MERCER, PA. Fornelli seeks new term as common pleas judge

Voters will be asked if the judge should remain on the bench for another 10 years.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- Judge Francis J. Fornelli will seek another 10-year term.
Judge Fornelli, 59, of Hermitage, is president judge of the three-panel Mercer County Court of Common Pleas and has served as a county judge since January 1982. He won more than 80 percent of the retention vote in 1991.
This year's retention vote will appear on the November general election ballot.
Judge Fornelli said he will be able to complete another 10-year term because the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that a sitting judge can complete the full year in which he or she turns 70, the mandatory retirement age.
Judge Fornelli will reach 70 during the 10th year.
Common pleas judges are paid $116,065 annually. As president judge since October 1991, Judge Fornelli is paid an extra $559 annually to handle administrative duties and supervise 90 employees.
Committee: Judge Fornelli won the endorsement of both the Democratic and Republican parties in his 1991 retention bid. Pennsylvania law bars judicial candidates from directly asking for public support, so he will form a bipartisan committee to handle that task.
The Rev. Donald P. Wilson of West Middlesex will serve as Republican co-chairman while Peter Joyce of Sharpsville and Atty. William Madden of Sharon will share Democrat co-chairman duties.
If voters choose not to retain him, the bench will become vacant in January and Gov. Tom Ridge would appoint a temporary judge until the next municipal election.
Judge Fornelli, an instructor at the Penn State Shenango campus in Sharon, said he could leave the bench, expand his college teaching and become a senior state judge, serving wherever needed by assignment.
Background: Judge Fornelli is a graduate of Sharpsville High School, the University of Notre Dame and the New York University School of Law, as well as the National Judicial College & amp; American Academy of Judicial Education.
He is chairman of the Pennsylvania Corrections Policy Committee and a member of the Judicial Ethics Committee for State Judges and the President Judges Committee of State Trial Judges.
He serves with a number of civic organizations.