Thursday, February 5, 2009

Sunday morning e-mails...

MAX ROTHAL'S morning routine has taken a significant turn since some people foolishly decided that  Akron's only salvation lay in recalling Mayor Don Plusquellic from office.  Each morning or so, Rothal - the usually unflappable city attorney - finds one or more e-mails demanding satisfaction from a long-time nemesis, Hudson real estate man Robert Smith.   The fellow has apparently thrown in with Atty. Warner Mendenhall to create costly havoc to the Plusquellic Administration with their recall movement.  "I even see some e-mails that were sent on Sunday morning,"  Rothal said.  "The guy never stops."

So what does Mr. Smith want in what appears to be a non-stop search-and-destroy mission? "Oh, public records of this and that, documents and other things,"  Rothal says, unhappily.  And of course, because they are public records, Rothal won't refuse Smith's requests.  "But it goes on and on," he says, "as we have our  staff at City Hall try to locate the records that Smith wants.  It's time consuming and it's costly.  It takes people away from the jobs they normally do." 

 Largely, it's a fishing expedition that leads to nothing other than more requests in an effort to find something that might embarrass the mayor in a recall ad. Another word for it is "pestering" at public expense, both the records' searches and the cost of a special election if  Mendenhall and his cronies follow through on their threat.  

Frankly, it's hard to know the motives behind the notion other than Mendenhall has a vendetta against Plusquellic, regardless of  how it might harm to stability of the city at a time  when economic survival is on everybody's mind.    Plusquellic,  after all, was one of  a group  of mayors who have been meeting with President Obama and congressional leaders to get a share of the stimulus money for their cities and has repeated his proposals on national TV  this week.  It's hardly a time to be bombarding  the mayor's administration with ludicrous requests and political threats.  That says a lot about the ones who recklessly remain unconvinced of the gravity of  the current economic crises, don't you think?   

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mendenhall and his ilk -- including troublemaking Kelly Patterson of the Cuyahoga Falls school board -- would be better served to undergo a little psychoanalysis. They might emerge as happier people.

Anonymous said...

Wow!!! I thought this was America!

Is there anything more disgusting then a reporter crying the blues because a tax paying citizen wants to uncover secrets at City Hall?

In other words, doing what the Stining Urinal should be doing, can't wait for it to go under.

Keep protecting him you ass.

Mencken said...

Anon #2.... isn't it a bit ironic that you're blasting someone who is generously providing you with space to voice your opinion ? Too bad you muffed the opportunity to make a valid point or provide any evidence to support your (anonymous) views.
What courage.

Warner Mendenhall said...

Abe, you still have not responded to my earlier postings and questions. Please review some of the documents that Smith has gotten released. Mayor Don is clearly abusing his position of trust. In a time of fiscal crisis, he is partying around the world on the taxpayer's dime. He is violating campaign finance laws. He tried to sell then lease a $2 billion dollar sewer system for pennies on the dollar. He has indebted us to the tune of almost $4,000.00 for every man, woman, and child in the city. Of the items posted on the evidence page at www.changeakronnow.com which do you approve of? All of them? How much debt is too much?

Mencken said...

Warner, you ask for accountability and honesty yet you can't or won't answer who was driving one of your cars when it was ticketed for speeding. Your Big Brother argument was nothing more than a transparent misdirection ploy.

Man up Warner, and maybe the citizens will afford you a little more credibility.

Anonymous said...

is this blog funded by the mayor? has the writer not seen the evidence on changeakronnow.com? has the writer attempted to interview Mr. Mendenhall?

Requesting public records is a RIGHT. It is part of their JOB to fulfill requests and if they perused any of the documents they pulled their legal minds might start to question things.

Stating this is a personal vendetta against Mr. Mendenhall is playing Mayor Plusquellic's game--person attacks.