After years of uncertainty and tension, the role of Ludlow City Administrator might finally have a dedicated occupant: former Ludlow Police Chief and City Administrator Scott Smith.
The city council will vote to either instate or pass over Smith at their regular council meeting on Thursday evening, and the move is not without its detractors.
Members of the city council and Mayor Chris Wright, who formerly sat on the council, met in a closed session Monday night to discuss filling the open position. The city had identified three different candidates for the position, and two city council members, David Ziegler and Lori Davenport, left council chambers when the other members had seemingly settled on Scott (closed sessions can’t be viewed by the public or the media).
Ziegler declined to comment, but Davenport immediately shared with LINK nky that Scott had been chosen, much to her dismay. She expressed frustration that council had previously seemed to be leaning toward another candidate only to suddenly, in her point of view, change their minds at a last-minute special meeting. The council had previously discussed the position in a closed session in October.
Once the session had concluded, the mayor confirmed that Scott was the lead candidate. The other council members declined to comment, and Smith did not attend the meeting.
Smith was hired as the chief of police in 2015 and assumed the role of city administrator in 2019. Mayors and other elected officials usually do not serve in their roles full-time, so even under Ludlow’s strong mayoral form of government, the council may appoint a full-time city administrator to manage the affairs of the city on a day-to-day basis.
Although executive power, including the power to hire and fire city workers, still rests with the office of the mayor, the administrator is there to pick up the administrative slack in the absence of an ever-present executive. Many cities in Northern Kentucky hire city administrators, even if they aren’t required to.
Scott took on the role after the preceding administrator, Elishia Chamberlain, was terminated. There was tension around Chamberlain’s dismissal. As reported by The Cincinnati Enquirer before LINK nky was launched, former Mayor Josh Boone fired both Chamberlain and former City Attorney Fred Johnson shortly after taking office.
The city was in the midst of a nearly $200,000 budget shortfall at the time. Conflicts between Chamberlain, other city staff and elected officials seem to have been brewing for a long time, although the incident that finally prompted Boone to fire Chamberlain is disputed.
Smith, who has a master’s degree in public administration, took on the role while also serving as the police chief. He received a stipend for his administrative duties, but it wasn’t a full salary. Meeting minutes from earlier this year indicate that Wright viewed the doubling up of duties as a cost-saving measure.
Like Chamberlain before him, Smith’s tenure had its own controversy. Davenport took issue with Smith’s occupancy of two appointed positions at the same time, and she filed a complaint with the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, which opened an investigation into the matter.
Smith resigned in the spring after the attorney general’s office contacted Wright.
“Mayor Wright signed an executive order earlier in the day authorizing Chief Smith to continue to carry out administrative duties without additional pay,” according to Ludlow’s March meeting minutes. “Following discussion, [City Attorney Steven] Taylor advised that due to Chief Smith’s resignation from the City Administrator position, the Attorney General made no determination on the complaint, and the investigation was closed.”
Meeting minutes from April offer more insight into the situation, namely that there was disagreement about whether Smith’s dual occupancy was illegal.
“[City Attorney Todd] McMurtry advised that he researched the issue twice, and the Attorney General did not have any objections to assigning the administrator duties,” the April minutes read. “Chief Smith voluntarily resigned from the city administrator position. Mayor Wright advised that Chief Smith should have originally been assigned the duties of administrator with a stipend instead of being given the title of city administrator. Mr. McMurtry does not believe there was a violation of the law.”
Smith retired from his position as police chief in September. Bart Beck currently serves as the city’s chief of police.
The open position became a frequent topic of discussion this election cycle. Nearly all of the council candidates viewed the position as integral to the city’s economic health and hoped a new administrator could work to build out the city’s economic base.
“We need to bring somebody in here that knows how to attract these businesses,” Ziegler said at a candidate forum in October, “somebody that’s professional and has worked with people outside of the community and work with the stakeholders here in town to bring some development.”
Wright told LINK nky after the meeting that Smith seemed like the right candidate after consulting with city employees, residents and businesses.
“I’ve heard from a lot of business leaders and residents,” Wright said. “Overwhelmingly, people have wanted Scott. As a matter of fact, no one in town has told me anything other than they want Scott. I also had follow up conversations that I initiated with some of the city employees. The city employees all attest that he’s created work a great workplace culture.”
The council will vote on whether Smith will assume the role of city administrator on Thursday, Nov. 14. The meeting starts at the Ludlow Municipal Center on Elm Street at 7 p.m.