Bob E. Corbett
Bob Corbett has been serving as a Champaign County Commissioner for more than 20 years, and wants to continue serving the county he’s lived in for almost all of his life.
Prior to taking on his commission role, Corbett worked at International Harvester for 40 years.
Corbett is a graduate of Triad Local School and has both a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration. He lives on a North Lewisburg farm with his wife and has two children and four grandchildren.
Corbett has served on the Triad Local Board of Education, Champaign County School Board and the Ohio Hi-Point Joint Vocational School Board. He was the president of the Southwest Ohio School Board Executive Committee, and was a Legislative and Policy Committee trustee for the Ohio School Board Association.
Corbett said that if re-elected, he’d like to continue to keep Champaign County rural, with development occurring at a slow pace locally.
“I truly love this county, I love the people in it,” he said. “And I understand its agricultural background, coming from a farm background, living on a farm. We’re a farm community.”
Marcia Bailey
Marcia Bailey has worked with numerous county agencies throughout her many roles in county government and beyond.
She moved to Champaign County with her family when she was 6 years old, and she’s called the county home ever since. A graduate of Triad High School, Bailey went on to earn a degree in social services from Urbana University.
She worked with the Champaign County Auditor’s Office, working as a deputy auditor for years, working in real estate and bookkeeping. She also has worked with the county’s welfare programming, now the county’s department of job and family services, for nearly 30 years.
She was most recently the director of Urbana’s economic development department, now called the Champaign Economic Partnership, for several years, where she worked to encourage business growth in the county and create partnerships between private and public groups.
“I’m all about partnership,” she said. “Champaign County is home to me, and I want to see us work together.”
Bailey said that if she’s elected to a commission seat, she would work to complement a large resource the county has had for years: agriculture. She pointed to both the local use of hydroponics and the growth of fruit farms in the area that have sprouted the birth of a few wineries. She said the county could greatly benefit from having a development plan of action moving forward.
“I feel that we need to sit down as a community and think through the processes, what will complement what we have,” she said.
Bailey said she’d also work to boost government transparency and communication if elected, beginning with the county commission’s website. She said she’d like to add features to allow people the ability to look at meeting agendas or minutes with just the click of a button.
“The community needs to be aware of decisions,” she said. “And they should know how their tax dollars are being used.”
Nino Vitale
Nino Vitale worked as the state representative for District 85 – which includes Champaign, Logan and Shelby counties – for eight years, and thus cannot run for re-election in that role due to term limits in the Ohio House of Representatives.
Prior to his work as a state representative, where in his past two terms he was a vocal opponent of mask mandates and both the state and federal government’s pandemic response, Vitale worked in the private-sector for 22 years. He is currently working at his family’s manufacturing business, Johnson Welded Products Inc., based in Urbana.
Vitale is a graduate of The Ohio State University. He has lived in Champaign County for nearly 25 years, and he said he sees a lot of value in the county commission.
“The most effective government is the one that’s closest to the people,” he said.
He said he feels his experience as state representative can bring new things to the table for county commission, specifically in terms of fiscal decision-making.
“When you manage money, and you put money behind a certain effort or not behind a certain effort, you can also effect a cultural change in your area,” he said.
A cultural change he would want to see if Champaign County if elected is an emphasis on creating stronger family ties through programming at Champaign County’s Job and Family Services.
“If we can help mom and dad have a better relationship and union through the programs we have… not only is that good for those two individuals, it’s also good for the children, and it also starts saving the taxpayers money. It becomes big and expensive when the government tries to be mom and dad,” he said.
Vitale said he’d also work to balance economic growth with maintaining the ruralness of the community, saying he’d take a “tempered approach” to development and take cases on an individual basis. He said he would support the businesses and farming community. Champaign County has welcomed several new restaurants and shops, and Vitale said they can help create “a destination feel” for the county.
“We can continue to build our county and become known as a destination area with great shops, food and amazing landscapes,” he said. “This will draw people who want to move here.”
David E. Faulkner
Former county commissioner David Faulkner was first elected as a county commissioner in 2012 and was reelected in 2016. He lost the primary election in 2020 to current commissioner Tim Cassady. He did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comments.
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