(VIDEOS) MASSILLON ON THE BRINK OF DECIDING WHO HAS AUTHORITY TO APPOINT NEW RECREATION & PARKS DIRECTOR?

UPDATED AT 1:26 P.M. TO INCLUDE COPY OF FERRERO LETTER TO STERGIOS

VIDEOS

MASSILLON CITY COUNCIL

WORK SESSION

06/10/2013

************************************

COUNCILMAN LARRY SLAGLE

ON

"SOLUTIONS"

TO 

DIRECTORSHIP HIRING AUTHORITY

ISSUE

*************************************

COUNCILMAN PAUL MANSION

"A THIRD WAY"

REGARDING

HIRING AUTHORITY

**************************************

COUNCILWOMAN NANCY HALTER

ON

PARKS AND RECREATION ISSUE

*************************************

AUDITOR JAYNE FERRERO

ON

LAW DIRECTOR PERRY STERGIOS

OVERRUN ON 2013 BUDGET

A point that Councilman Paul Manson (Democrat at-large) made at last night's Massillon City Council (Council) work session meeting is that Massillonians are getting wary of all the "interim" leadership that seems to be in place in Massillon city government these days.

One "interim" problem may be on the road to a solution.

Councilman Larry Slagle (Democrat at-large and chairman of the Parks & Recreation Committee) promised fellow council members last night that he would have an "either/or" solution on the table for them by Council's next regular meeting slated for June 17th at 7:00 p.m. in council chambers.

Here is a SCPR video that captured the entire discussion at last night's meeting.



It appears that the solution likely to be imposed legislatively by Council will be from among two alternatives:

Either

• the mayor (Kathy Catazaro-Perry - "Mayor") will be empowered to make the choice, which she says is currently the way Massillon's existing ordinance reads (a position supported by current Massillon law director Perry Stergios), OR
• the Parks and Recreation Board will be unequivocally named in a rework of the existing ordinance as having the power and authority to name a new permanent director (a position supported by current Stark County prosecutor John Ferrero when he was Massillon law director)

Councilman Manson did offer "a third way."  But it very, very unlikely that the rest of Council will see it his way.

His third way?

To have Council appoint a new permanent (more or less) director of the Parks and Recreation operations.

Here is Manson elaborating on his proposal:

And here is Councilwoman Nancy Halter weighing-in on the Parks and Recreation matter:

If Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry had cultivated over her 18 months in office a "trust" relationship with Council, the SCPR thinks that there would be a pretty good chance that Council would clarify the vague ordinance to make it clear that she has the authority to appoint a new director.

But she hasn't.

So now she shall reap what she has sown.

Look for Council (unless the Park and Recreation Board at Thursday's meeting makes it clear that it does not want the authority) to opt that way.

In a sort of way, there is an ongoing thinly below the surface simmering war going on between the Mayor and Council.

And it is catching other Massillon elected officials in the spider web of political intrigue.

The Report hears that Auditor Jayne Ferrero (sister-in-law to John Ferrero) is not on speaking terms with Mayor Kathy these days.

Really?  Why?

When the Mayor recently went to the State of Ohio Auditor (SOA) with her request that the SOA audit Massillon books (presumably in process), it turns out that Catazaro-Perry had not consulted with Ferrero first.

Add to that the controversy injected into last night's meeting about the failure of Law Director Perry Stergios to keep his office expenditures in line with his total annual budget amount.

Ferrero says she is projecting a $70,000/$80,000 law department deficit (come September) if he does not make cut backs to compensate for a recent surge in his expenditures.

Trying to decipher the conversation from the work session, the SCPR's understanding is that Stergios hired a new assistant prosecutor recently to replace one who departed but that the department has lost a grant which paid for the position and hence the need to pay the salary from the department budget.

Here is a copy of the letter sent on May 10, 2013 to Director Stergios:

Here is the city auditor bringing up the topic and explaining her frustration with Law Director Stergios.

While the Parks and Recreation "hot button issue" may be going away soon, many others remain.  Among them are:

• the projected $2.7 million (perhaps lessening to $2.6 or $2.5 million according to Auditor Ferrero) Massillon budget deficit for 2013,
• how to raise revenues for the city that is acceptable to the taxpayers,
• dealing with a sudden surge in street lighting costs (at the tune of $16,000 per month, if not more) reportedly inadvertently caused by former Safety Director George T. Maier (now Stark County sheriff) in negotiating last year with AEP to replace First Energy as the electric supplier,
• the mushrooming of city departments being run by "interim" directors which some think causes instability in the operations of city functions,
• the sale/settlement of the Hampton Inn drain on the city budget,
• the failure of some departments of Massillon government (i.e. the law department) to live within budget numbers,
• the sale/settlement of the apartment complex at 59 Duncan Place at a less than owed (about $941,000), and
• the depletion of Park and Recreation funds by virtue of the funds being used to pay on the outstanding indebtedness on The Legends golf course complex

While it is good to see the likelihood that Council will act soon to resolve the authority problem on Parks and Recreation hiring, it is near certain that the Mayor and Council will continue their quibbling and competitive problem solving will remain "the order of the day."

As the SCPR sees it, the Mayor with a change of attitude could go a long way in resolving the standing "hot button issues" in a "let's work together" vein rather than her "I'll one up you" current posture.

If the "hot button issues" are to be effectively resolved, it will take the Mayor and Council working together!

MASSILLON'S COUNCILWOMAN NANCY HALTER SHOWS "REAL" LEADERSHIP IN MASSILLON!

Democratic Massillon mayor Kathy Catzazaro-Perry is the darling of the poobahs of Stark County.

And, outside of Massillon and Stark County, she has held court with the likes of President Obama and former Governor Ted Strickland and heaven only knows who else in the political/governmental stratospheres.
 
Even top-tier Republicans among Stark County's social elite support and toady up to her.  Just look at her list of campaign finance contributors that show up for her 50th birthday bash back in June.  (LINK to prior blog detailing contributions).

Among the more curious credentials she self-advertises (LINK) on the City of Massillon website is her graduation from the Leadership Stark County Government Academy and Leadership Stark County Signature group.

Notwithstanding the biography grandstanding, Massillon is now in its ninth month of Catazaro-Perry leadership and the city finds itself bereft of effective executive leadership.

She says she is about new ideas and that she will tirelessly present them.  But, of course, "the proof is in the pudding."  Thus far the SCPR has heard very little, if anything, in terms of new ideas from the new mayor.

So is it that Catazaro-Perry is simply not made from the raw material of political/government leadership or is it that Leadership Stark County (a Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce project) is not all its cracked up to be in terms of preparing its students for leadership roles?

Kind of strange that a credentialed leader such as Mayor Catazaro-Perry cannot muster more than two votes from the body she served on for eight years (i.e. Massillon council) on what she says is a critically needed infusion of  revenues by way of reducing the income tax credit for Massillonians working outside of the city who pay income taxes to other villages or municipalities.

Last Monday she went down to yet another defeat on the issue and it appears that she can keep bringing the matter up "until the cows come home" and she will not win on this issue at the end of the day.

How so?

Because it appears to The Report that she is so accustomed to succeeding within protected environments that she apparently cannot adjust to the world of deliberative political environments.  Moreover, her closest advisers are power politics folks who cannot grapple with the reality that some people cannot be bulldozed in to doing her will.

On the other hand, check out Councilwoman Nancy Halter (Republican - Ward 2).

As far as the SCPR knows, Halter does not advertise herself as being a particularly credentialed person nor does she have a political power obsessed machine behind her.

She has served on council before for five years as a councilperson-at large.  But other than that, it seems that she is just an ordinary person (perhaps a person that owns a Nixonian "Republican cloth coat") who is out to save her community from blight, deterioration and inevitable decline.

While Catazaro-Perry has been an executive director, a director, a chairman, a member of several boards, a recipient of several distinguished awards, a hall of fame member and has two college degrees; Halter is a high school graduate who has mostly done her civic work in low-profile local political and community endeavors.

On the same night Catazaro-Perry suffered her latest defeat on the tax issue, Councilwoman Halter turned what appeared at one time to be "a death by a thousand cuts" legislative effort to make owners of Massillon neighborhood residences more accountable and trackable as Massillon's building code enforcer (William Kraft) sought council's assistance to get legislation with more teeth on the books to aid him in his effort.

The battle in Massillon council has been going on over the requested legislation for about three years.

Kraft is likely thanking his lucky stars that Halter was elected to council in November, 2011 over incumbent Gary Anderson.

Halter "the bull by the horns" not long after her election and worked tirelessly building bridges with other members of council to get the result she got on September 4th.  (LINK to prior blog) 

Maybe, just maybe, there is a lesson in the Halter example for Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry?

Massillon:  a city of champions?

Yes and Councilwoman Halter is a leading example of what a leadership champion is!