REPUBLICAN STARK CO POLITICAL SUBDIVISION "ELECTED" OFFICIALS OUTNUMBER DEMS BY WIDE MARGIN

AND 

CONTROL MORE UNITS OF STARK POLITICAL SUBDIVISION GOV'T

BUT 

AT NO ADVANTAGE TO EVERYDAY CITIZENS!

There are 196 elected Republicans and 125 elected Democrats and 34 elected non partisans (aka "independents" in Stark County Political Subdivision government.

The most prized ought to be those who serve in local government as politically independent (registered as non partisans).

They are eight in number.

However, note in the SCPR posting of "organized" majority (Republican Democrat and evenly distributed) of staffing of Stark political subdivisions that the remaining 26 non partisans are sprinkled throughout.  As stated above, there are only 34 of them who are the majority in four local political subdivision venue. to wit:

• Note:  a few of  serving public officials are appointed such as was Canton law director Kristen Aylward-Bates and Canton City Council president William V. Sherer, II.

"Organized Republicans really do control Stark County's political landscape in 2019.  Sixty-six (66) of this counties government entities are staffed with a majority of Republicans, to wit:

Organized Democrats have a majority in 35 Stark County political subdivision jurisdictions and there are 6 evenly divided between Republicans, Democrats and non-partisan jurisdictions, to wit:

Here is the entire list of 2019 serving public officials:

(Data based on information provided by Stark Co. BOE)

So far as The Stark County Political Report is concerned, both of the "organized" Dems and Republicans parties are corrupted in the sense in looking out for political party interests over community interests and, derivatively,  individual elected officials in the sense of looking after the political welfare of themselves and their "inside the beltway" supporters rather than overall community interests.

All one has to do is to look at the goings on in Washington and the political warfare that is underway.

Political parties gaming one another, individual Republican and Democratic politicians grandstanding and a president who sees everything in terms of his self-interest and has no problem whatsoever in telling lie, after lie, after lie in order to justify himself.

And very few, if any, Senate Republicans and House Republicans  (including 7th District [includes much of Stark County]  congressman Bob Gibbs) will call Trump's rampant dishonesty out.

Why?

Perhaps to save the Republican Party and themselves in the hope that the president can, through political bravado, survive the mounting disaffection of independent minded everyday Republicans.

Meanwhile, the ordinary citizens of America, Ohio and Stark County grow more and more cynical of major party elected officials to put "country, state, county, city, village and schools" above political party.

More and more voters are abandoning "official" political identity but have not yet translated that independence into making it clear to "died in the wool Democratic/Republican" candidates that the more partisan and political party entrenched they are perceived to be,  the less likely that you and I are to vote for them.

One of the more disturbing events in Stark County is the return of Canton mayor Thomas M. Bernabei to the "organized" Democratic Party.

Undoubtedly, former county Dems' chair Phil Giavasis was overjoyed at Bernabei's return for he willingly witness his circulating a petition for the mayor (likely would have gladly signed one but for his not being a Canton resident) in the light of his joining the fight to deny Bernabei (up to then a lifelong Democrat) the right to run as an independent  against two-term, seeking a third term, William J. Healy, II.

Anyone who thinks William J. Healy, II is a better fit than Tom Bernabei for the benefit of Canton obviously hinges that evaluation on his loyalty as a Democrat.

Somewhat understandable in that Giavasis was party chairman at the time.  But not really if one has a vantage point to know better than most of us to know that Healy was bad news for the future well being of Canton.

Undoubtedly, Giavasis knew the accounts of Bernabei repeatedly ripping Healy "a new one" when he Bernabei was was Canton service director/chief of staff in Healy's first term.  For which (even for the well being of Canton's citizens) got Bernabei fired in a humiliating manner.

Chairman Phil had to know all that and, accordingly, should easily be able to see him as a "party over community" politico.

And witness these individual signatures from "about as close as one can get" as being as being "political party" and 'individual political" interests over community interests.

Oh! not that the don't do their jobs as public officials in a workman sort of way.

But this blogger thinks in an overall since community is not over party when "push comes to shove" with likes of these folks.

Bernabei in taking on the "organized" Democratic Party establishment" struck a blow for community interest priority over political party/individual political interests.

Now that is all lost in terms of being an example of what courageous independent of political parties can do.

Disappointing for a man who could have been easily been reelected as an "independent."

But perhaps there is more to this story which, if so, it appears Bernabei is unwilling to discuss.  Not that long ago Louis Giavasis (shortly after having being appointed Stark County clerk of Court while brother Phil was chairman) floated a trial balloon of running as a Democrat.

The question is:  Was there  deal whereby the official Democratic Party hierarchy agreed to drop a possible Louis Giavasis challenge?

Nonetheless, the SCPR still thinks he is by far the most capable and independent-prone-thinking person in all of Stark County political subdivision government.

He could have been so much more in terms of being a model for those who aspire to get away the by and large GOP/Democrat self-aggrandizing monopoly and put community over party.

But of course nobody is perfect!

WHO IS LOOKING OUT FOR STARK COUNTIANS/OHIOANS ON ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS?

LAKE TOWNSHIP USES AQUAFALINA ON ITS ROADWAYS 

INCLUDING ITS RESIDENTIAL STREETS

On Sunday, February 10, 2019, the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Cleveland.com) reported as follows:

But there is blowback from the producer of AquaSalina.

See owner Dave Mansbery's note to the SCPR a few paragraphs down in this blog.

WHERE IN STARK COUNTY-SO FAR DETERMINED-THAT AQUAFALINA IS IN USE?

Stark County Engineer Keith Bennett tells this blogger that his office does NOT use AquaSalina in its highway maintenance program.

However, in a survey of various Ohio/Stark County governments just begun; Lake Township road superintendent Daniel Kamerer has told this blogger (I live in Lake Township on a street treated with AquaSalina)  that Lake does use the product and is convinced not only is it a money saver for Lake taxpayers but in his assessment is safe to use.  He says AquaSalina is much cheaper and effective than rival deicing products.



Kamerer put the SCPR in touch with Dave Mansbery of Nature's Own Source, LLC who sent the following rebuttal information to that published in the Plain Dealer article, to wit:

NATURE'S OWN SOURCE, LLC's RESPONSE

Mr. Olson,

Superintendent Kamerer advised me you had read an article in the Plain Dealer this past weekend regarding AquaSalina.  I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.  Several important points were left out of the article.  I am going to send you the exact summary of our 1/31/19 interview below.  I advised him we do not use “fracking brine”.  Number one there is no such product and number two, water used to frac wells are generally fresh and freshwater doesn’t melt ice.  Every effort to educate him was effort wasted.

Please contact me if you have any questions.  Channel 8 and 19 did interviews with me today so, I am happy to answer questions. 

There has been almost $ 1,000,000 in studies by PennDOT and ODOT done on the product.  The product is safe and actually reduces by 30% salt going into our lakes, rivers and streams.  Please note salt is radioactive as well in the attached report on 10 Commonly Radioactive Foods attached.

Regards,

Dave Mansbery
Nature’s Own Source, LLC

Mansbery provided the SCPR of what he says is the complete transcript of the conversation he had on January 31, 2019 with the Cleveland.com (Plain Dealer) reporter who wrote the story.

A copy of that transcript is included in the Annex portion of this blog.

STARK COUNTY HAS A HISTORY OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM

Legendary Stark County environmental watchguard Chris Borello now of Plain Township (formerly of Lake Township where she led the fight [beginning in the early 1980s])

• to protect area families from incurring health problems 
  
• due the proximity of the Uniontown Industrial Excess Landfill (aka the Uniontown Dump, created in 1966; also see EPA report) 
• in which the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Ohio EPA officials found hazardous chemicals to  have been buried.

Borello forwarded an e-mail to the SCPR among others a heads up on the aforementioned Plain Dealer report.

When President Trump gave his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, February 5, 2019 one of his invited guests was a child with brain cancer.

Joining Melania in the gallery this evening is a very brave 10-year-old girl, Grace Eline. Every birthday since she was 4, Grace asked her friends to donate to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. She did not know that one day she might be a patient herself. 

Last year, Grace was diagnosed with brain cancer. Immediately, she began radiation treatment. At the same time, she rallied her community and raised more than $40,000 for the fight against cancer. When 

Grace completed treatment last fall, her doctors and nurses cheered with tears in their eyes as she hung up a poster that read: "Last Day of Chemo." Grace -- you are an inspiration to us all.

Many childhood cancers have not seen new therapies in decades. 

My budget will ask the Congress for $500 million over the next 10 years to fund this critical life-saving research.

This is, in part, what Borello had to say in reaction:

IF you watched last night's State of the Union address by Mr. Trump, you saw him use an adorable, precious little girl with brain cancer, to assert he supposedly desires some ( vague) effort to deal with /combat childhood cancer in the U.S... I wanted to hurl...yell, I don't know what....Having talked with parents of such children regarding our Uniontown IEL Superfund way too many times over some 30 years  ... 

It is probably "deja vu" (all over again) for Borello with the revelation by the Plain Dealer that it appears that Ohio's legislators seemed to be prepared to allow the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to purchase and apply a product called AquaSalina to the roadways of Ohio which, of course, includes Stark County.

Excerpts from the cited-above Plain Dealer article: 

Ohio Department of Transportation snowplows had been spreading AquaSalina, a deicing solution, on the state’s roadways for years when an environmental group last year obtained an unreleased Ohio Department of Natural Resources report that found high levels of radioactivity in the product.

After the 2017 report became public, state government and company officials attempted to debunk it, criticizing the testing protocol and findings as flawed and “worthless.”

A team of scientists from ODNR’s division of Oil and Gas Resources Management/Radiation Safety Section, and the Environmental Safety Section compiled the seven-page report. The team tested 14 samples of AquaSalina from six locations in Cuyahoga, Summit, Tuscarawas and Guernsey counties.

All of the samples were found to contain elevated levels of radioactivity in excess of state limits on the discharge of radioactive materials. The average radioactivity in AquaSalina also exceeded the drinking water limits for Radium 226 and Radium 228 by a factor of 300. Human consumption of any amount of AquaSalina is highly discouraged, the report said. 

Members of the state legislature rejected the reports’ findings, introducing a law [House Bill 393] last year that would ease regulations on AquaSalina, treating it as a commodity rather than toxic waste derived from oil- and gas-drilling operations. The law would also prevent ODNR from imposing any additional requirements.  (emphasis added)

Notice that Kirk Schuring's name is missing on the HB 393 vote which did not become law because the 132nd OGA ended before the Ohio Senate could take it up.  The SCPR speculates that for whatever reason Republican Schuring and Democrat John Boccieri could not make the vote and therefore there might have been an agreement that neither would be on the record as voting one way or another.

Boccieri did vote "no" in committee, to wit:

NOTE:   Much of the rest of the material in this blog is misformatted and this blogger has not been able to figure out where the problem is.

Of course, following the Republican line, Christina Hagan voted "yes" in committee.  A political courage SCPR "tip of the hat" to Republican Jay Edwards for his "no" in committee.

State Rep. Thomas West (D, 49th House District) voted "no' on HB 393.

Of course, following the Republican line, Christina Hagan voted "yes" in committee.  A political courage SCPR "tip of the hat" to Republican Jay Edwards for his "no" in committee.

State Rep. Thomas West (D, 49th House District) voted "no' on HB 393

Naturally, we all know the name Christina Hagan (quit the Ohio House to run for the U.S. House which race she lost in May, 2018) because of her six year effort to get the OGA to pass what is called "heartbeat" legislation which would prohibit abortions once a fetus heartbeat is detected.

One has to wonder how Hagan could, for consistency sake, lead the fight to

save the unborn but reject credible findings by Ohio government that radiation from AquaSalina  might be a risk to the health safety of Ohioans nearly all of whom use Ohio roadways?

Borello in her tireless work to deal with/eliminate life harmful/threatening chemical/industrial waste pollution that she says affects Stark County residents' health has pretty much gotten the 'deaf ear' from (she says) the likes of (in her words):

• Dave Johnson, 
• Scott Oelslager., 
• Bob Horowitiz, 
• ll the Stark County Commissioners, 
• Capestrain, 
• Dick Watkins, 
• Norm Sponseller..
•  local Stark Judges who dealt with IEL cases....since those cases reportedly were precedent setting 
• Congressman Regula, and 
• his local chief of staff back then, Daryl Revoldt, who had dual role of Mayor of N. Canton, 
• Sen. Metzenbaum, 
• John Glenn..., 
• Congressman Tom Sawyer,  who threw CCLT under the bus 
• Sue Ruley [... Lake Twp. Trustees... ] played the CCLT really good for quite awhile 
• even though we told her how we didn't trust her due to her: 
• A) telling us she worked for our major polluter, Firestone  
• B).. She worked on IEL issues, ... AND, 
• She had been the Zoning Inspector the year, 1966, IEL was PERMITTED to begin officially...
• Voinovich's office claimed they needed to "defer" to Lake Twp/Ruley, because Voinovich was a "Federalist"...you know...local government stuff rules..

The SCPR infers from the  Borello list as possibly being an indication that one cannot depend on/trust politicians to step forward on environmental issues like the the AquaSalina matter and err on the side of caution.

It could be that AquaFalina's Dave Mansbery is correct and the ODNR division of Oil and Gas Resources Management/Radiation is incorrect on AquaFalina's safety factor.

Given this government finding, repeating partially text from the Plain Dealer piece linked to above:

A team of scientists from ODNR’s division of Oil and Gas Resources Management/Radiation Safety Section, and the Environmental Safety Section compiled the seven-page report. The team tested 14 samples of AquaSalina from six locations in Cuyahoga, Summit, Tuscarawas and Guernsey counties.

All of the samples were found to contain elevated levels of radioactivity in excess of state limits on the discharge of radioactive materials. The average radioactivity in AquaSalina also exceeded the drinking water limits for Radium 226 and Radium 228 by a factor of 300. Human consumption of any amount of AquaSalina is highly discouraged, the report said. 

it hard to believe that on December 6, 2018 the Ohio House (mostly Republicans) were willing to proceed apparently without fully vetting this safety issue.

Politicos are prone to side with business interests until it becomes compelling that the likes of Borello and fellow activists have made a clear case that they have ill-served their constituents.

In the meantime, it seems that they (mostly elected politicians) try to marginalize the likes of Borello.

What are they afraid of?

They should be gratified that Borello et al raise questions about public safety issues and embrace them with a full unbiased vetting of particular concerns.

The only Stark County politician who has stood up and fought for an environmental concerns was then-Plain Township trustee Louis P. Giavasis (now Stark County clerk of Courts) in 2010-2011 when the "fracking" controversy nationwide surfaced.

Here is a video from the archives of the SCPR of an interview with Giavasis.

The question today is whether or not Giavasis would show similar political spunk in 2019.

ANNEX

What Dave Mansbury says is the full transcript of this January 31, 2019 conversation with Cleveland.com (the Plain Dealer)

COULD THE SHERER/MARTUCCIO CANTON PRESIDENT OF COUNCIL HAVE LONG LASTING NEGATIVE EFFECT ON THE STARK COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY?

FIRST IN A SCPR SERIES 

 MARTUCCIO/SHERER

CANTON COUNCIL PRESIDENCY CANTON DEMS PRIMARY CONTEST

Political neophyte (in the sense of holding elective office) William Sherer II and former long term Canton law director Joe Martuccio will be facing off in the May 7, 2019 Democratic primary election to determine which will serve in a "elected" capacity as Canton City Council president.

THIS AND REMAINING BOE LISTINGS ARE EXTRACTS/REARRANGEMENTS OF RACES

NOTE:  SCPR ADDED BLUE/RED BACKGROUNDS & STARS

Of all the primary contests, this one is the most compelling.

However, there are others, to wit:

The subject of this blog is the Martuccio/Sherer race.

The Stark County Political Report has blogged on this Sherer/Martuccio previously, to wit:

• the decision by Joe Martuccio to, after withdrawing, fom competing with Sherer for the Stark Democrat's Central Commitment (Canton) appointment following the death of  council president Allen Schulman, to compete for the vote of Democrat voters in deciding who shall be council president beginning in January, 2020,
• Joe Martuccio plays the role of "peacemaker" by withdrawing from the December 17, 2018 Stark County Democratic central committee council president selection process,

The Report thinks that this contest could end up doing damage to the "organized" Stark County Democratic Party that could alter Democrats (outside Canton proper) to get elected because of a countywide voter perception that Democrats would rather fight than to govern.

Within Canton there likely be no consequence to Democrats because internal political bickering because of the huge, huge, huge Democrat registration majority

This blogger believes that Canton government has suffered decline for many years because of the lopsided Democratic Party control of council which is currently 12 - 0.

Some want to point out that there have been a number Republican mayors, maybe a majority of the years since Stanley Cmich and that the decline Canton has suffered because of their administration of Canton government.

The Report disagrees.

Canton is a strong council, week mayor type of government.

So make no mistake about it, Canton has declined mostly due the ineffectiveness of 

• (e.g. Jim Griffin; formerly of Ward 3, "I am thrilled to be a councilman" [a status thing from the SCPR's perspective]) 

Democrat council members who, because of their unchallenged near unanimous "over the years" domination of council have little incentive to be accountable to the "whole" Canton community.

The battle to succeed Griffin when he stepped down in a Democratic primary battle in 2015 produced a high quality councilman (perhaps the best on Canton council in terms of constituent services) in Jason Scaglione.

The SCPR thinks political competition, even internal to political parties, is a healthy process that makes it more likely Stark County political subdivision voters will get higher quality candidates to consider in exercising the franchise.

A major factor in the Sherer/Martuccio race might be the role that unionists play in the primary.

Canton City Council has been very pro-organized-labor in the years that the SCPR has covered Canton government.

Some think that one of the reasons it has been slow-going for Mayor Thomas M. Bernabei to bring Canton back from the depths is because of the stranglehold that the local labor movement seemingly has on many of Canton's council members.

LINK

 Accordingly, it might seem that Ironworker Sherer II and thoroughgoing unionist has an advantage in the Democratic primary contest with Martuccio.

To be sure, any chance of Sherer to get elected lies with what clout organized labor has with the general population voter.

Martuccio's best chance for electoral success might have been in a general election context in which political independents and Republican weigh-in if he took a page out of Mayor Thomas Bernabei's book and ran as a political independent.

The SCPR thinks given all his of successful (some unchallenged) elections as law director puts him in the place of attracting a large share if not a majority of registered Democrats.

Sherer would probably do very poorly with political independents and Republicans in a general election context.

CASE IN POINT: WHY DO OELSLAGER & SCHURING SUPPORT AN INEQUITY ON STARK COUNTY & OTHER URBAN COUNTIES ON APPORTIONMENT OF GASOLINE TAX REVENUES?

UPDATED:  FEBRUARY 7, 2019

STARK COUNTY TO LOSE $4 MILLION IN FUTURE ROAD CONSTRUCTION, IF NO NEW REVENUES (VIA GASOLINE TAX INCREASE?) IS FORTHCOMING

Within recent weeks articles began appearing in media reports regarding Ohio running out of gasoline tax revenues for "additional" Ohio roadway construction work.

If there is no increase in revenues, here is how Stark County could be affected.

First, from Jeff Dotson of SCATS:

Jeff G. Dotson <JGDotson@starkcountyohio.gov>
To: 'tramols@att.net'
Cc: Bob A. Nau, Keith A. Bennett, David R. Torrence, Jeffrey R. Dutton

Feb 7 at 2:16 PM

Mr. Olson,

Bob Nau asked me to make some calculations and respond to your request.  A couple months back, ODOT informed all of the Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO’s) in the state that due to ODOT’s financial condition, they would be reducing their discretionary allocations of federal funds to the MPO’s beginning in FY 2021.  The attached file summarizes those reductions for each year through 2025.  The numbers on the left of the page were provided by ODOT.  The “Reduction from 2020” calculations were done by this office.

..

Jeff Dotson, Principal Planner
Stark County Regional Planning Commission/
Stark County Area Transportation Study
...

Here's a pdf file which shows the particulars:



So the politicians are on the hunt for ways to enact additional taxes in a manner acceptable to Ohioans.

There is no doubt to The Stark County Political Report (SCPR, The Report) that the movers and shakers among Ohio's road construction stakeholder community will drive the Ohio General Assembly (OGA, controlled overwhelmingly by Republicans) and newly elected Republican governor. Mike DeWine to come up with a plan to deal with existing and growing urban congestion here in Stark County and across the urban areas of the state.

Ohio's gasoline tax was last raised in 2005 by the OGA by 2 cents per gallon.

To the SCPR, the more important factor (i.e. new funding is not an option but a given) is how the replacement tax revenue will be apportioned among Ohio's counties.

And this is where Stark County's focus on State Rep Scott Oelslager and State Senator Kirk Schuring come into the picture.

Under the current scheme of Ohio gasoline tax distribution, Stark County (one of Ohio's "urban" counties) gets a return of $6.41 per resident whereas the quintessential "rural" Vinton County gets $182.50.

Cleveland.com (Cleveland Plain Dealer) reporter Rich Exner is unparalleled in Ohio journalism for his development of and expansion of statistical information with its focus on the effectiveness and efficiencies of much of Ohio's state/local governments.

Exner has created a database that all citizens should access in order to find out how well their schools, county and local governments are doing in terms of public services.

Look at this map of Ohio (as annotated by the SCPR) show the obvious inequity in road funding for Ohio's eight largest counties compared to the least populated:

As readers of the SCPR know, this blogger "has a beef" with:

• Representative Scott Oelslager (35 years in the OGA back and forth with Kirk Schuring [25 years] in the Ohio House and Senate)
•  in a successful ploy to avoid "the will of the people" who voted to impose term limits on representatives/senators a 8 consecutive years in a 1992 vote of the people

for not taking advantage of their combined 60 years in the OGA (much of it in leadership positions) to make sure that Stark County gets its fair share of tax dollars sent to Columbus back home and for not protecting Stark County from the draconian cuts in Ohio funding of local governments and "unfunded Ohio mandates" on local governments.

Add to that list the fact that Stark County (Ohio's 8th largest county; population 374,273) gets the "short-shrift" on getting a proportionate return on gasoline tax dollars collected by the state of Ohio when compared to Vinton County (88th in population rank at 13,142).

Couple the population disparity factor with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) the Stark/Vinton County 2017 County Highway System Mileage Certification, to wit:

While one might argue that Stark merely doubles on county highway maintenance/repair road miles and that the equal distribution formula ($2.4 million for each county) is not all that much out of proportion.

The SCPR contends by standardizing on the mileage disparity Stark still should receive twice as much as Vinton.

Moreover, the population disparity of Stark over Vinton is 28 plus Stark over Vinton.  That means that there are potentially 28 drivers using the roads in Stark every 1 in Vinton County.

Do ya think there might be more wear and tear on Stark County roads as contrasted to Vinton County's?

If Oelslager and Kirk had been doing their jobs to fight for fairness for Stark County just on the road funding factor alone; it appears that Stark County taxpayers are "donors" to Vinton County and the other 79 Ohio counties with a lesser population.

Extreme gerrymandering figures into how urban areas fare in the Ohio Legislature.

The gerrymandering was somewhat reflected in the 2018 gubernatorial race between Republican Mike DeWine and Democrat Richard Cordray in the sense that Cordray carried only carried the urban areas of Ohio, to wit:

Schuring and Oelslager have been part of the creation of gerrymandered isolated Democrat-esque urban districts and the maximizing of largely Republican-esque rural districts.

Most, if not all, of Ohio's rural counties are represented by Republicans who hail from these rural areas that may or may not catch fringes of urban areas.  A clear example of this mix is the Stark County based Ohio House 50th District represented by Paris Township resident and, of course, Republican Reggie Stoltzfus.

It has been a large bit rural and a smidgen of urban, perhaps, in the gerrymandered pro-Republican districts.

On the other hand, urban (mostly Democratic) voters are crammed into a "Republicans do not have a realistic chance" districts with a few rural based voters.  A clear example of this mix is the Stark County based 49th Ohio House District represented by former Canton inner city councilman Tom West.

The districts have been drawn by the Republican dominated Legislature which seemingly has been torturedly and politically designed to cater to the predominately Republican, largely rustic, voter base who likely do not care two hoots about urban Ohio.

One thing that Schuring ought to take into account (he is a major proponent of the Professional Football Hall of Fame  [PFHOF, HOF-VP] is that the inequity in road funding urban versus rural just might be a significant factor as to whether or not Stark County's "Strengthening Stark" (which the SCPR sees as a "front" HOF-VP advocates) can come up with the massive amounts of money to build support "off-site" infrastructure that will be essential on whether or not the Professional Football Hall of Fame expansion project gets anywhere near its projected $1 billion cost.

It is notable that the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce is not part of the coalition working to secure future Ohio road addition projects.

Maybe we can expect a column this Sunday by Repository publisher Jim Porter adjuring the likes of Denny Sauner (CR C of C, a colleague of Porters at the chamber), C. David Baker of the PRHOF (Porter is on the Board of Directors) and The Rep itself to sign on as coalition members.

After all, he does rag on those who stand off and are to directly supportive of the HOF-VP in that they have unanswered questions.

Hey, Jim! look at the following chart.  Be consistent.  Get your buds involved in the coalition!!

Only the Stark County Regional Planning arm of the Stark County commissioners office has signed on.

Here is a list of coalition members

HOMECOMING FOR BERNABEI AS HE ANNOUNCES FOR RE-ELECTION AS A DEMOCRAT

SEE BERNABEI'S
LIST OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS
IN APPENDIX SECTION OF THIS BLOG

It caused quite ruckus in the Stark County Democratic Party when lifelong Democrat
Thomas M. Bernabei (who at the time was an elected Democratic Stark County commissioner) when, on May 4, 2015 he announced he was running as an "independent" for mayor of Canton.

Bernabei said at the time that the prospect of Healy for a third term or Perez based on the one debate the two had convinced him to switch to "independent" from being a 45 year long Democrat because he felt that Canton could not solve its problems under the leadership of either.

William J. Healy, II on 2015 primary election eve was focused on his Democratic Primary opponent Kim Perez (a former Stark County auditor and now Canton city treasurer).

Healy easily defeated Perez but had to have his eye on Bernabei knowing that Kim Perez proved to be predictably easy to defeat whereas Bernabei having been:

• Canton law director for years,
• A Canton councilman,n
• Healy's first service director (whom Healy fired after about of Bernabei being on the job

Not one politically sophisticated person the SCPR has talked to since Bernabei re-registered as an "independent" believed that he had changed his overall preference for the Democratic position on issue and which candidate, in a contest between a Democratic/Republican candidate, he most certainly voted.

It is a tad ironic that Bernabei's election margin was likely fueled by Republicans who voted for "independent" Tom Bernabei.

Democrats led by then Stark Dems chairman Phil Giavasis challenged the Bernabei "independent" candidacy with the Stark County Board of Elections (BOE).  And, a bunch of Canton councilpersons supported keeping Bernabei off the ballot.

The two Republicans on the BOE (Cline and Braden) sided with Bernabei whereas the two Democrats (Sherer, II and Ferruccio [the current Dems' chairman]) tried to keep Bernabei off the November, 2015 general election ballot.

With the tie, it was up to Republican secretary of state Jon Husted to decide and he opted to allow the Bernabei "independent" candidacy.

Of course, Healy was furious with the SCPR and here is the 1:10 video (taken at the time of Bernabei's 2015 announcement) to prove it.



Bernabei went on to win a narrow victory over the two-term Healy seeking a third term.

• Note:  a Bernabei'scompetitor for the service director job was Louis Giavasis (brother of then Dems' chairman Phil).  Louis is now Stark County clerk of courts and about a year ago was suggesting he might run for mayor this year.

Think Louis is considering challenging Bernabei?

Probably not.

A Louis Giavasis candidacy would set off and donneybrook of a fight within the Stark County Democratic Party that would make Bernabei's challenge of Healy look like "kids play."

APPENDIX

Here is a pdf file wherein Bernabei lists his take on his accomplishments as mayor in making his announcement today.