By Cindy Schroeder
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Tom Steidel

LAWRENCEBURG - Flush with gambling proceeds, this city of 4,700 on the Ohio River plans to hire Tom Steidel as its first city manager by month's end.

Mr. Steidel, Covington's assistant city manager and a former Cincinnati fire chief, said he plans to meet with Lawrenceburg's city attorney today to review the contract offer Lawrenceburg officials signed Monday night. If all is in order, the 59-year-old Covington resident is tentatively scheduled to start his new job Dec. 30.

Lawrenceburg Mayor Paul Tremain said Mr. Steidel's municipal background and expertise in riverfront development made him the best of 45 city manager candidates.

"I wish he was starting tomorrow,'' Mr. Tremain said Tuesday. "With all of our development in Lawrenceburg, we need his expertise."

Mr. Steidel cited Lawrenceburg's "large shopping area and wonderful riverfront,'' as well as the county seat's industrial park and new jail as pluses.

During his five years in Covington City Hall, Mr. Steidel has been involved in downtown development to labor negotiations and housing rehabilitation, City Manager Greg Jarvis said. "Tom's done an excellent job in all of the assignments we've given him.''

Mr. Steidel earns an annual salary of $77,179 in Covington.

Mr. Tremain said Mr. Steidel's four-year contract with an optional fifth year in Lawrenceburg calls for an annual salary between $90,000 and $100,000.

Lawrenceburg has generated more than $52 million through taxes on the Argosy Casino, the busiest gambling boat in the world. But that wealth has been the focus of squabbles between city officials who have different ideas of how it should be spent.

City employees have been fired and rehired, and the mayor and the clerk-treasurer have feuded over the handling of public records and the distribution of college scholarships funded through Argosy Casino taxes.

City Council has sued Mr. Tremain and he has countersued, contracts have been awarded without bid, and construction jobs have gone millions over budget without official approval.

The legal battle is so complex that last year the Indiana Supreme Court approved a "special master'' to mediate suits and countersuits between the mayor and the five-member council. As part of that process, the parties agreed that Lawrenceburg should hire its first city manager to deal with the details that city officials couldn't.

"It's no secret that they've had some problems in Lawrenceburg,'' Mr. Steidel. "But I think they liked my broad-based experience and the fact that I've been in some hot seats before."

E-mail cschroeder@enquirer.com