Endorsement
County commissioner candidates backed
There are four candidates seeking to serve on the next three-person board of the Fayette County commissioners.
Two incumbents, Democrat Vincent Zapotosky and Republican Angela M. Zimmerlink, and two challengers, Democrat Al Ambrosini and Republican Dave Lohr, are seeking the three seats in Tuesday’s municipal election.
The four recently sat down and answered questions posed by the HeraldStandard.com editorial board on topics such as alliances, population loss, unemployment and the impact of the Marcellus shale natural gas boom. On Nov. 8, voters will select two candidates and the top three vote-getters will take office in January. The job will pay $49,409 next year, with the chairman of the board receiving an extra $1,000 annually. All four candidates are lifelong residents of Fayette County.
As is often the case, we have mixed feeling about all the candidates. We agreed with some of things they had to say but disagreed with other comments. All have some strong points, but all have areas we’d like to see some improvement in.
Zapotosky seems to have a grasp of the issues and has some terrific communication skills. He’s able to relate to local residents and seems genuinely concerned about their well being. Generally, we like the ideas he brings to the table, particularly his push to create regional zoning hearing boards, rather than a countywide zoning process. This would put the emphasis on the local level and remove a time-consuming task from the commissioners’ docket.
However, we’ve been concerned that Zapotosky was a little too satisfied to bask in the shadows of his fellow Commissioner Vince Vicites, who was defeated in the spring primary. Now’s the time for Zapotosky to step up and demonstrate the type of leadership befitting a man of his considerable political experience. We think he can do it, but we won’t know it for sure until he actually does it.
Over the years, we’ve applauded Zimmerlink for being a fiscal conservative and an advocate for open government. She also served as a watchdog on the board, making sure her fellow commissioners were on the up and up.
But sadly Zimmerlink seems to have become obsessed with this role, letting it interfere with her main goal of serving the public. It started with her decision to sue her fellow commissioners. We still can’t figure out what she hopes to accomplish with that move. As the sole Republican on the board she’s in the minority and must come to terms with that fact. As far as we could tell, it’s the first time something like that has been done in the history of Pennsylvania, and it’s a precedent Zimmerlink shouldn’t be proud of. It also could cost county residents in terms of higher insurance premiums down the road.
She also engaged in a pointless public debate with the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce and us over Channel 77, which we think has been a good thing for county residents.
While the idea of forming a Marcellus Shale Taskforce was good, she tarnished that accomplishment by limiting the role of an acclaimed scientist in her efforts to control its findings.
Ambrosini, who is running for office for the first time, impressed us with his business background. Particularly, we felt he had a better understanding than the other candidates of how the population loss in the county might impact us in the future. He also cited his background as a mediator and ability to bring people together. That certainly might be needed, particularly if Zimmerlink and Zapotosky are elected. But Ambrosini also talked in vague generalities about trying to bring businesses to Fayette County. We’ve heard this talk before from former Commissioner Joe Hardy among others, so excuse us for being a tad skeptical. But if elected, we’ll hold him to his word and expect some new businesses to be headed our way in the next four years.
You have to give Lohr credit for being persistent. This is his fourth run at being a county commissioner, and he gets an A grade for effort if nothing else. He’s always run positive campaigns, never engaging negative campaigning. That’s to his credit. We have no doubts that he would bring a renewed energy to the county if elected and a certain breath of fresh air. However, we are concerned about Lohr touting his conservative credentials during the campaign. At the national level, such labels are very meaningful and should be taken seriously. But on the county level, it’s more important to be pragmatic. We hope that if elected Lohr wouldn’t let labels get in the way of running county government.
As for our endorsement, Zapotosky garnered the most support of the four candidates. Ambrosini and Lohr were next with each picking up the same number of votes. While we normally only endorse two candidates, we had no choice but to back both Ambrosini and Lohr in addition to Zapotosky.
That left Zimmerlink out. The board felt she has become too negative and has hindered not helped the development of the county. If elected, we certainly hope she changes her attitude and becomes a move positive influence during her next tenure.