WHAT IS THE CURE FOR THE NORTH CANTON TO ALLIANCE "ANTI-DEMOCRATIC" SPREADING INFECTION?

UPDATED:  7:33 AM

OKEY FOR CLIENT LESLIE YOUNG
ON APRIL 6, 2017 FILED
 "PROPERLY" MOTIVATED LAWSUIT AGAINST ALLIANCE GOV'T!

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2017 ELECTIONS TO SOLVE NORTH CANTON PROBLEM?

In this day and age, it is not unusual for city governments to compete with one another especially on economic development matters.

A few years ago, North Canton lured a Massillon company to what used to be officially known as "The Dogwood Tree" city by advancing $400,000 (more or less) of upfront money to buy a crane for the company.

Insofar as the SCPR knows, there is no such history between North Canton and Alliance.

However, it does appear that Alliance and North Canton are vying with one another in a race to the bottom in disrespecting its citizenry's right to know, to be heard and to participate fully as a critically important factor in how we Americans govern ourselves.

At least since September, 2012 and the hiring (by North Canton City Council) of Tim Fox as law director, North Canton appears to The Stark County Political Report (SCPR) to surge to the lead among Stark County's political subdivisions in a dubious category:  a marked decline in respect for and implementation of fundamental democratic-republican values.

Under Fox's reign, North Canton has had problems"

• being transparent, 
• providing requested public records, 
• complying with its own charter requirements, 
• councilmembers' attendance (Stephanie Werren, a primary offender) at public meetings, and 
• respecting the will of North Canton voters as expressed at the ballot box.

And there are a number of  other things concerning the undermining of core democratic values that one could cite North Canton government for.

Some think that the Alliance parallel to North Canton's Fox is Safety-Service Director Mike Dreger.

Dreger was appointed by current Alliance mayor Alan Andreani in September, 2014.

A number of Carnation City residents think that Alliance has not been the same in terms of basic democratic-republican values (e.g. first and foremost, administrative transparency).

A big brouhaha broke out into the open at the Alliance City Council on August 7 when Councilwoman Julie Jakmides took it on herself to walk out of council when she was worked over by council president Arthur Garnes for discharging a prime legislative function of questioning Andreani's safety-service director (Dreger) and the independently elected law director (Jennifer Arnold) and various and sundry questions on policing, administrative oversight issues and spending volume for legal services.

Nobody should be surprised by the anti-democratic actions of Alliance government which took place on August 7th.

In April of this year, at the request of Alliance citizen Leslie Young,  Attorney Steve Okey (a former Alliance councilman, a former council president and a past candidate [against Andreani] for mayor of Alliance) filed a lawsuit against Alliance government alleging that the Andreani administration violated Ohio's open meetings law in not complying with Ohio law (on legal advice provided by Arnold) with regard to a proper "in accordance with law" motion to go into executive session as presented to council which ultimately passed:  4 votes to 3.

Here is a copy the suit:



Kudos to the citizen and Okey for standing front and center for Ohio's open records law.

Here is Alliance's answer:



Trial is set for February 12, 2018.



Back in 2014, Okey filed in his own name a lawsuit against certain members of Alliance City Council with Larry Dordea as the lead-named and pleading referenced defendant which the SCPR said at the time appeared motivated to embarrass Dordea, who, at the time was in the midst of Stark County sheriff campaign seeking to unseat Okey political ally George T. Maier.

Okey said that it was unconnected with the Dordea/Maier matchup and the litigation was filed because of Okey's devotion to Ohio's Sunshine Laws.

This Stark County Political Report was not buying Okey's protestation that the 2014 litigation was all about Ohio's Sunshine Laws.

The SCPR wrote a number of blogs castigating Okey for having filed the case on account of what appeared to be obvious political implications of Councilman Dordea running against Okey political friend George T. Maier.

So it is a touch more than ironic that Dordea was among three councilpersons (Jakmides and Edwards also voting NO)  on presented motion for council and certain Andreani administration officials and Law Director Arnold to go into executive session which prompted the Leslie Young lawsuit.

What should disturb the citizens of Alliance is that under the Andreani administration lead, seemingly based, in large part, upon the legal counsel of Jennifer Arnold (Alliance's independently elected law director); it appears that Alliance is heading in the same direction as North Canton in curtailing compliance with core democratic-republican values and perhaps in the process violating Ohio law.

However, as the SCPR sees the matter, it is likely that Okey/Citizen Young will, if the lawsuit goes to trial, prevail.

Of course, it is possible that the Andreani administration on counsel by Arnold will drop defending the suit and implement the asked for remedies.

Either way, there might be these Alliance taxpayer costs, either agreed to or ordered by the court:

• up to $1,000 in damages,
• court costs and plaintiff's attorney fees, and 
• legal fees paid by Alliance government for outside legal counsel

Shouldn't there be a "moral obligation" for those who participated in the manner in which the executive session was presented for an up or down vote to reimburse the city treasury?

Perhaps the Young lawsuit will prove to be curative of the Andreani administration's flirtation with its seeming unlawful manner of going into executive session.

One more thing.

An important point that Okey raises in the lawsuit is that governments MAY but is not required to go into executive session for reasons enumerated in the underlying Ohio statute cited in the Young lawsuit.

The SCPR's take on executive session use among Stark County local governments is that elected officials are all too quick and prone to invoke the permissive right to go into private session without considering adequately the necessity of doing so.

The taxpaying public has a right to know to the greatest degree as is practical and feasible to have discussions which serve as the basis for decisions made in public, be "public" themselves.

Government propensity to overuse is to deny, via out-of-view executive sessions, public access to the deliberations constitute the foundation upon which decisions are made in public session.

Such is a key ingredient among a number of others as why citizen trust of government grows by the day.

 In terms of the taxpaying public having confidence in the integrity of government, the processes of governing can be more important than the substantive decisions themselves.

Alliance council members Dordea, Jakmides and Edwards as well as Leslie Young and his attorney have courageously stepped forward to bolster democratic-republican values.

In North Canton, it appears there is no elected official on the inside at city hall (except perhaps a fleeting moment here and there by Councilman Foltz) who has the moxie to stand up for core government democratic enhancing process values.

All the city's councilpersons and the mayor seem to be good at is patting one another on the back in self-congratulation while they foster North Canton's democratic processes decline.

Accordingly, it  appears that the only North Canton cure is that its voters will take matters in hand in the November general election and place in office council members and a mayor who respect citizens' fundamental democratic-republican values.

JULIE JAKMIDES: Stark County's Premier "transparency in government" Advocate

UPDATED:  3:49 p.m.

It appears that there are those in Alliance city government who are trying their darndest to place a cloud over, if not totally obscure, "transparency-in-government" in the operations of Stark County's Carnation City.

Try as they may, The Stark County Political Report is betting on Councilwoman-at-Large Julie Jakmides to defeat the obscuring ways of the mayor (Andreani), the law director (Arnold), the safety-services director (Dreger)  and, perhaps, too, the president of Alliance City Council (Garnes).

Acrimony between Jakmides and her core supporters on council (Dordea and Edwards) and peripheral (i.e. here and there) supporters (King and Cherry, but NEVER Rhome) on the issue of administrative obfuscation came to a head at last Monday's regular council meeting.

The administration's thwarting of  Councilwoman Jakmides' incisive questioning prompted her walk out of council proceedings in protest to the administration-inspired attempts to shut her down in questioning various actions of the administration with regard to Alliance policing and irresponsibly spending Alliance taxpayer monies.

Julie Jakmides is a SCPR type of political party partisan.

Her demonstrated, time and again,  track record is "community interest(s)" over political party interest(s) is a model for all Stark County elected officials.

And the SCPR, really, really, really likes that quality in any Stark County politician.

Political parties are just fine as long as their interests take a backseat to the public interest.

Unfortunately, the Jakmides of Stark County political life are few and far between.

The Stark County "organized" Democratic Party effort to shut down the "independent" candidacy of Thomas Bernabei is a prime example of political parties gone wrong.

As specifically demonstrated about two years ago, Jakmides, a thoroughgoing Republican, opposed Alliance law director and Republican Jennifer Arnold in her quest to become the elected law director of Alliance over Democratic candidate Mark Whitaker.

Jakmides was unsuccessful in her 2015 effort, but she has continued to press her case against Arnold as being an "undesirable' law director based in large-part on inappropropriate for any public official, much less a law director," Facebook series of entries.

The SCPR thinks the Whitaker loss by a mere 46 votes out of over 4600 cast shows the political clout that Jakmides has in Alliance.

She, likely, was the primary factor in Democrat Whitaker almost pulling off a stunning defeat of the political party appointed law director.

Beyond Arnold's 2015 inappropriate Facebook behavior, it appears she continues to show that she is not up to—public official performance-wise— rendering acceptable standards of transparency in government.

Accordingly, Councilwoman Jakmides continues her quest to hold the law director and her Andreani administration cohorts accountable.

Asked whether or not the name Julie Jakmides might appear on a Republican Party primary election ballot as an Arnold opponent, Jakmides left open the possibility that such could be the case but as of August 11, 2017 she has no such plan.  Jakmides has graduated for The University of Akron School of Law and is awaiting her bar results.

And get this.

Asked further whether or not she plans to oppose Mayor Alan Andreani when his term is up in 2019, she had a thoughtful response:

• Maybe he will not be running again,
• Perhaps he will not have an opponent, and
• (by implication), he could change his ways in terms of transparency within the next two years and thereby redeem himself

But if he doesn't change and he does run again, she made it clear that she would have no problem whatsoever as a Republican supporting the right kind of Democrat or perhaps, even another Republican in the 2019 primary to deny Andreani another term as mayor.

Jakmides, despite her youth, appears to the SCPR to one of Stark County's most thoughtful and mature public officials.

Jakmides and the SCPR have had our differences in the interplay of public official/public figure and the media.  Nevertheless, she has continued to be accessible for Q&As.  Another sign of political maturity that quite a few of Stark County's political subdivision elected officials lack.

Accordingly, The Report rates Jakmides as one of Stark County's very best public officials in terms of her political maturity and has shown that she is committed to working for continuing/enhancing fundamental democratic-republican values over her political party ties.

Projecting forward, Jakmides, perhaps, has the makings of a Robert Mueller-esque government service lawyer  in terms of her personal integrity, independent-mindedness and devotion to wherever the facts take her as she moves through her public life.

The SCPR's focus in this blog has been on democratic-republican processes inherent in the substantive dispute between Jakmides et al and the Alliance city administration as she defines "administration" (i.e. the mayor, the law director and the safety-service director)  in the sense of being a problem that currently preoccupies all things government in Alliance.

For those readers who want to augment the SCPR's tact in this blog with a detailed exploration of the substantive elements of the disputes among Alliance city officials, the best source is Jakmides Facebook page (LINK).

Alternatively, readers can go to Stephanie Ujhelyi's excellent reportorial work to get a solid background on the matter at the following links:

• http://www.the-review.com/local%20news/2017/08/08/jakmides-walks-out-of-council-meeting/?recommended=1, and
• http://www.the-review.com/local%20news/2017/08/09/jakmides-transparency-isnt-a-game/?recommended=1, 

One Alliance resident who is not part of the current flap has offered to the SCPR that a removal of Safety-Service Director Michael Dreger might go a long way to abating the discord among the various elements of Alliance government.  Jakmides did not disagree with that observation when presented to her.  Nor did another source intimately familiar with Alliance city government operations.

The SCPR has learned that Jakmides' ally and Ward 3 councilman Larry Dordea has taken the lead in dealing with Dreger.

A position that has surfaced in discussion with SCPR sources is that Dreger did at least a presentable job as water department superintendent, but is thought to have taken on an arbitrary/tyrannical bent as safety-service director and thereby is not, in the opinion of a number of folks, of a suitable temperament to be an effective safety-service director.

Former Democratic councilwoman Sue Ryan once reported to having thought that Dreger was a good choice by Mayor Andreani for safety-service director in September, 2014 based on his service in  Alliance's water and distribution/utility services going back to 1979.

Ryan says she has changed her mind on Dreger and further says her change is based on a shared perception that he has taken on a arbitrary/tyrannical manner about himself in his current position.

Ryan as councilwoman demonstrated many of the pro democratic-republican values characteristics that Jakmides does.

In the spring of 2014, she fought fellow Democrat Steve Okey to be named president of council when John Benincasa died.

And she called him out when a controversy broke out between him and Alliance Council when he took over as council president.

Jakmides, being a fair minded person, points out that she thinks that Alliance auditor Kevin Knowles is NO part of a conspiratorial-esque appearing  (my phrase, not hers) administrative alliance that appears hellbent on destroying trust that Alliance's citizens have had in overall Alliance governmental operations before Arnold.

In an interesting aside, when asked to compare council president Garnes (to former council president Steve Okey, she left the SCPR with the impression that of late Garnes is not impressing her.

Initially, he did.  But no more.

Jakmides was at the forefront of an effort of council to censor Okey during his stint as president for his highhanded way in dealing with council.

One has to wonder whether or not Garnes might also be faced with a council censure should he continue shutting down Jakmides in her endeavor to ask telling questions that might dig out embarrassing responses by the likes of Andreani.

Such is speculation on the part of the SCPR and was not indicated as a potential plan of action by Councilwoman Jakmides as an outgrowth of the interview.

Alliance's citizens/voters should rally behind Jakmides if they care about transparency in government.

There is none better in Stark County political subdivision government on this score than Alliance councilwoman-at-large Julie Jakmides!

STARK COUNTIANS ANDREANI, CREIGHTON, HELD & ZUMBAR "EARLY ADOPTERS" ON DeWINE FOR GOV. CAMPAIGN

UPDATED:  10:05 AM

It appears that Stark County is "well-wired" should Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine be elected governor of our Buckeye State come November, 2018.

DeWine is the second of a group of  four prominent Ohio Republicans to announce his candidacy which he did on June 25th at an annual DeWine family ice cream social.

Stark County-connected Jim Renacci (representing the 16th congressional district including north-northeast Stark County and a spur through the middle of the county down to the Timken Company complex into the heart of Canton) announced on March 20th.

Expected to join the race soon are Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor (who resides in the City of Green located in abutting Summit County) and former Ohio secretary of state Jon Husted.

In Renacci and DeWine you have (currently) the lowest polling candidate (Renacci) and the highest polling candidate (DeWine).

On Monday of this week (June 26th), DeWine was in Youngstown campaigning at GLI Pool Products.

And who from Stark County showed up in support of the DeWine candidacy but Stark County commissioner Janet Creighton (the regional chairperson of the campaign), Stark County treasurer Alex Zumbar (chairman of the Stark County branch of the Creighton "responsible for" region, North Canton mayor David Held and Alliance manor Alan Andreani.

The region includes: Columbiana, Carroll, Harrison, Holmes, Jefferson, Mahoning, Stark, Tuscarawas and Wayne counties.  Each county has a county specific chairperson.

Also present in Youngstown on Monday was former North Canton mayor and state representative Dave Johnson who was telling Creighton, Zumbar, Held and Andreani that he is now 80 perhaps suggesting that his days as a firebrand Republican campaigner are over.

But his colleagues at the DeWine event were not buying that line.

Creighton says that her connection to DeWine goes back to 1990 Republican gubernatorial race between George Voinovich and his running mate as lieutenant governor Mike DeWine.

As Creighton tells it, Bob Taft was the darling of the Ohio Republican Party establishment in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Voinovich was clearly the underdog in that race.

Creighton, then as Stark County recorder, herself having to fight the local Republican Party establishment in her quest to get elected recorder, was asked by the Voinovich/DeWine team to join their uphill—turned successful—fight to defeat Taft and his party insider allies.

That campaign, Creighton says, cemented her relationship with DeWine which, of course, continues to this very day.  "Loyalty" is the key for Creighton for agreeing to be a key figure in the DeWine campaign.

Creighton, who I think is the most powerful vote-getting-Republican in all of Stark County, says, she has been coveted (my word, not hers) by the Renacci, Husted and Taylor campaigns.

Consequently,  The Stark County Political Report believes that Stark County could be a Republican Party civil/political war-esque battleground as the ensuing campaigns march toward the May 8, 2018 primary election.

However, it likely will be an "underground" war inasmuch as the primary players, for public consumption, say glowing things about each other.  In the background, a political sophisticate has to believe that if it looks like Renacci has emerged as the main competitor to DeWine by early January, February, 2018, then things will get dicey in a hurry.

But the players will try to play the "let's be nice to each other" in public.

Creighton told me yesterday that she has confidence that Stark GOP chairman Jeff Matthews and Ohio GOP Jane Timken will not use their powerful party positions to advantage Renacci, whom the duo have strong, strong, strong ties to.

The Report expects Renacci's campaign to pick up momentum and be positioned come early next year to be the major challenger to the current DeWine lead.

Why would I have that expectation?

Despite Creighton's (and Zumbar's, too) confidence that the state and local party apparatus/structure will not be tilted to Renacci's advantage, I do not agree.

Again, Matthews and Timken will play a rhetorical game of fairness and impartiality.

And I do think the support will be clandestine and responsive to pressure from "on high."

Renacci undoubtedly will be the favorite of Republican president Donald J. Trump given:

• that Renacci is positioning himself as Trump II,
• that Renacci was provided a spot in the Trump presidential box at the Cleveland sited National Republican Convention last July,

Consequently, "Donald being Donald" it would be naive to think he will not "pull out all the stops" in support of the Renacci candidacy including:

• bringing the resources of the National Republican Committee (NRC) and his own personal intervention to the aid of candidate Renacci,
•  including putting enormous pressure on Ohio GOP chair Jane Timken to tilt Renacci's way even if doing so would violate a pledge Creighton says she has made to remain neutral,
• Always remember this:  Jane Timken would not be the chairperson of the Ohio Republican party BUT FOR the intervention in the party election in January, 2016

Think the president would like to have an all out loyal to Trump governor sitting in Columbus in 2020?

Trump is already thinking about 2020?

It was unprecedented  being less than six months into his first term that, last night (press camera excluded at the last hour) he held a fundraiser specifically to raise funds for his 2020 run.

The Renacci "aces in the hole" is the financial support of the Timken family (and, presumably, Ohio Republican Party chairperson Jane Timken, formerly vice president of the Stark Co. GOP) and likely Stark County GOP chair Jeff Matthews (also director of the Stark County Board of Elections) whose wife Heidi has worked in the congressional office of Renacci for a number of years.

A basic principle of political analysis in terms of whom "really" supports whom for office is "Follow the Money."

Here are the Federal Election Commission (FEC) political contribution listings for:

• Jane Timken going back to 2009/2010 when Renacci first came on the scene as a congressional candidate to challenge incumbent Democrat John Boccieri, and
• for the Timken Company (2016 only)

Other FEC records show "in toto" that numerous immediate to Jane Timken family members have contributed:

• tens of thousands of dollars,  perhaps,
• totaling up to hundreds of thousands of dollars when coupled with Timken corporate contributions going back to 2009/2010, 

to Renacci's congressional campaigns.

Renacci and the Timkens have a very tight relationship, indeed!

Readers will recall how Renacci threw a snit with those Republicans in charge of redistricting based on the 2010 U.S. census to get the Timken Company complex in the heart of Canton included in the reconstituted 16th congressional district.

To say again, Jane Timken became chairperson of the Ohio GOP because of the intervention President-elect Donald J. Trump as Ohio Republican Party central committee members convened in early January to choose a chairperson going forward.

Readers will recall that current governor John Kasich was during the campaign and ever since has been one of the few Republicans of political/office holding stature not to fall in with Trump.

The breach between Kasich and Trump provided the opening to Jane Timken(a former vice president of the Stark County Republican Party) to challenge Kasich ally and incumbent Ohio GOP chairperson Matt Borges.

Though he is way behind right now, nobody should count Renacci out.

He is one of the richest members of Congress and undoubtedly will have the financial resources to match DeWine's campaign finance warchest said to be in vicinity of $2.5 million as he opens his campaign.

Insofar as I can determine, all the Stark County players in a likely Renacci/DeWine square off as the leaders going into the May, 2018 Republican primary are supporters of the president.

Given the rocky, rocky, rocky start that Trump has had not yet six months a president, some of the players might be distancing themselves from the president as the next ten months unfold.

While DeWine is likely to be supportive of Trump, if the president runs into deeper political trouble if his polling slips significantly (let's say to about 30% of likely voters), The Report can see DeWine as the better position to separate from Trump.

For Renacci, he better hope that Trump heads in a positive polling direction and gets up in the 50% or better range nationally; for if he does not, it is hard to see how a Trump connection helps him overtake Mike DeWine.  If Trump's number continue on a southward trek, the connection could doom Renacci's run for governor.

The SCPR does not see that over the long haul that Jon Husted and Mary Taylor will be viable candidates for the Republican nomination given that she seems to be preoccupied with pressing family problems, to wit:

Husted has taken on the Hillary Clinton designation of being a Trump deplorable.  But it hard to see how he can out-Trump Jim Renacci.

Even 10 months out from the nominating election, it is easy to see that there is likely to be a battle royale between the Stark County Republican Party officialdom supporters of Mike DeWine and Jim Renacci.

One of the things that DeWine supporters will have to be wary of is "complacency" in light of one year out polls which show DeWine with a big lead.

Stark County DeWine for Governor chair Alex Zumbar (also Stark County treasurer) said that North Canton mayor David Held and former North Canton mayor Dave Johnson will be important to bring Stark in on the DeWine column in May, 2018.  However, he would not "at this time" name other DeWine supporters who will be involved in the grassroots aspect of the campaign.

I did check DeWine's Ohio secretary of state 2016 campaign finance reports to get a sense of his Stark County level of support.

Results?

Not very impressive.

One contributor from Canal Fulton, two from North Canton and a half-a-dozen, more or less, from Canton.

Which means that Creighton, Zumbar, Held and Johnson really have their work cut out for them if DeWine is to win in Stark and Creighton's area of responsibility.

If the victor (assuming it will either be DeWine or Renacci) can go on to defeat the Democratic Party nominee, Stark County wins either way the Republican Primary election turns out.

Creighton says "win or lose" she will be supporting whomever the Republican nominee for governor is coming out of the May 8, 2018 Republican Party primary election.