MAYOR HEALY WILL NOT LIKE READING THIS REP "LETTER TO EDITOR"

Just ask William J. Healy, II whether or not he has been a successful mayor so far into his term.

What answer will you receive?

Undoubtedly, he will tell you an "unqualified yes."

Healy will always put the best spin on himself while knocking others (in a just between you and me fashion).

Publicly he plays the political game by saying the politically correct things for media consumption. But privately he bashes others who are not out-and-out loyalists or, heaven forbid, disagree with him.

So it was no surprise that the mayor was quick to jump on reported crime statistics in February showing a reduction in major crime in Canton.

The Repository editors rightly cautioned him for claiming credit because you can't have it just one way. When crime statistics show increases (which it is likely they will), guess who gets the credit? Of course, Healy will get it. And he deserves it, now that he has jumped on the public relations model of governing.

Healy prides himself on being an educated man. He brags about his advanced degree ad nauseam. Part and parcel of being educated by all too many with credentialed folks, is the notion that you can talk you way to success.

In addition to Healy's Zero Tolerance policy, the city is the beneficiary of a federal grant of $175,000 obtained by the J.R. Coleman Community Renovation Corporation which is described by the Community Capacity Development Office (CCDO) as being:

... a community-based strategy sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), is an innovative, comprehensive multiagency approach to law enforcement, crime prevention, and community revitalization. CCDO oversees the Weed and Seed initiative.

Well, the question has been raised in a letter to the editor in today's Repository (How has Weed and Seed grant helped? Crimes seems to ba as bad as ever) whether or not the Canton-based initiative is working.

The SCPR thinks its too early to tell whether or not the crime eradication efforts of the Healy administration will develop a downward trend line on crime.

But life experience does instruct that it is "on the ground" work that gets any job done; not public relations.

This is a lesson that Mayor Healy has yet to learn.