Faison files appeal to get back on ballot

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Howard L. Faison Jr., whose candidacy for sheriff was cut short by the Mahoning County Board of Elections, has filed an appeal in the 7th District Court of Appeals to get back on the ballot as an independent.

The elections board, on May 6, said Faison was not eligible to run for sheriff because he doesn’t have state peace officer training required of sheriff candidates.

Faison appealed that ruling at a board hearing June 6. The board still ruled he was ineligible to run.

Faison, of Youngstown, retired on disability from the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department in 2003. Faison, however, says being on disability should be considered a leave of absence.

The board cited state law requiring sheriff candidates to be “performing duties related to the enforcement of statutes, ordinances or codes” during the past three or four years, depending on classification, to be eligible for the ballot.

In the filing, which names the elections board as defendant, Faison says Ohio law considers him being on disability to be a “period of time that one is away from his primary job while maintaining the status of employee.”

In a similar case elsewhere in Ohio, a court determined that such a leave of absence entitled the individual to “have the leave count as the equivalent of service,” Faison’s filing says.

Without Faison on the ballot, Sheriff Randall Wellington, a Youngstown Democrat, would be unopposed for the job in the November general election.