COVINGTON, Ga. - Covington City Councilman Kenneth Morgan officially announced his intention to seek re-election to the city's Post 1 West Ward council seat. If elected, this will be his second term. 

A former city employee of 19 years, Morgan said he has seen how the city works from both sides and hopes to continue to do what is in the best interests of the people he represents. 

"I'm passionate about what I'm doing and it's not one of those things where I come in with a self-agenda," he said. "Everything that I do is geared toward what is best for the community.

"I don't vote my beliefs, I vote what I feel is best for the constituents and the city as a whole. I never vote or party or certain interest group. At the end of the day, I work for the city and I want to make sure I'm accountable."

One of Morgan's proudest accomplishments, since he started nearly four years ago, is the introduction of a blight tax within the city. 

"Basically, through that blight tax, we've seen a lot of houses torn down and we are seeing some development in those areas," he said. "My goal is to continue to see more growth and try to do things to try to pull developers into that neighborhood."

While he is proud of what he has accomplished, he does feel that there is still work to be done.

"I feel like we need an external audit of all of our ordinances," he said. "When you look at it, that's an internal set of eyes. We need an external set of eyes to come in and look at all of our ordinances and find out if we're in compliance. We may have ordinances that have been on the books since 1833."

Morgan said he also wants to look at restructuring some of the city's top roles. 

"That city manager position has too much authority," he said. "I think it needs to be restructured. People take things personally when you say things, but its not personal, it's just the structure of the way it is set up.

"The power of an individual is not in their hands, but it is in the power of the policy and the policy is what needs to be changed because that's where the power is. If you change the policy you're taking away loopholes so that person doesn't have that policy to play with."

Morgan said he wants to be accessible to his constituents and offered his cell phone number (678-656-3176) as the best point of contact for him. 

Along with the Post 1 West Ward seat, the Covington City Council will see the Post 2 East Ward, Post 3 East Ward and Mayor seats on the ballot in the Nov. 5 election.