(VIDEO) A GAME OF ROULETTE IN MASSILLON IN RESTRUCTURING PARKS & RECREATION?

Lame duck Councilman Larry Slagle (D, at-large; his term ends December 31st) is demonstrating the patience of Job as chairman of Massillon City Council's Parks and Recreation Committee.

It has been and continues to be a long, drawn out process. And nobody knows what the end product will be.

The process is sort of like a roulette wheel that goes "around and around and nobody knows where the marker will stop" when the roulette stops.

Several weeks ago, Slagle initiated an effort to resolve a seemingly endless controversy of who is doing what in the management of Tigerland's parks and recreation complex.

In Monday evening's work session, Slagle showed by way of his patient leadership that he is moving the city along towards creating a structure that may help end the interminable political back of forth between and among Massillon's warring factions on the parks and recreation issue.

While the SCPR thinks that Massillon has a solid core of councilpersons, a number of them seem to be somewhat timid about going public with viewpoints that might be taken exception to.  Accordingly, Slagle has had to coax them into sharing their viewpoints about his working document on the restructuring.

Monday night's session was one of the more candid but noncombative exchanges on the parks and recreation issue that The Report has witnessed.

At one point in the discussion, Chairman Slagle mused that a solution may not be forthcoming even by the end of his term.

Council should make it a point to come to a resolution before Slagle leaves.

For, in the opinion of yours truly,  he offers a unique set of skills and a depth of knowledge of the parks and recreation issues that make him the ideal broker of getting a deal done that should empower this department of Massillon city government to move forward meeting the needs of Massillonians.

Last week in a telephone discussion Councilman Paul Manson (D, at-large), he indicated to The Report that Slagle will be sorely missed when his term has been completed.

Another important ingredient in Monday's meeting was "born again" Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry's attitude.

Her outlook was conciliatory in terms of sharing power with council on the matter of who is to hire a new director notwithstanding that the chairman had stated in very clear terms ("absolute, 100%") that the ultimate decision on hiring a director should be with council.

In Monday's council's examination of Slagle's proposed legislation, items mulled over include:

• the powers and dues of the parks and recreation board,
• Note:  Manson cited Ohio Revised Code Section 755 in setting up board commissioners and the legislation as being a framework that Massillon adopts,
• whether or not to continue having the Massillon City Schools Board of Education appoint two of the five members,
• Note:  Lewis favors keeping the school board appointees but he did raise the question of whether or not appointees (mayor or school board) who were not working out could be removed, 
• Note:  Scassa brought up the "slippery slope" of removing volunteer, unpaid board members in the sense of what standard would one use,
• Note:  [Law Director Perry Stergios answered in the negative as to the ability under current legislation to remove]
• the question of the authority to hire/fire a director,
• Note:  Scassa indicated that she would not necessarily want to be involved as a councilperson picking a parks director and that perhaps such should be done by the parks and recreation board,
• Note:  Halter questioned why council should have control over who the parks director is but question the quality of present park and recreation board members and in that light, favored the administration picking a director,
• Note:  Slagle seemed amenable to have the parks and recreation board select a director subject to the approval of the mayor and "final" approval of Massillon council,
• Note:  Chovan question whether or not in a parks and recreation, the mayor and council scheme of appointing a director, the members of the parks and recreation board are qualified to evaluate a candidate,
• the credentialing (i.e. setting the qualifications) of a director and providing for the oversight of a director,
• Note:  Scassa expressed concern that the legislation proposed doesn't have adequate measures to ensure that a director is accountable to a specific person,
• Note:  Slagle pointed out that the quality standards of the proposed legislation may be such that current interim Director Nist cannot qualify and asked for suggestions to change them so that Nist could be considered as permanent director,
• Note:  Mayor Catazaro-Perry:
• cited the "failed" (her term) tenure of Bob Straughn as director which she said was done in haste and that therefore the lesson learned is that hiring a director should be done with caution, 
• agreed with Councilwoman Scassa's point about administrative accountability, and
• emphasized that the hiring process needs to fair and not pre-determined,
• Note:  Lewis joined the mayor in cautioning against tailoring the qualifications biased in favor of a preferred person,
• Note:  Chovan asked whether or not raising standards for a director would not also entail paying more money,
• the right of a [future] director to state his/her case to council in the face of a contemplated firing,
• Note:  Hampton raised questions of who disciplines of a director, if needed.

One particularly notable comment by Chairman Slagle as to his mission as chairman was: "I am just trying to set forth some kind of structure so they (parks and recreation board), we know, the administration knows and the public knows what is going on."

All-in-all the SCPR was impressed with Monday night's session and believes that hope is on the horizon that within six months or so Massillon will have put together a structure of governance of its parks and recreation function that should work reasonably well.

A SCPR "hats off" to Councilman/Chairman Larry Slagle for excellent work in bringing this matter to a slow but sure conclusion.

Indeed it is an "around, around it goes and where it stops nobody knows" process.

But Slagle's persistent patience seems certain to produce results which will bode well for the future of Massillon's parks and recreation system.

For those who want to see the entire video of Monday night's work session on the parks and recreation issue, here goes:

VIDEOS: CATAZARO-PERRY LOSES ANOTHER VOTE WITH MASSILLON CITY COUNCIL. WHAT IS HER PROBLEM?

VIDEOS

Councilwoman Andrea Scassa On Her Vote

Councilwoman Nancy Halter On Her Vote

Councilman Ed Lewis, IV On His Vote

Councilman Donnie Peters, Jr.

 On the Dire Consequences Massillon

Council Paul Manson On His Vote

The Entire Debate/Vote on Ordinance 35

While the final vote last night at a special session of Massillon City Council went 6 to 3 against the Catazaro-Perry administration negotiated deal with the Hampton Inn located in downtown Massillon whereby the city would cancel its second mortgage ($2.25 million) and liens in exchange for a payment of $1.2 million, the SCPR believes that the dynamics of getting to that final vote was a lot more fluid and "touch and go" than the final number indicates.

The Report had the 6th sense that if the mayor had the requisite persuasion skills one must have to be an effective government executive especially in relation to legislative body, she could have won the vote - perhaps even reversing the 6 to 3 vote to being in favor of the ordinance.

Democratic Councilwoman Andrea Scassa (Ward 3 - the mayor's old ward), said she did not make up her mind until the last moment.



Last week, before the regular city council meeting, Republican Ward 2 Councilwoman Nancy Halter was telling The Report that she did not know how she would vote on the measure.  But by last night, she definitely had decided.



It could be that in the end, her historical opposition to the deal in the first place (back in 1999) was a critical factor.  As show in the video above, she also articulated a council fear that were it to agree to the deal and the hotel was subsequently sold for a handsome profit that council would look - in hindsight - like it had been duped.

And Ed Lewis, IV (Republican - Ward 6) said at the special session that he had been leaning towards voting for Ordinance 35.  Here he explains why he decided to vote "no."



In the end, the mayor and her administration was not persuasive with him and a majority of the Massillon City Council.

One has to wonder whether or not the administration's failure to get the hotel to agree to $10,000 a year downtown Massillon beautification as opposed to $5,000 was a key to the Lewis vote?

Last night's vote against her seems to be a confirmation that the mayor has very little, if any, sway with council members.

It could be that she is having an effect on Councilwoman Quenessa Hampton (Democratic Party appointee - Ward 4) who was one of the three yes votes along with Councilman Donnie Peters, Jr. (Republican - Ward 5) and Democratic Councilman Paul Manson (at -large).

Peters was the most dire in his prediction of the long term consequences to Massillon.



Paul Manson, while he voted "yes" was obviously tentative about that vote.



He was more measured and reflective of the consequences of the "no" vote than Peters, and, interesting enough, he suggests that the mayor may bring negative reaction from some members of council upon herself.  

Most intriguing of all is his suggestion that the issue may still be alive. He did note that the hotel has been doing relatively well of late which could explain why he thinks that there could be ongoing discussions with the hotel's developer (John Helline) to coming to a solution more palatable to a majority of council.

Apparently, the mayor sees herself as a persuasive person.

She shared last night how she was able to convince five Ward 4 residents, brought to her attention by Councilwoman Hampton, of the wisdom of her hotel financing mitigation effort.

Implicit in the mayor's recital is that Councilwoman Hampton was soft on the hotel finance deal, if not adverse to it, prior to the administrations' successful turnaround of some of her constituents.

So why is Mayor Kathy apparently ineffective with many other, if not most, members of council?

There are several possible reasons to ruminate upon:

One being that a number of the councilpersons feel she has not been transparent with them as promised when she first took office.

A second could be a feeling that she is only a figurehead mayor and that folks calling the shots in the executive suites of Massillon City Hall are named Maier and Jackson from their clerk of courts perch.

Thirdly, how about a perceived obstinance?

Witness her go-around with council on her adamant insistence that Massillon raise sorely needed revenues via reducing the tax credit that Massillonians get on out-of-town income taxes they pay coupled with things like having residents pay street lighting fees.

The Report is told that she is meeting on a more or less a weekly basis with fellow Democratic Mayor William J. Healy, II.

There is no doubt about him.  He clearly is a "my way or the highway" type guy.

Question:  Is he rubbing off on Catazaro-Perry?

The mayor, Catazaro-Perry, appears to turn heads and get things going her way out in the Massillon and Stark County social circles.  However, such does not seem to be the case in Massillon's internal political milieu.

In short and in summation, for whatever reason it appears to the SCPR that Mayor Kathy does not have the trust and confidence of much of Masillion's legislative body.

And the prospects of that changing with 2014 - 2015 council to be elected in November are virtually non-existent.

Perhaps it would be helpful to the mayor were she to reconsider her ways (attitude) with council.

If she were to do so, could it be that she might win some of the controversial votes that come before council?

Here is the SCPR video on the entire Ordinance 35 debate.

REPUBLICANS TO CONTROL MASSILLON COUNCIL AFTER 11/08/2011?

Recently, the SCPR spent time talking with a number of the candidates for Massillon City Council (both Rs & Ds) as well as an official in the Cicchinelli administration about their take on the upcoming election.

The read that The Report is getting is that this will be a very close election across all the contested races for council (ie. Wards 1, 2, 3, 6 and the last spot for council at large).

Control of council will likely be 5 to 4 either way.  But for Republicans to win control, nearly everything - in terms of the highly contested races - will have to fall their way.  They will have to win four of the five contested seats, assuming that Councilman Donnie Peters holds his seat in Ward 5.

Either way the citizens of Massillon win in the event of a one vote margin by the prevailing party.  Both parties will have to pay closer attention to the will of the people of Massillon looking forward to the 2115 election.  Overwhelming Democratic control has not served Massillon well.

THE ANALYSIS

COUNCIL AT LARGE

The SCPR believes that Republican Milan Chovan, Jr. may be able to salvage one of the three council-at-large seats for the GOP.  Democrats Paul Manson and maverick Democrat Larry Slagle should win two of the three seats for the Dems merely because overall Massillon is solidly Democratic.

Had the Republicans not run two candidates in 2007, it is likely that Democrat Hersher would not have won one of the three seats then and would not be an incumbent this time around.

Republicans have learned that lesson.  They are only running Choven this time around.  But it could be too late.  Now that Hersher is an incumbent, he will be more difficult to defeat.

However, the  Maier faction of the Massillon Democratic Party appears to dislike Hersher because they view him as a loyal foot soldier for Mayor Cicchinelli.  If the Maier faction let it be known that Republican Chovan is preferred over Hersher,  the Republicans' faux pas of 2007 may not come back to haunt them.

WARD 6

It could be that Councilman David McCune's absentee problem, a family parking ticket flap and equivocation on an annexation issue may come back to haunt him in this election.

McCune is another councilperson who is not a favorite of the Maier faction.

This ward is one that the Republicans are counting on.

Ward 2 Republican council candidate Nancy Halter (a former Massillon councilwoman) rounded up GOP candidates (including Lewis, but not Chovan) so that the Republicans could have a nearly full slate (4th Ward excepted) and thereby enhance their chances of gaining control of council.

If he loses, it will be quite a fall for McCune.  Last time out, he ran unopposed.

The Report believes Lewis has a chance to unseat McCune.  And if the Republicans are going to control council, he will have to.

WARD 5

Seems solid for incumbent Councilman Donnie Peters.   Though it appears to him that Democrat Vaughn Mohler is not running much of a campaign, he is not taking his reelection for granted, as he tells The Report that Ward 5 is a Democratic predominate registration area of Massillon.

Peters was unopposed last time out.  In 2003 he lost by a handful of votes to Council President Glenn Gamber (a Democrat).

If Republicans win five seats, Peters says he will be president pro-tem. 

WARD 4 - Democrat Tony Townsend (uncontested).

WARD 3

This is Kathy Catazaro-Perry's ward.

However, before she was elected in 2003, this was a Republican-leaning ward.

With Catazaro-Perry vacating the seat in her run for mayor of Massillon, two political newcomers are vying for the right to represent the 3rd.

Who wins in the 3rd, is anybody's guess.

Scassa tells The Report that while Catazaro-Perry has provided her guidance on how to win in the ward, she is running her own campaign with the help of relatives, and that as a councilperson, she will be her own person.

In terms of the outcome of this race, a big question remains:

Were the Catazaro-Perry victories in 2003/2007 an indication of a shift to Democratic leaning?  Or can Republican Hayden depend on it returning to the Republican fold?

WARD 2

If anyone deserves to win a seat, it might be Nancy Halter.  She is the driving force behind getting Republicans to run in all the wards except for the fourth.  Moreover, she is at least as experienced in the ways of council as Anderson.

She was an at-large councilperson from the mid-nineties through 2003.

Anderson has been an avowed "anti-all-things Cicchinelli" councilperson.  Is this enough of an agenda for the voters of the 2nd Ward to want to return him to office; especially in light of the fact he will not have Frank Cicchinelli to kick around any more?

Halter may be able to take this one for the Republicans.

WARD 1

Another key to which party controls Massillon City Council is Ward 1.

If the Republicans are to take control of council, they will have to overcome the entry of Marc Sober into the race.  He describes himself as a Libertarian-leaning candidate which indicates to The Report that he is likely to siphon off votes from Republican Sarita Cunningham.

Cunningham should be the favorite because she narrowly lost (47 votes) to Ronald Mang (who is not running for reelection) in 2007.  Accordingly, she will have a voter name ID advantage over Sober.

If she can find a way to convince the Republican part of the electorate to stay with her rather than drift in significant numbers to Sober, she might still win despite his presence.

However, that will be a tall order for her.

Democrat Majcan (who The Report understands in connected to Johnnie A. Maier, Jr in that his wife works for Maier) undoubtedly will be looking to the Maier factor to play to his advantage.

But will it be?  Or, in the first, could it be a disadvantage?