A hidden benefit of Mayor Plusquellic?

Following national reports that Akron was among the safest cities to be free  of  natural disasters, I received this email that sort of explained the city's privileged status:

 "God would never mess with Don Plusquellic."

Mark this: Williamson to WNIR?

What's that?  Former Akron  mayoral assistant Mark Williamson is a candidate as a WNIR talk show host to replace the late Howie Chizek?  The right-wing station is reporting that Williamson's on-air turn will come soon.  I usually don't pay that much attention to the local broadcast media, scanty as it is.  But in this instance, the idea of Williamson possibly joining a broadcaster that has dedicated itself to trashing Mayor Don Plusquellic is sort of newsworthy, don't you think?

Williamson had been the news director at  Akron's  Channel 23, which has since morphed beyond recognition in recent years. He spent 15 years at City Hall as the mayor's spokesman, but it wasn't a well-kept  secret that he and the mayor became estranged to a breaking point.  He resigned in January.

Perhaps it was Williamson's broken ties with Plusquellic that led to his interest in the opening at WNIR, a station that might best be described as a poor man's Fox News. A very poor man.   Or maybe there's simply a lousy job market for guys with his background.

As the newspaper editorialists often say, this bears watching.   Particularly by the mayor's office.

If it's election time, it's Bob Smith time

IF THERE is another mayoral election in Akron, it means that Bob Smith is back in town. Smith has been tormenting the Plusquellic administration for too many years with fishing expeditions to embarrass the six-term mayor. Many of the Hudson businessman's requests have involved his demands for repeated deep searches into records by the city law department. They are costly and time consuming and have yet to yield whatever it is that Smith is trying to find.

I see that his name popped up again at a meeting of the Summit County Elections Board over an email that Smith sent to a Republican board member that was again fishing for any sort of damning information about the mayor's campaign finances. You may expect more of this from Smith right up to election day. z-z-z-z-z

A sitdown for mayor and police prez?

I FLINCHED when I read of the confrontation between Mayor Plusquellic and police at the scene of a post-midnight week-end brawl downtown. Not again! And it didn't take long for the hostilities to break out in charges and counter-charges in the Beacon Journal. The police union's president Paul Hlynsky and mayoral adversary accused Plusquellic of abusively interfering with officers at the scene with slurred words. The always combative mayor accused the officers of being dismissive of his efforts to clear up the trouble.

I wasn't there, but one must wonder about the implications of the "slurred words" when the paper also reported that the tapes of Plusquellic's calls to 911 showed that the mayor's speech was clear and direct. Hlyinsky also supposed that the mayor should have "minded his own business". Well, on that point, the mayor is the city's public safety director and police work is part of his business.

None of this is to suggest that Plusquellic could not have handled the situation with more restraint. But the relationship between him and the police union has deteriorated for some time and grew still worse when, by a couple of votes, officers decided to support his recall in June.

Time for a truce. The hostilities will serve neither side well, and certainly not enhance the image of the city itself. Maybe the answer is for Plusquellic, a la Obama, to invite the union boss to a sitdown over beer to work out a detente. It couldn't hurt.

Mendenhall:Recall charades; Obama's choice; Norm Coleman

WHY DOES Warner Mendenhall, the unelected recall leader,  repeatedly insist, as he did in the Plain Dealer, that he does not have a  vendetta against Mayor Plusquellic  and then go on to assert: "This man is a danger against the community."?    Doesn't that connect the dots?   It sure does, and for that , I will give him a Grumpy Abe  Linguistic Lunacy (GALL) Award.  He also buzzed that he would be happy with anybody but Plusquellic at City Hall.  Question: How do you act out vendetta in charades?   Warner, you should have first paid up your tax liens to Uncle Sam before spending  foolishly on a white horse.   

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Keeping up-to-date:  From the June issue of  Harper's (magazine)  Index:

• Rank of Texas among states with the nation's highest teen-pregnancy rates: 3. 

• Percentage of Texas public-school districts that teach abstinence as their only form of sex education: 94.     

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Sweetness from Norm Coleman, who has obtusely held his state of Minnesota hostage for seven months while refusing to concede  his defeat in last November's Senate race by Democrat Al Franken.  He has issued a statement saying that when he is "re-elected" he will be fair in judging President Obama's U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor!  All of this nonsense despite polls showing  about two-thirds of Minnesota voters want him to pack up and head for wherever losing senators go.   

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With the certain uproar from the right's Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan and the GOP's backup crew of choristers over Obama's Supreme Court nominee,  it would be well for him to recall the words of  Joe Greene, the fearsome all-pro Pittsburgh Steelers tackle, who once spoke of the pathway to success:  "When you have your opponent down, you keep 'em down." The president's critics need only to do the math from the November election.      

                    

Mayoral recall: Trial by mire

WARNER MENDENHALL'S grim recall army against Mayor Plusquellic is continuing to obsess.  The latest gambit in its ongoing trial by mire is to force the city to release some records, most of which have already been issued except for a redaction of  privileged attorney-client material.  Such "editing" was unanimously upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court in another case earlier this week. 

A key figure in this farcical matter is Bob Smith, a former Akron resident, former Hudson resident and now a Chagrin Falls resident who has been a tormentor of  City Hall since the days of Simon Perkins, Akron's founder.  Maybe even earlier than that.  Got that? An expatriate now living in another town is in the vanguard of the crusade to throw out the mayor of Akron.  Couldn't we at least expect it to be reciprocal with Chagrin Falls?  In attempting to build a case against Plusquellic over the years, Smith has nibbled at every public document with the mayor's name on it and cost the city tens of thousand of dollars in city-worker hours to turn up whatever information that he supposed might help his cause.   Less obsessive people  devote some of their leisure hours to reading good books or scavenging for unusual shells at the seashore.  I would donate the first dollar to a counter-movement to buy him some interesting reading material  that would not require the labor of  city employes.  

It would seem to me that Mendenhall, a lawyer himself, would know something about attorney-client privilege and doubtless would be among the first to squeal if his were the privilege that was being gored.  Or maybe not.  With his own hours devoted to ridding the city of its mayor I doubt he thinks very much about his private law practice these days. There are many more signatures to be sought for the recall petitions while possibly   spending  some time hunting for a loan to pay off his $169,000 tax lien to the IRS.

I tell you, life can get complicated at times.

Warner: Questions but no answers

IF IT ISN'T one thing, it's something else with Warner Mendenhall, the Robespierre  of  the recall uprising against Mayor Plusquellic.  As a lawyer, he's doing some things in a lawyerly fashion to get his message to his perceived jury.   Today's news  from the front (i.e.,  the Beacon Journal)  for example,  reported that Mendenhall  questioned in an e-mail whether the city's new schools are safe, then he asks:

"Were electrical inspections done by phone on our new school buildings? This isn't safe.  An honest man objects then gets fired.  Was Plusquellic involved?"

Well, Warner, was Plusquellic involved or wasn't he?   Was he the person on  the phone doing the inspections?  You really don't tell us.  It's an old rhetorical trick:  raise the question without answering it.  

The point here is that simply by asking a question before his jury, this lawyer served his case by creating doubt about the person on trial.    And who fired the guy in your e-mail? The mayor? From what I understand, it was his  employer, J.W. Didado Electric.  All of this happened a couple of years ago, and even though the complaint against the building inspector was  sent to the state, no action was taken on it by the Ohio Board of Building Standards. A board spokesman said, "There was nothing of substance to warrant any action."

Warner, why are trying to assert your "leadership" while treating the rest of us as dummies?  Will there be more of this nonsense as the campaign barges on?   I'm afraid so.  And when it does, I'm sure  it will be challenged. Good Lord.  What a way to waste the summer months!  

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 MAYBE MY BRAIN is a bit soggy from all of the rain hereabouts, but I don't follow the logic  of hiring a thoroughbred Republican lobbyist for $142,000  as an associate vice president of "strategy and finance" at the budget-challenged University of Akron. The recipient of the newly-created position is Scott Borgemenke, and, says the Beacon Journal, his job will be to develop "innovative  solutions to challenges."  In other words, a lobbyist.  And one who was the designated hitter as the top strategist for the Ohio Republican Party.

The irony in this should be clear enough.  Borgemenke, a former race track executive,  is a first team figure in a political party that, as we all should know by now, has been damning the stimulus and government spending - big socialist  dollars.  And I presume such dollars are what the university is looking for from the new guy on the campus.  Or in Columbus.    And maybe even from the hated Democrats.  

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."    

A spiritual voice in recall campaign?

WARNER MENDENHALL'S spring offensive is prompting speculation around town that the Summit County Republican Party is playing some role in the recall campaign against Mayor Don Plusquellic.  The fuse was lit by the appearance of Bryan C. Williams, the Summit County Board of Elections deputy director and a former GOP candidate against the Democratic Akron mayor, at Mendenhall's recent public meeting  to launch his campaign.  To put it politely, Williams has nothing but scorn for Plusquellic to this day. However, he rejects  the notion that he might be a back-channel operative for Mendenhall. 

  "I went to the meeting to give my spiritual support (to a recall election) but I' not actually giving my active support," Williams says.  "But I wish Mendenhall all of the success in the world." So mark that down in the category of  political spirituality.  Sort of Platonic.    

Likewise, GOP County Chairman Alex Arshinkoff sharply responds to talk that he might be aiding and abetting the current effort to overthrow the mayor.  "I'm not in it!  I kind of look at it with amusement.  We're thrilled that two Democratic factions (Mendenhall is a Democrat) are tearing each other apart."  Alex did confirm that the Mendenhall forces asked the GOP  to contribute campaign cash. But he said he denied their request.  

All of this will go on for awhile. Let's hope there will be some time left for other pressing matters in the city working through a serious recession.  Maybe a word or two about jobs, foreclosures,  and the growing pressure on the Akron food bank.  I doubt that you will hear a word about any of this from the recall forces until the issue is finally settled.    

Mendenhall's spring offensive begins

WARNER MENDENHALL has begun his spring offensive against Mayor Plusquellic  so I would alert you to be prepared for round-the-clock shelling from his recall regiment.  Recorded phone messages.  Neighborhood blitzes. Petitions circulating like the wind-blown leaflets dropped from World War II bombers. Ahhh...Democracy in action.  Or is it demagoguery in action by an overreaching politician who would have you believe that he isn't a politician at all but rather a savior of all that should be pure and good in his city of Akron. 

He has been planning this 15 minutes of narcissism for several years, I'd guess, and the moment has arrived to bring the Plusquellic administration to its knees.   Although the inquisition  boasts of many Plusquellic sins, the one that stands out  as pure sophistry is that the mayor has been recklessly sending taxpayers dollars on out-of-town trips hither and yon, the last being a visit to the White House with many other city mayors to engage the President's attention on the need for stimulus dollars.   Or his earlier travels  as the head of the national conference of mayors , a distinction not only for Plusquellic but for the city itself.

Excuse me.  Wasteful spending?    If Mendenhall's campaign  goes the full route with a special election and all that follows, it would be a fair guess that the taxpayers'  bill for wasteful spending will be greater than what Plusquellic has spent on his travels.  Besides, with apologies to the poet John Donne, "no city is an island".  Any mayor is not only in charge of filling potholes and snow clearance but also in representing his or her city at the state and national level.  That has been, for all the world to see, one of his strengths.  He does it well. 

As one who spent many days and weeks on round- the-clock reporting of the recall campaign against then Cleveland mayor Dennis Kucinich (which he narrowly survived ), I can assure there are never any winners in these spectacles. The pace of governing slowed  considerably as the Kucinich administration was distracted  by the expenditure of time, energy and treasury , not to mention the newspaper headlines.   And I would challenge anyone to point out any great strides the city has taken in progressive management since Kucinich left office.  

Unfortunately, when these rare spectacles arise they usually have less to do with improving the welfare of the entire community but are rather a scheme by relatively few people inciting enough voters to achieve the ends of those few.    At the core, Mendenhall for mayor.  Seems that way these days, doesn't it?