(VIDEOS - 2) PLAIN TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE LOU GIAVASIS HAD THE "FULL ATTENTION" OF NORTH CANTON COUNCIL MEMBERS LAST NIGHT. LOOK FOR HIM TO UNITE STARK COUNTY GOVERNMENTS IN AN ENDEAVOR TO "SLOW DOWN" THE RUSH TO FRACK!

Plain Township Trustee Louis Giavasis had the rapt attention of North Canton City Council (Council) members at last night Committee of the Whole meeting.

For the "Concerned Citizens of Stark County" he is Saint Louis.  He was the first Stark County government leader to say "hold on a minute" to the oil and gas industry and to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (the supposed safeguard for Ohio's citizens from the dangers of oil and gas exploration) as word got out that oil and gas representatives were signing up scores of Stark Countians to leases as a prelude to natural gas drillers setting up operations in Stark to do what is known as hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking) to get at natural gas deposits encased in rock some 8,000 feet below the surface.

The process involves injecting a solution of chemicals (many of which are deemed hazardous to human health) and sand under high pressure down a well shaft vertically and then horizontally to fracture the rock so that the natural gas can be recovered.  The chemical laced solution is then brought back to the surface.

In the video below, Stark Countians can see and hear Councilmen Jon Snyder (Ward 4; Council president), Doug Foltz (Ward 1), Jeff Davies (Ward 3) and Daniel Peters (Ward 2) dialogue with Giavasis on their concerns.



Giavasis is in the process of putting together a coalition of Stark County governments (e.g. Plain, Perry, Canton, Jackson, and, perhaps, Alliance and Hartville) to convince area legislators (Slesnick, Schuring, Hagan and Oelslager) that they need to lead the fight in the Legislature to slow down the "rush to frack" until more is known about the dangers that fracking may pose to Stark County communities.

Giavasis is focusing his effort on:

• slowing down the rush to frack at least until a U.S. EPA study on the dangers of the process comes out in about two years, and
• ensuring that oil and gas companies, if they are so cocksure about the safety of the process, are required by Ohio law to hold local communities harmless on any and all damages that may materialize from the drilling.

It appears to the SCPR that he is get very little "effective" help from area legislators.  No surprise to The Report.

Slenick (D - Canton - 52nd) is pushing for legislation requiring drilling companies to increase liability insurance coverage from $3 million to $5 million, which Giavasis considers to be wholly inadequate.  Schuring is supposedly working on his own version of state imposition of higher levels of liabilities with concomitant insurance/bonding coverage.

In the video that follows, Giavasis talks in detail about his effort to organize Stark County government in order to put pressure on the Ohio General Assembly to shore up drillers' legal obligation and in place securitization (meaning having the finance resource in reserve to indemnify local governments for their expenses should an accident occur).

Also, North Canton Council President Snyder speaks about his concurrence with Giavasis on certain aspects of his presentation and the prospects of Council taking action to join Giavsis' effort.

(VIDEOS - 3): PETERS, McCUNE & CHICCHINELLI) MASSILLON BUDGET GETS VOTED DOWN A SECOND TIME - COULD IT BE THE McCUNE PARKING TICKET FLAP WAS THE DECIDING FACTOR?

The conventional political wisdom is that the Massillon 2011 budget got rejected last night a second time by the same 5 (Anderson, Catzaro-Perry, Peters, Slagle and Townsend) to 4 (Hersher, Mang, Manson, and McCune) vote that occurred back in December because of mayoralty politics:  Councilwoman Kathy Catazaro-Perry versus Francis H. Cicchinelli, Jr.

And undoubtedly, such is a huge part of the reason.

However, it may be that animosities between Councilmen Donnie Peters, Jr. (R-Ward 5) and David McCune (D-Ward 6) over a parking ticket issued to McCune's daughter for parking in a handicap parking spot last year may have caused to vote "no" on the Cicchinelli administration budget.



At a council meeting in late December, 2009 it came to light that McCune had asked Catazaro-Perry (chair of the Rules and Court Committee) to consider legislation to lengthen the time within which to pay fines.

Councilman Peters alleged that McCune made the request to the chairwoman without telling her about the daughter's ticket and what Peters further alleged to be an effort by McCune to gain additional time, if needed, to avoid having to pay a double fine for untimely payment.

Here's the actual exchange as reported by Matt Rink (The Independent), Parking ticket causes racket amongst council members, December 30, 2010.

“He set you up,” Councilman Donnie Peters told Catazaro-Perry. “He knows if he were here, I would jump his (expletive) about it. It’s just because he has a personal vendetta to settle because he is one of those people who got a ticket.

“If I get picked up for a DUI, I’m not going to go change the DUI law,” Peters said.

Peters said McCune’s “motives are off base” and he wouldn’t agree to change the ordinance. He called Catazaro-Perry a “sacrificial lamb” and said McCune is using his political seat for personal gain.

Take a look at this video in which Peters makes it clear that he believes that a McCune statement (see video below) was the reason that the vote turned against Cicchinelli.  Whose vote did the McCune statement cause to go anti-Cicchinelli?  The Report's belief:  Councilman Donnie Peters, Jr!

And here is the McCune statement:



So what's next?   A city shutdown?

Probably not.  But it is anybody's guess as to how the impasse is going to get resolved as it must by midnight March 31st.

As Councilman Slagle pointed out in post-council meeting conversation (reference:  the coming local government fund cuts from Ohio), it is hard to see how Massillon can get through the rest of 2011 without some cuts.   It appears that Catazaro-Perry and friends want to force Cicchinelli to make the cuts as the price he pays to get his budget passed. If they succeed, then her election becomes more plausible.

A way around Catazaro-Perry et al (Anderson and Townsend), with Slagle marching to his own drumbeat, is for Cicchinelli to broker a "reconciliation" between Peters and McCune, if such is possible.  In addition, Peters - a Republican, may be fronting for Milan Chovan who will be opposing the Catazaro-Perry/Cicchinelli Democratic primary winner.  If that's the case, then there seems to be little prospect of converting Peters.

Should Peters prove impossible, then it is on to Councilman Slagle.

What will it take for Slagle to support the Cicchinelli budget?

"A Cicchinelli 'Plan B,' [apparently accounting for the certain 21% loss in state of Ohio revenues this year] so said Slagle to the SCPR as he made his way through the parking lot to his car.

 Make no mistake about it, Mayor Cicchinelli is incensed that he has been put in the position he is in.  Here is a video of his press conference with yours truly and Matt Rink of The Independent.