CORRECTION: The city’s initial announcement contained inaccuracies as to where one of the committee members was from. The relevant lines have been corrected, both here and in the city’s announcement. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.–LINK nky editorial, Jan. 23, 2025.
The City of Covington has revealed the members of a committee who will advise the city commission on how to best transition the municipal government from its current city manager form to a mayor-council, or strong mayor, form.
The city put out calls for applications to sit on the committee in December. The members were preliminarily revealed in a city press release on Wednesday, and the city commission still has to vote to affirm the appointments at the legislative meeting next week. The announcement gives the public an idea of who will likely sit on the committee and which parts of the city they will represent.
The following people have been chosen to sit on the committee, according to the city’s announcement:
- Michael Beeby of Licking Riverside
- Billie Mocabee-Kegley of West Latonia
- Angie Taylor of Latonia-Rosedale
- Lisa Desmarais of Licking Riverside
- Ginger Dawson of Old Town/Mutter Gottes
- Fritz Kuhlman of Westside
- David Davidson of Licking Riverside
- Ella Frye of Wallace Woods
The committee will hold its first meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 29 at 5 p.m. at Covington City Hall on Pike Street.
Washington, who lives in Lewisburg, will be chairing the committee, and the commission members will serve in non-voting roles. City Manager Ken Smith, City Clerk Susan Ellis and City Solicitor Frank Schultz will also serve in advisory, non-voting roles. The administrator of the committee is newly hired Assistant City Solicitor Sebastian Torres. Before joining the city, Torres manned the PR efforts for the Covington Forward Committee, which first advocated for the ballot measure asking for the transition.
The committee plans to meet through May 1, 2026, and the transition process will include public input in the form of community surveys and forums. The current commission has two years to establish ordinances for new municipal government, which will include the number of council members and the make-up of the new city administrative staff. Covington voters will vote to fill the newly created council seats in 2026.