It is obvious from a Massillon Independent report (Matt Rink, 4 to interview for trustee seat, January 25, 2011) in which Trustee Craig Chessler says that he and Laubacher have agreed on four (David Ramos, Ralph DeChiara, Jr., Doug Haines and Paul Hervey) as a potential appointee.
But Chessler leaves open the possibility that the appointee will be none of the four but someone else from the field of 18 applicants.
What kind of doubletalk is that?
Who might that other person be?
Former trustee (1985 to 1992) Gayle Jackson?
Jackson was also a Stark County commissioner from 1993 through 2007 and beyond that an appointee by Democrat Governor Ted Strickland (2007) to the Ohio Lottery Commission. A position she lost when Republican John Kasich became governor.
The SCPR had a discussion with a trustee from another Stark County township (Trustee "X") yesterday and Trustree X does not see Jackson becoming the replacement trustee.
The SCPR sees the equivocation by Chessler as indication that backroom negotiations and political cajoling are the order of the day in Perry.
Yours truly cannot imagine that Jackson would apply for the job without having some inkling that she likely would end up being the successful applicant.
After all she has some powerful friends in the Stark County Democratic Party in former Chairman Johnnie A. Maier, Jr., current Chairman Randy Gonzalez, son-in-law, Stark County Recorder Rick Campbell and son Shane who is the Stark County Dems political director and Maier's chief deputy at the Massillon clerk of courts to list just a few.
If she does not get the appointment, she will definitely have political egg on her face and her inability to flex political muscle on her home turf may be indication that she is finished as a officeholder at any level of Stark County county government.
Accordingly, the SCPR sees the Laubacher/Chessler machinations as possibly being a ploy to have the applicants and Perry residents think that they are leaning one way while the reality is that they know who they are going to appoint and are trying to find a way to conjure up a justification that will play with the Perry public.
A plausible alternative to Jackson appears to be David Ramos who is secretary of the Perry Zoning Commission.
A possible scenario for that to happen might be that Jackson withdraws from consideration as face saving maneuver thereby paving the way for Ramos.
If neither Jackson or Ramos gets the nod, then the indication will be that Laubacher was able to resist the pressure of Maier, Gonzalez et al and gain control of the process.
In any event, the SCPR is not buying into the appearances and The Report believes that dissembling is what is going on and that a familiar face and name will surface as the "new" Perry trustee.
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