(VIDEO: DORDEA ON CAMPAIGN, BERNABEI ON SHERIFF'S OFFICE) LIKE ZUMBAR & KOHER, DORDEA AND McDONALD ARE RUNNING A HIGH CLASS CAMPAIGN?

A few days ago, the SCPR received an email that included the following statement:  "Many of us think you are the only one with the courage to look into this."

"Courage to look into this?"

Of course.   After all, this is the Stark County Political Report!

The writer was making some rather serious allegations about the candidacy of Democrat and current Stark County Chief Deputy (Jail Division) Mike McDonald.

The SCPR does probe where nobody else will.  However, the probing is a two-edged sword and it appears to The Report that the allegations are baseless and that the writer comes up way short on the credibility side.

Yours truly looked into the matters by contacting both McDonald and his Republican opponent Larry Dordea and with third parties (on a jail utilization question) with respect to certain allegations/questions posed. 

The most dramatic of the allegations had to do with Mike McDonald's health.  The writer asserted that McDonald's health had seriously deteriorated since he shared his diagnosis of having esophageal cancer with The Canton Repository last November.

So yours truly picked up the phone and called McDonald.

At the other end of the telephone was a robust sounding Mike McDonald.  If strength of voice is indicative of a person's throat condition, the chief deputy (jail division) did not sound like he was in any way, shape, or form as fragile as the writer claimed.

It was not long ago (June) when yours truly actually saw McDonald at a Lake Township trustees meeting and he appeared to be anything other than in condition to carry out the functions of sheriff.

The clincher for the SCPR with regard to the state of McDonald's current health was a conversation yours truly had with McDonald's opponent Larry Dordea pretty close on the heels of talking to McDonald himself.

Here are some the things Dordea had to say to The Report on Tuesday of this week:

• That he saw Mike McDonald at the Alliance Rib-Burnoff (August 9 - 11) and from his observations "The news of his demise is much exaggerated,"
• That he thinks the issue of McDonald's health may surface in the campaign between now and November, but that Larry Dordea would not be the person bringing it up,
• Understands that McDonald might suspect that Larry Dordea is behind inaccurate statements about his health, but such is not the case.

A few weeks ago, The Report interviewed Dordea when he appeared at a Lake Township trustees meeting to speak to the matter of his take on Lake's consideration of whether or not to give expansion of policing township wide another try.

Here is that video.



For his part, when The Report spoke earlier this week with Mike McDonald about the allegation  regarding his health earlier this week, he had this to say:

• "I'm feeling good, I'm coming to work and I'm out campaigning,"
• It's no secret that he has esophageal cancer and that he shared that information with the Rep so that he could take advantage of the opportunity to educate the public about what the potential consequences could be if acid reflux goes untreated,
• But that he does not have serious problems with the cancer presently,
• In no way, shape or form does the cancer interfere with his doing his job or campaigning nor will it have any affect on his ability to serve as sheriff, if elected,
• That he suspected that the negative talk was coming from the Dordea campaign and he believes that there will be rumors circulating between now and the election which he thinks is very unfair.

McDonald, understandably, was reluctant to share much with the SCPR about his illness.  From his perspective, he is doing just fine notwithstanding his bout with cancer and that is all the public needs to know.

 The SCPR's point of view is that he needs to keep the public appraised of his medical condition right up through the election.  For, God forbid, if his health was to take a turn for the worse and it turns out that it is knowable prior to the election that he likely will be unable to serve; the Stark County voting public is entitled to know so that voters can choose between the possibility they will be voting for a situation that the Stark County Democratic Central Committee will be picking the next Stark County sheriff or the alternative Republican Larry Dordea.

The SCPR is well aware that life is uncertain for all of us.  

It could turn out that Dordea has a health problem that nobody including Dordea himself knows about presently.  And, again - God forbid - that he becomes unable to serve then guess who would pick his successor?  You've got it.  The Stark County Republican Party Central Committee.

The Report would expect Dordea, if something surfaced affecting his ability to serve between now and November 6th, to promptly inform the Stark County public.

And yours truly believes that both McDonald and Dordea are of such a quality that they would put the public's interest and right to know ahead of their respective political party's interest.

However, a vital function of the media is to track such matters and ensure that the public is fully informed about factors that might impact on how voters vote.

Another issue raised by the writer was that of getting the county jail up to full utilization (some 500 prisoners) in light of the 0.5% sales tax for eight years duration that Stark County voters passed in November, 2011.

Dordea has also raised the issue with The Report (about a month ago) after a lady released from the jail was killed by a hit and run driver as she walked along Route 62.

As The Report understands Dordea's point is that the sheriff's office (perhaps, as evidenced by the lady's release) may be engaged in a turnstile operation which might delay the jail reaching the goal of full utilization as promised in the levy effort.

McDonald denies that such is the case.  He does say that that whom the sheriff releases and whom he holds is controlled by Stark County courts. 

 On Wednesday, Stark County Chief Administrator Mike Hanke shared with the commissioners data which shows the progress that Sheriff Swanson is making towards the ultimate goal of Stark County's jail being up to its capacity of 500 prisoners by December 31, 2012.

Here is a copy of that report.

Beyond the report, the SCPR asked Commissioner Tom Bernabei (president of the Board of the Stark County Commissioners) whether or not he is as satisfied with the progress the sheriff is making towards the ultimate goal.

Here is his video response.




In talking with candidates Mike McDonald and Larry Dordea, the SCPR believes that both candidates are committed to running "a high road" campaign a la the one run by Alex Zumbar (R - Alliance) and Ken Koher (D - Navarre) in November, 2010.

Both have excellent credentials in policing and their qualification to be sheriff is unquestioned.

The have always spoken well of each other to The Report.  And The Report believes Dordea when he  says he is not going to make McDonald's health a campaign issue.

The SCPR's analysis of the McDonald/Dordea race is that, if elected, Mike McDonald is likely to run the sheriff's office pretty much as it has been under Sheriff Tim Swanson.  Undoubtedly, he will make some changes because no two individuals, no matter how close, see things exactly the same.  However, for him to make wholesale changes would be a betrayal of everything Tim Swanson stood for.

On the other hand, The Report sees Larry Dordea coming in with a fresh perspective and is likely to institute significant changes.

While it has been four years since Dordea ran unsuccessfully against Tim Swanson, here is a LINK to a blog that the SCPR published during that campaign that provides some insight into the thinking of  the former Alliance police chief who is now chief of police in Hartville.

In the end, the Stark County Political Report believes that no matter which of the two comes out on top in November, Stark County will have a first-rate police commander.

(VIDEOS OF DORDEA & MCDONALD - STARK SHERIFF'S RACE) CHALK ONE UP FOR DORDEA IN LAKE TOWNSHIP ON DEALING WITH LAKE POLICING ISSUE? IS THERE A QUESTION OF WHETHER OR NOT THE UPD CAN WORK WITH A SHERIFF MCDONALD?

On May 29th of this year, right on the heels of the Ohio Supreme Court (May 16th) decision upholding Stark County Court of Common Pleas Judge John Haas' decision that flawed ballot language on Lake Township's Issue #6 was fatal to the issue and that an "apparent"  election ballot victory for those in Lake who wanted the Uniontown Police Department (9 square miles in northwest Lake Township) to expand township wide was therefore invalidated, Stark County Chief Deputy Sheriff Mike McDonald (Jail Division) appeared before the Lake Township trustees at their regular meeting touting a plan for the Stark County sheriff to step in and provide the coverage for all of Lake Township except for Hartville.

It is the SCPR's perception that McDonald got a "cool," but respectful hearing from Trustees John Arnold, Ellis Erb and Galen Stoll.

Here is a video of McDonald's presentation.



The Report's take is that McDonald (who is the Democratic candidate for Stark County sheriff) couldn't have made a bigger political blunder in Lake insofar as township officials are concerned than to have appeared so soon after the Supreme Court decision at a time that trustees were obviously smarting from the loss and were grappling for ways to react.

Moreover, The Report has been told (confirmed to McDonald) that Uniontown Police Chief Harold Britt had a testy exchange with McDonald at the rear of the meeting hall regarding the appropriateness of McDonald's appearance with a contract proposal.

Yours truly was out of the country (in England) at the last Lake trustees meeting of June 25th.  But a Repository report of the meeting has several interesting points:

• "He (Trustee John Arnold) noted the possibility of accepting a proposal from the Stark County Sheriff's Office for township wide policing is clouded by the uncertainty of who will be elected sheriff in November," and
• "The proposal also previously has been termed incomplete by trustees compared to the ballot issue that expanded the Uniontown Police Department which was overturned by the courts."
  

"Of who will be elected sheriff in November."  

 Really?  What does that have to do with anything?

"The proposal also previously has been termed incomplete by trustees compared to the ballot issue that expanded the Uniontown Police Department."

Okay.  Don't the trustees owe it to Lake Township taxpayers to go to the sheriff and say:  "give us an apples to apples proposal?" 

Don't they have an obligation to Lake taxpayers, if Lake is to have township wide police services, to get "the best bang for the buck?"

And to all the foregoing add the following:

This past Monday night (at a regular meeting of the Lake trustees), yours truly was a party to a conversation post meeting among township fire and police officials in which the topic as to the amenability of the officials to having either McDonald or his Republican opponent Larry Dordea as sheriff of Stark County.

Somewhat alarming to The Report in yours truly's take was the willingness of a police official to express his enthusiasm for working as a Lake-based police official with Dordea as sheriff but apparently unwilling to accord the same ardor with McDonald as sheriff.

And yours truly said so in the context of that assembly.

It is not a matter of whether or not a police official has a personal preference. As a matter of police professionalism and as a matter of public safety and the expectation is that police officials work together cooperatively and collaboratively for the public safety.

It could be that the police official simply misspoke?

Hopefully, Chief Britt will and as will Trustee Erb (who was present during the conversation), in the light of the foregoing, reassure the Lake Township public that the vigor of collaborative law enforcement (whether it is the Uniontown Police Department or the Lake Township Police Department) in Lake Township has nothing whatsoever to do with who is elected sheriff in November.

The sheriff's office interacting with Lake officials on the matter of the sheriff providing Lake with police services via McDonald's presentation was not a first time event.

The sheriff has a contract with Plain Township and Trustee Louis Giavasis tells the SCPR that Plain residents are well satisfied with those services.

Several years ago Lake trustees were seriously considering a proposal to Lake voters that they support a ballot initiative to have the sheriff provide similar township wide coverage.

For reasons that remain a mystery (i.e. no one from the township side will say what they were and Sheriff Swanson tells The Report he does not know why), the matter got dropped as quickly as they had appeared.  The Report's recollection is that Trustee Ellis Erb was the trustee most actively involved in considering the sheriff option.

Next thing township residents know (yours truly is a Lake Township and Uniontown Police District (UPD) resident who has always supported expansion either by the UPD or the sheriff and, for the record, is in favor of another effort), up pops the notion of going township wide using the Uniontown Police District as the springboard to expansion.

Of course, the rest is history.

Township officials including the township's law director Charles Hall, III, the Stark County Board of Elections and the Stark County prosecutor's office all had a hand in not figuring out that the ballot language was errant.

Only the Ohio secretary of state's office figured out the error on a timely basis and communicated same to the Stark County Board of Elections (BOE) on July 13, 2011.

The BOE claimed that one of its employees telephoned information about the error to officials at Lake Township Hall.  However, Lake officials deny that such was the case.

So that is how Lake got to the place the township is now in that it is in the process of determining whether or not expansion of police services are still on the table and if so, will it be by expanding the Uniontown Police Department or will the township pursue working out a contract with the sheriff's department.

And this is where Larry Dordea (Hartville Police Chief, former Alliance Police Chief and presently an Alliance city councilman-at-large) in the judgment of the SCPR made a politically swift move.

Dordea made an appearance on Monday night last to clarify what he said was perhaps a misunderstanding as to what his attitude would be as sheriff towards the Lake policing situation.

In essence, he says whatever direction Lake residents decide to do, he will fully supportive and work in a fully collaborative manner with Lake officials.

There was even a hint in his presentation (see below), at least in the SCPR's take, that should trustees forego an expansion at this time, a Dordea run sheriff's department would to better in providing patrol services of the outside of Hartville and Uniontown police district areas of the township.

To yours truly, Dordea's interface was a much more wise "politician-running-for-office"  course of action in substance, timing and manner than was demonstrated by Mike McDonald back on May 29th.

Here is the video of Dordea's presentation.



As far as the SCPR is concerned (as indicated above), Lake ought to have township wide services, however, if the trustees put an initiative (whether UPD expansion or contracting with the sheriff) on the ballot and Lake voters decide against it, so be it.

Such is our democratic process.

It appears to the SCPR that McDonald and Dordea are equally qualified to be Stark County sheriff. 

However, The Report will be examining the public positions taken by both over the next four months to determine whether or not either surfaces as an obvious choice.

Stark Countians need to be very careful that Stark County's top cop be the very best.

To summarize:

As far as Lake offcials are concerned, the SCPR likes to believe that:

• the trustees will in discharging their duty of trust in protecting Lake taxpayer interests; should they decide to propose policing township wide again, obtain an apples to apples proposal from Sheriff Swanson before deciding what specific proposal, if any, should be on the ballot,
• that whichever route they decide to go, or if they decide to leave the policing as it currently is, that it will be made clear that Chief Britt and the department is committed to working in a fully cooperative and collaborative manner with whomever is elected sheriff, and
• that the decision will not be made without a full and complete public meeting giving Lake citizens a thoroughgoing opportunity to weigh in on the decision.