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Fuda to run for third term in November
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Democrat Frank Fuda of Niles has won the right to run in November for election to his third term as Trumbull County commissioner.
Also, Atty. James Fredericka has won the Democratic nomination to be Trumbull County Probate judge.
Fuda was opposed by Lisha Pompili-Baumiller, a 3rd-Ward Hubbard City Council member the past 12 years who has had a 31-year career in the banking business. Fuda faces Republican Patricia Hale Paridon of McDonald in November.
Fuda, 68, ran on his record, which he says includes eliminating 17 percent of the septic systems in the county by replacing them with sewer lines through the Trumbull County Sanitary Engineer’s Office.
Tuesday, Fuda said he continues to meet people who have concerns about septic systems. “We probably build more sewer systems than anyone in the state, but we still have more to do,” he said.
Fuda, who received about 70 percent of the vote, also is proud of a program he started early in his career as a Trumbull County commissioner to have jail inmates cut grass and shovel snow, programs that are still in operation. Other goals are to provide Trumbull County residents with more public transportation opportunities and to reduce drug abuse.
Pompili-Baumiller, 49, said Fuda and the commissioners board have become stagnant, failed to modernize and failed to “acknowledge” all segments of Trumbull County. She got about 30 percent of the votes.
During the campaign, Pompili Baumiller criticized Fuda’s remarks in which he spoke about cooperation among various county officials and the three commissioners.
“That’s great, but that’s why there are three [commissioners]. There should be some conversation,” she said.
Turnout in Trumbull County was only 20 percent in Tuesday’s election.
Fredericka, 60, who has practiced law for 35 years and once served as an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, campaigned on the idea that the public needs to better understand what the probate court does.
“There are misunderstandings and fears which can be alleviated by explaining the court and some of the cost-efficient vehicles available to assist seniors and others in managing their affairs and estates,” he said.
Fredericka won 52 percent of the vote. Competing for the Democratic nomination also were Patricia Leopardi-Knepp, 50, who got about 39 percent, and William Flevares, 48, who got about 10 percent.
Leopardi-Knepp has focused on probate law the last 20 years, she said. She likewise said she thinks the next probate judge should try to explain how the court works and find ways to help people work out their probate matters at a low cost.
When the results were in, Leopardi-Knepp said she did the best she could, “using what you can bring to the table,” but said Fredericka “is an outstanding person, and he’s going to be a great probate judge.”
Flevares said during the campaign that some cases in the Trumbull Probate Court “drag on without reason” and said lawyers are “looting estates and depriving families of what is rightfully theirs.”
All three candidates are of Warren. Judge Thomas A. Swift, a Republican, was not able to run for re-election because of the age limits.
Fredericka has no opponent in November unless someone files as a write-in.