VOLUME 1 - MASSILLON (DEL RIO-KELLER V. LITMAN) THE SCPR: STARK COUNTY'S 'ONLY' ANALYSIS OF CITY COUNCIL RACES

UPDATED 10:00 A.M.

VIDEOS

Election Night Reaction

Michelle Del Rio-Keller

Massillon Ward 6

There were only a few fireworks in council races among Stark County's major cities on Tuesday.

Many candidates for down ballot offices work just as hard if not harder than those who run for the glitzy positions (e.g mayor) and deserve to have their story told in detail.

In Stark County, their chapter and verse stories are only told by The Stark County Political Report.

There were a number of noteworthy pyrotechnic explosions in Massillon and to a much lesser extent in Canton.

November's general election could see a few more mushroom into the skies of both Canton and Massillon.

Added to the November's poltically sparkly skyscape however will be a few races from The Carnation City and The Dogwood City.

The most politically charged face-off on Tuesday occurred in Massillon's Ward 6.

Ever since the alleged politics experts of "all things Massillon politics" (i.e. former Stark County Dems chairman Johnnie A. Maier, Jr and Stark County Dems political director R. Shane Jackson) lost control of Massillon City Council to the Republicans having been bested by Ms. Massillon Republican; namely, Ward 2 Councilwoman Nancy Halter  in the Massillon council elections of 2011, the supposed Democratic political gurus Maier, Jr. and Jackson have probably have been breakfasting daily at Belden Village's Scrambler Marie's scrambling (what else?) to find ways to recover from their council election debacle of 2011.

For her part, retiring Councilwoman Halter tells the SCPR that she will - in retirement - go about reorganizing Massillon Republican community for a third time.

If it were up to Stark County GOP chairman Jeff Matthews (also director of the Stark County Board of Elections), the SCPR thinks that Massillon like Canton would be non-competitive as between Republicans and Democrats.

And the SCPR thinks that Halter practices partisan politics in a highly ethical/constructive way in obvious contrast to what yours truly thinks of the Maier, Jr./Jackson (elected Massillon clerk of courts/appointed chief deputy, respectively) way of doing politics.

It has to be a bitter pill for her to swallow that it is all but certain that Maier, Jr./Jackson political protege Dave Irwin (an employee of Stark County recorder Rick Campbell [a quintessential Maier, Jr. loyalist]) will become her successor in November's election.

While Maier, Jr and Jackson were consummately involved in an effort to bring down 24 year fellow-Democratic mayor Frank Cicchinelli (which they succeeded at), guess what happened to Masillon City Council?

It went Republican!

And Democrats should be laying that turn of events right at the feet of Maier, Jr. and Jackson.

Finally in 2015, it appears that they are having success.

It appears they will have two Maier, Jr/Jackson loyalists in office come January 1, 2016 BUT likely at the price of losing the mayoralty in that - if he can stay in the race as a political independent - the SCPR sees Cicchinelli handily defeating the Maier, Jr./Jackson directed incumbent mayor Catazaro-Perry in November.

Where is the council success to come from?

Ironworkers #550 union connected through her husband (a real irony when it comes to Maier, Jr) and Democrat Linda Litman seems to have eked out a seven vote victory over Councilperson-at-Large Michelle Del Rio-Keller in Ward 6.

Had Del Rio-Keller done the selfish political thing, she would have run for re-election at-large and left it to Republican Ed Lewis, IV to fend for himself in Ward 6.

By the SCPR's calculation, Lewis was going to lose in Ward 6 to Litman and lose big.  And everybody seem know it including Lewis himself.

The Report's take is that Del Rio-Keller and Lewis, though of opposite political parties are politically close and yours truly suspects she and he cooked up the "I'll run in Ward 6, you run at-large and we will both stay on council" arrangement.

Del Rio-Keller's family has lived in Ward 6 forever and so the thinking had to be that she could fend off the Maier Massillon Political Machine (MMPM) and thereby do her political friend a favor and Massillon as a whole would be better off.

And she knew that the MMPM would combine massive amounts of union money (despite Maier, Jr's historical "less than enthusiastic support" for unionism effect in politics) and campaign workers to defeat the politically formidable Del Rio-Keller.

It is impressive to the SCPR that the councilwoman-at-large almost pulled it off.  But it appears she will have come up just a tad short even if there are provisional ballots to be counted or and counting error or two.

But until the Stark County Board of Elections certifies Tuesday's election, we will not know for sure. And there could be a recount.

Assuming that Litman's election will stand, let's take a look at the numbers.

A startling thing that the numbers show is that Catazaro-Perry opponent in the Democrat primary J. David Ress did much better than the home grown Del Rio-Keller.

In yesterday's blog, the SCPR related a story being circulated by a highly credible Massillon elected official, to wit:

Another interesting tidbit that you will only hear from The Stark County Political Report is that Mayor Catazaro-Perry while campaigning in Ward 6 with another Maier, Jr. stand-in, that is to say Linda Litman (a narrowly [by seven votes] Ward 6 councilperson candidate) got the Massillon Police called on them because of their persistent engagement with a voter who clearly told them that the voter was a committed Litman's Democratic Party opponent and incumbent councilperson Michelle Del Rio-Keller who chose to not run at-large again but in her home ward.

This account shows in an anecdotal way how intense the MMPM and its chief elected official (Catazaro-Perry) was in getting Litman elected.

As it turned out, the mayor was not protecting her own election numbers in Ward 6 in her "all out for Litman" mode.

Reports are abounding that Litman spent upwards of $8,000 on this council race.  We will not know for sure until the candidates file their post-primary campaign finance reports.

Lastly, there was a barrage of campaign literature put out by the Ironworkers PAC sponsored Litman campaign one of which was is said to have been hand delivered on Sunday, May 3rd, and, of course, the election was Tuesday May 5th.

Del Rio-Keller says that there are false allegations in the letter and that she is looking at whether or not to file a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission.

To the SCPR, this account shows how political zeal gets way out of hand and thereby produces results which while satisfying to parochial political interest undermines the quality of local government.

How anyone can look at Linda Litman as a councilperson (assuming she maintains her lead) as anything other than take orders from headquarters - like her friend the mayor - is beyond the Report.

Del Rio-Keller has been a splendid councilperson and the SCPR trusts she will bide her time and make another run at being elected Ward 6 councilperson in 2017.

Here is a video of Councilwoman Del Rio-Keller's reaction to her narrow defeat on Tuesday evening.

VIDEO (PARKS & REC BD BYLAW CHANGE APPROVAL) NOW WE KNOW THE REASON WHY KEITH MOSER IS NO LONGER POLICE CHIEF IN MASSILLON?

UPDATED:  09:30 AM TO INCLUDE VIDEO OF BOARD APPROVAL OF BYLAW CHANGES

The Stark County Political Report is being told that the reason that short term Massillon Chief of Police Keith Moser was let go suddenly on June 4, 2013 and replaced by Bill Peel was that the Catazaro-Perry administration did not agree with his internal discipline of two Massillon police officers.

Look at what Massillon's top officials were saying about Moser on June 7, 2012 (the date he was selected to be police chief):

“We’re very excited for him. We believe that he is going to do a super job.”   (Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry)

“This is a great opportunity for the Massillon Police Department to bring about some effective change.   I’ve worked with him over the last five months and he seems to be very anxious to address some issues ... I think he’s going to do a great job.” (The-then safety director George T. Maier)

But that was then.

On June 4, 2013:   “He’s still a valued member of our force, but did not successfully complete the one-year probationary period."  (Mayor Catazaro-Perry)

The Report is told that the administration accolades ceased and Moser was put on the block for firing when it became apparent to administration officials that Moser was going to be his own man and not take to administration micromanaging.

Since Catazaro-Perry took office on January 1, 2012 a number of terms have surfaced as descriptors of her management style.

The first was that she is not transparent as she promised she would be as mayor and that therefore she could not be trusted to keep her word made in the context of governing Massillon.

Now this.

It is said that a pattern is emerging that she is a micromanager who will not let her department heads make their own calls on matters that the mayor and her handlers (Clerk of Courts Johnnie A. Maier, Jr and his chief deputy Shane Jackson) deem important.

The Report is being told that promotions/demotions and the like are such that folks in the Massillon Police Department (MPD) do not know whether or not they are coming or going these days.  And, the parade of chiefs during the Catazaro-Perry administration (four in number, now) constitute evidence that life in the MPD is topsy-turvy these days.

"Unsettled" might be a good word to use in describing nearly all aspects of Massillon city government these days.

Councilman-at-Large Paul Manson complained at last Monday's work session about the number of "interim" department heads staffing Massillon administration these days.

It appears that the mayor herself is unsure of what step to take next and consequently the path from her office to the Clerk of Courts office is taking on a well-worn path these days.

Last night the SCPR went to the regular monthly meeting of the Massillon Parks and Recreation Board (Board).

What of note appeared to be going on?

The Catazaro-Perry administration ("interim" Safety Director Jim Johnson) trying to convince the five member board what criteria the Board should use in determining whether or not a person qualifies to be a Board member.

Here is the video of the exchange that went between Board members among themselves and between them and Johnson:



As seen on the video, the Board by a 3 (Del Rio-Keller, Rickett and Hicks) to 2 (Wolfe and Bryant) voted to disqualify from future Board composition anyone who has a  financial connection with either Massillon city government or the Massillon Board of Education.

However, any non-qualifying present Board member is "grandfathered in."

Apparently, according to a SCPR source, one of the members who would not be eligible under the new criteria for continued membership when her current term expires would be member Esther Bryant.

Bryant is director of the nonprofit agency Lighthouse Visions which is said to receive Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) from the city of Massillon.

A person familiar with the voting patterns of Board members says that Bryant is a dependable administration position supporter on votes that come up with the body.

Member Wolfe, who only recently was appointed to the Board, is said to be a close friend of Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. and therefore can be depended upon to be an administration supporter for whatever position the administration takes on key issues.

An interesting change that seems to have taken place is the transition of Board member (the president) Michelle Del Rio-Keller (who likely will take an at-large Massillon City Council position on January 1, 2014) from being an administration support into being her own person.

Accordingly, she was, of course, the key last night for making the change in Parks and Recreation Board bylaws last evening.

Any one familiar with the goings on between the Catazaro-Perry administration and the Board know that there is a tussle underway as to who is going to have authority to appoint a new Parks and Recreation Department director.

It appears to the SCPR that Massillon City Council is likely to decide the question in favor of the Board.

Well, if that happens, then the administration's apparent pattern of micromanaging in the bowels of Massillon city government will suffer a telling blow.

And, if that happens and the new director can maintain the support of the Board, then the question becomes:

"Will the Parks and Recreation Department become the envy of all of Massillon government?"

"Free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last" from the Catazaro-Perry administration micro-managing?"