Mendenhall's recall campaign nears the 'finished' line

DON PLUSQUELLIC seemed a little subdued when I caught up with him at Democratic Headquarters on Grant Street Saturday. Many of the mayor's supporters had departed with anti-recall material that would be handed out across the city. There wasn't much left for him to do to respond to the slanderous campaign against him by Warner Mendenhall and the Akron lawyer's obsessing cadre of me-too followers. He could now only hope for a decent turnout Tuesday by his side to repudiate the wannabe political kingmaker (and maybe, even king) who has driven him and much of City Hall to distraction, intruding upon workers' time that could be a lot better spent serving the public at large rather than a single venting dissonant. Plusquellic briefly mentioned to me the fallout from the administration's obligation to tend to the serious business of a city. The costs to the human delivery system as well as the new expenses of running a special election are hideous. Least impressed by the burdens placed on Akron, of course, was Mendenhall, whose tunnel vision about what makes cities function begins well below ground level and ends at the same murky depth.

The campaign has attracted the attention of many beyond Akron who are puzzled by the inexplicable siege on a mayor who as led the city to many honors. Indeed, Brent Larkin, the recently retired editorial director of the Plain Dealer , asserted in a Sunday column what I also believe:

"For the record, Plusquellic does offend. he's no Mr. Cogeniality. He is combative, acerbic and thin-skinned. Oh, he is one more thing: He is, by far, Ohio's best big-city mayor."

That won't impress the aginners who would risk losing a usually successful chief executive for...well, we don't really know, do we?

Over the the many years of working in Akron's political arena, I haven't always agreed with Plusquellic - and he hasn't always agreed with me. With similar temperaments, we were bound to bump into each other. But I grew to respect his style, convinced that he always had the best interests of his city at heart even when he erupted against a critic. As a political writer, I watched the mayor's service evolve as an idea-activist who, as Larkin noted, was not afraid to fail.

Well, with Tuesday's election arriving, I never thought I would be defending a feisty mayor who is perfectly capable of defending himself. As the panoply of corporate, business, professional and labor supporters lined up behind him, it should be obvious that he has been doing something right. That has left Mendenhall with nothing more than to boast wildly of a hair-thin endorsement of the recall by the Fraternal Order of Police. Some lonely mandate, huh?

I've felt from the outset that Plusquellic will survive the recall. I've seen nothing to change my mind.

Plusquellic supporters: Recalling recall signatures?

ADD THIS TWIST TO the final days of the mindless attempt to recall Mayor Don Plusquellic: Persons who signed  recall petitions  have an opportunity to change their minds before their signatures are validated in the final count.   At least, that's the goal of Citizens for Akron, the group supporting the mayor against Warner Mendenhall's forces. Letters will be sent to the signees this week reminding them that the City Charter permits them to withdraw their names from the petitions by contacting Akron City Council Clerk Bob Keith.  I'm told the rationale for the  home-stretch tactic:  There may be some who are now quite disenchanted with recall leader Mendenhall in the wake of reports  that there are nearly $170,000 in  federal tax liens against him.  

Mendenhall's forces fell 508 valid signatures short in the petitions filed on April 16.  The campaign is now working through a 20-day extension in its hope to satisfy the legal requirement of 3,179 valid  signatures.  It's my idea of having nothing more productive to do.   

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.

Mendenhall's impossible dream sinking?

WHAT'S THIS?  Is the heat in the kitchen  reaching the boiling point?  You get this strong hint from Warner Mendenhall when he sends out advisories that he may want to slip out of the noose of his recall campaign against Mayor Plusquellic if it harms the cause. The sand under his forceful stride has shifted still more with reports that he has state and federal tax liens going all the way back to 1999.  In round numbers, he owes about $171,000 in back taxes!

Here's what he has to say about the lingering liens with a sort-of mea culpa to his supporters:

"If the co-chairs of this campaign and its thousands of supporters feel that my roles as spokesperson and treasurer of Change Akron Now is detrimental to the recall effort, I am offering to stop filling those roles."

Whatever joy that invigorated  "backdoor" Republicans  at the beginning of the campaign  to destroy Plusquellic is now dissipating.  "We had Plusquellic where we wanted him," complains  one Republican analyst, "with his close primary the last time and the defeat of his sewer issue.  Now this guy Mendenhall will turn Plusquellic into a hero. There's an old saying that if you shoot at the king, you had better kill him."  

Well, politics will be politics.  And, alas,  the IRS will be the IRS.  And who knows what will be left of  Mendenhall's dream  when his opponents finish him.  Does he have a Sancho Panza in reserve?  

UPDATE: THE CHANGE AKRON NOW RECALL CAMPAIGN FAILED TO MEET THE REQUIRED NUMBER OF VALID SIGNATURES, 3179.  OF THE 4,660 SIGNATURES FILED, ONLY 2,671 PASSED THE TEST.  ANOTHER 313 MAY BE DISQUALIFIED BECAUSE OF OTHER ISSUES.  WALTER MENDENHALL WILL NOW HAVE 20 MORE DAYS TO MAKE UP THE DIFFERENCE.  

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ANOTHER UPDATE:  Whatever happened to the ethics charges against Atty. Jack Morrison?  The court has delayed a pre-trial hearing until May 11.  Morrison's lawyers have filed for a dismissal of the 7 ethics charges on which Morrison was indicted in December.  Morrison,, an influential attorney who sits on the University of Akron's Board of Trustees and is the advisor to the Summit County Republican Party, was charged in connection with the purchase of a house by his son  that then was sold to the University for a quick profit.