Summit County’s longest-serving mayor is stepping down today. Bill Roth has been the mayor of Fairlawn for more than two decades.
Roth moved from New York to Ohio after graduating from SUNY Buffalo to attend law school at the University of Akron in 1980.
"Actually it's turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened," Roth said. "I mean seriously. I love the state of Ohio."
He met his wife, Jolene, a Barberton native whom he calls an "Ohio girl," shortly after graduation, and they moved to Fairlawn in 1986.
"I thought I'd practice law, and that would be it. And the way life turned out, my wife and I moved out here, and we really loved the city," Roth said. "It was a great city back then, it's a great city now, and we wanted to give back. We don't have any children, so we decided with our spare time we would give back the way we could."
He ran for mayor for the first time in 1995 and has been reelected seven times. He says Jolene has been his biggest supporter.
“If you would have told me in 1983 that I would have been mayor in Ohio anywhere for this long, I wouldn’t have believed you," Roth said. "Life takes you, sometimes different twists and turns. I’ve been very fortunate.”
Roth has accomplished a lot in his 26 years in office. His first big accomplishment was negotiating a joint economic development district with Akron and Bath Township, said Roth.
"What this did it eliminated the, not hostility, but the tension between the communities over annexation and land development," Roth said.
In 2016 the city launched another one of Roth's biggest achievements: FairlawnGig, the city’s own municipal broadband utility.
Roth got the idea for FairlawnGig when he learned companies wouldn’t move to Ohio due to poor internet connection at a trade show in Dusseldorf. He was in talks with a German company when they abruptly said they could not move operations to Ohio.
"He goes, 'Your internet is terrible.' He goes, 'I've studied it,' and he showed it. And it was a surprise to me, but I went back and looked at it," Roth said." And in 2014, Ohio's average internet speed statewide was 48th out of 50 states."
Not only did this make it difficult to attract new business, Roth began to hear about current Fairlawn businesses who were thinking about leaving.
"Our residents had been complaining overwhelmingly about terrible service, slow speed, unreliability," Roth said. "I had businesses telling me that if their internet didn't improve, they couldn't really compete, especially on the world market, and a couple of them said they would leave. But it wasn't the city of Fairlawn, they were leaving the state of Ohio."
Roth reached out to internet providers to try to get better service in the city. When no other internet provider stepped up to the plate, the city created its own.
“Your residents and businesses demand it," Roth said. "Are we supposed to tell them you just take what’s dished out to you? That’s unacceptable.”
FairlawnGig has been a huge success for local businesses, said Roth.
"I've had more than one business tell me that because of the FairlawnGig that they're not only going to stay in Fairlawn, they're going to expand their business," Roth said.
He said it's also been a success for residents.
"Having the FairlawnGig adds anywhere from 3% to 8% to the value of your house," Roth said.
FairlawnGig has also allowed the city to collaborate with Summit County to create a fiber ring to serve the courts. Currently, the city and the county are working to construct a data center and fiber ring to expand that broadband service to all of Summit County.
Roth still fears there are hurdles to jump for municipal broadband utilities like Fairlawn's. The last Ohio budget passed in 2021 almost included a clause that would eliminate municipal broadband, but it was ultimately pulled from the budget over concerns raised by Roth and others.
"Right now, the big fear is we have lame duck legislature coming up," Roth said. "Will there be a December surprise? We don't know, and then you have new legislature coming in."
In response to the clause in the budget, Roth helped form Broadband Access Ohio, an organization supporting high speed and high quality internet access across the state. He plans to stay on as chair of the board following his retirement as mayor.
Roth said he wanted to step down while he was still effective and enjoying the job. He plans to stay in Fairlawn with his wife and work part-time as a lawyer. City Council President Russell Sharnsky will take over as mayor on Thursday. Roth said he wouldn't leave now if he didn't believe the transition would be smooth. He has faith in Sharnsky's leadership to complete the data center and fiber ring expansion and to lead Fairlawn into its next chapter.
