County, state GOP candidates speak out

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

A number of local Republican candidates were on hand for Tuesday evening’s Candidate’s Night hosted by the Heart Land Patriots organization.

A total of 13 candidates spoke during the event, including both Republican candidates for two contested Van Wert County elected offices and the two GOP candidates for the 82nd Ohio House District seat.

The first candidates for a contested seat to speak were incumbent County Commissioner Todd Wolfrum and challenger Staci Kaufman.

Wolfrum led off by talking about why he first decided to run for commissioner four years ago, noting that, while his legal practice was starting to be profitable, he looked around and saw no future here for his children.

“What’s the point, if I have a prosperous career … what does it that matter if my kids move away?” Wolfrum said, adding, “In general, there was nothing that I could see my kids doing ten years from now.”

The commissioner candidate then talked about his efforts to being a college to the county, noting that has ended in success with the coming of Northwest State Community College, although he added there was more that needs to be done in that area to give local kids the ability to get at least the first two years of their college here in the county.

Keeping the county’s children at home is important, Wolfrum noted, because the best county students have traditionally been forced to leave the area if they want to be successful.

“We have a severe brain drain problem,” he said. “We’re losing not just a generation of kids … we’re losing our best kids.”

He also talked about efforts to give get the villages and other rural areas more involved in economic development — something he said was not happening when he took office — as well as help clean up the county with the commissioners’ Phoenix Initiative, a program that provides money to demolish vacant and derelict structures within the county.

Wolfrum also said he has used his legal training to, first, help cut a half-million dollars from the county’s health insurance premiums — which has led to a county budget surplus — as well as find a clause in the county’s liability insurance contract that led to the insurer paying a $365,000 finding for recovery against the county for a former employee’s failure to meet a grant deadline, something that had occurred prior to Wolfrum’s becoming a commissioner.

He also said he felt the county has been vindicated in its decision to leave the Ohio State University Extension-operated economic development agency following the November general election that saw Van Wert Mayor Jerry Mazur, a supporter of the county development philosophy, and several City Council members who he feels also support changes in the city’s development structure.

His opponent, Vantage Career Center Superintendent Staci Kaufman, a self-described “Republican registered as a Democrat,” noted her 25 years of education administrative experience and also talked about her reasons for running for county commissioner.

Noting her success in turning around Vantage’s financial situation from “a poor forecast in 2008 to a healthy one in 2016”, Kaufman, a native and lifetime resident of northwest Ohio and a county resident the past nine years, said she decided to run for commissioner because she “enjoys being a public servant (and) I’d like to continue to help our community by giving back in a leadership role. I can help our county become a better place to live and work.”

Kaufman said she feels it’s necessary as a commissioner to deal with the county’s heroin problem, which affects a large number of potential county workers, as well as a growing human trafficking situation here and all across the country.

“Making Van Wert County safe for all people, makes it a county where all people want to live,” Kaufman noted.

Noting that she was a good steward of taxpayer funds as Vantage superintendent, Kaufman criticized the current commissioners’ attempts to establish the “See the Change USA” middle school physics program.

The Vantage superintendent stated that the program, which she said was purchased without competitive bidding and without input from local school officials, was “unnecessary” and “a waste of taxpayer dollars”.

“Had input been sought, this could have been made known, and perhaps less money, or no money, would have been spent,” she said, while adding: “A demonstrated lack of interest in asking for input from others represents narrow-mindedness and arrogance, at the very least, and, at the very worst, it reflects leadership that’s about power more than about community-mindedness.”

During the question-and-answer session, Kaufman talked about charges from Wolfrum that the OSU Extension economic development organization lost the county a $100,000 state grant written to facilitate combining local economic development organizations.

Noting that she feels the commissioners blame her for losing the grant, since she chaired the OSU development organization at the time, Kaufman said she feels the grant was “not a truthful representation of the efforts of those organizations” and the commissioners could not have accomplished their stated goal at the time the grant was sought.

She also noted that she plans to resign her superintendent’s position, effective December 31, if elected as commissioner, which would be seven months earlier than she had planned, but something she has discussed with the Vantage board.

Also speaking were County Prosecutor Charles Kennedy and his challenger, Eva Yarger, who is currently an assistant prosecutor.

Kennedy used most of the time he was allotted to provide information on how the prosecutor’s office works, noting the difference between the grand jury process, which uses the legal definition of “probable cause,” instead of the greater legal responsibility of a petit jury of finding a defendant guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt” while also noting that he had received endorsements from a number of county officials, including retired Common Pleas Judge Charles Steele and Sheriff Tom Riggenbach.

During her talk, Yarger, a Van Wert native born here when her father, a state trooper, served at the local Ohio State Highway Patrol post, said she feels the current efforts of the prosecutor’s office to fight the county’s heroin efforts are inadequate, noting that the local office has not done anything significant to deal with the problem, including not participating in Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s statewide efforts to combat the problem.

Yarger, an assistant prosecutor since 1996 who has spent most of her time prosecuting sex-related crimes, as well as those delinquent on their child support, said she feels more can be done to improve the prosecutor’s office.

“I believe I have the energy and leadership ability to take the prosecutor’s office into the future,” Yarger said, adding that she plans to take the office back to part-time, while also noting her belief that doing so would save the county money and, with three assistants, is doable.

“Anything can become stagnant over time, and new ideas and new approaches are vital for the continued safety of members of the community,” she noted.

Yarger said during her door-to-door campaign in the county, she has heard two main issues: gun control, which she opposes, and heroin, which she feels there is more the prosecutor’s office can do in that area.

“The court, probation, mental health, they’ve stepped up, the county now has a drug court, we have Celebrate Recovery, we have the Vivitrol shots, but we have the same-old, same-old with the prosecutor’s office,” she noted.

Yarger added that, while DeWine’s office had an emergency meeting on the heroin problem, which was attended by Mercer County prosecutors, she didn’t know about it because Van Wert County did not participate.

“I know that what my office is doing is not working, and I want to go out there and look for more answers,” she responded when asked a question about heroin, adding that new ideas, such as “quick response teams” that include mental health and addiction counselors, as well as law enforcement, should be explored.

The final contested office, the 82nd Ohio House District seat, featured presentations by both candidates, incumbent State Representative Tony Burkley and Republican challenger Craig Riedel.

Burkley talked about his experience as a public servant, which included stints as a Paulding County commissioner before being elected as state representative.

Burkley, who also owns family businesses in Paulding County, said he was enjoying his role as state representative, something he feels he has prepared for over a number of years.

He talked about his success in the business world, and how it colors his opinions as a state representative: his ideas on fiscal responsibility and keeping costs down.

Burkley said he feels Ohio government officials are doing a good job of managing the state’s fiscal matters, but would do even better if the federal government could get its act together.

He also talked about statewide efforts to deal with heroin and other drug addiction, and pledged to do what he could to help provide a solution to the problem, as well as addressing the related problem of finding good workers for area companies.

“There are lots of opportunities for kids out there,” Burkley said, noting that Ohio has 240,000 jobs unfilled in 2015, with 40 percent of those jobs paying $50,000 or more. “That’s an opportunity that our young people in the 82nd district need to capitalize on.”

He noted that he’s the only state legislator who has four career centers in his district, noting that he has been working with the schools to provide skills that employers need in their employees.

The state representative was also questioned about House Bill 190, which he co-sponsored, that would give counties the authority to set their own requirements for wind turbine setbacks and other renewable energy situations.

Burkley said the reason he co-sponsored the legislation was because he feels the current setback changes were done without going through the proper legislative procedures, something he hoped to rectify with HB 190.

While not committing to endorsing having either the county commissioners or township trustees/village officials make wind turbine setback decision, Burkley said he feels the legislative process will come up with what is ultimately best for the state on the issue.

Riedel, a Defiance resident and a graduate of Ohio State University, first noted his business background as, first, a civil engineer, and, following that, a successful career as a sales representative, while then adding his decision to retire from business and run for state representative was driven by God.

“That’s why we’re doing this … what we believe, what this country needs more than ever … is strong, great Christian leadership,” he said. “To me, that means integrity and courage, that’s the foundation to do the right thing, all the same, not some of the time, all the time.”

He also addressed the renewable energy issue, noting that, while he is not opposed to renewable energy, he is opposed to providing subsidies for the industry, adding that he opposes redistribution of wealth and supports the free-market economy, and feels subsidies are “ethically and morally wrong.”

Other unopposed county officials speaking on Tuesday include Common Pleas Court Judge Martin Burchfield, Sheriff Riggenbach, Commissioner Stan Owens, Recorder Kim Hughes, Treasurer Bev Fuerst, Clerk of Courts Cindy Mollenkopf and County Engineer Kyle Wendel.

Also Tuesday, the Heart Land Patriots conducted a caucus for the remaining Republican presidential candidates. Among the 50 votes cast during the caucus, 26 votes went to Ted Cruz, 9 votes for Donald Trump, 7 votes for John Kasich, 5 votes for Marco Rubio, 2 votes for Ben Carson, and 1 vote for Rand Paul.