The Erlanger City Council and mayor recently received an anonymous letter that called attention to the condition of some of the roads in the city.
Council member Tyson Hermes presented the letter, which arrived at the building in November, to the other council members at the meeting on Tuesday. The author provided neither a name nor a return address, but council used the letter as a jumping-off point to discuss city beautification efforts, the mechanics of municipal public works and issues of government accessibility.
Hermes said he believed sometimes people were afraid to provide identifying information on communications to the city for fear of retaliation, and he said one reason he shared the letter in a public meeting was to take the opportunity to dispel that fear.
“I’m pretty sure I’m accurate in saying that doesn’t exist,” Hermes said. “I can’t think of anybody in staff or anybody on council or the mayor or administration that would retaliate in any way for someone expressing their opinions, no matter how much we might like it or not like it, or agree or disagree with it. The big reason I think it’s important for someone to share this is that… we would love to be able to address this directly with who wrote it.”
A transcript of the letter is as follows:
Mayor & City Council,
I so appreciate the beautification efforts, but would rather see the roads fixed. My back gets jarred when driving on Hallam-Concord, Hulbert, Lambda (you know the ones) & repairs are long overdue. The extensive work on Rainbow Terrace Park is nice but would have fixed many streets with the $ spent. Street sign replacement also nice but my tax $ better spent on needed repairs. Public Works does a great job on small repairs, but more than patching is needed. Please address this now. winter will make it worse. Thank you, especially for the leaf pick up.
Hermes read the letter to the council and then tried to explain how funding for road repairs and beautification works.
“We aren’t foregoing road repairs because we’re spending money on beautification efforts or street signs or parks,” Hermes said. “It’s not like we’re making those choices and pulling the money out of the road fund.”
The letter’s concerns dovetailed with the rest of the meeting, which included a presentation from local accounting firm Chamberlin Owen, who performed the city’s financial audit.
The audit painted an optimistic picture of the city’s finances. John Chamberlin, who presented the audit results, brought particular attention to the city’s lack of management notes, which means the auditors didn’t think the city’s financial procedures needed to change.
“I applaud that we’ve had management comments in the past, you’ve addressed them, and so we appreciate that, and so we had no additional management comments to provide this year,” Chamberlin said.
Mayor Jessica Fette said in a phone call with LINK nky that the audit was “the best we’ve ever had.”
She also reiterated Hermes’ point that city beautification efforts weren’t being done at the expense of road maintenance.
“It’s not like we’ve cut road funding to do beautification projects,” Fette said, adding that the budget dedicated to road improvements had grown over the years.
Hermes stated that in 2014, when he was serving his first term as the mayor of Erlanger, the road budget was about $500,000. The budget has waxed and waned since then, but city budget documents indicate the city has dedicated about $2.8 million for road infrastructure improvements in fiscal year 2024.
Erlanger Public Works did not respond to an inquiry for comment, but the council discussed how the city determines the roads to focus on at Tuesday’s meeting.
“The order of things is largely being done through triage,” Hermes said. “We’re picking the worst roads and addressing them first… The city has the funds to go ahead and be able to repair probably all the roads within a couple of years.”
City administrator Peter Glenn said a road’s life span is about 25 to 30 years.
Later in the week, Fette affirmed her desire for the city to be accessible.
“Don’t be anonymous,” she said. “We want to be able to be able to talk through the decisions we’re making.”
Watch a live stream of the meeting, including the audit presentation and the discussion surrounding the letter, at the City of Erlanger’s YouTube page.
View an electronic copy of the auditor’s presentation from Tuesday here.
The next meeting of the Erlanger City Council is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Erlanger City Building on Commonwealth Avenue.