The Post endorses Pat Lang for the Athens law director race.
Incumbent Garry Hunter has 30 years of experience as the city's law director. At only 30 years of age, Lang cannot match that. But Lang certainly is qualified: He served on Athens City Council while he was still an undergraduate student at Ohio University, and he has been assistant county prosecutor for Athens County since 2004.
Lang has promised to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest as well as actual conflicts of interest. Both of these are valid concerns, and ones that have been used to criticize Hunter, who provides legal counsel to the Southeast Ohio Regional Jail and to the City of Nelsonville in addition to being a landlord in Athens.
When it comes to landlords, however, the main concern might not be that Hunter is lax on code enforcement only as it applies to himself, but rather that he is lax on code enforcement across the board. Landlords need to be held accountable, and the law director should encourage prosecutors to crack down on code infringements.
In addition, the law director should attend not only city council meetings, but committee meetings as well. Lang has pointed out that Hunter's other obligations prevent his doing this. The law director can provide counsel outside of meetings, as Hunter has said, but these outside discussions should not be used as a substitute for attendance.
The devotion Lang promises to the office would be admirable, though it is probably not necessary for the law director's job to be full-time. In addition, while Lang's enthusiasm for actually spending time in court is a good sign, the law director is not a city prosecutor and should not act as such.
Garry Hunter has done a decent job for the past 30 years, but it might time for a change in the office. Lang is the better choice for Athens law director.
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