But today, just three months later, you would never know it happened.
Massillon City Council previously had just one elected Republican member, Fifth Ward Councilman Donnie Peters. The Democrats controlled the other eight seats on council.
As a result, the Democrats ran the show.
Totally and completely.
This past election, the voters elected a majority of Republicans to lead Massillon's City Council.
Perhaps they were tired of the business as usual.
Perhaps they believed the previous city council was nothing but a feckless rubber stamp for our formerly Extraordinary Mayor for Life, and they wanted a change.
Perhaps they just thought the Republican candidates were plain better looking than their Democratic counterparts.
The reason is not relevant.
The fact of the matter is the voters of Massillon replaced Democratic council members with Republican council members.
Nancy Halter (Ward 1), Sarita Cunningham (Ward 2), Ed Lewis (Ward 6), and Milan Chovin (At Large), joined Donnie Peters (Ward 5) to create a Republican majority.
Kind of.
One of the first jobs the new council undertook was to elect it's leader, the person known as the President Pro-Tem of council.
The President Pro-Tem position is a leadership position, and is usually made by the political party controlling the majority of council seats.
It was well known that the Republicans would move to appoint Donnie Peters their leader, as he was the only incumbent Republican on city council.
They did.
They probably assumed their leader would have their back.
He didn't.
According to one city hall insider, there are two council committees that are truly significant. While all the council committees are important, our faithful reader opines that two are where the action is;
Finance and Community Development.
Especially the Finance Committee, which will have to grapple with the budget crisis created by our former mayor and his Loyal Defender.
Now, one would assume that since the Republicans are in the majority, Republicans would comprise a majority on these two important council committees.
One would be wrong.
Republicans only received one seat on the critical Finance Committee, and Zero seats on the Community
Development Committee.
Six committee seats.
One appointment.
The Finance Committee includes Nancy Halter (R), Paul Manson (D) and Larry Slagle (D).
The Democrats have a majority on the Finance Committee.
And they should, too, considering the fine job they did overseeing the prior mayor's spending.
The Community Development Committee includes Paul Manson (D), Tony Townsend (D) and Andrea Scassa (D).
Zero Republicans.
Note how Paul Manson, the most loyal of the former rubber stamps, is on both these committees.
What happened?
We thought the Republicans won in November.
They did and they didn't.
Word on the street is that their Leader, Donnie Peters, negotiated committee assignments with the Democrats, and that he pretty much gave the Democrats whatever they wanted, to the chagrin of his Republican colleagues.
But why?
It gets better.
According to our faithful reader, City Council only has one employee, the Council Clerk.
Normally, when one party takes over from another, they hire their own person as council clerk.
Not this time.
The Democratic council clerk is still on the job.
But why?
Why does it appear that the Democrats are still running the show?
Why is Massillon City Council playing the Same Old Song?
Didn't people vote for change?
What happened?
