(VIDEOS OF UNION LEADER SCIURY & COUNCILMAN COLE) CANTON CITY COUNCIL MAJORITY SHOWS DISRESPECT FOR STARK CO. ORGANIZED LABOR?

At last night's Canton City Council meeting Hall of Fame AFL-CIO president Dan Sciury was indignant (to use a nice word) with council as he scolded (another nice word) them during "Public Speaks" for voting last week to spend $25,000 of the money of Canton, OHIO citizens in a "promote Canton, Ohio marketing initiative" to possibly (i.e. who really knows) provide jobs for workers located in Canton, CHINA.

Here is a video of Sciury's admonition:



Stark County unions have poured mega bucks into the collective political campaigns of Democratic members of council over decades and decades only to seemingly get kicked in the teeth by the council beneficiaries of union largesse.

Only 5th Ward Councilman Kevin Fisher (new elected in 2011) stood by organized labor in voting "no" on Ordinance 61/2012.

The SCPR has to believe that council President Alan Schulman too would have voted no had there been a tie (the only time the president votes) as he has always been the most vocal pro-organized-labor member of council.

The lopsided 11 yes and 1 no vote occurred notwithstanding Sciury's lobbying council to reject the proposal days before the vote was called.  He pled with a primary proponent of the ordinance; namely, Councilman Joe Cole (who joined with the author of the legislation, according to Cole, Councilman David Dougherty of the 6th Ward who serves as the majority leader in a council that has no Republicans) to stop the project.

But to no avail.  To The Report it is no surprise that Cole is not moved by a "for union jobs" argument.  After all, he is the principal of a charter school which has no union teachers.

Here is a video of Cole's (last night) weak defense of the out-of-area contract, to wit:  "this was the only full service vendor we could find."



Sciury later told yours truly that Cole's point was utter nonsense.  That he can provide council with the names of companies who do full service promotional services work.

Joining in with council members was Mayor William J. Healy, II in that he had to sign the legislation for it to become the law of Canton, Ohio.

He gave the lame reason why the legislation got his signature:  "in the rush of winding up the meeting."  Really?  Obviously, the mayor thinks everybody is totally stupid.

The SCPR has underway a compilation of campaign finance contributions to Healy going all the way back to when he first sought public office in Stark County.

So far the consolidation of Healy's campaign contributions goes back through the successful re-election bid for a second term as mayor.

Healy collected a whopping $70,000 plus from Canton/Stark County/Ohio/USA in campaign contributions!

He signed the legislation inadvertently (i.e. "in the rush of winding up.")

Hmm?

A $70,000 plus contribution and you can't keep track of a piece of legislation that you know your union friends do not like?

He did promise to push for council to revisit the matter.  In a post-council-meeting with Councilman Cole, the SCPR did not get the impression that Cole was in favor of undoing the ordinance.  But he did not completely rule it out.

So what are the unions going to do about Council's "in your face?"

Probably very little.

Unions are so tied to Democrats that they have nowhere else to go and accordingly they get treated as the proverbial "step-child."

They do have opportunities.  For instance, they could draw back on their support of Healy's sister Joyce Healy-Abrams in her quest to unseat Republican Congressman Bob Gibbs.

But do not look for them to do it.  Healy and Canton council members may use and abuse them, however, it would be quite a step for them

Democrats have unions exactly where they want them:  no place to go.

Beyond the jobs for unions question are a number of other issues with the expenditure of $25,000.

First, what about the point Sciury made:  jobs for Canton and Stark County at large even if they are non-union jobs.

Canton Council and the Healy administration makes a huge public relations to-do out of "new" jobs brought to Canton.

Then to support sending Canton taxpayer money out of the city perhaps all the way to the likes of Canton, China?  Hmm?  Will that play with the citizens of Canton, Ohio?

Second, as Councilman Fisher pointed out to the SCPR, how is it that an administration and council who has a looming $4 million plus budget shortfall to make up come 2013 can spend $25,000 on anything but absolutely essential city services?

Of course, this is not the only glaring inconsistency that Canton government has engaged in lately.  Last year Canton Council approved an ordinance with the blessing of the Healy administration that resulted in tens of thousands of dollars for pay increases for Mayor Healy, other members of his administration and council members.

It appears to The Report that Healy and council are building up to asking voters to increase Canton's city income tax from 2% to 2.5% in this November's election.

Hmm?

Multiple thousands upon thousands of dollars being spend on non-essentials and you're are asking for a tax increase?

For the SCPR what is happening in Canton government is a consequence of the arrogance of one-party-rule.

Even the union-bankrollers of the Democrats' absolute control of the seat of Stark County government are powerless to check the cockamaimee ideas that come from the likes of Dougherty and Cole.

WHO IS TRYING TO SABOTAGE THE UNION/STARK DEMS RECONCILIATION? CONFIRMATION THAT COUNCILMAN-AT-LARGE JOE COLE IS VULNERABLE TO DEFEAT?

Last Thursday, the SCPR got a telephone call from a prominent Stark County Democrat alerting The Report to a meeting (called by Business Agent Dave Kirven) that was to take place at Local #94, Plumbers and Pipefitters union hall located at 3919 - 13th St SW, Canton at 10:00 AM on Friday, and that it was about a major shakeup that was being hatched up in the way of a change of leadership of the Stark County Democratic Party.

The caller was pushing hard for the SCPR to show up unannounced with camera in hand to film the makings of a political coup d'etat.

As yours truly listened, skepticism, if not outright disbelief, intuitively set in.

After mulling over the sketchy/vague information being presented, The Report concluded that something obviously was not right about "the scoop" being offered.

Oh, there there was definitely an agenda being played out by the caller and his supposed union member consort who was described by the caller as being a person who did not want his union used to conspire a political takeover.

But the "I've been around the block a time or two" SCPR was not about to bite.

As it turns out, it appears to The Report, after contacting and conversing with the three principals (AFL-CIO Hall of Fame president Dan Sciury, Kirven and Chairman Randy Gonzalez of the Stark Co. Dems), that the supposed conspiratorial "let's take over the party" meeting was anything but that.

In fact, the impetus for the meeting was to figure out ways and means to elect Democrats to Canton City Council who are labor-friendly.  Of particular concern to organized labor is the fate of Councilman-at-Large Joe Cole in the upcoming election, who is thought to be in political trouble in the light of polling which is said to exist to the effect that  he is running neck-and-neck with former 8th Ward Councilwoman Rosemary Diamond.

Mayor Healy was present.  He is said to hold Councilman Cole in the highest regard and wanted to be part of the brainstorming to figure out a campaign strategy to get Cole by Diamond in next month's election.

Another quest of the union/Dems conclave was to coordinate activities to work together to defeat Issue 2 (the anti-collective bargaining bill passed out of the Ohio General Assembly as Senate Bill 5).

It is well known by political insiders that Hall of Fame AFL-CIO President Dan Sciury and Stark Dems President Randy Gonzalez were once bitter enemies.

The bad blood goes back to a labor candidate for Jackson Township trustee (favored, of course, by Stark County organized labor) running for trustee and Gonzalez (a former trustee; now Jackson Township fiscal officer) supporting her opponents (two different elections).

To top off the trustee candidate union affront in Jackson, Gonzalez's political confidant and predecessor as chairman - Johnnie A. Maier, Jr.- (currently Massillon clerk of courts), decided about five years ago that it was time for Billy Sherer, Sr. (having been on the board 13 years) to give up his post as a Democratic Stark County Board of Elections representative in favor of local attorney Sam Ferruccio.

Maier claimed that the move was being made on the recommendation of the then Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.  According to Maier, she felt it was important to have an attorney on the board to protect the rights of Democratic voters.  Brunner, when queried by media, denied Maier's account.

Stark's organized labor had come to think of the seat that Sherer occupied to be a labor seat and Maier's action (which Sherer went along with) caused a further deterioration between the traditional relationship between Democrats and unionists.

In fact, Mike McElfresh of the East Central Building Trades (also of the IBEW) ran a losing effort against Ferruccio.

But Dan Sciury in yesterday's conversation shared with The Report that the union/Stark County Democratic Party relationship is on the mend.

He admits that some hurt remains, but that it is the best interest of all that union members and Democrats work together on common interests such as electing Democrats who are more prone to favor union interests and, of course, bonding in opposition to issues such as Issue 2.

For his part, Local #94 Business Agent Dave Kirven put the purpose of the meeting this way:

When yours truly contacted Chairman Gonzalez (also later in the day on Friday), he was flabbergasted to hear of union dissatisfaction with his leadership, which, of course, turned out to be unfounded.

It is apparent that The Report's source and his anonymous "union" contact did/do have "an axe to grind." 

It will be interesting to see whether or not the unions and the Stark County Dems can keep things together in the light of the apparent (internal to the union) effort to sabotage their reconciliation process.