Could it be that Stark County sheriff Tim Swanson and Massillon clerk of courts are out looking for each other?
Makes sense to the SCPR.
The Report is getting persistent input that each of these public officials are among the missing when it comes to being on the job.
Why doesn't someone turn them in?
Turn them in to whom?
Both are their own bosses being the elected the elected officals they are. If the reports are true that they are not putting in full weeks of work, then there is only one person to complain to> In the case of Swanson, it's Swanson. In the case of Maier, it's Maier.
The only real remedy is for the public to take action at the next ensuing election and not re-elect them.
With Swanson, the public will not have that opportunity. The SCPR believes that Swanson is in his last days as sheriff. He denies that he is about ready to quit. But The Report does not believe him.
The SCPR remembers one meeting of the Stark County commissioners within recent months that Swanson showed up donning his sheriff's top dress but wearing blue jeans.
Let's say that an emergency came up and the good sheriff got the call to go and apprehend someone. Would he be taken seriously if he informed "the to be apprehended person," that despite his garbled garb, he is Stark County's sheriff with authority to arrest the person?
Swanson, remember, is the guy who said words to the effect (again at a commissioners meeting in December, 2008), "poop on the public." Moreover, he bragged about dipping into public monies to get as much retirement as he possibly could, and the public be damned.
Maier, too is not shy about getting as much from the public as he possibly can. He's the clerk in Massillon, he's on the Stark County Board of Elections, he is on a state board and, likely, he is looking - like Swanson - for other opportunities to expense the public.
A SCPR source tells The Report that Maier's (undoubtedly "preferred" ) parking space at Massillon City Hall is largely unused.
But maybe the vacant parking space is not what it appears to be. Perhaps Johnnie's wife Debbie (also a public official - being the elected fiscal officer in Tuscarawas Township) drop him off for the day at Massillon City Hall.
Hmm? Probably no one believes that this scenario is the case.
In any event, as with Swanson, the only real recourse, if the public believes the "missing-in-action" reports, is not to re-elect Maier the next time he comes up. And he must be planning on running again. The Report hears that he has a fundraiser scheduled.
In the opinion of the SCPR, public officials like Swanson and Maier and their reported "missing-in-action" modality should be an outrage to Stark Countians and Massillonians. Moreover, other Stark/Massillon public officials should be putting the heat on Swanson and Maier - a kind of elected official peer review group - to admonish the two on their reported "missing-in-action" habits.
To quote a famous Maier line: "Why would I [err they] do that?"
Because the likes of Swanson and Maier bring a cloud of presumptive dalliance over all elected public officials.
Some, perhaps even many, in the public start believing that the Swansons and Maiers of public offcialdom are the rule rather than the exception.
Is this how the self-disciplined, responsible and "I'm on-the-job" daily types want to be perceived by the public?
Good luck complaining to Swanson. I have called the sheriff's dept for almost two years about various cases involving the county getting sued.
ReplyDeleteSheriff Swanson has NEVER been there to answer a call. And he has only returned ONE call. (And then he didn't know anything, neither did the deputy that he had call later.)
I finally had to call the Stark County Prosecutor's office to find out that the county had paid out $300 grand, but Swanson couldn't find any criminal wrong doing in his "investigation".
Yeah, just try to call Swanson to complain about Swanson, let me know how THAT works for ya!! LoL