VOLUME I: (IN A SERIES) IS GEORGE T. MAIER UP TO MANAGING THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE IN AN APPROPRIATE MANNER?

UPDATE:  MONDAY, 08:13 AM

(COMPARE 2006 TO 2018 GOVERNOR ELECTION RESULTS)

TROUBLES IN MANAGEMENT OF THE STARK COUNTY JAIL?

TODAY:  THE BACKGROUND OF GEORGE T. MAIER BECOMING SHERIFF

Nearly everyone that The Stark County Political Report (SCPR/The Report) talks to these days about Sheriff George T. Maier's management of the Stark County sheriff's office say that Sheriff Maier is doing a terrific job as the elected sheriff of Stark County.

On one dimension, even the SCPR agrees that Maier, on a "technical" policing level, has the tools to be an excellent county policing manager.

However, as regular readers of The Stark County Political Report (SCPR, The Report full-well know, this blogger thinks that Sheriff Maier has some growing to do to be the kind of employee-relationship manager that matches his technical know how.

The endeavor in this series is to present material to readers for readers to make up their own minds as to whether or not George T. Maier's temperament as translated into management style will one day become a leading issue in Stark County governance.

Since 2013, the year Maier surfaced as a contender to be appointed sheriff by the Stark County Democratic Party Central Committee on the untimely and tragic death of Sheriff-elect Mike McDonald, the SCPR has had many, many, many sources that have presented a different picture of Maier in the context of his management style which, according to these sources, is in stark contrast to the technically accomplished George T. Maier.

NOTE:  The Report had so many inside the Stark County sheriff's office sources that this blogger  could not resist chiding Maier that the first hire as sheriff should be a plumber who could fix the leaks.  However, it appears that he did not heed the advice)

As another factor in assessing him (from the perspective of those who buy into the image one projects as an indication of their competence), Maier, when he dons his sheriff dress attire, looks like a "dressed to the nines" county sheriff that rivals the stylish Stark County commissioner Janet Weir Creighton.

It used to be Canton councilman Jimmy Babcock compared to Commissioner Creighton on Stark County's "best dressed" politician.

Now maybe just maybe Babcock has been replaced by George T. Maier.  How can you beat that "sheriff's dress uni" in terms of impressiveness?

Later on in this series The Report will focus on the more recent allegations by those in a position to see the internal operations of the Stark County sheriff office operations as to whether Maier is deficient as a manager or that the allegations are merely "sour grapes" on the part of those who are not part of the inner circle of Maier confidants.

Maier has been in policing since 1981 as a Hartville (Lake Township) police office after graduating from Massillon Washington High School in 1978.

Hartville was "small potatoes" for Maier and consequently he moved on in 1982 to the Ohio State Patrol.

It was no small irony that in 2013, it was in support of then and now Hartville chief of police (Republican Larry Dordea) who the "organized" Stark County Republican in the guise of the Republican members of the Stark County Board of Elections fought "tooth and nail" to keep Maier from becoming sheriff.

Though with the onset of troubles in the Stark County treasurer's office, the Stark GOP has done reasonably well in countywide elections EXCEPT for getting one of theirs to come anywhere near becoming Stark County sheriff.

The last time local Republicans were able to elect a Republican sheriff was Robert Berens 1981 to 1984, approaching 40 years now.

Most of Maier's technical policing training came during his stint as a Ohio State Highway Patrol  (OSHP) officer where, by 1991, he as selected "Trooper of the Year" by virtue of his life-saving actions in March of 1991.

From 1991 through 2007, Maier says he worked his way through the echelons of the OSP to the point of becoming district commander of the Jackson Township Post of the Patrol.

In November, 2006, the political gods smiled on Maier's future as possibly one of Ohio's highest ranking law enforcement officials.

Folksy Democrat Ted Strickland (a man who loved to show humility by referring to himself a being from "Aw shucks" Duck Run, Ohio), reached the pinnacle of his political career in being elected governor of Ohio over the disaster of a Republican nominee Ken Blackwood.

And as luck will have it for some of us, George's older brother Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. was at the time chairman of the Stark County Democratic Party.

The key opportunity for the Maiers was the good fortune they had in prominent Ohio Democrat Bryan Flannery contesting Strickland for the Democratic nomination for governor in the 2006 election.

Although this blogger (an active member of the Stark Dems at the time,  now a political independent) remembers Chairman Johnnie A. Maier, Jr grousing about Flannery's run; the primary contest was likely a key factor in what appears to have been the chairman's ability to get his brother appointed to the #2 position in Ohio's Department of Public Safety.

For Johnnie persuaded the Dems' executive committee to change local party policy of not endorsing any Democratic candidate in a primary election to make an exception for the Strickland/Flannery race.

Consequently, under the guidance of Maier, Jr., Stark Dems became the first county Democratic Party organization to endorse Stickland.

The endorsement seems to have been "worth in 'political' gold" inasmuch it appears that Strickland and his handlers were so appreciative of Maier Jr's maneuver that the Maier, Jr was able to get:

• brother George T.,
• appointed as assistant Director of the Ohio Department of Highway Safety,
• became "interim" director in 2010,
• Stark County commissioner Gayle Jackson (mother of Stark Dems' political director Shane Jackson, Maier's "right hand man in the Massillon clerk of courts office), 
• appointed to Lottery Commission, 
• Steve Meeks (formerly a Jackson Township elected official), and
• appointed as Region 9 economical development office, 
• himself,
• the only non-RN, as a consumer representative of the Ohio Nursing Board

appointed to political patronage positions controlled by the, what turned out to be, one-term Strickland administration.

It was his stint in the Department of Highway safety that complaints surfaced with George T. Maier's management style.

George T. Maier in his Stark County sheriff's uniform in the recently concluded 2018 gubernatorial race campaigned for Democrat Richard Cordray.

Governor-elect Mike DeWine returned "tit for tat."

Anyway one slices it, such, the SCPR thinks, is an abuse of the taxpayers right not have uniformed at public expense officials of Ohio government appear in official garb on behalf of either Republican/Democratic candidates.

But in Ohio/America we have a political Duopoly and the controlling Democratic/Republican operatives merely point the finger at each other as justification for the abuse.

The same thing happens on the issue of gerrymandering.

That "both monopolistic parties (i.e. "the political duopoly) do it," is no answer at all.

Both in perpetuating such abuse contribute to the growing public cynicism on the arrogance of each.

Confirming at the national level is President Donald Trump's use of the U.S. military as political backdrops in picture and word for his political agenda.

But when one has the power to do self serving, political party perpetuating things; only a fool would do the ethical thing, no?

The results as compared to Strickland's 2006 victory:  (Ohio Dems chairman David Pepper undoubtedly is beside himself of how over 12 years the Dems have declined statewide)

What if Cordray had won?

How would the Maier brothers tried to capitalize on that?

In the next blog in this series, the SCPR will pick up with the Strickland administration years and beyond in the fortunes of Stark County sheriff George T. Maier.