Say It Ain't So, Mayor. Say It Ain't So.

According to the Independent, Massillon's Mayor for Life may not be heading over to City Council Monday night to make his big pitch as to why council should support his proposed annexation of the Tuslaw Local Schools.

Cicchinelli may opt to hold a press conference instead. "When asked if his plans have changed, or may change, Cicchinelli refused to comment..." (The Independent, September 22, 2010).

Is it possible that our Mayor for Life does not have the votes to push this annexation through council? Might some of his heretofore loyal rubber stamps be exercising a smidgen of independence? Will he pull his proposal so that he is not embarrassed by council actually voting it down?

He went too far

Many folks have speculated our that our Mayor for Life went too far by utilizing a loophole in state law to annex an entire school system from a neighboring community. All Cicchinelli saw was the $120,000 in city income tax he could harvest from Tuslaw's teachers to help plug the massive hole in his budget. He never suspected the overwhelming opposition to his scheme from the Tuslaw community, as well as from many of his own constituents.

The Tuslaw community immediately went to work to drum up popular support, pressure the Massillon City Council, and aggressively oppose this annexation. What the mayor failed to realize is that a school system is the heart of a community, and he was trying to rob Peter to Pay Paul to help solve his own budget mess. Imagine how loyal Massillonians would react if Jackson Township tried to annex Washington High School and Paul Brown Tiger stadium. He didn't realize the hornet's nest he stirred up in Tuslaw.

Our Mayor for Life has never really had organized opposition to his policies. Pay the mortgage for a private hotel. No opposition. Hijack the park tax money to subsidize a failing golf course. No opposition. Spend a million dollars on an arena that was never built. No opposition. Our Mayor for Life has never really been challenged. It must have been a new experience for him.

While we believe that the council rubber stamps wanted to keep our mayor happy, and support his annexation, the citizen pressure may have been too much for city council to follow our mayor over the cliff on this vote.

Who's to blame?

If he does pull his proposal, and that's a big 'if,' and if he does hold a press conference to announce his retreat, we wonder who he will blame. Massillon's Mayor for Life isn't a big subscriber to the philosophy of the buck stopping here. Who will he blame? City Council? The residents of Tuslaw? The local newspaper? He certainly won't blame himself for overreaching.

Mayor, you tried to annex an entire neighboring school system. Think about it. You overreached.