(VIDEOS) CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? COMMISSIONER CREIGHTON IS THE DECIDING VOTE TO HELP CANTON MAYOR WILLIAM J. HEALY, II?

SCPR SERIES HIGHLIGHTING INCIDENTS IN WHICH STARK COUNTY'S POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS (I.E. COUNTY GOV'T & VILLAGE, CITY & TOWNSHIP) FAIL STARK TAXPAYERS

VIDEOS

Healy Plays Loose with the Facts

About

Stark County's Allocation of
"Ohio Moving Forward" Money

---------------------------------------------------------

The SCLRC Vote

on

Canton's OHFA Application

-------------------------------------------------------

Fonda Williams

Post-Meeting Interview

------------------------------------------------------

The SCLRC Meeting

of

January 21, 2014

------------------------------------------------------- 

Only Mayor William J. Healy, II could pull this one off.

On the one hand,

• making out that the Stark County Land Reutilization Corporation (SCLRC, "Land Bank") to be the problem getting in the way of Canton making a dent in achieving progress in tearing down abandoned eyesore residences and, then,  

on the other,

• sending a representative (Chief of Staff Fonda Williams) to Land Bank meeting "with hat in hand" pleading with the SCLRC board members to sponsor Canton in making an application with the State of Ohio for more money to demolish the vacated properties.

HISTORY BEHIND THE "HEALY SET UP"

Back on July 29, 2013 (at a Canton City Council meeting) is seen in the video below ragging on the SCLRC for not allocating Canton all $2.3 million that the commission received from the Ohio attorney general's Stark County allocation from his Moving Ohio Forward program (LINK for background on the Moving Ohio Forward program).




Never mind that other Stark County communities have problem properties to deal with and need some of the Moving Ohio Forward money.

After all, Canton is "everything Stark County," notwithstand the following list of "other Stark County demolitions projects," no?

In Healy's mind, Canton is Stark County.

But others beg to differ with him.

Among those are SCLRC board members Stark County treasurer Alex Zumbar (Republican), Stark County commissioner Janet Creighton (Republican) and Plain Township trustee Scott Haws (Republican).

Commissioner Thomas Bernabei (Democrat) likely disagrees with Healy also but the SCPR isn't all that sure about him.

Really?

Yes.

Why is The Report unsure?

THE SCLRC "TURNING 'THE OTHER CHEEK'"

At a meeting of the SCLRC on January 21:

• Bernabei (a Democrat) joined with:
• Canton's representative on the board (Lem Green, a Democrat and who formerly worked in the treasurer's office under Gary Zeigler [until he - Green resigned], 
• to pass a resolution
• and Republican commissioner Janet Creighton in a stunning development in which she 'reluctantly" was "the deciding vote"
• in overcoming the "no" votes of Zumbar and Haws.
• to pass a resolution
• committing the the SCLRC to work with Canton, the Stark County Regional Planning Commissioner and others
• to help Canton qualify for a "minimum" $2 million grant from the Ohio Housing Financing Agency (OHFA) which is administrating a federal government Neighborhood Initiative Program (NIP) which - believe it or not - is from TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) money passed by Congress.
• NOTE 1:  Ohio did not come out with guidelines and applications until the first week of January, 2014 and required that application be submitted not later than January  31, 2014 (this past Friday).
• Canton did make a submission on Friday.
• NOTE 2:  Canton (through Fonda Williams [who was present at the meeting of the 21st) did promise to include other Stark County political subdivisions in sharing some of the grant money, should Canton's application be successful.
• NOTE 3:  That Canton has not used all of its Ohio Moving Forward money (see below), may adversely affect its NIP application.
• NOTE 4:  $60 million is available statewide to be distributed in two rounds.  Round 1 has $50 million set aside for distribution.  Awards can range from a minimum of $2 million to $15 million.  $10 million (plus any unused Round 1 money) will be distributed some time after July 31st.

Here is a video of that vote.



After the meeting the SCPR spoke to Williams about the close vote.



STARK COUNTY TO LOSE "MOVING OHIO FORWARD MONEY BECAUSE CANTON LAGS ON DEMOLITION EFFORT

The big rub at the January 21st meeting was the fact "it came to light" that Canton will not meet its demolition goal of spending $1 million in demolishing abandoned and dilapidated residences by May 31, 2014.

The SCPR covers Canton City Council on a pretty regular basis and The Report can say that council is not one bit happy with the Healy administration on the slow pace of Canton's sorely needed tear downs.

With this blog, council members are likely to be even unhappier as they learn that Canton will be leaving tens of thousands of dollars (if not in the range of several hundred thousand dollars) on the table.

According to Williams, the reason for the failure is that "not enough contractors" (7 of a possible 14) are participating in the city's bidding process and - even for those who are - they - for the most part are having to "be run herd on" in getting the demolitions done on a timely basis.

Moreover, he says, Canton has been plagued by its contractors" nitpicking various aspects of their successful bids as a pretext (the SCPR's interpretation of Williams' remarks) for justifying their not getting particular demolitions done.

So let's get this straight Mayor Healy:  Canton cannot fully use the $1 million that the SCLRC allocated the city, and so you blast the Board for not allocating $1.3 million more?

A red herring, (LINK to definitions) if the SCPR has ever seen one.

No surprise to the SCPR!  Healy always seem to blame others when things go wrong for Canton. 

THE HEALY SPIN?  WILLIAMS APPEARS TO BE DOING WHAT HE CAN.

It appears to the SCPR that Williams is endeavoring to move "heaven and earth" to spend the $1 million.  The way the program works is that Canton gets reimbursed up to $1 million (the local match which Canton financed by issuing bonds).

But when The Report quizzed him before Canton's January 27th meeting about reasons why Canton was not going be spending the $1 million, he did what appears to be a Healy-esque "two-step" and avoided the head-on question that Stark County as a consequence was going to lose the unspent and focused on "making up" for the failure under Moving Ohio Forward by using the OHFA-NIP money, if it is approved.

The SCPR likes Williams and views him as a guy who wants to be straight forward but he works for a guy (Healy) who The Report thinks in practically never straight forward.

And, Healy IS the BOSS.

If you don't believe the SCPR, just ask Hizzhoner himself.

He'll tell ya!

If you are going to work for William J., you'd better get that straight or you will not be around once he figures out that a subordinate has a mind of his/her own.

Among his victims on that score have been former service director Bernabei, former safety director Tom Nesbitt and former service director, safety director, and chief-of-staff Warren Price.

After the SCPR talked with Williams, to set the Healy-inspired (the SCPR thinks) spin straight, The Report contacted SCLRC president Alex Zumbar.

Zumbar has been the driving force behind Stark County getting involved in the Land Bank business.

Since early 2012 Zumbar has been leading the effort to get Stark land bank up and going.

 

To see the underlying documents (the commissioners' resolution of March 21, 2012 and the Articles of Incorporation) of the "new" non-profit (quasi-governmental) corporation, go to this LINK at the secretary of state website and then click on "Document Number/Image," to wit:

In March of 2012, the SCPR published a blog which laid out how Canton/"the Healy administration" stood to benefit "hugely" and the hand of unlikely benefactors Bernabei and Creighton.

For Canton not to have been prepared for the infusion of millions of dollars is simply inexcusable and Cantonians should be outraged.

And they should lay it right at the feet of William J. Healy, II!

Here is the above-referenced exchange between the SCPR and Zumbar.

First, the SCPR email to Zumbar:

>>> Martin Olson <tramols@att.net> 1/29/2014 8:37 AM >>>
Alex,

I talked with Fonda Williams at Canton City Council's meeting on Monday about the progress of the OHFA grant.

My question was a follow up to the point made at the SCLRC meeting re:  Canton's inability to fully utilize the OAG Moving Ohio monies.

It was:  what happens to the "unused" portion of the OAG money?

I was unable to understand his explanation.  He seemed to me to be merging his answer with the OHFA grant application and the assumption that Stark County would qualify.  My understanding was that should Canton fail to uses all the OAG money allocated by the SCLRC, the city would be covered by OHFA money.

But still was not responsive - in my opinion - to my question.

Can you help me out with an answer from the SCLRC perspective?

Thanks,

Martin Olson
SCPR

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zumbar's response:


Martin: [01/29/2014]

Thank you for your follow-up question on the January 21, 2014 -Stark County Land Reutilization Corporation meeting.

To answer your question "What happens to the "unused" portion of the OAG money?"

In short, it is left on the table and is retained by the Ohio Attorney General office.  The money not expended by the Moving Ohio Forward demolition grant deadline of May 31, 2014 will not be available to the Stark County Land Reutilization Corporation for reimbursement for demolished structures in Phase I.   Under our existing contracts, phase one of this program still requires the completion of all demolitions by May 31, 2014.

For any amounts remaining and available from the Phase I - MOF demolition grant program would then be a decision that would be made by Attorney General Mike DeWine.  Attorney General DeWine could consider the possibility of redistributing the remaining amounts to County Land banks that express an interest and that are in a position to be able to expend the funds should another Moving Ohio Forward demolition grant Phase II. 

Regards,

Alex


Of course, Janet Creighton never worked for Healy, but she did lose an election to him in 2007 after having been elected mayor in 2003.

Once he took office, Healy started trashing her in her administration of the mayor's office during her four years.

Of course, the objective of this quintessential Healy tactic is what?

You have it.  To make Healy look like Boy Wonder coming to the rescue, no?

Maybe the Bush administration should have checked with Healy before asking Janet to join the administration for its last year in office?

Healy is well known for trashing anyone who disagrees with him.

Actually, it is a compliment to be attacked by him.

The Report hears that every year for Christmas, somebody gives him a Top.  You know:  Spin, Spin, Spin, ad infinitum.

CREIGHTON'S "PRO-HEALY" VOTE

Undoubtedly, Janet Creighton would not see her vote as a "pro-Healy" vote.

Rather she has to be thinking that it was a "pro-Canton-citizen" vote that unfortunately is under the administration of a man who likely will find one way or another to botch things up if OHFA approves the application.

It is to her credit (and to Bernabei also) that she and he did not let past animosities affect their votes.

The SCPR does not think that the Zumbar and the Haws "no" votes were borne of partisan political differences.

Rather, The Report sees them as being for political "philosophical" differences, which The Report thinks Creighton shares.

It is a credit to her that she resolved her doubts in favor of everyday Cantonians who she faithfully served for four years.

When Healy runs for office again, he certainly spins his failure to use all the money available to Canton from Moving Ohio Forward into having been some grand success.

Such is the nature of William J. Healy, II.

One has to wonder when the citizens of Canton are going to get wise about this guy Healy?

He has been bamboozling them for over six years now.

Wise up Cantonians, wise up!

The January 21st SCLRC meeting is quite interesting and here it is - for the most part -  except for the first 30 minutes or so which the SCPR missed because of attending a Stark Board of Elections meeting of the same date.

The initial missed portion had to do with the SCLRC hiring an administrator.  The preference is to hire on a contract basis rather than a direct employee.

The Community Builders Partnership of Stark County, Inc (represented by by Director Joel Owens and Healthy Communities Manager Maureen Austin) is interested in obtaining the administrative work.

Also missing is a few minutes of board consideration of vacant lot disposition which occurred because of The Report's desire to interview Canton Chief of Staff Fonda Williams one-on-one.

The Fonda Williams interview is presented above.

PLAIN TWP TRUSTEE (GIAVASIS) QUESTIONS REPOSITORY'S COMMITMENT TO "SUNSHINE"

At Tuesday night's regular township meeting (uncovered by Stark County's only countywide newspaper), Plain Township trustees (Stark County's largest township) announced that they, beginning Tuesday (which was in and of itself a demonstration project put on by Trustee Lou Giavasis) are making available to the interested public a videocast (on YouTube linked up on the township's website) of the township's regular meeting, zoning commission meetings and board of zoning appeals meetings.

Such is a major step forward, in the opinion of the Stark County Political Report, in making local government more accountable, transparent and accessible to everyday Plain Township citizens.

Councilman Kevin Fisher (Democrat - Ward 5) tells the SCPR that he wants to do a similar thing with Canton City Council meetings.

The SCPR applauds Giavasis' leadership on "letting the sunshine in" on Plain Township government and also recognizes Trustees Al Leno and Scott Haws for supporting the board president's lead.

The Plain Township initiative is a model for other township, village, city, and board of education to follow.  Fisher of Canton undoubtedly will be in touch with Giavasis for assistance in figuring out "the nuts and bolts" in constructing and configuring a meeting videotaping operation.

The Plain effort and the Fisher ambition deserves the support of local media.

It appears to the SCPR that Giavasis questions, as Stark County's only countywide media outlet, The Repository's commitment to promoting beams of sunshine illuminating the processes of local government except, perhaps, when The Rep itself is having difficulty with something like an unhonored public records request.

He told The Report that he and his fellow trustees' motivation is to get Plain residents more involved in their local government.

He said that the board of trustees recognize that people's lives are filled with loads of everyday responsibilities and that videotaping the meetings is a move by the board to make township meetings available to citizens on their timetable.

The SCPR sees that more and more Stark County political subdivisions are enhancing their interaction with their constituents.

North Canton, for instance, held a townhall-esque meeting, also Tuesday night, attended by some 175 citizens at the North Canton Civic Center hosted by Ward 4 councilman and Council President Jon Snyder and Ward 1 Councilman Doug Foltz (Councilwoman Marcia Kiesling and Mayor David Held were also present) in which city police, fire and EMS officials counseled North Cantonians on ways and means to protect themselves from the ravages of crime, fires and emergency medical incidents.

Since Tom Bernabei (November, 2010) and Janet Creighton (January, 2011) took office, Stark County government has become much more accountable, transparent and accessible.

A recent interaction with Canton/Vassar Park citizen Bruce Nordman resulted in the commissioners facilitating with Sheriff George T. Maier an immediate increase of bed utilization at the Stark County jail from 400 beds to 450 on the way to full use which will be 501 beds.

Until Nordman got involved, the sheriff was saying it could take months to have a significant increase in bed utilization because of difficulties in finding qualified candidates to hire as deputy sheriffs.

Nordman has also seized the initiative (he calls his effort:  Group 175) with Canton City Council and the mayor (with whom he meets on April 16th) to dramatically increase the number of police from its soon to be 150 to 175.

When (in 2007) Canton's force was last at 175, the city had to be safer because the 175 made about twice the arrests that they are making now.

One sees very little if any editorial support of the efforts to bring more accountability to local government by The Rep.  Moreover, it appears to The Report that the newspaper affords scant recognition of Stark County citizens who take on local government when it is not being responsive to citizen needs.

Trustee Giavasis felt strongly, and the SCPR agrees, that Plain trustees deserved coverage/recognition of its Tuesday night initiative.

And, of course, in writing this blog (as yours truly has often done before), The Report regularly and actively exhorts local governments and officials to be more be more accountable, transparent and accessible.

Usually the blogs are critical of the lack of thereof in Stark County political subdivision government.

But not always and the Plain Township example is one worthy of laudation.

Though he gave The Rep a "heads-up" on the initiative, he says nobody showed up to cover the event.

Here is summation of what he had to say to The Report about The Rep's failure:

• He got of phone call from The Rep that they could not cover Tuesday's township meeting because they did not have enough reporters to cover Plain, North Canton and Jackson Township at the same time,
• However, what particularly disturbed him was that there was no follow up, as of the time yours truly was talking with him on Wednesday, by the folks at The Rep wanting to know whether or not the trustees had passed a resolution providing for the taping of township's meetings for citizens to view at their leisure,
• "And this is the one that preaches openness and transparency."

Two weeks ago the SCPR attended a Plain Township meeting which had a couple of zoning change request hearings as part of the overall meeting.  Impressive to The Report was that the trustees let affected citizens who showed up as much time as they wanted to make their case.  Moreover, the Stark County sheriff took second place to the citizens in terms of placement on the overall meeting agenda.  It seems to The Report that the Plain trustees have their priorities right.

Not only does Plain Township lead the way for local governments to follow in terms of accountability, transparency and access, but appears to the SCPR to be the most fiscally responsible board of township trustees.

As indicate above it is uncommon for the SCPR to write a blog holding up any public official or government body as an example to be followed. 

However, Plain Township and its commitment to making local government processes accessible Plain citizens and thereby making those processes transparent which, of course, ultimately leads to accountability is a model that should be given the highest accolades and support.

A SCPR "hats off" to the Plain Township trustees!

All of Stark County local governments should pattern themselves after the Plain Township example.

STARK COUNTY LOCAL GOVERNMENTS GETTING INTERESTED IN THE FRACKING ISSUE?

Councilwoman Mary Cirelli (Canton) is, perhaps, Stark County's most caring public official.

Just take a look at her community service involvement bio taken from the Canton City Council member portion of Canton's website:

Mary Cirelli has been engaged in public office service since 1984 when she was elected Ward 3 council member where she remained until 1990.  In 1991, she became a Stark County commissioner and remained a commissioner until 1995.  From 1996 through 1999 Cirelli returned to Canton's council as an at-large member until 1999.  She moved on to the Ohio House of Representatives for the period 2001 - 2004 and then, after a brief period of time out of public office, she returned to her at-large city council position in 2006 where she remains.

On top of her civic and public service achievements, Councilwoman Cirelli is a licensed practical nurse, a certified mediator and a financial aide counselor; all of which are not just jobs but positions in which she serves as a healer.

So it is no surprise to the SCPR that she has taken an interest in a developing story as to whether or not the drinking water supply is threatened by an underground natural gas extracting process known as fracking.

Here is a graphic which shows an outline of the fracking process:

 

Oil and gas industry leaders maintain that there is no general threat to the public heath and safety in terms of chemical-ladened high pressure water infiltrating the nation's underground drinking water supplies and in terms of emissions of gases into the the atmosphere.

However, more and more citizens across America are not so sure and are starting to ask questions and, in some locales, moratoriums on fracking has been put in place.

Due in large part to the efforts of Chris Borello (president of the Concerned Citizens of Lake Township - CCLT) Stark Countians are being put on alert that fracking should be of concern to those of us who live in Stark inasmuch as companies in the business are buying up rights to drill for the rock-embedded gases right here in Stark.

Borello is well known throughout Stark for her work since the early 1980s in Lake Township on the industrial excess landfill (IEL) located a short distance south of the center of Uniontown on east side of Cleveland Avenue Northwest.  She has fought and fought and fought to get a cleanup of hazardous waste from what is commonly called the Uniontown dump.

One of the bitter lessons that Borello learned from her work on the Uniontown IEL is how fickle and unreliable public officials can be.    Undoubtedly, Borello has to be encouraged that a few Stark County elected officials have shown an interest in dealing with fracking before it becomes a fact of life locally. 

It is a natural for Borello to be contacted by Councilwoman Cirelli when Cirelli learned that fracking could be  on the horizon for Stark County.

Following the lead of Plain Township Trustees Louis Giavasis and Scott Haws and their concerns for Plain residents, Mary is posing questions about what ramifications fracking might have on Canton's water supply.  Accordingly, she has sent this email to her fellows on the Canton City Council:

Date: December 7, 2010

To: Canton City Council

From: Mary M. Cirelli, Council Member at Large

Subject: The impact of Oil & Gas exploration and/or drilling near aquifers controlled by of the City of Canton and those supplying residents of Canton.

  It is imperative from the public health and economic standpoint that we take immediate action to protect our water supplies. As Our Aquifer is the SECOND LARGEST Aquifer in the state of Ohio  and whereas we are sworn to protect Health,Safety and Welfare  of our water source and

  City Council has expended much time debating who we should sell water to, whether they should be required to annex into the City and various other water supply issues.

  What will the economic impact be if our water is tainted, and therefore not worth serving our own residents much less selling to other communities?

  We have an opportunity now to put safeguards in place that will keep our water potable, salable, and prevent future liability from claims against the city for supplying contaminated water.

  The threat of contamination extends far beyond the Canton City Corporation limits.

  Deep (Marcellus shale) drilling poses the threat of disturbing and contaminating OUR aquifers from great distances beyond our borders.

  Once a well is drilled-possibly 10,000 feet deep, horizontal lines can be bored extending thousands of feet away from the vertical outlet with no obvious signs above ground. These "spider wells" are used to extract mineral deposits from properties surrounding the actual well site.

  The process includes boring horizontally & fracturing layers of rock which could expose our aquifers to toxins and could reduce the amount of water available to us.

  I urge you to take whatever action is necessary to protect our water supply.

Attached please find legislation currently under consideration in Plain Township.

  Perhaps we can modify this document to meet our comprehensive needs.

The questions in the balloons in the graphic which introduces this blog are a few of the questions among many that people across the nation want answered before the fracking becomes a widespread phenomenon. According to a Repository article posted on The Rep's website on December 6th, fracking is not in the immediate offing in Stark County (Tapping natural gas underground raises concerns).

Here is the specific information provided in the article:

Marcellus Shale exploration is in the early stages in Ohio. So far ODNR has issued about 70 permits — none in Stark County — to companies interested in exploring the Marcellus Shale. Most of the permits are for traditional vertical drilling, Tugend said.

Kenyon Energy, which has a North Canton office, has been working with Chesapeake Energy to find residents interested in allowing drilling on their property.

Based in Oklahoma City, Chesapeake looks at the eastern United States as one of the most drilled but least explored areas for oil and natural gas, said Steve Rotruck, a company executive. The U.S. oil industry started in Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio, he noted.

Chesapeake is looking in Ohio and Stark County, but the company won’t provide specific details. “We are explorers. We’re looking widely,” Rotruck said.

The SCPR applauds Borello, Giavasis, Haws and Cirelli for their action in bringing the matter to the public's attention, and for putting together forums within which to require oil and gas industry leaders answer citizens' concerns to the public's satisfaction before the fact of drilling; not after.

The Plain trustees are hosting a Q&A session at township hall (2600 Easton Street, Northeast) next Tuesday, December 14th at 5:30 p.m.

It will be interesting to see how many local government officials (i.e. county commissioners, township trustees, village and city councilpersons, boards of education members, mayors et cetera) attend the Plain meeting.  In particular, now that Cirelli has alerted Canton's officials; how many of them will be present at Plain on the 14th?

Any Stark County public official charged with the duty (as Mary Cirelli puts it) to look after the health, safety and welfare of the citizens living in the official's service domain, in the opinion of the SCPR,  better have compelling reasons why he/she is not present at Plain's forum.

If fracking goes forward in Stark County and problems with the water supply develop, constituents will want to know what government officials did in the way of prevention!

SCPR "ELECTION 2009 SERIES" (VOL 8): PLAIN TOWNSHIP - ONE DOWN (GIAVASIS) - ONE TO G?

In the SCPR's book, you can mark long time Plain Township trustee Louis P. Giavasis as a "shoe-in" on November 3rd.

Beyond that political reality, it is anybody's guess who will replace Pam Bossart (another Plain long timer who is not running for re-election as her job may take her out of Stark County).

Giavasis, Leno and Boggart (all Democrats, but remember trustess are "non-partisan by Ohio law) have done a terrific job running Plain Township which is, in the SCPR's opinion, the best run township in Stark County and, perhaps, in all of Ohio.

So with Boggart not running again, who should Plain Township voters choose to replace her.

The odds on favorite is likely Dawn L. Campanelli.

Why "odds on favorite?"

Two reasons:

First, according to registration records she is a Democrat whereas her opponent Scott Haws is a Republican.

But wait a minute, didn't the SCPR just say that trustee is "non-partisan" by Ohio law.

Yes, yes and yes.  However, no one in Stark County really believes that Stark's Dems and Reps view township races that way.  Most political observers do believe that political affiliation does play a role.

If one takes Louis Giavasis at face value, it plays no role in the Plain Township.  Giavasis, a thorough-going Democrat, is careful to be even-handed in talking about Campanelli and Haws.

The second reason why Campanelli is the "odds on favorite" to win.

She recently (May, 2009) ran a successful campaign (the nuts and bolts person - as levy campaign communications co-ordinator:  KEEP PLAIN PROUD) for the Plain Township schools.

Clearly, most of those folks can be depended upon to vote for Campanelli as well as Giavasis which likely leaves Haws on the outside looking in.

The word is that Campanelli is relying on the KEEP PLAIN PROUD political infrastruture to carry her to a second place finish on November 3rd.

The SCPR has asked Campanelli for campaign information, but she has not reponded.  Moreover, apparently she has not provided The Rep any information on its Election Central 2009 site, but it could be that The Rep has the information and simply has not gotten around to publishing it.

For a candidate not to respond for requests for information to media outlets, should be a mark against a candidate.

The SCPR has gone out on its own and obtained information on Campanelli.  Readers are remineded that it is of the self-serving variety and also remember that Campanelli has not responded to questions on her specific views on Plain Township trustee operations and the future for Plain.

Scott Haws has.

Here is Campanelli's "self-serving" self description:

Now on to Scott Haws:

Haws has responded to the SCPR candidate questionnaire, which gives him a leg up with yours truly.  He is not afraid to answer third party framed questions.  Apparently, Campanelli is.

The SCPR asked candidates to criticize the sitting Board of Trustees.  And Haws had a reasoned critique:

It is critical that our next Board of Trustees take a bigger focus on working to attract and retain business for the residents of Plain Township.

Recently, the SCPR attended a meeting put together by Trustee Giavasis for Plain Township residents to learn about Township economic re-development efforts at the old Oakwood Square shopping complex.

Haw was at the meeting; Campanelli was not.

As for the future of Plain Township, Haws has the right idea:  "focused [Trustee] leadership" on economic development in the context of developing a ten-year master plan and partnering with the likes of the Stark Development Board.

The SCPR is not a big fan of the likes of the Stark Development Board.  It is somewhat disturbing that Haws in buying into the notion that "chamber of commerce types" have economic development answers.

The track record of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce and the "chamber of commerce" mentality is rather dismal.

Ohio's Republican Party used the Ohio Chamber of Commerce as it's main economic development arm as recently as the Taft administration and going back to Voinovich.  As we now know, the chamber ideas were placed into Ohio law and economic development policy by the majority/supermajority Republicans.  But they have been a monumental failure.

Some area chambers of commerce have contracts with local government entities to do the entities' economic development.   The ideas are largely the same as as the Ohio Chamber and folks like Scott Haws need to abandon the "failed chamber of commerce-esque thinking" and put on a fresh mind.

But will Haws?

He seems politically married to Ohio House 50th District representative Todd Snitchler (Republican - Lake).  If that is the case, he does not offer much hope to be a catalytic force to help the already solid Plain reach the next level.  Snitchler has unbridled "faith" in the chamber of commerce crowd.

Misplaced faith as far as the SCPR is concerned.  Does Haws share that faith?

The SCPR thinks he does.

Evaluate for yourself.

Here is a link to Haw website.

The SCPR has not determined whether or not to endorse in this race.  If there is an endorsement, it will come in form of an update to this blog