NC-CC PRESIDENT DANIEL "JEFF" PETERS: STARK COUNTY'S "IMPULSIVE" PRESIDENTIAL-ESQUE SOCIAL MEDIA STYLE OPEN TO QUESTION?

"You know, I know, everybody knows" that North Canton civic activist Chuck Osborne can "get the goat" of the best of us with his persistent, dogged and seeming everlasting dedication to task when it comes to critiquing the process and substance of North Canton government.

And last week North Canton president of council Daniel "Jeff" Peters apparently fell victim to having had his "goat gotten."



(Note:  President Peters tells the SCPR that his FB piece was taken down by him within 24 hours of being published, copy of post provided SCPR by Chuck Osborne)

Osborne has been surveilling North Canton government for some 15 or better years now and shows no signs of slowing down.

The Stark County Political Report's (SCPR) favorite account of Osborne going beyond due diligence in gathering evidence to make his point occurred when Jon Snyder was president of North Canton City Council during the big hubbub of council having the city pay for health care insurance on several of its members (Peters, Snyder, Kiesling and Werren) despite a voter referendum in which nearly 80% of North Cantonians said part-timers like the councilpersons should not get health insurance unless they had no alternative source.

Osborne traveled all the way to Buffalo, NY (the site of the headquarters of Snyder's then-employer) to learn whether or not Snyder had the option of getting private employer health insurance coverage.

There is no question about it.  Chuck Osborne is the Make North Canton Great Again "pit bulldog" of Stark County civic activism.

A good thing or a bad thing?

It depends where one is situated.

If you are Councilwoman Marcia Kiesling,  probably a bad thing.

It is likely she thinks Osborne's tenaciousness is over-the-top as exemplified by the videotaping/picture taking of her at the soccer event incident.

Take another look at the reputed Facebook posting of North Canton City Council president Jeff Peters:

Going back over Kiesling's 15 year career as a North Canton councilperson, she seems to have had some difficulty from time-to-time in making it to council meetings and also to meetings of the North Canton Planning Commission.

On Monday past (August 21st), council's work session only lasted 15 minutes or so.

Kiesling easily could have satisfied her official obligation and her desire to support her student-child school connected activity.

There are those public officials who are similarly situated who resolve such conflicts in favor of prioritizing the office they ran for and were elected to.

Can you imagine a candidate saying:  "I will faithfully attend council meetings unless my son/daughter is participating in a school activity at the same time as the meeting."

We all recognize that that there might be an exception here and there but not at the rate that Kiesling seems to have exercised in prioritizing attending a child school connected activity over her official obligation.  And Kiesling does get paid North Canton taxpayer dollars for being a councilperson whether or not she attends meetings.

One has to say "God Bless You" to any parent who prioritizes family over all else.  One of the more troubling phenomenons in American life, is that all too many parents have priorities that trump family values.

But in the case of putting family school activity matters over official duties, the appropriate remedy is, in the SCPR's view, not to run office until after the children have graduated.

Obviously, Councilwoman Kiesling "wants her cake" and "to eat it, too."  Which, of course, is, unfortunately, is a common characteristic of politicians.

As if Kiesling's too frequent absenteeism weren't enough, enter in North Canton "apologist in chief" and council president Daniel "Jeff" Peters with the Facebook entry.

It could be that for President Peters, President Donald J. Trump is a model in terms of using social media to bash those who differ with him or, worse yet,  call him/his administration of the executive branch of federal government into question.

While acknowledging that the Trump Twitter phenomenon in terms of name calling and the like is not a model for Trump or any other public official to engage in, he says that his personal history with Osborne:

• (e.g. commenting in the past as "Big Daddy" on Repository articles in response to Osborne entries, and, he says, countermeasures taken by Osborne against him), and
• His (Peters') perception that Osborne wished him dire personal consequences for his having participated in having North Canton pay health care insurance for him [note:  Peters reimbursed North Canton for the payments],

were factors in his succumbing to the temptation to publish his social media rebuke of Osborne.

Other points made by Peters:

• He assessed that some of the commenters on the piece were over-the-top on their condemnation of Osborne,
• When the over-the-top factor of some of the comments dawned on him, he personally removed the entry,
• He realizes that public officials (especially one with a special role [e.g. president of council] should not use Facebook in the manner in which he did vis-a-vis the Osborne/Kiesling matter and will not in the future repeat such an approach,
• He has reached out to Osborne to apologize, but that Osborne is refusing to accept his attempted contacts, and
• While he agrees that part of the price that public officials pay is that they often have to sacrifice family time to the discharge of public duties, he sees the latest Kiesling missing of a meeting as being understandable.  Moreover, he points out that she had no leadership role (i.e. a committee report) to share.

Peters, in a rough equivalency to Trump, is chief administrator of how North Canton city council functions.

For Council President Peters to defend what the SCPR thinks is  indefensible and then endeavor to smear via social media the messenger as being a "bully" and, to boot, a sexist, is clearly unbecoming of a president of any office including that of city council.

As the Peters' Facebook entry shows, there were those who as commenters joined in with Peters to disparage Osborne for tracking the whereabouts of Kiesling during last Monday's North Canton's Committee of the Whole meeting.

For Peters to incite, seemingly on whim and impulse, via social media a pummeling of a civic activist is clearly unbecoming of presidential leadership even at at a city council level of government.

It is however interesting that a few commenters take Osborne's side.

Could it be that these brave souls were key factors in the post being removed?

Unfortunately, Peters is running unopposed for re-election to North Canton's Ward 2 seat.  The ideal solution for conduct like Peters' is a Ward 2 voter having the opportunity via the ballot to remove him from office.

However, two of the candidates for the November 7th general election include two former council presidents.

One in particular, namely; Daryl Revoldt—at large, has a solid if not exemplary track record as a former council member/president of managing the processes/substance of North Canton council without resort to measures demonstrated by Peters with his Facebook post.

Revoldt tells the SCPR that he is not interested in re-assuming a presidency role once again.

It is likely that Revoldt will be one of the three top vote getters on November 7th and whether he wants the role or not, the SCPR thinks he will be deemed by some to be a de facto/shadow president of council even if Peters continues to occupy that role in the post-November election of a new council.

And, Stephanie Werren who has attendance problems of her own (especially, the SCPR is told, with regard to her non-attendance at Zoning Board of Appeals meetings) could be ousted by Snyder in the Ward 3 race come November.

Accordingly, even if Peters remains as council president in a new term, he is likely (at least behind closed doors) to be admonished for acting impulsively and thereby "unpresidentially" as council president should he do a repeat of the removed Facebook post.

It is not enough that the Facebook post has been taken down and relatively soon after it was published.

Peters ought at North Canton council's next public meeting apologize to the North Canton public for being irresponsible and unpresidential in his functioning as North Canton City Council.

As for Oborne, in general the SCPR thinks he has done productive work in holding North Canton government accountable.

However, Osborne is not flawless in approach and demeanor and therefore has not and does not and will not get unfettered support from the SCPR even though The Report is sympathetic with the civic activist model.

He like those who he unmasks as falling short of what they ought to be as public officials is himself as a civic activist accountable for how he conducts himself.

He, along with Peters, needs to be responsible in the way he handles himself in the interaction between government and citizens participating in government.

OSBORNE: "BAD JUDGMENT," NORTH CANTON 'EMS' ISSUE PASSES OVERWHELMINGLY

Nearly everybody is for funding emergency medical services aren't they?

Some 7.61% of North Cantonian "registered" voters overwhelmingly (81.74%) said so in yesterday's "special" election that likely will end up costing North Canton taxpayers in the neighborhood of $14,000 because North Canton City Council could not "timely" get its act together to get Issue 1 on November's general election ballot.

Council had to know that the turnout for a "special" election was going to be sparsely participated in.

But, then again, North Canton council is not exactly a venue in which democratic-republican values seem to be highly prized.

In yesterday's blog, The Stark County Political Report published an e-mail sent out by North Canton activist Chuck Osborne saying he was voting "no" and thereby urging his fellow North Cantons to follow suit.

Today, Osborne has to be questioning his judgment in taking his all-consuming fight about nearly everything anti-North Canton Council and North Canton mayor into an anti-public-safety issue.

Note:  Osborne has written me to the effect that he disagrees with my characterization of him having an "all-consuming fight about nearly everything anti-North Canton Council and North Canton mayor" even to the extent of opposing the public safety Issue 1.

No surprise there to me, who expected anything else?   Apparently, he thinks he always makes the right call?

He tried to make Issue 1 into a fiscally-irresponsible-council issue, but North Canton's voters were not buying that tactic.

He scored a success back in the November, 2012 general election when some 78% of North Canton 75% of registered voters voting agreed with him that North Canton's part-time council members with alternative sources for health care coverage should not be provided such by North Canton taxpayers.

North Canton council showed very poor judgment for ignoring the "will of the people" on this vote.

Eventually, council members did see the light and wipe political egg off their collective faces in implementing legislation mirroring the "will of the people."

As pointed out in yesterday's blog, it appears that some if not all of North Canton's elective government positions (plus some of its un-elected [e.g. Law Director Tim Fox]) like nothing better than to smear the highly active Osborne and to question his credibility.

And he plays right into their hands on a "for the public safety issue?"

Hmmm?

COULD NORTH CANTON'S MEETING LAST NIGHT BE THE "BEGINNING OF THE END" FOR TIM FOX AS NORTH CANTON LAW DIRECTOR?

UPDATED:  02:11 PM

BREAKING NEWS!

NCCS-BOE LIKELY TO APPROVE ABATEMENT AGREEMENT TOMORROW NIGHT

VIDEOS

OSBORNE ON "OTHER PARTNERS"

...

OSBORNE ON "DELAY THE VOTE"

...

FOLTZ "LET'S DELAY VOTE ONE WEEK"
(INCLUDES FOX ["DO NOT DELAY VOTE')
ALSO
HELD, KIESLING & FONTE

...

CITIZENS POINT FINGERS AT MAYOR HELD

...

HELD RESPONDS TO CITIZEN 

...

CITIZEN TRIPP ON COUNCIL PRESIDENT PETERS

...

 On the surface of it, I agree with North Canton Councilwoman Marcia Kiesling (Republican, at-large), council waiting six days is not going to change the ultimate outcome on council's quest to pass legislation approving the city entering into agreements with the North Canton City Schools (NCCS) and North Ridge Place, LLC (owned by developers William Lemmon, Robert DeHoff and Dan DeHoff) in settlement of an "imperfect" process (per Councilman Doug Folts) in which (2012) North Place Ridge, as part of an Held administration "administrative" process was awarded a 100% property tax abatement on a 40 unit apartment complex on the west side of North Main Street close to the intersection of Main and Applegrove.



But digging deeper, Councilman Doug Foltz's (Democrat, Ward 1) move to put aside the legislation until next Monday night when Councilman-at-Large Mark Cerreta (a Republican) returns to council proceedings inasmuch as the vote on the ordinances is as "an emergency," may, as implicitly warned by Law Director Tim Fox, give the opponents of the legislation time to put together bombshell revelations (my characterization; not Fox's) that might derail North Canton's "best plan of mice and men" to settle a tax revenue dispute among North Canton government, the NCCS and North Ridge Place, LLC.

This blog has heretofore written three installments on this overarching issue consuming North Canton government these days, to wit:

LINK TO INSTALLMENT #1

LINK TO INSTALLMENT #2

LINK TO INSTALMENT #3

Bombshell revelations?

That's what I am thinking more and more.

I have this sense that some of the opponents that Fox was referring to are looking deep and wide at relationships between North Canton School board members, North Canton council members and others involved in the abatement approving process in an effort to plant in the minds of North Cantonians that the proposed settlement agreements are not the "arms-length" work products that they appear to be on the surface level.

For those listening closely last night, citizen activist Chuck Osborne (a former councilman who has been a council "nemesis extraordinaire" ever since he departed council) brought up—during the "Visitor Comments" portion of council meeting— the "relationships" factor alluded to above, to wit:

Osborne went on to ask council to delay a vote on the abatement measures pending the return of Councilman Cerreta; a plea, it turns out, was picked up upon by Ward 1 councilman Doug Foltz.

Here is a video collage-esque presentation of Foltz in action in persuading his fellow councilpersons to vote 6 - 0 to hold off on vote until next week.

Note:  The SCPR has been in contact with NCCS treasurer Todd Tolson on the spectre offered by Law Director Fox that councils failure to act on the abatement pieces of legislation would likely result in an extended delay in getting the school and North Ridge Place, LLC agreement completed.

Apparently, Fox's analysis was more scare tactic than what he knew or, as it turns out, didn't know.  I think Fox should have "actually" known what the NCCS BOE is likely to do at its meeting tomorrow night rather than speculate as he obviously did with council members last night. 

It is reprehensible for a legal professional who knows better to engage in fear mongering.  

Look at this e-mail exchange between the SCPR and Mr. Tolson 

Tolson, Todd <tolsont@northcantonschools.org>  Today at 1:25 PMTo:  Martin Olson
...
Mr. Olson, 

It is my belief the NC BOE still plans to approve the agreement tomorrow evening with the contingency language, "...contingent upon North Canton City Council's approval of this agreement." 

Todd TolsonTreasurer 

On Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 12:28 PM, Martin Olson <tramols@att.net> wrote: 

Treasurer Tolson, 

In light of North Canton City Council putting off its vote on the subject matter of this e-mail, will NCCS BOE go ahead tomorrow night with approving the agreement from its perspective?If not, when is it likely that the NCCS BOE will take up the matter again. 

Thanks,
Martin OlsonSCPR

While I believe that opponents focusing on "relationships" will not be able to produce revelations which will derail the Law Director Tim Fox crafted settlement agreement, this video collection of Fox's extensive plea to council to vote down Foltz's initiative, I believe the video reveals how utterly unnerved he is of the opponents having another week to re-think, double-down on techniques and strategies to undo his work.

Another aspect of last night's meeting which should be highly interesting are the comments made by various citizens on Mayor David Held's "I'm  against it" ([paraphrase], the North Ridge Place abatement) statement of August, 2016.

The irony of the past Held position, as pointed out by Councilman Foltz, is that the action of abating North Ridge Place was an "administrative" decision; not a legislative one.

The SCPR thinks that council is not off-the-hook because council in putting together the abatement process at its initiative should have provided for council "check and balance" procedures.

After all, North Canton is a strong council form of government.

Here the videos:

First, the citizens:

Secondly, Mayor Held's response:

And finally, here is citizen Larry Tripp making accusations on council president Dan Peters.  (note:  I gave Councilman Peters an opportunity to respond, but he declined which is included at the end of the video]):

All-in-all, Foltz persisting/prevailing with his fellow councilpersons on the vote delay is a "glimmer of HOPE" for North Cantonians that Foltz might be a catalyst going forward for reigning in Fox.

A number of North Cantonians think that council created Fox (a former councilman himself) and his overbearing ways vis-a-vis any citizen who questions him, Mayor Held or council members in some sort of "in a private counsels sort of way" back in September, 2012 when he was hired.

The SCPR subscribes to this point-of-view.

Now it is time for council to put Fox in his proper place as being a legal advisor and retract his de facto status as being a virtual "one-man-rule" of all of North Canton government.

It is fitting and proper for Foltz to assume this role, if, indeed, he has the chutzpah to do so.

For he is the dean of North Canton council having served longer than any other member.

My take on observing/taking with Foltz over my years of coverage of North Canton City Council is that he knows "dysfunctional" city government from the days he worked for the city of Canton.

Is he up to being a "spark of HOPE" that council will rein Tim Fox in and thereby make North Canton government more responsive to, interactive with and embracing of the city's "inquiring" citizens?

"THE 'IN-ART' OF THE DEAL" AT PLAY IN NORTH CANTON, OHIO?

UPDATED AT 11:00 AM

INSTALLMENT #3

LINK TO INSTALLMENT #1

LINK TO INSTALLMENT #2

VIDEOS

...

NCCS SUPT WENDORF SPEAKING TO THE ISSUE OF "ABATEMENT"

...

NCCS SUPT WENDORF ENGAGES COUNCILMAN GRIFFITH

...

NCCS SUPT WENDORF ENGAGES COUNCILWOMAN KIESLING

...

NCCS SUPT WENDORF ENGAGES COUNCILWOMAN WERREN

"You know, I know, everybody knows" that President Donald J. Trump is the greatest deal maker in all of human history.  If you don't believe me, just ask him.  He will confirm what is already obvious to all of us Americans.

Unfortunately, he is so preoccupied these days politically surviving as president of our great nation that he is not available to North Canton government to assist the administration and council in working his wiles as explained in his book The Art of the Deal to get every stakeholder on board as North Canton government endeavors to strike a deal between itself, the North Canton City Schools and North Ridge Place, LLC and four North Canton citizen activists (i.e. the stakeholders) to solve a tax abatement controversy that has flowered out of a Community Reinvestment Area decision by the city in 2012.

A controversy because a core group of  North Canton civic activist are challenging a grant in the year 2012 100% real property tax abatement over 12 years to North Ridge Place, LLC for an apartment complex the limited liability company has constructed on the locale of a former mobile home park.

The contestants allege that the abatement was illegal because:

• it is framed as a "new" residential abatement for a property that is in a zoned "commercial" part of North Canton, and that
• the North Canton City Schools (NCCS), when an commercial property abatement exceeds 50%, must be part of the abatement process, which it was not

Yesterday's blog in the words of schools treasurer Todd Tolson set forth the actual/potential detriment the 2012 abatement action has for NCCS, to wit:

Today's blog focuses various parts of video taped presentation by NCCS superintendent Jeff Wendorf on the abatement to North Canton City Council on September 26, 2016.

First, Wendorf's prepared remarks.



Next, Wendorf's  exchange with Councilman Dan Griffith (at large).



Next, Wendorf's dialogue with Councilwoman Marcia Kiesling (at large).



And last, Wendorf's interaction with Councilwoman Stephanie Werren (Ward 3).



It is clear to The Stark County Political Report that Wendorf unequivocally states and restates that North Canton City Schools want and need every available tax dollars that North Cantonians have voted for over the years with "buts, ifs, ands about it."

Seventy percent of all property tax dollars go to the NCCS whereas 12% goes to North Canton government.

Of course, the schools want economic development going forward for North Canton even though there is no direct financial connection on the city doing well with enhanced income tax collections and the schools which rely exclusively on real property taxes for revenues.

Amen!!! Economic development for North Canton, indeed!  But on the city's tax revenue dime; not the schools'.

In the estimate of the SCPR it was comical if not farcical for Councilman Griffith to be asking Wendorf how city was going to do economic development if not at the expense of the schools through tax abatements.

Wendorf was exceedingly respectful in outlining ancillary ways that the schools raise outside-of-tax-dollars revenues.

While "holding bake sales" was not one of Wendorf's examples; some of the items on the list were not that far off "a bake sale" standard for generating additional revenues for the schools.

I can see it now:  Buy Your Pastry Holiday Needs at North Canton City Hall in the weeks leading up to Christmas next December.

The tag-team of Councilpersons Marcia Kiesling and Stephanie Werren showed they really do not understand the difference of the dynamics of how schools are financed as contrasted with city government.

The "short-term" versus the "long-term" strategic economic planning motif that Kiesling and Werren went on and on about, sound a bit like national economist Arthur Laffer's "trickle down-supply side" theory of economic development.

Oh yes! Kiesling and Werren (the rock-ribbed Republicans I think they are), the NCCS are excited about giving up "real" tax dollar revenues for some speculative philosophical "pie-in-the-sky" that might or might not add to the North Canton city treasury via income tax, which, of course, will not benefit the North Canton schools even if abatements generate companies locating in/expanding in North Canton which eventually translates into increase income tax revenues.

Some people naively think that national political party philosophy does not filter down to local levels of government.

The national Republican Party political agenda item is to cut taxation to the bare bones (see recent Kansas debacle on an extremist application of "trickle down" public policy) and thereby "grow" your way to increased revenues on the theory that benefitting companies/entrepreneurs will take the tax savings and generate new lines of business or expanded existing lines of business which will replace rollbacks in taxation.

While the North Canton tax abatement is not a "tax-cut" in the strict sense of the expression, it is a 50% tax-cut for the benefit of a single LLC over 12 years for North Canton schools and should be seen as such.

The state of Ohio Republican Party controls a supermajority of the Ohio General Assembly and, of course, the governorship and has for quite a few years and hence we get laws like those directly relevant to the North Canton situation in which local tax dollars intended by voters to be primarily for financing local education being re-directed to economic development.

This is an example of a state political party overall point of view becoming the law of Ohio.

A politics driven economics philosophy has been encoded in the law of Ohio even to the point of overriding the intention of the votes of rank-and-file citizens who had in voting for school initiated levy issues a "direct" intention to support schools.

Names to put with this subversion of the democratic will of local citizens:  Schuring (R, the 48th House District), Oelslager (R, the 29th Senate District) and Hagan (R, the 50th House District).

Are these folks small letter "d" democrats?

One has to wonder, no?

To balance things out (the SCPR being "an equal opportunity critic;" a national Democratic Party political agenda is the drive for an increase in the national minimum wage to $15 per hour.

North Canton government (the mayor and council) number six Republicans and only one Democrat.

Canton government (council) numbers 13 (including Allen Schulman as president of council) are ALL Democrats.

So with North Canton, one gets "trickle down economics" whereas with Canton you get sentiment for legislating at the local level for an increased minimum wage if rock-ribbed left-wing Democrat John Mariol has his way.

There are similar political party aligned philosophical analogies to be made on other practice/policy matters that course through government vertically from national down through the state to local government.

Make no mistake about it.

Accordingly, it is naive to accept the mostly mythology that partisan political points of view do not find their way into local government policy and practice.

I understand the need to have political parties to make the American system of government work.

But when partisan political party doctrines short-circuit the thinking process so that it becomes obvious that "the public good" takes a backseat to a perceived "political party good," a line is crossed which make partisan political party devotion highly damaging to the continued viability of the American system of government.

And there is more ridiculousness from Kiesling and Werren (and even Councilman Foltz (Ward 1) jumped in on this one):  (paraphrase)  "but we got rid of that mobile home park."

It is highly debatable whether or not the income tax based revenues for the  North Canton city treasury outweighs the costs of city services to concentrated apartment residents who in significant numbers do not work in North Canton and therefore contribute little to nothing to city finances.

It seems to the SCPR that most of North Canton council members do not understand Taxation 101 and consequently are well on their way to long-term (to use the Kiesling/Werren expression) drive North Canton into fiscal emergency.

In one exchange between the council members and Superintendent Wendorf, he opined that perhaps he needed to education them on "inside millage" as being the only way schools could increase their revenues without a vote by the people.

I think Wendorf should save himself the effort, nobody on North Canton council seems to me to have the mental sophistication to understand the Byzantine inside millage formula.

The days of The Hoover Company providing North Canton with more money than the city needed to finance city government are long over.  Nearly ten years now.  Kiesling has been on council for double that period of time and apparently has not learned the fundamentals of proven ways to sure up North Canton finances.

If she thinks the North Ridge Place, LLC abatement is a model for North Canton getting a handle on financial viability and if she is representative of the rest of the members of council, I'd say that North Canton as a matter of "long-term" financial planning is in "deep, deep doo-doo."

And, oh yes! while we (i.e. council) is at it; the effect of the 100% alleged to be illegal abatement is tantamount to "let's put the excellent North Canton City Schools in financial jeopardy."

That folks, is an expression of partisan political philosophy being implemented at the local level which damages our most important knowledge/thinking power resource infrastructure; namely, our public school system.

A healthy political party import is one where there is a competition of ideas debated in public forums and the results of which express a well-rounded buy-in to policy/practice legislation; not a doctrinaire political party point-of-view rammed down the throats of us all by supermajority political party zealots.

If and when we lose our democracy it is not likely to be at the hand of a military coup-d'etat but by a steady erosion of public confidence in our ability to be informed, respected, heard and included in the decision making at local levels of government.

As I see it, North Canton government is a contemporary kaleidoscope of the undermining of our democratic-republican system of government happening right before our Stark County eyes.

The real heros of this flap in North Canton are the likes of Daryl Revoldt (former mayor, councilman and president of council), Miriam Baughman, Melanie Roll and Chuck Osborne.

But for above-pictured locking on to the tax abatement debacle of 2012, North Canton schools would have, under the original abatement, lost tens of thousands of sorely needed tax dollar revenues.

These folks are not beholden to a political party point of view, but to what is for the public good.

I am told that Baughman, Roll and Osborne are in this fight for the "long-term."  Revoldt may or may not be.

These folks apparently are not into "let's make a deal" put together by "in-artful" council/mayor deal makers in that they failed to provide "checks and balances" on a bad deal for the NCCS.

Why?

Because they believe the original deal was illegal and that therefore North Canton schools should have all the dollars less those already abated to North Ridge Place, LLC.

The unremunerated consistent, persistent, skillful work ethic of the civic minded Baughman, Roll and Osborne far surpases the current crop of taxpayer paid councilpersons serving on North Canton council.

What a sad state of affairs, no?

DISCUSSION: SEQUEL #1, JACK DESARIO - "THE LITTLE POLITICAL GODFATHER OF STARK CO.," "STARK COUNTY'S POLITICAL OCTOPUS," AND "THE COMMON THREAD?"

Yesterday, the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) did an introductory piece on the political comings and goings of Mount Union political science professor and political consultant (D&R Consultants) Jack DeSario in the Stark County political world.

It is common for The Report to have additional sources come forward once a piece has been published. Already this has occurred in the Jack DeSario matter.

Chuck Osborne who served formerly on North Canton City Council and ran for mayor in 2003 against incumbent mayor Tom Rice (a DeSario political consulting client) came forward to connect DeSario with Republican Rice and the Cleveland law firm of Johnson (principal Gary Johnson) & Angelo and North Canton hiring Johnson to do its labor negotiations.

Sound familiar?

While The Report has been unable to turn up any direct evidence linking DeSario to the hire, even though he was a key player in the Healy mayoralty campaign; it arouses one's curiosity that recently Democrat Mayor William J. Healy, II accepted a bid by Gary Johnson to do some labor negotiations for the city of Canton.

Healy, "in the spirit of full accountability," asked Attorney Johnson to fashion his bid at the price of $14,999 so that the mayor did not have to get council approval. Formerly, Canton has used the Canton Law Department to do the negotiations.

Back to the North Canton situation.

After Democrat Osborne lost the mayoralty contest to Republican Rice, Osborne filed a complaint with the then Canton City Prosecutor Frank Forchione (now a Stark County Court of Common Pleas judge) about certain campaign conduct by then Mayor Rice.

The only part that The Report is going to deal with has to do with the involvement of Jack DeSario in the Rice campaign and the connections between DeSario and Rice which may have resulted in North Canton hiring Johnson (a law associate of DeSario at the time).

Today, The Report lays out the complaint involving Rice's relationship with DeSario and North Canton hiring lawyer Johnson.

Tomorrow, The Report lays out the results of Prosecutor Forchione's investigation.

The relevant portions of the complaint:

Tomorrow: Forchione's findings.