Incumbent Independence Mayor Chris Reinersman is challenged in November by political newcomer Desiree Hammond. Both candidates spoke with LINK nky ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
Chris Reinersman
Chris Reinersman is currently finishing his second term as mayor of Independence and he would like to have four more years.
Reinersman and his wife and three children moved to the city 20 years ago when they fell in love with a Victorian house near the center of town.
Now they have added 9 grandchildren to the mix, and all of his kids have their own homes in Independence.
Reinersman served four years on council before he became mayor. He believes the time he spent on council was excellent training for his mayoral tenure.
“It’s like becoming CEO of a company after you have worked in that company,” he said. “You know how that company works. I hadn’t planned to live in Independence, but I love this community. I started by being on a committee, and I liked that and wanted more, so I ran for city council. I still wanted more, so I became mayor.”
Reinersman is a commercial real estate appraiser, and he believes that gives him an insight when it comes to making Independence better.
The city has seen significant growth in recent years. Its population has nearly tripled since 1990, and now more than 28,000 people call Independence home.
“We are going to grow,” Reinersman said. “It is like a horse who wants to run. It is going to run no matter what, but somebody better have hold of the reins. The reality is that most of the land in the city is zoned residential. I believe in smart growth, new business, and small-town feel.”
He said he helped put design standards in place. At first, all the subdivisions that were built were new starter homes, but when the new standards were in place the homes were built to a better quality, he said. This, he said, slowed growth a little bit.
“Many people don’t know this, but when you consider a building project, you are not allowed to consider school capacity,” he said. “It has to do with property taxes, and the fact that schools rely on the taxes to support them. There actually aren’t too many subdivisions coming in the city. There are several just outside the city.”
Recently, the city rejected plans for a storage unit project at Cherokee Plaza, a decision that the mayor says was correct.
“Yes, it doesn’t look great at the moment, but it will be a retail hub for that area in time,” Reinersman said. “The storage units would have been the kiss of death for retail in that area. There is a reason you don’t see storage in retail areas.”
He said there is an apartment complex coming just south of the area, and he knows that when the people come, the retail will follow.
“Retail will generate revenue that is seven times more per acre than the storage units at Beechgrove,” he claimed. “Self-storage units have few employees and cheaper buildings so they won’t generate as much revenue.”
Reinersman wants a balance of business and residential areas for the city. When there are fewer businesses, the burden of taxes and revenue falls on residents, he said. The city has increased its occupational and payroll tax revenue by 41 percent, which means increased businesses in the city, he said.
Reinersman said that he knows that keeping police officers has been a problem in the past, but the city has increased salaries and has hired several new officers in the past year. One of the problems that cities have is that new officers spend 23 weeks at the state police academy, which has a waiting list, slowing down the process.
Reinersman said that the police department has good leadership with a handle on retention issues.
Outside of the city, Reinersman said that he was part of an effort at Planning & Development Services of Kenton County to cut $1 million from its budget, making it more efficient.
He also helped to create Park 536, a new Industrial Park, he said. Right now, there are about 110 acres in use but there is a potential of adding 400 to 500 more acres.
“I have also heard that my opponent is criticizing the city donating money for the Blink event,” he said about the recent light and art show that took place in Cincinnati and Covington. Blink organizers and the Northern Kentucky Convention & Visitors Bureau (meetNKY) looked to raise $2 million to bring the event back to Covington and asked other Northern Kentucky cities to contribute, which Independence did.
“The event needed a little hand-up after Covid,” Reinersman said. “Covington Mayor Joe Meyer and I talked about it and we agreed to donate some of the ARPA (American Rescue Plan) money which we received from the federal government, money which was earmarked to help promote tourism after the Covid shutdowns. What we gave was less than a half percent of the ARPA money we received.”
He added that as a city in the Northern Kentucky area, he feels strongly that he should support neighboring cities, and he would like them to support Independence, since they are the second largest city in Kenton County and the third largest city in Northern Kentucky.
“The bottom line is that you have to know what you are doing to be mayor in this city,” Reinersman said. “You can’t just come into the job with no experience in anything. I feel very strongly the weight of the stewardship on my shoulders and I believe we are doing a good job. I will be steering this ship for a short time, and I think when people look at what I have done, what the city has done, they will realize that our methods are working, and we have good results.”
Desiree Hammond
Desiree Hammond is a newcomer to the political arena, but not to Independence. The married mother of four grew up in Independence, moved away, and then came back to the area.
Hammond has spent her career in health care but had problems with the Covid-related rules about immunizations and masks.
“I want to give back to my community, so I thought I would run for school board, but the way the school districts are set up, it just wouldn’t work out,” Hammond said. “So I looked around and realized that I could run for mayor, and I could help my community that way.”
She has tuned in to watch the council meetings online and come away with ideas that she believes can benefit the city.
One area of concern for Hammond is growth. She said that the city’s growth is too aggressive.
“I think it needs to be a smart growth,” she said. “For instance, we have five to ten subdivisions coming into the city, and I think that’s too much at a time for our schools to absorb. We need to give the schools time to catch up with the influx of kids. When too many students flood the schools, the kids pay for it.”
Hammond said that she likes that the city is growing, but that it needs to be a slower, more methodical growth.
Hammond would like to see businesses that provide family activities. Hammond said they have the Independence Skateway, a roller-skating rink on Independence Road, but her kids love Defy in Florence, which is an activity center for kids featuring trampolines, zip lines, and climbing walls.
“There’s really nothing else that is kid-friendly in the city, and we have to go outside the city,” she said. “I would like the city to have something like a city pool or encourage businesses like Defy. If they had a pool, they would have jobs for people, and revenue for the city.”
Hammond also argued that while property tax rates have lowered, the city is bringing in more money because of the increased value of homes.
She also hopes to address the city’s police department and issues that she sees with crime in the city.
“With crime going up, the city needs more police officers,” she said. “I understand that the retirement issues with police have made a difference, but we used to have a police car with flashing lights sitting near the schools when they let out, and we don’t now. In addition, you see cars flying past, speeding, all the time. It isn’t safe.”
She said not only does the city need more officers, but the city needs to be able to keep them.
Hammond said she loves the city park and the amphitheater and is happy the city will be terracing the area, making it nicer for families to sit and watch events. But she also thinks the city could make more money if they rented those areas out to groups and families for different events.
One of the things Hammond was concerned with is the $29,000 the city donated to the Cincinnati Arts program, which supported the Blink event in Covington.
“I think we should keep the money here in the city,” she stated.
Hammond was not happy with the city turning down a proposal for turning the Cherokee Plaza into a more orderly storage facility.
“At least it would look better,” she said.
