Where's Frank?

Massillon's Mayor for 185 days has never been one to let the buck stop at his desk.

A Target store moves into town, and he's there to take credit for the jobs created.

But when the city is short financially because of the deals he made, or the employee contracts he negotiated, it's not his problem.

Once again, the City of Massillon has embarked on it's annual 'Summer Financial Crisis.'

The city is once again over 2 million dollars short in it's budget, and it appears the mayor has abdicated his throne.

Massillon City Auditor Jayne Ferrero and City Council Finance Chair Paul Manson want to raise the city's income tax .2% to cover the shortfall.


Here's the funny part.

The voters of Massillon will have the final say.

Even if city council votes it through, the income tax increase is still subject to a vote of the people (that's us) in November. We can't imagine it being successful.

After seeing our tax dollars spent on the mortgage for a private hotel, the debt for the ill conceived expansion at the Legends Golf Course, and pay raises for the city's unions and elected officials, we don't believe the people will be willing to fork over any more money to city government.

And what does Mayor Frank Cicchinelli say about this proposal? After all, he is the leader of the city.

Absolutely nothing.

Raising taxes is politically unpopular and we have already heard that Cicchinelli is plotting a comeback in four years. After all, the term 'Mayor for Life' means just that, mayor for life.

We assume Cicchinelli is all for the tax increase, or else his loyalists, Auditor Jayne Ferrero and Councilman Manson would not have proposed it. They don't do anything without the big guy's blessing.

He just can't be held responsible.

And yes, he is coming back. (More on that later this week).

So, does the tax increase have the necessary five votes from council?

Absolutely.

Despite his protestations to the contrary, Taxman Dave Hersher loves taxes.

"Councilman Dave Hersher said Monday he had not ruled out the idea, but would oppose it at this point without more information" (The Independent, June 29, 2011).

"he had not ruled out the idea"

We bet he hasn't.

Ron Mang, who is retiring after this year, will be joined by David McCune in the rubber stamp bloc of Manson, Hersher, Mang and McCune.

One more vote to get.

Donnie Peters says no.

Larry Slagle will say yes.

Slagle, who brokered the budget compromise between council and the mayor earlier this year, will feel compelled to do something, anything.

He will vote yes.

The voters of Massillon will crush this tax hike proposal.

And Frank Cicchinelli, the man still drawing a paycheck as mayor, the alleged leader of the city, will be nowhere to be found.

Not his problem.

Raising taxes to cover up his mess is council's job, not his.

And the buck stops with Jayne Ferrero and Paul Manson, not with the mayor.

It never has, and it never will.

Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

"Better to remain silent and thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
- Mark Twain

Richard Goodright, assistant superintendent of the Wooster school system, was announced as Massillon's new school superintendent today.

We wish Mr. Goodright well.

Richard Goodwright will be the fifth superintendent of the Massillon City School system since 2008.

Fred Blosser
Chris DiLoretto
John McGrath
and Lisa Carmichael have preceded him.

The school board knew who it would appoint on Thursday, but made the public announcement at a special session of the board of education today.

School Board President Weinberg offered his insight into why Goodright was eventually chosen.

Was it academics?
School finance?
Improving our rating on the state report card?

Try none of the above.

"He said the new superintendent is familiar with the Massillon City School District, its traditions and culture, including its high-profile football program."

"He understands football, and not just the game, but its role in driving education with our study tables, with character development," Weinberg said. "He believes it's one of the assets we should market loudly" (The Independent, June 24, 2011).

"He understands football..."

This quote provides us with a clear, unobstructed view into the mind of Marshall Weinberg.

It's not about academics, college readiness, and providing our kids with the education necessary to compete in a global economy.

It's about football.

When asked by our local paper about the man he wanted to hire, Weinberg immediately starts talking about football.

Listen, we realized a long time ago that Weinberg's primary interest in the school system related to his interest in helping the "friends of the program" football boosters reassert control over "their" team.

Just don't say it out loud, because then we are compelled to listen.

You have put Mr. Goodright in a box.

You just made his job harder.

Now people are left guessing whether or not our new superintendent made some implicit deal with the friends of the program, in what many will assume to be an off the record, side conversation with "whoever," to secure his hiring.

We would now like to congratulate Head Football Coach Jason Hall on his soon to be made public hiring as athletic director.

Congratulations.

Most people realized that the next superintendent would have to "play ball" with the friends of the program in order to be hired.

Lisa Carmichael didn't, and this is why she is gone.

We want the new guy to succeed.

Marshall didn't have to put what we suspected out on Main Street.

We are now forced to look at the elephant in the room, and can only be left wondering which assistant football coach will be assistant athletic director.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Tax Time

Massillon Councilman Paul Manson is planning to ask his colleagues on city council to raise the city's income tax rate. Any increase in the city's 1.8% income tax rate has to be approved by city voters.

Manson is suggesting this issue be placed, by city council, on the November ballot.

"It's something that's absolutely necessary to discuss," he said (The Independent, June 22, 2011).

While we don't think the voters will approve Manson's tax plan, it is his first contribution to the discussion of the city's precarious financial condition in a very long time.

During the city's budget debate earlier this year, Manson, as city council finance chairman, added nothing to the discussion, except parroting the line that city council needed to approve the mayor's unbalanced budget exactly as submitted.

We are now left believing that Mayor Frank Cicchinelli wants the income tax rate increased, but in the buck stops some where else world of our soon to be departing mayor, he wants someone else to propose it.

Enter Paul Manson.

We assume Manson and the mayor can get city council to approve this plan.

They would need just five votes.

The rubber stamp block of Ron Mang, David McCune, and the Taxman, Dave Hersher, would surely support Manson's plan. They only need to pick up one more vote.

Usually Larry Slagle, or Donnie Peters is the swing vote on council.

They only need one.

 Placing the tax increase on the ballot is only half the battle.

Getting the voters to support it is an entirely different matter.

The last time the city's income tax was increased by a vote of the people was 1995.

We voted to raise the income tax by .3%, with the money supposedly earmarked for parks and recreation, and a promise that our tax money would not be used to subsidize the city's golf course.

How did that work out?

Save us, Marshall!

"Call him bold, and independent. Call him fearless or stubborn or even self-righteous. Call him a hero, a villain, a leader or follower" (The Independent, June 17, 2011).

We choose hero.

"If serving as a board member or even as board president means making more enemies than friends he's more than happy to do it, he said. Just as long as he knows he's doing what's best for kids" (The Independent, June 17, 2011).

Because as we all know, with Marshall, it's all about the kids.

Portraying himself as a larger than life comic book superhero come to life in a recent newspaper profile regarding his controversial term on the Massillon Board of Education, School Board President Marshall "Lightning Rod" Weinberg valiantly and courageously stands up for the children of the Massillon School district, sometimes standing alone as a pillar of integrity against those people too ignorant to see his vision for a better school system.

"Am I a little frustrated that people won't stand up and get my back a little more? Sure," Weinberg said.

"But I gave my word as to what I was going to do, and I don't care what the haters say. I am going to be honorable in my actions and continue to raise the level of education in the Massillon City Schools in a fiscally responsible way" (The Independent, June 17, 2011).

Displaying a level of paranoia reminiscent of Massillon's Mayor for 195 days, the Extraordinary One, King Francis the defeated, Weinberg refers those who oppose his vision for the school district as "haters."

Haters.

Of Course.

Anyone who doesn't want the Head Football Coach to also serve as Athletic Director must be a "hater."

Anyone who doesn't see the wisdom of personally driving superintendent after superintendent out of the district must be a hater.

And any fool who doesn't understand that "Recent issues, including an assistant coach and booster club member growing and selling marijuana, could have been avoided, Weinberg said, if the football coach could report directly to the superintendent" (The Independent, March 30, 2010).

Yes, we have a hero fighting for truth, justice, and the Massillon way.

And he always does what is right, because it is right.

Always.

Sometimes we are just too stupid to appreciate his wisdom.

We forgot to add one final characteristic of any good superhero that Marshall Weinberg possesses in abundance.

Humility.

"I guarantee intelligent, educated and trained people in the room connect to me," Weinberg said. (The Independent, June 17, 2011).

Our school district is in good hands.

Heroic hands.

We Need a Hero

In a school district without a superintendent,

without a high school principal,

without an athletic director,

and without a head basketball coach.

In a school district where the DREAM has died,

where a booster club member and volunteer football coach were caught growing marijuana on an industrial scale because the head football coach could not report directly to the superintendent,

where decisions were not made out of strength,

a city is desperate for a hero.

When all seemed lost, it happened,

like a bolt of lightening from the sky.

We found our hero.

Out of the darkness... comes the Knight

Where do we begin?

The night is darkest just before the dawn.

The dawn is coming.

Every city needs a hero.

"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

No Pizza and Pop

The Independent newspaper has listed the now seven finalists for Massillon Schools Superintendent;

Richard D. Goodright, assistant superintendent of Wooster City Schools
Paul A. Hickman, superintendent of Buckeye JVSD
Mark O. North, superintendent of Lebanon City Schools
Matthew Plybon, Whittier Elementary principal
Andy Riggle, assistant superintendent of Bellaire Local Schools
Philip H. Wagner, assistant superintendent of Beachwood City schools
Francis Scruci, superintendent of Wellington Exempted Village schools

According to extremely reliable sources, this finalist list does NOT include the two people who were invited to Marhsall Weinberg's secret interview, that Marshall complained was "misrepresented as secretive," even though Weinberg admitted the community and the media were not told of the meeting.

The two guys who were supposed to come for pizza and pop didn't make the finalists list.

Apparently, they didn't even apply.

They were smart enough to know not to apply.

Which probably made them good candidates for the job.

It's Summertime!

Picnics, graduations, baseball and vacations. It's Summer in Massillon!

And what does Summer in Massillon mean?

Summer, as we all know, means that it is time for the City of Massillon's Annual Financial Crisis!

For those unfamiliar with this annual Summer ritual, here is how it works.

Massillon's Mayor for 207 days, Frank Cicchinelli, submits a budget that is unbalanced. To make the math work, so that expenditures do not exceed revenue, the mayor shorts the salary accounts for city employees, most notably the police and fire fighters. He doesn't budget for things like police and fire overtime, hoping that there won't be any crime or fires on off hours.

In June, the City's Auditor, Jayne Ferrero, announces that the city is (pick a number between one and three million) dollars short.

The mayor is "shocked" by this announcement, and demands that the auditor recommend spending cuts, and that city council finds new "revenue streams" (that's government speak for higher taxes). The mayor acts like this is every one's problem but his own, and seems to forget he submitted the unbalanced budget in the first place.

City council this year, well, at least some of them, trimmed the expenditures on the budget our Mayor for Six and Three Quarters Months submitted. He fought these cuts kicking and screaming, but they still were not enough to truly balance the budget.

We anxiously wait for Auditor Ferrero's pronouncement of the annual financial crisis. It is June, and it is time for this rite of Summer.

We even have it marked on our Massillon Review calendar.

June - Annual Financial Crisis.

The Parks are Fine

Massillon tax payers owe almost $10 million dollars on interest and principal payments for the Legends of Massillon Golf Course.

The Golf Course is under the auspices of the 'Independent' Parks and Recreation Board because when the course was expanded from 18 to 27 holes, the debt load for the expansion coupled with the original debt was too much for the city's general fund to handle.

Massillon's Mayor for Seven Months, Frank Cicchinelli, pitched the idea of merging the golf course with the parks department in 2002. This was his plan for "streamlining" city government.

The truth is he wanted to unload the golf course debt on the parks department, and use the .3% voter approved income tax to subsidize this debt ridden white elephant.

The voters, who approved the .3% income tax for parks and recreation were shown a master parks plan which their .3% income tax would pay for.

The golf course was never part of the plan.

The golf course debt is now subsidized by the parks income tax.

Our parks are a mess.

Go look for yourself.

The Chester and Florence Campbell Walking Track, the 'rubberized' walking path at Reservoir Park, funded by the former Doctor's Hospital Service League, was left to deteriorate.

Instead of repairing this gift to the community, Parks Czar, and mayoral lackey Kenn Kaminski stripped the remaining rubber off the asphalt where it was in most need of repair.

Just stripped it.

The dam at Reservoir park is in serious disrepair. This isn't our opinion, but the opinion of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, who gave the dam a first-class hazard rating, meaning that it poses a risk of "probable loss of life."

'Landscaping,' a term we use loosely, at the parks means that maybe the grass gets cut every couple of weeks.

Equipment is in disrepair.

Contrary to what the Mayor for Seven months is still preaching, the parks are still a mess.

"Yet others, including Cicchinelli, reject the idea that the parks are in bad shape" (The Independent, June 1, 2011).

He rejects the idea.

Is he blind?

We have concluded he is deaf, at least politically deaf, because if he would have opened his eyes and dealt with the disaster that is the Massillon parks system, he may yet be mayor.

The debt on the golf course will not be paid off until 2031.

The payment due for this year is $524,000 dollars.

The parks are still a mess.

The parks department is subsidizing the golf course debt to the tune of $174,000 dollars this year.

The parks department also paid an additional $50,000 dollars to finish purchasing the restaurant at the golf course, Club Legends.

$224,000 dollars that could have been used for park maintenance.

But we don't have to worry.

Because the parks are fine.

Word on the Street

Word on the street is that when Superintendent Lisa Carmichael leaves at the end of June, former Massillon Schools Superintendent Al Paris will be appointed as interim Super.

Word on the street is also that when Head Football Coach Jason Hall is appointed as athletic director, there will be two assistant athletic directors hired, not just one.

So much for the cash surplus in the athletic department.