One of the reasons that Mayor Healy (Canton) parted company with former Canton safety director Thomas Nesbitt was his opposition to "traffic cameras" being installed in downtown Canton, according to Healy, for "safety reasons."
Who believed that?
A safety director opposed to safety?
Nobody. In fact, to this day many Cantonians believe it was a mistake for Healy to turn loose of Nesbitt. For a person to come to Canton from out-of-town (Nesbitt) and gain the respect of so many Cantonians in such a short period of time (a little over a year) is rare indeed.
But, apparently, Nesbitt smelled a rat.
The Rep editors said it best in their editorial of August 5, 2009 (Nesbitt said too little or too much)
And it didn't take much reading between the lines to know that Nesbitt also had issues with a proposed city contract for traffic cameras, which involved a company whose employees also had donated to Healy's 2007 mayoral campaign.
What was the rat?
Healy's disinformation on the "real reason" why he wanted traffic cameras. He said he wanted it for traffic safety.
Healy betrayed himself on this point in a local radio interview on Tuesday of this week.
Like the commissioners and their effort to get money for county general fund operations by bringing in the red herring of 9-1-1 as the "apparent" focal point (which it now turns out can be almost fully implemented notwithstanding voter rejection of the commissioner "imposed" sales/use tax), Healy revealed by "sleight-of-mouth" on the Pat DeLuca Q92 program "DeLuca in the Morning," that had Canton City Council implemented the traffic camera program when proposed by the mayor, Canton would have about $1 million less of a deficit looming in 2010.
Hmm?
Was this the master manipulator's way of introducing the topic again?
Indeed, it appears so.
The SCPR has learned that the Healy administration is working with two Canton City Councilpersons to bring the camera legislation back.
Perhaps, this time Healy will be more honest with Cantonians and say: "Canton needs the money, and, by the way, the cameras will make Canton traffic somewhat safer as a byproduct of having the cameras.
A little known story about the Healy administration is that it has gone about raising "rates" (which is really a tax surcharge to users) on a number of enterprise fund operations of city government.
The SCPR is in the process of gathering information on these "low-profile" increases and when yours truly is satisfied that he has a complete picture of the activity, will publish same in future blogs.
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