WHO WILL BELIEVE THAT MAYOR HEALY "ACCIDENTLY" USED A COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT CREDIT CARD 15 TIMES RATHER THAN HIS PERSONAL CREDIT CARD? AND WHO WILL THINK "MERELY" PAYING THE BILL IS ANY KIND OF SANCTION? FORMER CANTON MAYOR JANET CREIGHTON "BLASTS" HEALY OVER CREDIT CARD USE INCIDENT! READ THE FULL ACCOUNT OF THE SCPR'S INTERVIEW WITH CREIGHTON

UPDATED & REVISED AT 09:45 AM

The SCPR could scarcely believe the content of the telephone call received Tuesday afternoon.

The caller telling The Report that Canton Mayor William J. Healy, II had been determined to have used a Canton quasi-government credit card (the Community Improvement Corporation - CIC) - is a non-profit corporation that has governmental-like functions) to make personal purchases.

Healy has admitted the purchases, but says that the use of  CIC credit card was purely accidental.  While Healy's claim may be true, the question is:  Who will believe it?

A WORD ABOUT THE COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT CORPORATION

The Report is told that the members of the Canton CIC are appointed by the mayor except for the council members which are appointed by the majority leader (Healy political ally David Dougherty, in this case).

THE PURCHASES

The actual Healy personal purchases were documented by Ed Balint of The Repository in a piece he wrote yesterday (Healy repays for personal purchases on CIC credit card), to wit:

• Macy’s, 
• Subway restaurant, 
• John’s Grille, 
• Pat Catan’s, 
• Sunoco, 
• Dad’s Car Care Center, 
• Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery, 
• Speedway, Dillard’s, 
• Thatsa Wrapp restaurant, and 
• other businesses.

Balint reports that Hizzoner reimbursed the CIC in the amount of about $600 (the SCPR computation is $645.42, including a credit card late fee).

Just a slap of the hand (even, if that), no?

Of course, Healy says that it was all a mistake.   A SCPR's source says that Healy claims that the Key Bank Platinum credit card (CIC card) was difficult to distinguish from personal credit cards he uses.

Balint was non-committal  as to whether or not Healy's claim is believable on a color-confusion basis.  However, reading between the lines and Healy having told him that his focus was on the Mastercard emblem on the card rather than the color, it could be that Balint was being kind to the mayor in deferring on making an observation to whether or not confusion on the basis of color similarity was credible.

The SCPR believes it is likely that many who read Balint's account and this blog are going to find it difficult to swallow that the CIC card use was accidental when the CIC card was used "about fifteen times."

IS CANTON/CIC'S REACTION/RESPONSE APPROPRIATE?

So the question becomes is a "slap on the hand" (and the SCPR questions whether or not "paying what one owes" rises to that level) an appropriate consequence to the mayor.

The SCPR did contact the Canton Law Department and was told that the department passed the matter for review by a federal agency of government and a state agency of government for an assessment of whether or not there were any criminal law violations in the use of the card.

The Report is told that both agencies declined to take the matter under consideration.  However, the matter of further legal consequences is not entirely closed as The Report is told that the law department is pursuing one other possible option.

FORMER MAYOR JANET CREIGHTON'S EXPERIENCE WITH CIC & HER REACTION TO HEALY'S CLAIM OF MISTAKE

Yours truly did contact former mayor Janet Creighton (now of Plain Township and  to learn whether or not she had a CIC credit.  Her answer?  An unequivocal NO!

Hmm?

Creighton (who, undoubtedly, cannot believe that Canton voters chose Healy over her in 2007 given his troubled history as mayor) was "fit to be tied" in the conversation.

Among the "emphatic" points she made were:

• She never had a credit card as the mayor of the city of Canton,
• With regard to Healy's credit card, was it ever authorized by the CIC board?
• What is Healy doing spending the city's economic development money "outside-the-city-Canton" witness most of the reported "accidental" expenditures,
• She does not believe that the Healy expenditures are audited by the city auditor but by the CIC itself which is controlled by Mayor Healy a la "the fox guarding the hen house,"
• that Canton and Stark County's organized Democrats need to step up for good government had call Healy out of the credit card expenditures,
• that had she made such a "mistake" she would been taken to task big time, 
• that the entire thing about Healy's accidental use of the credit card "pisses [her] off and that she is sick and tired of Healy shenanigans (The Report's word; not Creighton's),
• Healy gets away with everything and nobody ever calls him out about it and that she is calling him out,
• as regards the use of the CIC credit card:  "one time, anyone would buy a mistake one time, but 15 times; ... 15 times and you don't know what credit card you're using.  I suggest he better have his eyes checked."
• that the Canton councilpersons should be asking questions of the mayor in council meetings about the credit card use and asking for minutes of the meetings of the CIC regarding the authorization of credit card by Healy,
• that when she was mayor if she entertained anyone on behalf of the city, she paid for the meals out of her pocket; she paid for her own gas when she was out on city business,
• people to stand up and call him out and make him explain why he was doing these things,
• that she was born and raised in Canton and for Canton to have a mayor like Healy is devastating,
• that it is unbelievable that he keeps doing things like the "accidental" use of the credit cards apparently not learning the lessons of avoiding one embarrassing thing after another over five years being mayor,
• that while everyone understands public officials making mistakes in judgments, Healy's seem to have a continuing history about them, and
• that there ought to be an audit (which the SCPR concus with) going back to when the credit card was initially issued to Mayor Healy.

It seems as a very minimum to the SCPR that Mayor Healy should lose the privilege of using the CIC card as Balint pointed out is provided for as a possibility under Canton's credit card policy.

Even that would be "to treat him with 'kid gloves."'

Former Mayor Creighton makes a telling point.

When you wear teflon suits, nothing sticks, no?

WALTERS FOR COMMISSIONER? A HUGE MISCALCULATION JACKSON TRUSTEE JAMIE WALTERS' PART?

 

It does appear that Jackson trustee James N. (Jamie) Walters is "out-to-lunch" when it comes to making political calculations.

Walters had it all set up.  He had convinced himself that he was going to be running against Todd Bosley who was to be up for re-election this November. 

Jamie had even convinced The Repository that the 2010 commissioners race (full term) was going to be a Bosley/Walters race, to wit:

At the time (about 3 months to go yet on the filing deadline), it may have looked so.  But anyone familiar with politics knows that Walters' presumption is a clear mark of an uninitiated politician.

How things change!

Bosley has ducked out of the county commissioner race because it was his worse case scenario for staying in public office.  Not so much because of Walters, but on account of having been a leading proponent of the imposed 0.50 imposed sales/use tax in December, 2008 which the voters cast aside by a 2 to 1 margin this past November.

The SCPR believes that Bosley could have narrowly defeated Walters had that race materialized.  Bosley chose a wiser course for himself.  While Todd Snitchler is already calling Bosley "Taxing Todd" (at the Stark GOP annual McKinley dinner a weeks or so ago), but the countywide tax will be less of an issue.  Snitchler is in the position of having accomplished nothing in his two years in office and will have to spend much of his campaign explaining his ineffectiveness away.  An interesting phenomenon that Bosley is banking on includes the fact that his family has been in the septic business since 1957 in large parts of the 50th and he expects the family reputation to been an unarticulated advantage to him.  Bosley still might not win, but the political environment is better for him in the 50th.

So what's to happen with Walters?

He is probably headed to political oblivion.

If Janet Creighton decides to run, it surely will be in the race that Walters has filed for.  The former mayor of Canton is a powerful political figure, but she knows that she would be facing a near certain defeat should she chose to run against former Canton city councilman and Healy administration, (chief of staff/service director) and SARTA administrator (acting CEO) Tom Bernabei.

Bernabei would swamp Creighton in the Democratic strongholds of Canton and Massillon and hold his own in many of the townships, villages and small cities sprinkled across Stark County.

However, a run against Walters (Curtician has told the SCPR he is withdrawing) is a hands down win for her, and The Report believes she beats either sitting commissioner Steve Meeks or Lawrence Township trustee Mike Stevens in the general election.

Walters' only chance at getting elected commissioner lies in Creighton deciding not to run at all.

A Walters run against Meeks or Stevens is a win for the Democrats.  Walters undoubtedly will point out that he has defeated one Meeks (Steve's wife Patty) already.  Yes, but that was a Jackson Township race and voters resented that Steve Meeks thought he could hand off a public position to a family member.  Almost anyone could have won that contest.

Meeks is already disassociating himself from the imposed tax and Walters will have a hard time pinning the imposition on Meeks.  Stevens presumably will also say that the tax should not have been imposed.  So where does that leave Walters' big issue?

Stark County countywide leans Democratic these days.  Creighton can overcome the lean, but Walters cannot.  Both Meeks and Stevens are solid enough candidates that either beats Walters if he becomes the Republican nominee because Creighton decides not to run.

We will know more come Thursday how the commissioner races unfold.

It is looking more and more that there will be contested primaries on both sides of the aisle in the fight for the nomination for the full term commissioner slot.

REPUBLICAN SPY TIPS JANET CREIGHTON OFF THAT ALL IS NOT RIGHT WITH COMMISSIONER BOSLEY?

When you are "second banana" and are always getting your brains beat in by the competition, what do you do?

What is the prescription for what ails you?

For many it means spying on your competition to see what you can learn to turn things around.

For instance, many - if not most, countries around the world spy on American industry to learn our technological secrets and then one-up us.  Of course, international political spying has been around at least going back to biblical days.

 But Stark County politics?

 It seems so.

The SCPR has learned that former Canton mayor Janet Creighton didn't just wake up one morning as say to herself:  "I think I'll run against Todd Bosley for county commissioner.  You know what, I better get cracking on some Bosley research to find out what 'Toddy-boy' has been up to over the last three years at the good ole comish."

No, she got a phone call from a Republican/Republican sympathizing mole that works or once worked in the Stark County commissioners office.

THE SPY:  "Janet, I hear you might be running against Todd Bosley and do I have some juicy information about him for you.  But you'll have to ask for it by making a 'public records request.'  If I were you, I'd ask for 'a listing of all the boards, commissions or assignments of Commissioner Bosley, those he serves in his official capacity'"

Of course, Creighton's ears perked up. 

"Great idea!" she says.  And off goes the e-mail public records request.

What Janet forgot is that she was up against one of the wiliest politicians Stark County as seen in many a year.  And he plays political "hardball" too.

When Bosley got county administrator Hanke's e-mail informing the commissioner on Creighton's request, he embarked on a relentless quest to track down the "internal" Creighton/Stark GOP spy.

And he found the spy!

The spy had told Creighton that Bosley was not attending meetings on a commission that Bosley serves on as a representative of the county commissioners. 

But the spy was not in full command of the facts of the situation.  It turns out that another commissioner (Ferguson - an absolute favorite of the SCPR) has been attending in Bosley's stead.

The SCPR has learned that Bosley believes that fellow commissioner Tom Harmon was an "unwitting" facilitator of the Creighton/Republican Party spying.

What else can Bosley say?

Yours truly thinks Bosley is being very generous to Harmon in applying the label "unwitting."

The more profound part of this story is this. 

Does Janet Creighton really believe that whether or not Bosley attends boards/commission meetings is going to be a big deal with voters?


Bosley has handed her or any other Republican challenger at least three issues on a silver platter.

First, the imposed sales/use tax (if it gets repealed).

Second, his failure to fix 9-1-1 (an issue he used against Richard Regula to devastating effect) during his three years - so far - in office.  It is not likely that the fix will be done by November, 2010, even if the repeal is not successful, and

Third, he and his fellows have failed to reverse the slide in the Stark County economy.  The Republicans do own some of this negative because Republican stalwart Jayne Vignos was in office through 2008.

So what is all this "cloak and dagger" stuff, Janet?

Reminds the SCPR of former Stark County Democratic Party chairman Johnnie A. Maier, Jr.

Yours truly has heard Maier go on and on about a Republican who would call him up from time-to-time (apparently just ot chit-chat) that Maier was convinced was a Republican spy.

Also, Maier used to go on and on about a certain county elected official (a Democrat) that he suspected of passing inside Stark County Democratic Party information to the Republicans. 

The joke was that this official would be in a meeting with his fellow Dems where politically sensitive information was discussion and to party officials' astonishment, Stark Republicans had the information by the time the officials had settled in back at home.

All this Stark County political spying stuff is simply rediculous.

Although she looks good now compared to the disaster that William J. Healy has visited on Canton; Creighton was not the solution for the "already under way slide" that Canton was experiencing when she took office.

Creighton is personable and a good "rah, rah" type.  But she does not possess leadership qualities that are catalytic. 

Stark Republicans need to bring someone forward to run for commissioner who has a dynamism about him/her and has a track record of being imaginative, innovative and be willing to fight for what is good - long term - for the Stark County public.

Janet Creighton is yesterday's political bread.

FORMER CANTON MAYOR JANET CREIGHTON TURNS HER ATTENTION TO STARK COUNTY COMMISSIONER TODD BOSLEY?

 

One would think that for Canton mayor Janet Creighton would want to come to the rescue of the Hall of Fame city come 2011.  Of course, the way Mayor William J. Healy, II there may be no city left.  Canton could be a ghost town.  What would be left for her to govern?

The SCPR has learned that Janet Creighton is thinking about running for Stark County commissioner.  

The note in the graphic above makes it clear that such is not merely Bosley's imagination.  At one time or another Bosley seemingly has every live Stark County Republican politician who looks askance at him gearing up to run against him.

Yours truly is not saying that Creighton will run.  But the note is what people who run for political office term "political research."  Obviously, Creighton is digging to see if she can find skeletons in the Bosley closet.

What is not known is other digging Creighton is doing on Bosley to unearth nasties to turn on him in the general election slated for November, 2010.  Moreover, how much money can she raise?

If Creighton decides to run against Bosley, she will think the 2007 mayor's race was a "walk in the park."  William J. Healy, II is slick; Todd Bosley is "in your face."

The SCPR has said it many times in this blog:  Todd Bosley does not play nice.  The Stark Citizens for the Right to Vote Committee will find this out on the sales/use tax repeal effort as will Canton's former mayor, if she decides to run.

Creighton should sit and talk with Richard Regula by the hour, if she hasn't done so already.  Richard probably still doesn't know completely what hit him in the 2006 election when Bosley came out of nowhere to defeat him.  But he can piece the small parts of the political wreckage together to give Creighton a clue.

Bosley tells the SCPR that he is out campaigning already and that he handed out 10,000 notebooks at the Stark County Fair.  So while Bosley is out campaigning (appearing at high school football games and the like) Creigton is making public records requests?

Stark Republicans are smarting.  They are desperate to find someone who can win a countywide office.  Currently, they hold none except for several judgeships.

Other than get herself ready (research, raising money and out campaigning door-to-door/football game-to-football game now), Creighton will have to do one more thing if she is to have any chance at all against Bosley.  She will have to get Jeff Matthews (Stark GOP chairman) and Jason Wise (the Stark GOP's chief political operative) off their zany fascination with political tea-bagging.  

If Matthews and Wise are tea-bagging and campaigning for Creighton, the tea-bagging will be a distraction at best, perhaps even drag on a Creighton campaign.

The SCPR is wishing for a Bosley/Creighton campaign.  It promises to fill many, many blogs.  

Run, Janet, run!

AND HIS STRONG SUIT IS BUSINESS ACUMEN?

When Governor Ted Strickland came to Stark County to tour the Brewster Cheese Factory in early 2008 just after William J. Healy, II had taken office, yours truly spoke with Healy about the condition he found City Hall in on taking office.

Healy said, "Martin, you wouldn't believe it. Janet left things in an absolute mess."

Really?

With all the discussion that is going on these days to get Canton solvent again (a meeting Tuesday at the Civic Center on city finances and Allen Schulman - Council president - floating a "trial balloon" on a "temporary" income tax increase), yours truly decided to do a little fact checking.

So, the SCPR placed a telephone call to Auditor Richard A. Mallonn.

SCPR: "Richard, I have been hearing from readers of the SCPR that Janet Creighton left Mayor Healy with s carryover surplus, is this so?"

MALLONN: "Here is the number Martin: on January 01, 2008 the Healy administration had a cash carryover from the Creighton administration of $3,549.333.00.

The SCPR never has been a fan of Janet Creighton, but you got to hand it to her. She did a heck of a lot better job handling Canton finances than our NYU Stern School of Business graduate who is running things now.

So who created the mess?

Of course, the political cover for Healy is that the national, state and local economies have tanked.

And that is so.

But does that explain going from a $3.5 million surplus to a $3.0 million deficit?

Not to the SCPR. does it.

Could it be that Creighton (with no business degree) was better with finances that our MBA mayor?