PART 2 OF A SERIES
VASSAR PARK NEIGHBORHOOD ASS'N
CANTON CHARTER ISSUE
AN INCREDIBLE WILLIAM J. HEALY, II?
To capture what The Stark County Political Report thinks is the the base political character of Canton mayor William J. Healy, II; watch this 20 second video (the short version [see full version below]) of the mayor at his "eely" (as in hard to get a handle on slippery eel) finest last night - October 21, 2015 - at the Vassar Park Neighborhood Association (VPNA).
Compare the foregoing video to what The Rep had to say about Healy and his position on Canton charter government on the basis of questions he answered at the editorial board interview of him and "independent" mayoral candidate Thomas M. Bernabei within days of the October 7th piece:
So in William J. Healy's mind saying "I'm not going to vote for it [Issue #47]" is not the equivalent of saying I against charter government for Canton.
Hmm?
Who is going to agree with that preposterous assertion?
The foregoing video "may" be a bit of contextualizing by the SCPR.
Okay, then: let's play the entire video clip of Healy's VPNA allotted one minute of charter commission candidacy remarks.
The Report thinks he gets even more "oily" than he comes across in the shortened version presented above.
Take a look. (1:30)
In the expanded video version, note that - in Healy's mind - disagreeing, polarized groups of councilpersons on whether or not the charter government is desirable for Canton, are both right.
Folks, one cannot get anymore oily than that.
The Report has been saying for years that Healy is an absolute master at spinning any topic, at anytime in pursuit of talking his way out of any situation and thereby has become the envy of the feline (cat) community as they marvel with one another of how this human Healy talks himself out of every potentially political life ending situation far exceeding the nine lives that a typical cat enjoys.
It seems absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to pin Healy down.
Dealing with him is like trying to get a grip on jello.
For some odd reason, the mayor thinks the SCPR is subject to being rewarded or punished with access to or denial of access to him for interviews.
He couldn't be more wrong.
The truth of the matter is that The Report caught on from the very beginning days of the SCPR (March, 2008) what a oily political spinmeister this guy is and could care less about interviewing him.
Only in his own narcissistic world is he a desirable person for the likes of the SCPR to deal with person-to-person.
Mainstream media reporters probably have no choice (that is to say for example: newspaper readers expect to hear from the mayor on any given topic, believable or not) but to keep lines of communication open. Undoubtedly this mayor exploits that expectation to the fullest.
The SCPR, being a primarily Op-ed medium, has no such need. All one has to do is take is own words uttered at a public and compare them to who have reported on hearing contradictory words in a private setting first hand and BINGO! you got yourself a
Healy and his core supporters (i.e. Stark County's trade unions led by Local #94, Plumbers and Pipefitters Dave Kirven) might think that his dubious quality political oiliness is something the celebrate, but once he gets out of his cocoon of political loyalists he seems to have very little credibility.
SCPR Note: Canton auditor R. A. Malloon recently told The Report that Kirven has convinced the trade unions to ante up $10,000 to a recently formed political action committee (PAC) Truth About the Charter which most believe is not as Malloon says to make sure that a balanced picture of the charter issue gets out to the Canton voting public but rather an out-and-out effort to defeat Issue 47.
Moreover, Malloon told yours truly that Kirven was pretty much it in terms who is running the PAC.More than any other Stark County political figure, Mayor William J. Healy, II gets described by many SCPR contacts as being a top notch spin artist.
While many could all care less about Healy himself on this score for he does bring incredibility on himself; his accomplished political sleight of hand is hard to swallow on the part of number of very important folks at various levels of government and in the private sector and, consequently, Canton itself - with him as the city's representative - suffers credibility problems which impacts counterproductively on Canton's striving to pull itself out of its decades long financial and economic development morass.
Hence Canton is hamstrung by an largely incredible mayor.
Healy's mayoralty opponent Stark County commissioner Thomas Bernabei was present for bits and pieces of last night's VPNA event.
While Healy was spinning the folks at Art Academy@Summit, Bernabei was out building his voter base which likely will put the mayor in Canton's unemloyment lines.
Of course, the SCPR asked Candidate Bernabei about:
- his support/non-support of Issue #47, and
- his understanding of Healy's stance on the issue,
SCPR Note: When Healy made his statement at the VPNA event about the charter issue, Bernabei was not present.Of course, the SCPR agrees with Bernabei and yours truly's take on Healy as one slick political operator is at least as longstanding as Bernabei's, if not of longer insight.
Bernabei, as anyone who is familiar with the history of the Healy administration knows, was fired as the mayor's chief of staff and service director after serving in that capacity for the very first year of the administration's existence.
Having the no-nonsense Bernabei on board was more of a beating than Healy's extreme ego could bear.
These are troubled times for nearly every urban area in Ohio and the last thing Canton needs is to have its chief executive officer thought in many quarters to lack credibility.
For the reasonable minded, the focus of this particular blog should be a convincer of how oily the mayor of Ohio's eighth largest city is.
May God Almighty spare the Hall of Fame city another four years of scrape after scrape after scrape after scrape in the guise of a mayor who seems to have eternal life as an all too flawed politician!
And, of course, he is a mayor who is the envy of the proverbial cat of nine lives!
It causes one to shudder to think that Healy might possibly survive one more crisis in his turbulent political life, no?
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