Heltzel looks to retain his commissioner’s seat

The commissioner said he again plans to self-fund his campaign.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — Trumbull County Commissioner Paul Heltzel, who declared that his run for county commissioner in 2004 was a one-time venture, filed Friday to retain the seat for four more years.

“Three or four months ago, I wasn’t planning to run,” Heltzel, a 62-year-old Democrat, said Friday after filing his nominating petitions at the county board of elections.

But since that time he was approached by county Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, Clerk of Courts Karen Infante Allen, a couple of common pleas court judges and others, all urging him to stay.

“Virtually every elected official I’ve worked with and everyone in the party has asked me to run again. I think that translates into support at the voter and precinct level,” said Heltzel, a corporate lawyer who lives in Niles.

Heltzel said he began to consider running again after someone suggested how he would feel if someone took the job who “didn’t approach the job the proper way and things started heading back the way they were.”

He ran four years ago because the county was in bad financial shape and under a cloud of suspicion brought on by an investigation of county purchasing, Heltzel said.

Former county maintenance director Tony Delmont and several vendors were convicted for their roles in the scheme in 2005 and 2006.

Heltzel said other situations that arose after he was elected confirmed for him that people were getting county jobs and county contracts for the wrong reasons.

He cited his intervention in an attempt by former Commissioner James Tsagaris to help a get a county Job and Family Services worker a promotion, and his investigation of engineering contrtacts as examples of his desire to weed out questionable practices.

Heltzel said he plans to run his next campaign the same way as his last — accepting no campaign contributions and using only the help of friends and family to produce his campaign materials.

Heltzel won the party’s endorsement in 2004 by a close vote over three-term incumbent Joseph J. Angelo Jr. and then beat Angelo and five others in the primary.

He beat Republican Michael Collelo in November.

Today, Heltzel says the county’s finances are solid, backed by two quarter-percent sales taxes enacted in 2005.

In his next term, he hopes to continue to keep down costs and continue with capital improvements, such as the upgrade to the board of elections office and court security.

Heltzel is the only candidate to file for the position to file so far. The deadline to file is Friday. Fellow Commissioner Dan Polivka’s term is also up for re-election this year.

runyan@vindy.com