Faison aims to get back on ballot in independent run for sheriff

By David Skolnick

The former sheriff’s captain contends he’s eligible to run for office.

YOUNGSTOWN — Howard L. Faison Jr. is asking a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge to require the county elections board to place him on the November ballot as an independent candidate for sheriff.

In a suit filed Friday and assigned to Judge Timothy E. Franken, Faison contends he’s eligible to be sheriff and should be allowed to run.

The elections board disqualified Faison, of Youngstown, a sheriff’s department captain who retired on disability in 2003, on May 6.

The board determined Faison wasn’t eligible because he doesn’t have state peace officer training required of sheriff candidates.

In a June 5 appeal hearing, Faison cited a state law about those who retire on disability.

They are “considered on [a] leave of absence from employment during the first five years” after retirement.

In the lawsuit, Faison contends the board “violated their mandatory statutory duty” by refusing to place him on the ballot.

The board pointed to state law requiring sheriff candidates to be “performing duties related to the enforcement of statutes, ordinances or codes” during the past three or four years, depending on classification, to be eligible for the ballot.

Without Faison on the ballot, Sheriff Randall Wellington, a Youngstown Democrat, would be unopposed during the November general election.

Earlier this week, county Prosecutor Paul J. Gains filed legal action in the Ohio Supreme Court seeking the removal of Martin Yavorcik, his challenger in the November election, from the ballot.

skolnick@vindy.com