Champaign County voters re-elect Commissioner Dave Faulkner

Champaign County voters re-elected incumbent Dave Faulkner to serve as Champaign County commissioner.

Faulkner has served one term as commissioner and won by a large margin, according to final, unofficial results.

The three-member board oversees a $42-million budget and nearly 400 employees who provide public services ranging from sheriff’s deputies to health district workers and road crews.

RESULTS: Latest updated Clark and Champaign County election results

This was one of two county commission seats on the ballot. The job currently pays $44,421 but will be increased to $48,974 in 2017 for the two seats up for election.

The life-long Champaign County resident plans to continue the work he began in his first term, he previously told the Springfield News-Sun said. Faulkner was unavailable for comment on Tuesday night.

The county is better off financially than in previous years, he said, something he wants to continue. That’s thanks in part to decreased spending at the Tri-County Jail in Mechanicsburg and other local entities spending smarter, he said.

He hopes to continue progress in addressing the heroin epidemic, he said, by bringing different organizations in the community together.

Faulkner is friends with his opponent, Barnaby Ofori, a local minister who’s never run for public office before.

Ofori congratulated Faulkner on Tuesday night and said he’ll support him in any way he can.

“I just want to thank everybody who believed in me and I hope to be what I’ve always been to the county,” he said.

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