by Michael Monks
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BONUS COVERAGE OF MAYOR SCHEPER'S BUSINESS COUNCIL SPEECH
If you missed The River City News coverage of Thursday afternoon's incredibly important address by Covington Mayor Chuck Scheper, click the link below.
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MORE FROM THE SPEECH:
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On former Mayor Denny Bowman and becoming the new mayor:
"I think when Bowman resigned it's ironic in a way because he's the one who asked me to lead the (Scheper Report) commission in the first place. I am appreciative of what Denny did to lead the City. After he resigned each of the commissioners approached me asking if I would take on this role for the balance of his term. I said no four times but they were persistent. They caught me in a weak moment and I said, let me think about it. I put together a position paper and said here are the challenges we're facing and potential solutions that we have to move forward. It started with a social contract. We had an open conversation that politics is turning into something that all of us see on a national scope and we wish that people would work together and find a way to get it done. We are going to get it done with respect, we are going to listen to each other and have a positive discourse. I was confident that would not be a problem.
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A personal perception of the health care situation:
"My wife had an MRI on her knee a couple weeks ago and the cost of an MRI differs across networks. It went from $500 to $5,000. If you have no skin in the game you won't go to a facility based on cost, you'll go to the one closest to you. We can achieve a lot of this by increasing education and finding ways we can all work together without reducing the quality of care for our employees."
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Hints of merging services with other governments:
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Scheper pointed to a map of Covington when he said the following. "It's tough to provide public safety across this geography. We're spending 37% more for public safety than other cities our size. That's a pretty significant challenge. $7 million a year. I think when we talk about Covington we have to start broadening our discussion to include the region. It's time for us to see forward and think from a regional issue. I'm not going to be able to accomplish whatever that may imply (in a short term). ...I'm on record in the Scheper Report talking about regionalizing fire. We need to think more broadly, that we are part of a county, we are part of a region."
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On Covington's public employees:
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The mayor has reached out to all city employees through a conversational meeting that he has dubbed, "Coffee with Chuck". "Invitations are open to all employees to sit down and talk. We've done two so far and we have another next week. ... We have a lot of capable and talented employees. They want to be part of a winning team. It's a matter of getting us all working together, rowing in the same direction and face the challenges head-on, and I think we can accomplish great things this year and we can be a great city."
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On the 'wasteland' just south of MLK/12th Street:
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One question from the audience referred to the area to the south of the new MLK Boulevard a 'wasteland' and asked what the plans may be for that immediate area. "I have a line in my speech, 'the bad news is we have empty storefronts, the good news is we have empty storefronts'. I think energy from MLK Boulevard will create growth to the south. The one-stop shop was looking that way. I think we have other assets that the city is looking at to think about how we can monetize those assets. The PUMA (Center City Action Plan) study focuses on 12th Street to the north, but there are opportunities for what you call the wasteland."
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On being an ambassador for Covington:
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"Fifty percent of people say, congratulations. Fifty percent offer condolences. But everybody says, 'what can I do to help?' We have to capture that. We have tremendous talent. We are perhaps the most under-marketed city or entity in this region. We have an opportunity to tell our story. I implore all of you to become ambassadors for the City. Tell them why you live and work in Covington and be proud about it. There's so much we can accomplish. I think we're confronting the brutal facts, we have a plan, we have a strategy, we have a unified commission, we're all joined at the hip ready to make tough decisions."
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On Covington's public schools & mentoring:
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"I think our schools are very important for the future of this city. (Superintendent Lynda Jackson) asked me to find four hundred mentors. My wife, Julie Geisen Scheper, has been advocate for Covington Partners (in Prevention) for a number of years and was a mentor and I saw the impact that it had on the mentee and also on Julie. They have a line, 'mentor one child, change two lives'. I'm doing it one hour a week. It's bringing joy to my life. I'm putting a personal plea to all of you to think about mentoring. It's a small investment of your time. If we have four hundred mentors, that's four hundred hours a week. That could fundamentally change the lives of those kids and possibly of our schools. Upping the graduation rates will help change the fate of the city."
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