Welcome to the City of Covington

On June 27, 2006 the Georgia Municipal Association designated the City of Covington as a City of Ethics. The voluntary City of Ethics program encourages cities to adopt and adhere to a set of key ethical principles and a comprehensive model ethics ordinance.

In January 2003 the City of Covington was one of ten cities to be awarded the 2003 City of Excellence Award, which was presented, by the Georgia Municipal Association and Georgia Trend Magazine. The Georgia Municipal Association is a non-profit organization that provides legislative advocacy, research, training, employee benefit and technical consulting services to its member cities. The winners were judged against 14 criteria, such as fiscal management, public safety, citizen participation, cultural activities, community partnerships and downtown viabililty. The award means every department in the City of Covington had to excel at the jobs.

The City of Covington is very proud to have the distinction of being one of only three cities in the nation that has police, fire, communications and public works accreditation.  The other two cities are Plano, TX and Bellevue, WA.

In November 2006, the Covington-Newton County 911 Center became the 3rd Communications Center in the State of Georgia to be recognized as an accredited agency by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).  The CALEA Communications Accreditation Program provides Covington-Newton County 911 with a way to voluntarily demonstrate their commitment to professional excellence.   It strengthens the agency’s accountability, within the agency and with the community, through a continuum of standards that clearly define authority, performance, and responsibilities. Accreditation also limits liability and risk exposure because it demonstrates that internationally recognized standards for communications have been met.

On May 31st, 2006 the city of Covington Public Works Department became the first in Georgia and the 33rd nationally to be accredited by the American Public Works Association.
The purpose of the accreditation program is to provide a means of formally verifying and recognizing public works agencies for compliance with the recommended practices set forth in the Public Works Management Practices Manual. It is a voluntary, self-motivated approach to objectively evaluate, verify and recognize compliance with the recommended management practices.

Benefits of Accreditation are:

• Improve effectiveness
• Promote staff and community pride
• Clarify budget needs
• Identify operation and management needs
• Enhance professional image
• Promote team work and staff development
• Encourage interdepartmental coordination
• Identify duplication and wasted effort
• Promote public awareness
• Improve communication

August of 2003, the Covington Fire Department became the 4th department in the state of Georgia and the 89th in the world to be recognized as an accredited agency by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International.  Chief Floyd received the Chief Fire Office Designation from the Commission of Chief Fire Office Designation, being only the 13th in the State and the 113th in the world to achieve this distinction.  The Department was re-accredited in August 2008 and the Fire Chief was re-designated as a Chief Fire Officer.