Florence City Council reappointed council member Gary Link to the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments, known as OKI, for another one-year term.
Winn, first elected to the Florence council in 2011, has served on the OKI board since 2015.
Founded in 1964, OKI is a multi-jurisdictional organization with a 120-member board of directors. The board’s membership is drawn from local governments, state and local transportation agencies, environmental organizations and chambers of commerce in its eight-county region.
OKI’s main focus is transportation planning. “We are a regional planning organization,” said OKI Executive Director Mark Policinski. “If you have a project, a surface transportation project that has a penny of federal money in it, you need OKI’s approval to go forward.”
That’s a powerful position to be in. OKI plays a major role in some of Northern Kentucky’s infrastructure decisions, from the Brent Spence Bridge replacement to the long-running Kentucky Route 536 project.
“We do not tell folks what projects they should put in their jurisdiction. We help them put together applications for their projects, for OKI funding,” Policinski said.
Drawing on a deep bench of technical expertise and data, OKI’s value lies in getting local projects approved.
“We put into the region every year between 50 and $80 million,” Policinski told LINK nky. “We approve a couple hundred billion dollars a year in projects from the state Departments of Transportation.”
Access to transportation funding is one of the most significant benefits of Florence’s membership in OKI. So are the chances to get the inside scoop on things happening in other cities that could impact Florence.
“[OKI] can help us get funding for whether it’s a sidewalk or a road or a light study,” Winn told LINK nky before the meeting. “Just trying to get your name in the pot, so to speak. And plus, sort of keep your finger on what’s going on around the state and around the region.”
Some of the projects Winn cites as having an impact locally include a Kentucky State Route 42 traffic study from Ewing Blvd. to Mt. Zion. That project involves the installation of adaptive traffic signals at 31 intersections.
“I don’t think that’s happened yet, but that’s the last project that I can remember that had been awarded,” Winn said.
OKI has had 60 years to perfect the right formula for getting to “yes” on projects. Consensus among its large board is the secret sauce.
“It’s important because this is what goes in people’s backyards,” Policinski said. “If you have a process that is built on guile and acrimony, those decisions, you may win one day, but in doing it you’re going to make enemies and you may lose the next day … We have one person, one vote. So the mayor of Cincinnati and the mayor of Independence have the same voting power.”
Winn agrees. “I enjoy meeting the people and just hearing some of the projects and hearing how it all kind of works,” he said. “But you get an insight from all different-sized cities, you know, small, large, different demographics and stuff.”
Winn is Florence’s elected representative on the OKI board. Project Manager Tom Gagnon also serves as a city employee member, and Risk Manager Joseph Newton is an alternate.
Winn’s reappointment was one of seven reappointments unanimously approved during the city council’s Dec. 9 business meeting; Winn abstained from voting on his reappointment. Others approved Dec. 9 include two Boone County Planning Commission slots (Charlie Rolfsen and Tom Szurlinski) and three Airport Noise Abatement Committee positions (J. Kelly Huff, Teresa Kraft and Lisa Wilson-Plajer).