UPDATED: 05.45 AM
You don't hear it often but Wednesday past Stark County Commissioner Todd Bosley at the regular Stark County commissioners' weekly meeting is seen in the accompanying video wistfully intoning the well known cliche "the third time is the charm," but he tails off into a pondering (perhaps a questioning) mode.
The SCPR thinks that the chances of the Stark County commissioners getting to remove Stark County Treasurer Gary D. Zeigler from office today at 1:30 PM in a meeting called for that purpose at Room 318 of the Stark County Office Building is just that: "a hope and and a prayer."
Stark Countians who want a return to normalcy in Stark County government should be "praying and fasting" between now and 9:00 AM on Monday morning when Geauga County Court of Common Pleas Frederick Inderlied makes his decision on whether or not to issue a preliminary junction prohibiting the commissioners from holding the hearing under Ohio Revised Code Section 321.38 to remove Zeigler from office, that Lordly wisdom plays large in the determination of Judge Inderlied.
If Judge Inderlied goes with what a number of legal observers believe the law holds, it appears to the SCPR that Zeigler will triumph in the courts.
The Report's mind says Zeigler will be with Stark Countians as a public official until September, 2013 presuming that Stark Countians take matters into their own hands via the ballot box (either in the the Democratic primary in May, 2012 or the general election in November, 2012) to remove Zeigler.
But The Report's heart is hoping for divine intervention. Perhaps the Lord will provide Judge Inderlied with an insight on the law that some of the best legal minds in Stark County and across Ohio do not presently see.
Anything short of a miracle will keep Stark County embroiled in a negative downward spiral with Stark Countians sinking into new lower levels of a "lack of confidence" in the administration of Stark County government pretty much across the board.
In May, 2011 Stark Countians will get their chance to tell commissioners and Zeigler (if he is still in office) how discontented they are with them and him and a number of other county officials, when they get the opportunity to vote as to whether or not to renew a 0.25 percent of a countywide sales tax which expires in 2011.
Zeigler has refused to step down from office despite public outcry that he do so for not properly minding the store and thereby creating conditions enabling his former Chief Deputy Vince Frustaci to make off with about $2.46 million to cover gambling debts.
Frustaci has admitted to the theft in open federal court and has provided to the media that gambling debt is the reason he stole the money.
Will Zeigler ever resign?
The SCPR thinks he will or, at least, not seek re-election once it becomes apparent to him that there is one barrier that a lawsuit will not solve.
What barrier is that?
The ultimate term limit barrier: The constitutional right of "we the people" to determine at the end of the day whether or not a public official remains in office.
The voting public is entitled, as a matter of the supreme constitutional law of Ohio and of "the land," to say to Zeigler: "We know you think you have not done anything to merit removal from office, but we think differently. We believe a la Harry Truman that "the buck does stop" with the holder of the public trust whether or not he did anything actionable at law."
If Zeigler goes to the point of being turned out by the voters in his quest to remain in office, the SCPR believes that the damage done to Stark Countians' confidence in their right to get a speedy solution to a perceived misfeasance by a public official in ensuring the safety of public funds will spill over onto the whole of Stark County's governors for years to come in terms of a heightened public cynicism.
Here is the video of Commissioner Bosley on his "the third time is the charm" utterance and the commissioners voting on a resolution to set of today's hearing.
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