Engineer candidates take gloves off in forum

In most counties, a primary election race for county engineer wouldn't be that interesting or exciting; after all, how thrilling is a debate about asphalt, chip-and-seal, and load limits for bridges?

The Democratic primary election fight for Athens County engineer this spring, however, is the most bitterly fought race on the local ballot.

This was confirmed during a candidates forum Thursday evening for the county engineer's race. While the forum featured the usual graphs and discussions about the quality of area roads, it also featured plenty of not-so-subtle jabs between the candidates.

Athens County Engineer Archie Stanley is facing local civil engineer Jeff Maiden in the March 6 Democratic primary. With no Republican opposition, the winner of the primary will have a clear path to victory in the November general election. The forum was sponsored by the local chapter of the League of Women Voters.

In opening statements, Maiden pointed to his history in the engineering business, with 19 years designing hundreds of infrastructure projects throughout southeast Ohio.

"I'm running for Athens County engineer because the county roads and bridges are in really bad condition, and I believe I can make a difference," he said, pointing to a graph showing 127 bridges with decreased load limits. "The county roads are in worse shape. Many asphalt roads haven't been paved in 20 years."

Stanley, meanwhile, cited his own record over the course of 32 years as county engineer. He also pointed to his fiscal responsibility, never running a deficit while in office. He took that opportunity to fire the first salvo of the evening, citing Maiden's bankruptcy filing in 2003 and Maiden's being a defendant in several debt-collection actions.

"My opponent has spent this campaign saying what a great businessman he is and how that experience will benefit the residents of this county," Stanley said. "The fact is, a simple review of public records shows that he does not have the impressive business experience that he touts."

On Friday, Maiden sent out an email delineating the history of his company, RJM Engineering.

"I struggled for many years to establish this business," he said. "I filed personal bankruptcy in December 2003. I have experienced both success, and failure, in my life as most people have done. RJM Engineering Company is a successful business today that employs five people in Athens County. Mr. Stanley has never worked in the private sector and has no concept of what work it takes to create a successful business."

During the forum, meanwhile, Maiden slammed Stanley on the quality of Athens County roads, illustrating his point with graphs showing the county having a much higher percentage of gravel roads than neighboring counties.

"Athens County has 132 miles of gravel road, 36 percent of all the roads in Athens County," he said. "If you look at Vinton County, they're completely paved. Hocking County has 1.7 miles of gravel road. Meigs County has three miles of gravel road. These counties all have smaller budgets."

Stanley showed off different records, stating that Athens has 50 miles of stone roads.

"It would've been less than that but we had the worst possible year we could've had, full of moisture in 2011," he said, pointing out that he emphasizes bridges while other counties do not. "There are other counties across this state that have failing bridges. But we don't."

Maiden disagreed with Stanley's assessment of the quality of Athens County bridges, citing all the reduced load limits and a number of one-lane bridges that he called "functionally obsolete."

DURING THE FORUM, STANLEY took issue with a number of charges that have been leveled against him during the campaign, including that he doesn't come to work often and that he doesn't live in Athens County.

"The race for engineer seemingly comes down to fact versus fiction," Stanley said. "My opponent spends a lot of time talking about fictions that he hopes to distract voters with. We've all heard them. Things like: I live outside the county. That's a lie. That I'm a part-time engineer. Another lie."

Stanley took another swipe at Maiden over his bankruptcy filing, saying that the economy is in poor shape right now but it was doing just fine in 2003 when Maiden filed for Chapter 7.

"Today, with the economy being bad, I don't understand how he's going to be able to run a $4.5 million budget and not bankrupt the county," Stanley said.

Maiden said he comes from the private sector where nobody hands you $4.5 million a year. In the private sector, he said, he had to go out and find up to $3 million and manage that. He also hit Stanley for "double-dipping" by retiring as a public employee in December 2000 and then resuming his position in January 2001, thereby pulling in his $62,400 pension in addition to his salary. Maiden said that Stanley has been receiving between $167,000 and $175,000 per year for the past decade.

"Individuals that participate in the practice of 'double-dipping' no longer support the Public Employees Retirement System after they retire and resume the same job that they were doing before," Maiden said.

Stanley, meanwhile, noted that he paid into his retirement fund for 40 years.

"There's nothing wrong with that at all," he said.

ANOTHER AREA OF DEBATE at the forum was about the role of deputy engineer of operations Mike Canterbury in the department. Maiden has criticized Stanley for allowing Canterbury to have so much authority in the office when he is not a certified engineer. Stanley denied that Canterbury has acted as de facto engineer of the office.

In closing, Stanley said that he is proud that his office has rebuilt the Athens County road and bridge system over the past 32 years.

"I'm proud of the fact that over 32 years I've been fiscally responsible, operating my budget always in the black, always prepared," he said.

Stanley also cited the new engineer's depot as another area of pride, as well as his opposition to Senate Bill 5 and history of labor harmony in his office.

"I'm eager to see through and manage a fully hard-surface county road system and a completely updated bridge system," he said. "I'm running for county engineer because I like my job. I will continue to be accountable and fiscally responsible."

Maiden said in closing that positive cash flow can cover up poor management for a while, but Athens County has come to the point where Stanley can no longer explain the poor quality of the county road and bridge system.

He said that 127 structurally deficient bridges and 132 miles of gravel roads is an unacceptable situation.

"He has seven managers and 16 AFSCME highway workers," Maiden said. "Does that make sense to anybody in this room? He has an office manager and a payroll clerk that made more in 2011 than the Athens County Commissioners and almost twice as much as similar jobs in other county offices."

Maiden slammed Mike Canterbury and wife, also an employee of the department, for signing off on over $32,000 worth of overtime for themselves last year.

"Bad management," he said. "The engineer's department needs new leadership from someone who will work hard for the citizens of Athens County. Someone who appreciates the tax dollars that my opponent takes for granted. We need a new engineer who will provide the leadership necessary to rebuild our county road system."