FULTON ROAD PROJECT ONCE AGAIN DOMINATES COUNCIL WORK SESSION: WHAT IS REALLY AT PLAY ON THIS ISSUE?

Last week the SCPR missed the fireworks directed at Ward 7 Councilman John Mariol (chairman of Canton City Council's Public Property and Capital Improvements Committee) by Councilpersons David Dougherty (Ward 6) and Chris Smith (Ward 4).

However, the SCPR did have excellent sources who enabled The Report to write these two blog last week:

• Wednesday, March 4, 2015,
• Tuesday, March 3, 2015

The issue last night, once again, as clarified by Majority Leader/Vice President of Council Frank Morris (see video below - in response to Councilwoman Smith's comments [see her video below]) was not whether or not Fulton Road NW is going to be repaved with some $1.25 of federal/state grant money plus $314,000 in local match (an 80/20 ratio), but rather where the $314,000 mandatory local match funding is coming from is coming from.



Insofar as Dougherty is concerned, it is NOT to be taken out of a $400,000 budget set aside for paving projects within Wards 1 through 9.  Otherwise, he is fine with the project.

Although Councilwoman Smith did revisit the issue last night, her announced mission was "set the record straight" (the SCPR's expression) as to what her position was last week when she initiated - what turned out to be - the turbulent council discussion on where the funding was to come from on Canton's local share of the Fulton Rd NW project.



While Dougherty was not as vitriolic last night as last week, the sparks did fly in exchanges between Dougherty and Mariol and Mariol supporter Councilman Edmond Mack of Ward 8.



As shown in the video, Dougherty accused Chairman Mariol in presenting a plan for passage at next week's meeting is a case of one councilman making off with money for Fulton Rd at the expense of nine ward councilpersons.

Moreover, it is interesting to see Councilman Mack chide Dougherty over how when it comes to his ward primarily benefiting from macro-road improvement projects, then he is quite content to have other councilpersons whose wards do not directly benefit pitch in with support.

By the way, the SCPR has learned that the wards represented by Smith and Dougherty have in recent years been among the highest recipient wards in terms of paving dollars spent therein.

So it appears to the SCPR that the battle over the funding of Fulton Rd NW is really a fight over at least one "reactionary" (i.e. what's mine is mine and what's yours in mine) councilman (maybe two, depending on how one interprets Smith's stance as clarified) against the rest of council which in the context of this issue, the SCPR sees as being visionary, is to say they "see the whole picture."  Dougherty obviously does not.

Which councilpersons turn out to be reactionary and are visionary on this issue should become crystal clear next week when council votes up or down on legislation to fund the project.

However, you can bet that some face saving work will be done in the meantime to avoid putting Dougherty and perhaps Smith out-on-a-limb.

So on second thought, the vote may not turn out to be a stark contrast.

The SCPR sat down with Chairman Mariol after last night's meeting.

While Mariol does not use the terms reactionary/visionary that The Report does, he does divide council between those who focus on their respective wards as compared to those councilpersons who can shift off the ward focus on matters such as Fulton Road and see/support "the big picture."

MORE OF THE "SAVING THE SOUL OF CANTON" STORY.

After publishing yesterday's blog, yours truly received a lengthy letter from Ward 7 councilman John Mariol.

Mariol's explanation of the current and ongoing crisis in Canton city government on the issue of the planning, allocation and expenditures of the city's capital fund is so well done that it needs further media exposure.

Accordingly, the SCPR publishes as "Part 2" a second blog on The Battle to Save the Soul of Canton featuring Mariol's letter.

But first a little background on Mariol.

Yes, Mariol lost his election try in 2011 to incumbent councilman Patrick Barton.

However, Barton in 2012 went on to become Canton's Information Technology director and on May 12, 2012 John Mariol became his replacement on being selected by the Ward 7 Stark County Democratic Party Central Committee members.

He was elected in his own right in 2013.  But he is being challenged in the Democratic primary to be held on May 5th.

The SCPR is projecting that Mariol will win handily.

He is one of four "relatively new" councilpersons the SCPR has tabbed as being "the four young turks" with the disclaimer that Ward 9 Councilman Frank Morris "ain't so young."  (lol)

And on March 4, 2015 Councilmen Fisher, Mack, Mariol and Morris remain a major basis on which to think that Canton will dig itself out of its decades-in-the-making deep, deep hole.

On the veteran side of council, Bill Smuckler has been instrumental is schooling the four on being effective as council members and each is making a mark for himself in focusing on various aspects of Canton city government.

Mariol, it seems to the SCPR, is paying special attention to Canton's revitalization in the downtown part of the city (e.g. the Onesto Lofts, the Market Square project and the like).

Mariol as chairman of council's Public Property Capital Improvement Committee has drawn ire of a number of his fellow councilpersons (Smith - Ward 4, Dougherty Ward 6) for proposing that a lion's share of Canton's $400,000 set aside for Ward road maintenance projects be redirected to pay Canton's share of a mandatory "local match" in order to get a state and federal government grant of $1.25 million to repave Fulton Road Northwest which runs from West Tuscarawas Street out past the Pro Football Hall of Fame to the city limits.

Between Mariol's justification of his position and Ward 8 Councilman Edmond Mack's of yesterday, Cantonians now have the resources to be fully informed on the "deep, deep 'road maintenance' hole" that previous administrations and councils (including current mayor William J. Healy, II's, but going back through Republican Creighton and Watkins administrations, at the very least) have - through their neglect - brought to Canton.

It is clear to the SCPR that the conditions of roads and streets of Canton is now a political "elephant-in-the-room" that has grabbed the attention of all of council and over time is on the way to being remedied.

And the SCPR attributes much of the impetus to reordering priorities to bring neighhoods (i.e. the demolition of abandoned vacant properties), to bring street/road conditions out of backlog and to increased police and fire coverage to acceptable levels to the likes of Fisher, Mack, Mariol and Morris.

That is not to say that the remaining councilpersons are not part of the effort.  It is that the SCPR thinks that "the four" have doubled down and taken the lead to solve all of Canton's "overwhelming" problems undaunted by the gigantic scope of those problems.

Economic development and its corollary of creating city of Canton taxpayers is always going to be the top priority so that funds are available to do neighborhood blight removal, street and road repair/improvement and making the city secure.

However, a focus and emphasis on economic development will not work if the city is blighted, pothole filled and unsafe.

It takes energetic and imaginative leadership to "keep-all-those-balls-in-the-air" and the SCPR thinks that "the four" have those qualities in spades and thereby provide Cantonians with hope that the city is slowly but surely getting a grip on its decline and turning it around.

Here is the entire text of Councilman John Mariol's letter to the SCPR:

Martin,

Before I give my take on the debate at last nights Council meeting, I would like to touch on some figures regarding the Capital Budget. At the end of 2013, we passed a temporary budget that set aside 1 million dollars for road maintenance and paving. After we selected our Majority and Assistant Majority Leaders, we started working on our permanent budget for fiscal year 2014. Working with the Administration, we were able to increase the 1 million dollars of road maintenance to 1.75 million dollars. This year we set aside 1.9 million for paving and put $400,000 into councils' budget, with the intent of using it for paving.

Recently, we were able to identify another $200,000 that we will be moving into paving— bringing our projected total budgeted amount for paving to 2.35 million dollars. Even with these changes, we are still 10 million dollars behind in paving, and with the winter we had, I do not believe we will make up ground. We currently have the opportunity to secure 1.25 million dollars, in the form of a grant, to pave a road that is in deplorable condition (Fulton Rd). To secure this grant, we need to come up with around $351,000.

We have a few sources to look at for these funds. First is the unappropriated line of our Capital Fund. Currently, we have 1.1 million in unappropriated capital, and that money is historically used for engineering projects, equipment for our departments, and potentially, more paving. This year, we had 4.4 million dollars of requests from departments and engineering, yet we only have 1.1 million to allocate. Working with department heads, we have come up with a plan that reduces the 4.4 million requested amount down to around a $900,000 dollar allocation— and leaves about $147,000 in un-appropriated. If we take the money for the matching funds from the 1.1 million dollars, we will have to forgo purchasing items such as body armor for the police, turnout gear for the firefighters, computers for the law department, or multiple engineering projects— and in turn, lose out on other matching funds.

Secondly, we can take the matching funds for Fulton out of our paving budget. This would put us even further behind on paving, and in my opinion, would be damaging to our city.

Third, and finally, we could use the $400,000 we have in Councils' budget to fund Fulton Rd. Lets lay out some facts regarding the $400,000 in Councils' budget. During my time on Council, we have never had $400,000. $400,000 represents 40% of all the unappropriated funds in our Capital Account, and Council does not have the authority to spend the $400,000 on paving without first moving it elsewhere. In my opinion, the only logical place to look for the $351,000 for Fulton Rd is in Councils' budget.

Regarding the disagreements from last nights Council meeting, this was the first time I've experienced such opposition from a small minority of Council on funding a project with matching funds that will cover 80% of that project. I strongly supported these types of projects in the past, regardless of which ward they are in. It is no secret

that we have funding issues in the city due to the cuts in local government funding. Anytime we can leverage taxpayer money to secure grants— those votes become "no-brainers". It's also no secret that we are dealing with decades of neglect to our roads, which have resulted in roads that are barely drivable. If we are to fix this paving problem, we must be fully dedicated to allocating as much money as we possibly can. We need the discipline to delay our wants, so we can fund our needs. In the past, we did not do this— resulting in the road conditions we are dealing with today. The "kicking the can down the road" has to end.

Some members question the fairness in spending this amount of money on a road that is located in only two wards of our city. I find this confusing given that we regularly judge projects based on need, matching funds, and overall impact to the city— not what ward is "next in line". The Mahoning Road Corridor is an example of such. Although the projected cost to the city for the Mahoning Road Corridor project is around 5 million, it passed unanimously— because it is a 55 million dollar project. This equals a high return on investment.

I believe that when it comes to the upcoming vote to fund this project, it will pass unanimously. Although every ward in our city has needs that exceed the revenue available, we must place a high priority on funding street maintenance at a sustaining level. As Councilmen and Councilwomen, we have a duty to vigorously debate the issues, but at the end of the day, cooler heads will prevail. I am confident my colleagues will unanimously approve this ordinance.

(VIDEOS) CANTON COMPREHENSIVE PLAN: GOING NOWHERE?

VIDEOS

Councilman/Majority Leader

Frank Morris, II

April 28, 2014 

Morris

on

October 2, 2014

Citizen Sandy Reo

October 2, 2014

Ward 1

Councilman Greg Hawk

October 2, 2014

Ward 7

Councilman John Mariol

October 2, 2014

Councilman at Large

Bill Smuckler

October 2, 2014

On Thursday last, Ward 9 councilman and Canton City Council majority leader Frank Morris, III hosted a series of community meetings designed to acquaint Cantonians with Canton's Comprehensive Plan.

Announced by Canton mayor William J. Healy, II in his "State of the City" Address on April 2, 2014 and authorized/endowed by Canton City Council to the tune of $350,000 to hire a consulting firm, "the plan" does have its skeptics.

Council on April 28th did vote to finance the plan on a 7 to 4 vote.  (Morris, Babcock, Hart and Smuckler voting "no")

The foremost "negative" is Morris.

Here is Morris on the 28th.



Here is Morris last Thursday evening at Schreiber Elementary School:



Also chiming in on the plan were:

CITIZEN SANDY REO (WARD 9)



WARD 1 COUNCILMAN GREG HAWK



WARD 7 COUNCILMAN JOHN MARIOL



CITYWIDE COUNCILMAN BILL SMUCKLER



The SCPR attended the first Canton Comprehensive Plan meeting in Edmond Mack's Ward 8, (September 16) and midway-point meeting last Thursday and contemplates attending the finale in Kevin Fisher's Ward 5 on October 16th at the J. Babe Stern Center.

The "elephant in the room" question is whether or not the Canton Comprehensive Plan has "a snowball's chance in Hell" of ever being implemented.

Because Canton officialdom is mired in despair over the decades decline of the Hall of Fame city, an implemented Canton Comprehensive Plan is viewed by some on council as Canton's last chance at resurrecting this once proud city.

The SCPR gets the impression from Councilman Morris that he views the plan as much hogwash and he will be holding the Healy administration accountable for wasting $350,000 of taxpayer money if all the plan proves to be is a publicity stunt of sorts.

One Cantonian (Citizen Cantonian) has asked what the SCPR thinks is a very good question:  If a plan is constructed from citizen input from the city's nine wards, where is the money coming from to implement it?

The SCPR is told that within the next week or two, the Healy administration will be sending legislation to council for passage with respect to generating some $15 million to $17 million in bond money to help finance various projects throughout the city in a kind of a "pre-plan:  Canton Comprehensive Plan."

Well, a second question has to be:  If it is taking $15 million to $17 million to "pre-plan" plus millions more as Canton's share of the Mahoning Road and 12th Street corridor projects, where in "God's little green acre of Canton, Ohio" are the millions upon millions to come from - that, undoubtedly, will be needed - to fund Canton's "in the works" Comprehensive Plan?

The Report is told that various council members (Ward one's Greg Hawk [finance committee chair], Ward seven's John Mariol and Morris) have been involved in discussions with the mayor regarding "how much" and for "what uses" will the contemplated bond issue defined.

Here is a speculated preliminary list:

1.  $5,000,000.00    Hall of Fame project.

2.  $2,000,000.00   Onesta Loan

3.  $2,000,000.00   Chamber Downtown Project (The Kresge Lot)  Amphitheater I believe.

4.  $2,000,000.00   New Roofs (Civic Center, Sears building etc.)

5.  $2,000,000.00   City share of demolitions cost.

6.  $2,000,000.00   Street Department new building and truck wash.

And The Report is told that the Healy administration is working on a sub-plan to sell the Sears building which houses various city offices and relocate them in substitute purchased alternative site; namely, The Canton Jewish Center on 25th Street.

The point being that if the Sears/Jewish Center story is accurate (which surely will require "above and beyond" revenues from the sale of Sears) to get The Jewish Center rehabbed and ready for Canton government's use.

Again, if this report proves to be well-founded, you have a $15 million to $17 million bond fund expenditure, you have millions of city money going into Mahoning/12th Street, and - perhaps - money going into rehabbing the Jewish Center; the question compounded comes out:  Where is the money going to come from for implementing a Canton Comprehensive Plan.

The SCPR thinks Citizen Cantonian is asking the correct questions about the funding of a Canton Comprehensive Plan.

The SCPR thinks Frank Morris is not being a "doom and gloom" councilman in his consistent expressions of skepticism of about the practicality, reliability and viability of the much touted Canton Comprehensive Plan.

The SCPR thinks that Mayor Healy and his planning gurus need to start answering those questions.

For now, the administration should be projecting a "within our 'maximum' capability" skeletal capital needs budget that Canton finances and projected taxpayer support will allow for.

The Report thinks the planners need to know Canton's "reality-based" financial capability before coming down with a plan.

The only thing worse than having no plan at all, is to have a "pie-in-the-sky" plan that has no chance of complete implementation.

The SCPR thinks such is what concerns Frank Morris.

Though Morris' views do not appear to be popular among his peers, they would be wise to pay attention to his skepticism and insist that any Canton Comprehensive Plan be fundable and therefore doable!