Oct 14, 2009 3 min read

Two Fayette County commissioners are confident that the election bureau will be ready to tackle the municipal election in less than three weeks in the wake of the firing of the bureau’s director. Fayette County Commission Chairman Vincent Zapotosky said Tuesday that the election bureau is operating very well. Zapotosky said the staff is “re-energized” and the Department of State has offered to help with the upcoming election.

There are 99 voting precincts in the county. On the Nov. 4 ballot are races for Common Pleas Court judge, school directors and municipal officials such as township supervisors, borough members and mayors

Zapotosky aid the state will provide assistance in the coming weeks and on the day of the election.

“We’re good,” Zapotosky said. “The office is functioning at 100 percent.”

Zapotosky said his idea would be to hire an interim director and hire a permanent replacement later, but said he will have to sit down with his colleagues and talk about it before taking action.

Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites said in the short term he believes it is best to let internal office personnel handle the election process and then open up the position thereafter for the long term.

“We need to have a short-term and long-term approach,” Vicites said.

Vicites anticipated that the issue will be discussed when the commissioners hold their monthly meeting next week.

The former director, Laurie Lint, was fired on Oct. 8 following a series of events that led to the Fayette County Democratic Party having to seek a judge’s permission to nominate a candidate for a vacant set on Uniontown City Council.

The issue made its way into the courtroom after Lint incorrectly said there would not be an election this year, reversing an earlier notification that there would be an election.

The vacancy on council arose when Marlin Sprouts resigned after he was sentenced in a federal mortgage fraud case in March.

City Council initially appointed Philip J. Michael to serve the remainder of the term, which would have ended in 2011.

The next month, Michael resigned after a resident filed a legal challenge, claiming he was not qualified to hold the seat because he didn’t live in the city for a year prior to his appointment.

At that point, Republican Curtis Sproul was appointed to fill the vacancy until the November election.

Judge Ralph C. Warman last month allowed the Democrats to nominate Michael as a candidate belatedly. Gary Altman, the Republican candidate, appealed the ruling to the Commonwealth Court, and Warman’s decision was upheld on Tuesday.

Dominick Carnicella, county human resources director of Felice Associates of Greensburg, said he has not yet been instructed to fill the election bureau director position.

Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink, who did not sign off on Lint’s termination, did not return a request seeking comment on the election bureau’s future.

With the election just around the corner, a polling place issue has arisen and will be dealt with next week.

Vicites and Zapotosky said an election board meeting would be held at 9 a.m. Oct. 22 for a polling place change for a Washington Township precinct. Vicites said the meeting is necessary because the change is within 30 days of the election.