After nearly three years, the City of Fort Wright officially repealed its COVID state of emergency.
Near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was recommended that city governments impose a state of emergency via executive order which would give the mayor extra powers. Specifically, the power to enact legislation without City Council approval. Mayor Dave Hatter was uncomfortable with the order and the inflation of his office’s power from the start, but said he saw the merits.
Fort Wright approved Executive Order 04-2020 on March 18, 2020. They repealed it at the Feb. 1, 2023 city council meeting.
“Like I said at the time, I didn’t like it, but I understood the need for it,” Hatter said. “[Executive Order 04-2020] set us up to get some of the federal government funds.”
City attorney Timothy Theissen further explained.
“There was a time when in order to qualify for the funds that we got for COVID relief, you had to have an emergency or an executive order in place like this,” Theissen said.
Fort Wright never found the need to utilize Hatter’s expanded powers.
“No special actions were taken under [the executive order],” Hatter said. All legislation passed during the period of time that this order was in effect was done so with City Council approval.
This aligns with Hatter’s own philosophy on local government. He is adamant that the City Council represents the people of Fort Wright, not the mayor alone.
Although no legislative action was taken under this Executive Order, the city did benefit from the federal funding that accompanied it. Those assets allowed Fort Wright to take on and even fast track some city projects. For example, also at the Feb. 1, 2023 Council meeting, Council approved a motion to use some of those funds to install Stryker CR2 Automated External Defibrillators (AED) devices in each Fort Wright police cruiser. A similar proposal was brought forward a couple of years ago and rejected for the price being too high.
Since then, the prices have lowered and the extra funds from the federal government have made approving the purchase of these life saving devices “an easy decision,” Hatter said.
Hatter also said he hopes to “spend the rest [of the federal funds] on the streets and accelerate the street program.” He is referring to the five-year program to reconstruct and resurface pavement throughout Fort Wright.
Now, it’s been nearly three years since Executive Order 04-2020 was passed in Fort Wright and the city has deemed it no longer necessary. Hatter said he has been trying to get the order repealed for about a year now.
“The advice along the way has been ‘well, it may impact the ability to get federal funds,” Hatter said, referring to why his proposals for repeal had been rejected before this 2023 meeting.
Fort Wright is not alone in repealing these orders and lifting the COVID state of emergency. Hatter noted that the federal government even says that they plan to end the declared public health emergency in May of this year. This announcement was just one factor that signaled to Hatter and the City Council that the time had come where their executive order was no longer necessary to the continued functioning of the city.
Theissen assured that “there [are] no outstanding monies that are contingent upon [the state of emergency] any longer.”
Fort Wright City Administration also made it clear that if COVID were to reach emergency levels again, or if another emergency were to prevent itself, they could reinstate such an executive order.
“If the situation were to change, there’s nothing that would prevent you from reinstituting [the executive order],” Theissen said.
Theissen also praised Hatter in putting the Executive Order through when it was necessary, not overextending his own power, and attempting to give that power back to City Council as soon as possible.
“I’ll applaud Dave for this is something that empowers a mayor to act without Council approval if there was some emergency,” Theissen said. “Dave has been adamant about wanting to get rid of this.”
Hatter thanked Theissen for remarks and thanked the whole Council for their trust in him as their leader during that time.
“I sincerely hope we never need to do anything like this again,” Hatter said.
