Covington to investigate safety, monetary costs of drinking area

The Covington Board of Commissioners cast a 2 to 1 vote Tuesday night in favor of investigating the financial and safety risks of implementing an outdoor drinking area in the city.

The vote was peculiar in that it did not appear on the meeting’s agenda; instead, it occurred after one of the commissioners, James Toebbe, brought the issue before the board at the end of the meeting.

Toebbe and Mayor Ron Washington eventually voted in favor of the move. Commissioner Tim Downing voted against it. Commissioner Shannon Smith, who had previously come out in favor of establishing such an area, did not attend the meeting. Commissioner Tim Acri recused himself from the discussion and vote “due to a potential conflict of interest,” he said, without elaborating.

Toebbe introduced the motion for discussion during the meeting’s commissioner discussion period, which usually occurs at the end of the meeting, after all the normal agenda items have been addressed.

Toebbe called for “a motion for staff – and I’m specifically talking about the Covington Police Department, the Fire Department, if they have any concerns, as well as Public Works – to begin just evaluating any of the financial factors as well as safety factors to ensure that if it is implemented through an ordinance, that it is self supporting and not sustained by our residents’ tax dollars.”

Common consumption areas, or CCAs, are designated sections of the city where open container laws are exempt under certain conditions. Usually, containers in such areas have to be made of special materials and can’t exceed certain size limits. Beverages also can’t be taken out of the area. Many know these areas by their Cincinnati moniker, a DORA.

The proposal dates back to April, and the board has gone back and forth on implementing it. The board held a hearing last month where residents, businesses and other community members came out to share their thoughts on the proposal. Business owners liked the idea, but other sectors of Covington life were more skeptical.

Downing stated that he was not opposed to the CCA as such, but was concerned that prioritizing it would divert resources from city staff.

“I’m a little bit concerned about prioritizing staff time for this initiative over other issues we already have on the docket,” Downing said, “because, basically, by putting this order out, we’re saying, ‘Hey, we want this to be something that is done in a timely fashion relative to some of the other things that we have on that list.'”

“Some of the sense of urgency that I feel around this is in regards to the closure of the Fourth Street Bridge, and just looking at what we can do to help those businesses down in that area,” Toebbe replied.

“I recognize this is on the priority list; I think that that is important,” Dowing replied. Still, he said, “I think that, as a body, we need to make sure that we are giving [staff] direction.”

“It’s been placed on a priority list,” Washington commented. “This does need to be evaluated at a later date to see if we’re going to move forward with this.

“It was spoken at a previous meeting that the police were consulted on this matter. However, that was a mistake. The police had not been consulted on this matter. I think before I can make any judgment of how to move forward, I need to know what resources the police department, the fire department and public works will need to pull this thing off.”

The mayor then called the roll, and the board cast its 2 to 1 vote.

In spite of his vote in favor, Washington later admitted that Downing had a point.

“If you hear me talk in public, you’ll hear me often say that City Hall is understaffed…,” Washington said. “We have senior staff that’s working 40 plus hours, without a doubt… So, his concerns are real. My concern is that we’re going to need this information to move forward to see how much additional staff time it’s going to take to possibly implement the CCA.”