Mahoning County voters have an opportunity to significantly change the makeup of the Board of Commissioners on Nov. 5. The only question is whether they should.

Two of the three seats are up for grabs in this election cycle, and both currently belong to longtime incumbents. Anthony Traficanti has been in office since 2004 and David Ditzler since 2012.

Traficanti’s opponent is attorney and former Struthers Municipal Court Judge Jennifer Ciccone. Ditzler’s challenger is Geno DiFabio, who narrowly lost to Carol Rimedio-Righetti — the other current commissioner — in 2020.

Both Ciccone and DiFabio believe change is needed. Both cited the Dec. 2, 2022, firing of county employee Ricky Morrison.

But Traficanti broke with Ditzler and Rimedio-Righetti and opposed Morrison’s firing. The county rehired Morrison after questions arose about his termination. The county settled a lawsuit filed by Morrison for $175,000, but both Dutzler and Rimedio-Righetti have both denied he was fired for political reasons.

DiFabio told The Vindicator’s editorial board that Morrison was fired for sitting next to him at a meeting while he had been running against Rimedio-Righetti.

“There were attorney fees, all because of their politics, the way they acted because they violated (Morrison’s) civil rights,” DiFabio said. “They fired him for sitting next to me. They tried to send a message to all county employees: ‘Watch who you support.’ That is not how we should treat our employees. I don’t care if you are Republican, Democrat or Martian. That’s not how you treat people.”

Ditzler said he agreed to an out-of-court settlement because going forward in court would have cost the county more.

The editorial board has decided to endorse Ditzler and Traficanti for reelection because there remain pressing concerns for the county beyond the Morrison case, whether you believe the firing was politically motivated or not.

Escalating property taxes, which threaten to price some residents out of their homes, and the need to bring more business, development and affordable housing to the area are among them.

DiFabio believes that the current commissioners are in lockstep too often because all three are Democrats. DiFabio, a truck driver for City Machine Technologies, is a Republican.

Ditzler said he and his current colleagues do not always agree.

“Believe me, Anthony, Carol and myself disagree on 50% of the things that we ultimately move forward on,” he said, “But you don’t battle in public. You don’t tear each other down in public. You sit down and you cooperatively discuss issues and items and different plans to move forward.”

DIztler and Traficanti both told the editorial board that they are proud of the creation of the Campus of Care on Countyline Road on the border of Austintown and Weathersfield. The facility was the former Youngstown Developmental Center. The Campus of Care provides social services for county residents.

“Some people don’t want to believe this, but we have a lot of people who are hurting in this community,” Traficanti said. “Now we have everything on one campus. It’s being managed through the Western Reserve Port Authority.”

Ciccone, like DiFabio, mentioned the Morrison firing in an email she sent to provide information on her candidacy. She was unable to appear for an interview with the editorial board.

Ciccone’s email mentioned a petition filed in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court by attorney Martin Desmond asking for a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate allegations made by Steve Zawrotuk, the estranged husband of Mahoning County Prosecutor Gina DeGenova.

The petition alleges illegal conduct by the commissioners and DeGenova, who Desmond said tried to cover up the commissioners’ misconduct after Morrison’s lawyers contacted county officials to demand that Morrison be reinstated. Desmond was part of Morrison’s legal team.

The filing of the petition did not factor in the editorial board’s endorsement in the commissioners’ race, nor DeGenova’s race for prosecutor against challenger Lynn Maro.