The Mayor's Loyal Defender, City Auditor Jayne Ferrero, while faithfully defending her political master, Massillon's Extraordinary Mayor for 39 Days, King Francis the Petty, may be just a little concerned that the city can't pay it's bills.
Literally, can't pay it's bills.
One of the outstanding bills unpaid, according to the Independent, is a $180,000 dollar bill for police and fire dispatching owed to the Regional Emergency Dispatch Center.
Word on the street is that the City is so far behind in paying for dispatching services that the Dispatch Center is about to pull the plug on Massillon's dispatching.
Dispatching.
The people who are supposed to answer the phone when we call 911.
In case a family member is having a heart attack, or your house is on fire.
Dispatching.
We can't pay for dispatching.
We challenge our faithful readers to find another city in Ohio so broke, and so mismanaged they can't pay for dispatching.
And our Mayor for 39 Days' solution?
To do nothing.
Emperor Nero is busy fiddling while Rome burns. Of course as Rome Burns, no one will be able to call the fire department.
Cicchinelli's plan, his only remaining goal, is to leave as big a mess as humanly possible for his successor.
Ever the petulant child who doesn't get his way, Cicchinelli appears more interested in punishing the voters for electing someone else.
And as we all suspected, his minions are faithful to the bitter end.
Auditor Ferrero's plan was to reduce the city's tax credit to 50%.
Massillon has a 1.8% income tax. If you live in Massillon, and work in Canton, which has a 2% income tax, you pay 2% to Canton and nothing to Massillon, where you live.
Under Ferrero's plan, you would pay half the 1.8% to Massillon instead of paying nothing to the city where you live.
Ferrero estimated this would generate about $1.5 million dollars.
Much less than the amount of unpaid bills we owe, but a start.
Lap Dog of the Treasury Paul Manson, and Taxman David Hersher, both members of the finance committee, signed the ordinance to put Ferrero's plan on Council's agenda.
Until they had an Extraordinary change of mind.
Especially in Hersher's case.
"If I signed it, and apparently I did, it was in error," Hersher said. "It was a mistake. There's no shenanigans on my part" (The Independent, November 22, 2011).
Nope, "no shenanigans" on Hersher's part.
In the immortal words of John Kerry, Hersher was "For it before he was against it."
Of course it was a mistake.
And we believe him.
It happens all the time when someone accidentally puts their name to a city ordinance reducing the city's tax credit.
An accident.
An error.
The more cynical among us might believe the Taxman changed his mind because someone told him to change his mind.
Hersher, also in his last 39 days in office, seems to believe it is more critical to support our Extraordinary Mayor than to pay the bills.
Bills like dispatching.
He and Paul Manson are more interested in helping Mayor Frank Cicchinelli achieve his final goal as Mayor of Massillon.
Leave the biggest mess possible for his successor.
And they are doing a fine job!
