Attorneys for Stark County Sheriff Timothy Swanson and his preferred successor have asked the Ohio Supreme Court to exclude former Sheriff George T. Maier from consideration for the pending appointment.
The court removed Maier from office in a Nov. 6 ruling that said he lacked the recent law enforcement experience required in state law. Justices reinstated Swanson and ordered the Stark County Democratic Central Committee to meet to choose a replacement.
That meeting will be held in three weeks.
In papers filed Monday, attorneys Gregory Beck and James Mathews said the central committee should appoint sheriff’s Lt. Louis Darrow because he received the second highest number of votes in the Feb. 5 meeting of precinct committeemen in which Maier got the most votes.
“At the very least,” the lawyers wrote, the court should order county Democrats to appoint a sheriff from the list of candidates who were qualified as of Feb. 5: Darrow and Hartville police Chief Lawrence Dordea.
Dordea, a Republican and an Alliance councilman, received one vote. He ran unsuccessfully for the office in the November 2012 general election. At the Feb. 5 meeting, Maier received 92 votes to Darrow’s 84.
Democrats picked a sheriff in February to replace Michael McDonald, who had won the 2012 election but was unable to begin his term due to an illness that ultimately proved fatal.
County commissioners appointed Swanson interim sheriff in January after McDonald’s resignation.
Swanson served as Stark County sheriff from July 1999 to 2012.
Beck and Mathews said Maier should not be considered for the pending appointment because he was not qualified at the time the vacancy was filled in February.
Four attorneys representing the county’s Democratic Party chairman disagree, according to a letter included in Monday’s court filings.
In the letter sent to Beck’s and Mathews’ office in North Canton, the attorneys wrote that the vacancy Democrats must now fill occurred Nov. 6 — with the Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling — and not Feb. 5, when Democrats chose among Maier, Darrow and Dordea.
“Legal quantum physics” would be required to achieve the result Swanson and Darrow seek from the court, according to the letter Warren R. Price, Steven P. Okey, Allen Schulman and Michael A. Thompson signed.
“With no authority cited, you then argue that the Supreme Court’s decision ‘voids’ any votes cast for George Maier, inexplicably maintains other ‘viable’ votes for the two remaining candidates, and then sets a qualification date that defies known principles of time,” they wrote.
They said party Chairman Randy Gonzalez will consider the qualification period to be 30 days after the Supreme Court order.
In a letter Maier wrote and Beck and Mathews submitted to the court, Maier said he now is qualified because he is working as a Harrison County sheriff’s deputy. Maier originally sent the message to Democratic precinct committee representatives announcing his intention to seek the appointment again.
In their ruling removing Maier from the Stark County office, justices said he did not meet state requirements by serving as a “full-time peace officer” for a sufficient period before entering the office. His experience includes working as a State Highway Patrol officer and as assistant director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
Democrats are scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 11 at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 4705 Fairhaven Ave. NW, Canton, to select the replacement for Swanson.
