A SCPR VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: CANTON MAYOR-ELECT THOMAS M. BERANBEI

VIDEO

CANTON MAYOR—ELECT

THOMAS M. BERNABEI

Earlier this year, The Stark County Political Report initiated a series on a Stark County Top 10 List of Stark County Political Subdivision Elected Leaders (List).

At the top of the List on its first rendition and on the first quaterly update was Stark County Commissioner Thomas M. Bernabei.

So as far as the SCPR is concerned,  there is no better qualified and equipped leader in all of Stark County elected officialdom than Bernabei to pull Stark County's county seat of government—Canton—out of its current malaise, maybe even continuing to decline, than Canton's former long time law director, councilman, chief of staff, services director and current Stark County commissioner.

As a Stark County commissioner, elected in 2010, in a de facto role as being "the first among equals," he teamed up with:

• Janet Weir Creighton (2010), 
• Pete Ferguson (did not seek re-election in 2012), and Richard Regula (elected in 2012)

to pull Stark County out of the financial and lack of trust crises precipitated by the Stark County treasury loss of nearly $3 MM, the county victimized by the Deputy Treasury Vince Frustaci theft in office.

On November 10th, Stark County auditor Alan Harold and Stark County treasuer Alex Zumbar reported to commissioners at their regular weekly meeting that Stark County, since the dark days of the 2009—2011 county fiscal crisis, have been in such solid fiscal condition as it is now (SCPR's intrepretation of Harold's report).



Bernabei's leadership skills are such that he was even able to step in at the Stark Area Regional Transportation Authority (SARTA, LINK to SCPR blog) as interim executive director (March, 2009—October, 2009)  and provide adept and forward looking direction for this most difficult of government agencies to effectively manage.

Bernabei is a task master of a boss.  Those who are just marking time in government loathe working for Bernabei.  Most Stark County Political Subdivision employees want to excel on the job but lack leadership which inspires them "to be all that they can be."

Thomas M. Bernabei is such a leader and is likely to make a huge difference in the quality of life for Cantonians by the end of his first term.

But he is going need help.  The SCPR thinks that there are two key persons on Canton City Council who have the ability in terms of their own leadership skills to team up (in the context of having a critiquing mind frame) with Bernabei to show what authentic leadership compared to current Mayor Healy's braggadocio (but without much "real" substance) style.

The two?

Councilman at Large Bill Smuckler and Ward 8 Councilman Edmond Mack!

Smuckler, of course, will have no trouble at all taking on a critiquing-esque sounding board but collaborative role on Bernabei initiatives from his council perch.

Councilman Mack may prefer to don a "loyal opposition-esque" relationship with the new mayor.

• SCPR Note:  Anybody who knows Tom Bernabei knows full well that he is a self-assured, strong minded leader who does not abide fools easily.  However, he is not God Almighty and needs to surround himself with cabinet advisers and sub level administrators who will fully vet his programs, policies and administration practices much as he did as one of Healy's top officials which, of course, got him fired

Mack was, it seems to the SCPR, "all out" for Healy and may still be smarting from the Healy loss on November 3rd.

He served as legal counsel along with his boss Lee Plakas in the to-benefit-Healy protest with the Stark County Board of Elections on Bernabei qualifying as an "independent" candidate for mayor.

Mack (2015), Plakas (2014) contributed to the Healy campaign and Mack canvased Ward 8 for Healy.  And Healy made campaign finance contributions to Mack (2015).

From Bernabei's standpoint, Mack's allegiance to Healy will be no problem going forward.

Mack, also a high ranking member of the SCPR Top 10 List, has demonstrated first-rate leadership on council as exemplified on a Canton Parks issue in his ward and on the recently defeated Charter government issue.

Yours truly has such a high regard for Mack's intellect, sensitivity to constituent input and determination to the task at hand that it was disconcerting to seem him supporting Healy.  As The Report sees Mack, Healy and Bernabei, Mack has much more in common with Bernabei in style, leadership intensity and community purposefulness than Healy has and is ever likely to demonstrate.

His reason for sticking with Healy, as the SCPR understands it, was primarily based on his loyalty to the Democratic Party nominated candidate.

From the SCPR's latest blog on Healy (LINK), Mack should now realize that Healy was undeserving of rank and file Democratic Party support, if party loyalty is the primary basis of his supporting Healy.

For Healy himself has demonstrated a number of times during his political career in Canton that he will jettison party loyalty for his political self interest at the drop of a hat.

The Report thinks that Mack is his generation's foremost up and coming political leader for Canton, Stark County and, perhaps beyond.

If he will, Mack can learn from the mayor-elect and Smuckler in how to grow in stature as a mature, seasoned and effective leader.

The Report thinks that four years hence Cantonians will be talking about how Mack seized the day with Bernabei's accession to the mayor's office and thoughtfully, analytically but collaboratively worked with this new mayor to get Canton genuinely on the right track to potentially recapture some semblance of her former glory.

On Tuesday last, the SCPR sat down with Mayor-elect Thomas M. Bernabei and asked him bevy of questions, including:

• What has it been like for him as mayor-elect over the past week,
• When he will be stepping down as Stark County commissioner,
• What he is doing in terms of transition from the current administration to his own,
• How he is likely to relate as mayor to various Canton City Council members who have voiced reservations about work with Mayor Thomas M. Bernabei,
• Soliciting a list of his top priorities on taking office,
• Whether or not he still expects as he said in the campaign to be facing a $3 million dollar Canton budget deficit as mayor,
• What steps he will take to balance Canton's 2016 Fiscal Year budget,
• His take on the Parks levy being defeated,
• Bernabei's view on the future prospects of a renewed effort to make Canton a charter city,
• Note:  Bernabei reflects on the list of Charter Commission candidates as a resource for his administration in connecting with Canton's citizenry, and
• The Bernabei leadership style,
• Note:  Bernabei addresses the status of Healy administration officials in terms of their potential to carry over to his administration

Here is the video and Mayor-elect Thomas M. Bernabei's answers.

LINK

THE "REAL" REASON WHY HEALY LOST!

HOW ABOUT "HEALY" HIMSELF?

UPDATED AT 9:05 AM

The Stark County Political Report was rolling in the aisle in a paraxysom of amusement on reading the analysis? under the guise of it being a reporting piece in an area newspaper (no names please) of why Democrat William J. Healy, II lost his bid for a third term as mayor of Canton.

Mind you, all those political science professors in the attempted political analysis including no less an authority than Doctor Jack DeSario (University of Mount Union), Healy's well-paid campaign consultant going back to the 2007 campaign in which Healy defeated Republican incumbent Janet Weir Creighton in her bid for a second term.

And Stark Countians pay money for this stuff?

Actually the "real" reason Healy lost November 3rd has everything to do with this Cat (Healy) having run out of the proverbial 9 lives that some cats have seem to have in surviving one potential catastrophic happening after another after another.

Such is how the SCPR has read Healy's political history going back to the beginning days of his being Canton's mayor.

The Report received this e-mail from a reader on November 8th:

The Repository's article of why Healy lost the election disregarded the primary reason he lost, i.e. himself.   

As you have mentioned many times  in your blog, Healy has lived his proverbial nine lives. 

After each incident, he generated bad will and enemies, all of which eventually over the years all caught up to him.  

For example, many should recall that after he lost the primary race against Bill Smuckler, Healy sold polls to city ward candidates regardless of party affiliation.  He did a robo call for Bill Smuckler's opponent.  Thus, there was no love lost between Bill Smuckler and Healy.  

Some may even recall that Healy made certain [thought by some to be] defamatory assertions about Councilman Hawks' daughter, so it was a foregone conclusion that Hawk would not support him. 

Then there was Janet Creighton.  Healy supported her in her race against Bill Smuckler and told her he was not going to run against her and then turned around and ran against her. 

Healy's relationship with Kim Perez fell apart because he broke certain commitments to him and to his brother (who is apolitical).   

Healy also ran an opponent [Kelley Zachary] against Kim Perez when Kim Perez ran for City Treasurer. So, it should have seemed obvious to Healy that Perez would run against him an almost win. 

As to the business community, Healy is rumored to have caused the Timken Company to move its headquarters to Jackson Township and has lost other jobs in the city, while claiming that he created near minimum wage replacement jobs at the call center. 

His campaign strategy seemed to be to try to keep Tom Bernabei's numbers down in the northern wards, and then dominate in the remaining wards.   

But his strategy failed to bring out the vote in the other wards despite his constant barrage of attack ads.  

In looking for answers, perhaps Healy should look no farther than himself, because it takes a lot for a two term mayor to lose, and the only explanation can me that he has himself to blame.

With what The Report thinks of his history having caught up with him, what is next in Stark County for now lame duck mayor William J. Healy, II.

One close to Healy says that his wife advocating move out-of-town.

Wouldn't that be an interesting turn of events, if accurate?

The Report which began on March 12, 2008, just 2-1/2 months after Healy took office, has had an "up close and personal view" of the New York University's prestigious Stern School of Business graduate who had the magnanimity to return to Canton from The Big Apple in a quest to rescue Canton from mostly (except for Purses) from decades of what Healy now portrays as Republican misrule.

Actually, yours truly goes back to about 2002 knowing Healy.

Some time in 2004, yours truly and Healy actually had a joint fundraiser at what was then (no longer in business) R.A. Malloon's Bar & Grill which was "a watering hole" for many Stark County Democratic partisans and officials included elected officials.

Healy was running for state representative in a district that pretty much mirrored the city of Canton and Canton Township.  Yours truly was running in the 50th District which was looked like a horseshoe within the boundaries of Stark County.

As far as yours truly is concerned, there has never been a personal problem between the two us.

He has gotten very upset with some SCPR blogs over the years.

Though most of The Report's blogs have been of a critical nature as is the case with in this Blog's coverage on all of Stark County's public figures and public officials; yours truly has complimented him from time to time, especially for his political skillfulness.  He is - clearly - to the SCPR,  Stark County's most skilled politico.

By comparision, he makes the likes of Randy Gonzalez, Johnnie A. Maier, Jr and Jeff Matthews look like political pikers.

Consequently, he has volleyballed The Report around vacillating from:

• being accessible for 
• blog interviews on one hand:
• his triumphal-esque 2015 State of City Address at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and most of the period prior thereto,
• to being inaccessible on the other:
• on May 11, 2015 (not happy about Bernabei independent candidacy questions) to the point of demanding that the SCPR camera beturned off (which, of course, did not happen),  and,
• as late as Sunday,  October 29th, two days before this November 3rd election in denying The Report access to the Stark Dems' headquarters in Oakwood Square where yours truly planned to ask him point blank questions designed to have him answer specifically a number of allegations made in a mailer (LINK) that some 4,500 Cantonian voter households began receiving on Thursday, October 26th which, of course, was just days before election day.
• Note:  Healy flat out denied the allegations in the mailer when media report surfaced.  So wouldn't one think he would welcome the opportunity to use access to the SCPR and other Stark County media to convince Canton voters that the allegation are not credible?
• Note:  The Repository was at the Sunday meeting but insofar as yours truly can tell Healy did not seize the opportunity to use Stark County's only countywide newspaper as a tool to get his case of denial out before Canton voters.  Apparently, unbelievably to the SCPR, The Rep's reporter did not seize the initiative to ask some semblance of what yours truly would have asked if allowed in. 

A theme in The Rep's Sunday analysis is that some of the political experts consulted think the mailer was a critical factor in Healy's failure to be re-elected to a third term on November 3rd.

The SCPR does not think it was a significant factor at all.

For most voters, it was probably seen as just one more of a parade of various and sundry allegations that have plagued him going back through his two terms as mayor.

After a while, one gets more than just a little jaded about such, no?

"Politics as usual," they muse to themselves.

Accordingly, politicos always have a shelter and haven of a public perception that politics in general are seedy and by and large to be ignored.

The accused skillfully plant themselves squarely within that perception without answering to specific allegations.

To The Report, the mailer was just the final chapter in a Healy political history going back to 2003 or so of political and personal dodgeball in which he avoided being hit by the ball and that "a cumulative dodgeball" hit him on November 3, 2015 which resulted in his defeat.

As readers of the SCPR is that dodgeball is a new metaphor in this blog.

The predominant metaphor over recent years of the SCPR has been Healy being the envy of the proverbial cat of 9 lives in his seeming uncanny ability to land on his feet after one political, administrative and executive tumble after another after another and after another over his years in Canton/Stark County public life.

One of Healy's early spent (i.e. one of the proverbial lives) occurred, the SCPR thinks, in January, 2009.  A mere year after Healy took office after defeating Creighton.

Look at this excerpt out of that blog (LINK):

For more background on the 1-888OhioComp matter go to this LINK in the form of a Cleveland Plain Dealer report on questions at the time being asked by the FBI of various Canton and Stark County officials.

And this except from the Plain Dealer article:

Four people tied to 1-888-Ohio Comp -- including Jason Lucarelli and Vince Russo -- contributed $4,600 to Healy's 2007 campaign, according to the Canton Repository. And Dimora and Frank Russo each kicked in another $500, the paper reported. 

Healy's 2007 campaign manager, Jack Desario, is also plugged into Cuyahoga County's Democratic machine. He lives in Stark County now but ran two of Dimora's campaigns for commissioner

Nothing ever came of the FBI questioning in terms of legal difficulties for Healy or any other of the Stark County public figures mentioned in the Plain Dealer report as far as the SCPR knows.

But it certainly was not an auspicious beginning for Canton's new mayor to have even at that time have the names of Dimora and Russo appear on his campaign finance report.

Readers should find it interesting indeed that things have come full circle in terms of the relationship between Thomas M. Bernabei as Healy's first chief of staff and service director to his becoming Mayor-Elect Thomas M. Bernabei on November 3, 2015.

Healy's best chance to escape the need to be the envy of the proverbial cat of 9 lives was to have kept Bernabei (and Safety Director Thomas Nesbitt) on for as long as they were willing to stay for they would have kept in on the straight and narrow in terms of running an administration beyond reproach.

Apparently, the Bernabei/Nesbitt standard of conducting the public's business was way too confining for the whiz kid educated at the Stern School of Business.

And, as the SCPR sees it, Healy's slide has been inexorably downward ever since.

The Report does marvel at how long Healy has been able to stay politically afloat.

No doubt about it, William J. Healy, II is a highly skilled political operative who is almost impossible to get a hand on in terms of the "gotcha" political factor.

Healy's political skill level is more indicative of national political figures than that of being mayor of a relatively small urban community.

To repeat the point made earlier in this blog that he only lost by 323 votes (unofficial count) is astounding in that it is nearly at the level of having once again landing on his feet again as an accomplished Cat of 9 political lives.

Just think about it.

After his famous "turn the camera off, Martin" incident of May 11th, he cobbled together a coalition of seven Canton City Council members, the official Stark County Democratic Party legal entity and the corporate Ohio Democratic Party as the window dressing for what was in a de facto sense his lawsuit to keep Tom Bernabei from running as an independent candidate against him.

Whether you like this guy or not, you have to stand back in amazement of what he did in putting that effort together.

Yes it failed and Healy should have known going back to January 9, 2009 that he had met more than his match in one Thomas M. Bernabei and that eventually his propensity to "pull a rabbit out of the hat" would fail and that his quest for yet another political life would come up short.

Were Healy not so utterly skilled as a politician, he would have lost by far more than 323 votes a week ago.

If one combs through the nearly 3,000 blogs of the SCPR, there are a treasure trove of them on the political slipperiness of Mayor William J. Healy.

A blog which particularly focuses on Healy's political agility is one done on July 13, 2013 (LINK).  Readers of this blog should pause a moment and go back and digest that one.

The Report for most of today's blog has only gone back to January, 2009.

But there is more.

There is one more political nemesis that Healy has not in the final analysis been able to best.

Really?

Indeed!

Step forward Bill Smuckler who has been part of Canton City Council in one capacity or another for the most of 26 years.

One of the political indignities that Smuckler has had to suffer was losing to Republican Janet Creighton in the 2003 Canton mayoralty election.

Indignity?

Indeed!

Nothing against Janet, she was a first rate opponent but she should never have been able to defeat the Bill Smuckler in 2003 in a heavily, heavily Democratic city against a candidate who was close to if not qualified to be tabbed as Mister Democrat of Stark County elective politics.

Smuckler, if he had been elected mayor in 2003, likely would have gone on to rival Republican Stanley Cmich in longevity as mayor of Canton.  And William J. Healy, II would have been heard of no more in the city he came back to in order to rescue.

As to be seen in the graphic above, Smuckler had disposed of Healy (among others)  in the 2003 Democratic primary.

Who really thinks Healy could have won a re-match with an incumbent Democratic mayor in 2007?

Apparently, Healy himself did not.

For guess who Bill Smuckler says worked with the  "Republican" Creighton campaign (remember Healy ran as a Democrat in the primary) to clear the path for he himself to run against Creighton in 2007 with this result:

Here is a pdf file that Smucker provided to the SCPR as his substantiation of his claim that Healy undermined his Democratic candidacy for mayor in 2003.

Examine the documents for yourself.



The SCPR has to believe that the likes of Frank Morris, III (Ward 9 Democratic councilman), Edmond Mack (Ward 8 Democratic councilman), John Mariol (Ward 7 Democratic councilman), Kevin Fisher (Ward 5 Democratic councilman) for sure and perhaps even "died in the wool supporters" Thomas West (Ward 2 councilman) and Chris Smith (Ward 4 councilwoman) must not have known about the 2003 Healy political duplicity.

For if they had, how could they possibly but into the notion that William J. Healy is a political SOB but he's "our" Democratic?

The Report has an especially high regard for the intellectual prowess of Mack and believes he has the mental power to penetrate Healy's political hornswoggle  (LINK).

After all, the SCPR believes, that Healy in reality - not buying his waffling - was part and parcel of a gaggle of Canton City elected officials (chiefly Treasurer Perez and Auditor Mallonn joined at the hip with Trades Union official David Kirven) looking out for the self-interest and therefore out to defeat Mack's hallowed, hard worked and full of promise Canton Charter Government effort.

And if not successful in defeating it (which they were), to, as members of the Charter Commission,  plant poison pill controversial provisions within the Commission's work to be voted upon one year down the road designed to cause voters to reject it.

The SCPR has long contended that William J. Healy, II is loyal to nobody but himself and nearly every if not every decision he makes has a personal political calculus to it.

He had no problem in 2007 making Janet Creighton political evil incarnate.

All of which brings this blog to a conclusion in sharing this event:

• Early in 2008 Governor Strickland using his status as governor to enhance his political standing in Stark County set up a visit to the Brewster Cheese Factor,
• The SCPR was just starting up,
• Yours truly appeared at the Brewster Cheese Factory event only to be met with initial entry refusal by Strickland former Jackson Township trustee Steve, a Strickland appointee as an Akron-based regional economic development representative,
• Note:  Meeks ultimately became the Stark Dems' apppointee to succeed Gayle Jackson as a Stark County trustee but was denied election to the post by Janet Creighton in the 2012 elections,
• Because yours was accompanied by an elected Stark County official, The Report gained admittance

The point of the foregoing is that William J. Healy, II was also present at the event.

And what did he do in nearly all the time of conversation between him and The Report?

Bash Janet Creighton and the terrible financial mess she had left Canton government in, but, of course, not breathing a word to yours truly how he had helped Republican Creighton become mayor in the first place over fellow Canton Democrat Bill Smuckler.

So for Healy to ask Democratic officialdom to support him over the newly independent Tom Bernabei (a much more credentialed former Canton Democrat than himself) merely because he Healy bore the label of Democrat just shows how much gall and b*lls this guy has.

Nobody perfects political hypocrisy to the level that William J. Healy, II does.

He is such a master at it that it appears that the sucked in the most of the elected officialdom of the Stark County Democratic Party officialdom.

But not Bill Smuckler, not Greg Hawks (Ward 1 councilman) and in a more quiet way some other key Stark County Democrats who see Healy for what he is.

What is he?

First and foremost for himself and the SCPR thinks that he will do whatever it takes to take care of himself politically.

No doubt he has achieved some productive and effective things for Canton, Ohio in his nearly eight years as mayor of Canton.

But only as being co-incident with advancing his personal political agenda.

His loss on November 3rd was not a consequence of failing to get out out his voters as the local media suggests.

The Report thinks he wringed every ounce of support out of disposed to vote Cantonian voters in this election and thereby nearly continued his being the envy of the proverbial cat of 9 lives.

In the end, it is William J. Healy, II and his being consumed with himself that proved to be his political undoing!

It took a person of the impeccable character quality of Thomas M. Bernabei with his vast political experience to bring Healy to his political Waterloo.

What horrible personal political decision Healy made in January, 2009 in firing Bernabei.

At the end of this election cycle Healy had two mainstays still at his side.  Ohio's last Democratic governor Ted Strickland and political consultant Jack Desario.

But even they could not save him.

Sometimes the politically sly and slick outfox themselves, no?

NORTH CANTON LAW DIRECTOR TIM FOX A "STARK COUNTY" PERSONIFICATION OF OHIO'S CPIC "F" GRADE ON EASE OF GETTING PUBLIC RECORDS!

UPDATE:  5:30 PM

From: Holly Pierpont <holly.pierpont@att.net>
To: tramols@att.net 
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2015 1:11 PM
Subject: Today's blog

You wrote: "North Canton voters must be some of the most disengaged and ignorant of their self-interest in all of Stark County."

Yep.  I have to wonder what percentage of North Cantonians, who voted to end city paid health insurance three years ago, showed up last week and still re-elected those who basically ignored, disrespected and lied to them.  I believe we can expect nothing but more of the same for many years to come...  

-------------------------------------------------------

Jamie McCleaster <rmccleaster@aol.com>  Today at 5:20 PM

To:  Martin Olson

Martin,

Great blog today! I think this is an accurate assessment of what's happening in North Canton. I think a lot of people would agree that changes need to be made, but sometimes those changes come slower than what people want. Thanks for your honest and accurate reporting.


Jamie

(TOP PART OF GRAPHIC EXTRACTED FROM CPIC WEBSITE)
(HIGHLIGHTING & CHECKMARKS ADDED)

North Canton's elections last Tuesday had to be a huge disappointment to those North Cantonians/Stark Countians/Ohioans who think Ohio government and specifically Ohio's local government should be accessible, open and transparent.

While the SCPR piles on Law Director Tim Fox and thinks this autocrat richly deserves being unloaded upon, it is clear to The Report he is doing the will of North Canton councilpersons Foltz, Peters (council president), Werren, Fonte, Cerreta, Griffith and Kiesling.

North Canton City Council (NCC) is an embarrassment to Stark County's citizenry in terms of being hostile to its citizens on basic democratic-republican values of accessibility, openness and transparency.

Ohio is rated by the highly regarded Center For Public Integrity as deserving of grade F because of "the struggle" Ohioans experience in trying to "obtain public records from state officials."

CFPI investigators need to come the North Canton, Ohio.  Undoubtedly, if they came to North Canton, they would be horrified at the pillaging of the open government rights suffered by North Cantonians.

For North Canton City Council working in cahoots with Law Director Fox have made it like "pulling teeth" for a citizen to get North Canton government public records.

And the SCPR includes North Canton mayor David Held (ran unopposed last Tuesday) for not showing more leadership in publicly taking North Canton Council and Fox to task for their obvious hostility to any North Canton citizen who appears to looking into North Canton matters and their look might prove to be embarrassing to elected and/or unelected North Canton government officials.

Held implies in conversations with the SCPR that he disapproves of the anti-citizen attitude demonstrated by Fox in his apparent compliance with the seeming "wish of council mandate" to him, but Held does very little of a concrete nature to give credibility for his finessed rhetoric.

The only thing that Held has done of note in this regard is to force the release in February, 2014 of Tim Fox's legal opinion  (LINK)  to council members that North Canton's 72% voter approved health care ordinance was illegal.

But that was January, 2014.  He sat on his duff from November, 2013 until then and let North Cantonians uninformed as to why council was dragging its feet in complying with the North Canton voting public's desire on the matter of part-time council members not being eligible for taxpayer subsidized family coverage.

North Canton voters must be some of the most disengaged and ignorant of their self-interest in all of Stark County.

All that was needed in last Tuesday's election was for one of the challengers as among Pierpont (Ward 2; Peters), Hoagland or Osborne (Ward 3; Werren), McCleaster (at large; Cerreta, Griffith, Kiesling) and even perhaps Snyder (Ward 4; Fonte) to be elected and Mr. Fox's apparent mandate of foisting barrier after barrier after barrier on requesters of North Canton government records would come to a rapid end.

The SCPR trusts that the 2015 incumbent council member challengers will continue their campaigns unabated through to the general election of 2017.

North Canton voters seem to be some exceptionally ignorant in that they cannot see that the denial of others of core democratic-republican core values will likely one day come back on any of them who want the check up on the inner workings of North Canton government.

Also in for a tongue lashing at the hand of The Stark County Political Report are the core Stark County members of the county's delegation to the Ohio General Assembly.

Oeslager (Republican, Ohio Senate, 29th) in particular should ashamed of Ohio "F" grade on public records.

Seemingly, many, many, many years ago he made a name for himself as someone who fought for open records in Ohio has gotten "fat, dumb, happy and disinterested" on this issue and in representing almost all of Stark County (except extreme eastern Stark County).

A couple of years ago he outright rejected a plea from Canton officials to come to Canton City Council to discuss fiscal problems (he was then chairman of the Senate Finance Committee) saying "he was too busy."

Schuring (Republican, Ohio House, 48th) did heed Canton's plea, but proved ineffective in helping not only Canton but other Stark County political subdivisions.  Moreover, he has shown to inclination whatsoever to push for legislative enhancement of fundamental democratic-republican system values.

Hagan (Republican, Ohio House, 50th) seems totally disinterested in doing anything but pushing the agenda of the far right Republican-religious fringe group.

Slesnick (Democrat, Ohio House, 49th; term-limited out after the current legislative session) has been a total waste in terms of being productive for Cantonians/Stark Countians as a member of the Ohio House.

He does have the excuse of being a member of the House Democratic Caucus which because of their exceedingly low numbers get steam-rollered by the supermajority Republicans.

But the SCPR's take on Slesnick is that were he a member of the Republican supermajority he still would be ineffective because is political competence level is a near zero.

Mark the SCPR's word, Slesnick now that he has been a part of government is looking frantically at a way to stay on the taxpayer role.  He is now "entitled," is he not?

All any of Stark's Ohio General Assembly members have to do is to go to the Center for Public Integrity website and pick those aspects of the F grade which make the F grade an F grade and initiate legislative corrective action, to wit:

The foregoing are the "0" scores in the march to Ohio getting a grade F at the hand of the prestigious Center for Public Integrity.  There are moreover other questions that score 25, 25, 50 and 50 which, of course, are failing grades.

Only one of the questions was graded as passing and that question was only scored at 75 which in most grading circles is a middle level C.

So Oelslager, Schuring, Hagan and Slesnick have plenty to work on - if they care about enhancing the rights of North Cantonians, Stark Countians and Ohioans having a greater degree of open government.

And "if they care" is the appropriate overall question to put to Stark County's legislative delegation.

A F grade coupled with their inaction in remediation of a deficiency that has been of many years duration which, if they are aware legislators, have known about or should have known about indicates to the SCPR that they do not care about making all levels of Ohio government more responsive to Ohioans.

On top of the Ohio General Assembly's disinterest you have a North Canton City Council who through its law director takes full advantage of the legislative low priority for fundamental democratic-republican government accountability values.

Shame on North Canton's city council.

Shame on Mayor David Held.

Shame on legislators Oelslager, Schuring, Hagan and Slesnick.

And shame on North Canton voters for not being aware enough to place at least one caring citizen on the North Canton City Council to begin the process of reining-in the rest of council and their beholden law director Tim Fox!

HAS STEVE OKEY DESTROYED THE ALLIANCE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?

UPDATED & REPUBLISHED MONDAY

ALSO

Angela Alexander
Coming Home to Stark County
as a Legal Professional

(LINK 1)
(LINK 2)
to
Guardado/Alexander Match Up
&
Stark Dems Leadership
Political Intrigue

OKEY/RYAN

It should be dawning on the leadership of the "organized" Stark County Democratic Party that they (the leaders themselves) need to look at themselves and at their close-in friends (e.g. for purposes of this blog, one, Steve Okey) to find out why the party is in a downward spiral that could one day soon make the party's candidates largely persona non-grata for a majority of Stark County voters.

The Steve Okey versus Sue Ryan Alliance City Council presidency appointment process by the Stark Dems' Alliance branch Central Committee is an indicative context of why things are likely to go South for Stark Dems more or less across Stark County unless a Stark Dems' leadership turnabout takes place in relative quick order.

Throughout the Alliance council presidency campaign itself (Okey v. Republican Arthur Garnes kickoff - the Alliance Martin Luther King annual parade [June, 2015, LINK] through November 3, 2015), The Report had been getting a steady flow of reports from the field that the man (Okey), who fought so hard with the likes of then Stark Dems' chairman Randy Gonzalez to undermine the popular choice among Alliance Democrats (Sue Ryan) in her first announced candidacy for the presidency in the wake of the death of highly respected and long term president John Benincasa, was doing virtually nothing to win in his challenge to remain council president at the hand of Republican Arthur Garnes, a highly respected former Alliance City Schools superintendent.

Alliance Republicans were left dumbfounded and were somewhat astonished when Okey narrowly lost to Garnes last Tuesday.

They seem to forget that Garnes while highly respected over and above Okey is a political neophyte who has not been in the public eye for some 10 years or so.

So it may have been the thing to do for Okey (although, admittedly, unlike him) to go low profile and thereby not accentuate the contrasted qualitative - in terms of perceived character -  factor between the two of them.

THE BACKGOUND OF THE RYAN/OKEY FIGHT

First, Ryan was faced with opposition from Derrick Loy - who the SCPR thinks of as being a political loyalist to Sheriff George T. Maier and who, The Report further thinks, was rewarded for his political loyalty with a taxpayer funded job in the sheriff's department.  (LINK)

Apparently, it did not take long for the likes of Gonzalez and his consorts that make up the Maier Massillon Political Machine (MMPM, directed by Massillon clerk of courts Johnnie A. Maier, Jr, which, Alliance resident Okey has close ties to) to determine that Loy did not have a snowball's chance in Hell of defeating Ryan.  (Note:  Ryan did not run for re-election as an Alliance councilwoman-at-large in the 2015 elections)

So it was no surprise when Okey issued this document on April 16, 2014, to wit:

Earlier in 2014, Okey (a former Alliance councilman who lost to Republican Alan Andreani in the 2011 mayoral election) had filed a lawsuit against his former colleagues on his allegation that they had violated Ohio's Sunshine Law in voting procedures on certain issues.

While at the SCPR at the time agreed with Okey that the procedures were unacceptable, it is to be noted what a hypocrite Okey was being in filing the lawsuit inasmuch as he himself had participated in his claimed illegally.

What that should mean to Stark Countians is that such is a clear indication that Steve Okey is pure and simple a political opportunist who will use such things as:  (a self-serving attempt to make himself appear to be high-minded)

• being for political/governmental Sunshine, or
• later on, after being appointed Benincasa's successor, ensuring that ordinances passed by Alliance Council are "constitutional" [as the Constitution is interpreted by the solitary, non-Judge Okey]

Of course the Stark Dems' leadership understand the political opportunistic/self-serving nature of Dem politico Okey.

That Gonzalez and who knows else probably from the MMPM did arm twisting on behalf of Okey on a couple of waffling Alliance Stark Dems' precinct committee persons to flip the wafflers into the Okey camp on the vote being taken on April 30th makes them a part of what is wrong with the priorities of Stark County Democratic Party leadership.

It obvious that Gonzalez, Maier, Jr., the sheriff, the Giavasis brothers and their allies within the Stark Dems' organization are mostly about self-serving politics over and beyond is good for the good of Stark County political subdivision government and the citizenry these government units.

THE KEY POINT OF THIS BLOG

To pick up on the theme introduced in the third paragraph of this blog, after engaging political skulduggery with the likes of Gonzalez:

• who, by the way, gets real uspset with the SCPR because The Report refuses to buy his claim that his government employment as been in the nature of self-sacrificial public service as a matter of a tradition of the Gonzalez family, 
• Note:  Isn't it unseemly for one to have tout their own alleged unselfishness?

Okey laid low in terms of campaign profile apparently thinking - and the SCPR thinks if "laying low" was purposeful, correctly so - almost did the seemingly impossible of winning in the context of his having:

• invoked political skulduggery, and 
• created self-serving pretextual turmoil within Alliance City Council

THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING?

So what makes the SCPR think that the low-key Okey is not a changed Steve Okey but a continuing political conniving Steve Okey which seems to be the mirror image of the Stark County Democratic Party leadership as it currently exists?

Take a look at this e-mail shared with the SCPR by Sue Ryan:

Sue Ryan <...@aol.com>  Nov 6 at 3:16 PM

To:  tramols@att.net

Martin - 

I have no idea what Okey is actually up to.  

[SCPR Note:  there has been speculation that Okey is considering a challenge to Stark County prosecutor John Ferrero who of course opposed Okey political pal George T. Maier in his - in the end successful bid to become Stark County sheriff or becoming the Stark Dems' appointee to succeed Thomas Bernabei as Stark County commissioner]

...

On Wednesday he [Okey] sent out a reminder about the Dem Club meeting last night, and that they would be discussing the future of the club after the losses on Tuesday.  

I responded that I was unable to attend and he probably wouldn't want to hear what I had to say, anyway.  

His answer:  "Ha! I really don't give a $#!t what you have to say."  

I should have said nothing else, but answered that "I didn't think so".  

Then came:  "Please come and regale the club with your advice on how to be a Republican puppet."  

He went on to say that at least he has the "courage to publicly stand by Democratic principles." 

My response:

"Don't you EVER question my Democratic principles!!!  Because I have the respect of members of both parties doesn't mean I compromise my beliefs.  Unwillingness and inability to get along with the other side is what turns people away from politics.  Now shut up and leave me alone."  (It took all of my self-control to keep from calling him a few choice names.)  

He ended by calling me Josie Lieberman.  Real funny guy.

...

Sue Ryan ... aol.com>  Nov 6 at 7:15 PM

To:  Martin Olson

Martin -

Here's another tidbit for you:  

at the Dem meeting last night, Steve said it was my fault that Brian lost.  Since I knew I wasn't going to run for re-election, the"right" thing for me to do was resign mid-term.  Then Brian would be appointed by the party, and he could have run as an incumbent, upping his chances.  

Really?  I would assume the right thing to do would be to finish the job I was elected to do.  

The Democratic Club in Alliance is on it's last legs, and there is no one to blame except one Steven Okey.  [large print emphasis added]

Sue 

The SCPR thinks that Steve Okey is one the most self-serving members of the "organized" Stark County Democratic Party who immerses himself in the good political graces of the "let's emphasize political party well-being over the public interest" group that now controls the Stark County Democratic Party.

In today's climate of growing public disenchantment with party-first politicos, it is hard to see the Stark Dems and candidates perceived to be party loyalist candidates going anywhere but "due South" in upcoming local elections.

GUARDADO/ALEXANDER & STARK DEMS LEADERSHIP

Kristen Guardado last Tuesday the SCPR thinks was a victim of such an association.  The Stark Dem leadership had treated her opponent in the May, 2015 Democratic Party dastardly and therefore Guardado became joined at the hip with pols who many in the general Stark County (Canton Municipal Court District) do not have a high regard for.

In an interesting bit of news, the SCPR has learned that Angela Alexander is moving her professional legal career to Stark County.

On November 23rd she is set to start as a Stark County prosecutor and reportedly is doing so at a pay cut.

Now that is sacrifice folks!

And, let's trust that the professional move results in this woman Alexander with her outstanding legal credentials being one day soon in a position to challenge for a Stark County Court of Common Pleas judge seat to sit aside the highly qualified Chryssa Harnett who had to defeat the politically connected Republican Curtis Werren.

Think that Ira Turpin wouldn't be smiling from above at such a development.

CONSEQUENCES OF RYAN/OKEY

Stark County voters should be wary indeed of the Curt Werrens, the Gonzalezes and the Steve Okeys of Stark County politics who The Report thinks put party politics and self-interest over the public interest.

And they always try to disguise the ugly side of politics with high sounding appeals.

None is better at the political phony-baloney than is Steve Okey!

Sue Ryan on the other hand is perceived as being an everyday citizen who through her heightened integrity and character thinks first of the well-being of Alliance citizens over what the folks headquartered at Oakwood Square want.

One can only hope that Steve Okey is finished as an Alliance area/Stark County electable politician.

In is process of running for president of Alliance City Council, he may have obliterated a viable Alliance Area Democratic Party.

STARK CO COMMISSIONER JANET CREIGHTON SPEAKS OF CANTON AND STARK COUNTY GOV'T PARTNERSHIP

UPDATED:  9:06 AM

SCPR READER IN PUT (POSTED 9:06 AM)

Martin, 

I think Bill Smuckler would make a great County Commissioner, he long has proposed mergers between Canton Departments with County Departments. With his business back round it would be a plus for the County. 

After the toes he stepped on with the Democrats in endorsing Tom Bernabei there is no way the Dems would appoint Bill, even though he is the most qualified. 

I understand Bill Smith is the choice of Janet & Regula. ... .

ORIGINAL BLOG

The Stark County Political Report thinks that Commissioner Janet Creighton had the right take on the significance on her colleague commissioner Thomas M. Bernabei being elected mayor on Tuesday night.



Indeed, the dawning of a new era in Stark County in which Stark County's principal city (in fact, Stark's county seat) can find common ground with Stark County government and its political subdivisions (villages, cities and townships) to make for a more efficient, citizen friendly and economic growth enabled collaboration.

Efforts were made during the eight years William J. Healy, II has been mayor to usher in a era of greater coordination and collaboration between the county government and Canton government but in one way or another if it came down to a question of who was going to be in control and the answer was not "the mayor of Canton," then slowly but surely a given effort would die away.

A major change that Stark Countians know of already and Cantonians will discover is that Bernabei has not been as county commissioner been nor will he be as mayor of Canton, a control freak.

Moreover, there is an additional piece to Bernabei having been elected mayor of Canton that needs careful attention in order for conditions to be ideal for Creighton's optimism of a new era of intergovernmental cooperation and collaboration to flower.  And that piece is who is selected to replace Tom Bernabei as Stark County commissioner.

There may be a legal fight ensue between the remaining commissioners and Stark County prosecutor John Ferrero (Commissioners plus) and the Stark County "organized" Democratic Party as to whether the former or the later assumes/exercises the legal authority to replace Commissioner Bernabei.

And the fight may once again find Stark Countians in the Ohio Supreme Court fighting among themselves.

It is widely believed that the Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. Massillon-based Political Machine (MMPM) is gearing up to push Dems' chair Phil Giavasis in coordination with the party's executive committee to make the fight for authority to appoint in order to once again make former Stark County commissioner Gayle Jackson a Stark County commissioner.

Through 2013 and 2014, Stark Countians saw unfold a battle royale between the MMPM and former sheriff Tim Swanson, Stark County prosecutor John Ferrero and others over who was going to replace Sheriff-elect Mike McDonald (November, 2012) who was unable to take office on January 7, 2013 due to an illness that ultimately led to his death in February, 2013.

The SCPR does not see the Commissioners plus abiding a Gayle Jackson appointment and therefore the fight.

And if there is a fight and the Commissioners plus win the argument in the Ohio Supreme Court (either direct or by virtue of binding legal authority on Ohio's lower courts), then the SCPR advocates that they appoint Stark County auditor Alan Harold (a Republican) as Bernabei's replacement.

Thomas Bernabei currently holds the #1 position on the SCPR Top 10 List of Stark County Political Subdivision Elected Office in terms of the quality of leadership they bring to Stark's various units of government.

Alan Harold is currently #2.

There is one hitch.

Harold is believed not to be all that interested in making the switch that the SCPR in this blog is promoting and would have to be prodded into agreeing to take such an appointment if offered.

Harold during his four or so years in office has transformed the Stark County auditor's office into one of the most forward looking agencies of Stark County government and stands from the perspective of the SCPR as a model of excellence in government for all other Stark County political subdivisions to follow.

At age 64 or so at the time, it has been a sight to behold to see Bernabei as the first among equals (again from the perspective of the SCPR) of county commissioners [Creighton and Pete Ferguson being his fellows]) and provide zealous leadership to the board of commissioners to take a county:

• in the depths of financial crisis and suffering a huge amount of public confidence in the integrity of several agencies of county government (namely; the county treasurer and the county auditor's office [then headed by current Canton treasurer Kim Perez])

and restore the level of confidence that enabled the commissioners in conjunction with other county officials to pass two years later (November, 2011) a 1/2 cent Justice System Sales Tax (JSST) increase.

Now at age 69, Cantonians will be amazed at how vigorous Mayor Thomas Bernabei will prove to be.

But Bernabei is the exception and not the rule for a man of his age.

Harold at somewhere around 40 years of age is full of vim, vigor and vitality with the same intelligence level of Bernabei to be the ideal person to replace the mayor-elect as commissioner.

While known to be a passionate Republican, he has the regard of nearly all who work for and with him to put politics aside when it comes to the well being of Stark Countians.

Of course he is not Tom Bernabei, but he is driven as Bernabei is to excellence in government and as commissioner continue the dynamism that was the imprimatur of the soon to be mayor of Canton.

To say it again, getting Harold to accept an appointment as commissioner would take some doing as he has many projects (including implementation of Ohio treasurer Josh Mandel's Open Checkbook in Stark County beginning next week) in the hopper that will when completed result not only still further improvement in the auditor's office but also throughout nearly all of Stark County political subdivision government and understandably is reluctant to take his considerable talents elsewhere.

But if the Commissioners plus get the legal right to appoint Bernabei's successor, the group needs to go all out to convince Harold to come onto the Board of Stark County Commissioners.

It could be that the Commissioners plus will not get the right to appoint.

And in such a scenario, the appointment would fall to the Stark County Democratic Party Central Committee.

Here's where Chairman Phil Giavasis could be if he will be a guiding force to not allow political connections with the MMPM to result in the appointment of former commissioner of Gayle Jackson (left office in 2007 to take a Democratic governor Ted Strickland appointment to the Ohio Lottery Commission) to replace Bernabei.

Giavasis if he will be could be a powerful voice to convince the MMPM and more generally the central committee members that the best the Dems' have to present as an commissioner appointee in Canton City Council Councilman Bill Smuckler.

Readers of this blog should now pause a moment a go to this LINK which is the situs of an article on Smuckler written by Anthony McCune (Stark County, Ohio News and Views ...) which is an excellent summary of Bill Smuckler's time in government up to the time he challenged William J. Healy, II in the May, 2011 Democratic primary election.

Smuckler did run for Stark County commissioner against Richard Regula (LINK) in 2012.

This video of Smuckler and eventual winner Richard Regula does provide insight into what qualities Smuckler would bring to county government as a commissioner

In 2013, he returned to Canton City Council as a councilman-at-large and he was re-elected to that position this past Tuesday.

If Commissioner Janet Creighton's expectation that fellow commissioner Tom Bernabei being elected mayor of Canton is a key to getting a thoroughgoing city/county/county political subdivision partnership up and run is to be realized, the SCPR thinks that a vitally important adjunct to Bernabei becoming mayor of Canton is the quality of the person who replaces him.

There is a pathway to appointment excellence no matter who is legally deemed to have the right of appointment.

In the case of the Stark Dems, the best they have to offer is Bill Smuckler.

In the case of the Commissoners plus, the best they can come up with is Alan Harold.