Readers might think that regular columnists speak (or write) with infallible recommendations when it comes to ballot issues and races. This is far from the truth, and we should all be wary of such pontification. Columnists are not investigative journalists. They are not fact checked or held accountable for the truth. A recent case in point is recommendations for county elected positions of assessor and treasurer.

Ryne Scholl, incumbent county treasurer, is eminently qualified for reelection. He has leveraged his Master of Business Administration and shrewd investment and management practice to reorganize a somewhat disordered office, gain unprecedented investment returns and manage the finances for several dozen taxing districts. Of course, he also collects taxes and deals with complaints, defaults, appeals, etc. County attorneys have judged that there is no conflict of interest with his partner serving as a Summit County commissioner. His opponent has termed out of another county office, which she ran in exemplary fashion, however, she has no formal financial background or training and is minimally qualified to be our treasurer.

Frank Celico, our incumbent assessor, has excelled in his challenging job with two rounds of property reevaluations. He has brought his extensive legal background to bear, and employed his managerial skills to reorganize a dysfunctional office while coping professionally with several thousand appeals from property owners who may not be aware of our red-hot real estate market. He deserves our support as we head into another round of property evaluations after midyear, certain to be higher.