Tuesday, March 1, 2016

PART 1: THE COST OF INEFFECTIVE "CANTON" LEADERSHIP OVER DECADES? $460,000 MM OR NEARLY 1/2 BILLION!

UPDATED:  WEDNESDAY AT 6:00 AM



VIDEOS

CANTON PLANNING COMMISSION
ROLL CALL
ON ADOPTING COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

==============================

MEMBER DAVID KAMINSKI
MOTION TO ADOPT

 ==============================

CZB PRINCIPAL CHARLES BUKI
ON TIMELINE FROM
2012 RFQ TO 02292015 

============================== 

Yesterday late afternoon was the beginning of the end story for the proud city of Canton, Ohio.

The only question is:  What will the end story be?

Will Canton sink into oblivion and unrecoverable despair as seemingly Flint, Michigan has done.

Or will finally gets it act together and begin a long, tortuous road to recover at the cost of 460,000 millions of dollars?

Charles Buki of CZB Consulting was frank and direct in pointing his finger at former leadership of the City of Canton as being the reason that Canton has decayed since the 1950s

(SCPR Note:  Documents in this blog extracted from the February 20th published "Comprehensive Plan - City of Canton UNLESS otherwise noted)

The most telling document:


In this blog, The Stark County Political Report will take readers on a video trip (short, easily digestible video clips) through Buki's presentation so that all Cantonians can see for themselves the core history of why Canton is where it is in terms of being a depressed city and the harsh realities that present Cantonians and likely the city's future generations will have to face up to if the city is to recover her former greatness.

My goal with this blog is to make it a seminal document/video documentary on Canton's Comprehensive Plan  in terms of being a reference point as Canton's current generation of leaders move forward to implement the Comprehensive Plan as surely Canton City Council will ultimately adopt on the heels of the Canton Planning Commission having done yesterday.


Those present at yesterday's special Canton Planning Commission (CPC) meeting applauded (see video [1:18 in duration] of the vote and applause below) as the roll call by member David Kaminski (former Repository editor and now a Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce official) resulted in a unanimous approval of moving forward with the plan as a recommendation to Canton City Council (CCC).



And here is a video (7:07) of Kaminski's motion and the ensuing discussion:



Though I was born and raised in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, I do have a family connection to Canton, Ohio.

My maternal grandfather, Howard S. Weaver, worked for the-then Norfolk & Western Railroad (out of its Roanoke, Virginia base) during my mother's girlhood which ranged through the 1910 through 1925 era and I can remember of her child of her telling tales of Howard's travels as the employee of the N&W.

One of his very favorite cities in his travels was Canton, Ohio as he was impressed with the robust nature of life in Canton.

Consequently, I felt a special connection to Canton when I was employed as a lawyer for the Stark County Legal Aid Society in 1974.  I worked in Canton day-in, day-out for five years.  Moreover, even from the site of my private practice law office and home (Uniontown, Lake Township) I was a frequenter of Canton, Ohio for more than 40 years.  As a blogger since March, 2008, I have provided Cantonians with thorough and extensive coverage of Canton city government.

It was gratifying (from my days at Stark County Legal Aid, SCLAS) to see Canton assistant law director Thomas Burns at the table of the Canton Planning Commission as the commission's legal counsel.

Tom was one of a number of illustrious attorneys (including now deceased former Stark County prosecutor and Stark County Probate Court judge Robert Horowitz) with whom I served on the staff at the SCLAS.

Obviously therefore I have been a first hand witness to the decline of Canton over the 40 years.

And it is now gratifying through this blog to be in a position to prod current Canton/Stark County leadership to step-up-to-the-plate and begin the process of recovering from the 60, 70 years of decline.

It is likely that the process of recovery will take the better part of 50 years going forward.

And it will entail current proven effective leaders like Canton mayor Thomas M. Bernabei and Stark County auditor Alan Harold to take on a project of developing a higher quality of bank of leadership than currently exists in Canton/Stark County.

A STEP BACK FROM PASSAGE TO THE BUKI (CZB) PRESENTATION

BEFORE THE CANTON PLANNING COMMISSION

Buki's Background


In looking into the background of CZB principal Charles Buki, it did my heart good to see that he has a personal background in blogging.

I wonder how man planning commission members and Canton council members and staff of the mayor's administration (including Healy's and, of course, that of new the new mayor Thomas Bernabei) have done their homework to determine whether or not Buki and his CZB group has a viewpoint and track record of urban planning successes before making the decision to adopt the CZB generated comprehensive plan.

A good start is with the above-reference blog (LINK) that he last wrote on March 1, 2013; three years ago today which includes the following topics:

  
Other links:
And, for sure, if they haven't already (which one would assume they have inasmuch as Canton has spent $350,000 of Canton taxpayer dollars with CZB) somebody on council and or in the administration ought to be calling present and past customers of CZB LLC before Canton council adopts the CZB generated plan.

Additionally, before Canton council adopts the Comprehensive Plan, it needs to as part of the adoption build into the adoption structures of plan implementation that it will be implement 100%; no matter how long it takes and no matter how many modifications of the plan are made.

As will seen in the video clips provided in this blog, Buki cites instance, after instance after instance in which cities have not "fully" implemented the plan.

Well!  How can city fairly evaluate the likes of CZB if council and the administration have not fully implemented the plan?

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS WITH SCPR COMMENTARY
ON
BUKI'S PRESENTATION TO THE CANTON PLANNING COMMISSION

TIMELINE VIDEO - BUKI (4:20)

In the following video, after being introduced by Mayor Bernabei and Deputy Mayor Fonda Williams, CZB principal Charles Buki details the timeline in summary fashion from the time that Canton City Council authorized the Healy administration to publish a RFQ (Request for Quote) in 2012 through yesterday (February 29, 2016).


    The next noteworthy part of Buki's presentations as far as the SCPR is concerned was his general description of the parameters within which the plan was devised.

    In the following video it is obvious that he is acutely aware of the severe financial limitations that Canton presently has in implementing the plan.  (Video length:  1:38)


    No comments:

    Post a Comment