DO YOU HEAR IT? HEALY PROGRAMMED TRAFFIC CAMERAS: "WE'RE COMING BACK!"

One of the reasons that Mayor Healy (Canton) parted company with former Canton safety director Thomas Nesbitt was his opposition to "traffic cameras" being installed in downtown Canton, according to Healy, for "safety reasons."

Who believed that?

A safety director opposed to safety?

Nobody.  In fact, to this day many Cantonians believe it was a mistake for Healy to turn loose of Nesbitt.  For a person to come to Canton from out-of-town (Nesbitt) and gain the respect of so many Cantonians in such a short period of time (a little over a year) is rare indeed.

But, apparently, Nesbitt smelled a rat.

The Rep editors said it best in their editorial of August 5, 2009 (Nesbitt said too little or too much)

And it didn't take much reading between the lines to know that Nesbitt also had issues with a proposed city contract for traffic cameras, which involved a company whose employees also had donated to Healy's 2007 mayoral campaign.

What was the rat?

Healy's disinformation on the "real reason" why he wanted traffic cameras.  He said he wanted it for traffic safety.

Healy betrayed himself on this point  in a local radio interview on Tuesday of this week.

Like the commissioners and their effort to get money for county general fund operations by bringing in the red herring of 9-1-1 as the "apparent" focal point (which it now turns out can be almost fully implemented notwithstanding voter rejection of the commissioner "imposed" sales/use tax), Healy revealed by "sleight-of-mouth" on the Pat DeLuca Q92 program "DeLuca in the Morning," that had Canton City Council implemented the traffic camera program when proposed by the mayor, Canton would have about $1 million less of a deficit looming in 2010.

 Hmm?

Was this the master manipulator's way of introducing the topic again?

Indeed, it appears so.

The SCPR has learned that the Healy administration is working with two Canton City Councilpersons to bring the camera legislation back.

Perhaps, this time Healy will be more honest with Cantonians and say:  "Canton needs the money, and, by the way, the cameras will make Canton traffic somewhat safer as a byproduct of having the cameras.

A little known story about the Healy administration is that it has gone about raising "rates"  (which is really a tax surcharge to users) on a number of enterprise fund operations of city government.

The SCPR is in the process of gathering information on these "low-profile" increases and when yours truly is satisfied that he has a complete picture of the activity, will publish same in future blogs.

HEALY HOT ON TRAIL OF CANTON POLICE CHIEF MCKIMM?

The Stark County Political Report (SCPR/The Report) has learned that Canton Police Chief Dean McKimm is being brought up on disciplinary hearing by outgoing Safety Director Tom Nesbitt. The Report understands that this hearing will be held within a matter of days and will be adjudicated by Service Director Warren Price.

Whatever decision Price makes is subject to review by the Canton Civil Service Commission.

McKimm has been the target not only of the Healy administration but also by the preceding Creighton administration.

That SCPR did a records request several months ago with the city of Canton and the documents obtained verify numerous admonitions being communicated by Director Nesbitt to McKimm. Apparently, the acrimony has not abated over time; hence the new action and a hearing.

The Report has opinioned previously that one of the reasons Nesbitt is departing the Healy administration is Healy's dissatisfaction with Nesbitt's inability to deal with McKimm in accordance with Healy's objectives.

Tom Nesbitt is another Canton official that professionals, who work with him, have a high opinion of, but nonetheless has fallen into disfavor with Healy.

The SCPR has also learned that Deputy Police Chief (Captain) Thomas Ream is a leading candidate to succeed Director Nesbitt.

An area law enforcement official has told the SCPR that his view is that Ream is too much of a "shiny new badge" to be Safety Director and that it would also be troublesome if McKimm remains chief to have to account to his former subordinate.

Meanwhile, the beat goes on in Canton. Distractions galore emanating from Mayor Healy appear to debilitating the city from moving forward in revitalizing itself for the good of its citizens.

TOM NESBITT HEADING BACK TO NEBRASKA. IS ANYONE LEFT AT CITY HALL TO CHECK MAYOR HEALY'S "NOTORIOUS EGO?"

Healy fired Service Director/Chief of Staff Tom Bernabei (January, 2009) because department heads were ignoring the Mayor and going to Tom Bernabei for instructions.

Why were they going to Bernabei rather than Healy?

Because the Mayor doesn't know A from B when it comes to public administration.

The department heads understood this reality (notwithstanding the Mayor's degree from New York University Stern School of Business). These public servants truly wanted to serve Canton well. And they knew that Healy had no answers. All he does is get in the way. Moreover, he does have ego galore.

When the SCPR learned that Safety Director Nesbitt had applied for the project manager job with the to be reconfigured countywide 9-1-1, it was clear there had been a clash between Nesbitt and Healy.

It turns out that there have been a number of clashes.

One we know about is Healy's insistence that Nesbitt find a way to fire Canton Police Chief Dean McKimm (protected by civil service).

Another is Healy's rejection of Nesbitt's recommendation that Canton not hire Cleveland lawyer Gary Johnson to negotiate with the Canton police union.

Yet another is Nesbitt's candor about the Healy's involvement in pushing for Redflex Traffic System. Can't you see see neck and face getting redder than red when contradicted by the safety director? Call it "ego kick-in."

Tom Nesbitt leaves Canton with his head high. Obviously, the man has a lot of self-confidence and admirable courage. He heads back to Nebraska not having a job. How many folks can do that?

Healy stays in Canton to preside over his failed administration (almost all his doing) for his final two plus years in office.

Nesbitt has served Canton well. Healy and his egoistic driven political theatrics threatens to bring Canton to her knees.

Bernabei and Nesbitt prove that William J. Healy, II cannot work with anyone who speaks up and talks back.

Having once worked under a Healy-esque supreme egoist, yours truly's heart goes out to anyone who has had to work under this guy. It is a absolutely horrendous experience to go through.

The Canton Repository publisher and its editors bear a special responsibility for the continuing affliction that Healy visits on the citizens of Canton. He has played them like a fiddle. Their discernment is at near zero. For all their resources, they have uttlerly failed the people of Canton miserably. These folks know more about the events that are going on at City Hall than any other outside entity or person. Yet they have chosen to protect this dysfunctional Mayor.

In conclusion:

May the Lord bless Tom Nesbitt as he prepares for a different situation in a better venue.

May the Lord have mercy on the people of Canton!

DISCUSSION: LARRY DORDEA TO BE HEALY'S NEW SAFETY DIRECTOR?

The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report/SCPR) remembers well being the first in Stark County to reveal that Canton safety director Tom Nesbitt had applied to be the new Project Manager of the 9-1-1 countywide restructuring effort.

For The Report, the Nesbitt decision to move on (only after about a year on the job; having come from Nebraska) was the second most significant event in a line of precursors to the end of the Healy administration.

After the Nesbitt application, there was a day about a month ago or so when the rumors where flying hot and heavy that Healy had given Nesbitt the heave-ho. Despite the Healy and Nesbitt denials, The Report believes that Healy did tell Nesbitt that he was "fired" but thought better of it when he realized he had no one in the wings he could feel comfortable with as a replacement.

Why did want Nesbitt gone in the first place?

Because Nesbitt failed on Healy's desire to be rid of Canton police chief Dean McKimm.

When the Nesbitt decision was made, Healy and his is left of his top administrators, huddled in the lofty reaches of the 8th floor of Canton City Hall and asked among themselves: "Who can we replace Nesbit with?"

No one on current Canton scene was satisfactory. So it was decided to float the name of retired Alliance police chief Larry Dordea.

Only problem was, nobody had asked Dordea (a Republican who had run against Democrat Tim Swanson (the incumbent sheriff in November, 2008) if he was interested.

It turns out that Healy was being his old presumtious self and "assumed" Dordea would be interested. How silly of Healy. Larry Dordea is a smart guy. Why would he want to join a sinking ship on its way down?

Answer: He's not.

The only conversation Dordea has had will Healy is to tell him to quit floating his name as a possible replacement for Nesbitt.

Do you get it Mayor? Smart, savvy folks don't want any part of your rapidly failing administration If you cared anything about Canton, you would resign first thing Monday.

If there is a "crisis of confidence" at the national lever, then just magnify it many times over as far as the furture of the city of Canton is concerned.

The more Healy hangs on, the more clear it is that he cares for his own future over the future of Canton and Stark County.

DISCUSSION: WILL HEALY HANG ON UNTIL CANTON GETS RAVAGED BY AN ECONOMIC STORM?

It is becoming more and more clear to the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) that Canton Mayor William J. Healy, II is prepared to take the "great" city of Canton down with him in his political troubles.

The Report has had a conversation with an area politically powerful person who insinuates that politicians in high places (e.g. Columbus and Washington) now see Canton as a liability in terms of doing anything extra to help Canton pull itself out its economic blight.

Who's to blame?

The answer.

The political turmoil that Jamie Healy has brought to Canton in his coming into office in January, 2008.

The turmoil began when it became apparent to local political observers (including The Report) that Healy and Canton City Council were not going to hit it off. Healy's one chance to bridge over to Council was through the goodwill that his services director and chief of staff Tom Bernabei had with many council members. In hindsight, The Report's take is that this was likely a major liability for Bernabei because it is likely (given Healy's hubris) that the Mayor viewed the relationship suspicicously.

Next we had the 1888OHIOCOMP matter and associate contributions to the Healy campaign along with the revelation that figures being investigated by the FBI in the Cuyahoga County government corruption investigation had contributed to the Healy campaign.

Next was the dramatic press conference by Healy in which he outed allegations that he was involved with a 16 year old female.

Then the firing of Bernabei.

Number next. Safety Director Tom Nesbitt (brought in by Healy from Nebraska only a year or so earlier) announces he is applying for 9-1-1 Project Manager as part of the Stark County Council of Governments (SCOG) revamp of 9-1-1 into an efficient and effective emergency services unit.

Next there begins to emerge a possible pattern of folks who made campaign contributions to Healy end up with city contracts. So much so that even The Repository editors (whose employer has a publishing contract with Canton) call for Healy to pledge that anyone who contributes his campaign will not be considered for a city contract.

As a Nesbitt sequel, he announces that he will be leaving the city in the near term future.

The Report on an ongoing basis investigates the connection between out-of-town contributors and the Healy administration. The question: Why are folks from Maumee, Las Vegas, Cleveland, Columbus and Akron contributing to the TeamHealy Committee.

After being promised by Director of Communications Adam Herman that a TeamHealy person would respond to The Report's questions about the contribution, The Report has received no contact. The Report did make a follow up call to TeamHealy's campaign treasurer; only to be ignored.

What does Healy/TeamHealy have to hide on the Mayor's campaign finance reports?

Yes, The Report believes that the political cloak and dagger world that William J. Healy, II has brought to Canton is hurting Canton terrifically.

The area "politically powerful person" is on to something.

While Healy is mayor and enveloped in controversy, Canton will stay put - at best, but more likely it will regress.

Know Healy as The Report does, it is hard to believe that he would be willing to take the city of William McKinley down with him.

But isn't that exactly what he is doing?

DISCUSSION: "NESBITT STILL LOOKING TO LEAVE CITY OF CANTON?" - OF COURSE, HEALY'S REAL ATTITUDE; "DON'T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU IN THE _ _ _?"

It is problematical, at the very least, to swallow the lines that Canton Safety Director Tom Nesbitt and Mayor William J. Healy, II fed Repository politics and government writer Kelli Young (posted below).

What follows is the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) take on those lines or omissions of as to the real reasons why Nesbitt is on his way out of the Healy administration.

The Report believes that "Nesbitt declines to give his reasons for leaving" because one of the unarticulated reasons (in the Report's analysis) is not flattering to Mayor Healy and the other is bound up in the well known expression "don't burn your bridges behind you" by making public declarations of disgust.

Reason number one. The Report believes that Healy has given his safety director a heave-ho in so many words, but with time to find a new job. Forget all that malarkey that Healy says to Young, to wit:

“I think he’s [Nesbitt's] done a fine job for us, and you don’t like to see turnover when you have good employees,”[....] “But I’ve found that when you find really good people, they tend not to stay long term because other opportunities come their way... . If that means I can (either) have a really good employee for a year or have an average employee for three years, I’ll take the really good employee and then replace him with another good employee.”

Mayor Healy appears to have an intoxication with anybody whom he perceives to be, in an allegorical sense, "a greener pasture: " a New Yorker, Nebraskan, Akronite, Clevelander, Las Vegasan, Arizonaian or from wherever. From elsewhere, that's where the good employees come from if you follow Healy's words and actions.

Never mind the destabilizing effect of having "the exotic" from wherever come and be a key person in the administration and then move on after only one year.

Can you imagine being an employee with the city of Canton over the duration of the Healy administration? These folks will experience one directive change after another after another from a succession of one year at a time cabinet members.

Down home Cantonians or Stark Countians (let's say a Tom Bernabei), to use Healy's words, are the "average employee" who work "for three years" and coincidentally provide continuity and stability. Healy's "three year employee" language translates into: they are "a dime a dozen" unless, of course, you have to fire one of them because he turns out to be every bit the equal or superior to (management skill wise) the Mayor himself."

The thing about folks like Healy, who are afflicted with "the greener pasture syndrome," is that they soon learn that the person brought in from the Land of Exotica - puts his/her pants on the same way everybody else does. Then disenchantment sets in and it is only a matter of time until "the exotic" is nudged out a la Nesbitt.

The Report believes that reason number one is only part of the answer as why Nesbitt is looking to leave Canton after a little more than one year on the job.

Reason number two. The Report has learned that Nesbitt has been saying quite generally to various Stark County leaders, in more or less private settings, that the Healy administration is falling apart and near being in shambles. So this must be the "rest of the story" for being out looking for a new job.

Nesbitt lucked onto a grand opportunity for staying put in Canton when the Stark County commissioners took a bold step in January in imposing a sales/use tax to fund a countywide 9-1-1. Somehow he was able to get ear of Randy Gonzales who is head of the Governance Committee of the Stark County Council of Governments (SCOG). He applied for the 9-1-1 Project Manager position, AFTER - The Report believes - he had assurances from Gonzales that the job was his.

Gonzales did try to deliver.

But he did not figure on Stark County Commissioner Todd Bosley taking the stance of Nesbitt "over my dead body." And Gonzales fought Bosley tooth and nail to get Nesbitt in. However, In the end, it was more important to Gonzales to get on with the business of putting the countywide 9-1-1 system together than holding out for Nesbitt.

Gonzales' need to compromise (Bosley was pushing equally hard for Nimishillen fire cf Rich Peterson), is why Nesbitt has to go to Plan B (all those other opportunities). The Report believes Nesbitt was both stunned and irate when he learned that Gonzales could not produce for him. The Report has previously reported on Nesbitt's immediate reaction to not getting named 9-1-1 Project Manager. (CLICK HERE for a direct link to that piece)

The Report thinks there are other reasons for Nesbitt's impending departure such as Healy being frustrated at Nesbitt's inability to get rid of Canton police chief Dean McKimm. Because McKimm is protected by civil service rules and regulations, Nesbitt has not been able to produce for his boss.

The tragedy of all of this political intrigue is that it is a roadblock to solving the very real problems Canton has.

Even if there weren't rampant disharmony at Canton City Hall, the best of leaders would have a huge challenge to redirect Canton from being a dying city into being a rejuvenated city.

With the way Mayor William J. Healy, II is handling Canton City Hall, is there any basis for optimism for turning the city around?