Jessica and I moved to Westside Covington in 2014, when we found a foursquare with a side yard that was the perfect fit for us and her then five-year-old daughter. 1105 Lee Street is now a little urban homestead with native wildflowers, raised bed veggie gardens, and a chicken coop…and we’re in the middle of a whole house renovation. We’ve found opportunity after opportunity in Covington and are proud to live in such a historic, diverse, and progressive city: we made the right decision to raise a kid in Covington, and we're here to stay.

We got involved in the community from the start, mulching pocket parks in Westside and helping to re-fence the Riddle-Yates community garden. Jessica launched the first farm share in Covington by reclaiming a vacant lot on MLK and contributed to city regulations for urban market farming. We moved on to found Sage Yoga and provided free community yoga sessions all over the city, and for folks from elementary school students to social service agency staff to senior citizens. And through the non-profit Calm Mind Foundation, we’ve designed and delivered meditation and mindfulness diversion for at-risk youth in the juvenile justice system; provided summer camp programming for Covington kids; and planned and installed a school garden at 9th District Elementary, among other projects.

And we’ve started businesses in the city, first Sage Yoga on Pike St and then Sage and Garden, a pop-up plant store inspired by everyone’s pandemic housekeeping. City staff has encouraged every initiative, from small business startup assistance to parks and recreation and neighborhood services welcoming all the public programs we've offered, to productive coordination between the city and social service agencies and nonprofits. Sustaining and building on this cooperation is where I'd start as commissioner. This city is packed with citizens and business owners who are passionate about Covington, and our city government works best when it listens to residents' ideas and figures out how to facilitate the work we can get done together. If citizens have the sense that we all can pitch in on solutions — and not just wait for the city to fix things — Covington can shine even brighter.

I’ve recently experienced that passion for Covington while serving on the Devou Park Advisory Committee and the Historic Linden Grove Cemetery and Arboretum Board of Overseers. Citizen boards and commissions are vital to governance in Covington; we have big-city challenges (largely because of our neighbor across the river) but a small city budget. Volunteers stepping up to supplement what city staff can accomplish make this city work, which is why I’m proposing two more citizen advisory boards as part of my campaign platform. If you’re interested in what’s going on with any of the boards, stop by a meeting! Even better, fill out an application (on the city’s website) and pitch in with the talents you can contribute.