Fossett, Jay

Jay Fossett is the City Administrator for the City of Dayton. In that position, he advises the mayor on policy formulation within the city, prepares and administers the city’s operating and capital budgets, directs city operations, manages city staff, leads housing and economic development in the city, and performs other executive duties at the direction of and on behalf of the mayor.

Fossett is a former City Manager (2005-2009) and City Solicitor (2001-2005) for the City of Covington. Prior to joining the City of Dayton, Fossett was a founding partner of Strategic Advisers, a public relations and government relations agency in Newport, Ky.

Fossett is a 1981 graduate of the University of Kentucky (B.A. in journalism and political science), 1987 graduate of Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University, and 2010 graduate of the Haile/U.S. Bank College of Business at NKU, where he obtained a master’s degree in Executive Leadership and Organizational Change.

Prior to attending law school, Fossett worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for seven years with The Louisville Courier-Journal, The Cincinnati Enquirer, and The Kentucky Post. He also served as editor-in-chief of Star magazine in Lexington, Ky. During law school, he served as editor-in-chief of the Northern Kentucky Law Review and was founder and editor-in-chief of The Paper Chase, the law school independent newspaper.

After law school, Fossett worked one year as a law clerk to Ohio Supreme Court Justice Craig Wright, before joining the Cincinnati law firm of Strauss & Troy as an associate. In 1992, he founded Fossett & Ogle and then became a founding partner in Fossett, Howe, Wessels & Ogle, PSC, which merged with the Cincinnati law firm of Cors & Bassett in 1998.

Fossett served as an adjunct faculty member at Chase Law School for 10 years, where he taught trial advocacy. He served four terms on the Kentucky Academy of Trial Attorneys  Board of Governors and also served as the editor-in-chief of KATA’s bi-monthly magazine, The  Advocate. He has published articles in three law reviews, written several articles for The Advocate, and authored “Legally Speaking,” a monthly column that appeared in The Kentucky Post.

Fossett was appointed to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance by Gov. Paul Patton in 2003 and to the Board of the Kentucky Local Distribution Fund Oversight Committee by Gov. Ernie Fletcher in 2006. He served one term as a city council member on the Fort Thomas City Council from 2012-2014. In 2007, he received the “Great Neighbor Award” from the Center for Great Neighborhoods of Covington in recognition of “his visionary leadership and efforts to mobilize residents and stakeholders for Covington’s future” in developing the city’s citizen-driven strategic plan.

Fossett currently serves as secretary of the Tom Ellis Athletic Memorial Foundation at Covington Independent Public Schools, as a board member of the Covington Business Council, where he chairs the CBC Advocacy Committee, and on the board of directors of the Gateway Foundation, which supports the Gateway Community and Technical College.

Other boards Fossett has served on include The Hillside Trust, Literacy in Northern Kentucky, Salmon P. Chase College of Law Alumni Association — organizations for which he served as president — and the Northern Kentucky University Alumni Council, the ELOC Advisory Board, the Vision 2015 Urban Renaissance Committee, Quest: A Vision for Northern Kentucky, Northern Kentucky Volunteer Lawyers Association, the Northern Kentucky Division of the American Heart Association, and the Woodson Bend Property Owners’ Association.