HEALY POWER GRAB TO RESULT IN CANTON-STARK CO. CRIME LAB REVIEW?

 UPDATED AT 10:50 AM

The Stark County Political Report is convinced that Canton mayor William J. Healy, II has been plotting a takeover (in terms of his power as chief executive) of the Canton-Stark County Crime Lab.

In the opinion of the SCPR, Mayor William J. Healy, II has an insatiable appetite to be "the-man-in-charge."

For other Stark County political entities attempting to work collaboratively with the Healy administration on:

• 9-1-1 emergency call receiving/dispatch, 
• building code enforcement or 
• health services, 

the bottom line is always going to be - for the mayor -  focused on this question:  Is he going to being in charge at the end of the day?

As naive as it was for him to think that his administration could revise the job description of the director of the lab and appoint former chief deputy Rick Perez (a long term personal/political pal of Healy safety director Tom Ream) to the post, the mayor does have the all consuming ambition and arrogance of imagined political heft to have thought he could get away with it.

Healy and Ream not only adulterated the qualifications to crime lab director job description; they also removed (as authorized by Ohio law) civil service protection for the position.

In an interesting twist, Healy then threw Ream under the bus when there was a public outcry against the Perez appointment. One can't be sympathetic with Ream.  He had to go into the safety director position knowing who he was dealing with.

In taking civil service protection away from the crime lab directorship, you have a scientific person and her management of a scientific operation subject to the whims of a politician?

And not just any politician, but one named William J. Healy, II?

Wow!  Watch out, no?

The SCPR has written often and LOUDLY that Healy is Stark County's quintessential political power monger.

And he is exceptionally ambitious.  The Report believes he is biding his time for something more powerful and prestigious than being mayor of Canton provides.

Yours truly has learned that Healy recently met with local McDonald's entrepreneur and franchise holder Guy Cucchini (among other well-heeled local businessmen) in an effort to get their support for his prospective run for Ohio secretary of state.

Healy's pitch to Cucchini et al?

"I am one of the finalists that the Ohio Democratic Party is considering for the race?"

Anyone who knows the mayor, surely understands that the mayor is looking forward to the next political gig as a step upward on the stairway to political stardom.

Moving on will put the Canton's troubles behind him leaving the clean up to others.

The Rep's Matt Rink recently wrote and insightful article that documents Healy's philosophically based drive to power (Mayor has power to hire, fire declassified workers, February 17, 2013).

His compulsion to power has never been more manifest and obvious than in the Perez caper.

In secretly (the change appeared out of nowhere during the last week of January of this year) working with Ream to change the director job description to one that Perez (otherwise unqualified because he lacking a science-based college degree) became qualified, Healy may have opened a can of political worms that he may come to regret having opened.

The question now becomes:  can he conjure up a bit more of political Houdini to escape a self-generated problem unscathed?

Healy has been in one political scrape after another after another after another in his five years as mayor.  But because of his obvious rather accomplished "sleight-of-hand" political maneuvering skills, he, like the grand magical master Houdini, escapes as disaster is about to overtake him.

While he appears to avoid personal political disaster, the city of Canton continues its spiral downward.

Not content to limiting his being a drag on Canton, his actions in relation to the crime lab has the potential to adversely affect outside-of-Canton Stark County-based law enforcement capability and, by extension, the safety of all Stark Countians.

But one wouldn't know Canton is in a downward spiral due in large part to his deficient leadership from Healy's continuous spinning of the state of the city to whomever will listen.

In another two to three weeks, "His Magic" will be front and center with his annual State of the City sideshow (reportedly to be held at the Pro Football Hall of Fame facilities).

This year will it feature showing off a "Hail, Mary!" in a quest to divert public attention away from his botched crime lab operation?

While he continues to survive, he does leave wreckage in his wake.

This time could it be the continued existence of the Canton-Stark County Crime Lab (CSCCL)?

For years the SCPR has been hearing about the excellence of the CSCCL.  Nary a critic in sight.  And thought to be a crown jewel in Stark County law enforcement's arsenal of weapons to bring the county's criminals to justice.

But with the revelation of the Healy/Ream political power play and the concomitant scrutiny of the internal workings of the lab that the power grab has brought on, is the lab in jeopardy of becoming history?

Stephanie Ujhelyi of The Alliance Review (February 15th edition) wrote an prize-winning-esque article (in the view of the SCPR) which The Report recently brought to the attention of Stark County Councils of Government (SCOG) executive committee chairman Tom Bernabei.

Bernabei is also president of the Stark County Board of Commissioners.

The Ujhelyi piece appears to have raised his interest in perhaps pursuing a thorough review as to the continued viability of the CSCCL as a SCOG project in the light of marked improvement of the effectiveness, efficiency and the expedition of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) crime lab work an outline of which was sketched out in her report:

• A turnaround time of 20 days on DNA processing, despite a marked increase in volume of testing done,
• forensic biology and DNA combined tests improved from 125.5 to 19.75 days; 
• chemistry from 42.85 to 10.49 days; CODIS [DNA indexing] from 23.86 to 7.83 days; and 
• firearms from 35.33 to 15.73 days.

How was Attorney General Mike DeWine able to dramatically improve the performance of the BCI laboratory division?

Again, according to Ujhelyi:

• DeWine implemented a “three-pronged” approach to improving turnaround: 
• [a]dding 21 scientists to the BCI staff; 
• doubling BCI’s number of DNA testing and combined DNA index systems (CODIS) robots, and 
• establishing a continuous quality improvement process.

Currently, Stark Countians, through state of Ohio local government fund funding of Canton; the Stark County commissioners and Stark County's remaining cities, villages and townships ante up about $1.2 million annually to fund operations of the crime lab.

As mentioned earlier in this blog, the CSCCL has been a point of pride of Stark County law enforcement for its excellence in enhancing the ability of local police departments to quickly obtain highly competent scientific analysis of collected crime scene evidence utilizing the lab's equipment (95% owned by Stark County) and facilities to process the evidence through:

• chemical,
• biological,
• DNA,
• firearms,
• fingerprint,
• polygraph,
• document, and
• trace analysis 

About 33% of SCOG's crime lab funds come from Canton, 33% of them from the Stark County general fund and 33% from the remaining cities, villages and townships that make up the county.

To boot, more than half of the crime lab's work is done for non-Canton Stark County cities, villages and townships.

Ujhelyi interest got piqued because of an Alliance case, to wit (from her piece):

Alliance city Safety-Service Director W. John Gross had pointed to a 14-month-old “theft by deception” case that remains unresolved, as city police continue to await results from the Canton-Stark County Crime Lab.

According to the report, officers responded in the morning of Nov. 16, 2011 to a downtown antique shop, where the owner reported purchasing coins for $1,800 that turned out to be counterfeit.

Taken into evidence were 80 counterfeit U.S. dollars, a three-ring binder and a handwritten receipt, according to the property report.

Additional supplements stated that Detective Donald Wensel made contact with the crime lab on June 4, 2012; Aug. 30, 2012, and Monday, suspending the investigation earlier this week pending receipt of the fingerprint analysis results.

Bernabei told The Review on Thursday that Foster informed him the silver dollar evidence was processed, and Alliance police should expect a report next week with the findings.

Hmm?

This kind of result from Stark County's prized crime lab?

Well, the SCPR is learning that at least going back to a Canton Safety Director Tom Ream's firing of former director Robert Budgake in January, 2012 (in a Canton city government fiasco in which some 30 or so city retire/rehire employees were fired because of allegations that the rehiring was not lawfully done) and perhaps going back as far as eighteen months, the quality of CSCCL work has been slipping in terms of its backlog.

Moreover, Ujhelyi reports that lab criminalist Michael Short was fired five months after the Budgake firing on allegations that "he had processed multiple gunshot residue cases at the same time" which, of course, raises questions of the quality of work.

On top of all of this, coming full cycle, you have the Healy/Ream political machinations (i.e. revising the job description in bringing Ream pal Perez on board) and thereby possibly jeopardizing the accreditation of the city-county lab in their having eliminated an existing lab director scientific degree requirement so that Perez could qualify.

Like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, Healy was apparently contrite at the quarterly SCOG executive committee meeting of February 13th (LINK to prior SCPR blog) at having caused all the furor in the Perez hiring effective February 5th (which he undid by gaining Perez's resignation on February 12th).

If Bernabei and SCOG follows through with a complete and thorough review of the CSCCL structure and operations (with special emphasis on its effectiveness, efficiencies and expeditiousness), there may be a silver lining to the Healy machiavellian operation.

SCOG did take the immediate step hiring a qualified person to run the lab.  In an impressive but studied reaction to the Healy generated fiasco, SCOG reached out to CSCCL quality control manager Michele Foster to take over the directorship of the lab.

It appears that she will continue under civil service protection at least for 120 days.

It is the SCPR's position that in view of "the Perez affair," SCOG should insist that so long as Healy is mayor of Canton that if the Canton-Stark County Crime Lab is going to continue to exist that the director have civil service protection.

Moreover, the relationship between SCOG and the city of Canton on management of the lab be structured so that there is in place a unanimity between the two entities on any decisions on the hiring, firing, job descriptions and compensation of crime lab employees.

Lastly, the SCPR strongly urges SCOG to pursue a complete and thorough evaluation of the relative merits of the Canton-Stark County Crime Lab compared to the Ohio BCI laboratory division (i.e. an "apples to apples comparison).

Doing so will enable Stark's leadership to make a totally informed decision on which provides the very best in crime scene evidence analysis so that Stark County's citizens have state-of-the-art and first-rate competent support for the prosecution of Stark County-sited criminals.

A big plus about going BCI (which is used by 90% of Ohio's police jurisdictions) is that it is "free" of cost to its local government users.

But as one police official tells the SCPR, the CSCCL has been a very comfortable fit for local police agencies and going to BCI should only be done if there are clear advantages to doing so which outweigh the monetary savings.

The SCPR endorses this point of view.

Most important of all, SCOG owes it to we Stark Countians to give the utmost attention and priority and urgency to ensuring our safety by having a crime lab support system in place that equips the Stark County law enforcement team to put the bad guys and gals away.

(VIDEOS: 3 CITIZENS, SCHULMAN, REAM) CANTONIANS "UP IN ARMS" AT LAST NIGHT'S CITY COUNCIL MEETING OVER RAMPANT CRIME PROBLEM & LACK OF POLICE RESPONSE! ALSO, THOSE 1,000 VXI JOBS: THEIR NOT ALL THEY ARE "CRACKED UP TO BE?"

The Stark County Political Report has come to expect the unexpected at Canton City Council.

Last night was no exception.

The tone at the meeting was a la Howard Beale in the classic movie Network (1976):  "I'm mad as hell and I not going to take this anymore."

The Report highlights three citizens who stepped up to the lectern each with his/her version, more or less, of being mad as hell.

First up, Mike Myers owner of "Your" Pizza Shop, 420 12th St., NW, Canton.  In his presentation, Myers relates the following:

• His business at Cleveland and 12th St NW  (Tom West's Ward 2) was robbed on Sunday, December 2nd,
• He feels like his business is located in a war zone (Myers is a 20 year Army veteran),
• "A week later [after the robbery], and [he] still has not seen a detective,"
• He's had to make calls to people in the Canton Police Department "because nobody is doing anything,"
• "We're not going to get people down [to downtown Canton] until we clean these streets up,"
• Anyone can get on YouTube and hear the exact same lyrics as being descriptive of how the robbery of his business on the 2nd went down,
• "The detectives don't have time for me because I'm just a little guy."

Here is Myers on video:



After Myers spoke, Mayor Healy immediately got up out of his chair and went to talk to Myers as well he should have.

As Cantonians know, when he ran for mayor in 2007, a main theme for him as a political issue during his campaign against incumbent Republican mayor Janet Creighton, was Zero Tolerance of crime in the Hall of Fame City.

Early on in his administration for non-specific reasons there was a dip in crime (at least according to FBI statistics) in Canton.  Of course, being the political opportunist the mayor is, he was quick to claim that the lesser crime numbers were because of his administration's improved policing over what existed in the Creighton administration.

After 2009, there is no mention by Healy on Canton's website about reduced crime in Canton on account of his administration's policing policy.

Now all we hear from the Healy administration on the obvious policing deficit is a series of excuses such as:

• there being a shortage of funds to hire policemen with,
• the loss of 200 beds at the Stark County jail due to the county's financial crisis of 2011 which means that many of those charged with crimes remained on the streets.

But those sound hollow in the light of what Mike Myers and others (including Ward 9 Councilman Frank Morris) are describing about police deficiencies.

Here is another video of Myers meeting with the press after the meeting and after he had talked to the mayor.



At the end of council meeting, Safety Director Thomas Ream made brief remarks on a Repository article which inaccurately stated the number of beds that were lost to area police agencies during Stark County's financial crisis in 2000 and also made a response to Myers' outrage.



Second up, Vicki Boatright owner of BZTAT Studios in the Arts in Stark district of downtown Canton.  Here is the gist of her statement:

• While she agrees with Mayor Healy that Canton has lured VXI and its 1,000 employees to downtown Canton directly across from her business is something to celebrate, there is another less attractive side to the matter, she says.  For example:
• having 1,000 people camped out on her doorstep,
• the employees "are anything but professional and loiter on Fourth Street across from [her] home,"
• "they are extremely loud and disruptive,"
• "they speak in vulgar terms" and she goes on to describe other offensive conduct,
• She makes the point that one cannot have 1,000 people located in a confined area without consequences,
• The consequence is that "there is a large, unruly crowd on Fourth Street every day,"
• She has spoken with management at VXI, with her councilman (Thomas West) and Healy administration employee Derek Gordon (in September); all to no avail,
• She doesn't want the employees gone but she does want their conduct managed so as not to be troublesome to folks like herself,
• She says that the behavior threatens to destroy downtown and perhaps drive other businesses away.

Here is the Boatright video:



Boatright did get a strong statement of empathy and support from Council President Allen Schulman.



But Healy?  Nothing!

Wouldn't want to offend VXI, heh?

Third up,  John Anderson, owner of Anderson's Flowers, 12th & Cleveland NW.  He was present to express concern about the experience of Mike Myers.



One can sense that more and more Cantonians are getting angrier and angrier, madder and madder and what seems to be the Healy administration's ineptitude at getting Canton's mushrooming crime problem under control.

The "politicizing" worm has turned on Healy and now he must "pay the piper" for having made it a political issue back in 2007 through 2009.

Cantonians increasingly are saying that they are mad as hell and they are not going to take it anymore!

The consequences?

Mayor William J. Healy's future political ambitions are in deep, deep trouble?

(VIDEO: MACK, COLE, HAWK, WEST & REAM) STARK LEGISLATIVE DELEGATION & THE OHIO GENERAL ASSEMBLY "AWOL" ON CONTROLLING INTERNET CAFE "GAMES OF CHANCE?"

 UPDATE: AUGUST 07, 2012 AT 11:00 AM

LINK to press release.

ORIGINAL BLOG

It appears to the SCPR that Canton City Council (for one of  a number of Stark County local governments), if council got its way, would like to see the State of Ohio ban or limit new Internet cafes which seek licensing by the state after a moratorium in place expires on June 30, 2013.   Many local government officials believe that they engage in running "games of chance" which is a violation of Ohio law.

 Reasons vary for the opposition.  They include:

• of course, the violation of Ohio law (a misdemeanor) on games of chance not authorized by statutes or the Constitution of Ohio,
• citizens who can least afford it losing money,
• the cost to local taxpayer to investigate and prosecute cafes alleged to be operating outside the bounds of the law, and
• historically, illegal gambling activities are thought by many in law enforcement to be connected with other types of criminal activity within society.

A March 23, 2012 memorandum from Canton City Council Judiciary Committee chairman Thomas West (D - Ward 2) to Councilman Edmond Mack (D - Ward 8) cites the following as Stark County crimes occurring proximate to Internet cafe sites:

• Dec. 8, 2011: Attempted armed robbery and shooting at “Lucky Heaven 777,” 2123 Columbus Rd. NE in Plain Township.
• Sept. 1, 2011: Armed robbery of “Phone Time Sweepstakes,” 3820 Lincoln Way E. in Perry Township.
• May 14, 2011: Armed robbery of “Jackpot Internet Café,” 1186 W. State St., Alliance.
• May 4, 2011: Armed robbery of “777 Skill Games,” 3007 Harrisburg Rd. NE, Plain
  Township.
• March 23, 2011: Armed robbery and shooting at “Stay N Play Skill Games,” 4026
  Cleveland Ave. NW.

Here is the video discussion of the Internet cafe issue at a council work session immediately before its April 30, 2012 regular meeting. 

At the post-work session meeting, council did pass (at its regular meeting) a resolution  (by a unanimous voice vote) which places a Canton moratorium on any new city licenses being issued through October 30, 2012.

If banning them is to become a reality, it seems that the council itself is going to have "to take the bull by the horns" and ban them as Ohio is unlikely to do anything other than set up licensing standards for them.   Some commentators think that local governments will have the power to ban them even if Ohio legislates on the matter in terms of licensing and regulating them.  (Reference LINK)

Ohio does have a moratorium any "new" cafes coming into existence after June 11, 2012.  The moratorium lasts until June 30, 2013 (HB 386).

However, it is more than a little bit uncertain that Ohio will regulate Internet cafes and highly unlikely that they will be banned by statutory fiat.

To the SCPR, the prevalent attitude with both the Legislature and the Ohio attorney general's office is that it is up to local law enforcement to take existing law and apply it case by case to businesses operating as Internet cafes.

And if that maintains, and Ohio does not enact a regulatory regime, then Canton and Stark County face the prospect of being flooded with new cafes after the state moratoriums expire inasmuch as neighboring communities (e.g Akron [Summit County]) do regulate the licensing of Internet cafes.

Attorney General Mike DeWine published a list of 772 affidavit complying Internet cafes according the following language contained in HB 386, to wit:

Within thirty days after the effective date of this section, a sweepstakes establishment conducting a sweepstakes through the use of a sweepstakes terminal device in existence and operating before the effective date of this section shall file an affidavit with the Attorney General certifying that the establishment was in existence and operating before the effective date of this section and indicating the address of the establishment.

Here is a list of Stark County located cafes filing an affidavit with DeWine's office:

And specifically in the city of Canton:

But DeWine is being criticized for the "mixed messages" his office is sending on the issue, to wit (LINK to reporting newspaper): 

Fremont Attorney Joe Albrechta, who represented the owner of Player's Club on now-dismissed criminal charges, said he has seen conflicting messages on the legality of sweepstakes cafes from DeWine.

"It seems to depend on which audience he's speaking to," he said. "Local communities were getting mixed signals from the state."

Assistant City Prosecutor Jeff Kane decided earlier this month not to refile criminal charges against owners and staff previously charged with misdemeanor gambling. Kane agreed that a lack of support from DeWine hurt the city's attempt at criminal prosecution.
"We never really got any backing from the attorney general's office," he said. "A solid opinion from them would have helped in pursuing these."

DeWine said he believes most of the sweepstakes operations in the state are operating illegally. Though he said his office will assist local authorities with an investigation, if asked, the attorney general said he is not providing advice to police in the state about what to do about their local cafes.

"It's up to the local enforcement agency," he said. "They make that call."

Local legislators, Scott Oelslager (R - Ohio Senate - 29th), Christina Hagan (R - Ohio House - 50th), Kirk Schuring (R -Ohio House - 51st [to be the 48th]) and Stephen Slesnick (D - 52nd [to be the 49th]) haven't lifted a finger to help Stark County political subdivisions dealing with the proliferating  Internet cafe problem.

In a sense, they are AWOL, "absent without official leave."  Ohioans and Stark Countians expect them and their peers in the Ohio General Assembly to deal forthrightly and officially with the problems facing the citizenry.

Slesnick (as Canton's representative) bears primary responsibility for the Canton aspect of the problem.  The least that he and the others should do is to sign on as co-sponsors.  As to be seen in the graphics below, not one Stark County legislator name appears.

Why haven't they, at a minimum, signed on?

Note that the two bills under consideration (House Bill 195 - introduced April 12, 211 [well over a year ago] and Senate Bill 317 - March 12, 2012) are on a track to go nowhere in the immediate future.

Here what Republican Rep. Rex Damschroder had to say recently:

"I don't think you're going to see any movement on it until after we go back to session, or maybe not until the next general assembly."

No help from the Legislature, including Stark's local representatives.

No help from the Ohio attorney general.

So it is a "Yogi Berra-esque deja-vu all over again" as in the state's undermining of local government as with the nose dive that Ohio's funding of local governments has taken since Governor John Kasich has taken office, that is to say:

• Local Gov't Fund funding cut in half, 
• Estate Tax monies being dried up effective 01/01/2013, and 
• Ohio not keeping its promise to hold local governments harmless on the termination of the tangible personal properly tax)

With its inaction on HB 195 and SB 317, Ohio adds the burden and high expense of  locals enforcing State of Ohio laws.

Hmm?

Go figure!

IS HEALY HOLDING STARK COUNTY'S 9-1-1 REBUILD HOSTAGE TO USING COUNTY FUNDS TO HELP SOLVE THE CITY OF CANTON'S FINANCIAL PROBLEMS?

It may be "a marriage made in heaven."  That is, the political marriage between Canton Mayor William J. Healy, II and Canton Safety Director Thomas Ream.

While Healy could not get along with "men of their own minds" (Tom Bernabei [former services director/chief of staff] and Tom Nesbitt [former safety director]), he apparently has found his spiritual twin in current Safety Director Tom Ream (a long time Canton policeman) who seems to mirror Healy's cocky ways.

Until recently Stark County officials working on a revamp of Stark County's broken 9-1-1 call receiving/dispatch operation (since July, 2007) thought they were on track to have a vastly improved system up and running by May, 2011.

Well, you can scratch May, 2011 and plug in, let's see:  May, 2012? - perhaps.  That's what project manager? Joe Concatto tells the SCPR.

While the total blame does not lie with Canton Mayor William J. Healy, II and his sidekick and Canton Safety Director Tom Ream, a good part of it does (in the opinion of the SCPR).

Concatto and his fellows (Randy Gonzalez [Stark Council of Governments Governance Committee - SCOG - chair], Tim Warstler [Director - Stark Emergency Management Agency]) appear to The Report to be astounded by the actions of Healy and Ream in backing the Canton Communications Center (CCC) out of the proposed rehab whereby the CCC and the current Stark County Sheriff dispatch centers would serve has the hub of a centralized system which would bring Stark County into a "state-of-the-art" emergency call receiving and dispatch operation which would be capable of locating the whereabouts of cellphone callers:  an essential attribute given the proliferation of cellphone use by Americans.

What's more, no one seems to know why Healy is acting the way he is other to say (by some, not all) that Healy is being Healy (which, by the definition of the SCPR, is to say "being consummately political."

The Report has a theory. 

As everyone knows, Canton is in a financial crisis which Canton City Council President Allen Schulman has described as being "a death spiral."  And The Report believes that Schulman is right on the mark.

An apt description of Healy these days would be that he is flailing about, to and fro, looking for something, anything to somehow miraculously pull Canton out of the spiral.

Somewhere along the line, The Report speculates,  Healy had an "aha moment."  It dawned on him that given Canton's dire financial straits, Canton was being way too accommodating to and beneficent to SCOG in agreeing to bring the CCC into the SCOG at virtually no cost to SCOG.  He had to be thinking that there was money to made for Canton to help in solving its financial mess.  What better way than to find "creative" ways to tap into the money sits in waiting (e.g. residual sales tax money, 9-1-1 wireless find money, et cetera) to build and support the new 9-1-1 system.

And there is a sub-theory.

Both Healy and Ream are viewed by many who know them to be arrogant.  Accordingly, everything that gets done in Stark County that touches upon Canton must be controlled by Canton.

To go one step further, The Report believes that the Healy Plan on 9-1-1 may include a circle no wider than himself and his trusted loyalist Tom Ream.  Others around them have to have their suspicions, but it is entirely likely that the Healy Plan is a tightly held secret.

The SCPR for one does not think there is anything wrong with Healy looking out for Canton along financial lines.  There is a problem if he thinks that Canton can be "the tail wagging the dog" in terms of controlling everything in Stark County.

For him to change from "anything Canton do and there is enough benefit to Cantonians from a revamped countywide 9-1-1 system that it is an even exchange" to "hold on a minute, there is premium money to be made for Canton" reaffirms to The Report how utterly politically conniving and manipulative Healy is.

This is where the rub is so far as the SCPR is concerned.

Healy is holding all of this close to the vest in saying that Canton cannot act until his law director (Joe Martuccio) and safety director (Tom Ream) sign off on the current plan (the major piece of which is for Canton to agree to lease the CCC to SCOG for $1 per year for 99 years).  The Report believes such is an example of Healy politicized "phony-baloney!" 

Solution:  The likes of Healy's opponent, namely; Bill Smuckler, needs to force the discussion out into the open so that Cantonians who are voting in the Democratic primary can make a judgment as to whose plan (Healy's or Smuckler's) they want to follow as part of the decision making process of whom they are going to vote for.

Moreover, Cantoninans need to make a judgment as to whether or not Healy has the ability to work with others in creating and implementing a 9-1-1 plan.

The SCPR reads Smuckler as being in favor of the original understandings between Canton officials and SCOG officials.  Moreover, there is no doubt that he has a track record of working with government officials throughout Stark County in a collaborative and cooperative way.

The Report has learned that Canton Law Director Joe Martuccio is in the process of or has prepared legislation for Canton City Council (Council) to authorize and direct a merger of the CCC with SCOG's 9-1-1 along the lines originally contemplated.

But no one has called the legislation to the floor of Council.  Hmm?

Okay, Candidate/Councilman Smuckler, it is time to act!

Smuckler does tell the SCPR that he plans "to smoke Healy out" (The Report's words).  However, he would not commit to forcing the legislation to the floor of Council.

The concern, it appears, is that Council can pass the legislation, but that it is up to Healy and Ream (the executive branch of Canton government) to implement it.  So the thinking seems to be that if Healy and Ream have not bought into the legislation, then there will be a lot of foot dragging and May, 2012 may be an overly optimistic date as to when a reworked countywide 9-1-1 is realized.

The political shenanigans which are the subject matter of this blog is a crystal clear example of why Cantonians and Stark Countians do not trust their government.

The Report believes that Stark County commissioners Tom Bernabei, Janet Creighton and Pete Ferguson are making progress in restoring a measure of trust to local government.

But when the likes of a William J. Healy, II gets into the mix, then much of what they do gets undermined.

So if Candidate Smuckler wants open, accessible and transparent government; then now (before May 3rd) is the time for him to force a full blown discussion on what the parameters of Canton's involvement in Stark County's rebuilt 9-1-1 will be.

The Report believes that whether or not Stark County achieves its goal of fixing the county's broken 9-1-1 system in large part depends on the cooperation/collaboration SCOG gets from Canton.

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?"

HEALY "TURN OVER A NEW LEAF?" - NOT A CHANCE

Mayor William J. Healy, II is well known for his tirades up on the 8th floor of Canton City Hall.

His penchant for volatility has seeped out into the public domain. Not long ago, a county official told the SCPR of an incident in which Healy started yelling at him because the official didn't respond to a Healy phone call as soon as the Mayor thought his status (as mayor) indicated.

The SCPR has learned that at a recent Stark Council of Governments (SCOG) meeting Healy burst into the meeting, interrupted the conclave to demand that newly appointed safety director Thomas Ream get up and go with Healy for an urgent get together.

Observers were taken aback at the servile way in which Ream responded to Healy's humiliating and disrespectful breech of the SCOG meeting.

How long will Ream allow such treatment to go on?

Why would the SCPR ask?

Because Ream is known to have a huge ego of his bordering on arrogance.

As Stark Countians and Cantonians, in particular know, Healy has a hard time working with others. Less than two years into his administration he has disposed of former service director and chief of staff Thomas Bernabei and former safety director Thomas Nesbitt; both men of ability and strength of personality.

Ream seems to be out of the same mold except in the opinion of the SCPR he has nowhere near the judgment acumen of Bernabei and Nesbitt.

The SCPR doubts that Ream will last long with Healy.

Just to step aside and be a little bit funny. What is it about Healy and appointees with the first name Thomas. Thomas Bernabei, Thomas Nesbitt and now Thomas Ream. Hmm?

And the Healy beat goes on at City Hall while Canton sinks to new depths!