YOUNGSTOWN — Three people applied to be interviewed by a Mahoning County Democratic Party screening committee to be the next county clerk of courts.

Those asking for applications by the deadline were Dan Dascenzo, Youngstown deputy law director and a former county magistrate; James Vivo, Youngstown’s first assistant law director who spent five years in the clerk of courts office; and Harry Turner of Youngstown, a retired state business administrator.

The three have until Sunday night to complete the screening committee’s questionnaire, party Chairman Chris Anderson said.

All three said they plan to fill out the questionnaire.

Dascenzo and Vivo expressed interest in the job July 25, the day that Tony Vivo, the clerk of courts for nearly 29 years, announced his retirement. The retirement is effective Friday.

An eight-member screening committee, chaired by Denise Bayer of Canfield, will meet Sept. 6 via Zoom with each of the candidates. The committee will determine if the candidates meet the qualifications for the job and if they would be good additions to the party’s 2024 ticket, Anderson said.

The report won’t include a recommendation for a preferred candidate but will list those who screen as highly qualified, qualified or not qualified, Anderson said.

PROCESS

The party’s central committee will meet Sept. 13 at the St. Luke Banquet Hall on South Avenue in Boardman to vote on the candidates. In order to secure the appointment, a candidate needs the vote of the majority of central committee members in attendance.

The committee’s vote is a paper ballot. If a person doesn’t secure a majority on the first vote, a second vote is held, Anderson said. If a person doesn’t get a majority on the second, the candidate with the fewest votes is removed and a voice vote is held, Anderson said.

Also, candidates can be nominated by a central committee member at the Sept. 13 meeting.

Even though Dascenzo, Vivo and Turner will go through the screening process, they all have to be nominated for the appointment by a committee member to be eligible, Anderson said.

“If there’s no nomination, then they’re not considered a candidate whether an individual screens or not,” he said.

Each candidate will get 20 minutes to address the committee and can ask for questions during that time, Anderson said.

“The time is theirs to use how they want,” he said.

Before the candidates address the committee, those who nominated them will get two minutes to speak, Anderson said.

Because Tony Vivo is a Democrat, the county Democratic Party’s central committee gets to select his successor. Vivo’s term expires Jan. 5, 2025. An election in November 2024 for a full four-year term for clerk of courts will be held with partisan political party primaries in March of that year.

BACKGROUNDS

Dascenzo has worked for Youngstown as deputy law director for about two years. Before that, he was a magistrate in the county’s domestic relations division for two years and prior to that was a magistrate in the common pleas general division for 10 years.

James Vivo, first cousin to the current clerk of courts, has been Youngstown’s first assistant law director for nearly four years. Before that, he was in private practice for about 19 years. He also was a clerk at the county board of elections from 1999 to 2002 and worked as a file clerk at the county clerk of courts from 1991 to 1996.

Vivo has been suspended twice by the Ohio Supreme Court, in 2012 and 2019, with both suspensions stayed on conditions that he followed. These matters involved violations of the rules of professional conduct, including failure to provide competent representation.

Turner retired in 2011 as a business administrator with the state after 17 years on the job. Before that, he spent 16 years in the Marine Corp.

Turner ran as an independent candidate in 2015 for Youngstown’s 5th Ward seat against Lauren McNally, who was the Democratic nominee. Turner lost, getting 18.02 percent of the vote.