Canton City Councilman Bill Smuckler says it best: “Up until recently, I don’t think there’s been a need ... We haven’t seen too much of anything that we even questioned until recently.” (Reference: Ethics ordinance proposed by Mayor, Canton Repository, April 17, 2009)The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report/SCPR) takes this proposal as Healy "playing the public for the fool" once again.
An abiding premise of The Report is that Mayor William J. Healy, II of Canton is that Healy thinks he is smarter than anyone else in the world and he can manipulate anything he wishes to his political advantage.
If Healy "really" meant business he would take the suggestion of The Repository editorial board in its March 17, 2009 editorial entitled Mayor, server donation-contract link with this suggestion:
Specifically, he should decide this: Individuals and companies that contribute or have contributed to his campaign won’t be considered for city contracts while he’s in officeHealy's failure to heed this sound ethical wisdom presented by The Rep editorial board does indeed make his reasoning ("avoiding the very appearance of impropriety" for ethical reform laughable as evidenced by his position that accepting political contributions from those who end up doing business with the city of Canton "complied with state law."
This Mr. Mayor is not "avoiding the very appearance of impropriety." It is meeting the technical definition of the law which any lawyer knows is meeting the "minimum" ethical standard; not the highest ethical standard implicit in the "very appearance of impropriety" language.
Healy continues to be an unrepentant ethical minimalist (to be generous to him) who thinks he can bamboozle yours truly, The Rep editorial board, Canton City Council and, yes, the people of Canton.
Healy has forgotten the adage: "you can fool all the people some of the time, some of the people all the time but not all the people all of the time."
Healy is an amoral politician who in proposing ethics legislation in the light of his individual conduct establishes himself as a "living oxymoron."
Meanwhile, he looks on as Canton continues to slide into the economic abyss.
But William J. Healy, II has never been about the welfare of Canton in a primary sense of caring. He is about the well-being of William J. Healy, II and how he looks in the public eye.
2 comments:
How self serving of Healy but who is surprised, he has misled from the start of his campaign, now that he has the job, he does not know how to manage it.He is good at pointing fingers at everyone else, but sooner or latter it will all catch up with him. In the meantime, Canton continues to go down the drain.The citizens of Canton got a raw deal. This is what you get with one party rule.
I laughed out loud when I read Healy's proposal in the Rep.
Equally amusing is Smuckler's quote: "Up until recently, I don’t think there’s been a need ... We haven’t seen too much of anything that we even questioned until recently.”
It's politics, for pete's sake! There is no ethics. That's OK (sort of) if you just acknowledge there is no ethics in politics. But to pretend otherwise should get somebody unelected.
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