can read Meyer’s commentary, Carran’s commentary and the full IBM study below. You can also watch a recording of the Covington Civic Lab public forum below.

Greg Fischer, Brent Cooper and Corporex Chairman Bill Butler sit on LINK nky’s board of directors, which oversees LINK’s operations but has no say in editorial matters.

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