(VIDEOS) WHAT WAS THE CORRECT PROCEDURE FOR STARK COUNTY TO HAVE REMOVED ZEIGLER FROM OFFICE? HOW ABOUT ORC SECTIONS 3.08 & 3.07?

Stark Countians clearly remember that on April 1, 2009 it was revealed that Treasurer Zeigler discovered that his Chief Deputy Vince Frustaci had stolen $2.46 million (federal judge John Adams has said he believes that Frustaci actually took $2.96 million) from the county treasury.  Of course, Zeigler fired Frustaci immediately.  And Frustaci pled guilty and is serving 10 years in federal prison.

While Zeigler himself was exonerated by county and federal prosecutors of an criminal culpability, the State of Ohio Auditor's office found that Zeigler was deficient on a number of bases in having procedures in place to prevent an employee from making off with county money.

Stark County commissioners moved to remove Zeigler from office on the authority of Ohio Revised Code Sections (ORC) 321.07 and 321.08 which gave commissioners "permission" to remove on the fact that money came up missing while Zeigler was treasurer.

Here are a couple of videos to refresh SCPR readers on the actual proceedings wherein the commissioners prepared to and actually removed Zeigler.



As it turns out, the then Stark County Commissioners Todd Bosley, Pete Ferguson (he remains a commissioner) and Steve Meeks were legally wrong (so says the Ohio Supreme Court)  in removing Stark County Treasurer Gary D. Zeigler from office pursuant to the Chapter 300 statutory provisions.

Of course, the commissioners were relying on Stark County Prosecutor John Ferrero's legal advice in proceeding under ORC 321.37 and 321.28.

The high court was saying in effect via the language "is unconstitutional on its face," that Prosecutor Ferrero miscalculated in allowing the commissioners to proceed under 321.37 and 38.

The SCPR would go one step further and say that the Ohio General Assembly messed up in not fixing this obviously unconstitutional law years ago.

Notice the dates that the Legislature last dealt with these code sections:

1985 and 1953.  Hmm?

The Ohio Revised Code is sorely in need of revision.  Not only on constitutionally "on the face of it" problematical provisions like 321.37/38, but also across the board to update/remove out-of-date provisions like Stark County Court of Common Pleas Court Judge Taryn Heath (head of the Citizen Review Taskforce on unfunded mandates) brought forward (22 of them - just scratching the surface) back in March at a work session of the Stark County commissioners.

So why don't state Reps Kirk Schuring, Christina Hagan, Stephen Slesnick and state Sen Scott Oelslager get moving on setting up a continuing legislative taskforce to comb through the ORC and cure the defects and the out-of-dateness?

Yesterday, the SCPR talked with former Commissioner Bosley about the reasons the commissioners proceeded under ORC 321.37/38.  Interesting.  He laid much of the blame at the feet of local attorney and civic activist Craig T. Conley.

Bosley said that Conley was on the telephone with him for seeming hours without end pushing, pressing and cajoling him and his fellows to move forward on 321.37/38 and even asked for commissioners to appoint him the lead attorney on the matter.

The Report does not buy the Bosley argument. 

Yes, Conley did push.  But as The Report remembers.  It appeared that Ferrero was never going to get moving. 

Neither Bosley nor Ferguson recalls Ferrero bringing up the availability of using ORC Sections 3.07 and 3.08, to wit:

A major problem with the ORC 3.08/07 approach is that do so would require the collecting 20,912 valid Stark County voter signatures.  Not impossible, by any stretch.  But nonetheless "real work!"

Proceeding that way certainly would have cured the ORC 321.38 (an administrative process that the Supreme Court says does not qualify to be quasi judicial/administrative) "due process of law" problem.

And, had the people of Stark County prevailed before either a judge or jury, the county would not be facing "back wages, front wages and wrongful termination" damages that Zeigler's attorneys say they are looking at going after.  (Supreme Court rules that Zeigler should get his job back, Kelli Young and Shane Hoover, The Repository, 06/23/2001).

One can only imagine the Stark County public's reaction should Zeigler collect hundreds of thousands of dollars if not in the seven figures ($1,000,000 or more)!!!

FORMER CANTON MUNICIPAL COURT CLERK AND FORMER STARK COUNTY COMMISSIONER TOM HARMON IS BACK?

 REVISED:  01/28/2010 AT 10:30 AM

Harmon retired from being Canton Municipal Court clerk of courts several years ago, only to be appointed county commissioner by Stark Democrats (succeeding newly appointed Ohio Lottery official Gayle Jackson).  He got retained by voters in November, 2008, only to resign on December 1, 2009.

Well, former clerk of courts/commissioner Harmon is back once again according to The Report's source.

This time it is not in an official capacity, but rather to head up local attorney  Elizabeth Burick's proposed Canton-Stark County Agricultural & Livestock Expo Arena.

Burick is a well connected Stark County Democrat who is a horse lover who hails from Lake Township.

Yesterday, Steve Paquette, president of the Stark Development Board was at the regular weekly meeting of the commissioners to give the recommendations of the Board for recipients of Recover Zone Economic Development bonds which are part of the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed recently by Congress to stimulate the American economy.

The connection?  Harmon, Burick, Stark commissioners and the Stark Development Board.

One of Paquette's recommendations was that the Burick initiative get $500,000 in bond backing to aid in the Burick's nonprofit corporation effort to raise $7.5 million to build a horse show expo arena on the Stark County fairgrounds.

Harmon, of course, is a former commissioner (as outlined above) who was pushing the Burick project while he was yet commissioner.  In fact, he represented to yours truly that the expo arena was his idea of Stark County economic development.

But the SCPR is not buying the spin.

No, it appears to The Report that it is a quest for Burick to realize her individual dream with government assistance.  The proposal falls far short of what it ought to be (a la Clarke County) to be a major economic factor for Canton and all of Stark County.

If the "Burick Plan" was scaled up to redo the entire Stark County fairgrounds complex on a grand scale - over time, it could be a "real" boost to Canton's and Stark County's economy and bring many jobs to the area.

Stark County commissioners should establish a working relationship with Clarke County's commissioners and other Clarke County involved folks to reconfigure the Clarke County concept to take advantage of the Stark County agricultural community's unique qualities.

More about Harmon.

According The Report's source, Harmon is to head up the Burick project.  The Report further understands that Harmon's role has the backing of Stark Commissioner Steve Meeks.

Meeks has been meeting with Harmon, among others, on the Burick version of an expo project.

For several years the SCPR has been prodding the Stark commissioners (pre-Meeks) to get something going on economic development.  The Report was encouraged by Harmon's rhetoric on taking office in mid-2007.

While commissioner, Harmon never did deliver on his promise to produce economic development in Stark County.  But he did vote to "impose" a county sales/use tax on Stark Countians.

What about Paquette and the Stark Development Board?

While a number of plans were submitted to the Stark Development Board, only Hercules convention center project and the Burick plan survived the vetting.

The SCPR is skeptical of the "vetting" that Paquette claimed the Stark Development Board did.  The Report came away from the presentation made yesterday with the feeling that there was more to the selection of Hercules and the expo arena than presented by Paquette.

The Report will be digging more into this matter.

WHO IS THE STARK COUNTY DEMOCRAT WHO WILL "GET MANNA FROM HEAVEN" COME DECEMBER 15, 2009?

Go to the bank with it.

Steve Meeks, former Jackson Township trustee and currently Region 9 Director for the Governor Ted Strickland administration (Economic Development), will become recently announced resignee Commissioner Tom Harmon's replacement.

The SCPR spoke with Meeks minutes ago and he has confirmed with The Report that he will be submitting a letter to the Stark County Democratic Party (Randy Gonzalez, chair) to be considered for appointment as Harmon's successor.

Chairman Gonzalez will be convening an assembly of the Stark County Central Committee members who will vote on various candidates that have submitted letters of candidacy on December 15, 2009.

The SCPR has spoken with Trustee and second-in-command at the Stark County Court of Common Pleas clerk of courts Louis Giavasis (Plain) and  Trustee Michael Stevens (Lawrence) who are considering submitting letters.

However, the SCPR believes that it is unlikely that either will submit letters.

Why?

Because they both understand two things.

First, Steve Meeks has talked with the governor and his chief-of-staff John Haseley for their feedback on what Meeks tells the SCPR has been his long term desire to serve as Stark County commissioner.

While Strickland and Haseley expressed sorrow at Northeast Ohio's (and the Strickland's administration)  loss if  the commissionership materializes.  Moroveover, they gave their blessing to his effort.

Pretty powerful support, no?

Second, Steve Meeks is a long term political ally of Stark County Democratic Party chairman Randy Gonzalez.  Gonzalez, as Jackson fiscal officer and former trustee himself, served along side of Meeks while Meeks was trustee in Jackson.

The SCPR is told that Gonzalez was very upset when Michael Stevens ran against Republican Jane Vignos four years ago.  Gonzalez (not party chairman at the time) was pushing hard for Meeks to be the candidate.

Both Stevens and Giavasis are politically astute enough to understand that a candidacy for the Harmon vacancy is not "really" an open process.  They understand that former Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. hand picked most of the members of the Democratic Central Committee and that his loyalists vote as Maier recommends to them.

You can bet that Gonzalez and Maier will be working the phones for Meeks.
 
Neither Giavasis nor Stevens are gluttons for punishment.   The aforementioned political realities will likely keep them for submitting letters to be considered.

Mike Stevens, for one, is looking at making the Democratic primary on May 4th to be a contested one.  He says he has been getting calls encouraging him to run.  Look for other Democrats to climb into this race.

One of them will not be Councilwoman Mary Cirelli.  She tells the SCPR that she's been there and done that and, moreover, she has a political adviser who has persuasively made the case to her that she should not run.

You can look for the same on the Republican side in terms of candidates lining up to run for the Harmon seat.

Next year will be exciting times for statewide races and countywide races in Stark County!

ARE STARK COUNTIANS IN FOR "TWO" BLESSED EVENTS?

The SCPR has been ignoring, for some time now, source reports that a major shake up in about to be made by the Strickland administration that affects Stark County.

The Report chooses to nominate the "shake-up" as blessed events as indicated in the specially "conceived" graphic to appropriately honor the subjects of Strickland administration attention.

Blessed Event #1

Democrat Steve Meeks, former Jackson Township trustee who tried to pass his trusteeship on to wife Patty, is about to become the ex-regional 9 economic development?

Meeks couldn't persuade Jackson Township voters to go along with his grand plan to keep it all in the family.  Keeping it in the family seems to be a common trait among many Stark Democratic office holders.

Meeks got his political mentor and ally, former Stark County chairman Johnnie A. Maier, Jr., to sponsor him with governor-elect Strickland to appoint Meeks to the economic development directorship.  A post formerly held by North Canton Council president and Republican Daryl Revoldt when Bob Taft was governor.
So say multiple sources of the SCPR.

Maier is in Strickland's thrall because Johnnie had the good luck to be the first county chairman to endorse Strickland when he ran against Brian Flannery in the Democratic primary in 2006.  Strickland makes it abundantly clear that Maier has a special place in his heart.  Apparently, emotion has trumped over good sense with the humble-born Strickland from Duck Run, Ohio.

In the judgment of the Strickland folks, Meeks has outlived his usefulness and it is time for him to move on.

Move where?

Well, hold on just a minute will you!

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!



BLESSED EVENT #2

Tom Harmon is said to be stepping down as Stark County commissioner after January 1, 2010.

Now folks, wasn't it worth the wait?

The most unbelievable part of the Harmon step-down conjecture is that he is said to be headed to Columbus or elsewhere in our Buckeye state in the service of the Strickland administration.

Yours truly knew things are bad in Ohio.  But really, Tom Harmon working at the state level.

That part is likely untrue.  Here's a guy who likely spent decades slung back in his easy chair with feet on desk while clerk of courts for the Canton Municipal Court.  Then he moved on to the commissioner's office where he has achieved virtually nothing now he's going state?    The SCPR refuses to believe this part of the story.

The next part?

Maybe?

Steve Meeks is going to be appointed by Stark Democrats at the insistence of Stark County Democratic chairman Randy Gonzalez.

Makes sense to the SCPR.

After all, they are long time political pals out there in Jackson.

If these speculated "ahake-up" events come off; should Stark Countians see them as "blessed events?"