NEW OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES IN MASSILLON'S POLITICAL WAR?

Matthew Rink of The Massillon Independent wrote an interesting piece last night:  Massillon panel rejects renaming Shriver Park.  In the article he has a number of quotes that, when one knows the full history of the "open" aspect of an internal Democratic Party political fight that has been going on in Massillon for about a half of dozen years (not long after Johnnie A. Mailer, Jr. became Massillon's clerk of courts), indicate that the fight continues unabated while changing its manifestation from time-to-time.

The focus of the fight in the Rink presentation is from the Massillon Parks & Recreation Board which met recently and decided to recommend NO! to Councilman Tony Townsend's desire to rename Shriver Park in honor of Massillon's esteemed T. Roy Roberson who served as Ward 4 councilman (Townsend's ward) from 1982 through 1993.

The SCPR believes that nobody on the Cicchinelli side of the War of Massillon "really" opposes the renaming.  However, they are at loggerheads with the Maier-led "anybody but Cicchinelli" forces.  And, whomever gets caught in the crosshairs of the scope the rifle seeking opposition target in the political battles that erupt is likely to get hurt.  "No harm to third parties intended," but "war is war" and the innocent will get caught up in the fight; the thinking goes.

So The Report thinks Massillonians can take Mayor Cicchinelli at his word when he says he is not against the renaming.  On the other hand, if he can deliver a black eye to his political opponents through the work of others (i.e. the park board members who voted NO! on Townsend's idea), he will do so and then take the high ground claiming that his appointees voted their conscience and not at his directive.

The target is not the memory of T. Roy Roberson,  The target is multiple:  Maier, Elum, Catazaro-Perry, Townsend et al. The folks who have been going after Cichinelli for a number of years now.

It appears to the SCPR believed that the hallowed memory of Roberson was a mask behind which they could hide in effecting a political victory over Cicchinelli and his loyalists.  For public consumption, Townsend's move for Roberson was a magnanimous thing to do.  For inside Massillon politics, his move was a poke in the political eye and message to Mayor Francis H. Cicchinelli, Jr that "We're coming after you Frank.  Se ya in May, 2011! And, by the way, winning this battle over the park renaming is an indicator of our political strength!"

As Townsend said in the Rink piece, the park board vote is one thing; however, the city council vote may well be another.  However, the vote turns out, no one will admit in public that fight is not about Roberson is worthy of being honored; it is, rather, about political gamesmanship and affording the "Cicchinellis" and the "Maiers" an opportunity to get at one another.

The main question presented by this blog, however, is will this political war in Massillon ever end?

Answer:  only when Francis H. Cicchinelli, Jr is no longer mayor of Massillon, Ohio!!!

MASSILLON CITY: "A PROUD TRADITION," ARGUING OVER THE INANE?

Recently the SCPR contacted Councilman-at-Large Larry Slagle to talk about Council's looming annexation fight with the Cicchinelli administration over the Tuslaw schools annexation.

During the conversation, it became apparent that Councilman Slagle had other things to talk about.  So The Report bit and asked "are there other controversies brewing on Council?

Answer was along the lines: "maybe not a controversy, but some misunderstanding about how parks get renamed in Massillon."

It seems as if Councilman Tony Townsend (4th Ward - a staunch Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. political ally) wants to rename Shriver Park after previous 4th Ward Councilman T. Roy Roberson (1981-92).

 

Simple, enough?

Not really in Massillon.

Councilman Slagle brought up an e-mail that he had received from the Massillon Parks and Recreation Board (MPRB - which a source says officially is really the Massillon Recreation Board) to the effect that the Board does the renaming and that it is a policy not to do so unless the name has been discredited.

Townsend appears to feel (the SCPR's read of the July 19th minutes) he was somehow blindsided by the revelation of the policy and that, in any event, Council should ignore the MPRP and proceed because Council is the ultimate decider anyway.

Townsend then seems to take a shot at the Cicchinelli (over the attempted sale of Genshaft Park on 2008) administration and the MPRB director Kenn Kaminski, to wit:

"No, I’m not thinking that its just when you sent it out I just never seen it before and when I read it, it just appeared to me that it was a lot easier to sell a park here then to rename it.  I just never saw it before and I mentioned this to Kenn about the renaming of the park when we took a tour.  Not one time did he ever mention that there was some type of procedure that we needed to follow to do that?  Even if you look at the letter I don’t know I gave you a copy of this I’m quite sure written by Perry here he states you know the ultimate decision lies with city council and not with the parks and recreation.  So how would that conflict with this procedure?  You don’t know? (emphasis added)

The SCPR believes that this flap over renaming is somehow grounded in and related to the fight by anti-Cicchinelli forces over historical Massillon Parks and Recreation Board issues.

This to The Report is the only reason why there would be a fight over the inane.

The Report does not believe Councilman Slagle is part of the undertow.  He merely (as chairman of Council's Parks and Recreation committee) wants to square up naming procedures.

However, there are others who, in the opinion of the SCPR, want to fire the "flames of discontent" with an overall objective of defeating Mayor Cicchinelli in next May's Democratic primary election.

So the point of this blog is that one should never take differences on Massillon City Council at face value.

There are a number of political agendas circulating around the halls of Massillon government.

Such is what fuels Massillon City government's ability to argue about nearly everything!

Question:  Does the proud tradition of arguing about even the most inane serve the people of Massillon?