Covington will begin the process of transitioning the city government from its current city manager form to a mayor-council form next week.
The first steps in the transition will take two forms. The first will be the establishment of a committee that will be tasked with offering recommendations to the incoming city commissioners, elected earlier this month, on converting the government structure. The topic of the committee appeared on Tuesday’s caucus meeting agenda and was placed on the consent agenda for the legislative meeting next week, meaning it will likely pass.
Secondly, the commission will perform the first reading of an ordinance that would delegate additional power to the mayor’s office during the transition.
Specifically, the ordinance “delegates to the mayor the necessary authority to inquire into the conduct of duties and actions performed by the city manager between meetings of the board of commissioners.”
The ordinance text characterizes this as a way of enhancing communication between the city’s elected representatives and the city administrative staff, as well as a means of preparing for the transition.
The ordinance also states that the “Mayor shall be recognized as the official head and representative of the city for all purposes. Such recognition shall not, however, include any duties considered an unauthorized delegation of executive or legislative authority from the board of commissioners.”
In other words, the mayor will serve as the city’s official head insofar as it does not interfere with the typical legislative and executive powers of the commission.
The commissioners did not engage in any discussion on the committee or the ordinance at Tuesday’s meeting. Even with the likely vote to establish the committee next week, the committee itself will not form until the new commission term begins on Jan. 1, 2025.
Covington residents overwhelmingly voted to transition the government from its current city manager form to the mayor-council during the 2024 general election. About 7,500 Covington voters, roughly 61% of the votes cast, voted in favor of the transition.
The conversion had many advocates both among the business community and the city's elected leadership. Current Mayor Joe Meyer, Mayor-elect Ron Washington and all of the incoming commissioners - Tim Downing, Shannon Smith, Tim Acri and James Toebbe - expressed support for the measure. The Kenton County branch of the Democratic Party also came out in favor of the measure.
Covington’s current government is a city manager form of government. Under the current form, a city manager manages most of the city's day-to-day business and its departments. Four elected city commissioners plus the elected mayor, who has relatively little direct authority, appoint the city manager.
Under the current model, both the commissioners and the mayor have a vote in local policies. Mayors are responsible for running meetings, signing contracts and acting as the public face of the city, but they share executive and legislative power with the commissioners. The mayor cannot veto legislation.
In other words, executive and legislative power is spread evenly between the commissioners and the mayor. No one has any unilateral power; the commission and mayor can exercise power only as a group.
One of the key differences between the city manager form and the mayor-council form is that under the mayor-council form, the mayor has more authority to hire and fire city workers, unlike the current system, where every personnel decision is subject to a vote from the commission (Note: key department heads, like police and fire chiefs, are still subject to ratification from the legislature under both systems).
Broadly speaking, the mayor-council form places more executive authority in the mayor's seat, granting the mayor greater latitude in running the city on a day-to-day basis. As a result, the mayor-council form is sometimes referred to as the strong mayor form of government.
The mayor-council form is the more commonly used form of government in Kentucky. Over half of the municipalities in the commonwealth use the mayor-council form of government, according to the Kentucky League of Cities. Nationwide, however, larger cities tend to use the city manager form: 54% of the nation’s cities with populations of 10,000 or more use the city manager form, according to the International City Managers Association.
Now that voters have decided to transition the government, the newly elected Covington commissioners will be in charge of transitioning the government before the 2026 election, when residents will vote to fill the newly created council seats.
The committee, which would be established with a municipal order, will consist of nine yet-to-be-appointed Covington residents who will give recommendations to the city commission on how to go about the transition.
Soon-to-be Mayor Washington will chair the committee and appoint the committee members. City Attorney Frank Schultz, City Manager Ken Smith and City Clerk Susan Ellis plus the newly-elected city commissioners will also staff the committee as non-voting members.
The mayor will appoint a committee administrator, who will also not have voting power, to coordinate the committee meetings and handle other clerical duties. The committee will meet once a month beginning in 2025.
Although there was no discussion of the committee during the course of the meeting, Washington confirmed with LINK nky after the meeting that people to man the committee had not yet been identified.
The committee will be responsible for the following duties, according to the municipal order establishing it:
- reviewing the structure of the current city manager form
- identifying areas that need to be changed in order to better conform to the mayor-council form
- research "best practices and case studies" from other cities that use the mayor-council form
- interact with and incorporate feedback from residents, businesses and other parts of the community to better inform the commission's decisions
- prepare an initial progress report for the city commission by June 30, 2025
- prepare monthly progress reports for the commission after the initial June report has been delivered
- recommend the number of council seats to the commission by Oct. 17, 2025
- prepare a comprehensive final report for the commission by May 1, 2026
The commission will perform a first reading of the ordinance and vote on the committee municipal order at the legislative meeting next week on Tuesday, Dec. 3.