Held, whom the SCPR views as one of the least Republican of being a Republican in Stark County officialdom, and Earle E. Wise, Jr., whom The Report views as one of the least Democrat of being a Democrat in Stark County officialdom, will part ways with the coming of the end of 2010; so says Held to the Stark County Political Report.
The Report's take is that, except in the very early days after the appointment, the predominantly Republican Council led by staunch Republican City Council President Daryl Revoldt has not been nearly as enamored with Wise as Mayor Held has been.
In recent years there has been a lot of rumbling among councilpersons about the quality of administration they thought North Canton was getting at the hand of Wise. However, Mayor Held fought the Council negativity and refused to heed backroom suggestions that he replace Wise. When it became apparent to Held that he was not going to be able to withstand Council's onslaught against Wise staying on as the chief, he moved him into a lesser administrative role.
The demotion of Wise, a few months ago, was coupled with the promotion of City Engineer James Benekos as both chief engineer and chief administrator. Obviously, the promotion was a stop-gap measure as there is no way that Benekos, as competent as he is, could possibly do both jobs on his own. City officials have owned up to this realty and are in the process of searching for a deputy administrator to assist and report to Benekos. In order do so, with the city finances in a precarious state, North Canton will be taking the savings from letting Wise go to apply to a new hire deputy administrator.
Held tells The Report that he holds Wise in the highest regard and deems him to be a man of unparalleled integrity, but that in order to be able to work for effectively and efficiently with Council, he has to let Wise go.
On another front, Council President Daryl Revoldt says North Canton is in the process of finding a replacement for Alex Zumbar who Revoldt says has been a key factor in North Canton keeping its financial ship afloat. Zumbar was elected Stark County treasurer on November 2nd.
As reported earlier this week, North Canton apparently is planning on rehiring (on a temporary basis) former finance official Marge Loretto to serve until a new finance director is found.
Whether or not North Canton is able to keep its city as one of Stark County's more financially stable communities, could depend on the quality of the new deputy of administration and finance director that "the dogwood city" officials are able to find in their search.
Given the Held/Wise failure, probably the best chance for success is for officials to hire "the most qualified Republicans" they can find, no?
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