BY SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FAIRFIELD -- The man who brought Southwest Ohio the state's first local highway agency resigned as its chairman Monday.
Mike Fox, who helped form the Butler County Transportation Improvement District (TID) in 1993 when he was a state legislator, submitted his resignation, effective immediately, to the district's board.
Though Mr. Fox did not return repeated phone calls, TID officials said he did not want his TID position to conflict with the November race to keep his Butler County commissioner seat.
Critics have long called the Republican's positions as both TID chair and county commissioner a conflict.
TID officials responded that the only conflict was one of time, not interest. They added his departure was expected once construction of the long-awaited $92 million Butler Regional Highway kicked off in May.
"It was no secret Mike Fox wanted to get the highway under construction and then consider resigning," said TID spokeswoman Karen Lane DeRosa.
Mr. Fox is now the third high-level official to leave TID in as many months.
Andrew Brossart, TID's director of finance, submitted his resignation Friday for a private-sector job. And H. Darrell Barger left in May after three years as director. He was replaced by Gregory Wilkens, formerly an engineer with the Butler County engineer's office.
"There's no direction from the board about the future of the TID," Mr. Brossart said. "I have to be concerned about my own job security."
One big unknown is how TID will pay for widening of Ohio 747 and the maintenance of the highway, he said. The district is not in financial trouble, he added, just faced with a lot of hard decisions. "There's a whole spirit of uncertainty pervading the TID," said Dave Gully, TID's secretary treasurer and Union Township's administrator. Mr. Gully, who was Mr. Brossart's supervisor, said many at the agency are concerned the TID might dissolve after the opening of the highway in 2000.
That worry, combined with the change in leadership, has some re-evaluating their futures with TID.
"The board is trying to decide if it wants to continue with the TID," he said. "Once the regional highway is done, what's next?" But Mr. Gully said if the TID disbanded, he does not know what would become of the 20-year bond debt worth $158 million the TID is now overseeing for the regional highway and needed right of way. The highway will run from Hamilton to Interstate 75 and is expected to ease traffic jams in this booming section of southeast Butler County.
As a Fairfield Township representative in the Ohio General Assembly in 1993, Mr. Fox was instrumental in the state's creation of the TID as a collaboration of local governments and business funds.
It was pitched as an innovative body in Butler County that would swiftly buy land, build the highway and make other regional road improvements, including the new Union Centre Boulevard interchange. Last year, Mr. Fox stepped down as a state representative to accept an appointment as county commissioner, replacing the late Janet Clemmons. Several months later the TID board voted to make him its chairman. The TID includes Butler County, Hamilton, Fairfield and Union, Liberty and Fairfield townships.
Mr. Fox's dual responsibilities became a campaign issue this spring in his race for the commission seat when Democratic opponent Jeffrey Kitchen called them a conflict of interest.
He charged that Mr. Fox should not serve as chairman of an agency that receives county money. Because Mr. Fox did not receive a salary from the TID board, its lawyers said a conflict did not exist.
Mr. Kitchen was out of town Monday. But his campaign issued a statement calling Mr. Fox's resignation "troubling" and the timing with the other resignations "incredible."
Meanwhile, local officials are calling TID's pledged innovative financing anything but creative.
Union Township Trustee Catherine Stoker said that at tonight's meeting, she plans to ask other trustees to consider leaving the district.
The township has paid $10 million toward TID road projects, including the interchange, which opened in December.
In return, township officials expected the TID to pay for the extension of Muhlhauser Road and the widening of Ohio 747 with bond money paid back with future toll money from the regional highway. Because those bonds have not been issued and toll money appears uncertain, Union Township has asked the county to consider taxing property owners near Muhlhauser Road to pay for the $8 million improvements. But Ms. DeRosa with TID said the district agreement did not include Muhlhauser Road and called for toll money to be spent only on the regional highway improvements and Ohio 747.
