(VIDEO) CANTON COUNCIL PRESIDENT PUTTING OLESLAGER, SCHURING, HAGAN & SLESNICK ON THE SPOT!

MUST SEE VIDEO!

Canton Council President Allen Schulman

Rips

Stark County Legislators on Local Gov't Funding

The Stark County Political Report can think of a number of Cantonians who should be sitting in the mayor's chair over William J. Healy, II.

One would be Canton service director and chief-of-staff Warren Price.

But the SCPR's prime choice would be council president and premier personal injury attorney Allen Schulman.

One of the most exciting parts of the Canton City Council agenda is the last item on it:  "miscellaneous business."

On occasion, at this point in council proceedings, President Schulman will launch into a polemic that is absolutely spellbinding.

While Healy is a quintessential calculating politician that spins everything to make himself look good, Schulman, on the other hand, is a "what you see is what you get," passionate politician.

As mayor, the SCPR can only imagine what Schulman would be as an inspiring politico who could lead the people of Canton to a restoration of the Hall of Fame City to heights that the city has not seen in many decades.

But for whatever reason, he had decided not to go that route.

Nonetheless, he is a force and factor in Canton politics that merits the attention of other area politicians.

It is rather obvious that he works behind the scenes in Canton and Stark County political and governmental circles agitating local politicos "to do the courageous and right thing" for the interests of Cantonians/Stark Countians.

On this past Monday, Schulman let loose with a political/verbal barrage of castigation on Stark County's legislators, namely:

• state Senator Scott Oelslager, Republican of Plain Township,
• state Representative Kirk Schuring, Republican/Jackson Twp,
• state Representative Christina Hagan, R-Marlboro Township, and
• state Rep. Stephen Slesnick, Democrat, Canton

Why the castigation?

Because they have done very little, if anything, to stop the bloodletting by the Kasich administration of local government funding.

In the video that follows at the end of this blog Schulman shares with Canton City Council members that Senator Oelslager has shared with him that Governor Kasich has squirreled away $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds.

Schulman's point?

Ohio urban areas (including Canton, of course), while the state of Ohio is awash in surplus monies.

The SCPR applauds Schulman for his willingness to confront these "ineffective on state funding of local government" Stark County-based legislators.

Mostly local government officials (especially school board members) fawn over Oelslager, Schuring, Hagan and Slesnick when they have had the chutzpah to show up at local government meetings against a background of having voted for measures to gut local government funding.

But not Schulman.

Recently, he was in a back and forth with Stark County Concerned Citizens leader Chris Borello on her groups' failure to take these same legislators on with regard to their support of legislation to take away from local governments the ability to manage and control the environmental consequences of fracking for natural and wet gases.

It is easy to criticize others.

But how about one's self.

Well, Schulman with his polemic and insistence that Oelslager, Schuring, Hagan and Slesnick come to Canton City Council and explain themselves is demonstration that what he applies to others (i.e.the environmentalists), he applies to himself.

Being the evaders of anything unpleasant, the SCPR doubts that any of the four will show up at Canton council February 25th meeting.

They will have one excuse or another.  Most likely it will be 'we are in session we simply do not have the opportunity to break away'.

Council does not meet until 7:30 p.m.  So even if they are in Columbus, they all could hop in a car at 4:30 and be in Canton in time to go face-to-face with council.

The SCPR is willing to bet that they will find an excuse not to be in Canton on the 25th.

If, perchance, any of them do show up, it will be interesting to see which of the council persons "suck up" to them?

While the SCPR thinks that council members should be courteous, civil and respectful, there should be no cloying of them.

A SCPR "tip of the hat" to Allen Schulman for putting Stark County's legislative delegation ON THE SPOT!

STARK'S FOUR LARGEST TWP GOVERNMENTS SAY THEY DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH "CLOUT" WITH STATE GOV'T. THEY ONLY HAVE THEMSELVES TO BLAME!

Last Wednesday evening representatives of Stark County's four largest township (Jackson, Lake, Perry and Plain) met in Jackson to begin action to attain more "clout" with funding decision makers in Columbus so as to avert a local government funding crisis that looms as they use up reserves in the face of draconian cuts at the hand of the State of Ohio.

Ohio through the Ohio General Assembly (which includes Stark Countians Christina Hagan [R - Marlboro; 50th Ohio House], Scott Oelslager [R - Plain; 29th Ohio Senate], Kirk Schuring [R - Jackson; 51st Ohio House] and Stephen Slesnick [D - Canton; 52nd Ohio House]) has in large part balanced Ohio's biennium budget [fiscal years 2012-2013]  on the backs of local government.

Gone is the Ohio Estate Tax (effective:   January 1, 2013) and dramatically sliced (50%) is Ohio's Local Government Fund (LGF).  And there are indications that the LGF might be eliminated in its entirety come the 2014-2015 biennium.

Back in 2005 the Ohio General Assembly began phasing out the personal property tax with the promise to hold local governments harmless on the cuts.

Well, guess what?  That promise was only partially kept and now the revenue is entirely gone.

Officials from Jackson, Lake, Perry and Plain have known for some time that they are somewhat different from Stark County's other 14 townships.  In fact, Plain Township trustee Louis Giavasis tells the SCPR that he, Perry Township trustee Craig Chessler and Randy Gonzalez (current Jackson Township fiscal officer) put together CLOUT (Coalition of Large Urban Townships) as part of the Ohio Township Association (OTA) in 1994.

Other points made by Giavasis in an email response from The Report about Wednesday's meeting include:

• that the meeting was attended by the following:
• Jackson
• Trustee James N. Walters
• Trustee John E. Pizzino
• Trustee Todd J. Hawke
• Fiscal Officer Randy Gonzalez
• the township law director
• the township administrator
• Lake
• Trustee John Arnold
• Fiscal Officer Ben Sommers
• Perry 
• Trustee Craig Chessler
• Trustee Lee Laubacher
• Fiscal Officer Joe Schlegel
• the township administrator
• Plain
• Trustee Louis Giavasis
• Trustee Scott Haws
• Trustee Al Leno
• the township administrator
• Stark County
• Auditor Alan Harold
• that a prime discussion topic was a consensus that neither the OTA nor CLOUT was effectively serving the needs of Ohio's largest townships.  (CLOUT  has about 50 member-communities of about 1310 (more or less) a  total number of township in Ohio)
• that Jackson, Lake, Perry and Plain function as cities but do not have the option to ask voters to pass an income tax or sales tax in addition to their only other option which is a property tax.
• that additional revenue sources are needed the larger townships in the face of State of Ohio revenue cuts or they will have to cut services to residents.
• that the Wednesday meeting produced a discussion of combining duplicative services but seek authority through the Ohio Legislature to create combined taxing authorities to support the more efficient and less costly combined services.
• to continue to work with the OTA, CLOUT (notwithstanding the thinking that they were not getting the job done for larger townships) to find ways and means for larger townships to obtain from state government the tools that they need to function as city-like entities, and
• to consider hosting a meeting with the Stark County delegation to the Ohio General Assembly being present to hear face-to-face what the larger townships need that is different from less populated townships.

As far as the SCPR is concerned, Stark's largest townships' structural and financial will not be solved UNLESS and UNTIL they band together to put the continuance in office either Kirk Schuring and/or Scott Oelslager in jeopardy.

The Report is not calling for local CLOUT-esque officials to get ugly or even uncivil.  Both men are gentlemen and cordial and deserve to be treated respectfully at the person leve.  In a word, "civility"  should continue to reign.

However, the trustees and fiscal officers, elected in the own right,  need to look Schuring and Oelslager in their capacity as elected public officials in the eye and tell them they are not getting the job done for Stark County political subdivision government and that its time for a change in the the 48th and the 29th, respectively.

Both have been part of the problem of local governments losing revenues from the State of Ohio and not having the statutory structural resources required for these Stark's largest townships to deal with their unique situation.  And between the two, the current local problems have been many years in the making.

It makes most sense for the CLOUT townships to target either Oelslager and/or Schuring as they are from Plain and Jackson Townships, respectively.  Moreover, both represent Perry and Oelslager represents Lake.

However, the SCPR has seen many of the township officials listed in this blog as having attended last Wednesday's meeting interact with Oelslager and Schuring in a love-in fashion, uttering nary a word of criticism of their shortfalls and therefore The Report does not believe that the locals have the intestinal fortitude to get in duo's faces on their votes on policy issues which hurt local government.

So the likes of  Gonzalez, Pizzino, Walters, Hawke, Arnold, Chessler, Laubacher, Giavasis, Haws and Leno get no empathy from the SCPR on their "woe is me, look what the Ohio Legislature has done to us" complaints.

To say it again.

Concerted and unified action by the 16 elected officials (a mix of Republicans and Democrats) of Stark's BIG FOUR townships against Republican majority party members Oelslager and/or Schuring would have a terrific chance of success and would send shock waves through the Ohio General Assembly were either or, perhaps, both voted out of office.

But it ain't gonna happen.

For the complaining Stark County township officials simply "do not have the guts" to act in a way that the Ohio General Assembly will understand!

(VIDEOS: GONZALEZ & SCHURING) SCOG 9-1-1 GOVERNANCE BOARD SETS PRIORITIES. IS GONZALEZ'S FRUSTRATION EXPERIENCING SOME RELIEF?

Last Thursday 9-1-1 Stark Council of Governments (SCOG) Governance Board Chairman Randy Gonzalez called the board ("GovBoard") together for the express purpose of determining what the board wished to recommend to the Stark County commissioners as to how to spend some $2.1 million that the commissioners are holding for the rehab of the countywide 9-1-1 system.

Back in 2007/2008 a commissioned study found the system to be broken and in dire need of fixing.

In December, 2008 former Stark County commissioner Todd Bosley came up with a plan to "impose" (which fellow commissioners Tom Harmon and Jane Vignos went along with) on Stark Countians a 0.5% sales tax as a way to fund the repair of the countywide 9-1-1.

Moreover additionally in the mix was a, "let's say - a less publicized," side plan to put monies into the Stark County general fund.

The SCPR's take is that "imposed" factor coalesced with the "general fund" factor to deal an overwhelming defeat for the tax in a referendum on the tax in November, 2009.

When the tax was "imposed," Gonzalez was elated that finally, finally, his 20 year effort to bring a "state-of-the-art" countywide 9-1-1 was a reality to Stark County.

This is not to say that Gonzalez (also Jackson Township's fiscal officer, a employee of the Canton clerk of courts and chairman of the Stark County Democratic Party) was pleased with the way the funding was brought about.  Being the skilled politician he is, one has to think that he worried that the revenue would be short lived.

And, as already pointed out, it was!

However, the county did collect monies from the "imposed" tax of which the $2.1 million remains.

Since the "imposed" sales tax collection ended in mid-2010 (because of a built-in lag in collecting on/ending levies), the GovBoard through 9-1-1 Project Manager Joe Concatto has been working on five aspects of completing the "dispatch" side of fixing 9-1-1, to wit:

• a "CAD - Computer Aided Dispatch" (i.e. software) system,
• getting Stark County's first responders outfitted with "state-of-the-art" 800 mhz radios,
• up-to-date consoles,
• figuring out a way to pay for the annual upkeep on CAD to the tune of about $100,000, and
• reserving some of the sales tax revenues to use as leverage (the local match) to qualify for state and federal grants that might be available for the CAD, radio and console aspects of upgrading the Stark 9-1-1 dispatch side of the equation.

It was this latter factor (i.e. the $100,000 annual upkeep cost) that gave Stark County Commissioner Tom Bernabei "pause for thought" as to whether or not purchasing a CAD system was a wise thing to do.

Anyone who knows Bernabei is well aware that he is a painstaking, detailed type when it comes to analyzing the costs and other factors associated with implementing local government initiatives.

He is so highly regarded in the county (except, of course, for Mayor William J. Healy, II of Canton who fired him as Canton chief-of staff back in 2008), The Report does expect that Commissioners Creighton and Ferguson will follow his lead as the commissioners move towards a final decision as what to do with the $2.1 million.

The options are, as pointed out above, the CAD software and/or 800 mhz radios and/or new consoles or any combination thereof.

The Report believes Bernabei is genuinely undecided but is leaning towards the radios.

Undoubtedly, Gonzalez and Concatto are likely tuned in on Bernabei's wavering.

It has always been the impression of the SCPR that Gonzalez and Concatto favor (as the top priority) getting the CAD system.  CAD will probably cost between $1 million and $1.3 million.

Beyond that, their likely priorities are getting as many radios as they can and setting aside money for the local match factor.

The hope is that bringing dispatchers together in two central facilities (the Stark County Sheriff's Center and the Canton Communications Center [or alternative, the RED Center] will significantly reduce the need for upgraded consoles and therefore the console factor appears to be their last priority.

But the decision on priorities in not Gonzalez's/Concatto's decision to make.

It is that of the GovBoard which is made of various fire/police/emergency force units and, of course, various representatives of Stark County's political subdivisions (township, villages, and cities).

While the SCPR believes that the GovBoard discussion was thorough, open-ended and frank, there is little doubt that the members caught the Gonzalez/Concatto drift and and that their carefully crafted advocacy resulted in their priorities being endorsed by the board.

And for yours truly's part, the Gonzalez/Cancatto priority plan appears to be the correct one.

But it remains to be seen as to whether or not Tom Bernabei will be convinced.

The SCPR understands that the GovBoard will have representation at this coming Wednesday's regular commissioner meeting to pass onto the commissioners the GovBoard's recommendation that the CAD be put out for bid as a first priority.

Here is a videotape on the GovBoard's vote on the priority:



As was pointed out in the GovBoard meeting, merely bidding out the CAD does not necessarily mean that the CAD will actually be purchased.

A concern of Concatto is that movement take place on the $2.1 million soon as a convincer (e.g. putting CAD up for bid) to the Fund for our Economic Future (Cuyahoga County) that the 9-1-1 rehab is a "go," so as to secure payment of a $100,000 EfficientGov-Now grant won by the 9-1-1 GovBoard in June, 2010.

But it still remains for them to convince Bernabei.

Another aspect to the 9-1-1 rehab is on "the call receiving side" of the countywide system.

Stark County emergency call receiving is currently "state-of-the-art."

However, two key parts of the future funding of this side of Stark's 9-1-1 includes:

• a 28 cent per month, per cellphone user fee which is due to expire on December 31, 2012.  The fee produces about $1 million per year for Stark County 9-1-1 emergency call receiving.
•  a Stark County 1/10th of a mill property tax levy dedicated to 9-1-1 which is set to expire at the end of this year.  The tax produces about $500,000 per year.

The 28 cent fee is a State of Ohio imposed fee as voted by the Legislature.  Accordingly, Chairman Gonzalez asked state Representative Kirk Schuring (Republican - Jackson - the 51st soon to be the 48th) to look into extending the fee beyond this year.

To track Schuring's progress, Gonzalez asked Schuring to be at Thursday's meeting and make a public presentation and take questions from the GovBoard's membership.

Schuring acquiesced and explained that he has heeded the GovBoard's call as evidenced in his amending House Bill 509.

The amendment provides for a complete review of Ohio's emergency services call receiving/dispatch system with recommendations of the review to be voted upon after November 15th of this year when the Ohio General Assembly returns to Columbus for a "lame duck" session.

Obviously representatives and state senators up for re-election this year would not want to be on record as having favored the tax increase.

While it is not known how much, if anything, the review will recommend in a continued fee, Schuring in this on camera with the SCPR appears confident that his efforts will be productive not only for the Stark County SCOG 9-1-1 GovBoard, but for 9-1-1 call/dispatch functions for all 88 Ohio counties.



As for Gonzalez's 20 years plus frustration, the SCPR asked whether or not he is optimistic that there is "light at the end of the tunnel" and, perhaps, his frustration is on its way to being ended?

Here is his video response to The Report:



The SCPR is skeptical that a complete fix of Stark County 9-1-1 will be realized.

However, it could happen.

The key?

Getting Canton Mayor William J. Healy, II on board.

The only way The Report sees that happening is Gonzalez brokering some kind of deal with Healy.

Healy being the cause of the stalemate is not good politics for him.

But will his ego allow him to do what is good for Stark County's citizens and sacrifice being the "man in charge?"

Hmm?

PRESS RELEASE COVERAGE OF STATEHOUSE DOES NOT SERVE STARK COUNTIANS WELL. FORMER REP STATEHOUSE REPORTER PAUL KOSTYU SURFACES AT THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER

Up until April, 2007 and the arrival of GateHouse Media, Inc on the local newspaper scene in its purchase of The Repository, Stark Countians had first rate coverage of the political machinations going on in the Ohio Statehouse in the personage of the then-Repository Columbus Bureau Chief Paul Kostyu (now Statehouse reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer).

However, as part of GateHouse's cost cutting paradigm (which continues to this day with its common stock selling 6 cents a share and its annual report saying that a bankruptcy could be in its future ), Kostyu's position was eliminated.

Ever since, it seems to the SCPR, the The Repository has endeavored to cover the Stark County delegation to the Ohio General Assembly via press releases issued by delegation members.

As election time approaches, the likes of Christina Hagan (Republican - Marlboro), Kirk Schuring (Republican - Jackson), Scott Oelslager (Republican - Plain) and Stephen Slesnick (Democrat - Canton) crank up the press release machine and inundate any media outlet with their political propaganda.

Of course, Slesnick has/had two problems in this regard.  First, he is in the minority in the Ohio House and therefore is not allowed by Republicans to getting anywhere with legislation that he proposes and, secondly, he is by virtue of his personality so laid back that even when the Democrats had a majority in the House for two years, he demonstrated that he wasn't particularly adept at using the press release propaganda mechanism.

But the Republicans have proven to be highly accomplished at this art and they appear to have a willing accomplice in the powers that be who run The Repository.

Accordingly, Stark Countians do not get a clear picture of what their representatives are doing in Columbus.  It seems to the SCPR that The Rep pretty much publishes the varnished press releases verbatim.  Very few if any critically framed questions are asked as a follow up to the releases.  And The Rep's editorial board provides very little in thoroughgoing analysis of the import/significance/deficiencies of the public relations-eque nature of the bills being championed.

Of course, the likes of Hagan, Schuring and Oelslager do not press release out votes that might prove embarrassing in front of the folks back home.

An example of "mum is the word" is the shenanigans revealed in the droppings along the legislative trail of House Bill 194 original passage of which was supported by Stark's three Republican representatives.

As far as the SCPR can determine, The Repository (being without the likes of Kostyu) did not provide its Stark County readership with any meaningful insight into the processes of passing HB 194 and collateral efforts to salvage "important to Republicans" in a presidential election year (Obama and Romney are neck-and-neck in recent polls) in HB 224 and in the sham repeal legislation passed earlier this week (HB 295).

Republicans claim that HB 194 was overall designed to protect the integrity of elections and to simply the voting process and specifically instituted the following reforms:

• eliminating provisions whereby citizens could register and vote in one a to z process,
• eliminating provisions allowing citizens to vote "absentee" during the the weekend days immediately preceding election day,
• the beefing up of requirement of voters to ensure they were entitled to vote, and
• the shoring up of standards on absentee and provisional ballots so as to make their eligibility for being counted more stringent.

Democratic politicians aided by some non-partisan types called "foul ball," saying that the bill:

• reduced access to voting (especially for minorities),
• (e.g. in eliminating early voting during the weekend preceding an election),
• made it more difficult for voters (who do not have Ohio drivers licenses or valid ones) to produce "qualifying to vote" identification,
• reduced the scope and depth of help that poll workers can provide voters having difficulty in voting, and
• increasing the barriers which absentee and provisional ballots must surmount in order to qualify to be counted

The Ohio General Assembly passed HB 194 (June 29, 2011) and Stark's Republican legislators all supported it.  As they did the passage of HB 224 (see vote tally below) and HB 295 (see vote tally below).

In reaction to HB 194 passing, a coalition formed under the banner of Fair Elections Ohio.  The organization successfully circulated a referendum petition to put the matter of HB 194 before the voters of Ohio coming this November as to whether or not it should stand as the law of Ohio.

Much like with Senate Bill 5 (the bill which would have adversely impacted collective bargaining rights of fire, police and teacher public employees along with a few other categories of such), when it became apparent that the referendum was going to pass, the Republicans began rethinking the abrogation of voters' rights.

On SB 5, Governor Kasich tried to negotiate a deal to salvage the bill.  But he proved to be "a day late and a dollar short" and voters overwhelmingly defeated the bill (Tate Issue #2 on the ballot).

On HB 194, the Republicans (including Stark Countians Hagan, Schuring and Oelslager) did two things.

First, they passed HB 224 as emergency legislation and got a supermajority of votes (making it referendum proof), which proves how stupid the Democratic minority in the Ohio General Assembly is (i.e. by voting with the Republicans they undermined the referendum on HB 194).

In HB 224, which was primarily designed to affect military and overseas voting, some provisions of HB 194 were incorporated thereby getting these provisions into law through the backdoor and referendum proof.  To repeat, Stark Countians Hagan, Schuring and Oelslager all supported this "sleight of hand" legislation.

Then in HB 295 which was advertised by the Republican Ohio General Assembly leadership as "repealing" HB 194 did nothing of the sort.

Left in HB 295 was the elimination of the weekend before an election voting opportunity.

In all the Machiavellian political twists and turns involving HB 194, HB 224 and HB 295, the Republicans believe that they have mooted the Fair Elections Ohio referendum on HB 194.

And they could be determined to be correct.

So in addition to curtailing access to the ballot box they have conspired to deprive you and I (the political base of Ohio in a democratic republic) the right to overturn decisions of those that a majority of Ohioans elected in the first place.

Part and parcel of these anti-democratic-republican political maneuvers were guess who?

You've got it:  Hagan, Schuring and Oelslager.

Of course there was no press release on it.

And, of course, no Repository scrutiny of their unpublicized partisan politics coup.

After all, Paul Kosytu is gone.

But GateHouse and derivatively The Rep did save money.

So what that Stark Countians would have been, but for the SCPR, uninformed about the backroom politics of our local representatives to the Ohio General Assembly.

And The Rep is an award winning newspaper?

"DEJA-VU ALL OVER AGAIN!" SCHURING MAKES REPOSITORY DE FACTO CAMPAIGN PRESS AGENT. THE MARKS OF AN AWARD WINNING NEWSPAPER?

One of the things that political candidates try to do is to make the media (newspapers, television outlets and the like) unwitting (?) allies in the candidates try for office.

Within political campaigns, the manipulation of the press is called "earned media."

For incumbents, the task of using the media is simplified because they have the ability to orchestrate seeming "news events" to finesse a non-discerning news outlets into providing coverage that is not earned but rather is contrived.

Democratic Canton Mayor William J. Healy, II is the grandmaster of doing such and during his recent campaign against Republican A.R. Conde played the folks at The Repository (Stark County's only countywide newspaper) "like a fiddle" on this score.

A close second is Republican state representative Kirk Schuring (R - Jackson, the 51st running for the newly configured 49th House District).

Next is state Senator Scott Oelslager (R - Plain, the 29th Senate District) and quickly learning the technique is state Rep. Christina Hagan (R - Marlboro; the 50th House District).

The inability of the folks at The Rep to discriminate between "real" news and "press release - get me elected - re-elected" concocted news gives incumbents an unfair advantage over their challenger opponents.

Yours truly remembers vividly the campaign between Schuring and Democrat Jan Schwartz in 2002 for the 29th Ohio Senate District.

Remember that Schuring and Oelslager have this "tag-team" thing going in which they exchange the Ohio House and Senate seats when each is respectively term limited out of their existing elected position.  It is kind of an musical chairs exercise with the exception that in the Schuring/Oelslager version each ends up with a seat; just a different seat.

Back in 2002, it was interesting.  During the run up to the May, 2002 primary candidate Jan Schwartz got lots of Repository ink.  Probably as much as Schuring.

However, once the general election season took hold the ink dried up for Schwartz, but the spigots at The Repository remained full throttle for Schuring and it was hard to know (from reading The Rep) who his opponent was.

So it was no surprise that Schuring trounced Schwartz in 2002.  Schuring was likely going to win anyway, but once he was able to co-opt the presses at The Repository, then Schwartz had no chance whatsoever.

It is well established, in the SCPR's view of things, that the Schuring technique is an ensconced a la Yogi Berra "deja vu all over again" pattern that is unbecoming of a news outlet of the supposed sophistication of The Repository.

One can't blame the politicians for trying.  But who is the discerner-in-chief at 500 Market Avenue South?

Apparently, nobody!

Of late, there have been a spate of articles picking up on Christiana Hagan's legislative efforts in the Ohio House in anticipation of her seeking election for the first time  (November 6th) against Democrat Sue Ryan (a Alliance City Council councilwoman-at-large).

Obviously, she has picked up on the well-honed Schuring practice.

Yours truly has wondered as to the timing that we would be subjected to a Schuring-himself plying The Repository exercise?

Well, pretty much "like clockwork" Schuring surfaced this past weekend, to wit:  Boards and Ballots: Schuring introduces 10th bill, May 5th, Robert Wang.

What's interesting about Wang's piece that he does not mention once that Schuring has an opponent (Democrat Amanda Trump).   Of course, voters wouldn't want her reaction to Schuring's legislative record?

It was nice to see that a commenter (going under the Internet name "slimjim" took a critical look at the significance of Schuring's legislative record, in part, to wit:

And like most legislators, Mr. Schuring considers himself successful when Obie gets a license plate, or another blank can be added on the tax return (like we can't give to a cancer fund ourselves - we need the government's help).  ...  These examples of law changes that apply to an ever decreasing number of constituents are what passes for legislation these days.

The heavy lifting is left to others - or simply ignored for another year - or ten.

Here, here! (reference:  "The heavy lifting is left to other - or simply ignored for another year - or ten.")

The SCPR has done quite a lot of work going through the campaign finance reports - "Follow the Money" - of local (village, city, township and board of education) candidates.  One of the differentiating factors between locals and statewide (state reps, state senators, governor, et cetera) on reports is that locals do not have to indicate the vocation/organization that of contributors in excess of $100 as do the statewides.

The Report asked Schuring in 2009 as 29th District state senator (which includes Lake Township, home of  the SCPR) to match up the local requirement with that of state candidates.

Surprise, surprise! He responded in introducing SB 191 to require that local candidate campaign contributions over $100 identify donor's employer/vocation on the campaign finance report.

For a while anyway.

For once he got some opposition, he faded fast.

And definitely was nowhere-to-be-seen on SB 191 when, with the election of November, 2010, he "musical chaired" back into the 51st House District which yours truly is not a constituent of.

Apparently, he is not willing to fight for facilitating Stark County citizens having the right to know who the $100 and up contributors to the likes of Mayor Healy are and what interest groups they may be tied to.

For all of The Repository's picking up on self-serving press release material put out by candidates, it is interesting how the staff misses things like SB 191.

Interesting in light of the newspaper's annual hullabaloo about "Sunshine Week."

"Sunshine Week is defined, in part, by the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) a being:

...  a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information,

Just how committed are "the powers that be" at The Rep. to the free flow of information in that it could not see fit to holding Schuring feet to the fire on SB 191.  The bill died with the expiration of the 128th Ohio General Assembly on December 31, 2010.

Nor has The Repository followed through on Schuring's promise to get results for Stark County officials on eliminating a specific list of  burdensome "unfunded mandates" that needed to be eliminated by the Legislature.  (See LINK to prior blog on the meeting).

Commissioners had called him and other area legislators (only Christina Hagan failed to show)  to a April 22, 2011 meeting with Stark County officials specifically to discuss the "unfunded mandate" problem.

A last report, Schuring has only gotten action on a item or two on a laundry list of items submitted by a task force of county officials headed by Stark County Court of Common Pleas Judge Taryn Heath.

Now that the county sales tax has passed, the "unfunded mandate list" is no longer important to The bigs at The Rep, the county commissioners and other county officials?

Hmm?

And, of course, we all remember the political ploy by Schuring on contemplating a run for congressional seat of then-retiring Congressman Ralph Regula (the 16th) against Democrat John Boccieri.

Ploy? (See this LINK to prior blog)

Yes.

He made a big to-do about pushing the Ohio General Assembly to solve the Ohio Supreme Court ruling (DeRolfe - four times over) by placing a amendment to the Ohio Constitution on the ballot.

Once the election came and went with Schuring losing.
Not a word from him about about keeping up the fight to solve the persisting public school funding problem.

But he can write a press release about 10 bills of questionable significance to the well being of Stark Countians/Ohians and have it picked up by The Rep without any questions being asked about his past legislative failures.

Hmm?

And The Repository is an award winning newspaper?

Standards sure are slipping these days, aren't they?

(VIDEO: STARK LIBERTARIAN FOUNDER ENGAGES "OCCUPY CANTON" GROUP) CAN A LIBERTARIAN WIN? AFFECT THE OUTCOME OF? 48TH OHIO HOUSE DISTRICT?

Recently, the SCPR did a blog on Democratic candidate Amanda Trump who is running against Republican Kirk Schuring in Ohio's (also Stark County) newly constituted 48th Ohio House District.

Formerly, the 51st Ohio House District (represented alternatively by Republicans Scott Oelslager and Kirk Schuring, the 48th going back to the 1980s), the 48th takes in Jackson Township, a good part of Perry, North Canton and a small part of Plain.

However, The Report did not include the candidate of Libertarian John Deagan in the blog.  Of course, the question becomes:  why not?

The answer to the "why didn't you include Libertarian John Deagan" in your primarily Trump blog is:  that yours truly does not think he will be much of, if any, factor in the outcome of the Trump (Democrat)/Schuring (Republican) match up.

The Report is open to being persuaded that the current analysis is off-the-mark and that Deagan by virtue of his actual campaign will show signs that he is a "real" factor in terms of winning the district or, at least, factoring in as a force in determining who will win between Trump and Schuring.

So far, Deagan is not off to a good start.

In his pre-primary campaign finance report he showed $0 dollars in fund raising during the period.  $0 in the balance forward line item.

Apparently, Candidate Deagan has not learned the first principle of effective campaigning:  "EMILY:  (e)arly (m)oney (i)s (l)ike (y)east."

Especially when one starts way behind.

Perhaps, he is busy reading a book by fellow Libertarian Robert D. Butler, to wit:

From the looks of 18 the steps listed, it seems to be chocked full of advice which could make Deagan a serious candidate if he can parlay implementing the steps into votes.

As the SCPR sees Libertarian candidates (yours truly has a Libertarian nephew), is that many people agree with them "in principle," but see them as "not being pragmatic, perhaps, even politically naive" and to vote for them is like throwing one's vote away.

From the Libertarian website:

The Libertarian way is a logically consistent approach to politics based on the moral principle of self-ownership. Each individual has the right to control his or her own body, action, speech, and property. Government's only role is to help individuals defend themselves from force and fraud.

Who would disagree with that?

But, rightly or wrongly, most voters seem to think that Libertarians are not conciliatory enough with those who disagree with them to be able to be effective in governance.

Stark County does have a recent election in which - in the opinion of the SCPR - an "independent" (did not list himself as a Libertarian) candidate did change the outcome of the election.

The Report believes that, in November 2010, Democrat Thomas Bernabei (former Canton law director, councilman and service director/chief of staff [Healy] defeated Republican James Walters [trustee, Jackson Township) because of the surprising vote that "independent" Stephen Todd garnered.

It appears to The Report that Todd was politically to the right of both Walters and Bernabei (a center, left of center Democrat) and therefore took enough votes from Walters to make Bernabei county commissioner.

Could John Deagan do the same in a Trump/Schuring/Deagan line up?

Perhaps, but not likely in the judgment of the SCPR.

He does have an impressive list of business/community involvements in Jackson:

• owns three successful businesses, 
• a past-President of the Jackson Township Rotary Club and a current member.  
• on the board of the football booster club.  
• a member of a "Citizens Advisory Committee" for Jackson Township.  
• a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and 
• served on the Ambassador Committee for several years.

His political associations are interesting:

• an active TEA-partier
• a member of the 912 Group [Glenn Beck associated]
• also participated in "Occupy Canton"

The SCPR is unsure of the clout that the Stark County Tea Party crowd has in Stark elections.  However, it appears to The Report that to be connected with Glenn Beck inspired group (Beck thought by many to be a right wing radical) will be a negative rather than a positive for Deagan.

"Occupy Canton?"  Hmm?

A way left-of-center group for a clearly right-of-center candidate?

Won't this be very confusing to Tea Partiers and others on the political right who might otherwise be interested in voting for someone on the political right as an alternative to Republican Schuring?

Here is a video of Deagan speaking to the "Occupy Canton" folks at a downtown rally they held in downtown Canton in October, 2011.



Deagan tells The Report that he knows (notwithstanding the $0 pre-primary campaign finance report) he can raise the needed money to fund a winning campaign (probably about $500,000, the SCPR thinks) and attract "an army of volunteers" to his campaign.

He then says something that completely undermines having said what he said about his ability to raise money and attract volunteers, to wit:

"I am admittedly not fully committed, as I do have businesses to run and a family to enjoy my time with."

One does have to make choices in life and running for political office (honest candidates will tell you) does cut into the time one can devote to his employment and, most unfortunately, to one's family.

In saying "I am admittedly not fully committed" in and of itself says to The Report that John Deagan will certainly not be the first state representative elected to the new 48th House District brought into being by the constitutionally required decentennial redistricting.

Moreover, it is unlikely that he can pull a Stephen Todd and be a political spoiler in putting Democrat Amanda Trump in the Statehouse over Republican Kirk Schuring.

Nonetheless, The Report will keep the ear to the ground and if Deagan shows he is being effective in getting would-be Schuring voters going his way, readers can expect future blogs to include Deagan as a material factor in the outcome of the race.

ONCE AGAIN, LOCAL & STATE GOP LINE UP AGAINST AVERAGE GUY? THIS TIME CONSUMER PROTECTION. WILL THE VOTE HELP DEMOCRATIC OPPONENTS IN THE FALL?

The Republican Party is commonly known as the party of the business class whereas the Democratic Party is generally perceived as the political party of "the little guy."

Of course, some say that such stereotyping is just that and that political reality is more of a mix than simply business versus the common man.

That may be, but in the view of the SCPR the Republican caucuses of the Ohio House and Senate in passing House Bill 275 on Tuesday did not help themselves in disabusing stereotypical thinking.

HB 275 is legislation, on its way to Republican Governor John Kasich for his signature, which dramatically tamps down on consumers rights.

On top of Senate Bill 5 (the anti-collective bargaining bill), the passage of HB 275 appears to be more of the same.

The bill according the Legislative Service Commission of the Ohio General Assembly:

• Permits a supplier to offer a consumer a "cure offer" if the consumer files an action against the supplier for an alleged violation of the Consumer Sales Practices Act. 
• Requires a cure offer to contain a supplier's remedy consisting solely of monetary compensation to resolve the alleged violation of the Consumer Sales Practices Act, the amount of attorney's fees to be paid, not to exceed $2,500, court costs, 
• Prohibits a consumer from being awarded treble damages, and court costs and attorney's fees after the cure offer is received, if the consumer does not accept a cure offer and a court or arbitrator awards the consumer actual economic damages that are not greater than the value of the remedy included in the cure offer. 

It is hard to see anything in this legislation which benefits aggrieved consumers.

It will benefit Ohio's court system in likely cutting down on the number of trials.

But it appears to The Report that the bill's structure is primarily designed to save businesses that actually get sued for consumer rights violations the possibility of treble (triple) damages being assessed against them on a liability finding by a court of law.  Moveover, in capping attorney fees at $2,500, it makes consumer cases much less attractive for lawyers to take on.  In this way, it is likely that there will be less suits for violating businesses to cope with.

While local Republican Scott Oelslager (Ohio Senate - 29th) distinguished himself from from the pack in opposing SB 5 (which was soundly rejected [State Issue #2] by Ohio's voters in November, 2011), his SB 5 departure appears to have been an anomaly in the light of his vote for HB 275.

It was no surprise that Stark Republicans Christina Hagan (Marlboro - the 50th) and Kirk Schuring (Jackson - now representing the 51st and running in newly redistricted 48th) followed the party line in joining in on the passage of the bill.

It will be interesting to see whether or not the Democratic opponents to Hagan (Sue Ryan of Alliance) and Schuring (Amanda Trump) in the upcoming fall campaign are able to couple their SB 5 votes with the HB 275 votes and other anti-common-man votes that their opposition research is able to uncover to make Hagan and Schuring wear the stereotypical thinking.