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Council member, trustee seek seat
Ohio 59th District contenders talk solutions on opioids, education
By JUSTIN DENNIS
YOUNGSTOWN
The Ohio House of Representatives 59th District seat is being sought by a six-year Poland Township trustee and a New Middletown councilman now in his second run for the seat.
Republican Don Manning of New Middletown lost the seat by 10 percent of the vote in 2016 to Democrat state Rep. John Boccieri, who is not seeking another two-year term in the House this year, seeking instead the 33rd Ohio Senate District seat. Manning is challenged this year by Eric Ungaro of Poland.
Manning told The Vindicator last month his top priority, if elected, would be to end the opioid epidemic.
Manning has worked for the past eight years at Youngstown nonprofit Youth Intensive Services, which provides behavioral, mental-health and drug and addiction management services mostly aimed at juveniles. Previously, he worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He’s also a member of The Coalition for a Drug-Free Mahoning County.
“This is the field I work in. I know what works and what doesn’t work based on experience, not theory,” Manning said.
He said he is opposed to the November ballot’s controversial Issue 1, which would lessen penalties for drug possession. Possession of 20 grams of the highly potent synthetic opioid fentanyl, for example – which is enough to cause 10,000 fatal overdoses, he said – would result in only a misdemeanor.
“This means it would be comparable to a speeding ticket,” he said. “With the overdoses in Ohio the way they are, there is no way we should make it easier for drug dealers to do business in Ohio.”
Manning said he also would seek school-funding reform, citing the current property tax system as unconstitutional and part of a rising tide of new taxes. He proposes swapping that tax with a 5 percent sales tax on goods and services as a way to raise billions for public K-12 education.
Though his Democrat opponent, Ungaro, said he seeks to reduce “unnecessary” testing in Ohio, Manning said he feels state standardized tests are crucial to gauging teacher effectiveness.
Ungaro, the son of Pat Ungaro, the former Youngstown mayor and current Liberty Township administrator, has been a Howland Local Schools special-education teacher for 28 years. He also has spent time as treasurer of the Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board. He also vowed, if elected, to make public education issues a priority, as well as the opioid epidemic.
“I believe with all my heart that my passion and hands-on experience with those issues could be an asset at the statehouse,” he told the newspaper. “These issues are nonpartisan issues that affect all of us.”
Ungaro said he would review school-funding issues such as caps and guarantees, pass-through funding and “phantom” property tax revenue. He said he feels legislators should be more concerned about retrieving millions in state education dollars handed to failed charter school Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, which reportedly overstated its enrollments.
He also would seek to expand pre-K and early-childhood funding, and expand workforce development and trade school programs such as Mahoning County Career and Technical Center.
If elected, he said he would remain with Howland Local Schools as a part-time employee, so he could return to the district if a re-election bid fails. But he would be in Columbus full time and would not collect a district paycheck unless working in the school.
Ungaro, who said he lost his older brother to an opioid overdose in 2012, also said he opposes Issue 1 – “the real issue is prison reform,” he said.
He said he would “fight” to keep Medicaid funding for addiction treatment, recovery, sober housing and “the whole continuum of care.” He also said he would work to expand treatment clinic availability in the state.
The 59th House District encompasses most of Mahoning County, save the northeastern corner and Youngstown, which is in the House 58th District represented by state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan.
State representatives serve two-year terms.