Dear City of Covington Residents,

Serving as your mayor has been both rewarding and educational and I count it as a blessing every day. During my time as mayor, I have been fortunate enough to see and experience things I never thought possible and for that, I am very thankful. I constantly strive to better serve the people of Covington and one of my New Year’s Resolutions is to communicate more often with the citizens of this wonderful city. Every month, I am going to write about something I think is important. It might be about a governmental concern, a worldly matter or something that just impacts us in Covington. Whatever it may be, you can rest assured it comes from the heart and I find it important.

Transparency. Merriam Webster defines it as “the state or quality of being transparent.” That begs the question, what is the definition of transparent? The dictionary defines that as “able to be seen through,” like a piece of glass, or… your government. Sound a little crazy? Before you stop reading, let me explain.

Your elected officials and city government work hard, day in and day out, to maintain the quality of life we enjoy in Covington and work constantly to improve it. There are no secrets or anything that “goes on behind closed doors” that we keep from you. We try our best to be transparent and it is important for several reasons.

I view myself as a servant to the people I work for: you, the taxpayers. It is your money that is being spent and you need to know where it goes. You have a right to know where it goes. There are a lot of different interests and opinions in our community. That is part of what makes it so great, but with those varying opinions also comes compromise. We try to complete projects and make decisions that will impact as many people in a positive manner as possible. That doesn’t mean pleasing everyone constantly, but though transparency, I hope everyone can understand why we make the decisions we do. Being transparent benefits the city government as well because, like a healthy relationship with your significant other, secrets don’t do anyone any good. There should be nothing left to the imagination.

Transparency, to me, is listening to the people you serve, processing their wants and needs, trying your absolute best to find solutions and not stopping until you do so. Then it is articulating those solutions and information back to them and not holding anything back.

Transparency promotes accountability and lets citizens know exactly what their government is doing.

Not only is being transparent the right thing to do, it is the only thing to do. It takes courage to be 100 percent transparent, but at the end of the day, it eliminates suspicion and puts everyone on the same page.

If you have any questions or feedback, please send me a note at rjohnston@cityofcovington.org. I’d love to hear from you

Your friend and mayor,
Ronnie Johnston