Mayor Joe Meyer delivers final ‘State of City’ address to CBC, looks back as well as forward

By Andy Furman
NKyTribune reporter

It was a time for Joe Meyer not only to look back – but forward as well. And he did so, Thursday afternoon at a sold out – close to 350 businesspeople and friends — at the Radisson Hotel, as a special guest speaker for the Covington Business Council (CBC).

As Mayor – he served as Covington’s Mayor the past eight years, it was his, well, Swan Song – his State of the City Address.

He will not run in November.

“I want to look back as well as forward,” Meyer said.

Meyer has had a distinguished political career. He was a state representative and a state senator – 15 years in the Kentucky General Assembly, – senior policy advisor for the state auditor, and a member of the governor’s cabinet as Secretary of Education and Workforce Development.

That’s 45 years of government service – but, he said, “Mayor of Covington has been not only the most challenging – but the most rewarding.”

Meyer claims he was officially retired when a number of Covington residents helped recruit him to run for Mayor.

“We knew then,” he said, “Covington government was broken. I just didn’t have an idea of how badly it was broken.”

When he got to City Hall after the election, he remembers, the city manager forbade city staff to talk to him unless their supervisor was present. To get administrative support he said he had to hire an assistant and pay her out of his own pocket.

“In 2013, the state auditor conducted a comprehensive review of Covington’s finance department, making several recommendations for improvement; from the failure to have adequate policies and procedures in place to violations of state law,” he said.

In fact, he said it took years – until 2024 – for the city of Covington to have a clean audit.

Meyer confronted and reconstructed the administrative and management foundation of the city government.

“We addressed personnel, attitude, values, policies and procedures, technology, transparency, orderliness of the commission meetings, communications with the people of our city,” he said.

Today, he says – it shows – the quality and professionalism of the city and staff are much, much better.

The Brent Spence Bridge is the largest public works project in the history of Covington.

“We had serious concerns about the project’s funding and size and impact on the city,” Meyer related to the group. “We were not willing to roll over and accept our fate. We fought and won. The project is being built without tolls and the width of the new bridge was reduced by 42 percent.”

The conversation turned to 2019 when the Covington IRS processing facility closed.

“We knew it was coming since 2016,” Meyer said. “It was a huge hit to budget and downtown but a significant opportunity to reimage this part of the city.”

The mayor said the city went through a master planning process that engaged hundreds of people to create a vision and masterplan that reflected Covington values and aspirations.

The city intentionally developed a pedestrian friendly, human first economic development strategy, he said. And today the infrastructure between 4th and 3rd streets is under construction, two major developments are under contract, the Drees Townhomes, and the Silverman 257-unit apartment complex and funding for the relocation of Chase Law School and the NKU campus of the UK Medical School all in place.

New leadership in the economic development department introduced a new level of vision, effectiveness, and trust Meyer said.

“You can feel the change – you can see the change,” he said.

The creativity of the Economic Development Department — Clive the Alien, the Pride Parade, public art, the Authenti-CITY Awards, the “Unapologetically Covington” branding all create a personality and vibe that attracts businesses and talent, he said.

Meyer promised a new City Hall between 6th and 7th on Scott, with ground-breaking set for October 29th.

“But with all the changes, Covington is still very much a blue-collar town, with people struggling day-to-day aspiring for a better quality of life,” he said.

But what strides this city has made. Meyer cites a past USA Today headline that the U.S. Department of HUD named Covington, Kentucky, the most blighted city in the United States of America.

But in 2024, Money Magazine recognized Covington as one of the “50 best places to live in the United States.”

“As I leave,” he said, “I want to put our city government in the best position possible to continue its progress.”

When he opened for questions after his talk, he was asked, “What’s Next?”

“If things continue, I might run for President.”

He would make a good one.

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