VIDEOS
HEALY/NORDMAN FACE OFF 03/25/2013
NORDMAN BLASTS MAYOR 06/17/2013
HEALY/NORDMAN BARE KNUCKLE BRAWL
06/17/2013
Updated at 03:45 PM.
Since March of this year, Bruce Nordman, a resident of Councilman Frank Morris, III's Ward 9, (an area of Canton known as Vassar Park), has been pressing the city to bring the Canton Police Department (CPD) up to 175 officers.
Here is a video of a March 25 exchange between Nordman and Healy.
And here is a LINK to a SCPR blog of April 1, 2013 which provides much of the background to the "bare knuckle brawl" (figuratively speaking, of course) which erupted between Nordman and the mayor after Canton City Council meeting last night.
One supplement to the information contained in that link, though.
Whereas at the time Nordman was claiming the beef-up could cost Canton some $825,000 in March; it turns out (and Nordman uses the higher number in current presentations) is really about $1.3 million.
The heart of the fight between Nordman and Healy has always been about whether or not Canton has the money to get up to the Nordman "demanded" 175 Canton Police Officers.
Nordman's main argument has been that the mayor seems to find money for his pet projects, he can't seem to come up with the dollars needed to bring up the CPD.
Mayor Healy counters with "everything but the kitchen sink" (in classic Healy fashion) in rebutting Nordman.
As readers of the SCPR know, yours truly has been particularly hard on Healy because The Report believes (a la former president Bill Clinton) that one never gets the best of Hizzhonor as long as he gets air to breathe and his vocal cords vibrate.
Remember Clinton's "Well, that depends on what is is?" caper in his deposition in the Monica Lewinsky case. And there were others before that. But Clinton slipped out of each and every one of them to become what? Yes, "the comeback kid."
The SCPR's take on Healy is that he is every bit as accomplished as the former president as slipping the noose before it strikes it fatal blow. The only seeming difference is the level of government involved.
If he can make his frantic political ambition work for him, Healy may yet achieve a very high level in American political/government circles.
We all need to remember that Clinton was once counted among "the political dead, " only to wiggle out of his self-inflicted bind to move on to bigger and better things.
The Report thinks - in terms of political eeliness - Healy has Clinton-esque talent.
Nobody should underestimate William J. Healy, II.
Stark County has never seen the likes of this consummate political being.
So such is what Nordman is up against.
The SCPR has a lot of admiration for Nordman and his civic activism. But The Report believes that he and his Group 175 is no match for the mayor.
Last night Nordman appeared at council on what seems to have been triggered by Parks and Recreation Director Derek Gordon's request to Group 175, through Nordman, that Group 175 come out in support of November's Parks and Recreation levy.
Here is Nordman's response given during the Public Speaks portion of the council meeting.
Looking at Healy during Nordman's presentation, one could easily see that Healy was "pi_ _ ed."
Some of the best Canton City Council meetings have not be the meetings themselves, but rather the fireworks that sometimes take place after the meetings.
On December 21, 2009 council president Alan Schulman got into it with Mayor Healy (post-council-meeting) (LINK) over Healy's insistence on retaining Adam Herman as his communications director.
While Herman eventually did leave Canton's employ, it does appear that Healy has mollified Schulman who pretty much anymore support Administration positions on various controversies between council and the mayor.
Last night was somewhat an exception in that Schulman (in a tie-breaker role) voted with the anti-administration position (i.e. no retroactive pay) as to whether or not currently enrolled police cadets will be paid retroactively to January 1, 2013 at the increased pay rate (from $26,000 per annum to $31,000) for cadets.
Moreover, last night was a classic post-council-meeting confrontation between the mayor and Nordman.
The Report was busy videotaping Ward 8 Councilman Edmond Mack and Councilwoman-at-Large Mary Cirelli (on their having voted "no" in support of a resolution of councilmanic support of the upcoming November vote on Canton's Parks and Recreation levy), when, during the Cirelli interview, a citizen tapped yours truly on the arm to alert that something noteworthy was going on elsewhere.
It took a nanosecond to figure out that Healy and Nordman were involved in a seeming "bare knuckle brawl" near the lectern position in council chambers.
So the SCPR hustled over to the site to catch the action.
What follows below is most of the face off.
Yours truly was a little late in arriving to catch the actual beginning and as the 9:30 p.m. hour arrived (council meeting probably ended about 8:30 p.m.) the SCPR video camera ran out of recording space.
This video runs 45 minutes.
While the SCPR normally does not put this much video up in a blog, for those of readers who take it in will get a direct and frank view of Healy at his oily finest.
In the end, the SCPR expects Healy to pull his political magic and talk Group 175 into supporting the Parks and Recreation levy.
While Nordman may think he has a commitment from Healy to bring the CPD up to 175 within the next year or so, the SCPR thinks that the only think Mayor William J. Healy, II is truly committed to is his own political aggrandizement.
The Report will not be surprised to learn in coming weeks that Nordman et al have succumbed to Healy's mesmerizing political charms.
We shall see!
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