Ward 3 Councilman Tim Fox has resigned from his North Canton City Council seat to pursue the city's vacant law director position, the city announced today.

"He is now thinking about applying to be in law director's position and in order to do that he cannot be a sitting council person," Council President Jon Snyder said.

"He's a great candidate for the law director position. He's got an MBA, he's a practicing attorney. He's a very bright young man. The part I'm sad about is we lose a fabulous councilman."

Fox — an attorney at Black, McCuskey, Souers & Arbaugh — was elected to the Ward 3 council seat in November 2011. He had won the seat over incumbent Jeff Davies.

He told the Canton Repository Thursday that it was a tough decision resigning and applying for the law director position.

“I am torn because I understand the folks in the 3rd Ward took a chance on me, and I hope that they believe I served them well,” Fox said on cantonrep.com. “But I hope if they’re happy with me and happy with who I am they can be assured this gives me an opportunity to serve in a greater capacity.”

Ward 2 Councilman Jeff Peters, also head of the Personnel and Safety Committee, told North Canton Patch this week that the committee was thinking of adding one more name to the pool of five finalists for the law director position when they met Tuesday night. Fox's name was not one of the five finalists at that time.

The position of law director will pay about $72,000 a year. The new law director replaces Hans Nilges, who had been law director for about two and a half years. He announced his resignation after council expressed interest in transitioning from a part-time director of law to a full-time director of law. Nilges was not interested in the position.

Right now, the position is filled by interim law director Roy Batista.

Anyone interested in filling the Ward 3 council seat should send a resume to the Council Office by 4:30 p.m. Sept. 14. Those interested must live in Ward 3 and have had residency there for at least two years.

"Hopefully we'll find someone who's as dedicated to the constituancy as he is and participate the way he has," Snyder said.