Feathers

Incumbent David White of Marietta is running against James Booth of Lowell in the Republican primary in March and possibly against Democrat Cora Marshall of Lower Salem in the general election for the commission seat 1. Incumbent Ron Feathers, of Devola, is running against Charlie Schilling of Beverly for the commission seat 2 in the Republican primary. The challengers will be profiled in the weekend edition of The Marietta Times.

Current Commission President Ron Feathers said there are three projects of the current commission that he would like to continue if re-elected on March 17 – pro-growth, guarding taxpayer dollars and the Devola sewer project.

“In 2013, I went and visited one of the major business leaders in the area and took a tour of his place,” Feathers said about pro-growth. “I asked him one thing the county could do to help and this individual said two things.”

When it comes to pro-growth, there are two aspects. The first is keeping the county fiscally in a superior status for bonding or paying bills. It’s like a person’s credit rating, Feathers said.

White

“The first thing was to make sure the county didn’t go broke and to keep them on a good financial standing. A good economic local government will attract businesses,” he said.

The second part is the regulation part, where the commissioners make sure they help businesses with state regulations.

Feathers said there are state and federal regulations that the county doesn’t have authority over. He said he’s worked hard to make sure Washington County, when it comes to regulations, is more of a “Boy Scout helping the lady across the street, rather than a policeman standing at the other side waiting for her to cross so he can write her a ticket.”

He said one of the ways he’s helped with regulations is in conjunction with Chris Wilson, building official with the Southeast Ohio Building Department.

“He has to go out and look at a place, and if he finds something not right, he helps guide the person through fixing it without infracting the laws of Ohio,” he said. “He’s not allowed to tell them exactly what they have to do.”

He said a lot of cities and counties won’t help people. Instead, they wait until something is wrong and then tell the person.

“We want to help them stay in compliance so they don’t have to pay fines and fees,” Feathers said. “Even working with (county engineer) Roger Wright, when it comes to permits, it’s a relationship we have with Roger. What can we do to help you with this so you don’t get in trouble. We’ve done that several times with egresses and entrances.

Helping people with regulations makes it more attractive for them to want to live and work in Washington Count, he said.

Guarding the taxpayer dollars is one of the most important aspects of the job, Feathers said.

“There are nine other elected officials and 11 other departments that the commission has appropriating authority over,” he explained. “We have to make tough choices when it comes to the wants and needs of everybody. To be honest, there’s no easy way to say no.”

Guarding taxpayer money includes making sure investments are as lucrative as possible, he said.

Feathers said at one time, the county had approximately $30 million in funds that flowed in and out of the county on a monthly basis. The money was stationed at a local bank and received less than $80,000 in interest per year.

In 2015, the commission reached out to Meeder, an investment group in Columbus, to invest $25 million in a revolving account. Last year, the county received $600,000 in interest.

“That’s additional revenue coming into the county to support projects like the jail and the move for the prosecutor’s office,” he said.

The third project Feathers would like to see to the end is the Devola sewer project.

“I have been intimately involved from the beginning. I was the single commissioner who stood before the Ohio EPA board in 2014,” he said. “I had the backing of some elected officials down here, but I have been instrumental throughout this entire process of sharing the property right concerns of the citizens to Columbus.”

He said the commission fought the Ohio EPA findings in court with everything they had, but they lost anyway.

“I will always fight to protect the personal property rights of anyone who is a citizen of Washington County,” he said.

He said now that the EPA has won in court and sewering will happen, the next phase is to make sure someone with the best institutional knowledge of the scope of the project is making decisions. The decisions should be both fiscally responsible and with the least amount of intrusion for the citizens, he said.

“You change horses in the middle of the stream, then you’ve got new people that don’t know what was done, how it was done, or why it was done,” Feathers said. “My biggest fear is you’re going to have a contractor just steamroll over top of it. The next thing you know, the cost is ballooning out of proportion.

“Changing horses” would be a mistake, he said, not only for the citizens of Devola, but for the citizens of Washington County, as this is the biggest infrastructure project in the history of the county.

David White, who was commission president in 2019, also has strong feelings regarding the project in Devola.

“One of the biggest things I’ve done since I began is I try to look out for people’s individual property rights. Our government, both federal and state, are inevitably expanding their control over the individual through un-elected bureaus,” he said. “As an officer of the state, I cannot annul their laws, but I can certainly implement them in a way that is least burdensome on people.”

He said the commissioner’s job is largely fiscal, but they also handle all the contracts, whether they are insurance, property or for the county’s real estate. He said he’s been blessed to serve alongside not just Feathers, but Kevin Ritter and former commissioners Tim Irvine and Rick Walters.

“They’ve all had tremendous abilities that they’ve brought to the table and we’ve been able to do a lot of things that have all been money saving to the taxpayer,” White said.

He said one of the bigger accomplishments of the commission is to better unify the county departments.

“I see better cooperation between the departments,” he explained. “When I came here, there was almost no cooperation. It’s really a joy to work with the different departments.”

He said agency mergers have also helped in the last couple of years. Bringing Ohio Means Jobs and Children Services under the umbrella of the Washington County Job and Family Services has brought in more money for those services.

“We’re able to access resources for those agencies we weren’t able to access before,” White said. “Last year alone, just the Children Services move brought in more than $400,000. This year, it’s targeted to do better than that.”

White said one of the things he’s most proud of is being able to fund another assistant prosecutor for the Washington County Prosecutor’s office.

“They have been so swamped, and I want to give credit to everyone who works there,” he said.

He said Prosecutor Nicole Coil has doubled the grand jury trials to get caught up on the backlog of cases they have.

“I’m so pleased we were able to get her another assistant prosecutor that will be able to help run those cases through,” he said.

He said there is one misconception about the board of commissioners.

“People in the public think the commissioners run the whole county. Honestly, we have very little we are in control of, other than trying to fund everything for people,” he said. “We have our eyes on the needs of the whole county. It’s just like a business, but we’re not trying to make a profit. We’re just trying to watch out for taxpayers’ money.”

Michele Newbanks can be reached at mnewbanks@mariettatimes.com.

Incumbent commissioner profiles:

Name: Ronald Feathers

• Age: 55.

• Education: DeVry University, Ohio Institute of Technology and two associate degrees from Washington State Community College.

• Family: Wife, Angela; three children, Isaac, 26, Jared, 22, and Ethan, 18.

• Years as Washington County Commissioner: 8.

Name: David White

• Age: 61.

• Education: Marietta High School graduate.

• Family: Wife, Anita; two children, Seth, age 34, and Caleb, who passed away 10 years ago.

• Years as Washington County Commissioner: 8, with four years on Marietta City Council.

Source: Ron Feathers and David White.