NORTH CANTON MAYOR DAVID HELD TELLS SCPR THAT TWO LEVIES WILL PASS WITH OR WITHOUT THE VOTE OF A NORTH CITY COUNCILMAN. HMM?

Next Tuesday (May 4th) North Canton voters will be deciding whether or not to pass a couple of levy requests.

The strange thing about this election is that a North Canton councilman is telling some North Canton folks that he will not vote for the EMS levy.
However, he did vote to put the levy on the ballot for the rest of the North Canton electorate to vote up or down on the issue.

Who is this councilman?

None of the SCPR's three sources will name the councilman. 

Apparently this is a classic case of political "do as say, do not do as I do."  Or is it?  Does this councilman hope that voters will vote the levy down?  How much is he privately campaigning against the levy?

Nobody seems to know.

Why is the mystery councilman opposed anyway?

Council president Daryl Revoldt says that it "probably" is because the councilman thinks that the cost to North Canton of running an EMS service has gotten totally out of hand and believes if voters reject the levy EMS will go belly up and then North Canton can reconstruct an EMS in a more fiscally responsible manner.

One example given by the council (according to a source - not Revoldt) is the assertion that an EMS worker made $95,000 in 2009.  Presumably, this happened - if it did -  because of overtime paid.

The 1.5 mills EMS levy is to run two years.  Revoldt and Mayor David Held that they are optimistic that this levy and a 1.0 mill road levy will pass.

On the EMS levy they point to a community survey completed by 19% of the North Canton public which gives the City high marks for its EMS services.  Revoldt says that he is confident that EMS will pass because the decision to put the issue on the ballot was "market driven."  In other words, citizens will support with taxes those functions of government that the public perceives to be "value added."

The road levy may be a "different kettle of fish."  It failed by about 10 votes in November, 2009.

However, Mayor David Held is optimistic about its prospects for passage this time around.  He says that the only reason that the 2009 effort failed was because there was new money in the levy.  Held uses the deletion of the new money from the levy as a example of and proof of how North Canton government listens its citizens.

The SCPR believes that North Canton government is more and more in the listening mode vis-a-vis its people.

If so, the future of North Canton could be tracking into positive territory.