In 2008, Alan Harold of the well known and well thought of Stark County "Harold family," had decided to run for county treasurer against then incumbent Gary D. Zeigler.
Had he done so and had he been successful, things "government" and "political," perhaps, might have been much different for Stark County today.
Different?
Probably.
Presumably, once Harold - with the financial background he has - acceded to office he would have immediately figured out that there were inadequate safeguards in how the office was being managed in terms of procedures and systems being in place to prevent or discover early on the Vince Frustaci theft of $2.96 million (in the opinion of federal judge John Adams) from the Stark County treasury.
While the Frustaci theft had been going on, according to investigative reports, for about six years from the date of its discovery on April 1, 2009, and Harold - had he been elected in 2008 - would have had the job of ferreting out the theft and equipped by virtue of his banking background to structure the office operations so as to force existence of the ongoing theft out into the open; he never got the chance.
He didn't even get the chance?
Indeed!
Obviously, Harold being the thorough and meticulous person he is, would have cleared his running for office with his employer (Huntington Bank). And the SCPR has reason to believe that he did. But somehow, someway things got changed and it apparently came down from on high at Huntington that it was not okay and Harold ended up not running.
Instead, Zeigler ran unopposed.
And, shall we say: "the rest is history."
Yesterday, the Stark County Political Report caught up with Harold at a Stark County commissioner work session. He and and his information technology expert Anita Henderson were there to exchange ideas with Commissioners Creighton and Ferguson on how the make the county telephone system more effective, efficient and, perhaps, save Stark County money.
The Report took advantage of Harold being a the meeting to catch up with him - on video - to pose a number of questions that the Stark County public undoubtedly would like to have more information on since his election to (November, 2010) and assumption of the auditor's office (March 14, 2011).
One being on the the turnover of employees from Democrat Kim Perez's administration of the auditor's office to his (Harold being a Republican) administration. The other being his reaction to the possibility that Zeigler (removed from office on August 23, 2010 by a previous board of county commissioners) returning to office in light of his original action (Quo Warranto) in the Ohio Supreme Court seeking same.
Zeigler was exonerated by federal and county prosecutors of having any involvement whatsoever in the Frustaci theft.
The Report believes that Harold was the leading critic during the 2010 political season of Zeigler and how he managed the Stark treasury during his approximately 10 years in office.
During the campaign he put up billboards showing a winning golf foursome (annually conducted Hero's Golf Outing) of Vince Frustasci ("the guy who stole the money"), Zeigler ("the guy they [the commissioners] fired"), Harold's opponent Kim Perez ("the guy who should have been watching") and Gary Zeigler, II (who has his face blurred out inasmuch as Harold deems him to been an innocent bystander).
In fact, Harold has kept Gary Zeigler, II on at the auditor's office as an appraiser telling The Report off camera that Zeigler's son merited being retained.
Some Stark Countians thought that the billboard ad went over the line in terms "being below the belt."
In the video that follows, the SCPR asks Harold about the turnover in employees and his explanation of whether or not politics had anything to do with the dismissing of nine Perez employees and the bringing in of three new employees and, of course, his reaction to the possibility that Zeigler could be returning to office.
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