KANAWHA HOPEFULS SAY THEY CAN RESTORE CONFIDENCE IN OFFICE

The three men who want to be Kanawha County's prosecutor said Monday
the public's confidence in the office is shot and they could turn it
around if elected.

While they were primarily concerned with battling violent crimes and
methamphetamine in the county, Democrats Tom Ciccarello and Bill
Forbes and Republican Bill Charnock told the Gazette's editorial board
that overtime policies would also change under their
administrations.

The candidates were critical of Mike Clifford's administration, citing
a lack of prosecution of methamphetamine crimes among areas needing
improvement by his successor.

"Street crimes are very bad in this county and something needs to be
done," Ciccarello said.

A nearly 50-year criminal law veteran in the county, Ciccarello now
works as an assistant prosecutor focusing solely on felony cases in
Kanawha County Magistrate Court.

"I don't see anything happen to them," Ciccarello said of the hundreds
of methamphetamine cases he handles in magistrate court.

Ciccarello faces Forbes, a former three-term prosecutor, in May's
primary election.

Forbes said he, too, sees the situation with methamphetamine
prosecution as a problem.

"We have a methamphetamine epidemic," Forbes said.

Forbes was defeated in the 2000 primary election, when voters refused
to bring him back for a fourth term.

A lasting impression from Forbes' last time in office included a
controversial court challenge when he went to court to block his son's
three-day suspension from George Washington High School. Some people
accused him of wanting special treatment while he told school
officials in a letter that he felt he was a victim.

Charnock, the only Republican in the Kanawha County race, spent more
than three years as an assistant prosecutor under Forbes'
administration. He has since taken over as executive director of the
state's Prosecuting Attorneys Institute. Charnock said he already has
numerous executive duties and would bring a change to the prosecutor's
office.

"I've seen what a good prosecuting attorney's office can do," Charnock
said. "We need a change and I am a change."

He said he wants to extend the prosecution of elder abuse cases in the
office and improve law enforcement's relationship with prosecutors in
Kanawha County.

"I think the prosecuting attorney has the duty to keep law enforcement
up on criminal law," Charnock said.

Putnam County prosecutor Mark Sorsaia also attended Monday's meeting.
He is unopposed in that county's race, but said his county is already
focused on prosecuting crimes with methamphetamine.

"It's the number-one most pressing problem we have," Sorsaia
said.

The candidates also addressed the recent debate on overtime
accumulation in Clifford's office. Clifford allowed employees,
specifically lawyers, to pile up hundreds of hours in overtime for
extra work beyond their scheduled workweek.

The candidates said Monday that practice isn't handled correctly and
they would expect their lawyers not to ask for such an incentive.

"It really is nonsensical," Charnock said.

Ciccarello is employed by Clifford's office but does not have accrued
compensatory time listed in records provided by Clifford's office to
county officials.

"However long I have to stay there, I'll stay there," he
said.

Forbes called the current situation crazy.

All three men agreed that they would expect the lawyers, as the
professionals in their office, to work until their caseloads are completed.

The candidates also said they would have to address the staffing in
the office once they won the office, but said they would hope to
retain people willing to help restore the public's confidence, which
they say has been lost in the past three years.

Ciccarello said he would not be hiring Clifford as an assistant
despite rumors that he would do that.

"That's something that could hurt you," Ciccarello
said.