MANSFIELD — Three commissioner candidates, including incumbent Tim Wert took the stage Thursday night for their chance to debate on local issues at Mansfield Senior High School’s auditorium.

The challengers and Wert had 45 minutes to answer questions collated by News Journal. Editor Ted Daniels moderated the event.

After candidates had their opportunities to introduce themselves, Darrell Banks said his willingness to communicate openly gave him an edge on Wert.

“Now if your emails are among the thousands of the emails that Mr. Wert unanswered, and if you are among the hundreds waiting for a phone call to come back to you from Mr. Wert, if you are among those attended meetings that you thought Mr. Wert should be there … Rest assured, I will be at those meetings, I will communicate with you, I will email you, I will call you, I will communicate, I will seek your input,” Banks said.

Wert responded.

“I don’t believe that I misuse or don’t call people back like you say. And if I have with you, I publicly apologize,” Wert said. “Also, my email. They weren’t unopened emails as you like to charge and often times my clerk used to go into my computer and use it as a background and she already deleted … I guess I don’t have much else to say.”

David Morgenstern jumped in. He said he has never raised taxes like Banks has as mayor for Bellville.

“The only taxes raised in Bellville while I was mayor is the (ones) people voted on those,” Banks responded. “They were levies that they voted on. We convinced the people there was a need and they made the decision. And I believe that’s the way taxes should be raised — by the choice of the people.

Morgenstern argued Banks did not have the support of his community.

“Of the 1,900 people that live in Bellville, 627 people vote for him and he was the only one that was on the ballot,” Morgenstern said. “And I do not have $28,000 to spend like he does to spend with his campaign. I have yet to spend $100 — I think that’s pretty good.”

The next question asked candidates to describe the biggest issue facing Richland County and how they would help solve it as commissioner.

Morgenstern said safety was the number one issue, pointing out the drug problem and the fact that the sheriff’s department is 18 deputies short. He said he would get those deputy vacancies back.

“And the way I would do that is find grants, like the city is doing and then kind of work that into those deputies that are retired so these people don’t lose their jobs,” he said.

Wert said unemployment is the number one issue.

“We all need jobs. I think that it’s an interesting fact that there are no people in the United States that want to come invest capital, no matter we court them,” he said.

Agreeing that safety is an issue, Banks added that the county has a budget problem.

“Our budget is $30.9 million in Richland County. Mr. Wert said last week it was $29.8 million. If you don’t know how much it is, how are you going to control it?”

Banks also squeezed in a rebuttal to Wert’s comment about not attracting businesses to the area. He cited a story in the “Galion paper” that reported an Avita expansion of $2.8 million.

“That’s only one of several companies that are looking at us,” Banks said.

The next issue was related to collaboration between cities and townships. All candidates agreed that county officials should work together to better the community as a whole. However, Morgenstern added that if Banks would have collaborated in the past, he would not have filed for bankruptcy for his business.

“If Mr. Banks had some consultants with his business of his restaurant that he inherited from his parents, maybe he wouldn’t have lost his business and ran it to the ground,” Morgenstern said.

Banks acknowledged that he did file for bankruptcy in 2002. As he explained, Morgenstern interrupted multiple times with the question: “How much was it for?” Morgenstern interjected so many times that Daniels had to ask Morgenstern to stop.

Although Banks did not answer Morgenstern’s question, he did explain why he filed for bankruptcy for a tour guide company (San-Dar Hospitality) he and his brother owned. He said after terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, people were afraid to travel.

“It was one of the hardest decisions I had to make and I learned a lot from that experience,” he said.

During each candidate’s closing statements, they encouraged voters to cast a vote for them and reminded all that the primary is March 15.

The winner of the March 15 primary will face Democratic challenger Ron Davis in the November election for a term that begins Jan. 2, 2017.