The city of Taylor Mill called a special meeting Monday at noon after their second ever caucus meeting to take the first step toward acquiring an assistant police chief.
Lieutenant James Mills is in line for the promotion to assistant chief as soon as it is created.
“James is a good multitasker,” said Police Chief Steve Knauf. “He has great attention to detail, and he is an overachiever. I have a lot of trust in him. We’re a good team.”
Mills attended the Police Academy in Richmond, Kentucky, and then went on to graduate from the Academy for Police Supervisors. He specialized in the training for criminal justice, and completed Kentucky’s version of the FBI National Academy in the programs that are geared to law enforcement executives.
Mills recently finished his Bachelor’s degree at NKU and has started work on his Masters at NKU.
Knauf said Mills does a phenomenal job with the state and national accreditation program for the department, a job that is very detail oriented and time consuming.
Currently the department has a chief, a lieutenant, two sergeants, and officers, and being a smaller department, they number about 12 people.
Attorney Jack Gatlin read the ordinance, which upgrades the pay scales for the city for all positions, but allows the creation of a new position of assistant chief and eliminates the position of lieutenant.
“This is something we should be doing every year,” said CAO Brian Haney, referring to the pay grades. “Initially I was going to have it done by the February meeting, but creating the pay grades was more difficult than I thought. There were 13 grades, and different ranges of salaries. I wasn’t going to worry about it, but the chief really wanted to get this done, because it is his assistant who is going to be elevated.”
The second reading will be March 9 and Lieutenant Mills will be promoted after that date. He and his wife, Sarah, and son, Kegan, are scheduled to be at the March meeting.
Before the special meeting, commissioners talked about the Tuscany subdivision, which is currently in Covington, but the developers want to expand the area. There are 68 acres, formerly the Eubanks property, just over the hill, and that land is in Taylor Mill.
At the last regular meeting, commissioners gave the official go-ahead for developers to start designing phase one, which will consist of condos and single family homes. They plan to put 253 units in Taylor Mill in the next two years.
Commissioners were concerned that there is only one road that would be the sole ingress and egress for the area. Future discussions with the company will include the need for another way into the area. It is not unrealistic to think they could run a road all the way down to Wayman Branch road, said Commissioner Dan Murray, who indicated that the city should push for the developers to include another road in their plans.
Another subject for discussion was Pride Park. Mayor Daniel Bell reminded the commissioners that they still have the AARP rescue fund money, $1.7 million in total, and they might want to think about putting some of the money into the park, upgrading the playground equipment, and making improvements. Bell and Murray had painted some of the picnic tables last year to try and extend their life, but the paint is apparently already flaking off.
There was also a question Haney had from a resident who wants to put a bench into to park as a memorial to her father, and he wanted commissioners to look at designs for any benches that people might want to install in the park, looking for a more uniform design, and possibly a design that would echo the metal mesh and sturdy design of the newer picnic tables. The discussions were in the very early stages, but commissioners do want to let residents put memorial benches in the park.
Commissioners also discussed the payroll tax, comparing the city’s rate to others in surrounding areas. No decisions were made, and further discussions will be held.
