(VIDEO) WILL MASSILLON'S "IRON LADY" - IN THE MAKING - BE THE RUINATION OF THE CITY?

UPDATE:  Area media reports that Mayor Catazaro-Perry in effect cried "Uncle" and submitted the Massillon City Council approved plan to the Massillon Financial Planning and Supervision Commission headed up by State of Ohio Office of Management and Budget representative Sharon Hanrahan sometime yesterday.

 VIDEO

Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry

Jousts

with

Councilman Ed Lewis

over

Massillon Financial Recovery Plan

She can only "hope" that she might some day become America's answer to Great Britain's "Iron Lady:"  Margaret Thatcher.

Who can doubt that Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry of Massillon is trying.

And she does have a pedigree of meeting with heads of state.

On August 1, 2012, as President Barack Obama was flying around the country campaigning for reelection as president, he stopped by Akron-Canton Airport for a "meet 'n' greet" with area public officials.

One of the privileged was Catazaro-Perry.

So it could be that the tenacity and tough skin that she has been honing since she became mayor on January 1, 2012 will one day catapult her into the national limelight as "one tough lady."

And we who have been here and seen her political schtick will harken back to the days of 01/10/2012 going forward as having witnessed a political iron lady in the making a la the quintessential and actual Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher.

The SCPR has been on hand to see many Catazaro-Perry "in-your-face" routines.

The evolving Iron Lady of Massillon, the SCPR believes, is not really who she has been as a person pre-political career.  However, she has been running with a political crowd since the early 2000s which has left its mark on her.

Ten years down the road and she is no longer the person who some folks remember as being a different Kathy Catazaro-Perry.

Right now Massillonians are taking in a confrontation between the politico-hardened mayor and Massillon City Council.

Yesterday was supposedly "showdown" date between Her Honor and Massillon's legislators, at least eight (8) of them.

The latest round in the stand off took place on Monday night when council passed a plan to:

• Reduce the credit that Massillonians who work out-of-town get for income taxes paid to the other city/village from 100% of up to the current 1.8% to 75% of that amount which will become 1.9% if Massillons agree to the .1% increase on an upcoming ballot initiative,
• SCPR Note:  This particular provision is the one of all the provisions of revenue raising measures being negotiated (?) between the mayor an council that Her Highness seems most fixed on.  Back in early 2012, Catazaro-Perry was proposing a 50% reduction in the credit.
• SCPR Note:  Republican leader of council, Ed Lewis, IV (Ward 6) has been just as adamantly on the other side of the issue.  As has Massillon resident and Stark County prosecutor John Ferrero (an arch political foe of Catazaro-Perry sponsor and mentor Johnnie A. Maier, Jr).
• Maier is Massillon's clerk of courts, a former Stark County Democratic Party chairman (2003-2009) having succeeded Ferrero.  Moreover, he is currently executive vice chairman of the Stark County Democratic Party.  Noteworthy also his Maier's tie to the Stark County Democratic Party political director Shane Jackson who is Maier's chief deputy and as such - at last report - is paid a higher salary than Catazaro-Perry.
• Reduced credit to begin July 1, 2014 and continue indefinitely if the .1% income tax increase passes,
• Reduced credit to end on December 31, 2015 if the income tax increase fails,
• SCPR Note:  It is the latter point (end on December 15th) which is "the sticking point" of whether or not the mayor will agree with council's passed plan

Initially, Catazaro-Perry was saying "my way or the highway."  But some think that by the end of Monday's council meeting she was reconsidering.

Witness this SCPR video of her exchange with Councilman Lewis (March 10, 2014 meeting):



Reconsidering?

Kathy Catazaro reconsidering?

You have to be kidding, no?

Well, for the good of Massillon, let's hope not.she is reconsidering.

The Stark County Political Report buys Lewis' line that council has given much more than the mayor.

Take a look at the rest of Ordinance 25 - 2014: (an extract)

==============================================

MASSILLON CITY COUNCIL FINANCIAL RECOVERY PLAN

1.  Sources of Additional Revenue

(a) 181.031 LEVY OF ADDITIONAL TAX

In addition to the income tax levied pursuant to Section 181.03 there is hereby levied, to provide funds for the purpose of expenses of operation of the municipal government, a tax upon earnings at the additional rate of one-tenth of one percent (.10%) upon those items enumerated in Section 181.03.

(b) Approve a street lighting utility fee with and effective date at the beginning of a quarter-year date, preferably April 1, 2014.  Under this plan, each improved property owner will be charged a fee of $25.00 per year.  (Same as Mayor’s)
 
(c) Evaluate existing debt refinancing opportunities.  (Same as Mayor’s)

(d) Identify non-essential City Assets.  (Same as Mayor’s)

(e) Evaluate new and existing fees for permits, licenses and services and bring them current with other similar cities.  (Same as the Mayor’s)

(f) Review and evaluate collections practices in various City departments (Same as Mayor’s)

(g) Adopt selected revenue generating recommendations contained in the Auditor of State Performance Audits for the Police Department, Parks and Recreation Department and The Legends of Massillon Golf Course (Same as Mayor’s)

(h) Explore grant possibilities for virtually every aspect of City operations (Same as Mayors)

2.  Expenditure Reductions, Cash Management Strategies and Elimination of Deficit Funds (Same as Mayor’s) (emphasis added)

===============================================

The SCPR for one will be surprised if she relents.

The expectation is that if the mayor had not accepted as of the end of yesterday the following consequences will flow:

• a 15% reduction in the city's budget using April, 2013 appropriation numbers, 
• to be implemented on April 1, 2014, and 
• to continue until the mayor and council agree on a plan

Looking at the politics of the situation, it could be that many if not most council members are just fine with the 15% cuts.

Republican members of council have been pushing for expenditure cuts since Catazaro-Perry became mayor.

If cuts take place, look for political dynamics to take over big time as both the mayor and council members are up for reelection in 2015.

Massillonians will be inundated with "the blame game" as to who caused the impasse necessitating the cuts.

The only hope that the SCPR sees in avoiding a drawn out fight between Massillon's "Iron Lady in the Making" and council is the Massillon Financial Planning and Supervision Commission headed up by State of Ohio Office of Management and Budget representative Sharon Hanrahan.

Hanrahan is one of the few voices, if not the only voice, she heeds other than that - apparently - of Johnnie A. Maier, Jr and his "kitchen cabinet" of political loyalists.

Let's hope she can slow down the accelerating pace of an "Iron Lady in the Making!"

WERE THE NUMBER OF MASSILLON LAYOFFS "POLITICS INDUCED OVERKILL?"

We all know that only very rarely are things as they appear.

The SCPR believes such is the case in the drama unfolding in Massillon with the Catzaro-Perry administration ordered layoffs of 27 Massillon workers including 19 safety workers.

It seems as if council and the mayor are on the same page.

However, to The Report an underlying political battle (especially for the Republican members of council) is underway about reducing the size of government over and against Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry's desire to hold on to as many city workers as she can.  Accordingly, the mayor is clearly on the size of building revenues.

It was a stinging setback to Catazaro-Perry when her plan to reduce the Massillon income tax credit for Massillonians paying income taxes to other municipalities was rejected 8 to 1 by Massillon Council earlier this year.

Media reports of Monday's meeting indicate to The Report that most members of council, while regretful to see folks lose their jobs, felt that a resizing of Massillon's government is in order given the mismatch between city expenditures and revenues.

Reading between the lines, The Report wonders whether or not the administration beefed up the number of layoffs in order to put political pressure on council to revisit the rejection, and provide the mayor with an the additional $600,000 she had speculated would be available to her budget.

Take this quote of Finance Committee Chair Donnie Peters, Jr. from The Independent's Matt Rink piece (Council apologetic but stands by mayor, May 1st):

“I was a little shocked.  I thought we could get by with 10 (layoffs). I was wrong. But we had no choice.”

Moreover, from Councilman Ed Lewis, IV:

“Is it (layoffs) the decision that had to be made? Probably. We all knew it was coming. It’s just the fact of how much money we have. It’s not enough to pay everybody. I have to trust that the mayor made the best decision she could.”

It could be that a "cat and mouse" political game is unfolding.  Or, in politics, "the blame game."

Time will tell, but the SCPR is guessing that a majority of council will stick by its guns in forcing Massillon to become more fiscally responsible.

Massillon offers a striking contrast to Canton.

In Canton it appears that Mayor William J. Healy, II has council (all Democrats) in the palm of his hand (for the most part) and is in the process of orchestrating that it present to voters a ballot initiative for an increase in the city income tax from 2% to 2.5%.

Thanks to the election of 2011, Massillonians put in place a council with a razor thin Republican majority.

The newly elected majority plus some Democratic stragglers is demonstrating a willingness to engage in a give and take with the mayor on the critical issue of the fiscal integrity of Massillon finances.

Such is our democratic republic operating at its best.