Watching CNN’s film, “RBG,” tonight, of all nights

Rather than watch the evening news commentators paw through this week’s actions of the Senate Judiciary Committee yet again, my wife and I decided to see what was on the DVR.

Ah, “RBG,” the CNN documentary on the life of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. That is what we chose. So appropriate.

She is a hero of the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law. Period. For starters, it is against the law to discriminate against women in the military or in the workplace, thanks to Ginsberg’s work as an attorney arguing successfully before the Supreme Court and as a justice. Read the book, “Notorious RBG” if you think you know what she is all about or the debt we all owe to her.

Few presidents are as lucky as President Bill Clinton was in having the opportunity to nominate someone like Ruth Bader Ginsberg for the Supreme Court. 

That should be obvious many times over since 1993, particularly this week.

May God continue to give long life and health to the Notorious RBG.

Canton plan to encourage home improvements

From Canton City Council last night:

City Council hopes to encourage $2 million in investments by Canton homeowners. It would do so by spending $200,000 in city income tax revenue to reimburse homeowners for 10 percent of exterior home improvements they would make. Maximum reimbursement would be $1,000, which would reward a home project costing at least $10,000. A project would have to cost at least $5,000 to qualify.

The money Canton would spend to encourage homeowners would come from the half-percent city income tax increase approved by voters in May, specifically the neighborhood investment fund set up because of the tax increase. City Council is likely to approve this spending at its next meeting on Oct. 1.

The Community Building Partnership of Stark County would administer the program and make the grants. This program would operate like the Healthy Neighborhoods Program that the partnership has been operating since 2011. It has made 75 grants to homeowners in three targeted areas totaling $80,000, which represents at least $800,000 in homeowner investments.

Anywhere in the city

The targeted areas in the Healthy Neighborhoods Program have been Vassar Park, the Fulton Road corridor and the Aultman Hospital area, according to the agency’s website. The new program and its $200,000 in city tax funding could be used anywhere in the city.

Loan assistance

Community Building Partnership Executive Director Maureen Austin said her agency also can help city residents to acquire home improvement loans from local banks to pay their 90 percent share of eligible projects, and it can offer city residents credit counseling so they could qualify for such loans.

Ward 7 Councilman John Mariol said the funding would be divided in half, with $100,000 to help homeowners bring their homes up to compliance with the city building code. The other $100,000 could be used for any physical improvement.

One view: Not enough

Ward 6 Councilman Kevin Hall said in discussion Monday night that he didn’t think a 10 percent reimbursement was enough incentive to help people with larger code issues. “We need to go deeper to help,” he said.

The neighborhood investment fund created by the income tax increase was budgeted to have $500,000 in the first half-year of tax collections. Of that sum, City Council spent $250,000 on additional street paving. With this $200,000 expenditure, council would have $50,000 left in 2018 to spend on neighborhood improvements. Another $1 million-plus could be anticipated in 2019.

Canton City Council opposes Ohio "stand your ground" legislation

Canton City Council on Monday voted to oppose Ohio House Bill 228, a “stand your ground” law. H.B. 228 would make it easier for armed citizens to shoot people who threaten them, threaten others or threaten the armed citizen’s property.

This proposed law does more than make it easier to stand your ground. For details, read the resolution below or this Legislative Service Commission analysis of the bill:

https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/download?key=9758&format=pdf

Here is the text of the City Council resolution:

An Informal Resolution Respectfully Submitted by Canton City Council on this 10th day of September, 2018

Whereas, House Bill 228, currently before the State Legislature, would amend sections of the Ohio Revised Code dealing with self-defense claims; and

Whereas, These types of laws, known as “Stand Your Ground” laws, would effectively eliminate the obligation of citizens to safely retreat from or attempt to de-escalate a confrontational situation before resorting to deadly force; and 

Whereas, House Bill 228 would greatly diminish the security of public facilities such as courthouses, schools, churches, and airports by restricting notification of firearm prohibitions, and

Whereas, House bill 228 would assign the burden of disproving self-defense claim in a trial to the prosecution and would limit the use of the affirmative defense of self-defense under both civil and criminal law, thereby calling its constitutionality into question, and

Whereas, Public agencies and law enforcement officials such as the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, State Highway Patrol, and the office of the Ohio Public Defender oppose House Bill 228

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That we, the Members of Canton City Council, do hereby go on record opposing House Bill 228 and urging all local Representatives and Senators to vote NO on House Bill 228.

One local representative unlikely to heed that urging is State Rep. Kirk Schuring. He is a co-sponsor of the “stand your ground” bill.

Council Member at-large Corey Minor Smith thanked Law Director Kristen Bates Alyward and Police Chief Jack Angelo in helping to draft the resolution and thanked other members of City Council for their support.

This is not a bill that would respond to mass shootings. For instance, it contains no ban on bump stocks that can turn semi-automatic military-style rifles into virtual automatics, and no court-supervised ability to temporarily take guns away from a person who appears to be a threat to himself or others.

For a newspaper editorial on the subject of Gov. John Kasich’s advocacy of such safety measures, see below, from the Aug. 11 Akron Beacon Journal:

https://www.ohio.com/akron/editorial/editorials/beacon-journal-ohio-com-editorial-board-the-governors-sensible-gun-regulations-still-deserve-better-at-the-statehouse

New security for Hall of Fame events

If you haven’t heard already, it will be more difficult, and will take more time, to get into the Canton Memorial Civic Center for Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival events next month.

On Friday, Aug. 3, Market Ave. N will be closed to all traffic from Ninth Street to 12th Street NW from 9:30 a.m. to the conclusion of the Gold Jacket Dinner that night. The driveway between the Cultural Center and the Civic Center also will be closed.

A parking pass for the Cultural Center deck will have to be purchased for use of the deck. Access to the deck in the past came with the price of the event ticket. The deck will be accessible only from Cleveland Ave. NW.

All guests will pass through security screening to enter the events.

Anyone entering the property will need an event ticket.

More details are available at the festival website: www.profootballhoffestival.com

Party officials get to choose next council member

Residents of Canton’s Ward 8 lost its council representative this week with the resignation of attorney Edmond Mack. He is moving to the Ridgewood neighborhood in Ward 7. Residents of Ward 8 will get a new council representative, but not of their choosing.

The laws of the state of Ohio are often written to benefit the two dominant political parties. The selection of a successor for Ward 8 council member is an example of how. Leaders of the Democratic Party will choose Mack’s successor because he is a Democrat. It is as if the party owned the office.

If the laws existed to serve the citizens rather than the political parties, it would not be hard to hold a town hall meeting where any interested resident of Ward 8 could come together to elect a temporary successor.

This is not a criticism of the successor the Democrats will announce. It is a criticism of party over people.

Airbnb may go back to Canton Planning Commission

A conditional-use permit is the obvious way, and the easiest way, that the city of Canton could allow Airbnb rentals to operate in single-family neighborhoods. But it may not be the only way.

Some members of Canton City Council want an accomodation for Aribnb and other Internet-booked rentals in single-family neighborhoods. Expect council to vote at its next meeting in early June to send the issue back to the Planning Commission.

The Planning Commission in March sent council a recommendation to clarify the existing prohibition  of room rental in single-family homes. Council in April paused and gave itself two months to further consider the issue.

At City Council’s meeting on Monday, one alternative seemed to be conditional use. A single-family homeowner who wanted to rent a room through Airbnb could apply for a conditional-use permit, which the Board of Zoning Appeals could grant after an application and a fee and a public hearing that would allow neighbors to comment.

The Plannning Commission may consider conditional use, but also may consider other alternatives or study legislation created by other cities to manage the terrain between individual property rights and neighborhood zoning. The commission’s next scheduled meeting should be June 12. It no longer meets in the City Council chamber because it now has a conference room on the sixth floor of City Hall.

Thank you, Member Babcock

Canton City Council Member At Large James Babcock made an unusual request at Monday's meeting. He asked for a summary of an amended ordinance on unbid contracts before council voted to make it law. Law Director Kristen Bates Aylward provided an oral summary.

This meant citizens in the audience could understand what council was voting to approve.

Frequently when council votes on an amended ordinance, members are told that they have a copy of the amended ordinance at their desks. Good for them. What about everybody else? Thanks to Babcock, everybody else was well served on Monday night.

Maybe council has never thought about the need to explain what it is doing at moments like this. Let's hope members felt good about what happened last night and will adopt this practice going forward.

The new law allows the administration of Mayor Thomas Bernabei to purchase up to $50,000 in goods or services without competitive bidding, which is allowed under state law and which will allow the city to fulfill needs without the weeks-long process of seeking competitive bids. At the same time, City Council reserved the power to approve the spending on an unbid contract by resolution when its cost will run between $25,000 and $50,000. This was the result of a compromise between City Council's insistence on monitoring spending and the administration's desire to be more efficient in fulfilling needs.