Q&A with Canton mayoral candidate William Sherer II
Editor's note: Democrat William Sherer II and Republican Roy Scott DePew are facing off in a race for Canton mayor in this year's general election. Sherer won a five-way primary earlier this year, while DePew was unopposed in the GOP primary. The Canton Repository asked the candidates to complete a questionnaire. You can read DePew's Q&A by clicking here.
William V. Sherer II
Age: 53
Current occupation: Business manager/financial secretary treasurer for Ironworkers Local 550
What neighborhood do you live in: Ward 8
Family: I have been married to my wife, Carrie, for 24 years. We have been blessed with three daughters, Nicolette Carnahan, who is married to our son-in-law Chad, and our twin daughters, Adrian and Julian Sherer. We have two dear grandchildren, Henry and Ella.
Education: Graduated from McKinley Senior High School in 1988. Graduate of Ironworkers Local 550 Apprenticeship Program. Continuing education for management regarding health and welfare plans for the last 18 years.
Political party: Democrat
Political experience: Vice Chairman for the Stark County Democratic Party, former board member of the Stark County Board of Elections and the current Canton City Council president.
Community involvement: Former board member for the J. Babe Stearn Community Center, former board member for the Greater Stark County Urban League, and a former board member for the United Way of Greater Stark County.
Why are you running for mayor?
I decided to run for mayor to give back to the community that has given my family and me so many opportunities. I understand the power and importance of opportunities, and I want to help provide those opportunities to the citizens of Canton.
The City of Canton has made great progress in recent years, but we have so much more that we can do. Serving as the business manager/FST with Ironworkers Local 550 has made me appreciate how good-paying jobs with benefits can positively impact our community.
Economic development is the lifeblood of our city. It will give us the ability to raise our standard of living, lift people out of poverty, and improve the overall quality of life for everyone.
The City of Canton needs to continue to take an aggressive position with economic development, annexation and attracting good-paying jobs, but we must also support small businesses, which are equally critical to the growth of our community.
Safety must be another top priority. We need to ensure that our safety forces are at adequate staffing levels and have the necessary resources to keep our community safe. Our safety forces must continue to forge relationships and build trust in our neighborhoods.
We need to start investing in our neighborhoods one block at a time. Paving, infrastructure, and neighborhood renovation are critical if our city is to continue moving forward. We must be aggressive in these areas. The City of Canton must continue to work collaboratively with community leaders and nonprofit organizations such as Community Building Partnerships.
What relevant experience qualifies you for the position? Please list three strengths, along with three weaknesses that you will have to overcome.
I have served as the Canton City Council president for the past five years and have had a lifelong interest in participating in local government. I have a unique skill set that sets me apart from other elected officials. My career with Ironworkers Local 550 has been about management skills, training workers, placing workers in good-paying jobs, and negotiating with employers to ensure that workers are fairly compensated and that employers in the construction industry are successful and profitable.
Strengths:
As business manager and FST of Local 550, I have overseen and administered the day-to-day operations of Local 550 for 20 years. Local 550 provides health and retirement benefits for over 1,200 active and retired members. Our pension and health care assets are valued at over $300 million.
I have successfully negotiated contracts between labor and management for over 25 years. I understand how important it is to recognize and resolve the competing interests between these parties and find common ground. This was a part of my success as the Business Manager for Ironworkers Local 550.
I am intensely driven to improve our city and to make it the gold standard for other cities in Ohio. I know that I can do this.
I do not have weaknesses that would prevent or preclude me from being your mayor, and to prevent challenges, I will establish a system that will effectively delegate responsibilities to my cabinet and departmental heads while keeping me informed. Second, I will build consensus between the administrative and Canton City Council. And finally, I will ensure that all city departments are accountable to my administration for everything they do or don’t do.
Is the city headed in the right direction or wrong direction? Please explain your answer.
Canton is moving in the right direction with fiscal responsibility, promoting economic development and attracting new businesses and jobs, but we have so much more to accomplish.
We need to focus more support on our school system to provide programs for Canton’s kids while they are in school and to provide students with economic opportunities when they graduate.
Safety must be a top priority in our community. We are not moving in the right direction on crime and need to change that. We can’t have a thriving city if we do not have a safe city. We need to continue to work with Chief Gabbard and our police department to make sure they have the resources and staffing they need to keep our community safe while building trust and relationships in our neighborhoods.
Canton must also do a better job investing back in our neighborhoods. Paving and infrastructure are vital. With the City of Canton being approximately 50% rentals, strengthening building code enforcement is vital to help fight blight. The city needs to do a better job of listening to the concerns of the community because every neighborhood is important.
What would be your top three priorities in your first year in office?
One of my top priorities is to address the concerns of constituents that live in each quadrant of the City of Canton to determine how we can move our city forward.
Another top priority is safety. Our city is consistently ranked in the top quadrant of unsafe cities. We need to change that ranking. Finally, we need to improve our neighborhoods. We need to ensure that Issue 13 dollars are invested in our neighborhoods, starting with paving and infrastructure.
The City of Canton must take advantage of all federal dollars, ARPA, and grants available through tax credits for green energy for our community.
The city has focused its attention on downtown, including Centennial Plaza, and the Hall of Fame Village in recent years. What are your plans, if any, to improve city neighborhoods?
The strength of our city is our neighborhoods. Twenty-seven neighborhood groups serve as the eyes and ears of our community.
I have been part of the mayor’s Neighborhood Commission quarterly meetings for over four years, and with each session, we learn more and more from each other.
My administration will initiate listening tours in each quadrant of the city once a year to start a lifelong conversation on improving Canton. I value what each of you has to say and can’t wait to get started.
I will also work closely with our police chief to get the police department more involved with our neighborhoods. I want to bring back bike patrols and coordinate and sponsor neighborhood events with our safety forces. This will help foster a commitment among neighbors and safety forces that will truly benefit our city. We need our kids to run to our safety forces, not from them.
I will work with council to bring forward a plan to pave more roads starting in 2024 and formulate a plan to make up ground to improve your quality of life over the next four years.
Improving our housing stock will remain a high priority for my administration. Every part of town is important and will get the respect it deserves. Stable neighborhoods promote growth and increase home values that reflect the city’s commitment to aggressive housing enforcement. We need more groups, such as Community Building Partnership, that directly involve our homeowners with building repairs/projects and monetary assistance for those who need it most.
What is your crime prevention plan?
As your mayor, my crime prevention plan would be to continue to work with and support Chief Gabbard and the Canton Police Department to ensure that our safety forces are at adequate staffing levels for the city and that they have the resources they need to perform their jobs.
We need to expand the foot patrols for Canton police officers downtown and have our officers back on bike patrols in our neighborhoods. The city also needs to expand Wi-Fiber, work closely with the Stark County sheriff and State Highway Patrol, identify grant funding to work with neighboring communities, and expand shot detection throughout the city.
While crime has no jurisdictional boundaries, we must collaborate with our law enforcement partners to reduce violent crimes in the city. We need to enhance community policing and community engagement efforts, this will allow us to forge relationships and build trust in our neighborhoods with our safety forces.
This will happen by coordinating and sponsoring neighborhood events and expanding education with our children in Canton City Schools so they can run to the police, not away from them. We need to grow our crisis response teams to assist police when mental health is an issue and combat poverty because poverty and crime will always be interconnected.
The Stark County NAACP has released numerous recommendations related to police reform following the fatal shooting of James Williams by a city police officer last year. Is police reform needed in Canton? If so, please offer some specific changes that you would advocate for.
The fatal shooting of James Williams last year by a Canton City police officer was a tragic event, and my heart goes out to the Williams family.
As the current Canton City Council president, I cannot comment on pending litigation involving the City of Canton. I would listen to our community and police to identify areas where we can build trust, unity and understanding for the betterment of the City of Canton.
Nearly three years ago, with the help of the NAACP, the City of Canton adopted “8 Can’t Wait” which was approved by Canton City Council. I would continue to work with City Council and our police chief to identify and implement policies that best serve our city and keep both our community and our police safe.
We have made great strides to continue our professional training and identify best practices for serving our community. I believe that under the leadership of Chief Gabbard, the men and women of the police department have a passion to protect and serve our community.
We need to continue to look to find ways to continuously improve and enhance their training as we strive for excellence. I am encouraged by the vision of our police chief to reach out to all our neighborhoods and work to improve relations with a focus on community, safety, and mutual respect for everyone.
I will support our police in their efforts to train and identify ways to better engage with our diverse communities. I believe we need to continue our efforts to have our safety forces represent the community they serve. I will support efforts through recruitment to ensure the diversity within our safety forces truly represents the makeup of the City of Canton.
The city has provided millions of dollars to support the Hall of Fame Village development. Where do you stand on providing funding and/or financial incentives for this project?
The partnership between the city and Hall of Fame Village is significant and complex. The investment by the city in this project not only impacts the Hall of Fame Village campus, but it also impacts our downtown area with the DoubleTree hotel renovation and the numerous events moved to Centennial Plaza throughout the year.
When people visit Canton for Hall of Fame Village events, they will buy gas, stop at a local store for needed supplies and see first-hand what Canton has to offer. We must maintain a working relationship with the Hall of Fame Village as we are a vested partner and play a major role in the decision-making on all new capital projects in the Village that impact our city.
We are on the edge of many of these projects becoming a reality in the next year to 18 months. With the addition of the waterpark, hotel, and new restaurants planning to open soon on the campus, 2023-24 looks to be front-loaded with plenty of excitement for our city.
The Canton City Schools also plays a significant role in our collaboration with the Village, as it owns the land on which most of the Village resides. Canton City Schools will benefit from the success of the Hall of Fame Village, and that success benefits our school system through their negotiated agreements.
As the Hall of Fame Village grows, the City of Canton will continue to benefit from the thousands of people attending the many events at Centennial Plaza and Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. For this reason, I do support financial incentives for this capital project. Their efforts are gaining momentum, and the City of Canton has a front-row seat for what lies ahead.
How do you intend to encourage and grow economic development.
Many small businesses downtown have been here for quite some time, waiting for something big to happen.
In the heart of our Music Block, Steve Coon opened the Onesto Towers to rave reviews, but he didn’t stop there. Next, he renovated the Bliss Tower to more accolades.
Bob Timken restored the Hercules site to bring more folks to the downtown living scene. Without these investors in Canton, our culture and climate would look different. Include these gentlemen with the other successful downtown businesses, and we have a very solid base from which to grow.
The renovation of the DoubleTree hotel also played a major role in bringing people to our downtown scene. Without the cooperation with the Canton City Schools, the Hall of Fame Village Project would not have gotten off the ground.
So many of these things took a team effort to bring to life. All the above collaborations helped bring Centennial Plaza to life.
City investment and private donations piggybacked with State of Ohio assistance made a dream a reality. It is now a showpiece of our city. Many players are in the game of bringing our city back to life.
We must continue cultivating those existing relationships as we develop new ones through continued collaboration with Canton’s business/economic community. We will continue to expand community reinvestment areas which have become increasingly popular.
Dozens of new home builds may not pay off right away, but in 15 years, when city taxes come due, this futuristic thinking will benefit the city with future needs and infrastructure projects.
I will also keep our storefront grants available, which has made a huge difference for small businesses.
How important is the arts community to the future of Canton and what can the city do to support the arts?
The arts community is critical to Canton. It plays a major role in bringing people of all ages together. Studies show that communities with a vibrant cultural scene are more desirable to live in, have greater economic stability, and attract a more diverse and educated workforce. You can witness this firsthand in our vibrant downtown!
I will continue to work with ArtsinStark director David Whitehill in collaboration with my cabinet to continue our community's fresh, exciting offerings. From the Cultural Center downtown to the Music Block, Canton is alive with diversity and culture when we invest in all of what the arts have to offer.
Canton’s First Friday is the envy of other communities. It showcases what local artists and nonprofits can do when they work together. Families from all over Stark County head downtown for an evening of fun and excitement! You can find the best-kept secret in our city at 10th and Fulton Road NW.
The Arts Academy at Summit School is one of the crown jewels of the Canton City School District. Arts Academy is very popular with parents from and around Stark County.
We will enhance our relationship with the schools as we promote the “best” of Canton. We will look to grow this relationship during my administration. Growing our community from within begins with arts/cultural programming at an early age.
Our efforts will continue to resonate with the help of our incredible community partners as we grow. They are the difference makers. We can unleash our children's creativity, and together we can continue to create a vibrant arts/music experience for years to come.
Successful cities are multifaceted cities, and the arts will always be part of the equation.
The city owns the Canton Memorial Civic Center, which opened in 1951. What do you see as the future for this facility, and should the city invest in upgrading the venue or building a new one?
The City of Canton will always need the Canton Civic Center as it is an anchor to our community. It is the city’s emergency shelter and rally point for any major event that may impact our city due to weather or catastrophic circumstances.
The Canton Civic Center most recently housed our COVID-19 impact center, community graduations, and a host of other events that only can be accommodated at this great facility. Our Canton Civic Center offers a multi-venue community atmosphere using a city facility with the ArtsinStark Campus for all to enjoy.
The 5,000-plus seating area in the main arena will continue to provide a first-class atmosphere for any size event that our community may need. To tear down and rebuild the Canton Civic Center would cost the city at least $75 million to $100 million (estimated). This is not a fiscally responsible move.
The facility needs updates and repairs, but these costs can be manageable.
First, we will commission a needs assessment of the facility to identify the areas that need to be updated to bring the facility up to current building codes. My experience tells me that the dollar amount is between $4 million and $5 million.
Once we have the report in our hands, we can proceed to improve the most needed items and use the report to make those educated decisions. With the facility not being tied up with an anchor tenant, the Civic Center director can now book events that primarily could not be accomplished in the past few years because of the anchor tenant.
This is a tremendous boost for Civic Center income and events for our city to offset the maintenance cost passed on to the taxpayers.
The perception is that talented, bright young people are leaving Canton. Do you have a plan to attract and keep bright young people in Canton?
Young people are the economic engine of Canton’s sustainability. To begin, I would initiate a steering committee to evaluate the needs and wants of the youth in our community. We welcome and value their input. Fostering opportunities for our youth to actively lead their hometown, from running for elected office, to being appointed to positions on city committees, provides a bridge for youth to connect to our city and communicates that they are an essential part of the future of Canton.
We will connect our young citizens to community partners such as Habitat 4 Humanity, Stark County Hunger Task Force, and other groups who need and grow volunteers through their fellowship. These partnerships create a sense of community ownership, and Canton is the benefactor of these great partnerships.
Canton needs to be a city where we can live, work, and play. To keep our youth in Canton, we need a strong arts community, vibrant schools, affordable housing, community events/activities, and a powerful economic engine providing jobs for our young people.
Attracting new businesses via economic development strategies and incentives for existing businesses will continue under my administration with input from our younger generation. Many kids follow the traditional path to college, but we have a direct pipeline to the building trades locally to get our kids into high-paying jobs right out of high school.
We need more “homegrown.” Canton kids in high-paying programs, and we have the facilities to do it. I will work alongside the superintendents of our school systems in our city to move this vision forward.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Q&A with Canton mayoral candidate William Sherer II
