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Fire chief to run for Mahoning commissioner
YOUNGSTOWN — A political newcomer is entering the May 4 Democratic primary contest for Mahoning County commissioner.
Atty. David C. Comstock Jr., 47, of Poland Township, longtime chief of the Western Reserve Joint Fire District serving Poland village and township, said Wednesday that he’ll be making his first bid for elected office.
He’ll be running against Commissioner David N. Ludt, 70, of Poland Township, who seeks a fourth four-year term in that office; and Carol Rimedio-Righetti, 53, Youngstown’s 4th Ward councilwoman.
Comstock, who is with the Comstock, Springer and Wilson law firm, said he has gathered more than the required 50 signatures from registered Mahoning County voters and will file them with the county board of elections before the Feb. 18 deadline.
A 1981 graduate of Boardman High School, Comstock received his bachelor’s degree from the College of Wooster in 1985 and his law degree from The Ohio State University in 1988.
“I think that the residents of Mahoning County have lost their faith and trust in our government, and I believe that the only way to restore that trust is to make significant changes in our county government structure,” Comstock said.
Comstock said he’ll seek only one term as commissioner. “Anyone concerned about being re-elected will never make the changes necessary to move the government forward,” he explained.
Comstock said he favors exploring replacement of the present three-commissioner system with a charter form of government featuring an elected county council but having many department heads that would be appointed and no longer elected.
Such a system, he said, expands the pool of applicants from which a department head can be recruited beyond the limited number of qualified county residents willing to run for political office.
For example, switching from an elected to an appointed county engineer would allow a national search for the best candidate, he said.
A candidate for appointment as sheriff would no longer have to quit his or her law-enforcement job to run for that office, as many candidates must now do, he noted.
Comstock, who grew up in Boardman and whose law office is in downtown Youngstown, said he understands the needs of both suburban and urban areas of the county. He said he would bring to the commissioners’ office his knowledge of the law affecting local governments and his emergency-services background.
If elected, Comstock said he’d have to reduce or eliminate the time he devotes to some of his other responsibilities.
Besides his law practice and fire-chief roles, Comstock is the county bar association’s counsel for lawyer discipline and president of the county fire chiefs’ association. If elected, he said he’d give up his role as fire chiefs’ association president.
If he’s elected commissioner, Comstock said his father, retired Atty. David C. Comstock of Poland Village, told him he’d resign from the county building commission to avoid any appearance of impropriety.
The elder Comstock is chairman of the building commission that is coordinating renovations to Oakhill Renaissance Place — the county-owned former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.