REP'S GAUGER: TRASH JOURNALISM, HERMAN - HEALY "MINISTER OF INFORMATION" TEAM UP TO UNDERMINE PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN CANTON'S FIREFIGHTERS?

 UPDATE:  01/12/2010

REFERENCE TO GAUGER PIECEl


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ORIGINAL POST

Executive Editor of The Repository Jeff Gauger of The Repository reached a new low on Sunday.

He joined in on the Healy administration to trash Canton's firefighters.

Here is a man, who at the beginning of the Boccieri/Schuring race, for 16th district congressman, got on his "journalistic high horse" and pontificated how he was going to see to that the public discussion on the race be kept civil and elevated.

Hmm?

So in his Sunday "blog" (all bloggers should be insulted to be in the company of Gauger), he takes the Healy administration's "behind the scenes" line that some, if not most,  of Canton's firefighters are lazy goldbrickers.

And, if you read the the Gauger blog closely, you would think that Station 10 is a robust, up-and-running fire station.

But such is not the case.

So where does Gauger's association with Herman come in?

Well, the SCPR asked Herman about activity at Station 10 because The Report had been hearing that Station 10 was virtually shut down.

Here is Herman's response to the SCPR:

Hmm?

Sounds like Station is fully functioning, doesn't it?  So the SCPR went to work to get other perspectives.

One such other view is from a anonymous (for obvious reasons) Canton firefighter.

Here is what he has to say in response.

HERMAN POINT ONE:   Temporary close?


RESPONSE:

The SCPR's source quotes a former fire chief as once having said during a Creighton administration staffing problem, to wit:  "The station is not closed, it is just not open today."

When yours truly called the Canton Fire Department yesterday, that is essentially the answer that was given to the question of whether or not the station was open.

The firefighter then went on to describe how Station 10 was closed when the 15 firefighter cadets were let go, then reopened when the 15 returned and then closed again when the 28 were laid off in December.

Herman's "temporary" notwithstanding and Gauger's "implied" it open and running and "the place to be for goldbricking wannabes,"  is a case of semantics so says the SCPR's firefighter source.

If the station is closed, it is closed he says.  Call it temporary or whatever you want, but the result at the end of the day, in fact all days since the 28 were laid off is that it has been closed.

Chief Rich of the Canton Fire Department had a letter to the editor in The Rep today.

Some of his comments confirm the SCPR's firefighter source:

"Station 10 was closed for more than two months in 2009 due to a lack of manpower," he says.

It also puts Herman's "temporary" in the "Spin Zone" which is characteristic of Herman as Healy's communications director.

HERMAN POINT TWO:  Safety (implied) of Station 10's public not affected when the station is closed?


RESPONSE:

"When a call comes in for 10's district in the farthest areas, it takes Truck 9, Engine 6 and Engine 4 twice as long to get to the call as it would for Engine 10.  Fire doubles every minute.  The brain dies if without oxygen 6 minutes.  It takes Truck 9 over 6 minutes to get to Market and 55th N from the time of the call." (anonymous firefighter)

HERMAN POINT THREE:  A new configuration is in the works for Station 10?


RESPONSE:

The SCPR's firefighter source says that Station 10 has been a combo station since early 2009.  "What is this conversion talk (paraphrase)," he says.

The Report takes the Herman "will" to be an exercise to put the best face possible (PR spin) on a bad situation that clearly affects Canton's public safety.

GAUGER POINT:  Canton has goldbricking, long term firefighters who have found a haven at Station 10 and will be among the buyouts allowing Canton to get 20 of 28 positions back?


RESPONSE:

First from Chief Rich in his letter to the editor:

Second, from the SCPR's firefighter source:

Station 10 has a diverse assigned crew ranging in seniority from  12 years on the job to over 20 years.

As far as I know, not a single person from Station 10 is taking the buy outs (if [the proposed contract between Canton and the CPPA] ratified) as most of them do not have the amount of time or age to retire.

The statement made by the Repository [Editor Gauger] is uneducated and unfounded. A simple call to the Fire Administration would have made it clear that there is no one station in the City of Canton that is used to "Hide "the elderly employees.

All of the fire personnel work the exact same, even the officers, at an emergency scene.

In the opinion of the SCPR Herman is merely doing his job of "spinning for Healy.  And he does it very well.  Healy couldn't get from day to day without Adam Herman.  All William J. Healy, II cares about is his image - Canton be damned!

In the opinion of the SCPR Executive Editor Jeff Gauger is a blight on competent journalism.  As demonstrated by this blog written by yours truly, bloggers can do thorough work on a given topic.

In writing his Sunday piece insofar as it deals with the Station 10 matter, it is an insult to yours truly that Gauger calls himself a blogger.

It is obvious that the SCPR has far higher journalistic standards than a man that his spent his entire adult life in journalism.

The Stark County reading public now knows that everything that Jeff Gauger writes is highly suspect!!!