DISCUSSION: IS IT TIME FOR A CHANGE AT THE HEAD OF MRDD?

On January 17th, the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) took its camera to the MRDD (Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities) facility at Whipple-Dale to hear CEO/Supertendent Michael Miller's pitch for the upcoming (May 5) 1.4 mill operating levy.

First, The Report makes the point that we were not favorably disposed to MRDD because of negative experiences with MRDD's administration prior to attending the January 17th public meeting.

Why?

Because The Report made a request through its public relations arm for an interview with CEO/Supintendent Michael Miller and he totally blew yours truly off.

A public official is not entitled do what Miller did.

But The Report was undeterred by Miller's snub and went to the January 17th meeting and buttonholed the superintendent after the meeting.

The Report's impression of Miller did not improve with the "up close and personal" encounter him at Whipple-Dale Center.

As you can see from the chart in the graphic that accompanies this post, Miller and MRDD's board only got religion on the need to make cuts after MRDD's financial crisis was in full bloom.

When asked about MRDD's failure to see financial problems coming, he simply hem-hawed around the question.

Another issue that Miller has unsatisfactory answer for is the fate of its Eastgate and Southgate schools. The missions of these two schools are described this way on MRDD's website (www.yesstarkmrdd.com):

Eastgate Early Childhood and Family Center provides education from birth through age five and Rebecca Stallman Southgate School educates students up to the age of 22.

The Stark County commissioners, in particular Commissioner Todd Bosley, are concerned that one or both of these schools will be closed.

When asked, Miller simply says there will be changes.

What changes?

Miller refuses to get specific.

According to The Repository, he did say at last night board meeting that "another 190 employees at the Rebecca Stallman Southgate School and Eastgate School also could be laid off."

The Report has been hearing rumblings of great dissatisfaction with Miller from within MRDD operations and is in the process of tracking down the specifics.

The Report is inclined to support the levy, but is still mulling it over. Miller is a super negative. Everything else about MRDD is a positive.

Eastgate and Southgate are of critical importance to Stark County's 17 public school districts.

Witness this exchange between Miller and a citizen asking a key question. Why can't Miller take a 20% cut? Everybody else in Stark County seems to be taking cuts or losing the jobs altogether.

Here is the video of Miller and the citizen.

DISCUSSION: BOSLEY TO KEEP UP FIGHT AGAINST AEP 24% RATE INCREASE?

CORRECTED

Stark County Commissioner Todd Bosley is THE public official who started the Stark County fight against a rate increase filed by American Electric Power (AEP/Ohio Power [locally]).

The initial AEP request was for 52% over three (3) years. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) split the difference with AEP settling on 24% increase over three years.

Listen to Commissioner Bosley being interviewed by WKSU's Karen Schaefer below:

DISCUSSION: CAN "THE REP" REPORT ON ANY STARK COUNTY GOV'T ENTITY WITHOUT HAVING A CONFLICT-IN-INTEREST? ANOTHER DICY RELATIONSHIP SURFACES

Recently, the Jackson Local School District (JSD) passed a levy. Being the pro-education person yours truly is, the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) was glad to see it pass.

But there is a disturbing question concerning how JSD got there.

For those in Jackson who opposed the levy, they undoubtedly would like to have known that there is a financial relationship between The Canton Repository and Jackson schools.

What is the relationship?

The Repository publishes the school quarterly named the Polar Bear Pride (Pride).

A local communications and publishing company had been publishing the Pride, but was losing money. That company wanted to raise rates to advertisers, but Jackson school officials wouldn't allow it and continue to use the local company as its publisher.

What difference does it make to the JSD if its publisher makes the publication free to the school district but needs to raise advertising rates to make the enterprise a profitable one for the company?

The Report believes the answer is who was lurking in the background to take over the publishing of the Pride when the original relationship gets terminated.

Who might the lurking company be?

Yes, indeed. One of Stark County largest publishers: The Canton Repository.

The Report has learned that The Rep has cut a deal with the Jackson schools to publish the Pride "free" and pay money to the schools, to boot.

How much money? That The Report does not know. But any money is significant. What this means is that The Repository is making money on the advertiser money WHICH IS HIGH ENOUGH (remember JSD officials would not let the original company raise advertiser rates so it could make money) that The Rep could make money and pay a percentage of its profits to the Jackson Schools.

Did the Jackson Local School District have other motives for establishing a financial relationship with The Repository?

Back to the recent effort to pass the Jackson levy.

Exactly how much "ink" (free publicity) did The Rep give the JSD on the levy effort. What degree of scrutiny did the editors and reporters give Jackson school finances as a base of information for Jackson voters to make a decision in the voters booth?

Did Jackson schools set up the original company to fail, so that it could enter into a co-opting relationship with The Repository.

The Report thinks both The Repository and the Jackson Local School District have damaged their credibility in the public eye because of this "secret" relationship?

Secret?

Probably not from the JSD perspective. The Report believes that somewhere buried in minutes of the proceeds of the Jackson Board of Education is a board approval of the contract with The Rep.

Probably from The Rep's standpoint. Is there a press release somewhere within the bowels of The Rep's archives where The Rep's operations guy, Chris White, details the existence and details of the Jackson/Rep relationship.

How many such other relationships does The Rep have with government units it reports on and which the reading public has no idea exists.

Why doesn't Executive Editor Jeff Gauger get on his soapbox pontificate on these "ethically challenged" relationships.

Why isn't The Rep inserting disclaimers in the pieces they publish when the subject matter is an entity with whom The Rep is financially involved?

Whenever The Rep publishes a "letter to the editor" by a candidate for public office, Editorial page editor Gayle Beck always has inserted for example: "Joe Doe is a candidate for Stark County commissioner."

So we know The Repository folks know how to write disclaimers.

How is it they fall silent when The Rep has a financial state in the entity being reported on?

DISCUSSION: ITS ABOUT TIME FOR HARTVILLE MAYOR ED TUCKER TO HAVE A HEART-TO-HEART WITH POLICE CHIEF GEORGE DRAGOVICH, JR. ABOUT MOVING ON?

Hartville Police Chief George Dragovich, Jr. is in another controversy?

According to Edd Pritchard's report in The Repository yesterday, the chief has a disgruntled officer (Officer Bardwell) on the Hartville police force because the officer does not believe his on-the-job complaints are being heard.

A key matter that The Rep writer failed to inform Rep readers of is this. Chief Dragovich, according to a source of the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report), works from his home.

Isn't this splendid?

This "little morsel" of missing information from both The Repository's report and a report by the Akron Beacon Journal (see link below) may actually be a key reason why the officer took the chief's mailbox and his complaint and put it on Mayor Tucker's door. The Report's source says that Dragovich does not regularly and consistently check his mail (perhaps as little as two times a year?). And consequently a number of important matters are not dealt with in a timely fashion which proves frustrating to folks like Bardwell.

To be nice, The Rep's article was incomplete to say the least. For a more complete account go to the Akron Beacon Journal's version, CLICK HERE.

Citizens of Hartville should be peppering Mayor Ed Tucker and Village Council with a volume of questions about what is going on here and demand swift and immediate corrective action.

The Report thinks Tucker et al have an awful lot of explaining to do. Apparently, they do not believe that The Repository and the Beacon Journal are going to consistently and abidingly press them on this bizarre way of running police administration within the Village.

Reading between the lines of the Beacon Journal's story, The Report gets the impression that council members and Tucker are appropriately indignant for media purposes, but once the press goes away very little or anything will be done by these elected officials to get the chief in line with doing prompt, efficient and effective police leadership.

The Report's take on the Mayor Tucker, Bohaychyk, Currie, Beltz, and Sullivan reaction and action is "to blame the victim."

The Report has begun its scrutiny of Hartville government and the days of getting "softball" coverage are over.

Chief Dragovich has a storied history of late involving his conduct as the man in charge of Hartville's law enforcement.

It was only on January, 2008 (with the assumption of office of Mayor Ed Tucker) that Dragovich came of paid administrative leave imposed by former Mayor Bev Green in September, 2007 as an outgrowth of a complaint received against Dragovich. The Rep's Edd Pritchard reported Green's action this way:

Green placed Dragovich on leave after hearing a complaint that he had accosted a customer at a local convenience store. She then turned the complaint over to the Stark County Sheriff's Department for an investigation.

In November 2006, Dragovich filed a lawsuit against Mayor Green in her capacity as mayor for "usurping his authority" as chief.

To just to get "a little bit sarcastic" with the chief: "Gee chief, your right. You run such a tight policing ship in Hartville that one wouldn't want anyone else to get in the way."

In October 2006, Dragovich rescinded previously announced plan to retire by retracting same during a Village Council meeting.

In December 2003, Dragovich was involved in an incident at Hartville's Giant Eagle, to wit: (as reported by The Rep's Kelli Young)

Mayor Owen Stoll gave Police Chief George Dragovich Jr. a verbal reprimand Tuesday for acting inappropriately after a Giant Eagle security officer stopped the chief outside the W. Maple Street grocery store for leaving with two votive candles without paying for them.

Back to the premises of this blog.

George Dragovich, Jr. should seriously consider, in the opinion of The Report, returning to Plan B.

What is Plan B?

Retirement, that's what.

Dragovich was scheduled to retire in June, 2006.

It was a good idea in 2006. It's an even better idea in 2009!

DISCUSSION: HEALY FAILS AGAIN WITH CANTON CITY COUNCIL - COUNCIL POISED TO REJECT "REWORKED" CONTRACT PROPOSAL

UPDATE: MARCH 19, 2009, 5:00 A.M.

Mayor Healy must read the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT and saw the numbers posted above.

- FROM THE REP 3/18/2009 (LATE EVENING POST) “It appears to me the (City Council) votes are not there to get it through council at this point in time,” said Mayor William J. Healy II, following a Finance Committee meeting earlier tonight.

It appears that only the sure "pro-Healy" votes were informed personally by the mayor what the changes he negotiated with Redflex Traffic Systems as a proposed contract to install traffic law enforcing cameras in downtown Canton.

As the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) has been saying all along, Mayor Healy is a "my way or the highway" type of guy who is considerate, nice and informative to those he thinks are his "yes" men and women.

The Report's source related how the Canton City County chair of the Public Safety & Thoroughfares Committee (Karl "Butch" Kraus) was snubbed by Healy and that Councilman Kraus learned of the proposed changes by reading the Canton Repository's account that the Healy administration had already shared with Councilpersons Casar, Smith and West, and, of course, The Rep.

The Report also learned that Councilman Griffin's meeting with the public last evening did not go well for the Mayor Healy and his staunch allies on Council (Casar, Smith and West),

Forty or so citizens show up at Griffin's meeting with only a couple or so supporting. One of the supporters is Cynthia Vignos who his running for council-at-large against the anti-Healy leading incumbent-candidates Mary Cirelli and Bill Smuckler.

The amazing thing about Healy is how he fails to learn from his experiences. He has had difficult relationships with Council from is taking office in January, 2008 through the present. The only way he was able to work with Council was via the facilitation provided by his fired safety director and chief of staff Tom Bernabei.

Unless Healy can twist some councilperson arms, he will suffer a humiliating defeat on this coming Monday, the 23rd.

The Report has learned that Council President Allen Schulman will be out of town on Monday which explains why he lambasted Healy on the "bad appearances" that accepting campaign contributions from folks who have an interest in obtaining city contracts this past Monday.

As Mayor Healy stumble bumbles his way around City Hall, Canton languishes and suffers.

The Report's condolences to the good folks of Canton.

STARK COUNTIAN - VINCENT DORSEY - HIGHLIGHTED IN AKRON PRESS; WHERE'S THE REP?

It would been equally if not more apropos for an inspiring story about a Stark Countian to appear in The Canton Repository as compared to Akron media.

Yours truly is a graduate of The University of Akron both undergraduate and law school. We alumni are proud of our Zips as is Jackson Township's Vincent Dorsey. CLICK HERE to read the inspiring story of this aspiring journalist.

DISCUSSION: THE SCPR FORCES THE REP'S HAND?

The Canton Repository is now legendary in its "sitting on its hands" while event after event unfolds from within the Healy administration. As a guardian of the public interest, The Rep has a miserable record. With its editorial yesterday, it again is "a dollar short and a day late."

While the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) can readily agree with the Editorial Board's suggestion heralded in today's graphic, it will take a lot more scrutiny and publicizing of suspected quid pro quos for the likes of Mayor Healy to get the message and adopt The Rep's proposal.

The Report predicts that The Rep will not follow through on its recommendation and will let its proposal die a quiet death.

Moreover, anything The Repository editorializes on/reports on with respect to Healy and his administration is diluted in value because of The Rep's (through Ohio Gate House Media, Inc - its parent) contractual relationship (up to $20,000 per year) with the Healy administration to print a glossy quarterly; the Canton Connection.

Readers of The Report know full well that the main reason The Repository is responding at all to the shenanigans from within City Hall, is the work of The Report.