COVINGTON, Ky. – Communications professional Elese Daniel’s mission during her two-month stint at Covington City Hall was to gauge interest in climate and environmental issues and opportunities, and to be a resource for questions not only from City leaders and staff but also from community partners.
That work involved nearly 40 hours of meetings with City staff, Daniel told the Covington Board of Commissioners during a presentation Tuesday night, but it also took her to neighborhoods like Austinburg, Helentown, and Eastside, where Daniel participated in climate-safe community workshops.
“That was really cool,” said Daniel. “It was a mapping activity with residents from those neighborhoods. So, folks were educated on some of the climate change impacts and challenges that Covington is facing, but then there’s specific neighborhoods that are overburdened by x, y, and z, and for them to tell us what was happening in their neighborhood – experiencing heat, wanting more trees – was cool, because you get that frontline community feedback.”
From June into August, Daniel was a Climate Action Fellow with the City, part of Green Umbrella’s regional climate collaborative that pairs undergraduate and graduate students with local governments to provide capacity to help kickstart a community-driven, whole-of-government approach to climate planning, that centers on equity and community resilience.
She told Commissioners that the City was already involved in many services and initiatives that pushed Green Umbrella-related goals, from renewed focus on stormwater issues to a push for more EV chargers for vehicles to innovative recycling opportunities to pollinator gardens and tree plantings. She said she hoped her time bolstered energy around climate initiatives, and she ended her presentation by recommending the City create a Climate Action Task Force of City staff and outside partners to create a playbook for the future.
Having such a document could help the City secure grants in the future, she said.
“Yes, there is a climate crisis among us, and yes we have to combat it, and there are a lot of opportunities for us to go about doing that, including there are already a handful of big projects that you have going on, including the Central Riverfront and the large RAISE grant that you were awarded, the new City Hall …” she said.
But she listed other opportunities and goals, including greening the City’s vehicle fleet, reducing energy use in City facilities, creating more green spaces, and more work on stormwater and air quality issues.
Mayor Joe Meyer thanked Daniel for her work and voiced high praise.
“We’ll take your recommendation under consideration and deal with it at some point in the future,” Meyer said. “But in the meantime, Elese, I wanted to acknowledge your presence. You’re very impressive, and we were delighted to have the experience of having you in our City Hall and working with the folks in the building. Your contribution was meaningful, and thank you for that.”
What Daniel didn’t tell the Commission, however, was her contributions to Covington outside her climate work.
It seems she’s an equally talented artist and writer with art on display as part of the “Suspended Between Forms” exhibit at The Carnegie. In fact, her work is front and center at the entrance to The Carnegie.
Daniel also didn’t talk about her impressive background: Hailing from South Bend, Ind., she made her way to the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati region when she landed a full scholarship to the University of Cincinnati as a forward on the Bearcats basketball team.
“I came here because I’m a jock,” Daniel said.
With a degree in journalism from UC, Daniel was hired by then-Cincinnati Vice Mayor David Mann as his community liaison and office aide. Daniels was Mann’s bridge to Cincinnati residents, fielding emails and visiting with and scheduling community council meetings among the 50 councils in Cincinnati.
“I worked for David Mann for almost four years, and still have a good relationship with him,” said Daniel, who went on to gain experience in transportation, particularly bicycles.
During a 7-year stint with Red Bike, Daniel created the company’s equity and outreach program creating a monthly membership for folks that were income qualified.
“My work with them was about equity and access, how to make it easy and affordable and feel culturally like the right thing for more folks, because at first it seemed like it (the bikes) were for tourists,” said Daniel. “We expanded the spectrum of who rides and now the discount program is nationally recognized.”
The program was a awarded a number of large grants based on bike share equity and access, and Daniel later went on to work as the program’s engagement manager. Daniel also participated in a Transportation Justice Fellowship with the North American City Transportation Officials (NACTO), and later participated as a coach in that capacity for NACTO.
“On a national level, I’ve got to do lots of cool stuff like bike share and transportation,” said Daniel.
The fellowship opportunity with Green Umbrella was another “incredible” opportunity for Daniel.
“As a person that generally cares about the environment and the world and people around me, I want to know more from a city policy standpoint how our cities are thinking about climate change and what they’re trying to do to mitigate or change the situation,” said Daniel.
During her two-month fellowship in Covington, Daniel drew upon one of the many things she’s good at – communicating – to get people to think about something new in a different way.
“The City is dealing with everything that a city deals with, but how do I make it make sense that climate action is something they should maybe take on?” said Daniel. “Honestly, it was a lot of learning and understanding the different departmental needs and priorities, and how does climate action, storm water, energy, heat – how does all of that slide into some of their priorities?”
City leaders said Daniel made her mark in many ways.
“Elese made it look easy as she engaged with the City staff and community members to raise awareness and educate about Climate Action Preparedness,” said Covington Solid Waste and Recycling Manager Sheila Fields. “We are grateful for all the work Elese accomplished to equip the City of Covington with the necessary tools and resources to be ready for changes in our climate.”
As for what happens regarding the City’s plans for climate action initiatives now that Daniel is gone?
She said there were already engaged individuals inside and outside of City staff who care about climate action and sustainability initiatives.
“The thing that I really hope people support (because we have to work in community and we don’t just make decisions on our own) is there’s a task force that creates a climate action plan or environment sustainability plan for the City that can be used as a unified vision of what matters and the goals to work toward – reducing carbon emissions, improving quality of life, and making it economically make sense,” she said. “I think that would be helpful. I’m hoping we’ve planted enough ideas and related enough information that they will want to do that.”
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