DISCUSSION: WHY DOES MAYOR CICCHINELLI HAVE PROBLEMS WITH ORGANIZED LABOR?

Being the staunch lifelong Democrat he is, one can tell that it authentically troubles Mayor Francis H. Cicchinelli, Jr. that he has a difficult relationship with Stark County organized labor.

In the accompanying video, Mayor Cicchinelli provides the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) with chapter and verse of the genesis of the problem. Only a few Stark County Democrat elected officials and candidates (e.g. Celeste DeHoff) have a tense relationship with local unions.

The Report is well acquainted with Stark County's organized labor and Cicchinelli's account squares up with what unions have told The Report.

Union opposition is no small matter for a Stark County Democrat as chamber of commerce dislike would be to most Republican candidates.

In the case of Cicchinelli, the unions ran a candidate (Tim Bryan) against the mayor. And, it was a relatively close race with Cicchinelli winning 2120 to 1862.

Question: Should it bother Mayor Cicchinelli that he has an abrasive relationship with local organized labor?

DISCUSSION: YOU DECIDE! SHOULD CLEAN OHIO BE EXTENDED IN NOVEMBER?

$4,398.612.01 out of $400,000.00 from 2001 through 2008. Is that enough to justify Stark Countians voting to extend CleanOhio come November.

The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) painstakingly went through the numbers published by the Ohio Public Works Commission?

The Report has been in touch with spokesperson Connie Rubin of the Stark County Park District and she has put together a report that gives the details of how Stark County has benefited from CleanOhio.

Of the $4,398.612.01 some $3,711.402.01 has already been spent in Stark County. There remains $687, 210 to be spent.

What do you think? Do those numbers impress you? Have you read Connie Rubin's report? Is her report substantiation enough for you to support the issue in November?

DISCCUSSION: DEMOCRATS ON ALLIANCE CITY COUNCIL NOT LOOKIN TOO GOOD?

Not long ago the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) did a on-camera interview with Alliance City Council member Steve Okey.

Readers will recall that Okey blamed Alliance Mayor Toni Middleton for dragging his feet on economic development in Alliance.

Well, the last couple of days The Alliance Review has been running pieces on a tug of war between the Democrats and Republicans on council and throw in Republican Mayor Toni Middleton. Here's a link to the latest.

Democrat Phyllis Phillips who is chair of the Community Development Committee seems to need to get her facts straight. It appears that Winkie Industries, Inc (which is having its $200,000 UDAG [Urban Development Action Grant] grant held up because she thinks Winkie does not hire enough minorities.

It appears that Winkie hires a highly educated workforce for the most part and therefore has a limited field of candidates for most of its jobs.

In light of this development, the question becomes:

Who is holding back economic development in Alliance? Is it credible to believe that Mayor Middleton is the culprit?

DISCUSSION: WHEN WILL STARK COUNTY FAMILY COURT FIND STARK COUNTY SOURCES FOR RESIDENTIAL PLACEMENT AND KEEP $400,000+ AT HOME?

At last week's Board of County Commissioners meeting Commissioners Vignos and Bosley are shown on the accompanying video discussing a letter the commissioners received from Stark County Family Council.

What was the topic of the letter?

The letter was addressing the concerns of the commissioners that Stark County is spending $400,000 or so per year sending Stark County youth with residential treatment needs out-of-county.

The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) believes the commissioners are on a mission to get the Stark County Family Court (Judges Stucki, James and Howard) directed towards (with the assistance of Family Council) establishing a Stark County capability to provide residential treatment needs and thereby keep the money in Stark County.

The Report believes that the Stark County Family Court has had a lackadaisical attitude towards developing a Stark County capability and thus keeping the money at home. The Report further contends that the Court's ho-hum attitude is a consequence of the lack of political competition for these judgeships.

Mike Howard did have determined opposition from Taryn Heath in his election bid. But this is the exception rather than the rule.

Lack of competition across-the-board for judgeships is another way that former Republican Party chair Curt Braden and current Democratic Party chair Johnnie A. Maier, Jr., failed and continue to fail (Braden now replaced by Jeff Matthews) the general public.

The Report will give Maier this. He notes how when a judgeship is up for appointment by the governor, you have applicants coming out of the woodwork. But when it comes to running, these folks are nowhere to be seen. Well, Maier is a Vern Riffe (strongman) type of chairman. Why doesn't he twist some arms?

To The Report throwing hands up in resignation (which is what Maier does) is not good enough. Braden (now Matthews) and Maier need to invoke imaginative ways to cultivate a group of lawyers who are willing to wade into these waters. Party chairmen being imaginative for the public good? Considering the public good is not a priority for party chairmen, The Report's experience is that they look out for themselves and their closest friends.

Just as an aside. Readers will recall the big to-do that Judge Stucki (Family Court) made about Judge Park (Probate Court) not having competition. The Report's question to Stucki. Was he upset that he didn't have competition the last time he ran for Family Court judge?

To his credit Commissioner Todd Bosley is pushing the development of a Stark County capacity. The Stark County Family Council has a Service Coordination Committee (SCC) made up of up Stark County agency notables (in the words of Rick DeHeer - SCC Chair and Carol Lichtenwalter - SCC Director) are "very aggressively ... address[ing] the issues related to [Stark County] youth being placed out-of-county in residential treatment facilities."

Question: Is lack of political competition a key source of the Family Court judges historical disinterest in tackling the issue of forcing the development of a residential treatment program capacity in Stark County?

DISCUSSION: SWANSON V. DOREA - WHO WILL BECOME STARK COUNTY'S SHERIFF COME NOVEMBER 4 , 2008 - INSTALLMENT #4

Readers of STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) will recall that some time ago The Report started a series on the Stark County sheriff race.

The Report has listed in its July 8th installment all the reasons that Dordea claims (on his website) as a basis for Stark Countians to replace Tim Swanson ( the current sheriff) with Larry Dordea (former Alliance police chief).

Today, The Report picks up with the series by considering reason #1 that Dordea gives as a reason Stark Countians should vote for him rather than Swanson:

SWANSON IS UNABLE TO RELATE TO FAMILIES ACROSS STARK COUNTY.

Sheriff Swanson did sit down with a lengthy interview with The Report. Dordea has refused several requests for an interview after complaining to The Report about a piece on him positing the notion that Dordea might be too provincial to be sheriff on the basis of his reservations about a centralized 9-1-1.

Dordea wrote The Report saying (paraphrase) "once The Report got to know him, The Report's thinking would change." After complaining in this vein, he refuses to meet with The Report. Go figure?

Anyway, The Report has deciphered on its own (from Dordea's website) why he thinks Swanson needs to go.

Back to reason #1 stated above.

Sheriff Swanson denies that he is aloof from Stark citizens. He cites that he has on numerous occasions has met with folks who complain about his deputies and their on-the-job conduct. Swanson says he involves himself in neighborhood disputes in a quest to resolve problems before they become law enforcement problems.

A number of the sheriff department encounters are with persons with mental health issues.

Swanson's policy is to identify these factors and get the folks the help they need outside of the legal machinery.

He spends time in Stark County's schools in order to get Stark County youth comfortable with law enforcement and he is pleased to be involved in a "turn around program" in which Swanson gets volunteer prisoners to talk with jail-touring students (six at a time) about avoiding running afoul of the law as they did.

Sheriff Swanson points out how his department goes out into the community with his fingerprinting kids project.

So their you have it folks. Swanson's thumbnail sketch on why he thinks he has good community relations.

The Report renews its request of Dordea to come forward to The Report (either direct or via his website with the specifics on the complaints he has about Swanson and community relations. The Report will confront the sheriff with the specifics, once Dordea sees fit to reveal them.

It could be that this Dordea bases this complaint on the recent area media publicized strip search of a female prisoner incident. If so, he needs to say so. For the record, the sheriff denies his people did anything wrong.

Even if the court system was to determine that the sheriff's department did not handle this matter property, The Report's question is this:

Would a finding of fault on the strip search incident equal not having good community relations, in general?

DISCUSSION: DOES COMMISSIONER CANDIDATE TRAVIS SECREST HAVE AN ANSWER TO STARK COUNTY BUDGETARY PROBLEMS?

On Friday past (July 25), Kelli Young of The Repository wrote a thorough analysis of the dire condition of Stark County finances.

The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) linked the article in an email to Travis Secrest who is a candidate against sitting commissioner - Tom Harmon.

The Report asked Secrest for a comment on The Rep's report.

Here is the candidate's response:
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When it comes to our county budget I believe there are a number of issues at play. I do not believe we have a budget problem in Stark County. We have a spending problem in Stark County. The county did not have these problems last year with the budget. Why are our commissioner (sic) incapable of managing a balanced budget in 2008? The County Commissioners need to hold their department heads accountable for operating within the means of their budget.

Obviously we are loosing valued tax dollars. Which is why this county needs to focus on re-building the struggling economy. The commissioners need to work to bring new jobs to Stark County and make this area a place where people look forward to starting building their families.

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Question: Is Secrest's response adequate?

DISCUSSION: MAYOR CICCHINELLI NOT SO SURE ABOUT NORTHEAST OHIO REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN?

For over a year now a project known as the Regional Economic Revenue Study has been hard at work to bring northeast Ohio's 16 counties into collaboration as a multi-county effort at economic development aimed at creating new jobs.

In the accompanying video Mayor Francis H. Cicchinelli, Jr. (Massillon) tells the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) that he is not so sure that effort is practical.

Question: Do you share the Mayor's reservations about the multi-county effort? Or, should Massillon get on board and steer Massillon into becoming a full blown partner?