Candidates for the Erlanger City Council came together in a public forum this week to discuss their backgrounds and goals.
Moderated by Matt Grimes of the Kenton County Rotary Club, eight of the 13 candidates for city council spoke at Wednesday’s event at the Erlanger City Building in the following order: Victoria Kyle, Christopher Farmer, Gary Meyer, Diana Niceley, Tom Cahill, Jennifer Jasper-Lucas, Tyson Hermes and Rebecca Reckers.
The remaining candidates–Don Skidmore, Renee Skidmore, Renee Wilson, Michele Fields and Frank Wichmann–were unable to attend.
Voters will cast up to nine votes for the open spots on the council in November.
“Tonight, we are here to discuss the future of Erlanger and the significant role each of us play in shaping it,” said Mayor Jessica Fette, whose seat is not up for election in November. “With 13 candidates on the ballot for the upcoming November 5 election, it is essential that you have the information you need to make informed decisions.”
The candidates’ speaking order was randomly assigned, and each one had five minutes to talk about their background and argue why they would make good councilmembers. Grimes then asked each candidate a trivia question about the city (e.g. how many police cruisers does the police department have, what’s the public works budget and similar questions) to test the candidates’ knowledge of Erlanger’s operations. After that, he asked a more open-ended question about the candidate’s goals and concerns.
Vicki Kyle spoke first. Kyle’s served on the council for 28 years; she’s running for her 15th term on the legislature. Before getting into politics, Kyle worked as a teacher and served in other roles in education. She touted her experience as a reason to vote for her.
“I know how the government works since I’ve been here for so long,” Kyle said. “I’ve figured it out.”
During her tenure as a councilmember, she helped establish the city’s parks and recreation department as well as its parks director position, currently occupied by Kim Wolking. She also helped establish the city’s community service scholarship, of which Fette was the first recipient before she became mayor.
“You’ve held the council seat for 14 terms,” Grimes said. “What current changes cause you the greatest concern?”
“The biggest change that I can see is just keeping up with progress,” Kyle said, adding that it was important for city officials to effectively communicate with the community.
To that end, she recommended establishing a city task force to establish better and more effective lines of communication with city residents.
Chris Farmer spoke next. Although Farmer is an Erlanger native, this is the first time in his life he’s run for public office. Much of his early education was in the trades, but he eventually pursued a master’s degree in management from NKU. He currently works in sales, and he said his business experience made him an ideal candidate.
“I manage a business with an operational level [and] deal with difficult situations daily,” Farmer said.
He said he had a deep appreciation of first-responders and said supporting them was a priority of his campaign.
He was perturbed, he said, by the tenor of some of the current council’s meetings and wanted to foster “an open-minded approach to discussions.”
“I’ve been been observing council sessions for a while now,” Farmer said. “I’ve noticed that some members often dismiss topics or ideas simply based off of who suggested them and not on the topic’s own merit.”
He also recommended revising the city’s current insurance premium tax rates, which brought in about $4.4 million in tax revenue in fiscal year 2023, according to the city’s most recent audit, or about 16% of the city’s revenue.
“What do you think is one of the most valuable traits for someone running for Erlanger City Council?” Grimes asked.
“Honesty, sincerity and the willingness to have an open mind,” Farmer said.
Next on the docket was Gary Meyer, who doesn’t currently serve on the council but who’s served three terms in the past. He grew up in the Cherry Hill neighborhood, and emphasized the importance of family during his address, stating that he didn’t run during the last cycle because he wanted to be available for his family.
Due to the peculiar way that Erlanger is delineated on the map, right next to Florence and Boone County and abutting several other Kenton County communities, he emphasized the need to work across jurisdictions.
“One of the things I really want to push more is more collaboration with the county and other communities or other cities within the community,” Meyer said.
“If there was one thing you’d change about Erlanger, what would it be?” Grimes asked.
To this, Meyer reiterated the need to work with the county and other cities, possibly even pulling upon county resources and services to augment or replace city ones, such as tax collection.
“There’s a lot of things to explore when we look at collaborating with the county and other cities that might make it more efficient and bring more value for the dollars that we’re taking in,” Meyer said.
Diana Niceley marked the half-way point in the forum. Niceley is running for her third term on council. Her family owns an HVAC business, and Niceley is currently on the board of Lloyd Memorial High School’s alumni association.
She said she enjoyed being out in the community generally and serving as a point of contact for residents to express their concerns.
“Most of you have probably seen me in the community, whether it’s a community event, a city event,” Niceley said. “I probably attend maybe 99% of them. A few I don’t, but I love getting out. People come to me when there’s an issue or concern, [and] they don’t know who to go to. They feel comfortable talking to me.”
Like many of the other candidates, Niceley took time to express her admiration of city staff, especially the public works department and first responders.
“I think our first responders are the backbone of the city,” Niceley said.
“You’re just finishing your second term, “Grimes said. “Have you encountered anything that you didn’t expect?”
“Seeing how the government works in different departments,” Niceley said. “I think the first year you’re really learning, but I take every vote seriously. I may not always please someone, but I think I’ve proved that I can work with everyone.”
Tom Cahill spoke after Niceley. Cahill has occupied a council seat for nine terms, the second-longest serving member after Kyle. He currently works as a director at St. Elizabeth Healthcare. In addition to serving on the council, Cahill helped oversee the merger of Erlanger’s volunteer and professional fire fighters into a single, full-time professional department in the late 80s and early 90s.
He said he was particularly proud of the expansion of the city’s infrastructure budget, which currently stands at about $2.7 million, although he said that there were still key expansions that needed to happen.
“Our fire station was not meant for a ful- time professional group of people,” Cahill said. “That needs to be addressed, and we are looking to do that. The police headquarters, the city buildings have been around for a long time. There’s a lot of parking concerns and issues with that sort of infrastructure.”
He also emphasized a need to continue improving Erlanger’s parks, a concern shared by many of the candidates.
“How have you changed since you started [on council]?” Grimes asked.
“I’m much more patient than I was, believe it or not,” Cahill said. “Learning how government works, it is slow and deliberate, but it’s purposeful, and I think that’s been very important for me, and that’s the patience I’ve had to learn.”
Next was Jennifer Jasper-Lucas, who is running for a third term. Jasper-Lucas works for an insurance company in Cincinnati, but she’s active in a variety of community and professional organizations in Erlanger. While on council, she’s served on several city task forces, most notably the small business task force (small business attraction was a key component of her campaign, she said) and a task force aimed at addressing a problem of semi-truck accidents in the Cherry Hill neighborhood.
She emphasized fiscal responsibility in her address, agreeing with Farmer that the insurance premium tax needed to be lowered, and touting her role in the city’s establishment of a resiliency fund to be deployed in the event of a catastrophe.
“We’ve had increased revenue, and we’ve been able to pass back some savings on through to lower taxes to our residents for the past 10 years,” Jasper-Lucas said. “And I’m really excited about that, and I really hope that we can continue to do that, especially in a difficult economy.”
“If the city received a million-dollar grant for use in any way, and you were the king, how do you think this money should be spent and why?” Grimes asked.
After noting that the city was “not a fiefdom,” Jasper-Lucas said, “I wouldn’t spend it on one thing, not just one thing, I should say.”
She said she would allocate some of the money to road and sidewalk improvements as well as other infrastructural improvements, such as upgrading the fire station. She also said that she’d like to see more investment in the public works department, but she would only spend the money if she knew the investments would be sustainable in the long-run.
Former Mayor Tyson Hermes spoke after Jasper-Lucas. He’s running for his fourth term on council and owns a local construction company. Overall, he said his goals for his time on the council would be “lightening the tax burden on our residents and businesses, to continue improving our roads, curbs and sidewalks, to continue to fulfill the needs of the facility assessment that we started back in 2016 and to make Erlanger a destination for the surrounding region as well as the rest of the country.”
Hermes’ statement was shorter than the other candidates; Grimes stated that it was uncommon to find a former mayor and councilmember “so short-winded.”
“What do you think are the greatest challenges that Erlanger is facing today, and why?” Grimes asked.
“There’s not a whole lot of cities out there whose revenue has increased as quickly and as much as Erlanger’s has,” Hermes said. “We’ve lowered the tax rates for 10 years straight, and in that time, our revenue has gone up almost $5 million per year. There’s not a lot of cities that have as much in reserves and emergency funds as the city, and so there’s not a whole lot that worries us.”
Rebecca Reckers was the final candidate to speak. Reckers is running for her fourth term on council. She currently works in risk management for Discover, experience she said gave her “a unique approach to problem solving and understanding.” She was also around when the council transitioned from 12 members to nine members, and complimented what she described as the current council’s willingness to engage with each other. Her goals included sound financial policy, supporting first responders, building out the city’s economic development and establishing long-term plans for the future of the city.
“We need to have this ability to a long term spending plan and take a a serious, strategic look at economic development,” Reckers said, “because our runway for economic development will determine the cost of [ongoing] services.”
“Is the city better off today as compared to when you started?” Grimes asked.
Reckers said Erlanger was “absolutely better today,” especially as it related to the park improvements and the city’s financial picture.
“We don’t have a rooftop community,” Reckers said. “We have a balanced–it’s a little imbalanced–but 30% or 40% of our revenue comes from our residential and the remainder comes from our business community. So we’ve seen exponential growth in our business community over the last six years, and that’s something to be very proud of.”
Read full profiles of the council candidates at our Erlanger City Council candidate information page, and check out our voting guide to get everything you need for the upcoming election in November.