Trustees Keith Ballauer and Jen Patterson interviewed each candidate for 30 minutes on Monday and chose Fisher, who is a health science advisor at Otsuka pharmaceuticals and was the lead executive representative at Merck from 2001 to 2016. He also serves on the Butler County Rural Zoning Commission and the township zoning board.
Patterson served on the township zoning commission with Fisher when Ross was exploring taking over its own zoning. She said he has a wealth of experience working with both the county and township zoning boards and other attributes that will make him a good trustee.
“I had the privilege of serving on that commission with him and he had a very thoughtful way of considering the issues at hand,” Patterson said. “He has stayed current on technology, he had some thoughts on how we can communicate better with our residents, which we know people are looking for from us.”
Ballauer told the Journal-News he and Patterson each had their own top picks but were able to agree on Fisher. He said he watched Fisher in action on the township zoning board and “he always seemed to be on the top of his game.”
“I just think he’ll bring an even keel to his position in that chair,” Ballauer said.
Fisher told the Journal-News there wasn’t any one thing that prompted him to apply for the job, but with his zoning board experiences, he said “I thought I had some skill to bring to that.”
“I wanted just to be more directly involved in the community and this was just a great opportunity for me to do that,” he said. “To hear from the community in a more direct way and to be an advocate for the residents.”
What’s ahead
Ross has had a few tumultuous years as some residents have pushed back against future township growth, namely the $353 million mixed-use development on the Burns Farm. The trustees wanted it in part because it would give them revenue streams to pay for much needed infrastructure — to handle the expected influx of visitors traveling through town to Spooky Nook in Hamilton.
The trustees still have future development, traffic concerns and other issues to grapple with. Fisher said he doesn’t have any preconceived notions — or enough “specific” information on the issues like Spooky Nook traffic — about the direction the township should take.
Fisher said one of his better qualities is “My willingness to listen to everybody, I’ve worked with people from all types of backgrounds and at the end of the day I think I get the most out of listening and helping people. If I can listen to as many people as I can, that’s the best I can do and kind of advocate accordingly.”
Ballauer said they asked all of the candidates if they weren’t chosen would they be willing to run for election in November — both Patterson and Fisher must run to keep their seats — or to serve on committees they plan to establish. He said four of the 10 said they would.
Patterson said they hope to launch new finance and services committees this year and want as many people to get involved as possible.
“I think it’s important that people can be engaged because we had really, really good candidates in this pool, and we should provide them opportunities to continue to be part of the township,” he said.
Ballauer is now the only elected trustee on the board, he has had to perform this task twice in the past year. He and Yordy chose Patterson in May to succeed former Trustee Tom Willsey who died last year after serving 36 years as a trustee.
Ballauer said selecting fellow officials “is a tough spot to be in, nobody’s wrong, nobody’s right, nobody’s qualified and nobody’s unqualified.”
“To sit here in this chair that doesn’t really require a job interview, a resume, you just go up to the board of elections, pull a petition, give them a $35 check and put your tennis shoes on and start hitting the bricks,” Ballauer said. “How do I, who campaigned for this position, use questions to come up with the person to fill that seat for one year.”
Among the other candidates are a couple county employees, several business owners, people who work in real estate, a former trustee and township employee and a recent college graduate who works for the University of Cincinnati.
When the trustees were searching for Willsey’s replacement, they received three resumes and an unsigned letter. Patterson is Monroe’s assistant to the city manager for economic development.
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