(VIDEO) FIRST IN A SERIES: HEALY AND SMUCKLER "TRADE BARBS" APLENTY ON WHBC1480'S POINTS TO PONDER!

It took awhile but it wasn't long before the gloves came off and incumbent Mayor William J. Healy, II and challenger Bill Smuckler took barbs in hand and started throwing them at each other on WHBC-1480 Points to Ponder "special" primary election Democratic mayoral debate held at Taggarts:   Canton's famed ice cream eatery located on Fulton Road.

For nearly two hours these old foes battled over the right to run against Republican Janet Creighton in 2003.  Smuckler won the 2003 Democratic primary.  Can he repeat the feat this election year? 

At first it appeared that Healy was going to take the high road and that Smuckler would be a solo attacker.

However, by the end of the debate Healy was off his lofty perch and hurling political barb for barb in return to the barbs Smuckler started with, persisted with and ended with.

All-in-all, the SCPR's take on the debate overall is that Smuckler was more the aggressor than Healy. 

Because the debate was a long one, The Report is breaking the publication down into a series of blogs so that SCPR readers can get absorb it in digestible segments.

In this first blog, Candidate Smuckler opens (there were a few technical glitches in his opening presentation) making the following charges - some by implication; some direct - on the Healy administration:

• that the changes he promised in his successful 2007 campaign against incumbent Republican Mayor Janet Creighton have not been properly implement,
• that Mayor Healy does not have good working relationships with other Stark County-based elected officials and accuses him of building walls,
• that the administration is jeopardizing the safety of Cantonians in not providing for 24/7 ambulance service and in allowing the police department to be understaffed,
• that Healy has taken care of his staff needs over the staff needs of Canton's police in how he has configured Canton's "unbalanced" budget, and
• that  the Healy administration has "robbed Peter to pay Paul" in taking capital improvement monies and putting it into operations thereby causing a situation that Canton cannot fill chuck holes, maintain buildings and maintain vehicles.

Mayor Healy opened by citing the achievements (despite, he says, taking office in the worst economic recession that "we have seen in our lifetimes" ) of his administration, to wit:

• reducing crime by way of its "zero tolerance" policy for three straight years for a total 33% reduction,
• pushing for and through supporting (e.g. Mayor's scholarship program) Canton schools achieving an improvement of public education as shown by a dramatic increase in high school graduation rates,
• improving Canton's neighborhoods in demolishing over 500 dilapidated, boarded-up homes, and
• creating hundreds of new jobs for Canton.

CANTON MAYOR WILLIAM J. HEALY, II: "DIVIDE & CONQUER" POLITICIAN EXTRAORDINAIRE?

If Canton/Stark County has had a more divisive political figure than Democrat William J. Healy, II, please, somebody step forward and identify whom that might be.

It seems to the SCPR that everything Healy touches in Stark County government and politics turns into division and acrimony.

Yesterday, it was whether or not 9-1-1 emergency services countywide dispatch was going forward with Healy in charge (in the person of Stark County Council of Government Chair & Canton Safety Director Thomas Ream) or not.

While it appears that Healy lost yesterday's battle, the war is not yet over.  And it likely will not be unless Canton's Democrats decide to put Healy on lame duck status come the Democratic primary election on May 3rd.  Even if they decide to do so, he will still have seven months to reek havoc in Canton/Stark County government and politics.

As he has done with Stark County Commissioner Pete Ferguson's effort to consolidate the building departments of Canton and Stark County (and eventually, those of North Canton and Alliance) into one-stop-shopping, Healy appears to the SCPR to be sewing seeds of division over the 9-1-1 in an attempt because of the turmoil and confusion he sews to cause the whole effort to blow up in smoke.

The more specific apparent battle yesterday was whether or not Joseph Concatto (a former administration official in the cabinet of bitter Healy foe and former Republican mayor of Canton Janet Creighton [now Stark Commissioner]) is to be retained in employment as the project manager of the 9-1-1 countywide consolidation.

So in some respects the Concatto battle is a Healy harkening back to to the 2007 election in which he defeated Creighton who was the incumbent Republican mayor in a heavily Democratic city.

In hindsight, The Report believes that Cantonians would really like a "do-over" on that one.  What Healy has wrought in terms of economic, social and political devastation on Canton since becoming mayor was simply unimaginable in November, 2007.  But no more. 

The Report believes that Healy's work of dividing Canton and Stark County government and politics is unparalleled going back to the beginnings of the county and Canton - Stark's county seat.

In addition to his effort to make Canton the center of countywide 9-1-1 operations and the building department mergers, Healy seems to be working non-stop to:

• keep Canton and Stark County health department consolidation from happening, and
• dividing Canton City Council into a "your either for me or against me" body

Healy got his start in Stark County politics in challenging long terms Canton City Councilman William Smuckler (since 1984).  Many thought that Democrat Smuckler (by virtue of having paid his dues) should have had an unchallenged route to the mayoralty race in 2003 against Republican Creighton.  But not Healy.

He swept back into town as sort of a "savior" figure in the early 2000s having been off to New York City making his mark in "the big apple" getting his MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business and starting his own marketing company (which nobody can seem to get a handle on).

His father, also William Healy - now deceased, (a long term state legislator from Stark County) had lost to Republican Richard Watkins in Canton's 1999 mayoralty race.

So, in addition to saving Canton from itself, Healy has a motive to redeem the family's political fortunes.

The first opportunity?

Challenge Bill Smuckler!

And he nearly pulled it off.  He lost to Smuckler by a mere 139 votes out of 7,852 cast.  The Report believes that had it simply been a Smuckler/Healy match up, Healy would have won.

But it wasn't and Healy failed, for the short term.  An interesting side note to Healy's role in the ensuing Creighton/Smuckler general election race is Smuckler's statement to The Report that Healy circulated an email urging his supporters to vote for Creighton.

Though hardly a friend of Creighton (remember, they had not yet hooked up in a one-on-one political race), Healy apparently was thinking "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Having failed against Smuckler, Healy immediately started looking around for another Democrat that he might oust from office.  Aha!  He must have thought to himself:  Mary Cirelli, she's vulnerable.

Mary is not the most polished Stark County politico in terms of articulation skills and political sophistication, but most will tell you that she is a good-hearted and nobody advocates more for her causes and constituents than Mary.  She had gotten some negative press from The Rep's Paul Kostyu (the then Repository Columbus Bureau chief) for having been voted by the statehouse press in 2003 as the Ohio House's least effective member (the 52nd).

Healy jumped all over that designation and challenged Mary in the 2004 Democratic primary for the right to the representative for the 52nd.  While Republicans do run candidates in this Democratic stronghold; the 52nd is a "safe" Democratic district.

So Healy defeats Cirelli but in the process picks up another avowed political enemy who will later turn out to be "thorn in the side" as a Canton councilwoman.

Of course, being in the Legislature was not a venue that was going to satisfy Healy for very long.  One of 99, you have to be kidding!  A man born to be in charge, no way!!!

And he was very unspectacular as a member of the House.

Undoubtedly, he was chomping at the bit to find a place to be in charge and the 2007 Canton mayor's race was ripe for this aspiring Democrat's to bring his Stern School of Business and entrepreneurial skills to bear on a city that was struggling to stay afloat.

As mayor he, right away, was in (and continues to be) the middle of controversy which includes - as a partial list:

• out-of-town campaign contributions and political associations that raised eyebrows, 
• the letting of city contract which seemed to have political overtones,
• allegations of a improper relationship with a staff member that county law enforcement officials subsequently found to be unsubstantiated,
• his firing of the well-respected and independent minded Tom Bernabei as service director, 
• his obvious disenchantment with the very able and somewhat independent minded Tom Nesbitt (whom Healy brought in from Nebraska [a former honcho with the Nebraska Highway Patrol] who left - sort of being pushed out the door, and
• his sparring with Councilmen Alan Schulman (president) and, of course, Smuckler; his key ally Greg Hawk (Ward 1), Cirelli and Republican Mark Butterworth over Healy's fight to keep a communications director on staff in the face of Canton's financial crisis

To sum it all up, the SCPR believes that should Canton voters chose to retain William J. Healy, II as mayor of Canton, then Canton and Stark County will continue to flounder and slide further into social, political and economic oblivion.

Healy is a consummate politician who has chosen as his preferred method of staying in power a "divide and conquer" political strategy staffed by every divisive technique he can conjure up.

The 2011 Democratic Canton mayoralty election is about whether or not Cantonian Democrats want to swirl around in sea of engendered chaos, confusion and fragmentation.

The do have an alternative.

Councilman Smuckler is not the most exciting political figure to come down the pike.  However, he is about unifying Stark County's citizens and constructing government coalitions to make Canton and Stark County government for efficient and effective.

Even if Smuckler loses, there will be another opportunity to stop Healy with the Republican-selected primary candidate.  However,  it seems the best chance is in the Democratic primary in a city which has a 9 to 1 Democratic registration plurality.

Accordingly, the stakes could not be higher in the Democratic primary:  four more years of division and strife, or a new beginning with a man who has built of political career on encouraging a countywide coming together that benefits all units of Stark County government.

The choice that Cantonians make on May 3rd will hugely impact all of Stark County!

(VIDEO) SCPR CANTON MAYORAL SERIES - BILL SMUCKLER - PART III: SMUCKLER HAS A PLAN TO INCREASE POLICE & FIRE PRESENCE IN CANTON?

In this "Smuckler - part III" of the Stark County Political Report series on the mayoralty campaign underway in Canton, Stark County's county seat, Councilman-at-Large William Smuckler outlines his plan for restored fire and police personnel to Canton's workforce.

The SCPR has been critical of Mayor William J. Healy, II for using a "smoke and mirrors approach" to financing safety force manpower.

In the current Canton budget projects, Healy has adopted the "creative" budgeting methodologies of Massillon Mayor Francis H. Cicchinell, Jr in not fully funding police and fire operations for the full fiscal year in the "hope and prayer" that the needed monies will somehow materialize.  After all, they always have.

Also, Healy has persuaded Canton City Council (Council) to allow a portion of an allocation of money set aside (by agreement with the voters, when Canton's income tax was instituted) for capital improvements to be moved to funding of safety force obligations.

Lastly, the Healy administration has prevailed on Council to borrow (in an accounting "fast-step" fashion) from capital improvements for the funding of some city operations.

So The Report is to be seen in the accompanying video to get Smuckler to detail how many police and fire he wants to add and to specify exactly where to money is coming from to fund the new positions he says he intends on added if he elected mayor.

Although Smuckler's plan is a lot more solid in approach than Healy's, The Report is skeptical that Smuckler is going to be able to add significantly to the manpower of Canton's police and fire on the financial basis he envisions.

Take a look.

WILL THE FACT THAT THE CANTON & MASSILLON AREA IS THE "2ND" MOST DEBT-RIDDEN AREA OF ALL OF THE UNITED STATES FACTOR INTO THE COUNTY OFFICIAL POLLING ON WHETHER OR NOT A NEW COUNTY TAX WILL BE EMBRACED BY STARK COUNTIANS?

Stark County Democratic Party chairman Randy Gonzalez (also fiscal officer in Jackson, also an employee in the Canton clerk of courts office) likes to brag about Canton and Jackson Township (after their economic merger via annexation) being the largest financial/economic unit in all of Stark County.

Add to that unit the city of Massillon, you really do have the largest slice of Stark County.

However, improperly managed bigness is not good.

And Canton's and Massillon's city governments is poorly managed to say the least.

Canton is borrowing from capital funds to meet payroll, is shifting capital to operating funds to finance some of Canton's day-to-day operations, missed out on about $400,000 in a federal grand and is understating the cost of certain safety services (fill in the blank later) in order to make it appear the city has a balanced budget.

For several years now, local media have been screaming out headlines about projected deficits in the millions for Canton.  Of course, Mayor William J. Healy, II likes to blame Canton's financial/economic maladies on everything but his own leadership ineptitude (i.e. the overall economy, the predecessor Creighton administration, Canton City Council - on and on and on goes Healy's list).

Much of the same can be said for Massillon and Stark County government (missed out on $10 million in stimulus money because it did not have a "shovel ready" list ready).

Massillon:  a city which has a golf course that is eating away at its financial viability (a $5.9 million debt tagged to it) as an example of one among a number of financial/economic models employed by the city administration which are simply unsustainable.

So when an SCPR reader passed on an online article from the MainStreet blog showing Canton/Massillon as being the second most debt-ridden area in all of America, it got The Report to thinking:  "which comes first, the chicken or the egg."

Translated into political/governmental terms, is the horrible political/governmental leadership reflective of who the pool of people from which leadership comes or, is it leadership not leading by sustainable fiscal example?

But the fact of the matter is that both Canton and Massillon political/governmental (and, The Report believes North Canton and Stark County political/governmental) leadership is absolutely bankrupt in terms of providing a healthy example of fiscal/financial responsibility.

What is even worse for Canton, Massillon and North Canton is that there does not appear to be any leadership remedy on the horizon.  Smuckler is not an answer for Canton.  Time will tell as to whether or not either of the Republican candidates for mayor and any of the alternative council candidates can offer an any hope of leadership capable of pulling Canton out of its financial/economic morass.

Ditto for Massillon and the Democratic challenger (Catazaro-Perry) there.

It appears to the SCPR that the Catazaro-Perry challenge is mostly about political power combat between the Maier/Jackson/Elum forces and the Cicchinelli political cabal and does not offer any hope to Massillonians whatsoever that Catazaro-Perry has any exemplar leadership-esque qualities which presages better days for Massillon were she to be elected mayor.  Do the Republican candidates (both at the mayor and council levels) possess leadership qualities that the Democrats have been unable to provide?

Canton Council President Allen Schulman said it best a few weeks back when he said that Canton's financial model was akin to being on a death spiral.  Glenn Gamber (his equivalent in Massillon) could just as well say the same thing about Massillon as could North Canton Council President Daryl Revoldt about the North Canton track on finances.

North Canton is faced (because of allegations of mismanagement) with the possibility of having to pay back $3 million in Jobs Ready Sites grants to the state of Ohio and lose out on $2 million yet to be spent.  What kind of leadership is that?

An answer could be "we are what we are:"  Our leadership comes out a pool of people who rank 2nd in the nation in terms of irresponsibility.

If that is the answer, then there is truly no hope for Canton, Massillon, and, perhaps, for all of Stark County.

As the SCPR walks through Stark County's councils of political/government power, the despair is overwhelming.

There may be a twinkle of light coming with the introduction of former Canton mayor Janet Creighton and former Canton city official Tom Bernabei into Stark County government.

But will they have the courage to call a spade a spade with their political/governmental fellows?

Do they have the guts to look people with whom they have long term relationships with in the eye and tell them:  "you know, what you have been doing is not working; we need to adopt a new way of leading."

Will they call out the Stark-based political/government leadership misfeasance they see, or will they simply bury it because they do not have the stomach for facing down their long-term friends?"

Will they they look their constituents in the eye and say to them:  "you too must become responsible partners in our self-government?"

These are critical times for Stark County leadership.

Are there any who are up to the challenge?