The city of Covington recently commissioned an outside firm to review the performance of the Main Street Covington program, which is responsible for promoting and developing the downtown district.

An outside review like this hasn’t been done in the past, and it was, as far as we’re concerned, a good move.
Every agency that receives tax money should have to go through a similar review process from time to time to ensure that its following best practices and that the public’s money is being used wisely.

The review was first presented, not to the Main Street Board of Directors, but rather directly to the Covington City Council. We suppose that’s reasonable since it was city tax money that paid for the review.

The senior member of our editorial board sits on the Main Street board, and when the report was presented to Main Street, it was done in a haphazard manner with very little notice.

We’re not questioning whether the report was complete nor whether it presents solid recommendations that should be followed, but we are questioning the rush to embrace the negatives of the report before the board of directors has had a chance to study, ponder on and respond to the report.

The Main Street board is planning to do the above at its retreat in March.

Until then, all involved should slow down a little bit and give the people involved time to put together a plan to move the Main Street program forward. If a program has a board of directors then that board should be allowed to do its job, unless it becomes clear they can’t. We believe in the Main Street board of directors and know these men and women are willing to step up to the task in front of them. Just give them some time to do it.