ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — The St. Louis County Council is losing one of its Republican voices and most vocal critics of County Executive Sam Page.
County Councilman Tim Fitch announced in a tweet Tuesday he will not be seeking re-election in the Third District, which covers Fenton, Valley Park, Manchester, Creve Coeur, Frontenac, Town & Country and other unincorporated areas of west St. Louis County.
“Serving the people of St. Louis County for nearly 35 years has been the honor of my life. I’ve been humbled by the support of my family & the people of Dist. 3. Due to future family & professional commitments, I'm announcing that I will not be a candidate for this office in 2022,” he wrote.
Fitch made the announcement just hours before the deadline to file for office hit in St. Louis County.
His last day on the council will be Dec. 31 – but, he said in an interview, he’s “not going away.”
“That means I could run for something in the future, some other position, it could be in county government, it could be in state government, we're not sure,” he said. “At this point, I know we have several options that are available to us in the next couple of years, and all I can say for sure right now I'm not interested in will not be filing for the District 3 position in 2022.”
Fitch said he is most proud of keeping a check and balance on the county executive’s power – having been part of efforts to strike down mask mandates and shutdown orders.
“A lot of people think this was a fight about masks and mandates, and no, this was all about the St. Louis County Council having a say per the law in what's going to be developed as far as mandates,” he said. “That was a big issue, but I have to tell you, this started way before the pandemic.
“This issue was Sam Page. He wants to do things on his own with no oversight and we see what happens, we saw what happened with the Stenger administration, when there was no oversight, he was allowed to get away with a lot. And that's one of the things I'm most proud of is not letting Sam Page get away with some of the things that he's tried.”
Fitch said he still has goals to achieve before his term expires, including making the council a nonpartisan entity and creating a county manager position.
“If I ran again, I’d have to commit to four more years as the district three Council representative and I can't do that at this point, based on what we want to do as a family in the future,” Fitch said. “And that could be many different things that we're looking at right now. We're not ready to talk about that part yet, but I'm not going away because I’m always going to be interested in St. Louis County and making it a great place to live.”
Before joining the County Council, Fitch served as the police chief of the St. Louis County Police Department. He retired from that position in 2014.
He has since sued the county after the Page administration said he could not continue to draw from his police pension while serving on the council.
He said the lawsuit did not impact his decision not to run for his council seat again.
“I still believe and my attorney believes we will prevail in that lawsuit and we'll see how the court's ruling that,” he said.