REP'S GAUGER: TRASH JOURNALISM, HERMAN - HEALY "MINISTER OF INFORMATION" TEAM UP TO UNDERMINE PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN CANTON'S FIREFIGHTERS?

 UPDATE:  01/12/2010

REFERENCE TO GAUGER PIECEl


CLICK HERE FOR LINK

ORIGINAL POST

Executive Editor of The Repository Jeff Gauger of The Repository reached a new low on Sunday.

He joined in on the Healy administration to trash Canton's firefighters.

Here is a man, who at the beginning of the Boccieri/Schuring race, for 16th district congressman, got on his "journalistic high horse" and pontificated how he was going to see to that the public discussion on the race be kept civil and elevated.

Hmm?

So in his Sunday "blog" (all bloggers should be insulted to be in the company of Gauger), he takes the Healy administration's "behind the scenes" line that some, if not most,  of Canton's firefighters are lazy goldbrickers.

And, if you read the the Gauger blog closely, you would think that Station 10 is a robust, up-and-running fire station.

But such is not the case.

So where does Gauger's association with Herman come in?

Well, the SCPR asked Herman about activity at Station 10 because The Report had been hearing that Station 10 was virtually shut down.

Here is Herman's response to the SCPR:

Hmm?

Sounds like Station is fully functioning, doesn't it?  So the SCPR went to work to get other perspectives.

One such other view is from a anonymous (for obvious reasons) Canton firefighter.

Here is what he has to say in response.

HERMAN POINT ONE:   Temporary close?


RESPONSE:

The SCPR's source quotes a former fire chief as once having said during a Creighton administration staffing problem, to wit:  "The station is not closed, it is just not open today."

When yours truly called the Canton Fire Department yesterday, that is essentially the answer that was given to the question of whether or not the station was open.

The firefighter then went on to describe how Station 10 was closed when the 15 firefighter cadets were let go, then reopened when the 15 returned and then closed again when the 28 were laid off in December.

Herman's "temporary" notwithstanding and Gauger's "implied" it open and running and "the place to be for goldbricking wannabes,"  is a case of semantics so says the SCPR's firefighter source.

If the station is closed, it is closed he says.  Call it temporary or whatever you want, but the result at the end of the day, in fact all days since the 28 were laid off is that it has been closed.

Chief Rich of the Canton Fire Department had a letter to the editor in The Rep today.

Some of his comments confirm the SCPR's firefighter source:

"Station 10 was closed for more than two months in 2009 due to a lack of manpower," he says.

It also puts Herman's "temporary" in the "Spin Zone" which is characteristic of Herman as Healy's communications director.

HERMAN POINT TWO:  Safety (implied) of Station 10's public not affected when the station is closed?


RESPONSE:

"When a call comes in for 10's district in the farthest areas, it takes Truck 9, Engine 6 and Engine 4 twice as long to get to the call as it would for Engine 10.  Fire doubles every minute.  The brain dies if without oxygen 6 minutes.  It takes Truck 9 over 6 minutes to get to Market and 55th N from the time of the call." (anonymous firefighter)

HERMAN POINT THREE:  A new configuration is in the works for Station 10?


RESPONSE:

The SCPR's firefighter source says that Station 10 has been a combo station since early 2009.  "What is this conversion talk (paraphrase)," he says.

The Report takes the Herman "will" to be an exercise to put the best face possible (PR spin) on a bad situation that clearly affects Canton's public safety.

GAUGER POINT:  Canton has goldbricking, long term firefighters who have found a haven at Station 10 and will be among the buyouts allowing Canton to get 20 of 28 positions back?


RESPONSE:

First from Chief Rich in his letter to the editor:

Second, from the SCPR's firefighter source:

Station 10 has a diverse assigned crew ranging in seniority from  12 years on the job to over 20 years.

As far as I know, not a single person from Station 10 is taking the buy outs (if [the proposed contract between Canton and the CPPA] ratified) as most of them do not have the amount of time or age to retire.

The statement made by the Repository [Editor Gauger] is uneducated and unfounded. A simple call to the Fire Administration would have made it clear that there is no one station in the City of Canton that is used to "Hide "the elderly employees.

All of the fire personnel work the exact same, even the officers, at an emergency scene.

In the opinion of the SCPR Herman is merely doing his job of "spinning for Healy.  And he does it very well.  Healy couldn't get from day to day without Adam Herman.  All William J. Healy, II cares about is his image - Canton be damned!

In the opinion of the SCPR Executive Editor Jeff Gauger is a blight on competent journalism.  As demonstrated by this blog written by yours truly, bloggers can do thorough work on a given topic.

In writing his Sunday piece insofar as it deals with the Station 10 matter, it is an insult to yours truly that Gauger calls himself a blogger.

It is obvious that the SCPR has far higher journalistic standards than a man that his spent his entire adult life in journalism.

The Stark County reading public now knows that everything that Jeff Gauger writes is highly suspect!!!

WHAT DOES MAYOR HEALY HAVE IN COMMON WITH JOHN ASHCROFT & DON RUMSFELD?

UPDATE: 9:08 A.M.

Rosario Carcione (president of the Canton Professional Firefighters Association - CPFA) told the SCPR this morning that the CPFA has filed a grievance against the Healy administration over the administration's dismissal of 15 fire cadets as being a violation of an agreement on staffing levels in accordance with a Memorandum of Understanding supplemented by e-mails between the CPFA and the Healy administration.

Also, President Carcione revealed to the SCPR that the CPFA has filed an "unfair labor practice" against the Healy administration on the grounds that the fire cadets were dismissed because the Healy administration is retaliating against the CPFA for its filing of the grievance by the union.

ORIGINAL BLOG

Within the past week, a story (as told by former Department of Homeland Security head Tom Ridge) has broken that former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld pressured Ridge to raise the "color" threat level immediately before the 2004 presidential elections.

What does this have to do with Canton mayor William J. Healy, II"?

The Rumsfeld/Ashcroft bullying tactics have been adopted by the Healy administration to bring the Canton Professional Firefighters Association (CPFA) into line in his desperation attempts to make up a $2.8 million budget deficit.

Pure and simple, as Rumsfeld and Ashcroft were willing to play politics with the nation's security warning mechanism so apparently are Mayor Healy and his newly appointed safety director Thomas Ream are playing political "hardball" with the fire and medical safety of Cantonians.

Healy has had to know for some time that the budget was going to be in big time shortfall. One has to ponder as to whether or not he is using the city's financial crisis as a way to gain political control over the firefighter/medic aspect of Canton's safety forces much as he has waged war with Police Chief Dean McKimm to get rid of him so as to have a more direct line of control over Canton's policemen (presumably by a more Healy friendly police chief).

Is this a play on White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's dictum: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."

A source tells the SCPR that the real reasons the 15 firefighter cadets were sacrificed by the Healyites is because the CPFA did not roll over immediately on a demand that a re-open on the collective bargaining agreement occur. Yours truly is told that the union was considering a "limited" re-open but was not allowed consideration time (demand was made about 6:00 p.m. on Thursday; the union was accused of "breaking their promise? to re-negotiate" as of 7:00 a.m. on Friday).

Seems like a "straw-man" maneuver to the SCPR, which is consistent with what yours truly knows about Healy and his penchant for political machinations. Only this time, the personal safety of Cantonians has been put in jeopardy.

Hold on to your hats for this one.

The SCPR is about to compliment The Repository Editorial Board.

On Thursday, August 20 (August 20th just happens to be yours truly's birth date), The Rep editors did a very nifty job of posing some important questions for Healy to answer:

Here is the editorial in toto:

Where is Canton’s mayor? Why is William J. Healy II not out in front, literally and figuratively, in addressing a city budget deficit we’re now told will hit $2.8 million this year?

Why has Healy not spoken clearly and publicly to city employees, members of City Council and city taxpayers about the budget crisis?

Why has he not made the case for shared sacrifice to all of these stakeholders?

Why has he not started with making sacrifices in his own office budget?

Why, when he decided to lay off 15 cadet firefighters to save money, was he AWOL in actually delivering the pink slips?

Why can’t the public get a straight answer from the Healy administration about how much money will be saved from laying off firefighters?

Why has he not told City Council or the public what other cuts he plans?

Why, when the news about Canton is bad — layoffs, budget difficulties, triple homicides — must the public hear from a surrogate and not the boss himself?

Healy ran for mayor by trumpeting his experience in running a business. The budget crisis and the attendant political risks are the cost of being the boss.

Why isn’t the mayor willing to pay it?

To The Rep's questions, the SCPR asks these:

The way that the city is to tighten its financial belt is to first layoff part-time and seasonal employees which Canton has 33 of, then and only then is the city to look at laying off probationary employees. Why isn't this order of things not being implemented the Healy administration especially in light of the fact that the targeted probationary employees are "safety (firefighters and medics) forces?"

The SCPR is told that Healy kept the "budget thing" to himself and a few confidants resident on the 8th floor. Hmm? How much of a role did Communication Director Adam Herman (Healy's most loyal subordinate) play in formulation the budget?

The affected parties (city workers and their unions) were not consulted, Canton City Council was not included and most importantly Finance committee chairman Greg Hawk was closed out.

Of course, in the Healy way of thinking, these are not trustworthy people.

As if Healy did not have enough problems with Council.

Now he has a new enemies list. The SCPR has learned that Councilmen Kraus, Smuckler, Barton and Prater are with the CPFA are definitely against the mayor on the cadets issue. Yours truly believes that Healy by his cavalier actions has likely created a majority in councilmembers who oppose his continuing on as mayor.

There is a certain irony is all of this too.

A SCPR source relayed a anecdotal account of Healy and the firefighters brouhaha.

It occurred during the O'Jays event at Fawcett Stadium on August 15th attended by about 15,000 people. During the event, the SCPR is told, there were 9 squad calls for medics because of the heat and humidity. Problem was, because of Canton's budget difficulities, only one medic unit was available to service the suffering.

Well, Mayor Healy was at the event. He approached one firefighter and asked "why the the delay." Answer: "Your honor, we were told that there would be no more discretionary overtime." To which Healy said "Hmm, you got me on that one."

Healy then went into action and immediately ordered two additional units to service the OJays crowd.

Hmm? No overtime, unless the mayor is being embarrassed?

The background to the cadet - "do they stay or do they go" saga is that Ream announced to CPFA president Rosario Carcione and the CPFA executive board that there was now in effect a 100% reduction in firefighter overtime and that the city adminstration was no longer going to honor a Memorandum of Understanding (negotiated between the union and former safety director Tom Nesbitt) that 37 firefighter employees each and every day was the "minimum" standard at which city of Canton firefighter/medic forces were to be staffed.

Moreover, if the CPFA went to the media with the Ream decrees, then the CPFA was threatened to do worse to the union than simply dismissing the probationary cadets.

No surprise to the SCPR.

As matters stand now, only 22 or so firefighters are on the job as Cantonians awake each morning. The number would be higher (probably 25 or so) if the cadets had not been let go by Healy. Clearly, Healy's decision has affected public safety coverage in Canton whereas Tom Ridge was there to stop Rumsfeld and Ashcroft.

Healy is clearly a "my way or the highway" type of guy. He requires the same of his subordinates or they become history very quickly. Nobody gets in the mayor's way.

The SCPR believes that Canton's "political animal" is about to do himself in. He is creating enemy after enemy after enemy.

Though he mimics Rumsfeld and Ashcroft in politicalization of nearly all that he touches, he is it. He has no president to back him up. It's all his call.

Cantonians are being worked over big time by the mayor.

"How much longer, O Lord, how much longer?"