Cincinnati Metro CEO and General Manager Dwight Ferrell resigned Tuesday during an executive session following Metro’s regularly scheduled meeting.

There was no warning about Ferrell’s departure. It wasn’t listed on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting or mentioned before the board adjourned to executive session.

But Ferrell, whose contract was supposed to go through 2019, said it is something he has been pondering for a while. He shot down any notion he was forced out or that his resignation was the result of any internal discord.

“It’s my choice,” he said shortly after the move was announced, adding that, at least for him, it was not an abrupt decision.

"As I was talking to my staff, it's just the right time,” he said. “I love you, you love me, it's all good. But it's just the time for what this organization needs to move forward.”

Ferrell, who makes $221,000 a year, will remain CEO through Jan. 31.

After that, however, Metro will hire him as a consultant for six months, to the tune of $98,600.

Darryl Haley, Metro’s chief operations officer and executive vice president, will serve as interim CEO. Board chair Kreg Keesee said the details with Haley still have to be worked out, but he expects the moves will ultimately be budget-neutral.

Long-awaited Downtown traffic study::‘a little sloppy,’ short of expectations

Pedestrian safety:This man would like you to stop hitting him with cars.

Ferrell took over at Cincinnati Metro in 2015. He came to the Queen City from Fulton County, Georgia, where he was the top administrator. He was reportedly fired from that job after butting heads with the county’s employees’ union.

He said his plan had long been to leave Metro at the end of his contract, but he knew that any job hunting he did would have become public knowledge. So, he decided to put in his resignation early to avoid becoming a distraction.

The resignation comes at a crucial time for Metro. Ridership is dwindling, and the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, the agency that runs Cincinnati Metro, is predicting gaping budget holes over the next decade.

The SORTA board has been going back and forth for years over whether to ask voters for additional funding via a tax levy. The last attempt was in 2002, with the handily defeated Metro Moves plan, but there have been several false starts since.

In 2017, the SORTA board said it would go for a levy in 2018.

Then this past summer, just a couple weeks before the deadline to file with the board of elections, SORTA again decided to wait.

The board is expected to make a decision soon about whether it will be on the ballot in May, and it is unclear how Ferrell’s resignation might impact that possibility.

Keesee, the board chair, said the May election has not been ruled out. However, as more time passes without a decision or any sort of campaign, a May bid seems more and more unlikely.

“I think we’ll have a robust discussion in January about what 2019 will look like,” Keesee said. “I can’t speak for the whole board, but I believe it’s imperative that we go as soon as possible.”