Massillon's Extraordinary Mayor for 19 Days, Spiritual Advisor to the Massillon Republican Party, King Francis the Petty, has been disinterested in the day to day operations of his soon to be former Kingdom for some time.
The City is broke. We haven't even been paying our bills for dispatching.
Dispatching.
The people who summon the ambulance to our house if a family member is having a heart attack, or the police when someone is trying to break into our home.
Dispatching.
Word on the street is that overtime is running rampant throughout a city unable to pay its bills.
Because no one is watching the store.
Nero is cheerfully fiddling as Rome burns.
And the Extraordinary One, by all accounts, is rarely coming to work.
Finances are so bankrupt that his Loyal Defender, Auditor Jayne Ferrero's plan to pay the city's delinquent dispatching bill is to dump it square on the head of Mayor Elect Kathy Catazaro Perry after she takes office..
"The arrangement is to pay $36,000 each month for the first three months of the year — that’s slightly below the city’s monthly bill for dispatching services — and then pay the outstanding balance when tax collections are received" (
The Independent, December 7, 2011).
"and then pay the outstanding balance when tax collections are received"
What this means in plain English is that the new administration must pay both the old 2011 dispatching bill as well as the new 2012 dispatching bill in 2012.
Two dispatching bills in one year for a city that is already flat broke.
All Jayne Ferrero did was relieve the Extraordinary One of the responsibility to deal with yet another shortfall before he leaves office.
But he doesn't care.
By his inaction on every critical issue facing the city, it has been apparant he has no interest in dealing with the problems he has created.
It appears his only interest is to leave as big a mess possible for his successor.
And on that front, he is doing yeoman's work.
It seems our beloved Mayor for 19 days is interested in but two things;
1.) Spending $205,764 for two new Dump Trucks for the city, and preventing the Mayor Elect from buying used vehicles for $181,764 dollars less.
2.) Killing the Mayor Elect's plan to hire a Finance Director to help her clean up the mess he created.
But he needs help.
In Frank Cicchinelli's recent role as the Massillon Republican Party Spiritual Advisor, he has taken a renewed interest in the Republican Party.
Unfortunately for him, the Republican candidates he supported in November got crushed, as the voters preferred electing Republicans who were, quite frankly, actual Republicans.
But our Mayor has work to do.
And only 19 days in which to do it.
Massillon's First Ward Council Seat has been vacant since about April, when the late Ron Mang first took ill, and was no longer able to attend meetings.
Ron Mang passed away in late October, days before the election.
Ron Mang had earlier chosen not to run again, and was not a candidate for the seat.
The Democrats could have appointed a replacement to serve in Mang's seat until the newly elected Councilperson, Republican Sarita Cunningham, took office on January 1st.
They chose not to.
“They’ve voted someone in,” (Stark County Democratic Chairman Randy) Gonzalez said of the electors. “We respect that. We’re just going to let that go until the new person takes office. It’s only like three weeks” (
The Independent, December 8, 2011).
"It's only like three weeks."
And then, out of the blue, there was a clamor to appoint Sarita Cunningham to the vacant seat before her term started on January 1.
Once the Democrats gave up their right to make an appointment, city council is then permitted to appoint if they so choose.
But there is only one council meeting left.
Why, all of a sudden, the critical need to appoint Sarita Cunningham to the Ward 1 council seat with just one meeting left in the year.
One meeting.
The seat had been essentially vacant since April when the late Ron Mang stopped attending meetings.
Only now was it a problem.
With just one meeting left.
The Dalai Lama was prepared to call a special council meeting to appoint Cunningham to the seat.
With one meeting left.
“I really think it’s important that the citizens of the 1st Ward have representation,” Cicchinelli, a Democrat, said Friday before canceling the meeting. “It’s the right thing to do” (
The Independent, December 10, 2011).
"The right thing to do"
Ward 1 has been without council representation essentially since April, and now Cicchinelli wants Sarita Cunningham in place for the last meeting because it is, we laughingly quote, "the right thing to do."
The real question goes to the heart of the matter.
What are Cicchinelli's true motives.
Because, they are not, "It's the right thing to do."
What does he want?
It is believed he wanted to appoint Cunningham because he was trolling for another council vote to add to his cadre of rubber stamps to kill Mayor Elect Catazaro-Perry's plan to hire a city Finance Director, or to kill Catazaro-Perry's plan to buy used trucks instead of new trucks for the city.
He doesn't care about council representation for Ward 1.
He needed a vote at the year's last council meeting so he could once more step on the neck of his successor.
Newsflash - Frank, you lost. Get over it.
Fortunately, Sarita Cunningham had the good sense to not be a pawn in Frank Cicchinelli's final political moves.
She was smart enough to realize that Cicchinelli didn't want to appoint her to because "it was the right thing to do."
She rejected his offer.
He wanted to use her to stop the agenda of his duly elected successor.
Which is why the prospects of a new majority on city council bring us hope.
And Sarita Cunningham, in rejecting our Extraordinary Mayor for 19 Days' offer to appoint her to council a meeting early, has shown us that the rubber stamp era is finally, thankfully, coming to an end.
Thank you, Sarita Cunningham, for seeing through this ruse and thinking for yourself.
It is a trait that our city council desperately requires.
