By Liz Oakes
The Cincinnati Enquirer

ELMWOOD PLACE - Mayor Jim Toles is officially quitting on Friday - seven weeks before the mayor-elect takes office - saying he's fed up with political bickering in the financially strapped village.

"It's just frustrating. I got enough stress being a police officer," said Toles, who works full-time as a lieutenant in the Lockland Police Department.

Toles said he was tired of fighting with council members over budget problems in the village, which he said has lost thousands of dollars in tax revenue over the past two years because Central Steel & Wire Co., Xtek Inc. and other businesses have left town.

The village estimates total revenue for 2004 will come in at $1.04 million, down $137,600 from 2002. That could leave the village more than $100,000 in the red in 2004, according to its budget predictions.

Toles said the financial outlook is so worrisome he wrote the state auditor's office this fall to see if the village needed to be put on fiscal watch or fiscal emergency status.

Auditors with the state met with village officials several weeks ago to go over the books, but say the situation is not dire enough this year to warrant fiscal oversight. State officials might come back and take another look after the end of the year once final 2003 figures are in, said Joe Case, director of public affairs at the state auditor's office.

Toles said he suggested increasing income from residents' garbage fees and requiring Elmwood Place employees to foot 10 percent of their health coverage costs, which the village currently covers.

Some council members instead wanted to cut the full-time police force of six officers and use part-timers to cover shifts, and have the part-time fire department become volunteer, he said.

That didn't sit well with Toles, a former police officer for nine years in Elmwood Place.

"(Council) can deal with it. I wasn't getting anything accomplished for the last month, anyway," he said.

On Friday, village council is expected to appoint an acting mayor to finish Toles' term, which expires the end of December.

Councilman and Mayor-elect Barney Philpot is a likely candidate to succeed Toles, who unofficially announced he was quitting two weeks ago. Scarlett Monday, who serves as president of council in the mayor's absence, has been acting as mayor in the interim.

Council member Joe Rook said that for things to improve, residents need to start working together.

But "I don't think our police should be cut, either," he said. "I feel like we're short-handed on our police force."

Rook said he's also concerned about the financial condition of the village.

This summer, "I don't even know if we're going to be able to open up a (community) pool," he said. "We're running on the edge of what we can survive on to make it to the end of the year."

E-mail loakes@enquirer.com