Erie County candidates make their cases

HURON — Ahead of the Nov. 5 election, the eight Erie County commission candidates vying for four seats informed community members about their stances on issues and platforms important to them. On Tuesday, Huron High School played host to an in-schools debate program, overseen by the Register and Reflector this campaign season. This series, sponsored by the Greater Sandusky Partnership, offers local candidates seeking political offices an opportunity to express their opinions on many topics. People can watch the debate in its entirety at sanduskyregister.com and on the Register's YouTube channel. In Erie County, other than a pair of county commission seats and a juvenile court judgeship position up for grabs, which the Register previously hosted debates for, there are four additional races in play: • Clerk of courts — incumbent Luvada Wilson, a Democrat, versus Craig Hecht, a Republican • Engineer — incumbent Jack Farschman, a Democrat, versus challenger Eric Dodrill, a Republican • Recorder — incumbent Ellen Olsen, a Democrat, versus challenger Nic Smith, a Republican • Treasurer — incumbent Caleb Stidham, a Republican, versus challenger Randy Drewyor, a Democrat In these four separate races, whichever candidate receives more votes for that particular race/seat wins a four-year term, which begins at different times throughout 2025. About 125 students from Huron High School packed the Tigers' gymnasium to watch. Students in Heather Merckens's high school class developed questions and asked candidates questions, which powered this hour-long event. Student questions focused on many different topics, which included economic development, records management, qualifications and more. Here's a sampling of the questions asked and in the order they responded: For the recorder: Do you have planned strategies to make sure all of Erie County's records are organized? Are there any significant changes you believe are necessary in the recorder's office to make this happen? • Olsen: Our records are very organized. Every day, they go into the computer where they are supposed to be. Every deed, every mortgage, every lien is in there. It's a permanent record. You can come in, you can go online and research. You can call our office to get copies. We are always there. I invite you, you students and your parents, to come down and take a look at our long-term records. We have some exciting things going on. We need a new computer system and are waiting on funding from the commissioners to be able to do that. This program will really help us out and get all of our records online. • Smith: One of the things I think is important is that records are accurate and getting progressively more online. As a practicing attorney and working on land issues, one of the issues I always deal with is I'm always going (back and forth) from the auditor's website to the recorder's website. To modernize it, those two websites need to be interactive. When you go to the auditor's website and look at the last transaction or the last deed, you should be able to click on that, and it redirects you to the recorder's website. You shouldn't have to have two computer screens up. That and the issues with accurate records. That is pushing things forward in my view. For the clerk of courts: The clerk of courts is a very intensive job. What education and/or work experience and your background makes you the best-qualified candidate to serve in this position? • Wilson: One of the things is my educational background. Not only do I have a (bachelor's degree) in political science but also have a juris doctorate degree in law. After that, I was able to work with (former Judge Ann) Maschari as her administrative assistant and Judge (Tygh) Tone as his law clerk. During the period of time I was working with each of them, I was in contact with the clerk's office. The clerk's office is the hub of the courthouse. And so my experience (before becoming clerk of court) came because I was always in contact with the clerk's office. • Hecht: I've had 35 years of experience of engaging with a wide variety of people in this community and all across the state. Engaging with the people is important in terms of having knowledge and also being able to get them what they want in terms of information. I'm not going to just manage and support, but I want to inspire people. I want to make the people the best they can be, the employees, so they can get the information to the people who need it accurately. For the treasurer: What skills do you have that set you apart? Are there any major changes you would make to how the treasurer's office operates? • Drewyor: The skill sets required to do the job are varied. There are a certain level of people skills in managing an office. You are the face of the office. We have to keep the dollars safe. That is a given. There's no negotiation on that. Every treasurer has to do that. The key is what are you going to do at the next level, and that is where my skill set comes in in terms of planning, looking ahead, how we make this money that we collect — that hard-earned money from taxpayers — and how we make it work for everyone for economic development, infrastructure and those kinds of things. • Stidham: We've really reformed the way the office functions from top to bottom in the last years, modernizing our systems, modernizing the way the office functions, expanding office hours. During tax collection (times), we came out for a day in Huron, Vermilion, Milan and Castalia to go above and beyond to provide exemplary customer service. The county investment policies have really radically changed. Our investment income fund went from $600,000 per year to over $4 million a year. Those are dollars that led to us being able to give that tax cut, giving commissioners flexibility in their budget. Reducing property burdens is a real challenge that I want to be part of in the next term, but we accomplished so much already. For the engineer: What would be your primary goals for the next four years, and how do you plan to carry them out? • Farschman: Simply continue to provide the level of services that we have over the course of my almost 28-year tenure. I still want to serve the citizens of Erie County, to respond to everyone's concerns, and we have done that. • Dodrill: Open the doors to listen to people and listen to the other elected officials in the county. I would bring my skills and abilities and work with those that we serve. What are the things that we need to do? What are the things we want to do? Then we figure out how our priorities and the county's offices align. Our local Decision 2024 election coverage is sponsored by the Greater Sandusky Partnership.