VIDEO: WEST IN ACTION! CANTON'S "SPUNKY" COUNCILMAN, AFTER 10 YEARS ON COUNCIL IS HE A LEADER OR NOT?

VIDEO

COUNCILMAN WEST & THE REDFLEX ISSUE

Man oh man!  What a sight to behold:  Councilman Thomas West going after getting Canton City Council to agree to the installation of RedFlex Group traffic cameras as a pilot project (Market Ave., N & 12th St. and Tuscarawas West & Belden plus in school zones) in the Hall of Fame City.

As far as yours truly is concerned, the second ward councilman is "one spunky guy!"

At least for now.

West, who, by the end of his current term, will have been on council for ten years has all the credentials to be a mover and shaker in reviving Canton.

He came onto the Canton political scene in 2003 with quite a splash.  He defeated incumbent councilwoman Kathleen Altieri Bucher in the Democratic Primary before going to overwhelm the Republican candidate in the November general election.

Curiously enough, he may be facing a question of political survival in the 2013.

He does have Democratic Party opposition in May and two non-aligned (partywise) prospective candidates for the general election.

With three opponents looking at challenging his right to stay in office, one has to think there is some dissatisfaction with the quality of representation that he has been providing - of late - in the span of his ten years.

The SCPR would be surprised if he does not survive.  However, it has to be troublesome to him to see this much opposition.

And, the SCPR who has been observing West for years now, detects a heightened West activity mode on council recently which may well be borne out of a sense that he is politically vulnerable.

If he does survive, can Cantonians expect an re-energized Tom West in the 2014/2015 Canton City Council?

Is the traffic camera initiative an indication of an attempt at "real" leadership or is it merely a pretense at election time?

Canton does need invigorated service at the councilmantic level across the board.

West by length of service should be a leader on council, but is he up to it?

His apparent failure on the traffic camera issue to gain the support of his fellows suggests that he is not seen as a leader by most of them.

The SCPR has to agree with West:  on this particular matter, a majority of council has seemingly been dead set against him from the very beginning of his quest and there was no way "in God's little green acre of Canton, Ohio" that they were going to bend to his superlative effort.

A part of his problem with being a de facto leader on council may be that he is perceived to be too closely aligned with the Healy administration, no?

The Redflex traffic camera issue is one that is believed to be near and dear to Mayor William J. Healy, II and that once it became apparent to the mayor that he was as much the issue as was the notion of Redflex being the traffic camera provider, he handed the matter off to West as sort of a "designated hitter."

And there is no doubt about it, West has been swinging for the fences in his apparent endeavor to hit "a walk off homerun" for TeamHealy.

His last desperate move to get something out of his effort was to get one of Canton City Schools' officials to agree with him that installing the camera on school was a good idea.  And he did.

Moreover, the official said that the school district's bus drivers could only catch one in five violators who pass a bus unlawfully while it is loading/discharging students on two lane streets.

Here is a video of West's passionate argument  (as chairman of the Canton City Council Judiciary Committee) for traffic cameras at the March 4th council work session.



West's support of Redflex and its traffic cameras goes all the way back to December 8, 2008.

At that meeting, Canton City Council approved authorizing the-then safety director Tom Nesbitt to enter into a contract with Redflex by a 9 to 1 vote.

Voting for the ordinance:

• Don Casar,
• Joe Carbenia
• Bill Smuckler,
• Thomas West,
• James Griffin,
• Chris Smith,
• Terry Prater,
• David Dougherty, and
• Karl "Butch" Kraus

And, of course, voting against it:

•  Mary Cirelli

It is interesting to note that West in his comments before the vote, talked about how he had joined in voting against the RedFlex proposal during the Creighton administration.

But the vote did not stick.

By March, 2009 the whole Redflex issue had unraveled and council was prepared to reverse itself and did indeed vote the traffic camera out.

From a March 13, 2009 SCPR blog (LINK):

Wholesale citizen opposition developed as the Healy administration tried to sell the camera system to local citizens at a series of meetings held throughout Canton after the vote.

Then in 2009 to revive the traffic cameras was to no avail.

Again in 2012 (see September 18 blog LINK) a new try for Redflex was defeated:

From the September 18th SCPR blog:

Last night at Canton City Council Mayor William J. Healy suffered another damaging political blow.

His "crown jewel" piece of retrenching Canton finances - the installation of Reflex camera traffic control devices - went down in defeat largely at the hands of four new members of council:  Fisher (the 5th), Mariol (the 7th), Mack (the 8th) and Morris (the 9th).

The vote:

NO:  Fisher, Mack, Mariol, Morris, Cirelli, Griffin and Hawk (7).

YES:  Babcock, Cole, Dougherty, Smith and West (5).

But West and Healy were not quite done (LINK November 20, 2012 blog).

Apparently, since the September defeat they have been trying to figure out a way to get the Redflex foot in the door.

Hence the pilot project that West withdrew last night.

The only thing that remains but seems to be on life support is the school bus idea.

If he comes back with that idea but with a company other than Redflex, it is hard to see how council can turn him down.

But does he have the stamina for yet another effort?

Yours truly for one admires the grit and determination that Councilman West has shown in what he says is his effort to make his ward and Canton safer.

There are a number of Canton councilpersons who seem to be vegetating.

But certainly not Tom West.  At least, of late.

One has to ask whether or not what the SCPR perceives to be an "of late - resurgent Tom West" is the real deal or is it just an attention-getting device to get him reelected.

Has he become a spunky Tom West too late?

WHAT WAS UP AT JASMINE'S ASIAN BISTRO (02/11/2013) WITH BUTTERWORTH, COLE & HEALY?

Whether there is anything political to it or not, when a former councilman (Butterworth) sits down with the mayor of Canton (Healy) and a current city councilman (Cole), people are going to speculate that some sort of deal is being cut.

Former councilman Mark Butterworth (a Republican - Ward 8), has filed petitions to run against the man (Democrat Edmond Mack) who defeated him in his bid for reelection on November 8, 2011.

So, of course, the sit down which occurred at Jasmine's Asian Bistro located on 30th Street is going to create a political buzz.

Especially when:

• Butterworth is taking on one of four troublesome councilpersons (Fisher [5th], Mariol [7th], Mack [8th] and Morris [9th] to Mayor Healy and his chief ally on council (Cole), and
• Cole himself is taking on a second of the four troublesomes (Mack).

The SCPR did contact Mark Butterworth to get his side of the story.

He tells The Report that "No," Joe Cole and Mayor Healy did not hand him a manila envelope containing his marching orders for his November, 2013 campaign to reclaim the 8th Ward seat.

So whom contacted whom to set up the meeting?

Butterworth's answer was forthcoming about two or three minutes after the question was posed after some dithering by Butterworth on whether or not he could recall who made the initial contact.

Butterworth says that he had heard that Cole was experiencing personal difficulties that Butterworth himself had gone through and that he had contacted Cole (about February 8th) to see whether or not he could be of some guidance on the matter.

Hmm?

As readers of the SCPR know, yours truly is a devotee to political competition as the cure to a lot of bad politics and bad governance.

When Butterworth was elected in 2009 as the lone Republican on council, The Report was pleased and expectant that - though just one person - he would put together a sort of "loyal opposition" plank to Healy administration/Democratic council member proposals.

However, in The Report's judgment, Butterworth was not up to the task.

Oh, he did have convictions about this issue or that issue.  But he seemed to lack the courage of the convictions.

One of his big issues was getting a measure through council for Cantonians to decide whether or not the city should become a charter city.  However, Councilman West (chairman of the Judiciary Committee) proved too much of a hurdle for the-then eighth ward councilman.

Other matters came along during his term that the SCPR had gathered were important to Butterworth, but seemingly time and time again, one by one they faded into being political mist.

On the other hand, his successor Edmond Mack picked up with an agenda and has been able to forge a political alliance of sorts with Councilmen Fisher (Ward 5), Mariol (Ward 7) and Morris (Ward 9).

What the SCPR has been impressed with is the coming together of these four in a collective effort to put their heads together to help solve Canton's neighborhood problems.  Problems fueled by Canton's burgeoning and chronic crime malady, notwithstanding Mayor Healy's "zero-tolerance-to-crime" first term political campaign promise which The Report and many others think has been a huge failure.

The Report has dubbed the four as being the "four young turks." 

The four have been a real thorn in the side of the Healy administration and a couple of Healy's most loyal council members (West and Smith) who have openly attacked (The Report's take) the four during a council session on the four having held a consolidated ward meeting with their constituents.

Being the pure driven politician he is, one might well think Healy would be behind a Mark Butterworth (though a Republican) running against Mack and his loyalist Cole running against Morris.

Butterworth flat-out denies that such is the case with him.

He owns up to not handling his interaction with the overwhelmingly Democratic council/Democratic mayor in his 2010-11 stint on council well.

Because both Mack and Mariol were part of the collection of Canton politicians present at Jasmine's on February 11th, the SCPR believes that Butterworth's denial of deal making with Healy/Cole is credible.

It would be rather ridiculous to be plotting political strategy as your opponent sat nearby, no?

At the very least, though, it was politically unwise for him to be seen in public with Cole and Healy.

It was totally predictable that the Jasmine's meet up would set off speculation that Healy was behind Butterworth's filing.

Healy has a history of doing things such as this - witness his involvement in trying to get Councilman Hawk defeated in Ward One (denied by Healy) and his attempt to become a power player in the make-up of the Stark County Democratic Party Central Committee in the last election cycle for committeepersons.

The SCPR believes he aspires to be Stark County's Democratic Party's kingmaker.

Back to Butterworth and his trying to reclaim the Ward 8 seat.

In so many words, Butterworth told the SCPR that if elected he will be a councilman who scrutinizes everything brought forward in council deliberations and proposals, either by the mayor or the Democratic supermajority.

And, he added, it would not be outside the realm of possibility, that if elected he would seek to join in with Fisher, Mariol and Morris (if he is reelected) as one of the four young turks.

Does The Report believe him?

Not really.

He will want to be a different type councilman but the SCPR does not see him as having the strength of personality to persevere on his vision for Canton in the face of inducements/pressures from Healy or his fellow council members.

Councilman Mack, in contrast, has demonstrated in this term of council by real action what former Councilman Butterworth aspired to during his 2010-11 cycle.

In his meeting with Cole and, perhaps, Healy; one should not totally dismiss the notion that it was part of a deal being cut as absurd as the setting was.

One would hardly expect Butterworth to fess up, if such were the case.

The SCPR's take on Butterworth's description of the conversation was that nearly everything was of a personal nature and very little was in fact political talk.

That is hard to believe.

Get a bunch of politicians in a room and they are going to talk about everything else but politics?

Where did you say that swamp land you wanted to sell is located?