Jay Fossett announces candidacy for Covington City Council

For Immediate Release

December 1, 2025

Contact: Jay Fossett

Former Covington City Manager & City Solicitor says council seat will be his “retirement passion project”

Covington City Council candidate Jay Fossett

COVINGTON, Ky. – Jay Fossett, a former Covington City Manager and City Solicitor and the current City Administrator in Dayton, Ky., announced today that he has filed to be a candidate for the Covington City Council race, which will be held on November 3, 2026.

After a ballot initiative passed last November, the City of Covington will transition from a City Manager government to a City Council government on January 1, 2027, which will increase the size of the city’s legislative body from five members to seven members.

“I believe the City of Covington is in a solid place right now, with a strong city staff, mayor, and city commission,” Fossett said. “I believe my background, experience, and training would complement this team and allow me to pursue my retirement passion project – serving the City of Covington.”

Fossett has announced that he will retire as Dayton’s City Administrator at the end of next year after five years in that position. In addition to serving as either a full-time city administrator or city attorney for 13 years, Fossett has been practicing as a lawyer for nearly 40 years, including 10 years as an adjunct law professor at Salmon P. Chase Law School. Prior to attending law school, he worked as a journalist at the Louisville Courier-Journal, The Kentucky Post, the Cincinnati Enquirer, and other publications.

Fossett, along with the late Patrick Crowley, founded Strategic Advisers, LLC, a public relations and public affairs agency, where he was a partner for 12 years, including time as managing partner. Fossett obtained a master’s degree in Executive Leadership and Organization Change from Northern Kentucky University in 2010.

“I believe that my experience in local government, as a lawyer specializing in municipal law, operating businesses in the private sector in Covington, and serving on several Covington-related boards and organizations make me uniquely qualified to serve the city’s new legislative body, the Covington City Council,” Fossett said.

Fossett’s family’s roots and connections to Covington run deep. His grandparents owned Schmidt-Beuttel Bakery at 253 Pike Street from the late 1800s through the 1930s in a building that still stands today. Other family members operated plumbing and insurance businesses on Pike Street as well as a tavern at 26 E. 5^th Street.

William Beuttel Jr., his mother’s uncle, served as a Covington City Council member during the 1930s and led a reform effort to address corruption in city government. Beuttel later served as Covington’s mayor from 1940 through 1943. Fossett served as Covington’s first full-time City Solicitor from 2001 to 2005, then as its City Manager from 2005 to 2009.

Fossett said he is extremely bullish about Covington’s future, just as he was when he worked on the city’s management team in the late 2000s

“I am extremely proud of the team we assembled to run the city back then,” Fossett said. “We helped change the city’s culture and laid the groundwork for much of the success the city has enjoyed over the past 15 years. But we can’t sit on our laurels because much work remains to be done, and I’d like to participate in accomplishing that work as a member of the city’s new Board of Council.”

To learn more about Fossett and his candidacy for Covington City Council, visit his campaign website or read his recent post, “Why I am running for Covington City Council.”