MASSILLON CITY HALL PARKING LOT INCIDENT WITH POLITICAL FALLOUT?

One would have had to be in a Rip Van Winkle-esque sleep not to know of the bitter politically rancorous discord that has been at play in recent years in Massillon Democratic politics.

It has been the forces led by Massillon Clerk of Courts John A. Maier, Jr and a number of his top lieutenants squared off against former Mayor Francis H. Cicchinelli, Jr and his top lieutenants.

One would have thought that once the Maier-led contingent achieved mastery over Cicchinelli in last year's Democratic primary, the certain-to-be new mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry would be counseling her loyalists to back off and work at healing the rift so that she could get on with effective governing once she defeated token Republican opposition in November and took office in January of this year.

But it is beginning to appear that Mayor Kathy not in charge of her cohort political group and that political retaliation, retribution and rift may be the order of the day in Massillon these days.

If the SCPR's suspicions are borne out as the new administration takes charge, then the mayor is in for a tough, tough four years.  What's more, Massillon's citizens will suffer unnecessarily.

This morning The Report got two e-mails which clearly suggests that a supporter of the mayor has taken it as his/her mission to fire another shot in the ongoing political battle between the Catazaro-Perryites and the Cicchinellis.

E-MAIL #1 - From an anonymous source to Scott Graber who was a Massillon Council President Glenn Gamber (a close political ally to Cicchinelli) opponent in the 2011 Democratic primary (Graber losing in a closer than expected race), to wit:

Hey, were you aware that on Tuesday night your former opponet [sic] Glenn Gamber hit a car twice in the parking lot. He stayed in his car for 6-minutes and then jumped out and entered council chambers. A MP put a note on his car, when he came out of council he grabbed the note and took off. Gamber denied it, until he was caught on camera in the act.

E-MAIL #2 - From Councilman Gamber to the SCPR, to wit:

Martin,

My vehicle was involved in an incident in the City Hall parking lot on Tuesday, and I wanted to let you know what happened before you hear of it through the media and blogs.

On Tuesday evening I parked my vehicle in the City Hall parking lot just after 7 PM and went into a meeting.  When I left the building nearly two hours later, there was a note on my windshield to call Massillon Patrolman Masters, which I did immediately.   I called from the parking lot and was a block away on Lincoln Way when he came to the phone. 

He told me that the right rear of my vehicle had apparently bumped into the right rear of an adjacent car causing minor damage to the plastic bumper cowling.  The contact was so minimal that I was not aware it had occurred.   I asked Patrolman Masters what I should do, and he said there was nothing to do at that time.  I called him again an hour later to follow up, but he was on a call and not available.  I left my phone number for him to call me back.

On Wednesday I went to the Police Station to discuss the incident with and realized that I did indeed bump into the other car’s bumper while backing into a parking space at 3 MPH.  I got the name of the owner and immediately called him to accept responsibility.  He was very cordial and said the damage to his bumper was minimal.  He told me that he mentioned to the officer that if my vehicle was still parked next to his car when he made his report, it must be because I did not realize I had contacted his bumper.  That is exactly the case. 

Glenn

The SCPR believes that Mayor Kathy can put a stop to the political warfare from her end now!  And she should do so if she cares anything about being able to govern effectively in the interests of ALL Massillonians and not just those who supported her in her drive to become mayor.

If she chooses to do a little sit down with her zealot supporters and rein them in, then Massillonians should be encouraged that she will be concentrating on applying her best efforts towards bringing Massillon back from the financial crisis that currently plagues the city.

The new mayor has a lot of good qualities that she can bring to bear to defuse the political warfare and over time bring the hostiles into a working relationship with her administration, again, in pursuing interests near and dear to all Massillonians.

The only question is whether or not she has the strength of personality to do so.

Like or dislike Francis H. Cicchinelli, Jr., certainly the new mayor can point to the positives that the long time former mayor brought to Massillon.

The SCPR is not aware of whether or not Catazaro-Perry has been invited and/or plans to attend a March 4th celebration of Cicchinell's contributions to the well-being of Massillon over his many years as mayor.  If not invited, she should seek an invitation.  From the Cicchinelli standpoint, he should see to it that the mayor of the city gets invited.

And, of course, if invited she should be afforded an opportunity to speak to his accomplishments as mayor in a believable and authentic way.

If not invited, she undoubtedly knows she can show the class that The Report believes she has and issue a press release in this regard.

The Report believes that Kathy Catzaro-Perry is a person of goodwill and that she should resist any naysayers in her core group of supporters that counsel her and do acts designed to fan the fires of political turmoil.  Now is the time for her to show moral leadership and demonstrations of character that may not be responded to in the short term.  Over the long haul chances are gestures of goodwill pay huge dividends.

The timing is right for Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry to do the right thing for Massillon governance and call off the enthusiast "political" dogs who are baying at if not snarling at her political enemies post-election victory.

Catazaro-Perry needs to show one and all that she is the captain of her own ship.

Will she do it?

That is the question!

MASSILLON IN DESPERATE NEED FOR MONEY TO PAY BILLS WITH. WOULDN'T "BIT OF EDEN" WITH TUSLAW SCHOOLS LOOK GOOD FOR CITY COFFERS NOW?

On September 23, 2010 the then Mayor Francis H. Cicchinelli, Jr. gave up the ghost in his effort to annex the Bit of Eden mobile home park AND the Tuslaw schools.

The attempted annexation had become a political hot potato and Cicchinelli perceiving such tried to get ahead of the political opportunism of he thought he saw his to be foe availing herself of in what he was sure would be Kathy Catazaro-Perry running against him in the March 6, 2011 Democratic primary.  (See the SCPR blog of September 25, 2010)

As it turns out, Cicchinelli was right about his then challenger-in-waiting but his action on September 23rd turned out to be a case of too little, too late.

Cicchinelli himself now says that the hordes of Tuslaw connected people campaigning against him in Massillon (particularly, the sixth ward) was a key factor to his losing to Catazaro-Perry in the primary.

However, Cicchinelli never conceded to those Massillon opponents of Bit-of-Eden who questioned the overall benefit of the schools annexation to the revenue stream of Massillon city government. 

A prime reason that Cicchinelli gave for running again in 2011 was his intent to continue pursuit of his aggressive annexation policy.

He was convinced that his dogged annexation program was highly beneficial to Massillon.

At last night's Massillon City Council (Council), Councilman-at-Large Larry Slagle took a few minutes to talk about the shortfall on state funding of local government in the form of no more money from the Ohio Estate Tax beginning in January 1, 2013.

The occasion was the impending Council vote on Resolution 3-12 requesting that the Stark County Auditor and Treasurer pay over to Massillon 75% of the estate and inheritance tax for the period July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012 (aka FY 2012).

Slagle who happens to be a staunch Democrat lashed out at Republican Governor Kasich and the Republican dominated Ohio General Assembly for giving away vitally needed local government revenue (he says about $300,000 for Massillon this year, but it varies from year to year).

Getting back to Cicchinelli and annexation, Democrat Councilman Paul Manson told the SCPR last night (himself an ardent advocate of annexation) that had Massillon stayed the course on the Bit-of-Eden annexation that included the Tuslaw schools, the city would have realized about $160,000 annually.

Well, with Massillon unable to pay its bills on a timely basis, wouldn't $160,000 be looking very good these days?

So for Mayor Catazaro-Perry the whole Tuslaw annexation thing has to be bittersweet thing.  On the one hand the issue may have been the difference maker in her defeating Cicchinelli.  But on the other she now has to govern and one of the major problems besetting her administration and Council is finding the revenues with which to balance the city budget and get back to paying the city's bills as they become due.

And by the way, there was discussion/vote at last night's meeting about whether or not to rescind a service agreement previously approved by Council for the scaled down Bit of Eden annexation.  In the end, only Ward 4 Councilman Tony Townsend favored rescission.  There does seem to be concern on the part of a number of councilpersons that Massillon not come out on the short end of the financial stick.

Council still has the option to abandon the annexation.  However, Councilman Manson tells The Report that he believes that ultimately (perhaps, by spring) Council will formally accept the annexation.

But it will not have the financial benefit that former Mayor Cicchinelli had in mind to the tune of $160,000 or so.

Though he dearly loves Massillon and certainly does want to see the once grand industrial city have financial troubles, if the abbreviated - minus the estimated $160,000 in annual revenue - does get accepted, it could be that Massillonians can be sure that Francis H. Cicchinelli, Jr will be having "the last laugh!"