The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (SCPR/The Report) was astonished over the last week or so to learn how very "publicly" angry North Canton City Council president and Republican Daryl Revoldt can get.It appears to The Report that Revoldt is an urbane, sophisticated, level-headed and mature local political leader.
But is he?
First, there was the quote reported in the Akron Beacon Journal:
The Report has been hearing that North Canton officials were getting feedback from the Court on this quote.The SCPR did contact Judge Forchione for a reaction. He declined saying that he never has spoken to North Canton officials and if he has conversations on a given case they are private conversations with legal counsel. But The Report emphasizes, Judge Forchione would not even say whether or not he had had conversations with North Canton's attorneys.
The SCPR was astonished to read the quote. Yours truly, an attorney, knows Judge Forchione and can vouch for him being a jurist of the highest integrity and impartiality.
It is one thing to be upset with a decision; it is quite another to let your emotions get away from you and say what Revoldt said.
Revoldt has not responded to a SCPR inquiry for a reaction. Knowing Revoldt as The Report does, it is very likely that a "private" apology has made its way back through appropriate channels to Judge Forchione.
Moreover, in the interest of public confidence in the impartial administration of justice, Revoldt needs to - post haste - issue a public apology. If Revoldt is the caliber of person The Report believes he is, he will do so immediately; if he hasn't already.
Second, there is Revoldt's relationship with former North Canton City Councilman Church Osborne.
The SCPR has on several occasions complimented Revoldt about the way he interacts with activist Osborne. And, The Report believes that the "real" Daryl Revoldt is "the temperate" Daryl Revoldt.
In fact, Revoldt has told yours truly many times, that he believes Chuck Osborne makes a valuable contribution to the public discussion in North Canton.
However, nearly a week ago, Osborne tells The Report he had a telephone conversation with Revoldt that puts The Report's Revoldt temperament assessment vis-a-vis Osborne in question.
Keep in mind that Osborne has been a political nemesis of Revoldt's (and probably most of North Canton City Council) for years now. Nevertheless, it is hard to understand Revoldt's thinking when he exploded on Osborne (according to Osborne) when he telephoned Revoldt last Tuesday.
Osborne was upset about an article by Dottie McGrew in Our Town (a local North Canton newspaper run by Jim Dansizen) reporting comments by Revoldt about how Osborne got his hands on a map (CLICK HERE to see)showing - at least, preliminarily - plans for North Canton's idea of building a $2.2 million bypass of the current East Maple Street path next to the Hoover campus at Main and Maple in "the Dogwood city."
Osborne has not told the SCPR this, but The Report believes had Revoldt apologized to Osborne; then we wouldn't be having all this talk about Osborne looking into filing a defamation suit against Revoldt.
Actually, it appears the opposite happened.
When told that Osborne told Revoldt he was considering the filing of a defamation suit, Revoldt's response (according to Osborne) was:
If you are going to come after me, you better be ready because I am going to cut you off at the knees.The SCPR does not know whether or not there is a way back from this brinkmanship, but if there is the way to get there is not, it would not be with language like the Osborne provided quote.
Third, the SCPR has learned there was an incident back in 1987 in the days that Revoldt was chief of staff for Congressman Ralph Regula in which he had angry words for a Stark County businessman who was working with the Concerned Citizens of Lake Township on the Industrial Excess Landfill situation in Uniontown.
The Report's source who observed the encounter described it as being "stunning" in terms of the anger expressed by Revoldt towards the businessman.
However, that was a long, long time ago (22 years). If there has been 22 years of temperance since the 1987 event, then the SCPR is encouraged that Revoldt has made progress.
The SCPR believes that Daryl Revoldt is one of the most talented government officials in all of Stark County. He should be a person of great interest for the Stark County commissioners to consider to head up an Stark County Economic Development Taskforce that The Report has been advocating for some time now.
However, he must overcome the temptation to lash out against those who disagree with him. Revoldt needs to keep open the lines of communication. As a public official he has a special obligation to help cool the rhetoric; not heat it up.
The SCPR does not believe that Daryl Revoldt has an "anger management" problem a la Dave in the movie Anger Management.
But there is a bit of advice in that flick that all of us including Revoldt should heed as we deal with difficult things that come along in life: Here it is:
Once his priorities were in order, Dave was able to see people and events in his life with maturity and deal with his anger, and other emotions, with maturity.Yes, consistent and abiding maturity is the key!
As chief of staff for former Congressman Ralph Regula, as a former mayor of North Canton, as economic development person for former Ohio governor Bob Taft, as president of North County City Council, there have been many occasions for Daryl Revoldt to get publicly angry and explode, but he didn't.
So he has shown that he has the capacity to control any anger he might be feeling in public forums where public input can get out-of-hand.
Obviously, in light of the Forchione statement and the Osborne saga, he needs to increase his capacity. But The Report thinks he can and will do so.
Now the SCPR will sit back and long for Revoldt to demonstrate consistently the political maturity we know he has.
He should start with a public apology for the intemperate remark he made about Judge Forchione's decision.
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