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Incumbent: ‘There is no politics’
By ED RUNYAN
WARREN
Frank Fuda says it’s no fluke that Trumbull County government has avoided controversy and financial trouble in recent years despite the problems seen in local government in many other places in Ohio.
Fuda, who is running for re-election as Trumbull County commissioner, says the county government has been operating smoothly because its top officeholders are working hard and leaving politics behind.
“When we go to meetings [among other county commissioners], we hear about the problems with judges, and we don’t have that,” he said of funding disputes that have occurred among judges and county commissioners in some places.
The always-upbeat Fuda says the reason is that officials in Trumbull County work together.
“Everything’s business. There is no politics,” he said.
As for his part, Fuda says he is helping to keep the county’s ship afloat by putting in 60- to 70-hour weeks, in part because Trumbull’s commissioners do not employ a county administrator as some counties do.
“We take all the calls,” Fuda said, adding that having a corporate attorney on the board (Paul Heltzel) provides legal and business expertise and having a former construction executive (Dan Polivka) provides construction know-how.
Fuda, 64, a retired teacher, says he has focused his attention on construction of sewers and waterlines.
“During these poor economic times, we’re making a lot of progress,” said Fuda, referring to sewer and water projects being done by the county’s sanitary engineering department.
Because contractors are willing to work at a low cost to keep their employees working, many sewer projects have been built in recent years at roughly half the estimated cost, Fuda said.
Fuda, who will complete his first four-year term as county commissioner in 2010, has a Democratic opponent in the May 4 election, David C. Cook of Florine Street Southwest in Leavittsburg.
Cook, 64, is running for the fourth time in the Democratic primary for commissioner, having lost to Jim Tsagaris in 2002, Joe Angelo in 2004 and Heltzel in 2008.
Cook said he wants to know why the commissioners, with their $8 million rainy-day fund, have not tried to get more involved in helping Trumbull County school districts or the City of Warren.
School districts play an important role in determining whether businesses are willing to move to Trumbull County, and financial problems in Warren affect the entire county, he said.
The Democratic nominee will face a Republican in November — Mark Allen of Geauga-Portage Easterly Road in West Farmington.