For Summit GOP, three is worse than a crowd

Anyone who doubts that bad news occurs in threes might take a look at the fate of the Summit County Republican Party in recent weeks as 2013 limped through its final  days.

In quick succession, three of Chairman Alex Arshinkoff's few remaining groomed stalwarts plunged  from the party's honor role in unexpected defeat, resignation or a severe spanking by the Sixth Circuit  Court of Appeals.

Shall we begin on election day in November when Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don
Robart, in his 28th year at City Hall and virtually having his own way in his Cuyahoga Falls fortress for nearly three decades, was defeated by City Council President Don Walters, a Democrat,  denying Robart  an  eighth term?

Four years earlier, Robart was unopposed by Democrats, which doubtless led to complacency  this time in which he was said by startled  allies to have all but abandoned campaigning, content with the endorsements of the Beacon Journal and the Cuyahoga Falls News-Press  and his own notion of invincibility.

But  in a working class suburb that leans Democratic  and has twice opted for President Obama at the polls, he hadn't left well enough alone.  He charged out of the gate in a state of the city address by describing the anti-union SB 5 on the ballot "unbelievably good".  There was some disagreement by the voters who defeated it  by more than 60 pct. of the vote.  The mayor slid farther to right by welcoming the Tea Party  rally in his town with  overwhelming praise, telling the Teepers that they were the "social, fiscal and moral conscious of America."

Finally, he became the center of attraction in opposing a family rate at the Natatorium for a wounded Iraqi veteran , a spouse in a same sex- marriage, arguing that it would be too costly. Huh?

All of these missteps  finally caught up with him to send him into overdue retirement.

Next is the saga of Arshinkoff favorite Bryan Williams, a member of  the State Education Board, who was outed as a determined  lobbyist for an anti-union construction group running a private charter school. Soon thereafter, including a call from Grumpy Abe that he resign, Williams resigned.

Finally,  there's the most recent  lashing of Federal Judge John Adams , another Arshinkoff career enabler, by a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit  Court of Appeals for his presiding role in a case involving a public defender. (Adams also was  engaged in a long delay of a Akron 's sewer plan, costing the city a fortune.).

Had any of these fellows been Democrats, we feel sure that the voluble chairman would have labeled them "scandals of Biblical proportion".  But. alas,  they are Republicans, which is the party's problems, not of anybody on the other side.






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Is Cuyahoga Falls headed for a fresh start?

If you happen to drive into Cuyahoga Falls from the north or south on State Rd, you get a sense that not much has changed over the past 25 or 30 years. Fast-food  restaurants.  Gas stations.   Second-hand shop.  That was how it looked when we arrived from Columbus for a job at the Beacon Journal.  And except for a new look to an Acme market, the place seems  spent as  an invitation to experience the second largest city in the county. (pop: about 50,000)

For the past 27 years Mayor Don Robart, now 67,  has sat in the CEO's office at City Hall, a fellow who now  places his stake in another term in a 240-acre moonscape on State Rd. Rd. called Portage Crossing, which has been around conceptually ever since the Old West shopping center was razed for a new - yet unbuilt - shopping paradise for what Robart insists will jump-start the city into a new economic future.

That remains to be seen.  First, he must win another election on November 5.  And for a politician who ran unopposed four years ago - thanks in part to an indifferent
Democratic party - Robart faces a stiff challenge from what  has his opponents ready to proclaim victory. (That, too remains to be seen.)

The candidate of the hour is Council President Don Walters, 50, a fully accessible and experienced guy who has been in touch with the city's issues and residents for all of his 12 years on Council. Nor does he show a lack  of energy and enthusiasm in carrying out his block-by-block plan to return, as he puts it, city hall to the residents, neighborhood by neighborhood.

Is this the year for the municipal revival?    Walters doesn't hesitate to tell you that it is, with polls showing him 6 points ahead of the Republican mayor.  How can that be?  Former Democratic councilwoman Diana Colavecchio, now Stow Clerk of Courts and a strong Walters supporter,  says one of the mayor's problems is "Robart fatigue.  No mattter where I go, that's what I hear."

When I first met Robart as a Falls resident more than a quarter-century ago, he impressed me as a moderate politician. He even mentioned to me the city's food kitchens that are so important "even though as a Republican I probably shouldn't be mentioning this."

But he appears to have been caught up in the headwinds of the Tea Party.  In April 2012, he welcomed several hundred teeps  at a rally at the Riverfront Mall, exuberantly praising their value as the "social, fiscal and moral conscience of America."  Try that one on the many folks who have lost their jobs because of the Tea Party-inspired government shutdown."  (That mall on the Cuyahoga, built back in the 1970s  with such great expectations, is faltering badly as a retail lure.)

The mayor has also divorced the city from friendly relations with Akron and Stow and, as more than than one witness has told me,  created an island for himself.

Although the Falls has a tiny African-American  minority (about 3 pct) Barack Obama has twice carried the city.  So, unlike neighboring Hudson and Silver Lake, the  demographics favor Walters.

"It's time to get the city moving again," Walters says and this time the standby political promise may indeed be true on Nov. 5.

Robart boasts of his Cuyahoga Falls mission in ...Fairlawn!

The oddest entry in  Fairlawn's  Fourth of July parade was a  big truck with an accordion billboard promoting Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Robart.  It told us that the long serving Republican was "always putting  Cuyahoga Falls  first".

A rather strange boast, don't you think,  in a Fairlawn event where the local mayor, Bill Roth, is a low-key Republican  in a well-managed town.

In recent years, Robart, who is seeking his 8th term in November, has swung  over to the Tea Party wing, if not as a card-carrying member, then as a kindred  spirit.  He showed up at the teabaggers Rescue America Tax Day Rally in the Falls last year (Another of those events with a do-gooder  name) to praise the GOP insurgents as the conscience of America. Still, he's not been  reluctant to take federal money for his own projects.

He also stonewalled giving a wounded Iraqi veteran  and his male partner family rates at the Falls Natatorium. In this instance,  the mayor decided that gay couples  come second to putting his city first. So it  seems fair` to ask:  First in what?

Now after three decades in City Hall, he's being challenged by a popular Democratic councilman, Don Walters. It won't be surprising to see more of those Robart Falls-first trucks in the Labor Day parade in Barberton.  Maybe even Canton.

Robart's photo: No, not what I first thought!

I hope you happened to see this photo in today's Beacon Journal capturing a triumphal Mayor Don Robart of Cuyahoga Falls with upraised arms  like a quarterback celebrating a a game-winning touchdown pass.

What, Dear Reader, could that be all about as he looked own  on his witnesses from a scissors hoist (crane?)?


Had this conservative Republican critic of Federal spending just received another half-million-dollar check from Uncle Sam to hire more firemen?


Was he announcing a new contract with Chick-fil-A to move its headquarters to Portage Crossing?

Had he been named the Mayor of the Year by the Tea Party for his rousing welcome to their members earlier this year  at the Riverfront Centre Mall?

Had he won a bet and tossed his buddy Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff into the Natatorium pool as a fund-raiser for his next campaign?


Or was the mayor thinking about his success in blocking a Natatorium  family rate for a wounded Iraqi veteran in a same-sex marriage?

Or had he just heard assurances from Mitt Romney that mayors are people, too,  even if the GOP candidate had once insisted that we don't need  more firemen.

Alas, none of that.  The mayor was lighting  the Municipal Flame heralding the opening of the Falls' Bicentennial Celebration.

For  progress at City Hall,  where the mayor has been known as a quasi-Olympian himself for his marathon  jogging,  the human side will have to wait.

What's that? Cuyahoga Falls getting Federal money?

There are some painful things in politics that are clearly unavoidable.  That's true about the federal money that is arriving in the coffers in Cuyahoga Falls, a city  whose Republican Mayor Robart recently  bestowed the highest honor on Tea Party fiscal conservatism.  In this instance (certainly not the first for such federal- to- city transactions in the Falls), the mayor reported a grant of $489,704 from the  Federal Emergency  Management Agency (FEMA) to increase the size of the firefighter staff. Right. FEDERAL money right here in River City, folks. Actually the money was originally announced by Sen. Sherrod Brown, a liberal Democrat.  We're happy for the firefighters, even if the grant didn't fit Robart's Republican brand.

Robart and his blessed pals may win this one

IT'S BEGINNING to appear that the issue of whether to grant family rates to a same-sex married couple at the Natatorium in Cuyahoga Falls will break in favor of Mayor Don Robart's conservative political and religious forces.  The months-long question will be on hold until May 10  when the city's Parks and Recreation board will again meet to discuss whether to grant the couple  its request for the lower family rate.

Unfortunately, the opponents still have the numbers on City Council and the Park Board to vote down a $130 annual fee  change.  It is hard to imagine how reactionary the Robart-defined  crowd is to  turn its back on the couple, one of whose spouses is a wounded Iraqi veteran.

The Tea Party mayor has disingenuously argued that the city cannot recognize the couple's family status because same-sex marriages are not recognized by the state. He has  even  simplistically dismissed the issue  as a "can of worms"  for the city's finances and described the current attempts to change anything a matter of "fiddling around".     Even his own law director has said he sees no reason why the city can't offer the family rate, as has been accorded in some other cities.  At the same time, the mayor's political and religious allies on the board and city council have expressed religious opposition to any deal.  And Robart has ingloriously decalred he will veto a majority vote on council.

The current partisan makeup of council  favors Democrats, 6-5 over Republicans, But Councilwoman Diana Colavecchio, who along with the other five Democrats  who favor a rate change , says she would need eight votes to override a veto, which is not likely to be reached.   Parks board Chairman Tim Gorbach, likewise a Democrat who supports a change, has seen the board's 3 Republicans turn it down, 3-2.

What price the stigma for Robart and his town?  Try a $130 rate change.  Go ahead.  Fiddle around.  

Who's all wet at the Falls Natatorium?

WHEN MY JOB led our family to a home in Cuyahoga Falls on an unpaved street in 1968, I often encountered a description of the town in a sarcastic term, as in, "So you moved from Columbus to Caucasian Falls?" Empirically, it didn't take long for me to figure that one out. However, history eventually overtook the term. Even the street was eventually paved after we moved several blocks away and finally to another suburb.

But now the Falls may end up with another stain on its image. Beginning with its long-sitting Repubican Mayor, Don Robart, the city has yet to grant a request by a same-sex married couple, one of whom is - good grief! - a wounded Iraqi veteran. The request hardly is apocalyptic. The couple merely asked that it be granted the lower family rate at the city's Natatorium.

Since Day One, it has become more confusing in what the mayor and his team are talking about. Robart offered his excuse as necessary because Ohio law does not recognize same-sex marriages. (Obviously, other Ohio venues who recognize such marriages in their rate structure have yet to understand this.) Next, the mayor insisted that a change would throw the Natatorium's member rates out of whack. That held up long enough for Thursday's meeting of the Falls Park and Recreation Board, which turned down the couple's request 3-2.

It was then that the smoke and mirrors disappeared in the controversy. Board member Dick Sebastian, who voted with the majority, told the Beacon Journal:

"Biblically speaking, I know a lot of people would be upset if it's yanked out."

You bet it's Biblically speaking, particularly when a Baptist minister and 18 of his flock showed up to protest any change. Forget the barrier of Ohio law mentioned by the mayor (Law Director Paul Janis had opined that no law would forbid the Board from modifying the rates);. forget the out-of-whack rate structure; this issue is turning solely on Biblespeak. To clarify, the Baptist minister and his friends have every right to show up and protest as concerned citizens. But the Board had every right to reject him.

Board chairman Tim Gorbach, a Democrat, one of the two members in the minority, was disappointed by the outcome. When I called him, he said he would detail his position on the rate structure in an email.

Here it is in its entirety:

Moving to the Household rate format would result in about $48,000 in annual revenue given our current membership. That is a little more than one pct. of our total annual revenue at the Natatorium.

To minimize this impact doesn't have to mean raising rates across the board. It could mean reducing expenses elsewhere with very little if any impact on our members. For example, we have been paying down our debt at an accelerated rate. This is a great thing, but not something that has to be done. Given the extremely low rates on our short term debt, it wouldn't cost us much in reduced interest savings. This is only one of the many options that unfortunately will not be explored due to the majority's decision to remain the same.

Epilogue: There's still a chance that Falls City Council will come up with a plan to spare the city of further embarrassment. Until it does, could anyone blame Coty May, the injured soldier, and his caregiving spouse Shane if they might be wondering now which America Coty was risking his life for in Iraq. Certainly not the one that denies them a rate change at the Natatorium.

When is Federal money not Federal money? Ask Robart

What's wrong with this picture? Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Robart showed up at the Tea Party rally in his town Saturday to renew his vows of loyalty as one of the mad-as-hell right-wing opponents of federal spending. And yet...

Only a day before, the Beacon Journal reported that Susan Truby, Falls community development director, was appreciative of a $780,000 federal stimulus grant to buy and rehab six homes whose mortgages had been foreclosed., "This creates a great deal of of positive community relations in the neighborhood," she said. Cool. Even the name of Don L. Robart, Mayor, plainly appears on a yard sign in front of one of the homes hailing the program.

Here they come - without the crumpets

WELL, THERE'S going to be some light "family oriented" discussion (and doubtless heavy breathing!) about tea next Wednesday evening on the Riverfront Mall in Cuyahoga Falls. It's billed as a Tea Party by an outfit called Summit912, a protest group inspired by weepy Political Philosopher Glenn Beck , the bizarre talk show figure who most recently suggested that Nancy Pelosi be poisoned.

The area group was founded by Amy Schwan, of Akron, who told a Falls news reporter that"we've been mad for a long time. Glenn Beck just motivated us to get off our butts and start to do something." Cool.

The event is being promoted as a non-political "meetup" and family affair to talk about - it says here on the 912 website - "over-taxation, nationalized health care, cap and trade and individual rights." Cool again. But why does it bill itself as "non-political" when the site carries an exhibit of an item called "The Clock. How many days Obama has left" and goes after all of the hot-button issues aimed at you-know-who? Not cool.

According to the Falls reporter (Schwan didn't return my calls), Schwan said Summit912 (Beck's reference to the day after 9/11 - at least he can read a calendar accurately, if nothing else) the Falls was chosen for the tea party because it has a Republican mayor, Don Robart, who only incidentally will be one of the speakers along with Frank LaRose, a Republican legislative candidate. I confess I do have trouble separating speakers with clear political IDs from politics. If they had wanted to liven up the party they should have invited, as a bipartisan outreach, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic. Now that would be cool.

I did check in with Alex Arshinkoff, the Summit County chairman, who forcefully denied any connection to the tea party. "I don't know anything about it," he asserted. "It's not a Republican Party event." But he did give it the party's Good Housekeeping seal of approval. "I am happy that they are having it. There are not a lot of right-wing Republicans in the Democratic Party and there are not a lot of left-wing socialists in the Republican Party." It's one of those careful separations of wheat from chaff, I think.

So we're back to politics, which is what I figured as soon as I read about Summit912. Cool - if not entirely forthcoming about who they are. And don't count on crumpets.

On recalls, Italian festivals and Voinovich non-stimulus

WEEK END WITH WARNER:  Warner Mendenhall's mad dash to recall Mayor Plusquellic hit a few bumps Friday with the report in the Beacon Journal that two guys who figured to aid and abet the assault are now declaring their opposition to the whole idea.  That's  the word from Joe Finley, the former Democratic councilman who opposed Plusquellic in a primary; and Ward 2 Councilman Bruce Kilby.  Based on their past opposition to the mayor, neither would likely send him a Christmas card.  But Finley told the BJ that  a recall movement is a much too extravagant reprisal:  "While I oppose Plusquellic, I believe that recalls should be reserved for gross malfeasance, not for resolving simple policy differences or personality conflicts." 

Mendenhall seems to be taking the bad news in stride, forever trying to rise above the madding crowd to describe the whole spectacle as an exercise in democracy, thereby rudely disrupting City Hall and the city's business with his door-to-door cavalry.  I can't deny that democracy makes allowances for recalls, although people with a mind to remove a pol from office usually wait until the election season to advance their grievances.  Having said that,  might Mr. Mendenhall should be reminded that democracy also allows people to make foolish nuisances of themselves in public. 

 To cite the cautionary words of the late Hubert H Humphrey: The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. 

           

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Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Robart's crowing that he salvaged part of the Italian summer festival, the bulk of which is moving to downtown Akron from his city, leads me to wonder whether Republican Robart will claim this as part of his own stimulus program.   The festival split is a continuation of the rivalry of Italian clubs in the Falls, but a long-time observer, whose company had a major role in the festivals in the Falls,   expressed doubts to me that the spin-off will be a success for the smaller group that remains on the Riverfront Mall.  "They're having some problems lining up vendors so soon after the Akron festival," he said.   Aside from the rivalry, the economic realities were clearly in Akron's favor.  The city won't charge the festival.  On the other hand,  the sponsors' bills from the Robart administration  have  continued to rise .  So you pays your money and takes your choice.  Buona fortuna!

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Speaking of crows, the Plain Dealer caught Sen. George Voinovich in his own stimulus-puffing trap when he reminded voters that he was out front in 2005 to get some money for an Inner Belt Bridge project  and is now citing the importance of  the new outlay of $200 million in the stimulus package to cover the bridge construction project.  As columnist Michael McIntyre alertly pointed out:  Voinovich voted against the Obama stimulus package, calling it a Washington "slush fund."