It's How You See Yourself

The elected officials of the City of Massillon; the mayor, auditor, law director, treasurer, council president, and members of council receive an annual, unvoted pay raise every year.

 This practice started in 1995, when city council passed, and our former mayor for life signed, an ordinance granting these elected officials an automatic, unvoted pay raise every year.

This year, while our elected officials plan on freezing the pay and cutting the benefits for the city's worker bees, those in charge are taking a 3.55% pay hike for themselves.

The city is swimming in a "vat of red ink," created by former Mayor Frank Cicchinelli, and exacerbated by his loyal foot soldier, Auditor Marie Antoinette Ferrero.

But the "dollars are there" for city elected officials to get a raise.

Back in 2009, when now mayor, but then Councilwoman, Kathy Catazaro-Perry, proposed repealing the automatic, unvoted, pay raise for life ordinance, she ran into fierce opposition.

Including opposition from Fifth Ward Republican Donnie Peters.

 Council President Glenn Gamber, former Mayor Cicchinelli's Loyal Enforcer, would not even permit the city council to vote on repealing the pay raises.

 Gamber asked for an informal 'show of hands,' so that those who wanted to keep their pay raises wouldn't have to make an uncomfortable public vote on the record.

 " (Paul) Manson and members Ron Mang, Donnie Peters, David McCune, David Hersher and Larry Slagle said they will not vote to repeal the ordinance" (The Independent, October 27, 2009).
But they deserve money.

Just ask Donnie Peters.

2009's Donnie Peters.

"Peters said council is underpaid and that he wants to keep the (pay raise) ordinance in place “When (another council member) comes in in a few years when things are better and says we should start getting our raises back, he’s going to be the bad guy,” Peters noted. “They’ve already taken the politics out of it. It’s done. I can’t see rescinding the ordinance” (The Independent, October 27, 2009).

"They've already taken the politics out of it. It's done."

Let's hold that thought.

And check in with Donnie Peters V2.0.

“I’m going to try to repeal it (the pay raise ordinance),” said Peters, the ranking Republican and Council president pro tem. “Everyone says it doesn’t make it (pay-raise issue) political. Well, make it political” (The Independent, January 27, 2012).

"Well, make it political."

So much for ""They've already taken the politics out of it. It's done."

Apparently, it's not "done."

Apparently, It's time to "make it political."

From the councilman who was for the pay raise, before he was against it.

Why the change of heart for Councilman Donnie Peters?

Perhaps it's all about how he sees himself.

We are Family

"In addition to criminal and civil court cases, (John) Ferrero noted the Prosecutor’s Office also provides legal representation to townships, small school districts and various county departments, including the Engineer’s Office and the Coroner’s Office."

“We’ve got to protect our clients,” he said. “I can’t sleep at night thinking about that scenario (cuts). How did a proud county come to this? It’s a situation that’s going to be a nightmare” (The Independent, October 29, 2011).

Stark County Prosecutor John Ferrero was a busy man last fall.

He was busy campaigning to raise the county sales tax.

He couldn't "sleep at night" thinking about how his office would run without a tax increase.

But Ferrero wasn't the only one in his office pitching an increase in the county sales tax.

"John L. Kurtzman, chief counsel for the Stark County Prosecutor’s Office, told (Tuscarawas Township) trustees that Sheriff Timothy Swanson will hire back deputies if the tax passes and that some would be assigned to road patrol."

"Kurtzman, like many other county officials, encouraged trustees to pass a resolution of support. He highlighted several points regarding the tax, including that 30 percent of it will be paid by visitors to the county. The tax issue will appear as Issue 29 on the ballot" (The Independent, October 12, 2011).

Stark County Prosecutor John Ferrero, and his Chief Counsel, John Kurtzman, are both Massillonians.

They live in town with the rest of us.

And they were both campaigning for the passage of a county sales tax.

Which provides funding to the government office where they work.

John Ferrero was the former Massillon Law Director before becoming city prosecutor.

John Ferrero and John Kurtzman were also well known loyal aides de camp for our beloved former mayor for life, and chief architects of the Cicchinelli regime.

And in October last year they were pushing a tax.

For Stark County.

Because the Prosecutor's office where they work needed the money.

But they don't like all taxes.

Now, as John Ferrero and John Kurtzman live in Massillon, but work in Canton, they pay a 2% income tax to the City of Canton, where they work, and a 0% income tax to the City of Massillon, where they live.

Prosecutor Ferrero's sister in law, Massillon City Auditor Jayne Ferrero, was going to change all that.

Because she was a woman with a plan.

A plan to reduce Massillon's 100% income tax credit to 50%, meaning that if you worked in another city and paid their income tax, you would still have to pay something to Massillon, the city where you live.

In this case you would pay .9%, or half of Massillon's 1.8%.

Auditor Ferrero estimated her plan would raise $1.5 million dollars for cash strapped Massillon.

She could then pay the city's delinquent bills. Bills like dispatching, asphalt, gas for the police cruisers, and road salt for winter driving.

Auditor Jayne Ferrero probably couldn't "sleep at night" worrying about all the delinquent bills her beloved former mayor racked up on the city's proverbial credit card.

Her brother in law, Prosecutor John Ferrero, thought this to be a bad idea.

So bad, he and his Chief Counsel, John Kurtzman, came to the November 21st Massillon City Council meeting where the tax credit reduction plan was to be discussed.

And, according to numerous Massillon Review sources and faithful readers, they were opposed to the reduction of the tax credit.

And threatened to organize a repeal of the tax credit reduction if council passed it.

Because it was such a bad idea.

Perhaps it was a bad idea because Prosecutor Ferrero and Chief Counsel Kurtzman, who pay 0% (that's zero with a "z") income tax to the city of Massillon from their county wages, don't want to pay any Massillon income tax.

They did, however, want the rest of us to pay more sales tax to fund things like the Stark County Prosecutor's office, where they both work.

And ever since, coincidentally, Auditor Ferrero hasn't mentioned her once good idea.

And didn't even attend the November 21st council meeting to defend her plan.

Where former councilman David Hersher "forgot" he signed the ordinance to bring the tax credit reduction out of the finance committee and up for a vote, claiming he signed it as an accident, and then removing his signature, while claiming there were no 'Shenanigans.'

Oh, one thing we probably all can be sure of.

There will always be plenty of shenanigans.

There's Been a Change of Heart

Back when Frank Cicchinelli was still mayor, and Auditor Jayne Ferrero actually cared about the financial health of the city, in the days before she abdicated her civic responsibilities to properly oversee our dollars, and decided her priority should be to wreak havoc on city government in some bizarre attempt to assist her beloved former mayor achieve political vengeance on the backs of our police, firefighters, and essential city services, she was a woman with a plan.

She suggested that the City of Massillon reduce its tax credit for residents who live here in town, but work in another city.

Auditor Ferrero's plan was to reduce the city's tax credit to 50%.

Massillon has a 1.8% income tax. Currently, 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.

Because Massillon has a 100% tax credit.

Which, according to one of our faithful readers, is unusual for a city.

For example;

If you are, say, hypothetically speaking, Auditor Jayne Ferrero's brother in law, Stark County Prosecutor John Ferrero, you receive a salary of $115,703 dollars per year.

You pay $2,314 dollars of income tax to the City of Canton, where you work.

You pay $0 dollars (that's zero with a "z") in income tax to the City of Massillon, where you live.

Under Jayne Ferrero's plan, if you work in another city with an income tax, you would pay half the 1.8% to Massillon instead of paying nothing to Massillon, the city where you live.

Auditor Jayne Ferrero estimated her plan would generate about $1.5 million additional dollars for the cash strapped city coffers.

Money that could have been used to pay delinquent dispatching bills, buy road salt, or help the city avoid laying off police officers.

Jayne Ferrero thought her plan was a good idea.

Before she thought it was a bad idea.

Because, all of a sudden, Auditor Jayne Ferrero stopped talking about her tax credit reduction plan.

She grew silent.

And suddenly, miraculously, she never mentioned the idea again.

And she didn't even show up at the Massillon City Council meeting on November 21st when her plan was debated by city council.

She wasn't there to answer questions about what was originally her proposal.

She wasn't there to defend what was originally her idea.

She wasn't there to advocate for what was originally her plan.

Oddly enough, Ferrero was for the tax credit as late as the Friday before the Monday, November 21st council meeting.

"She (Kathy Catazaro-Perry) said she met Friday with Auditor Jayne Ferrero to further discuss the city’s finances ahead of taking office next year. According to Catazaro-Perry, Ferrero told her, “We really need that tax credit,” and so she (Catazaro-Perry) agreed to give her verbal approval so that it could at least be discussed. But then she was told that fellow Finance Committee member David Hersher removed his signature. (The Independent, November 22, 2011).

So, how did we end up with such 'shenanigans?'

What occurred to change Auditor Ferrero's mind?

And who, oh who, was responsible for Auditor Ferrero's change of heart?

Let Them Eat Cake

The City of Massillon is dead broke.

The Auditor, former Mayor Cicchinelli's Loyal Defender, Jayne Ferrero, is intentionally shorting the new mayor about three million dollars so Ferrero may pay off the old mayor's bills.

Right now.

Ferrero certainly never shorted the Extraordinary One's revenue when he was mayor.

But that was different.

Ferrero is, was, and will always be a Cicchinelli loyalist.

Ferrero happily hid Cicchinelli's past due bills in the city's sock drawer, letting him run the city on the proverbial city credit card, and waited until he was safely out of office before smacking the new mayor with this financial shortage of Ferrero's own making.

Jayne Ferrero is doing this purely out of political motivation.

She is creating a $3 million dollar hole in the city's budget in the hope that Catazaro-Perry will fail.

So that Catazaro-Perry has to make cuts so drastic that they literally decimate city government.

"She (Catazaro-Perry) is going to have to make cuts, make consolidations. She’s going to have to do some tough love.” (Jayne Ferrero, The Independent, January 20, 2012).

"Tough Love"

You can almost hear the glee in Ferrero's voice as she smugly throws the city into the financial abyss to satisfy the political agenda of her master.

There will be cuts.

There will be sacrifices.

And of course, if your are an elected official, there will be the annual, unvoted pay raise.

Yes, our Mayor, Auditor, Treasurer, Law Director, Council President, and council members will all be receiving a 3.5% pay raise this year.

Our elected officials will once more be asking the worker bees to sacrifice, while they get yet another pay raise. An annual, unvoted, automatic pay raise.

Now, to be fair, Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry opposed these automatic, unvoted, annual pay raises for elected officials when she was a member of council.

Mayor Cicchinelli's Loyal Enforcer, Council President Glenn Gamber, worked tirelessly to ensure that a repeal of the automatic pay raises never came up for a vote.

He asked for an informal 'show of hands' so that those favoring annual, unvoted, automatic pay raises did not have to go on record favoring annual, unvoted, automatic pay raises.

We certainly hope at least one of our new council members has the common sense and, quite honestly, the courage to bring up the issue of repealing the annual, unvoted, automatic pay raises.

We say courage, because we are confident Glenn Gamber will be once more leading the fight to keep his annual, unvoted, automatic pay raise.

Some of our elected officials have stated they will be returning the pay raise.

According to the Independent newspaper, this includes;

Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry
Councilman Donnie Peters
Councilwoman Nancy Halter
Councilman Ed Lewis

Paul Manson is on the fence.

We haven't read where Auditor Ferrero is returning her raise.

While she wants others to have their jobs cut, and expects the new mayor to show "tough love," it appears Ferrero is taking her own raise, as she has yet to publicly state other wise.

And she deserves it, too.

Shocking city finances into chaos so that her political master will be well satisfied is indeed hard work, and deserves a certain level of compensation.

So, as Ferrero smugly quips about others bearing the brunt of her reckless financial oversight, she is afforded a pay raise.

We know, we know, the "dollars will be there."

At least for Jayne Ferrero.

And as for the peasants?

Let them eat cake.

Sadly Predictable

The first job of Massillon City Auditor Jayne Ferrero, first, last, and foremost, was to cover the rear end of our former Mayor for Life, Frank Cicchinelli. This dogged loyalty to Frank Cicchinelli earned her the moniker of the Mayor's Loyal Defender.

And it affected her judgment as auditor.

She basically allowed Frank Cicchinelli to run the city on a credit card.

She didn't pay the bills.

She could have, which would have forced Cicchinelli to make tough decisions about spending.

She chose not to.

And as department heads were told to hold their bills, and not submit them until the next mayor took over, Jayne Ferrero said nothing.

To the casual observer, it appeared Ferrero's more important priority was to allow Frank Cicchinelli to skate out of office with clean hands and no responsibility for the mess he created.

Remember how the "dollars would be there?"

And the dollars weren't there.

And would never be there.

And the Auditor said nothing.

Even though she knew the dollars wouldn't be there.

As Jayne Ferrero was part of a team effort to conceal the true size of the city's financial black hole.

Because she wouldn't pay the bills.

As long as Frank Cicchinelli was mayor.

But, times have indeed changed.

And we have a new mayor.

And now, after four years as auditor, Jayne Ferrero is ready for some shock therapy to city government.

She wants to pay all the delinquent bills, and all of the debt created by the Cicchinelli administration, all at once.

Right now.

Not to make payments. Not to be part of a larger effort to craft a sensible plan to recover the city's finances over time.

But to leave the new mayor, Kathy Catazaro-Perry, a $5 million dollar budget hole in her first month in office.

Would Ferrero have done this had Frank Cicchinelli still been mayor?

Absolutely not.

Jayne Ferrero was a loyal foot soldier in General Cicchinelli's army.

And it appears that she and her staff continue to exercise Cicchinelli's political vendettas through her plan to certify as little money as possible for the new administration.

Ferrero has, unilaterally, shorted Massillon city government close to $3 million dollars.

Because, all of a sudden, she has decided to pay the bills.

Frank's bills.

Sadly, her behavior was predictable.

The plan, all along, at least since the May primary, was to drop this debt squarely on Kathy Catazaro-Perry's head, because Kathy Catazaro-Perry did the unforgivable.

She defeated Frank Cicchinelli in a democratically contested election.

And that was not acceptable to Jayne Ferrero.

And, according to Ferrero in today's Independent, "She’s (Catazaro-Perry) going to have to do some tough love.”

It's a shame she never asked Frank Cicchinelli to exercise some "tough love."

But, this too, was sadly predictable.

Jayne Ferrero is creating a city budget crisis all by herself.

To create the self-fulfilling prophecy of Team Cicchinelli.

That things would collapse in Massillon without Frank at the helm.

And to harm Catazaro-Perry politically, to put the "blood on her hands" of having to butcher city services.

Let's not be fooled.

Ferrero's ill advised move to unilaterally gut city government and wash away the sins of her beloved former mayor are not financial decisions.

They are political decisions.

Which, to anyone who even casually follows city government, realizes are politically motivated.

And were, of course, sadly predictable.

I've Got That Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down in My Heart

Word on the street is that the last act of Massillon's former First Lady, Joy Cicchinelli, was to call the Massillon Schools Superintendent and a Massillon School Board member to whine and complain that then Mayor elect, and now Mayor, Kathy Catazaro-Perry, was involved in a trophy ceremony for the Lady Tigers basketball team.

The alleged ceremony was on a Friday night, December 30th, about one day before Catazaro-Perry officially took control of the debt riddled mess we know as Massillon city government, the giant "vat of red ink" that our former mayor left for her.

Joy's particular gripe this time was that Catazaro-Perry shouldn't have been involved in the ceremony because Joy's husband, Frank, was still the mayor for another day or so.

And every minute counts.

Of course, neither Cicchinelli was reported to be in attendance that night, as the event was not a football game.

This last temper tantrum for the former First Lady is symbolic of her well known petty behavior.

We wonder if Catazaro-Perry's husband has been calling the city auditor to complain about all the debt that was dumped on his wife.

We doubt it.

Hopefully, we have seen the last of these types of petty antics with the change in administrations.

How's That Workin' Out For Ya?

From yesterday's Independent newspaper;

The "Today in History" section reminded us that 10 years ago, The Massillon Arena's general manager, Mike Foss, stated that a Continental Elite Hockey League franchise would be coming to Massillon to play hockey starting with the next season.

The Continental Elite Hockey League was an Independent Junior League, not affiliated with USA Hockey, and comprised of teams of 16-20 year old junior hockey players.

Nothing fills up a proposed 6,500 seat arena like teenagers playing hockey.

Let's check in on the Continental Elite Hockey League today.

Well, we can't.

Unfortunately, the Continental Elite Hockey League went out of business in 2004.

The Continental Elite Hockey League was about as successful as the Massillon Arena project itself, which was never built, despite our fair city spending a million dollars of state funds on site preparation.

"(Frank) Cicchinelli still wasn't concerned because construction trailers and equipment have been removed from the site. He remains optimistic The Arena will be built." (The Repository, May 14, 2003).

Yeah.

Right.

As Dr. Phil would say, "How's that workin' out for ya?"

We would like to thank the Independent for providing us with this little journey down memory lane.

Happy New Year!

We now have a new mayor and a new city council.

The Massillon Review wishes Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry, and new Massillon City Council Members Sarita Cunningham, Nancy Halter, Andrea Scassa, Ed Lewis, and Milan Chovin nothing but success as you begin the hard work ahead.

And, unfortunately, there is much hard work ahead.

Best Wishes from the entire staff at the Massillon Review!

Happy New Year!