Tuesday, April 15, 2014

(VIDEOS) OHIO'S SHARON HANRAHAN IS MASSILLON'S "DOVE OF PEACE?"



UPDATE: 8:00 PM  "FINAL"

"ENTIRE" COUNCIL PLANNING SESSION VIDEO  NOW POSTED

"ENTIRE" COMBO COUNCIL/COMMISSION
SESSION NOW POSTED

VIDEOS

REACTIONS TO LAST NIGHT MEETING

SHARON HANRAHAN
OMB REPRESENTATIVE
POSTED

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 COUNCILWOMAN
SARITA CUNNINGHAM-HEDDERLY
 POSTED

 =============================== 

COUNCILWOMAN NANCY HALTER
POSTED

 ===============================

 COUNCILMAN ED LEWIS
POSTED

 ===============================
 
COUNCILMAN PAUL MANSON
POSTED

 =============================== 

 COMMISSIONER MEMBER
ELAINE CAMPBELL
POSTED

 =============================== 

ENTIRE 
COMMISSION/COUNCIL MEETING
POSTED

 ===============================

ENTIRE
COUNCIL PLAN 2 WORK SESSION
POSTED 

Last night "peace" seemed to break out among the participants in Massillon's effort to find a "financial recovery plan" that might eventually bring Tigerland back to fnancial solvency.

But the SCPR must say that Massillon's Iron Lady was the least prone of all "to give peace a chance."

The peacemaker-in-chief was Sharon Hanrahan of Ohio's Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The Report believes a breakthrough occurred after the Massillon Financial Planning and Supervision Commission rejected Massillon City Council's first plan at the end of last month.

Hanrahan - post rejection - went to council and apparently gained a different perspective on council's attitude as a result of talking one-on-one with members.

Hanrahan spoke with the SCPR after last night's meeting.


 
 Another commissioner member speaking with the SCPR was Elaine Campbell.



Campbell's son, Matt Campbell, by the way, is the outstanding coach of the football Toledo Rockets of the NCAA Divison 1 Mid-American Conference of which the University of Akron and Kent State University are members.

The SCPR believes that up until that Hanrahan/council meetup, the commission was largely dependent on Mayor Catazaro-Perry for information and perspective on council efforts to construct a financial recovery plan acceptable to the commission and to council.

Both most agree on a plan by April 24th if Massillon is to avoid "across the board cuts" of 15% to all general fund departments of Massillon's government except for the courts on May 1st.

The Report thinks that council will come up with a Plan 2 that likely include a 1.95 or 2.0 income tax rate for Massillon (a rise of .195 or .2).

Why 1.95?

Guess?

Because of Mayor Catazaro-Perry.

Although Finance Committee chair Ed Lewis, IV (Republican Ward 6 [and, the SCPR thinks, likely opponent in the November, 2015 election to the mayor]) believes that the mayor did not last night reject a 2% Massillon income tax rate ballot initiative; The Report thinks she in reality did.

Why is 2% so important?

Because council is resisting the reduction in Massillon's income tax credit that Massillonians get for paying out-of-city income taxes to other Ohio villages and cities in which they work.

From the beginning of the Catazaro-Perry administration when it became apparent that Massillon had to do something to either increase revenues or make expenditure cuts or a combination of the two, the mayor has insisted that part of any fiscal package that she would agree to absolutely must include a reduced income tax credit.

To finance chairman Lewis,  a 2% tax rate (meaning .2 percent) is the key number at which council would be able to avoid an actual implementation of a  proposed .25% reduction the city income tax credit which is part of the package being negotiated between council and the MFPSC.

As the SCPR understands the plan, voter approval of a .195 or .2 increase in the November election would effectively eliminate the credit reduction.

Lewis explains.



And such of turn of events would undoubtedly please Massillon political power broker and Stark County prosecutor John Ferrero (a former Massillon law director) who has adamantly fought (mostly through political proxies) a reduction in the credit.

The political background to all of this is that Ferrero (a least currently) is the arch-political-enemy of Catazaro-Perry prop-ups Johnnie A. Maier, Jr and his "I couldn't exist without you" ally R. Shane Jackson.

Maier is Massillon's clerk of courts, (Jackson is his chief deputy).

Maier is currently executive vice chairman of the Stark County Democratic Party (former chairman 2003 - 2009) and Jackson in the party's political director.

Ferrero immediately preceded Maier as Stark Dems chairman.

And both (Ferrero and Maier) see themselves as dominant players in Massillon city politics.  There are plenty of examples in which they go after one another in the context of Massillon political life.

All of which brings us to a key moment in last night's discussion between the commission and council at their joint meeting.

Newly elected councilperson Megan Starrett (Democrat, Ward 5) works on Ferrero's staff and is perceived to be a Ferrero proxy on council.

It was Starrett who came up with a proposal in the meeting for council to abandon its heretofore insistence that any income tax reduction be sunset to expire on December 31, 2015.

Commissioner member Robert Gessner of Massillon Cable TV had - earlier in the meeting - talked about how an arbitrary sunset date was just that and made no sense.

He argued that council needed to have a change of heart on the matter and tie the retirement of the reduction to rational financial numbers rather than "just pick a date."

Starrett picked up on his plea and that is when the tone of the meeting began to change in a more positive and productive way.

As a consequence "the sticking point" is no longer a "drop-dead date" on the income tax credit reduction.  Now it is increasing the rate 2%.  At least as far as Catazaro-Perry is concerned.

The Report suspects that the mayor's digging in against a ballot initiative of going to a 2% rate is more about the near certainty that a 2% would ensure that the credit reduction never goes into effect and if that happens, her insistence (remember, pretty much from the beginning of her administration) in a reduction in the credit will have been in vain.

So while the SCPR believes that Sharon Hanrahan with her peace-inducing style of leadership has achieved a breakthrough, it is a fragile peace to say the least.

While Hanrahan cannot give the slightest indication that the latent belligerence of Catazaro-Perry is the "elephant in the room" of the commission and council reaching an agreement on Massillon's Financial Recovery Plan; behind the scene she needs to continue what appears to the SCPR to be her good work of bringing the two sides together.

The Report believes that one way or another the diplomatic Hanrahan will trump "it my way or the highway" Catazaro-Perry.

To the SCPR the majority of the commission is sensitive to and prone to follow the lead of the mayor.

A key part of Hanrahan's work is to provide Catazaro-Perry with a face saving way out of her intransgiance.

If last night's movement forward is a true indication as being the fruit of Hanrahan's labors, then Massillonians have reason to believe that "peace may be at hand"  between Mayor Catazaro-Perry and her allies and Massillon City Council.

Other councilperson reactions to the joint meeting include:

Councilwoman Sarita Cunningham-Hedderly.



And Councilwoman Nancy Halter who Hanrahan scored points with in remembering a prior exchange between the two.



Councilman Paul Manson looms large as a factor in the back and forth between council and the commission.



Although lengthy, the SCPR is posting the entire sessions of both the joint commission/council session and the separate council work session on intracouncil discussions of what the content of Plan 2 ought to be.

First, the joint session.




Next, the council planning session video:

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