WOOD COUNTY

Veteran auditor to run for re-election

Republican unopposed on May 6 primary ballot

3/10/2014

BOWLING GREEN — Veteran Wood County Auditor Michael Sibbersen is keeping his hat in the ring after more than 20 years in office and running for re-election.

He will be the Republican on the May 6 primary ballot. Mr. Sibbersen, 59, has been auditor since 1993, and before that was chief deputy in the office.

Mr. Sibbersen will run unopposed for the four-year term. Mike Zickar, the Wood County Democratic chairman, said his party’s focus is on a commissioner’s race pitting his party’s candidate, Andy Newlove, a Bowling Green businessman, against Doris Herringshaw, an appointed Republican incumbent.

“No [Democratic] candidate filed,” Mr. Zickar said.“People view it as a specialized position, and there haven’t been any major problems in the auditor’s office. We put our priority on recruiting for the commissioner’s seat.”

No independents have filed for the race, and the deadline for doing so is May 5, said Debbie Hazard, director of the county Board of Elections.

Last year, Mr. Sibbersen was given the Auditor of State Award with Distinction for having the highest quality financial reporting. Only 2 percent of Ohio’s public bodies earn this award.

Mr. Sibbersen said an area of concentration for him has been customer service. In recent years his office started accepting credit card payments and began using Facebook to improve the availability of information.

He said he also began offering fiscal training for township officers. A nonofficial duty he said he enjoys is giving tips to such groups as the Wood County Genealogical Society about how to use the county’s voluminous property-tax records to research their ancestors.

A lifelong resident of Wood County, he is a graduate of Lake High School and the University of Toledo and lives in Bowling Green.