County Administrator Judi Boyko said “he will bring much needed experience and value to the commissioners’ team.”
He has more than 10 years of experience working for Berkeley and Richland counties in South Carolina, “his span over those 10 years enveloped about $500 million, half-a-billion dollars worth of capital improvements, so he has experience in managing projects from a large scale to a small scale,” Boyko said.
Fosnight, 42, is currently a senior director of project management for Procter & Gamble where one of his responsibilities was overseeing of the $1 billion North American Fulfillment Center and founded P&G’s Global Construction Center of Excellence.
He previously worked as a senior project and asset manager for the Kenton County Airport Board that manages CVG airport — coincidentally where new Finance Director Dave McCormick worked for nearly 30 years — and the two South Carolina counties.
Boyko told the Journal-News her new directors never met at CVG, but both will be big assets to her operation. She hired Dave McCormick as the new finance director at the end of November. She told the Journal-News recently “I’m exhaling a little bit” since hiring him.
“Just having another critical thinker, having his broad understanding of finance, has been a tremendous benefit,” Boyko said.
She picked Fosnight for many reasons — after interviewing a handful candidates — not just his considerable credentials.
“His demeanor, he presented himself as aligned with the core value of expectations for customer service, wanting to assist in moving the organization forward and improving our processes,” Boyko said. “And understanding that that’s going to take time and investment in people, teaching people so I was very interested in how he presented himself.”
Fosnight told the Journal-News the Butler County position is basically a dream job for him.
“It’s not too often that you find a position that combines the procurement, assets and a special projects side of things. Typically you’ll find a position that has one of those three things,” he said. “The ideal thing for me is I’ve had experience in all three of those things ... That definitely excited me.”
Fosnight replaces Chris Hacker, who was hired in March 2021 and left to become Fairfield’s finance director in October. When he joined the county the commissioners said he must earn his $90,000-plus salary by producing savings for the county. That hasn’t changed.
“As I said before with his predecessor, their compensation really shouldn’t be a cost.” Commissioner T.C. Rogers told the Journal-News. “Based on his past history he’s well prepared to make the right decisions.”
Fosnight told the Journal-News that requirement is “nothing new to me” and there are numerous ways of achieving that goal, particularly in the asset management realm. The value of all of the county’s buildings totals more than $477 million and he said being “proactive” is key.
“From the asset side of things it’s understanding every asset that we have across the county, understanding what the life expectancy is for that asset and then making sure that it’s on a replacement plan,” Fosnight said. “So that we’re being proactive in how we’re looking at maintenance of those assets instead of reactive. Because when you’re reactive that’s when costs go through the roof.”
The county has embarked on the massive space reutilization project, to save taxpayer dollars and provide better customer service. The recently released study — which the commissioners found lacking in specificity — identified several different scenarios. Fosnight said he hasn’t seen the study yet but has experience with space reutilization projects.
“At Richland County we went through a similar space utilization study where we were able to include some of those changes for county space on our capital improvement program,” he said. “It’s not something that you implement everything day one, but by getting it on that 10 or 15 year CIP you’re able to at least see and envision what those changes are in the future.”
Butler County team rebuilding
Boyko has been operating with a depleted management team for the past year. She and her team are responsible for a total county budget of $505.5 million, the 600-some employees and 14 departments under the commissioners’ direct control and interacting with 15 other elected offices independent boards.
The staff exodus began with former assistant county administrator Scott Timmer, who tendered his resignation last January to become Fairfield’s city manager. Then former finance director Angel Burton quit in February to work closer to her Clermont County home. Timmer hired former Human Resources director Laurie Murphy in May as his assistant city manager and then nabbed Hacker.
After Murphy left, the commissioners promoted Julie Tragessor to assistant human resources director but the top HR job is still being advertised. Boyko told the Journal-News she is close to filling that position as well.
The assistant county administrator job is not listed on the commissioners’ job openings. Rogers said they have extensive plans for setting the stage for the future in uncertain times, and Boyko needs more help.
“To do the things, looking ahead and anticipating what our moves and goals are going to be, we need somebody there to do some of day-to-day duties that Judi has been doing,” Rogers said.
When Boyko was hand-picked by the commissioners in 2019, they gave her full autonomy in filling out her management team. She said the No. 2 job isn’t a big priority right now.
“If a qualified and attractive candidate comes along I certainly, certainly will assess it at that time, but my energies have all been spent the last several months on filling these director positions,” she said. “They are critical to continuity of operations and the efficiency in which we work.”
Commissioner Don Dixon said “we’re still looking, it’s not a high priority at this point, we’ve got a lot of competent staff below her now and they’re picking up a lot of the load, but it’s still a position we’ll continue to look for.”
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