Butler County voters elect new commissioner to office for first time in 15 years

The Butler County Commission will see a new member join their ranks for the first time in a decade and a half in early January after voters picked Republican former Hamilton City Councilman Michael Ryan on Tuesday.

Ryan defeated his democratic opponent, Mike Miller, by double digits after easily defeating incumbent Republican Cindy Carpenter with 72% of the vote in the primary election.

The day after the election, we talked one-on-one with Ryan under grey skies and misty rain, and we asked how he was feeling.

"I feel great," Ryan said. "It's always sunny in Butler County. I am so grateful for this opportunity."

WATCH: We go one-on-one with Butler County's new commissioner

We asked what his first priority upon entering office would be.

"Day one, I want to take a look at affordability and cost," he said. "That was the number one complaint I heard during the campaign."

In Butler County, that means addressing long-rising property taxes. Commissioner Ryan tells us he wants to work with state lawmakers to address property tax reform long-term, but he's in favor of a property tax rollback already under consideration.

"That is significant. I want to give that money back to our people," he said.

Ryan had helped guide the City of Hamilton through economic recovery as a council member, but acknowledged that the county was a bigger, more diverse challenge than the city.

The Commissioner-elect told us he was interested in attracting drone and aviation industry jobs to the area, and focusing on tech jobs for future generations of workers.

The mention of tech jobs inevitably led us to ask about how to control the development of controversial data centers. Backlash against the structures resulted in voters in Trenton banning large-scale data centers in the same election that swept Ryan into the commissioner's office.

"First of all, I support the commissioner's moratorium," Ryan said. "I am in total agreement with that, and that should continue until we find out more about the overall impact of data centers."

Ryan told us he was hoping to see a state Data Center Committee report before finalizing his position on the developments.

In the end, he said economic development should be tailored to the area of the county where it's slated to be built.

"It all goes back to one thing: smart growth," he said.