(VIDEO) DESPITE HAVING MADE WHAT APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN A GOOD HIRE OF A NEW COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, MAYOR CATZARO-PERRY "OVERALL" IS HER OWN WORST ENEMY IN GETTING ALONG WITH COUNCIL?

 VIDEO

LARRY MARCUS

NEWLY APPOINTED

MASSILLON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

DIRECTOR

Recently, the Massillon Financial Planning and Recovery Commission (MFPRC) voted to approve a "compromise" financial recovery plan negotiated between Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry and Masillon City Council.

Although council gave far more than the mayor did on the details of coming to an agreement, it was refreshing to see this mayor give even an inch in the negotiating process.

Her problem from the get-go of her becoming mayor on January 1, 2012 has been that it was apparent that she viewed the new council then controlled by the Republicans as being her enemy.  From the Republican councilpersons' standpoint, the SCPR has been repeatedly told by various members of that political caucus that they were hopeful that the new mayor was going to be more accessible to and more communicative with council than predecessor mayor Frank Cicchinelli had been.  But that did not happen.  If anything, the Mayor Catazaro-Perry has been more stand-offish that Cicchinelli ever was.

With the Democrats regaining control of council with the elections of November, 2013, one might think that a Democratic mayor could get along with a Democrat dominated council, no?

Wrong!

Not this mayor.

In essence, this mayor has been her "own worst enemy" in terms of getting Massillon's finances and economic development in order and improving.

So - in the context of a continual stormy mayor/council relationship - what is a mystery to the Stark County Political Report is why anybody would want to be a leader in the Catazaro-Perry administration.

Yet she has hired some "well-thought-of" department heads notwithstanding that they would have to join her - at least, in a politically correct/indirect sort of way - in doing battle with council.

One such person is Al Hennon (a Republican) as safety-service director.  Hennon, a former highly respected Massillon City Schools superintendent, unfortunately, the SCPR thinks, was put in an awkward position by the controversy surrounding his appointment.

And on Tuesday she hired Larry Marcus (a registered non-partisan, but who voted Republican in 2006 and Democratic in 2008).  Marcus has built a solid if not superlative reputation as a Stark County-based banker and economic development facilitator with the Stark Development Board.

His professional reputation brought him instant recognition and deference at the hand of Stark County's commissioners at their regular weekly meeting yesterday that he attended only one day after his hire.

Here is video of his exchange with commissioners and his response to SCPR questions after the conclusion of the commissioners' meeting.



Marcus does not officially start until Monday.

The Report talked with a councilperson last night who, though hopeful that Macus will perform as advertised, was disappointed that council members learned of his appointment through the newspaper.

Again, such is a real problem with mayor.  If she is going to quit being her "own worst enemy" in terms of having a better relationship with council, this sort of thing needs to stop.

Like with Hennon's appointment, she needed to do better by Marcus in terms of letting council know of her decision of his hire in direct communication and not through the media.

If he doesn't get caught up in and consumed by the negative Massillon government environment that The Report thinks his new boss is largely responsible for, Marcus has all the credentials and experience one needs to be successful.

The recent flirtation that Massillon had with some folks who were trying to interest Massillon in helping out in getting a waterpark aqua marine business up and running seems to reveal an underlying panic on the part of Mayor Kathy to get something, anything going on the economic development front.

Panic?

Well, that's how The Report interpreted Canton mayor William J. Healy's remarks in a conversation with Canton's CEO on Tuesday afternoon.

The SCPR has been told by a number of sources that Healy has been one of Catazaro-Perry's mentors as she has endeavored to get a handle on being a government chief executive officer herself.

Healy says that he and North Canton mayor David Held have been mentoring the Massillon mayor, on and off, but that the relationship has tailed off recently.

In the conversation, Healy revealed that he thought that Catazaro-Perry's move to have the State of Ohio Auditor declare Massillon as being in fiscal emergency to be a brilliant move but too late in terms of her waiting until May, 2013 (nearly one and one-half years after her taking office) to push the matter with Ohio officials.

Too late?

Yes, too late if Catazaro-Perry was going to be able to successfully implant in Massillon voters' minds that the dire fiscal condition of was all the work of her predecessor and arch political enemy Frank Cicchinelli.

While he acknowledged that he was part of advising Mayor Catazaro-Perry to press for emergency stress designation and all that such entailed (i.e. the creation of the Massillon Financial Planning and Supervision Commission), he gave Held credit as being the primary proponent of the idea.

With her original economic development person Ted Herncane moving on to the Chamber of Commerce,  the mayor has been presented with an opportunity to get a fresh start in getting Massillon out of economic development stagnation.

Healy mused to The Report that he was asking himself whether or not he should telephone Catazaro-Perry as soon as news broke of her enchantment with the idea that the warterpark/aqua marine project in Massillon to tell her that he had had experience with the promoters and was not impressed with their plan for getting up and running in Canton.

But he didn't and, perhaps conequently, Massillon seemed to have been "played the fool," in treating, at least initially. the proposal as being a viable one.

With this background to work with,  Marcus has his hands full in bailing the Catazaro-Perry administration out in the financial/economic development decline of Massillon during her stewardship of Massillon government.

Marcus may well have the skills to pull off the seemingly impossible in a time frame that will help the mayor

If he is successful in the next 11 to 17 months (Catazaro-Perry faces a voter referendum on, perhaps, in the Democratic primary in May, 2015, and, for sure in the November general election), he will have performed a herculean act in redeeming the mayor from a self-created condition of being her "own worst enemy."

Now, the SCPR hears, her political enemies are already working to undermine the plan that she and council recently settled on.

The Report is told that a meeting was called to be held last night on the question of putting on the ballot a measure to undo council's voted reduction in the city income tax rate applied to those Massillonians working outside the city.

On May 5th, council unanimously passed an ordinance reducing to 75% of the current city income tax rate (1.8%) which out-of-town working Massillons are permitted to take on their Massillon Income Tax return as a credit against the 1.8% tax rate.

One has to suspect that any such talk, if it has substance, involves Stark County prosecutor and former Massillon law director John Ferrero.

Ferrero, through his long time confidant and chief legal counsel at the prosecutor's office; namely, John Kurtzman has appeared at Massillon council meetings arguing against Catazaro-Perry's insistence that any financial recovery plan include an income tax credit reduction.

So in addition to the mayor having been her "own worst enemy," she appears to be in for a new round of battling with "outside herself" enemies (on the tax reduction) and perhaps others on the issue on whether or not the city's base rate shall increase in November.

The odds of her and her administration surviving the next election diminish by the day.

Had she not self-inflicted her troubles, her and the city's future would be much brighter.

(VIDEO) OBJECT LESSON: MAYOR KATHY CATAZARO-PERRY SHOWS HOW TO KEEP HER DEPARTMENT HEADS ON A SHORT LEASH?

UPDATED AT 09:30 AM

VIDEO

A COMPOSITE OF

ADMINISTRATION/COUNCIL INTERACTION

WHICH PROVIDES A VIDEO RECORD

OF

THE

PRONOUNCED DIFFERENCES BETWEEN

THE ADMINISTRATION & COUNCIL

The SCPR has been hearing from the very first days of the Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry (KCP) administration that it appears that nearly everybody who works for the administration is on a "watch list" of sorts.

The Report's reading (between the lines) of The Massillon Independent's work (Massillon police chief's demotion clarified, Steven M. Grazier, June 26, 2013) seems to be a bit of hard evidence that the talk is not merely anti-Catazaro-Perry-political-chatter.

Also, the exchanges between interim Safety Director Jim Johnson and several members of Massillon City Council at Monday's work session is indication to yours truly that Johnson is on a mission to carry out "a command and control" on behalf of the mayor and her "kitchen cabinet" of close, close advisers (led by Massillon Clerk of Courts Johnnie A. Maier, Jr.)

THE INDEPENDENT PIECE

Former city Police Chief Keith Moser faced a series of allegations related to misconduct and failed communication days prior to being demoted to the rank of captain. But the Massillon mayor said those charges had nothing to do with a decision to remove him as chief.

Hmm?

"[H]ad nothing to do with a decision to remove him as chief."

Of course, no one can get inside the mind of the mayor, but her problem is convincing any reasonable minded person to believe her protestation.

It should be obvious to outsiders that the Catazaro-Perry administration and her adviser friends had made a determination (probably by the end of 2012; his appointment was on June 4, 2012) that "he was not a fit" for their requirement that anyone who works for the mayor must accustom themselves to "being on a short leash."

Once that determination had been made, all the administration monitors had to do was to sit and wait for things to start happening.

It is a truism that in any enterprise (private or public) events inevitably occur at random and provide fodder for foes of those in charge of the enterprise to jump on this thing or that thing in a second guessing fashion to show that the leadership is not up to effectively doing the job.

That, the SCPR believes, is what Keith Moser has been the victim of.

A key line in each of The Independent's revelation is:

• January 10, 2013 - the invoicing incident - "not producing results" from a safety director ordered investigation,
• March 18, 2013 - the patrol car crash incident - "not communicating both the traffic accident and injury to [interim Safety Director] Johnson and the mayor.'
• March 18, 2013 - the burglary in process incident - "not communicating the incident to Johnson in a timely manner."
• April 22, 2013 - the negligent discharge of a shotgun by a sergeant incident - "not communicating the incident to Johnson in a timely manner."

Moreover, the mayor wants to have it both ways.

She needed to rid herself of a suspect person in terms of his unfettered loyalty to her and her advisers, but she was smart enough to realize that Moser is a highly respected police officer both in and out of Massillon and that she needed to say nice things about him while giving him the heave-ho; to wit:  "the Massillon mayor said those charges had nothing to do with a decision to remove him as chief" (Grazier).

Also, there is the matter of internal police morale.

It is tricky business to play politics with whom is in and whom is out as police chief (Catazaro-Perry is now into her fourth chief), and maintain police morale.

Mayor Kathy has to be concerned that too much "politiking" with Massillon's police force will create a public perception that she is more concerned with her personal political security than she is with the safety of Masillonians.

So it is in her interest to have had "The Independent published reports" dis the police chief on the one hand, and then, on the other hand:  "for public consumption purposes," for her to say positive things about one deemed "not loyal enough" to the KCP administration to merit his continuing as chief.

The SCPR has reason to believe that Moser did look into the legal aspects of taking on the administration on the issue of his termination.

But given the fact that he was still on probation when he was let go, it is likely he concluded that it would be unavailing for him to challenge his dismissal.

The Moser situation is not the only one the mayor appears to have stuck her nose into.  There is the whole Rogers matter that is currently under litigation whereby Officer Rogers is challenging his denial of promotion to sergeant in the light of competitive civil service exams in favor of Officer Michael Maier (son of former Safety Director George T. Maier and nephew of Johnnie A. Maier, Jr.,).

As things now stand legally speaking, Rogers stands to gain promotion to sergeant.  The SCPR has been told and believes that the appeal of the Stark County Court of Common Pleas John Haas decision in favor of Rogers is being insisted upon by Catazaro-Perry and that Law Director Perry Stergios may not have his heart in it.

In the end, if Rogers prevails legally and becomes sergeant, it seems that the Catazaro-Perry administration in its actions have further complicated the inner workings of the Massillon Police Department and by implication may be playing with the safety of Massillonians.  And, of course, the doubling up of sergeants impacts the deficit fiscal situation (anywhere from $2.5 to $2.7 million) that Massillon faces for fiscal year 2013.

Some people may think that playing politics is like a parlor game in that who wins and who loses has no "real world" consequences.  

But such an analogy is not a healthy take on the significance of "playing politics" with governing the hoi pollio.

Real people, everyday people get hurt big time by political game playing and sometimes there is a spin off to the public that damages public interests.

At last Monday's work session, the SCPR believes that the mayor made a big show of having newly appointed interim chief Mike Peel relocate from the audience in general and come sit beside her as she took in the work session.

Such is very much the political persona of Kathy Catazaro-Perry.

As the following video shows, Monday's meeting exchange between interim Safety Director Jim Johnson and the mayor vis-a-vis council is clearly antagonistic.

An interesting aspect is how focused Catazaro-Perry is on defending the failure of former Safety Director (now interim [pending the outcome of litigation] Sheriff George T. Maier) is on defending Maier for his failure to fully understand the consequences of changing street lighting electric generation providers from Ohio Edison to American Electric Power.

The video.

As the SCPR has written before, the mayor shows that she is acutely aware of the public relations aspects of being mayor and tries to play to that aspect to the hilt.  

She seems to be very much into "pomp and circumstance" but very little into the discomfort of having to engage in political give and take with folks who see things differently than she and her party-esque (i.e. the Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. "party within a party" political machine) loyalist camp.

Nearly every politician that yours truly knows, displays tendencies to political paranoia.  By breed, politicians are suspicious of those who do not "bow and scrape" to them.

The Massillon Maier faction, in the opinion of the SCPR, is an epitome of the phenomenon.

And that is all well and good if kept in check and does not spill over over into public policy and the implementation of government.

However, the SCPR's assessment is that in the KCP administration the need for loyalty is not kept in check.

Unless the mayor has a "road to Damacus experience," Masillon is in for hard, hard times over the next two years.

It is looking more and more to the SCPR that the outcome of the November election for city council is not heading in the mayor's preferred direction.

So if anything, there is likely going to be more probing, more questioning and more rejections by council of proposals from the mayor's suite of offices.

The bottom line question that the mayor should be asking herself is this:

Do I care more about my personal political fortunes and having it my way or about the welfare of the citizens of Massillon?

MASSILLON COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER "GAVELS DOWN" MAYOR CATZARO-PERRY. SLAGLE SAVES THE MAYOR FROM THIRD DEFEAT ON INCOME TAX CREDIT ISSUE FOR THE TIME BEING?

It was interesting to hear Mayor Kathy Catzazro-Perry accuse Massillon City Council (at least her opponents on the issue of reducing Massillon income tax credit for Massillonians who pay taxes to other communities) of playing politics with the issue.

Well, as the SCPR sees it, the administration and councilmatic ally Larry Slagle (on the tax credit reduction issue) played a little game of their own last night.

At first it did not fit in The Report's thinking that Slagle voted "no" on a motion to suspend the rules on three readings so that the mayor could have an up or down vote for the third time.

NOTE:  Third time?

In a technical sense of an "up or down vote," there has only been one up or down vote [March, 2012; 8 against, 1 for].

The first time (late last year with the outgoing council) was not an actual vote on the merits of the question, but rather a refusal to put it on the agenda.  And, of course, last night was not an actual vote on the merits of the question, but merely a vote on whether or not to allow a vote at last night's proceedings.

But on reflection, it appears to The Report that what Slagle (the only councilperson to vote for the reduction back in March), was really doing was "saving the mayor's bacon."  For if an up or down vote had taken place last night, it was obvious that the issue was going down to defeat at least by a 5 to 3 margin with Chovan, Halter, Lewis, Manson and Peters voting (Cunningham - thought to be another no vote - was absent because she had been in a traffic accident earlier in the day).

Catazaro-Perry was fortunate to have the opportunity to avoid yet another humiliation.  Had Cunningham be able to attend, Slagle's move would have been unavailing as she undoubtedly wold have voted to suspend the rules and her vote would have provided the necessary seventh vote  to carry the day on the matter.

Here's a video of the actual vote.



If the mayor has made any headway since the March vote, it will in be in possibly picking up the votes of Scassa and Townsend to add to the Slagle vote.

If there ever is going to be a chance that Catazaro-Perry could convince council to vote in favor of the reduced income tax credit, she may have blown it last night as she came out with guns blazing (figuratively speaking, of course) in a Johnnie A. Maier, Jr-esque power move which appeared to be an effort to intimidate council into doing the will of the mayor.

In an earlier blog this year, the SCPR wrote about the mayor's propensity to keep digging a deeper hole for herself in her endeavor to solve Massillon's financial problems.

Apparently, she wants to keep digging.

Here is a video of a sharp exchange between the mayor, Councilman Manson and council president Glenn Gamber on her being out of order during the discussion on the tax reduction issue.



Auditor Jayne Ferrero (perceived by some not to be a big fan of the mayor) lined up with Catazaro-Perry in pleading with council to pass the ordinance.

Here is a video of her plea.



If the administration's assessment of a failure on the tax issue (or, alternatively, other adequate revenue raising measures) is correct, then Massillonians (according to Finance Director Ken Koher) can expect Ohio's auditor to declare Massillon to be in a fiscal emergency and send in a team of auditors to go over Massillon's budget with a fine toothed comb and start making cuts.

The meeting was jam-packed with dramatic moments.

• Councilman Slagle's question of Finance Director about Massillon's failure to collect all that is due it (about $350,000 as drawn out in questioning by Councilman Chovan) in delinquent and collectible income taxes,
• Councilman Townsend asking whether not council's approving the reduced tax credit would result in the re-hiring of the laid off safety forces (answer:  no, but may prevent future layoffs),
• Catazaro-Perry's assertion that there is no more room to cut Massillon's expenses be it street lighting or further layoffs,
• The vote last night was the most important vote of the year for council,
• Councilman Manson pitching his longstanding position that council place an increase in the city income tax rate from 1.8% to 2.0%,
• Councilman Manson in a back and forth with Finance Director Koher and Safety Director George Maier on the credibility of the numbers on the sufficiency of revenues (estimated to be $751,000) to solve Massillon's immediate financial quagmire,
• Councilman Lewis drawing out of the mayor her administration's plan to convince the Stark County auditor to allow Massillon to borrow against the projected revenues that an income tax credit would bring in so as to make the money available this year,
• The gaveling down of Catazaro-Perry and Manson (during Lewis's questioning) as a consequence of an argument ensuing as the mayor accused Councilman Manson of "not being serious" about his income tax hike proposal,
• Catazaro-Perry outline activities of the administration to increase Massillon's income tax base,
• Councilman Slagle:  "Madame Mayor what is your position on an income tax increase?" and the mayor shifting the subject to the reduced income tax credit (ultimately refusing to answer the question) despite Slagle's objection,
• Councilman Manson referring to Catazaro-Perry's bad decisions of the past (presumably referring to when she served on council herself for 8 years),

The Report has compiled a video of the highlights of the drama.