STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT: (VIDEO) THOMAS ROGERS TRIUMPHS!

IS ALL-OUT WARFARE ABOUT TO BREAK OUT BETWEEN

THE

CATAZARO-PERRY ADMINISTRATION

&THE MASSILLON POLICE DEPARTMENT UNION

IN ADMINISTRATION'S EFFORT

TO SAVE

MICHAEL MAIER'S SERGEANT RANK?

VIDEO

THOMAS ROGERS

TAKES OATH OF OFFICE

FROM AN UNHAPPY?

MAYOR KATHY CATAZARO-PERRY

BACKGROUND AS TO WHY THIS SWEARING-IN IS SO SIGNIFICANT

The Stark County Political Report thinks that newly promoted Sergeant Thomas Rogers has, at great personal sacrifice (i.e. the expense and trouble of filing a lawsuit against city of Massillon [his employer]), advanced the cause of "playing by the rules."

(See entire video of swearing-in ceremony at the end of this blog)

Every step of the way to his promotion the sergeant in the Massillon Police Department yesterday, Rogers as one would expect of a law enforcement officer has "gone by the book."

But the Stark County Political Report does think that the Mayor Catazaro-Perry's administration including the Massillon Civil Service Commission has done so.

Accordingly, although all was smiles and handshakes yesterday as the mayor swore Rogers in, you just know that it was a "grit her teeth" and "do what you gotta do" exercise for her.

Now why would The Report think that the administration has not "played by the rules?"

Because Stark County Court of Common Pleas judge John Haas and the majority of judges on a Fifth District Court of Appeals panel have said so.

Unlike other Stark County media, the SCPR has followed this case very closely.

Not to be overlooked is Rogers legal counsel Craig T. Conley. He has done superlative work for Rogers and as a consequence The Report hears that Sergeant Rogers is to receive about $10,800 in back pay.

Of course, conversely, Mayor Catazaro-Perry has cost Massillon taxpayers $10,800 by acting precipitously in making the original sergeant promotion and it could be that there will ultimately be a compounding of the increased taxpayer cost her action brings to Massillon.

If Catazaro-Perry was a stand up officeholder and accepted that she is accountable to taxpayers, the foregoing is an example of a line of inquiry she would have to respond to "on camera" at the hand of the Stark County Political Report.

Does anybody think the mayor could handle the SCPR's incisive questioning?

For much more detail read the blogs (LINK 1 and LINK 2) that The Report has written and it will be readily apparent why this particular case is especially noteworthy to many Massillonians.

And it ought to be for Stark Countians at-large.

His perseverance will make other such bodies of government throughout Stark County and, indeed, Ohio, think twice, three or more times about "not" playing by the rules.

A SLAM AT THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF THE SCPR

In one sense, it made the Stark County Report's day when told that Mayor Kathy said that Martin Olson was not welcome at the mayor's office for Rogers' swearing-in ceremony specifically because I am a blogger.

In one sense?

Yes.

That the SCPR has bored in on her administration (whereas the main stream media has not) and made telling criticisms of Catazaro-Perry's style and substance (or better, lack thereof) of leadership which after nearly two and one half years has Massillon struggling and in the throes of fiscal emergency with very little, if any, light at the end of the tunnel.

As The Report sees her leadership qualities as opined on in quite a number of blogs, it seems to be virtually non-existent inasmuch it appears that she almost completely relies on others to make her decisions for her.

The SCPR warned Massillonians before her election that such would be the case.

Moreover, the SCPR sees her having hostility towards anyone who dares to differ with her.

She takes cues from Massillon's self-proclaimed political Wizard of Oz who holds political office of his own in the Massillon Courts. But being the clerk apparently is not enough. He thought to be the real mayor of Massillon but of course has the advantage of hiding behind Catazaro-Perry's skirts.

To be the butt of Catazaro-Perry administration dissatisfaction is a compliment, no doubt about it.

But it was also "a day of infamy" insofar as The Report takes "the statement" in her capacity as a public official as being an attempt to trample on my rights under the Constitution of the United States of America.

A Constitution for which I put myself in harms way while serving in the United States of America Air Force (USAF) in South Korea, 1963 - 1964. Two of my daughters are commissioned officers in the USAF doing their patriotism in defending the American way of life.

We in the Olson family put action where our mouths are. Folks like the mayor and those to whom she beats a path to the Massillon Court complex in order to get her daily marching orders, "mouth off."

There is never an appropriate place or setting for someone to say to what the mayor said, but it is particularly offensive given yesterday's occasion.

In case the mayor has forgotten a key part of that Constitution that she is sworn to defend and uphold in her oath of office and which she administered to Sergeant Rogers yesterday includes:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Her own words in derogation of my Constitutional rights, I think, betray what a petty person she is.

Moreover, she also appears to be an individual who thinks being mayor of a municipal government is her private office and fiefdom and that she does not have to respect my Constitutional rights as a media person to have access to public places..

Nor does she think she is accountable to the people through the media as she bristles at the scrutiny of the only Stark County media who looks behind the curtain of her administration.

She is entitled to take exception to the opinions I write in my blogs. But hands off my Constitutional rights!!!

Like some of her political friends and supporters who occupy key public office positions in the government of Massillon, she knows she cannot handle the questions which would come from the Stark County Political Report were she to do what she ought to out of respect for the First Amendment and do interviews with and take questions from The Report.

In my view, these folks are some "very insecure people," who avoid incisive scrutiny of their government functions at all cost, including, apparently, countenancing the infringement of the Constitutional rights of any who critique them.

They align themselves with the Democratic Political Party. The SCPR thinks they do not behave as small letter "d"emocrat bone in their bodies. What The Report thinks they stand for is bullying power politics that threatens the health of our democratic-republic.

And The Report is proud to provide examples for the people of Stark County to consider.

Moving on.

IS A MANAGEMENT/ UNION FIGHT LOOMING IN MASSILLON?

The SCPR has obtained documents that have been exchanged between the Massillon Civil Service Commission, F.O.P Henderson Lodge #105 and Maier attorney Steve Okey which indicate (in a collective context) to The Report that a war between the various parties to the correspondence may be about to erupt.

The Report thinks these documents speak for themselves and are not flattering to the Catazaro-Perry administration.

LETTER #1: FOP TO MASSILLON CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION

NOTE: CLICK ON THE GRAPHICS IN YOUR BROWSER TO ENLARGE