OELSLAGER "TRASHES" (AKA "FILE 13") CANTON'S PLEA FOR FINANCIAL HELP."

AND

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SET TO DEFUND NEARLY $3 MILLION IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT MONEY FOR CANTON?

VIDEOS

(ENCORE)

Council President Schulman

on

Draconian State Local Gov't Funding Cuts

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Prospect of Federal Gov't Cuts

of

Community Development Monies

for

2018

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Council President Schulman

Councilman Bill Smuckler

Call to Action

More than four years ago (April, 2013) Canton City Council president Allen Schulman pled with then-Stark County-based members of the Ohio General Assembly (Oelslager, Schuring, Hagan [all Republicans] and Democrat Slesnick) to do something to help Canton avert a fiscal crisis.



By April, 2013, draconian State of Ohio local government funding cuts were in full swing as imposed on local governments across Ohio, including, of course, Stark County, by Republican governor John Kasich working in concert with the supermajority Republican controlled Ohio General Assembly.

At last night's Canton City Council meeting, The Stark County Political Report learned of two new developments that will aggravate Canton's and likely other Ohio municipalities' financial stress.

First:

On June 26 of this year, Canton treasurer Kim Perez wrote Stark County's Scott Oelslager who represents virtually all of Stark County in the Ohio General Assembly asking him from his perch as chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee to remove "detrimental to city finances" language from the-then pending approval biennial Ohio Budget (HB 49).

Here is a Ohio Municipal League (OML) detailed explanation of the reasons why centralized collection is not a good idea in that its inclusion in HB 49 will cause a further deterioration in city finances across Ohio and erode city's constitutionally provided for Home Rule.



Back in 2013, when Shulman meet with "a small group of legislators," Scott Oelslager was not among them.

He sent word back that he was "too busy."

Apparently, he is still "too busy."  For it appears that he trash-canned Perez's and totally disrespected Canton government in not making any responses whatsoever to Perez's letter.

According to Chief Deputy Treasurer Mike McEnaney (last night), Oelslager has not responded to the Perez plea.

One would think that out of respect for a Stark County local government elected official, Oelslager would have responded with an "I disagree with you and the Ohio Municipal League"  and "here are my reasons why."

To the SCPR, such a show of disrespect and unaccountability is sufficient reason why nary a single Cantonian or voter of any other of Stark County's local government cities and villages affected by the centralized collection legislation would vote for Oelslager should he decide to play yet another version of musical chairs in which he and fellow Republican Kirk Schuring switch seats (from the Senate to the House and vice versa) every eight years in an "in your face" to Ohio's term limits for state legislators.

Oelslager is a "years and years ago" former aide to former, recently deceased (July, 19th), Congressman Ralph Regula.

The word on the street is that Oelslager became persona non grata on the Regula staff because he became too pushy in urging Regula to retire so that he could be in a position to succeed him.

Though he seemingly has a constant "politician's smile," Oelslager appears to be in reality an arrogant guy.

No matter that Oelslager undoubtedly does some good for Stark County, voters should be highly wary of a "I'm too busy" to deal with you type of politician that "comfortable in Columbus, but not in my district" seems to increasingly apply to.

Second:

The above graphic is a copy of a caption of legislation passed by Canton City Council last night.

And here is a SCPR videotaped of last night's discussion 

• featuring:
• Mayor Bernabei, 
• Deputy Mayor Williams, 
• Ward 4 Councilwoman Chris Smith [Community & Economic Development chair],
• Councilman John Mariol [Finance Committee chair], 
• Council president Allen Schulman, and
• Councilman at Large Bill Smuckler) 

between the administration and council members about the prospect that this funding stream for community development is expected to be coming to an end next fiscal year (January 1, 2018—December 31, 2018).



Here is what the National Community Development Association have to say about the impending cuts:

FY18

We're hearing the President's FY18 final budget will be released on May 18. OMB Director Mick Mulvaney recently stated that the final budget will include $200 billion for new infrastructure spending. While NCDA has advocated for a portion of any large scale infrastructure package to be funneled through CDBG, we have argued that it can not come at the expense of the regular appropriated funds for CDBG. Trump has zeroed out CDBG in his FY18 budget. A one-time investment in infrastructure can not come at the expense of ongoing CDBG program funding. NCDA and the CDBG Coalition will continue to push for $3.3 billion for CDBG (and $1.2 billion for HOME) in the FY18 HUD spending bill and we urge our members to continue to do the same.

Thanks for all of your outreach to your Congressional Members.

Call Congress on April 26

Join the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (CHCDF), of which NCDA is a member, on April 26 for a national call-in day to Congress, urging quick passage of the FY17 spending bills and full funding of HUD's programs, including $3.0 for CDBG and $950 million for HOME.

Call the Congressional switchboard toll free at 202-224-3121.

Thanks,
Vicki

Deputy Mayor Fonda added this in an e-mail response to SCPR follow up questions:

Mr. Olson,

The federal funds that may be cut are CDBG funds, HOME funds, and ESG funds


Programs that could be affected are; Housing rehab,public and social support, summer youth activities,demolition, furnace program, clothing assistance for youth, etc.

Next up is a "call for action" in contacting the likes of Gibbs, Brown and Portman to stop any idea of cutting Canton's community and economic development funds.



So it is not only the state government that has and continues to deliver financial blows to Canton and indeed all of Ohio's urban areas, but, now, it appears, that the federal government is set to follow suit.

As with Oelslager from the State of Ohio perspective, one has to ask whether or not 7th District (which includes Canton) congressman Bob Gibbs (Republican) and Senators Sherrod Brown (Democrat) and Rob Portman (Republican) are going to allow the defunding to actually occur?

As in Ohio, Republicans control the legislative and executive branches of government.

Is Canton and Stark County other urban areas in for a new level of government defunding?

Is there a Republican war on America's and Ohio's cities underway?

STATE AND FEDERAL LEGISLATORS ABANDON LOCAL GOV'T FUNDING. IGNORE (EXCEPT FOR OELSLAGER) CANTON COUNCIL'S REQUEST FOR THEM TO PRESENT THEMSELVES & EXPLAIN WHY!

At the February 11th meeting of Canton City Council (SCPR blog LINK), President Allen Schulman got all over Stark County's federal and state legislators for allowing local government funding to plunge to levels that threaten the ability of Stark County's local governments to provide basic services.

On the 19th, he followed up with a letter, to wit:

Guess how many responses he has gotten so far?

Answer:  One!

That was a telephone call from state Senator Scott Oelslager's office (Republican [Plain] - the 29th which covers most of Stark County) saying:  "No, I am not coming to Canton City Council!"

No reason given.

And Oelslager is chairman of the Ohio Senate finance committee.  He just might be a guy who can do something about the plunge in state funding of local government.

But of course because he puts his political party's interest (more specifically Governor Kasich's balancing the state budget on the backs of local governments) over his constituents' local interests, he is going to be "a no show."

Hmm?

The rest of the Ohio General Assembly Stark County delegation:

From Christina Hagan (Republican - the 50th - Marlboro), Kirk Schuring (Republican - the 48th - Jackson) and Stephen Slesnick (Democrat - the 49th - Canton) NOT A WORD!

Well, how about Stark three congressional representatives:  Bob Gibbs (Republican - the 7th - Holmes County), (Jim Renacci - the 16th - Wadsworth [Summit County]) and Tim Ryan - the 13th - Youngstown [Mahoning County])?

And add U.S. Senators Rob Portman (Republican) and Sherrod Brown (Democrat).

These are the folks who are about to take the federal government into dramatic budget cuts (sequestration) and thereby cause financial hardship for local communities such as Canton.

Again, NOT A WORD!

What arrogant, unaccountable people, no?

At election time they are swarming all over us.  But when they are asked to do their job for local constituents, they are nowhere to be seen!

Just let some local government (let's say a school board) gin up an honor to bestow on one of them.

Oh, that's different.

He/she would be at the meeting dressed to the nine's and with photographers in tow.

And most likely, the locals would be licking their boots with nary a question about his legislative matter or that legislative matter that the legislator hasn't delivered on.

One doesn't like to be knee-jerk, but why would anybody vote for an incumbent legislator who will not come to the halls of local government to answer the constituents tough questions?

When are Stark County's political/governmental leaders going to unite and come out full force and say to the people of Stark County:  "do not vote for these people!"

• Christina Hagan,
• Scott Oelslager,
• Kirk Schuring,
• Stephen Slesnick,
• Bob Gibbs,
• Jim Renacci,
• Tim Ryan,
• Rob Portman, and
• Sherrod Brown

"They disrespect us to the point that will not come hear our grievances."

The SCPR's attitude has always been that to the degree local government officials play nice with these folks, is the degree to which they get kicked in the teeth.

Schulman is showing some promise. He has chided Chris Borello and her Concerned Citizens of Stark County for besieging council with their anti-fracking concerns to go after Hagan, Oelslager, Schuring and Slesnick (who all support or supported taking local control of fracking away from local governments) at the right time - election time.

You can be sure that anyone of these legislators if they think they are going to be ex-Senator Oelslager or ex-Representative Stephen Slesnick over a given issue, are going to get attentive yesterday.

It is up to the likes of Schulman to bring people together at critical election times in order to get results.

What is good for Chris Borello and her followers is good for Schulman and all Stark County local government leaders.

Only yesterday, Policy Matters Ohio put out a graph that shows the devastation that the Ohio General Assembly has wrought on local government. 

A second graph shows that new revenues fall substantially short of projected losses.

And it not just Canton that is under the financial gun.

So are Stark's other cities and villages.

And townships.

The question that the SCPR has is whether or not Stark's cities, villages and townships will continue to allow the likes of Hagan, Oelslager, Schurng and Slesnick to thumb their noses at them.

If they do, then they get everything they deserve!

ELECTION ANALYSIS: U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE JOSH MANDEL NEEDS TO LEARN TO ANSWER THE QUESTION ASKED. AND SINCE HE WOULD NOT: WHBC'S RON PONDER HUNG UP ON HIM!

Republican United States Senate candidate Josh Mandel should have had a premonition after his October 11th radio interview (LINK - for full interview) with WHBC1480 's Ron Ponder (Points to Ponder) that November 6th was not going to go all that well for him.

Mandel's responses were "political spin" all the way and NOT responsive to Ponder.

While Ponder actually asked a number of questions (e.g. "how's the campaign going," Mandel's auto industry bailout viewpoint, et cetera), the interview from the perspective of the SCPR really boiled down to Mandel avoiding Ponder's pointed questions:

• in talking over Ponder, and 
• in trying to force a redirection of the dialogue from the question asked to Mandel campaign political propaganda points.

But Ponder was having none of it.  He ended up directing his Points to Ponder assistant Stephon King to hang up on Mandel.

The focal point of the redirection effort was on the question of allegations that Mandel has full blown political cronyism going on in his office.

An example.

“[Ponder to Mandel] Joe Aquilino, I believe you pronounce his name, a former campaign aide, was named director of debt management, paid $90,000, had no experience in finance and you sent him to a beginner’s course in the subject. How do you answer those charges?"

This specific Ponder question was one of a line of questions that had to do with Mandel's 2010 (campaign for Ohio treasurer) statement that, if elected he would have qualified financial professionals manning the state treasury.

Other questions had to do with:

• Mandel's 27 year old former campaign manager (the Mandel for Treasurer campaign) getting a $100,000 position; having worked for Mandel as a legislative aide at $13.85 hourly), and
• Seth Metcalf, a Mandel college buddy, being paid $150,000 as a member of Mandel's treasury staff as general legal counsel and chief financial officer.  (Metcalf ran Mandel's campaign at The Ohio State University in his quest to become student government president).

Mandel's response?

Talking points, that's what:

• "we've (the treasurer's office) earned the highest rating on our bonds,"
• "we've earned the highest rating on our investments," et cetera, and
  
• "you talk about someone who has served himself, talk about Sherrod Brown ... ."

Ponder comes back:

• "the question is Josh, it's a pretty simple question, when you were running against Kevin Boyce you accused him of filling the treasurer's office with his friends and cronies,"
• "now the Democrats are accusing you of the same thing, so I am just asking you the question about the salaries and the folks you have hired ... ."

Mandel responded not with specific answers to the Aquilino, Lord and Metcalf and whether or not they represent cronyism in the Ohio Department of the Treasury, but with the political-spin-talking-points answer of guess what?

"We have qualified financial professional in our office."

Here is the reduced version (to the cronyism question) of the Ponder interview of Mandel that went viral on YouTube:



A SCPR "hats off" to Ponder.

Ponder maintained control of the interview and thereby put Mandel on notice that some journalists will ask probing questions and will not allow a spinmeister candidate such as Mandel to twist an exchange into a spewing of political propaganda.

Ohioans and Stark Countians should be pleased that Josh Mandel was not elected U.S. Senator from the great state of Ohio.

Brown is 59, Mandel is 35 and the difference in maturity showed big time in their respective interviews with Ponder.

It is distressing that the "not wet behind the ears" Mandel (as described by Sherrod Brown), who announced mere months after taking office as treasurer that he was running for the Senate, could garner the support of 45% of Ohioans and Stark Countians.

But when you have upwards of $40 million of campaign finance resources (direct and indirect) to wage a campaign with, "you are going to be able to fool some of the people some of the time."

The good news is that there were enough Ohioans savvy enough about what Josh Mandel is really about to turn back the unseemly Ohio treasurer from achieving higher political office.

The bad news is that he is only 35.

Undoubtedly and unfortunately, we have not heard the last of Josh Mandel.

But maybe, just maybe, Ron Ponder's interview (a portion of which went viral on YouTube) went a long way towards wising Ohioans up as what Josh Mandel is all about.

And just what is that?

Josh Mandel and only Josh Mandel many times.

He is a prime example of being an aspiring politician consumed with himself!

The sooner Ohioans catch on to what Mandel is all about, the better of we will all be!

UPDATE: (11/06/2012-3:32 PM) HAS NATE SILVER OF THE 538 BLOG GOTTEN IT RIGHT? OBAMA HAS 90.9% CHANCE OF BEING REELECTED. ALSO, A 91% CHANCE TO WIN OHIO. WILL HE WIN STARK AND HELP McDONALD (SHERIFF) & SMUCKLER (COMMISSIONER) WITH THE "COATTAILS EFFECT?"

Better than predicting today's election result is to deal with "probabilities" a la Nate Silver (LINK) of the 538 political blog located on the NY Times website.

The SCPR only pays attention to two organizations that deal with polling of elections.

The second in line is Charlie Cook's "Cook's Political Report.  But first in line is Nate Silver's 538 political blog.

In the 2008 presidential election, Silver corrected called the probabilities for Obama in 49 of 50 states.

This year he is at 90.9% in terms of "probability" that President Obama will be reelected.

 

Almost matched by his "forecast" (note:  not a prediction) at the national level is his "probability" (91.8%:  up from the 87% forecast just yesterday) that Obama wins Ohio.

And he has Democrat Sherrod Brown "probably" defeating Republican Josh Mandel.  And a high "probability" indeed:  96%.

As reported by the SCPR on Friday, the Healy-Abrams (Democrat)/Gibbs (Republican incumbent) race is thought to be safe for Gibbs.

However, the Renacci (Republican incumbent -16th) and Sutton (Democrat incumbent - 13th) race, who are squaring off against one another in the "new 16th" congressional district because of decennial constitutionally required redistricting because Ohio's loss of population results in Ohio losing two congressional seats, is truly "too close to call, meaning that the probabilities are 50/50 across the district.

The SCPR does believe that Renacci will win in Stark.

Why?

Because he and Betty Sutton only has Jackson Township, Lawrence Township (Canal Fulton) and part of Lake Township to deal with.  All of these parts of Stark County are known to be Republican indexed and therefore The Report believes he will best Sutton in the Stark County part of the district.

And he likely wins in Wayne County and the parts of Medina County in the 16th.

But it may be a different story over the rest of the district, especially in the northern and northwest parts of the newly configured district.

If Obama has polls well in the 16th overall, then he might well pull Sutton through.

When Statehouse Republicans (including Marlboro's Christina Hagan [the 50th House District] and Plain's Scott Oelslager [the 29th Senate District]) did their gerrymandering redistricting (but not Kirk Schuring who is running in the "new" 48th), they helped carve Stark up into three congressional districts:  the 7th (Bob Gibbs/Joyce Healy-Abrams}, the 13th (Tim Ryan/Marisha Agana) and, of course, the 16th (Jim Renacci/Betty Sutton).

Christina Hagan, in particular, said the slicing and dicing of Stark County was a good thing when it happened.

In her warped and highly partisan way of thinking.  Former 16th District congressman Ralph Regula takes great exception to her as did Schuring.

Ryan will win easily in the 13th over Agana.

But how about local to Stark County contested races?

The SCPR sees that there are only two contests that could go either way.

The commissioners face off between former Stark County commissioner and Republican Richard Regula and former Canton councilman and Democrat Bill Smuckler is one such race.

The other is the sheriff's match up of Republican Larry Dordea and Chief Deputy Sheriff Mike McDonald (a Democrat).

Who is likely to win in these two races?

In the opinion of the SCPR, it depends on whether or not President Obama wins Stark County, and, if so, by how much.  A comfortable Obama win (let's say five percentage points, which The Report thinks is unlikely) would likely mean Smuckler and McDonald wins in a high degree of Silver's "probability."

Any thing less that five percent, it could mean that we will not know on election night which of the candidates for commissioner and sheriff have won.

If Romney wins in Stark, then the SCPR thinks there is a high probability that Regula and Dordea win.

There you have it folks.

Have a great election day and BE SURE TO VOTE!

SHERROD BROWN HEADED TO VICTORY OVER MANDEL IN STARK COUNTY AS A BELLWEATHER FOR ALL OF OHIO?

It has been a mystery why Republican Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel has been polling relatively close to Democratic United States Senator Sherrod Brown.

Brown has been a political factor in Ohio since 1974 when he was elected to the Ohio House (1975 - 1982).  He continued his political trek in being elected to and serving as Ohio secretary of state (1983 - 1991), U.S. House of Representatives (1993 - 2007) and, of course, as U.S. senator ever since.

Mandel, (who, before running for office, was a Democrat) on the other hand, has only been engaged in Ohio politics since 2006 when he was elected to the Ohio House (2007 - 2010). In 2010 he ran for and was elected Ohio treasurer.  No sooner had he taken office at the Ohio treasury, he was fueling speculation that the treasury was merely a political holding place for him and that he aimed at taking on Brown.

On August 26th The Columbus Dispatch published a poll showing Brown and Mandel tied at 44% each.

Well, it is becoming clearer and clearer that the mysteriously close numbers may beginning may be mirage of sorts.

To The Report, for Mandel to be tied with Brown did not make sense.  For back in 2006 when Brown took on sitting United States Senator Mike DeWine, he ended up with about a 15% margin of victory.

2006 was a Democratic year.  It was a year in which Democrat Ted Strickland pummeled Republican Ken Blackwell and the anemic Democratic Ohio House Caucus was able to wrestle control of the Ohio House from the Republicans.

So the SCPR wasn't expecting Brown to repeat a 15% margin in 2012 no matter who the Republicans put up.

2012 is not going to be a banner Democratic year.

But Democrats - nationwide - are doing better than expected given a better that 8% unemployment rate.

Ohio's unemployment rate is in the low 7% range which is a factor which should benefit President Obama, Senator Brown and a number of down ticket Democrats inasmuch as Obama is claiming his bailout of the auto industry has particularly benefiting Ohio and it seems the voting public is buying.

Hence a poll published by The Dispatch on Monday of this week shows Obama ahead (9%) and Brown ahead by 10% (49 to 39).

At 49 percent, Brown is very close to the magic eletoral victory number of 50% plus one.

While The Report does not necessarily expect Brown to duplicate the 15% victory over DeWine (now Ohio's attorney general), it could happen especially if the President continues to widen his polling margin over Republican Mitt Romney.

There is no reason to believe - Mandel's prostestations to the contrary that his candidacy is tied to Romney's- that there is any distinguishing quality about Mandel that separates him from Romney.

He became Ohio's treasurer in 2010 which was a banner Republican year in which the GOP took control of the U.S. House.  This was the year that Republican Jim Renacci (the 16th which then included all of Stark County) took out incumbent Democrat John Boccieri and Republican Bill Johnson defeated incumbent Democrat Charlie Wilson in Ohio's 6th congressional district.

Other than his 2010 victory, Mandel's Ohio House seat was from a safe Republican district (the 17th).

A better case can be made that Brown may run better in Ohio that Obama.

Comparing his 2006 margin of victory of 15% over DeWine to Obama's narrowly winning Ohio in 2008, there is potential that Brown could survive an Obama collapse in the final 30 days of the 2012 election.

Brown did ten percentage point better than Obama comparing 2006 to 2008.

However, each and every election does bring a different dynamic to it and one should not make too much of the disparity that suggests that Brown may be a stronger candidate than President Obama.

But at least Brown has some statistical basis for thinking he might survive an Obama collapse at the polls.

The SCPR believes that should Mitt Romney stay about nine or ten points below Obama over the next 30 days that he will surely lose Ohio and there is no basis whatsoever to support Mandel's chatter that he could survive a Romney collapse.

The SCPR believes that Sherrod Brown will be re-elected to the U.S. Senate no matter how the presidential race plays out.

DISCUSSION: AN ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITY FOR BOCCIERI & BROWN TO GET STIMULUS $$$ INTO UNIONTOWN, STARK COUNTY OHIO?

Ohio's junior U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown rushed back to Washington, D.C. last night from attending his mother's wake, to cast the deciding vote (the 60th) in gaining congressional approval of a bill providing for $787 billion in economic stimulus money including $5.5B to cleanup "nuclear waste sites."

Concerned Citizens of Lake Township president Chris Borello of Plain Township who has been spearheading efforts to force cleanup of the Uniontown Industrial Excess Landfill (IEL) jumped right on this news in a e-mail to the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) and others.

The first question is: Why would "cleanup of nuclear waste" apply to the IEL?

The Report has no clear answer.

But there is a dispute about whether or not plutonium was dumped by the U.S. Army or its proxy at the IEL.

If The Report understands the IEL position on the plutonium issue, it is that CCLT does believe that plutonium was dumped at the Uniontown area. Other locals and Ohio and federal officials dispute whether or not this was the case.

The Report's position is this. Why not err on the side of caution? Isn't there enough of a question to justify pushing for some of the $5.5B to be applied to the IEL?

Shouldn't Boccieri and Brown be fighting to get some of this money into Stark County and Uniontown?