(VIDEOS) MASSILLON CITY COUNCILMAN CONTINUES TO CALL OUT "COWARDS" BEHIND A MASSILLON-BASED BLOG

UPDATED AT 10:50 AM

VIDEOS

COUNCILMAN SLAGLE'S

BRIEF STATEMENT

ON 

MASSILLON REVIEW

POLITICAL ATTACKS ON HIM

==========================

 COUNCILMAN SLAGLE'S

EXTENDED REMARKS

ON

MASSILLON REVIEW

POLITICAL ATTACKS ON HIM 

Since it resumed publication due to (if you believe them) "popular demand," a Massillon-based "anonymous" blog - the Massillon Review (MR) -  has undertaken a series of attacks on lame duck councilman-at-large Larry Slagle apparently for his work as chairman of the Massillon City Council Parks & Recreation Committee on reforming the structure of Massillon's Parks and Recreation Board.

Slagle favors giving the Parks and Recreation (three appointed by the Massillon administration; two appointed by the Massillon City Schools Board of Education) defined powers and thereby have a say in the running of Massillon's Parks and Recreation system.

Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry thinks that Massillon's parks and recreation operation should be under the direction of her administration.

In early July, the mayor made and impressive and perhaps persuasive case to a majority of council that her administration should have the authority and therefore the accountability of administering the city parks and recreation function.

I, for one, agree with the case she made.

But, of course, I have no vote on the matter.

It all falls on Massillon City Council.

The Report does not know whether or not she meant it, but in that council session (referred to above) she seemed amenable to working with council.

Success on getting control for the administration, I think, is having council trust her that she indeed will bend over backwards to "keep council in the loop."

One of the problems with KCP, her administration and those who support her (e.g. the Massillon Review et al) is that they appear to have a strong case of political paranoia and therefore look at anyone who from time to time disagrees with them as being "the enemy."

The vote on Slagle's "reform legislation" is likely to take place next Monday evening.

The SCPR thinks the vote will be close.  Ward 3 councilperson Andrea Scassa has already announced that she will be voting "no" on the Slagle offering.

The Report's sense is that other members of council are persuadable to let the administration take control.

That is where the SCPR thinks that the Massillon Review comes into play.

I have long held that if one wants to know what the administration's druthers are on any given issue, one needs to take a look at "the attack line" of the Massillon Review.

On this issue, as I believe on all issues Massillon, the MR in taking off on Slagle is showing full support for administration control and concomitant accountability.

So it is worth looking at the Slagle/MR feud in some depth.

It could be that the MR's political attack on Slagle will turn a close vote against the administration.

For instance, Nancy Halter (R - Ward 2) was sounding very much last night as if she was in favor of the mayor being in charge.

But given that she has been the subject of political attack by the Massillon Review; will she have it in her political graces to vote for the position?

Councilwoman Halter is a very powerful factor among the Republicans on council in a guidance sense as to how the Republican caucus might vote on any given issue.

So the SCPR thinks that maybe Catazaro-Perry's friends at the Massillon Review may have "out-smarted" themselves and be the reason that the Slagle legislation passes in a close vote.

Why would the Massillon Review take off after Halter?

It is widely believed that the Massillon Review has "a dog in that fight" for the Ward 2 seat.

And, of course, anything to diminish Halter so that the MR supported candidate wins, no?

Maybe, just maybe, the self-identified political geniuses at the MR aren't all that "politically" smart after all?

Here is a full rendition of Slagle's October 7th Public Speaks remarks:  (from the minutes of the meeting)

Alright, unfortunately in the past week I was advised of the fact that the troll site that has attacked me in the past is back up there doing it again.  I want to address that tonight. 

Because I think the cowards that run this site should come forth say who they are and quit hiding behind the anonymity that they get by not putting their names on this site. 

First of all, as a public official I’m fair game about things that are relevant to what’s occurring here. 

But we are all not professional politicians we all have our jobs and our outside life and our daily source of income.  The problem with the internet today is that when someone googles your name this shows up. 

Now these folks won’t come forward to tell me these things to my face I suspect I know who some of them are.  Because they are just cowards.  It’s easier to attack me that way. 

But I’m telling the public today I’m telling every client I’ve ever represented in the past and I’ll represent in the future there is nothing true about that website. 

It is nothing more than an attack site used by political gain and I take offense at anything that’s brought up on it. 

If that term was used by against other people in this chamber there’d be outrage. 

For some reason though they’re permitted to say that about me.  There’s no outrage. 

And I have taken on and the reason I say that is because my professional reputation is at stake. 

And when I’m called a boy or a boy wonder that affects my professional status in this community.  My professional status in this community is very valuable to me. 

For 35 years I’ve represented individuals never a company well rarely a company and I do it without being paid unless I am successful for them.  Because without me they could not stand up to either the insurance industry or in law firms of hundreds of lawyers. 

So to suggest for one minute that I do not have the gumption to stand up is an untruth and is not fair nor is it warranted. 

So I want these cowards to come forth. 

And if they won’t come forth on their own then I am today saying that I will donate $250.00 to a charity of the person’s choice who outs these trolls.  Because this kind of politics has to stop.  It is not American, its not democratic and its not right. 

And those people that go to that site some of whom I respect I would ask that they quit looking at it and quite using it. 

So that’s all I have to say. 

Thanks.

Here is a brief video capture of Slagle answering a Stark County Political Report question on the anonymous MR blog attack on him.



Somewhat amusing from the meeting itself was Ward 5 councilman's Donnie Peters statement when Slagle returned once again to the matter of the Massillon Review's political attacks on him: "I know.  We all hate the Massillon Review."

At the outset let it be said once again (as the SCPR has opinionated frequently in past blogs) that The Report believes Stark County Democratic Party political director Shane Jackson is the author of the MR.

Jackson is also the chief deputy clerk for Massillon clerk of courts Johnnie A. Maier, Jr.

He probably has been encouraged, if it turns out that he is the author of the Massillon Review,  in the blogging endeavor by Maier, Jr., who, in addition to being "the" Massillon clerk of courts is a former Stark County Democratic Party chairman.

In 1995, Massillonians saw fit to pass a .3% addition to the city income tax which currently brings in about $2.1 million to make sure that the city's parks (P&R) be kept in A-1 condition.

What seems to have happened is that the income set aside for parks and recreation has had the effect over-the-years since to make the operations of and funding of (i.e. the use of $2.1 millon, more or less) P&R to become politicized beyond what Massillonians voting for the original levy could have imagined.

As we all know, anything government is by definition political.

We talk about "keeping politics out" of things especially things like parks and recreation.  But to no avail.  Money like power draws the politicos in any community like "honey is to bees."

The "Slagle thing" is just the latest of many, many political battles fought over P&R going back into the 24 year reign of Francis H. Cicchinelli, Jr which ended in May, 2011 with his defeat at the hand of Perry Township import Kathy Catazaro-Perry (KCP) who some deem to be the political handmaiden of Massillon politicos Shane Jackson and Maier, Jr.

One of the prime campaign issues between Cicchinelli and KCP was Cicchinelli's alleged machinations with P&R funding to finance the operations of a cornerstone of his administration:  the construction of and the operation of a city-owned golfcourse known as The Legends.

Especially a sore point was the expansion of the original 18 holes into 27 in 1999.

Cicchinelli himself admits that the expansion was indeed a mistake.

It seems to the SCPR that the anonymous blog entitled the Massillon Review (MR) was started on November 21, 2010 in anticipation of the Democratic primary election.

And from the get-go, the MR was "hot and heavy" on the parks and recreation matter probably with "an eye forward" as the issue being one which catapult Catazaro-Perry into the mayor's chair.

For example, here is a quote from The Massillon Independent included in the December 31, 2010 edition of the MR:

Parks Czar Kenn Kaminski explaining that the parks aren't in horrible condition despite visual evidence to the contrary. It is only that critics of the parks system are "Anti-Cicchinelli" (The Independent, May 10, 2010).

Cicchinelli had to know what was coming.

And, he was not disappointed.

The folks at the MR went on a binge of attacking Cicchinelli the SCPR thinks on the pejorative-personal front (e.g. "Mayor for Life," and the like), on the political front, and for his decision making as Massillon's chief executive officer.

It seems as if the MR had an obsession with Cicchinelli and nearly every blog, if not every blog; since the beginning, has been filtered through the Frank Cicchinelli "are you for him or against him" litmus test.

Returning to the opening MR blog reference to former P&R director Kenn Kaminski which clearly indicates a MR disaffection.

Contrast the December 31 reference to Kaminski to an October 11, 2013 blog referencing a Kaminski letter seemingly supportive of Mayor Catazaro-Perry's version of his departing as Massillon's parks and recreation director as an example of the "filtering" that appears to be well-entrenched at the MR.

Apparently, one can go from "the outhouse" to the "manor house" in the writings of the MR depending on whether or not one is toeing "the party line."

I asked Slagle after last night's work session why he thought he fell in disfavor with the folks at the MR and he answered that really didn't know but though it was because he was not into (paraphrase) "toeing the party line."

In contrast to the MR, the Stark County Political Report has an identified author and has always had an identified author since the beginning of March 12, 2008.

Moreover, the SCPR provides ample opportunity for those about who The Report writes to respond.

Even Shane Jackson was afforded that basic fairness in The Report printing "word-for-word" his "had to be an embarrassing to himself" histrionic and hysterical attack on me.

I published his "over-the-top," "Martin Olson: you have gone over the line" obviously emotion laddened e-mail which he copied to quite a number of Stark County/Massillon public officials/public figures.

I know Shane pretty well, And I was not in the least surprised that he would write his "pretext-esque" e-mail.

He and Maier, Jr. are not used to having someone disagree with them and not engage in personal vitriol. 

I have in my possession an e-mail wherein Maier, Jr. tells the receiver that Martin Olson is crazy.

My response?

Crazy to Maier, Jr. - in his mind - is to disagree with him.

My take on him is that he is so much into political power that anyone who differs with him - in his mind - has to be crazy.

That is what people do who cannot keep a proper perspective on politics.

Apparently, the MR is not willing to let those I think it attacks under the anonymous Massillon Review to have the opportunity to defend themselves.

The Stark County Political Report is well-known as providing ample opportunity to those who are the subject of SCPR blogs to respond to the SCPR's opinionating.

My take on the MR blog is that it "cherry-picks" material which is thought to support the blog's "party line" and conveniently leaves out that which might lead to a different interpretation.

I have always read the MR because as a blogger myself I go to sources I think reveals the thinking of Stark's various political figures.

I have said quite a number of times that I think the MR is a public microphone on the political agenda and the political views of Shane Jackson, Johnnie A. Maier, Jr and those who make up the Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. faction of the Massillon (and, of course, Stark County) Democratic Party.

The importance of the Slagle response to the MR attacks on him is in his call for the author of the blog to "man up" and put a name to the blog's editorializing.

We can all speculate on who the author really is but that is exactly what the "believing" and "thinking" is - it is conjecture "pure and simple."

Nevertheless, it appears that area political observers are pretty much of the same mind as to who the anonymous blogger is.

So the SCPR joins Slagle in calling out the cowardice of the Massillon Review.

Dump the cowardice, man up!

By name, stand by your opinions!

Here is the promised video of the remainder of Councilman Slagle's comments on the MR last night.

(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!

MAYOR CATAZARO-PERRY HAS MASSILLON IN A TAIL-SPIN AND HEADING TO THE GROUND?

To the SCPR, Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry has Massillon into a tail-spin and heading towards running this one-proud city into the ground.

This seeming dive to the ground has to be excruciatingly painful to her predecessor; namely, Francis H. Cicchinelli, Jr. who spent 24 years as mayor prior to be deposed in the Democratic Primary of May, 2011.

With the announcement about a week ago that the mayor had asked for and received approval for a State of Ohio Auditor (SOA) audit of Massillon finances which is to begin in June, financial matters could not be more dire for the city.

A consequence of the audit could be a finding that Massillon qualifies as being in:

•  "fiscal emergency," or
•  "fiscal watch" status.

Under the former, Massillon in effect gets taken over by the State of Ohio whereas under the latter the city is placed in a closely monitored financial recovery structure designed to bring the city to solvency.

City Budget Director Ken Koher is projecting that in 2013 a budget deficit of 2.7 million.

Back in December, 2011 Catazaro-Perry (before she actually took office) had asked the SOA to do an audit and was rejected.

Before that she was in discussion with North Canton mayor David Held as to the nuts and bolts of doing an audit at city expense a la what North Canton did a number of years ago.

According to Held, after preliminary discussion on the topic, it simply evaporated.

Hmm?

All of which generates with the SCPR, this question.

Is there a more effective way to put Massillon in a bad light insofar as prospective economic development activities taking hold than to try to gin up a "have the State Ohio" intervene in what is in the opinion of the SCPR a political dispute within Massillon government as to how to solve the financial crisis?

So why is Massillon in such dire straits?

What are the politics of this situation?

The SCPR's assessment is because of the obvious loggerheads that exists between Mayor Catazaro-Perry and city council.

It all pretty much started with the mayor's first revenue enhancement proposal of reducing the city's income tax credit to Massillonians working out-of-town and paying income taxes to the workplace city.  Another part of her proposal included charging Massillonians an assessment for street lighting.

Her proposal has been rejected a number of times by council.  But nonetheless she hangs doggedly onto the proposal.

So much so that she sat on on the sidelines - in quiet opposition - of a council lead effort to increase the city's income tax by .3% (there having been no increases since 1977/78 except for a Parks and Recreation levy in 1995 for .3%).

Catzaro-Perry may be correct in saying that whether or not she was on board with the income tax increase would not have made a difference in the ultimate outcome.

But she may not be.

When Stark County was in a fiscal crisis in 2011, the county commissioners did an impressive thing in getting Stark Countians to approve a 0.5% sales tax increase.

A key difference between the Stark County effort and the Massillon effort is that Stark County's elected officials were all-out for the levy.  And, consequently, it passed by a surprising margin.

Any chance that Massillon had of passing the tax issue was lost when the mayor and her administration set a clear signal to Massillonians that it was okay for them to vote the levy down.

Seemingly, it has been one battle after another between Mayor Catazaro-Perry and council and some outside Massillon officialdom (i.e. Stark County Prosecutor John Ferrero, who is from Massillon and remains a powerful force in Massillon politics) from the day she took office.

The conflict is part and parcel of the infighting going on in the city among

• the Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. political machine (Maier is a former Democratic Party chairman and currently Massillon court of courts who the SCPR believes recruited Catazaro-Perry to run against Cicchinelli),
• the Frank Cicchinelli political forces, and
• the John Ferrero political camp,

Also, one must not forget the Republicans who control Massillon City Council.

While the SCPR does not believe that the Republicans oppose the mayor merely because she is a Democrat, it does seem that they do not share her philosophy of government.

And it needs to be pointed out that Democrats on council frequently join with the Republicans in opposition to Catazaro-Perry proposals.  Republican Donnie Peters, Jr. (not seeking re-election) sides with the mayor here and there.  He was one of three votes for the mayor on accepting a proposed deal.

 It appears to the SCPR that Catazaro-Perry and her political handlers (Maier/Shane Jackson [a Maier employee and political director of the Stark County Democratic Party] are adding fuel to the political fires burning in Massillon in what seems to be a two-pronged strategy designed to help her get re-elected in less than two years from now (assuming the Republicans cannot put up a viable candidate), to wit:

• blame her predecessor Frank Cicchinelli for nearly all that ails Massillon nowadays, and
• to the extent that she cannot blame him, attribute her lack of success to an obstinate Massillon City Council

The current manifestation of internal political problems is the Hampton Hotel financing deal.

And there can be no doubt that it was a bad deal from the get-go as was the Cicchinelli administration's promotion of adding nine holes to The Legends golf course/restaurant complex.  Cicchinelli himself admits that the addition was a mistake.

As the SCPR sees it, Massillon stands to lose either $3.4 million (accepting the Hampton Hotel proposed buy-out) or $4.6 million, if not accepted.

Consistent with a seemingly blooming Catazaro-Perry attitude (i.e. "my way or the highway" as demonstrated on her reduced income tax credit proposal), after being rejected on the Hampton Hotel Buyout proposal a week ago in a special council session, she was back at trying to get council to re-consider its rejection as last night's meeting.

This time around Economic Development Director Ted Herncane was the vehicle of her persistence.

Additionally, there is the ongoing squabble between the Massillon city administration (whether Catazaro-Perry or predecessor Frank Cicchinelli) and the Parks and Recreation Board as to who is going to control matters on the board:  the administration (through its three appointees) or is the board to be its own entity making independent decisions?

It is hard to tell which city in Stark County is the most politically polarized between Canton and Massillon.  Whereas the competition on the football field is just a "good old rivalry," the political dysfunction measure is not for the cities themselves and certainly not for Stark County as a whole.

For right now, it appears to the SCPR that Massillon may be winning the political/governmental dysfunction inasmuch as Tigerland (as personified by Mayor Catazaro-Perry) seems hellbent on being in a tailspin that just might lead to a crash landing.

And, pray tell, exactly who will benefit from that?

IS NEW MASSILLON MAYOR KATHY CATAZARO-PERRY BECOMING STARK COUNTY'S "FLIP-FLOPPER-IN-CHIEF?"

It is easy for public officials to criticize those who have leadership responsibilities, but when those same officials have to govern it is amazing how often they end up doing what they criticized.

It is becoming more and more apparent that former Massillon Ward 3 Councilwoman Kathy Catazaro-Perry (now Mayor Kathy) is well on her way to adopting a number of the practices (she criticized) of former Mayor Francis H. Cicchinelli, Jr. whom she defeated in the 2011 Democratic Party primary.

One of her main critiques of Cicchinelli was his seemingly annual practice of underfunding police and fire salaries; a criticism, by the way, that the SCPR agreed with her on.

So what does she do in her first budget?

Under-funds police and fire salaries.

Hmm?

Another criticism Catazaro-Perry made as councilwoman was the Cicchinelli administration's practice (as loan guarantor) of paying the mortgage on the Hampton Inn in the form of taking some of Massillon's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) monies off the top of those funds.

In fact, she voted against some CDBG budgets because of the inclusion of the mortgage payment.  Moreover, she made a big to-do campaign issue over the the matter.

So what does she do in her first budget?

Includes $127,000 to do guess what?

Yes, pay the Hampton Inn mortgage payment.

Not all of Catazaro-Perry's flip-flopping was in the context of adopting practices of the Cicchinelli administration that she had previously criticized.

Some of it was her flip-flopping on herself.

Before she had the responsibilities of being mayor, she appeared to be against any tax increases in Massillon to meet the shortfall between revenues and expenses.  Some of her nearest and dearest supporters (thought by the SCPR to be exemplified by Shane Jackson [in the guise of being an anonymous blogger, The Report thinks]) roundly criticized former Massillon Councilman David Hersher as being "the taxman."

In an interesting twist, the then mayor elect in December of 2011 was all set to support an council proposed (opposed by Cicchinelli, so he tells the SCPR) reduction in the city income tax credit to those Massillonians who paid taxes to other villages/municipalities when one of those who signed off on the legislation (Hersher) said he had not meant to do so.

Immediately, Catazaro-Perry (and two of her supporters on council - Townsend and Anderson) flip-flopped on the matter reversing course and abandoned support for the measure.

Intertesing twist?

Yes, if not ironic.

The Report figures that it dawned on Hersher that there was a political game going on in which he was going to be assigned the role of pushing for the tax increase (after all he is, according to the anonymous [?] blogger the "taxman") in order to deflect from the role of the mayor-elect and her supporters in providing the necessary votes to pass the increase.

And he was having none of it!

So it could be that Catzaro-Perry et al got "hoisted by their own petard."

After she took office, it was very interesting indeed to watch Councilman Tony Townsend to jump ship completely (because, he said, of a strong reaction from his constituents) and vote against his friend and mayor.

In a story by Massillon Independent reporter Matt Rink (100 days in office for Catazaro-Perry, April 8th), he cites the mayor has having said:  "My biggest concern during the campaign was [Massillon government] being financially stable."

Well, the SCPR does not see all the flip-flopping going on with her and her administration as promoting financial stability.

The Report agrees with Mayor Kathy that it is not a good idea to under-fund police and fire salaries.

But she did it anyway in her recently passed budget.

Moreover, it is not a good idea to include in the budget monies speculated to the tune of about $400,000 to be forthcoming from oil and gas leases of city owned property.

Before including the $400,000, wouldn't it have been a good idea to absolutely determine that the city owned the lease rights in the first place?

So in addition to flip-flopping we have an administration that "counts its chickens before the eggs have hatched."

Some kind of financial stability that Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry has going on in Massillon, no?