BREAKING NEWS! HEALY LOSING CABINET MEMBERS GALORE?

 UPDATED AT 1:55 PM

See DiRuzza Salary History

See Price Salary History

The SCPR has learned that Canton Finance Director Joseph DiRuzza is out looking for another job.

A highly reliable source tells The Report that a county official received a call from Portage County officials recently asking for the official's take on DiRuzza.

DiRuzza makes $68,399 per annum in Canton and that Mayor William J. Healy, II is lobbying Canton City Council to agree to a pay increase for DiRuzza in effort to keep him in the mayor cabinet.

According to Canton Chief Deputy Auditor Gary Young, DiRuzza hired into Canton on March 23, 2011 at $62,450.

On he received a raise of 3.39% to  $64,567 (or thereabouts) on the six month anniversary date of his hiring.

He received another raise in January, 2012 of 3% ($66,504) and another 3% raise in December, 2012 to sit at his present $68,399.

Originally, DiRuzza was required to hire in at former Finance Director Karen Alger (now at North Canton as finance director) and because salary increases were frozen at the time the mayor could not hire in at 85% of the maximum pay grade for finance director ($94,126) or $80,007.

 

Recently, Safety Director Thomas Ream resigned after (in the opinion of the SCPR) being thrown under the bus by Healy for having appointed former Stark County Chief Deputy Sheriff Rick Perez as the director of the Canton-Stark County Crime Lab after having worked to declassify the position from civil service and having redefined the directorship to not include the need for the director to have a chemistry degree.

The SCPR believes that Healy was in full accord with Ream's move but when the issue of the Perez hiring (he has since resigned) hit the media he distanced himself from Ream.

On Ron Ponder's Points to Ponder  yesterday, Healy tried to pass off the Ream retirement as simply Ream wanting to take advantage of his current good health status so that he could pursue his love of golfing.

The Report is told by the source that he believes DiRuzza is looking around him and is not particularly liking what he is seeing in Healy's personnel moves and hence the looking elsewhere for employment.

He became Canton finance director in March, 2011.

Prior to that he worked in the Stark County auditor's office.

On Warren Price,  here is a copy of Mayor Healy's request for legislation to give him a $12,000 pay raise for the time he serves as safety director in addition to being service director.

Yesterday on Ponder Healy said that Price could serve from anywhere from six months to a year as combined service-safety director.

He also acknowledged that it is going to be a tall order for Price to serve in both capacities.

The SCPR's assessment is that given what The Report believes Healy did to "his good friend" Tom Ream, there is nobody who is going to want to work for the mayor as a replacement except for someone like Price who is already on staff and knows the territory.