By John Kiesewetter
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - Liberty Township Trustee Bob Shelley, fired from his Butler County job Thursday by county commissioners, does not plan to step down from his elected township office.

"He does not intend to resign," said Tim Evans, Shelley's attorney,after commissioners terminated Shelley for violating the county's sexual harassment policy twice in four months.

"This has nothing to do with (his township position). He's an elected official. If someone wants to remove him, it would have to be the electorate," Evans said.

Liberty Township Trustee David Kern called for Shelley, 63, to resign this month after he was suspended for a second time from his $61,772-a-year job as Solid Waste District manager at the county's Department of Environmental Services. Shelley has been a township trustee since 1986.

Shelley was suspended without pay for 10 days in December for accessing inappropriate Internet sites on a county computer. That suspension came with a final warning saying he would be fired immediately if he violated the sexual harassment policy again.

On March 11, he was suspended for allegedly making inappropriate comments to a female subordinate.

Commissioners Chuck Furmon and Greg Jolivette approved the dismissal without comment, while Shelley and his wife, Yvonne, and Evans sat silently. . Commissioner Michael A. Fox was late attending the meeting and missed the vote.

Ninety minutes later, at the conclusion of the meeting, Evans asked commissioners to rescind the decision and appoint an independent investigator for the case. Fox made such a motion, but it died for lack of a second.

"We'll remain neutral and let the process work," Furmon said. Evans said Shelley has not decided whether he will appeal to the Ohio Personnel Board of Review.

Evans said that Shelley wanted to tell his side of the story. But Douglas Duckett, county personnel director, noted that Shelley didn't testify on his behalf at a predisciplinary hearing April 16. . Evans refused to let Shelley speak to the media after the commission meeting.

According to Evans, the woman who made the March allegations was offended after Shelley had spoken to her - at his boss's request - about wearing "more appropriate and professional" attire at work.

After investigating the complaint, the county "found Mr. Shelley's account less credible than that of the complaining employee," Duckett said.

Shelley's wife earlier blamed politics for her husband's problems. Shelley had been told by Republican Party members at a meeting that they would "destroy him" if he didn't support a specific candidate for Republican Party Central Committee chairman, Evans said.

Commissioners ignored Evans' request to address commissioners before their vote Thursday.

E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com