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.

Watch city spending better than before

Canton Mayor Thomas Bernabei's administration wants to buy goods and services valued up to $50,000 without competitive bidding. The level is now $20,000, but under state law it can be as high as $50,000. One reason the administration wants the spending level raised is the time it takes for the bidding process to be completed, particularly when the city has a need to fulfill quickly. Another is the expense involved in advertising for bids.

Canton City Council understands the request to buy more without competitive bidding. But it still wants to approve the spending. A likely compromise over the coming few days may be to give the administration the $50,000 threshold but retain the right to approve purchases and contracts at a lower level, $20,000 or $25,000.

This issue produced lively discussion at the City Council committees meeting Monday night. Leading the way was Councilman Frank Morris of Ward 9, Finance Committee chairman. He complimented the present administration for its financial management, compared with the previous one, that of Mayor William J. Healy II.

Indeed. The problem with the past administration was, in part, that the City Council in office then didn’t control the administraion’s spending. As a result, the city rolled into 2016 with a $5.1 million budget deficit to overcome. This occurred just as Tom Bernabei was taking up his duties as the new mayor.

Council should be diligent in watching city spending, and should have been more diligent in the past.

Here is an early-2016 story from The Canton Repository that explains the loss of revenue, the overspending, and the surprise need to refund nearly $1 million to taxpayers going into 2016:

http://www.cantonrep.com/article/20160203/NEWS/160209783?template=ampart

Aultman cancer center coming to Canton

Expect Aultman Health Foundation to announce soon that it will build a  $20 million cancer center at its southwest Canton campus. It previously was thought to be planned for the Aultman North area in North Canton. The Aultman plan was mentioned at a Canton Planning Commission meeting Tuesday afternoon in City Hall by Planning Director Donn Angus, though Aultman’s desire to build in Canton has been the subject of several conversations in recent weeks.

The cancer center would be included in a larger Aultman development inspired by Canton’s comprehensive plan. Aultman Hospital is one of the targeted investment areas. Recent Planning Commission discussions have touched on this Aultman commitment.

I am a member of the Planning Commission, but all of these conversations took place in public at meetings that anyone can attend.

Update 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, May 8:

The project may be in excess of $22 million. The cancer center will be built on Bedford Avenue SW, across the street from the new entrance to the hospital that was completed a little more than a decade ago.

Update 5:51 p.m. Tuesday, May 8:

The new cancer center will comprise 58,000 square feet. The project will include renovation of about 19,000 square feet in the existing hospital, not including equipment.

Bocce and bleachers in downtown Canton

The Canton Parks and Recreation Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to supply two sets of bleachers for the Italian-American Festival at downtown Market Square, known sometimes by its old name, the Kresge Lot. The festival will be June 21-23.

The festival’s decision to build two permanent bocce courts on Market Square persuaded the board to grant the request. City government, and not the Parks and Recreation Commission, gave permission for the construction.

Commission leadership followed a similar line of reasoning — that is to say, help those who help parks and recreation —  when it voted unanimously in March to once again allow the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival to use park bleachers for ticketed seating at the festival’s Grand Parade. The previous parks commission indicated that it would not allow free use of the bleachers in 2018. It had two concerns: liability for injury to patrons while the chamber was selling tickets to use the bleachers, and appropriateness of lending public property for a revenue-generating event.

There is no indication that the Italian-American Festival will charge people to sit in the bleachers at its festival.

The previous commission is no longer in office. Member Sam Sliman resigned. Mayor Tom Bernabei declined to reappoint member Andy Black. Subsequently, member Mike Hanke resigned. The mayor appointed John Rinaldi, Maureen Austin and Joseph Gerzina to new terms earlier this year.

The Canton Repository reported in March that Commission President Rinaldi supported use of the bleachers for the parade because the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce had supported the joint parks and recreation levy in 2016.

Though that may be Rinaldi’s view, and the chamber no doubt is grateful for the commission’s decision, it does not reflect any public discussion leading up to the chamber’s 2016 endorsement and $5,000 donation to that levy campaign. At that time, I worked at the chamber and did staff work on such issues. In my time there, I can say that the chamber’s board of directors never discussed a quid-pro-quo approach to a levy endorsement. It would endorse a tax levy because it thought the request was reasonable and in the best interests of the community.

A couple of postscripts: 

1.) The commission never voted on bleachers for the Italian-American Festival in 2017, and so the festival received none. There were only two members of the commission at the May 2017 meeting prior to the festival, and it probably would have been a 1-1 vote, so no vote was taken. One member said he would have voted to lend the bleachers for free because the festival was not going to charge people to sit on them. 

2.) That same member, if the old commission would have survived into this year, would have considered offering the bleachers to the chamber for a small rental fee, thinking that would be more fair to the taxpayers who owned them.

A guide to attending Canton City Council meetings

Canton City Council’s meeting lasted 13 minutes Monday night. In that time, members paused to remember a prominent attorney who had died, prayed, pledged allegiance, and passed seven ordinances, unanimously, without debate or comment. There is seldom debate or comment.

Public Speaks can lengthen a meeting by 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the number of speakers who sign up to address council. But two people who said they wanted to speak were not in the council chamber Monday night when their names were called.

There are maybe a dozen of us who regularly attend Canton City Council meetings, and we know that you have to go to the committee meetings prior to City Council to understand any issue coming before council, or hear any council member ask a question or express an opinion.

The committee meetings usually begin between 6 and 6:30 p.m., depending on the work that comes before the committees on any given meeting night.

At the committee meetings, all members of council sit at a table in the rear of the council chamber. Various committee leaders call their committees to order, and, more often than not, they call upon a member of Mayor Tom Bernabei’s administration to explain legislation they are considering. That’s because most of the legislation comes from the mayor’s administration.

Here is how to find out when the committees meet. Go to: https://cantonohio.gov/council/?pg=agendas

Click on the date of the next meeting. Go to the last page of that agenda. There you will find the time for the committee meetings to start.

If you go to City Council only in time for the 7 p.m. start of the City Council meeting, you will see and hear little, and miss much.

Airbnb could collect taxes owed to Canton

Ward 7 Councilman John Mariol said Airbnb would be willing to collect the city’s lodging tax at the point of transaction with the Airbnb renter and then write a check to the city.  He learned this when he and another council member had a phone meeting with the government affairs people at Airbnb. Mariol said this would spare the city’s Income Tax department from the task of collecting this lodging  tax.

For this to happen, City Council would have to reject a Planning Commission recommendation to ban Airbnb and other online lodging rentals in neighborhoods with single-family homes. Council has given itself until early June to come up with a decision about Airbnb-type rentals.

Canton residents who open their homes to Airbnb lodgers came to City Council Monday night and told their stories about how Airbnb income has helped them improve their properties, how they have helped temporary lodgers find local restaurants and other places to spend their money in the city, and how they have met interesting people from around the country by opening their homes to travelers.

It also became apparent that the residents of the Market Heights neighborhood, where the move to ban Airbnb originated, are opposed to unoccupied houses being used for Airbnb. There appears to be tolerance for the rental of rooms by resident homeowners, so look for that to be a possible compromise that emerges in June.

As a member of the Planning Commission that first recommended the Airbnb ban to City Council two months ago, I wish we had known more about the positive experiences of owner-occupants who participate in Airbnb. A lesson learned.

Canton Repository critiques NY Times reporting on HOF Village

There is much that could be said about the Canton Repository’s front-page Sunday editorial about Hall of Fame Village. Here are a few points worth making.

The “national media outlet” criticized in the editorial is The New York Times. It published a story last week about the financing problems that until recently stopped construction of the village.

One of the Canton Repository’s criticisms was that the story lacked new information. It probably didn’t lack new information for the readers of The New York Times. Here’s a guess: The readership of The New York Times in Stark County is a tiny percentage of the readership of The Canton Repository.

The Rep also criticized the Times for a story that was “lacking hope.” Not sure what that means. In simplest terms, news reporting is presenting information. In simplest terms, the “hope” part is the province of the editorial page and the opinion writers.

Even as “The official newspaper of the Pro Football Hall of Fame,” The Canton Repository allows its reporters to write about problems at the village. For the most part, it injects the hope and the boosterism in the editorials. As it should be.

The Rep’s third indictment of the Times is that it lacked credibility by excluding key facts. One cannot know what the reporter left in his notebook, but the Rep’s argument seems to be based on what Stark County Commissioners Bill Smith and Richard Regula should have said or wish they had not said. And some of the editorial’s target shifted from The New York Times to an unidentified radio station.

Judge for yourself. Here’s the Rep’s Sunday front-page editorial:

http://www.cantonrep.com/opinion/20180401/editorial-setting-record-media-and-officials-straight-about-hof-village

Here’s the Times story that stirred the Rep’s editorial writer:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/realestate/commercial/pro-football-hall-of-fame-canton-ohio.html

Here’s a New York Times story about the village from August 2017  that did not earn a rebuke from The Rep, even though — like last week’s story — it mostly “lacked new information” for careful readers of The Canton Repository’s reporting:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/realestate/commercial/pro-football-hall-of-fame-canton-ohio.html

Here’s how to subscribe to The New York Times on your computer, phone or tablet:

https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/multiproduct/lp87KH8.html

Warren Buffett on fixing the deficit “in five minutes”

Posting chain email is not something I will do, though I received this from a trusted friend and relative who wanted me to send it to 20 friends. Here is an alternative way to expose these ideas, which are attributed to Warren Buffett. According to snopes.com, Buffett actually proposed the constitutional amendment at the end of this post:

Warren Buffett is asking everyone to forward this email to a minimum of 20 people, and to ask each of those to do likewise.

 

In three days, most people in the United States will have the message. This is an idea that should be passed around.

 

 

The BUFFETT Rule   Let's see if these idiots understand what people pressure is all about.   Salary of retired US Presidents .. . . . .. . . . . .. . $180,000 FOR LIFE.   Salary of House/Senate members .. . . . .. . . . $174,000 FOR LIFE. This is stupid   Salary of Speaker of the House .. . . . .. . . . . $223,500 FOR LIFE. This is really stupid   Salary of Majority / Minority Leaders . . .. . . . . $193,400 FOR LIFE. Stupid   Average Salary of a teacher . . .. . . . .. . . . . .. .$40,065   Average Salary of a deployed Soldier . . .. . . .. $38,000   Here’s where the cuts should be made!    Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:   "I could end the deficit in five minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election".   The 26th Amendment ( granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds ) took only three months and eight days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971 - before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc.   Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took one (1) year or less to become the law of the land - all because of public pressure.   Warren Buffett is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.   In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.   Congressional Reform Act of 2017   1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman / woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office.   2. Congress (past, present, & future) participates in Social Security.   All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.   3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.   4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.   5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.   6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.   7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 3/1/17. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women.   Congress made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and go back to work.   If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people, then it will only take three days for most people in the U.S. to receive the message. It's time!   THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!   If you agree, pass it on.

Educators ask to be heard by Ohio governor, lawmakers

A friend in local school administration has expressed frustration over HB 512, a bill moving quickly through the Ohio General Assembly. It would give the governor’s office almost complete control over K-12 public education in Ohio and complete control over higher education and workforce development.

This friend believes that educators should regulate education, just as other licensed professionals such as physicians or attorneys regulate their professions. He fears this bill is a partisan power grab by the governor.

He pointed out that a teacher named Kevin Griffin from Dublin, Ohio, has written a letter to the editor of the Columbus Dispatch that articulates the frustration of some educators. Griffin cites “invalid” standardized tests and “misusing test data” to evaluate teachers as some of the recent efforts by government to regulate education. The letter gives you much to think about. The writer says, in part:

“There is not any industry that ignores professionals the way teachers are ignored. If Ohio is serious about helping children, we should listen to the professionals, the ones who actually interact with students every day.”

Here is a link to that letter, though you may have to sign up for a limited free subscription to the Dispatch in order to read it:

http://www.dispatch.com/article/20180320/OPINION/180329960

The Feb. 21 blog entry here offered the Legislative Service Commission analysis of this bill, which is a plain English description of what this law would do. Here is the link once again:

https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/download?key=8763&format=pdf

Why is the government constantly tinkering with education and constantly making mistakes, and constantly leaving educators frustrated? Isn’t there a better way?

Gibbs, Trump cite Obama policy in wake of Parkland slaughter

This headline appeared in my NY Times digital subscription last night:

Trump Finds Unlikely Culprit in School Shootings: Obama Discipline Policies

It sounded familiar. My congressman U.S. Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio 7th, pointed to the Obama administration when he replied on March 2 to an inquiry I made in late February. It was an inquiry about his views on the subjects of school gun violence and the NRA’s influence on government.

Gibbs, and the president, and, as it turns out, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., have cited an Obama administration program that discouraged school districts from sending minority students to police arrest instead of in-school discipline. You can read the NY Times story at the link below. You can form your own opinion about the Obama policy and whether it had a bearing on the most recent slaughter of school children and teachers in Florida.

I asked both Gibbs and his November opponent, Democrat Ken Harbaugh, to comment on school gun violence and the influence of the NRA on politics. Gibbs did not address the NRA inquiry but pointed out that he is a defender of the Second Amendment.

So am I. The Bill of Rights is the foundation of our citizen freedoms. Our freedoms come with appropriate limits, determined by law and the courts. One appropriate limit might be a limit on weapons of rapid human slaughter.

In Harbaugh’s reply to my inquiry, he stated that he will not take NRA money. The NRA has been a political funder of the congressman and the senator and the president.

Here is The NY Times story, which contains links to a similar argument made by U.S. Sen. Marco  Rubio, R-Florida:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/us/politics/trump-school-shootings-obama-discipline-policies.html

Thanks for reading.

Ignore president’s insults and keep reporting

TV political commentators spent lots of time on Monday expressing dismay that Donald Trump mocked the press at his Saturday rally in Pennsylvania. 

Why? 

We weren’t Washington, but back in my days at The Repository, when someone mocked our reporters for doing their jobs, they just shrugged, or laughed, and dug harder to do more.

It was sweet revenge.

Airbnb and the reason for zoning laws

A reader of  my Feb. 19 post, on potential restrictions to Airbnb rentals in Canton, sent an anonymous comment:

“So you want to protect people from themselves? To prevent people from making agreements between each other? Because some fool violated an Air BnB contract?

“Shouldn’t we focus our efforts on enforcing existing laws instead of making laws that violate personal property rights?”

In synopsis, the Canton Planning Commission (and I am a member) voted unanimously last month to recommend that Airbnb and similar rentals be limited to the R-4 multi family residential district. That recommendation eventually will be considered by City Council.

I think the issue raised in the comment, which I appreciate, is whether zoning laws violate personal property rights. I would say they restrict those rights, but for a good reason. Zoning protects the common welfare.

If you live in an R-1 residential district, as I do, you have the expectation that the properties in your neighborhood also will be single-family homes. The city’s zoning laws would prevent your next-door neighbor from tearing down his or her house and putting up a four-story apartment building, or an office building, or a drugstore or a manufacturing operation.

This does not violate the neighbor’s property rights, because he or she did choose to buy a home in a city with zoning laws. It does absolutely restrict his or her property rights — for a good reason.

Anybody who thinks that we on the Planning Commission made a bad recommendation to City Council can express that view when council takes up the proposal.

Thanks for reading.

Canton leaving Cirelli Center

Canton city government is moving out of the Arthur J. Cirelli Center at 626 30th St. NW. The information technology department has moved from Cirelli to the sixth floor of City Hall downtown. Police dispatching will move to a location yet to be chosen by Mayor Tom Bernabei. The utility billing department will move to the second floor of the former Sears Building in the 400 block of  Market Ave. N.

At least that’s what the Bernabei administration proposes, and City Council members reacted favorably Monday night. They gave second reading to an ordinance that would allow the administration to hire professional designers to plan for the remodeling of the second floor of old Sears. Once the space is remodeled, 24 employees of the utility billing department would leave Cirelli and go to work there. The major tenant of that building is the Canton City Health Department. Also in the building is the city Income Tax Depoartment.

These moves began after the city attempted last year to repair the roof at the Cirelli Center. It was planned as a $300,000 job, said Serrvice Director John Highman. As he described it, the city discovered that the building was practically coming apart. It would have cost more than $1 million to save it. The city made enough repairs to keep the workers there safe and began to make plans for their relocation.

The renovation of Sears to accommodate utility billling is roughly estimated at $873,000 — $700,000 for the remodeling and $173,000 for heating, ventilating and air conditioning renovations.

Arthur. J. Cirelli was a longtime Canton City Councilman from southwest Canton and served many years as majority leader. He died in October 2010 at the age of 85.

“Canton City School District is not a bank.”

John Rinaldi, president of the Canton City Board of Education, told about a half-dozen citizens and journalists Saturday morning that the school board’s involvement in a loan to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Village project did not mean the school district was loaning money to the village.

“The Canton City School District is not a bank,” Rinaldi said.

He went on to address a few related issues, which may have been meant to reassure skeptics.

“There are no active plans to move the high school,” he said.

“We will get a great football center (the former football practice locker rooms were torn down as part of the Tom Benson Stadium construction.)

“If someone dumped a whole lot of money onto the Canton City School District, we could consider building a new high school downtown. But for now, we have a fine high school. McKinley High School is the most expensive piece of property in Stark County, and we own it.

“We will make sure, that we get a baseball field and we get a football field,” Rinaldi said.

Both the varsity baseball field and football practice field adjacent to McKinley High School’s main campus, were sacrificed for the Hall of Fame’s youth sports fields.

These comments came after a closed-to-the-public executive session of the Board of Education Saturday morning. Following the executive session, the board chose to delay approval of a resolution that would help clear the way for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Village project to receive a $100 million loan. The board had called the special meeting for the purpose of approving the resolution. Members came back into public session, however, to say that other parties to the loan transaction were still studying the details, so the board had decided to wait for them.

The agreement appears to spell out limits on the obligations that the village has to the school district. The board is likely to meet again soon to consider the resolution.

Shopping Carts II: Canton council mellows

This follows up on a Feb. 5 entry. It was comment on a Canton proposal to cut down on shopping cart thefts by punishing the victims, namely stores in the city.

The proposal by Councilmen Jason Scaglione and Robert Fisher has been revised through the intervention of Mayor Tom Bernabei. It is likely to be made into law next week.

Unlike the original proposal, which would have required all sorts of expensive steps to discourage or prevent shopping cart theft, the new proposal only requires these steps if the city determines that the store is not cooperating in helping to rid the neighborhoods of its abandoned carts.

The revised ordinance also recognizes that the taking of a shopping cart off store property is theft. The original did not. 

Councilmen Scaglione and Fisher ought to be recognized for trying to eliminate a nuisance and a safety hazard from their wards. Without mentioning names, Scaglione said on Monday that they have seen an increase in voluntary cooperation from stores.

The entire reason for criticism of the original proposal was its business-unfriendly solution: punish the victims. At the same time, members of City Council were bemoaning the Fishers Foods decision to close two city grocery stores. The closing was unrelated to the cart proposal, but council is not strong when it comes to thinking about the business ramifications of what it says and does. 

Businesses don’t vote. They just employ voters and taxpayers.

Should Ohio governor have more power in education?

On Monday, The Repository brought HB 512 to readers’ attention. This proposed law before the Ohio Legislature would give to the governor most authority over K-12 education, and all authority over higher education and workforce development.

The Rep reported that the Ohio House of Representatives is eager to pass this bill, and the paper advised the Ohio House to slow down and receive input from all interested parties. That is always good advice.

This bill was introduced only last week. It will have to have hearings where proponents, opponents and interested parties should have a chance to testify. If you want to know what this significant change to education policy is all about, here is the Legislative Service Commission analysis of the bill:

https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/download?key=8763&format=pdf

The LSC creates an analysis like this for all legislation. It is the plain-English version of what the Legislature is considering. It is available through legislature.ohio.gov. Search for the bill by number. Select the bill. Select the documents tab. Finally, select the analysis.

Citizens might want to ask their local public school superintendent whether he or she thinks that taking power away from the state school superintendent and the Board of Education and giving it to the governor would improve K-12 public education. For that matter, the dean or president of your local state college or university probably has an opinion on sections of the bill that would affect higher education.

When you form an opinion, contact your state legislator and tell him or her what you think.

Canton may severely restrict Airbnb rentals

If you offer rooms in your Canton home for rent through Airbnb, the city wants to restrict and regulate such activity.

On the recommendation of Mayor Thomas Bernabei’s administration, the Canton Planning Commission voted unanimously last week to approve a change in the zoning code that would limit Airbnb rentals.

You should know that I am a member of the Planning Commission and voted to approve the zoning proposal, along with every other member who was present on Feb. 13.

Airbnb and similar rentals would be limited to a conditional use in the R-4 residential zoning district. R-4 is a high-density (up to 58 dwelling units per acre), multifamily district that is designed to be a buffer between non-residential areas and neighborhoods of single- and two-family homes. 

An out-of-control New Year’s Eve party at a Seven Hills, Ohio, Airbnb rental is the sort of problem Canton is hoping to avoid:

http://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/cuyahoga-county/airbnb-homeowner-suffers-thousands-of-dollars-in-damage-after-tenant-party/95-504635996

The proposal is not law until City Council votes to make it law. Before the proposal comes up for a vote, there would be a public hearing. Such an ordinance would protect single-family homeowners, in my view, but if you are inclined to do business through Airbnb or similar services, you should know that it is coming your way.

Visiting the CMA gallery at the beginning of Lent

If you are beginning to observe Lent, you might consider visiting the Elijah Pierce exhibit at the Canton Museum of Art. His wood carvings reveal a man who was confident about his faith in Christ and able to express that faith through art. Studying his work can bring a sense of peace, and of admiration for the certainty that Pierce must have had. Certainty is rare.

Elijah Pierce, the son of a former slave, was born in Mississippi in 1892. He began carving wood as a child. Not wanting to follow his father into farming, he became a barber. By 1923 he had migrated north to settle in Columbus, Ohio, where he created the works on display.

The artist could take a panel of wood and turn it into an episode from the New Testament: Christ meeting the Samaritan woman at the well, Judas betraying Jesus, Peter denying Christ as the cock crowed. Much of his religious work is in a massive creation called the Book of Wood. You have to see it to appreciate it.

He created secular works, too, and they also are on display in the second part of the main gallery. You can see Pierce’s vision of plantation slavery, his interpretation of the Joe Louis-James Braddock heavyweight championship boxing match from 1937, or his fantasy of President Nixon “being driven from the White House” in 1974. And much more.

But it is the spiritual work that is the headline of the exhibit. “Every piece of work I got carved is a message, a sermon,” he is quoted as saying.

And there is this thought from him about life: “Your life is a book and every day is a page, and one day that book will be read to you and you can’t deny it because you’ve written it.”

Attorney Judith Barnes Lancaster and the “Still I Rise” Book Club are the major sponsors of the exhibit. Thanks to them for helping the museum bring this work to Canton.