An Interview with Butler County Commissioner Michael A. Fox
The Fight of His Life
Maverick politician takes on his own party
Publisher's note: This interview was done for BlueChipReview.com in 2005. Interview by Steve Fritsch, publisher
Butler County Commissioner Michael A. Fox is a maverick politician. And in politics, being a maverick is often a double-edged sword. Winston Churchill was a maverick politician, and it caused him to have a successful, yet roller coaster political career (the British people voted him out of office after he saved them from Nazi domination). So was Theodore Roosevelt, who, like Churchill, really only belonged to one political party: His own. In fact, Roosevelt, despite always being very popular with the people, many times had to fight to save his political career due to members of his own party trying to get rid of him. Therefore, the life of an independent-thinking politician, or a maverick, is never an easy profession to hold on to for very long. Mike Fox faces these similar challenges today in Butler County.
Fox, who has been county commissioner since 1997 (and also served as a member of the Ohio House for nearly 23 years---longer than any other legislator in Butler County's history), has had anything but a comfortable last year in office. Starting with his May 2003 release of a 400-page proposal highly critical of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Courts of Butler County and suggesting reforms of those courts, to the challenge of his commissioner's seat for the 2004 election by his own (Republican) party, he has endured the wrath of many influential people. So much so that Governor Bob Taft, who has lambasted Fox in the press before, is now only weeks away from signing legislation that will strip the name "Michael A. Fox" from the highway also known as Ohio 129.
That legislation, which was introduced by state senator and longtime Fox foe Scott Nein, R-Middletown, is just the latest in a series of moves by the Butler GOP leaders to take power and credit away from Fox. In the past year, he has been criticized for everything from traveling expenses to being a "bully." But his accomplishments are also vast and vary, not least of which is Ohio 129. So where has this contempt for Fox been built up and when did it start? Why is he "hated" by so many "leaders" in his own party? Who is the real Michael A. Fox anyways?
First things first: The cause of Butler County's booming economy and rapid growth and expansion of the last five years is largely due to Ohio 129, or currently, the Michael A. Fox Highway, the Union Center Blvd. interchange (the first new interchange built in Southwestern Ohio in 20 years), and other related highway projects.
In fact, a study of job growth in the area recently released by the Butler County Economic Development Department has witnessed the creation of over 18,500 new jobs in the Union Center Blvd. area alone since it's opening in 1997. A similar statewide study shows that except for Franklin County, Butler County leads the state in new job creation.
In addition to Union Centre Blvd., the Fox Highway has also had similar dynamic results. The main purpose behind Ohio 129 is that it brings the region's main interstate, I-75, into direct connection with more of the county, including cities like Hamilton. The impact of the highway and other related projects has resulted in new businesses and the retention and creation of thousands of jobs for an area that has seen its population grow steadily now for over 20 years.
Second: Ohio 129 is a result of the work done by Michael A. Fox.
However, a little backtracking is needed to understand why Ohio 129 is such a big deal in the first place. The idea of connecting Hamilton (before the Fox Highway, it was the largest city in America without a direct interstate access) was first proposed in the late 1950's when state officials initially proposed that I-75 be built through the city. At the time, many of Hamilton's leaders said they weren't interested.
Community leaders quickly figured out that they had made a big mistake and spent the next 40 years asking the state to build a "Hamilton connector" to the interstate system, formally proposing the construction of a connector in the late 60's. But for more then 30 years, debates, testing, studies, and bureaucratic red tape had prevented progress of the highway from occurring. Frustrated, the residents of Butler County began to realize that their goal of a highway connection seemed hopeless. Enter Mike Fox.
Then state representative in 1993, Fox gave county residents back their hopes of better transportation alternatives by creating the Butler County Transportation Improvement District (TID). The creation of the Butler County TID, the first of its kind in Ohio, allowed for local governments to hire independent contractors and surveyors to work at their own effective pace without state government interference (all the while still following state environmental regulations).
Despite the considerable opposition he faced in doing this and the unrelenting criticism of his strong-headed approach to pushing through the barriers set by his opponents, Fox ultimately prevailed. The Michael A. Fox Highway was built under budget and in record time: two years. It received more awards from national and international organizations than any other highway in the state's history. And the TID was recognized by the Federal Highway Administration as one of the top 20 most innovative highway projects in the nation.
Because of his work and service (one must think that the highway would not even be completed today had it not been for TID), now councilman of the city of Hamilton, Ed Shelton, decided to gain support in the county to name Ohio 129 after Fox (because TID owns the highway, and leases it to the state, it thus had the naming rights). Though appreciative and still feeling grateful for the honor, Fox says, "It never crossed my mind that the highway would be named after me. I never once thought about that in my desire to get the highway done. My work to get it done was so that Butler County residents could enjoy the benefits of it. My work was about building it---not naming it."
That honor is about to come to an end, however. After ten years since the passage of the legislation and five years after the completion of the highway, Nein and Governor Taft have decided to take Fox's name off the road, and have it renamed the Butler County Veterans Highway.
Fox responded to the Nein proposal saying that "had Nein been as enthusiastic about helping to build the highway as he has belatedly been about naming it, the road would have been built even sooner."
So, with all of the political infighting going on in Butler County, the coming months before the November election will be anything but boring. In fact, in an unprecedented move, the county GOP leaders and a handful of their its supporters are contemplating supporting Fox's Democratic challenger for county commissioner. But for Mike Fox, it's another challenge he's ready to tackle. His popularity and support with the residents of Butler County enables him the confidence to continue taking on the "sacred cows" of the party (something which he has been doing now for in 30 years of public service) and work solely for the good of the county and its people.
More from Michael A. Fox on ... the name change
"Nein says he thinks it's wrong to name public projects after living politicians. But Nein expressed no similar misgivings a few years ago when a new science building was opened at the Middletown campus of Miami University, deservedly named for Nein's predecessor, former State Senator Barry Levy. Nein was in the legislature when the Aronoff Center and Riffe Center was built and named---; Nein voted for both of them. And of course, Senator Nein has yet to ask Middletown Schools to take his name off of a hallway named for him in one of their buildings." "What's worse is Nein is shamelessly using veterans as his cover. He wants to name it the Butler County Veterans Highway. Nice gesture if it were heartfelt and genuine. But in reality it's more like a child hiding behind his mother's skirt trying to avoid being seen for what it really is---pure political vengeance. Nein doesn't like me. For whatever reason he thinks the world would be a better place if Mike Fox were not in public service. Nein worked a good part of last year as one of the leaders in then-State Representative Greg Jolivette's primary challenge to unseat me (as commissioner)."
... On his critics "I've riled the Butler County GOP by doing what I have done throughout my thirty years in public service---taking on sacred cows. The GOP leadership decided it was time for me to go and since then there has been a steady drumbeat coming, ironically from those who have gained the most financially from my legislative successes in passing the TID: a group of wealthy developers from West Chester, all of whom have made millions because I fought the bureaucracy and prevailed. When I was taking on the bureaucracy on their behalf to get these important highway projects built I heard no talk from them that I was a "bully" only cheers. It seems that one man's "bully" is another man's champion. My victory lined their pockets."
... On getting the Ohio 129 and Union Centre Blvd. built "At the ribbon cutting of the Fox highway (1999), one of my most vocal critics, State Representative Gary Cates declared: 'This ([TID)] is going to be the wave of the future to get things done. If it had not been for the TID we would not be standing here today.' Cates was right. Had it not been for my willingness to fight just about everybody who had anything to do with highway construction in Ohio, Butler County residents would still be trying to figure out how to get the Union Center Blvd. and the Michael A. Fox Highway built."
... On why the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) don't like TID "My legislation (TID) did three things that ODOT bureaucrats didn't like. First, it provided an array of new options for local governments and the state to fund needed projects; second, it localized control of the projects---took it away from ODOT; and third, it gave the TID authority to by-pass procedural requirements and other time and cost, adding and generally useless regulatory requirements imposed by ODOT on projects they administer. The combination of these three options, innovative financing, localized control, and regulatory flexibility, that put more emphasis on what was done rather than how it was done; it made history and moved over $240 million dollars worth of jobs producing new highway projects to completion in Butler County. Bottom line: I took control of the project away from the bureaucrats and lot's of people got angry about that."
... What ODOT tried to do to shut down TID? "ODOT and other highway officials fought the project every step of the way. They quietly whispered their doubts that a group of local citizens could handle the awesome task of managing the construction of one of the largest highway construction projects since the building of the Ohio Turnpike in the 1950's. They told local officials that my legislation had actually spelled doom for the much-needed highway."
... On the progressive nature of the Transportation Improvement District (TID) "The TID was a new paradigm that created a special purpose district dedicated to expediting highway projects to completion. It was an entrepreneurial model that combined the best practices of government with the commonsense business practices of the private sector. It not only got a new network of highways completed in Butler County that have helped make Butler County the second-leading job-creating county in the state, but it also changed the way highways are built and financed in Ohio. Many of the practices initiated by the TID, once considered heresy by passive-aggressive ODOT bureaucrats, eventually became common practices inside ODOT."