Doin' It Massillon Style

This was sent to us by one of our Faithful Readers, apparantly one with plenty of free time.

For those of us who have been wondering what our former Mayor for Life has been up to in retirement.

It looks like he is attempting to rally the young people of Massillon in advance of his extraordinary return to city leadership.



Now, in keeping with our never ending quest to be fair and balanced, we want a dance video of our current mayor,

As a participant in Dancing with the Stars, we imagine she would bust a better move, and cut a better rug.

Not that our former mayor's dance stylings are anything short of extraordinary.

Reminiscing

One of our faithful readers sent us this picture from the 2002 Washington High School Yearbook -

The ill-fated Arena groundbreaking.

 

 

Yeah, Mayor Cicchinelli was 'instrumental' in moving this project from the drafting board into reality.

 

Just ask Global Arbitrage and the Banco de Brasil.

 

We wonder if Steve Waldman, The Arena's proposed financier, is out of prison yet.

Ruining Your Chances

When Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry proposed reducing the City's income tax credit from a 100% credit to a 50% credit, and then later to a 65% credit, she didn't receive a lot of support from City Council's Finance Chairman, Donnie Peters.

When the issue was last defeated in September, Peters decried that "the credit reduction would have angered a third of the city’s voters.“Than you ruin your chances of ever passing an income tax increase,” (The Independent, September 5, 2012).

This 'third of the city's voters' Peters is referring to don't pay any Massillon income tax.

That's because Massillon is a city that has a 100% tax credit.

This means that if you live in Massillon, but work in another city, say Canton, you pay 100% of Canton's income tax, and pay no income tax in Massillon, where you live.

A 100% tax credit for taxes paid to another city is applied to your Massillon tax bill.

And, according to Peters, trying to reduce the tax credit from a 100% credit, means you "ruin your chances of ever passing an income tax increase."

The proposal last September was to lower the tax credit from 100% to 65%, meaning that people who work in another city, but live in Massillon, would have to pay roughly 1/3 of the income tax that everyone else pays.

Of course, according to Chief Counsel to the Stark County Prosecutor, John Kurtzman, this is unacceptable, as it takes food of our plates, and shoes off our feet.

A two thirds of 1% income tax for Massillon, where he lives, will vastly impact his ability to feed and clothe himself.

Fair enough.

So, in September, Finance Chairman Donnie Peters was unequivocally clear. A tax credit reduction means an income tax increase can never pass.

Again, fair enough.

The question then becomes, why is Peters now championing a .3% income tax increase, coupled with elimination of the 100% tax credit on the proposed .3% increase?

It appears, in the spirit of former Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry's infamous flip-flopping, that Donnie was "against it, before he was for it."

It just doesn't make any sense.

An increase in the income tax rate would have to be approved by a vote of the people.

And Peters clearly stated that, "the credit reduction would have angered a third of the city’s voters.“Than you ruin your chances of ever passing an income tax increase."

Yet he is now proposing the very thing he claimed would anger the voters.

According to Peters, it won't pass.

So why is he doing it?

What is really going on here?

Twas the Night Before Christmas

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there...

The clatter and noise on the roof of the Massillon Review can only mean one extraordinary thing!

It's the return of Massillon's very own Surly Old St. Nick, the Extraordinary One, none other than Santa Frank.

Welcome back, Santa Frank!

"Ho, Ho, Ho... Santa is back with a vengeance this Christmas Eve, but truth be known, Santa has never really left the North Pole. Kathy What's Her Name can have the reigns to Santa's sleigh when she pries them from Santa's cold, dead hands!"

"Santa's loyal elves have kept the City Hall, I mean the 'North Pole Workshop' humming along in Santa's absence, laying the groundwork for Santa's triumphant return!"

"As a result, Santa has plenty of toys for Massillon's good girls and boys, and for the rest of you anti-Santa, anti-North Pole carpetbaggers, Santa has brought extra coal this year!"

"Ho, Ho, Ho! Santa sees that his favorite elf, Santa's Loyal Enforcer, has announced his retirement. Well, don't anyone worry! Santa found a way to keep his Loyal Enforcer in office before when the going got tough, and Santa is confident the Loyal Enforcer will end up un-retiring... again. Look for him to pop up in another North Pole office just as soon as he collects his pension and health care benefits. While Santa's Loyal Enforcer has faithfully mustered the troops to oppose the new mayor, we are a bit concerned about his driving abilities. Even Santa's sleigh has occasionally clipped the odd car in the parking lot, but to hit the same care twice in one night, well, that takes some doing. Santa is putting driving lessons in his stocking this year. When the Loyal Enforcer comes out of retirement... again, native born North Poleians need not fear parking next to him!"

"Now, Santa sees that North Pole City Treasurer Paul Lambert is retiring. Mrs. Santa has a little free time these days. And she isn't one to sit home and bake cookies. "That Woman" who temporarily took Santa's job as mayor should appoint Mrs. Claus as treasurer. Mrs. Claus and she have much in common. Neither one is actually from Massillon! Ho, Ho, Ho!"

"Santa sees that Santa's former Safety Service Director, Mike Loudiana, is throwing his hat into the ring to run for North Pole City Council. Santa couldn't have run the North Pole without Mike's help. Mike has taken a lot of flak for calling Santa, "Extraordinary," but Mike can't help calling them like he sees them! Mike's gift this year is a case of amnesia for the North Pole voters. Once they remember how Mike helped put the North Pole in the mess it's in now, and once people see the vast overtime he racked up as North Pole Safety Service Director, the voters of the North Pole's First Ward may not see fit to elect him. And that would be an extraordinary shame."

"Santa wants to personally thank the North Pole Auditor's office for the fine work they have done this past year. The Auditor elves do fantastic work keeping Santa informed of "That Woman's" dealings, and they worked vigorously to help Santa cover his proverbial behind as Santa left the North Pole Mayor's office last year. "That Woman" has an incredible mess on her hand, and without the Auditor's office exacerbating the situation, Santa would have been left holding more of the bag! They get Santa's unending gratitude! Ho, Ho, Ho!"

"Now, not all of Santa's former elves were as loyal as they could have been. Former North Pole Community Development Director Aane Aaby refused to quit before "That Woman" took office. He actually helped with the transition and taught the New Guy how to pay the Hotel bill! Aane Aaby gets a big lump of coal. The New Guy gets saddled with Santa's Hotel Deal, which is worse than getting a lump of coal!"

"Fire Chief Burgasser gets a lump of coal, too. Even though the North Pole Fire Station should have been condemned years ago, as Santa never kept it maintained properly, Chief Burgasser should have fought harder when "That Woman" closed it. And Santa called and gave him Hell for not doing it."

"Now what to give the ungrateful residents of the North Pole, who turned Santa Frank out after a mere 24 years in charge? Well, Santa left everyone the same thing in their collective stockings. The debt on the golf course. Which brings Santa to one of his favorite elves, Elf Moe. Elf Moe helped Santa unload the North Pole golf debt on the North Pole Parks and Recreation Department in the first place. Elf Moe voted to do it. And while Santa was in charge at the North Pole, Elf Moe said nary a word. But once Santa left, and "That Woman" took over, Elf Moe has had a change of heart. Elf Moe wants to give the golf course back. Forget the fact the North Pole is millions in debt and would literally collapse if that happened. Elf Moe is an elf on a mission, making "That Woman's" life miserable. Elf Moe gets a shiny new big screen television for the Legends of the North Pole Golf Course Club House. Money well spent!"

"The rest of you get the millions of debt we still owe, which won't be paid off until 2032. Ho, Ho, Ho!"

"As for Santa, it is much easier to drive his sleigh, now that Santa Claus Lane is no longer one of the Five Worst Roads at the North Pole, as determined by a study of a study that never happened. As for "That Woman," who temporarily took Santa's job, she got the mother of all disasters, the debt ridden, vat of red ink known as North Pole City government. And most of all, she gets no help in cleaning up the mess that Santa left her, which is the biggest lump of coal in Santa's bag. Ho, Ho, Ha, Ha!"

"Santa is back. And to quote Louie Brio's most recent Express Lube ad, it's good to be back riding with the boys!"

Believe!

An Extraordinarily Cold Day in Hell

As the hardworking, recently recalled Massillon Review staff was cleaning up around the office, and dusting out the cobwebs, trying to get things spic and span in anticipation of Santa Frank's Christmas Eve visit, we got to talking about how you get to be City Treasurer when the current treasurer retires before his term is up.

Longtime City Treasurer Paul Lambert is retiring at the end of the year, but he has one year left on his elected four year term.

So, how does someone get to be treasurer for that last year?

As you know, the Review has whole heartedly endorsed the candidacy of Massillon's former First Lady for Life, the calm, the cool, the collected, Joy Cicchinelli.

We tasked our newly re-employed legal team to research the issue.

According to the crack Massillon Review legal team, an appointment to the soon to be vacant treasurer's seat will be made by the Democratic Party, as the departing treasurer is a Democrat;

"The county central committee of the political party with which the last occupant of the office was affiliated, acting through its members who reside in the city where the vacancy occurs, shall appoint a person to hold the office and to perform the duties thereof until a successor is elected and has qualified..."

This may be a bit of a difficulty for our endorsed candidate, as her husband, The Extraordinary One, actively supported Republican candidates in the last municipal elections.

A difficult obstacle for us to overcome, but not impossible...

Now, according to our crack legal team, the Democratic Party has 45 days in which to choose a replacement treasurer.

So, the question becomes, who gets to be treasurer until the Democratic Party chooses a treasurer?

And this is where it gets interesting;

"The mayor of the city may appoint a person to hold the city office of director of law, auditor, or treasurer as an acting officer and to perform the duties thereof between the occurrence of the vacancy and the time when the person appointed by the central committee qualifies and takes the office."

The mayor of the city may appoint a person to hold the city office... of treasurer.

If Joy Cicchinelli would want to be appointed as the acting treasurer, perhaps giving her a leg up with the Democratic Party selection, she would need Kathy Catazaro-Perry to appoint her.

Probably not gonna happen.

Fool Me Once

It's official. Glenn Gamber, Massillon's City Council President, and faithful ally of our former mayor, The Extraordinary One, Frank Cicchinelli, is 'retiring' as Council President, effective December 28th.

This isn't Gamber's first attempt at 'retirement.'

In 2003, Republican Donnie Peters ran against then Massillon Ward 5 Councilman Glenn Gamber. Massillon's Ward 5, on the Southwest side of Massillon, is overwhelmingly Democratic. Donnie Peters almost upsets Glenn, and Glenn holds on to win by a mere 8 votes. As Donnie Peters gears up for a rematch in 2005, Glenn Gamber decided he has had enough of politics.

Glenn Gamber announces that he is 'retiring' from politics, and won't be seeking re-election.

Curiously enough, at the candidate filing deadline, Glenn files petitions to run for Massillon Council President. This was odd, because Massillon already had a Democratic Council President, Dennis Harwig. Was Glenn, who didn't think he could beat a Republican in an overwhelming Democratic ward, now thinking he could beat the sitting council president?

No.

Team Cicchinelli are fine chess players and were looking two moves down the board.

Dennis Harwig was magically appointed City Income Tax Investigator subsequent to Glenn Gamber filing to run against Harwig for council president. Harwig then vacates his council president's position when he takes his new job, allowing Glenn to win the Democratic Primary unopposed, and be appointed to the remainder of Harwig's term.

Through these political machinations, Glenn Gamber was able to continue his political career and be Massillon City Council President, effectively serving as Mayor Cicchinelli's Loyal Enforcer on Massillon City Council.

While we acknowledge that Glenn is leaving his position as council president, we don't believe he is leaving elected office.

We believe Glenn Gamber will retire from public service, take his pension and, more importantly, his retiree health insurance, and run for another city office.

To double dip.

Earning a pension, health care benefits, and drawing a salary when he chooses his next office.

He 'retired' once before.

We don't think he's actually going any where.

We do believe the next move on the chess board has already been decided upon.

Will Santa Frank Ride Again?

A longtime, faithful Review reader wondered if Santa Frank will once again hitch up the reindeer and ride through the Massillon night come Christmas Eve, delivering toys to the good girls and boys of our Fair City.

"It wouldn't be Christmas in Massillon without Santa Frank visiting on Christmas Eve. Will Santa Frank be coming this year?"

Of course he will.

He never returned the sleigh and the reindeer  to his successor.

Believe.

Santa Frank will ride once more.

Joy to the World!

Longtime City Treasurer Paul Lambert is retiring at the end of December with one year left on his four year term. So who will replace him? Multiple faithful Review readers have emailed us about a potential replacement, so it looks like this particular rumor has some traction.

Word on the street is that our former First Lady for Life, Joy Cicchinelli, wants to be Massillon's next Watchdog of the Treasury.

Last we left Joy, she was bitterly complaining to Massillon School Superintendent Goodright, and a Massillon School Board member that then Mayor Elect Kathy Catazaro Perry was presenting the trophy at the 'Mayor's Cup Girls Basketball Tournament.'

Joy's beef was that Catazaro-Perry wasn't mayor yet, and shouldn't have been allowed to present the trophy.

It was the evening of December 30th, 2011, about one day before Catazaro-Perry officially took over the debt riddled mess known as Massillon City government.

Of course, neither Cicchinelli was in attendance for the basketball tournament.

As a matter of fact, they never came.

And why should they? It wasn't something important like High School Football.

The problem wasn't that the current mayor never came, it was that the mayor-elect came in his stead.

And Joy was not a happy camper.

It is believed that Joy has been busily spending her free time spewing venom against her husband's successor throughout cyberspace.

You know, constructive work for the good of the city.

We, however, believe Joy Cicchinelli would be an inspired choice for city treasurer, and whole heartedly endorse this endeavor.

Her level headedness, rational behavior, and her tendency to never overreact are qualifications making her well suited to this position.

Besides, how hard can the job be?

As a result of the financial black hole our Extraordinary Former Mayor left us in, there isn't a whole lot of money left to count.

The big question?

Whether or not Joy would sign the current mayor's paycheck every week.

Please Sir, I Want Some More

The Chief Counsel to Stark County Prosecutor John Ferrero, John Kurtzman, doesn't like taxes.

Strike that.

He doesn't like some taxes.

Some taxes are good, like the Stark County Sales Tax, which generates money to run the government office where he works.

Thanks in part to John Kurtzman's campaigning, Stark County residents are now paying a higher 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).

And some taxes are bad, like the proposed income tax credit reduction proposed twice over the past year by Massillon Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry.

As a Massillon resident who works in Canton, John Kurtzman pays income tax to the City of Canton, where he works, and no income tax to the City of Massillon, where he lives.

He receives a 100% tax credit, meaning his Massillon income taxes are deducted by the amount he pays in Canton income taxes by 100%.

Most cities have a tax credit for residents residing in that particular city, but working in another city, but a 100% tax credit is unusually high, and extremely rare.

Catazaro-Perry's last attempt to have Massillon residents who work in another city to pay a portion of Massillon's income tax was a proposed 35% tax credit reduction.

If passed, this meant that folks like John Kurtzman would only have to pay 35% of the City's 1.8% income tax rate.

This would have been about 2/3 of one percent.

This amount was still unacceptable to John Kurtzman.

At the August 20th meeting of Massillon City Council, John Kurtzman was unable to attend, but Stark County Auditor employee John Oates, aka "Oatey," read a letter from John Kurtzman expressing his opposition to paying any City income tax what so ever because -

"it’s a penalty on the unfortunate bread winners who are forced to work outside the city"

Fast forward to the present.

At this past Monday's City Council meeting, City Council Finance Chair Donnie Peters proposed to raise the City's income tax rate .3% to 2.1%.

A raise in the City's income tax must be approved by a vote of the people.

More interesting, Peters also proposed eliminating the 100% tax credit on his .3% increase.

Peters, who vehemently opposed Catazaro-Perry's plans to generate more revenue via a tax credit reduction, was now proposing a tax credit reduction of his own.

Why the change?

Did Peters have a philosophical change in his views on taxation?

Isn't he concerned that John Kurtzman will be back to oppose this tax credit reduction because it is a "penalty" on the "unfortunate bread winners who are forced to work outside the city?"

The answer is no.

No one will complain about Donnie Peters' proposed tax reduction.

No one will point out Peters' hypocrisy for proposing a tax credit reduction in December, while chiding Catazaro-Perry for doing the same just four months prior.

Because the reasons are, of course, extraordinary...

The Zombie Apocalypse

The Undead.

You just can't be rid of them.

No matter what you do, they just won't go away.

"...he (Frank Cicchinelli), is an extraordinary mayor."
      - Former Safety Service Director Mike Loudiana

Extraordinary.

Hold that thought.

In November of 2002, Massillon City Council finalized a general obligation bond on the Legends of Massillon Golf Course, for roughly $7,281,000 dollars. This took the old debt from the original 18 hole course, rolled it in with the nine hole expansion, which was over budget, and created one really big loan that the city administration knew it could never pay back.

But our once and future Mayor for Life was a man with a plan.

He was going to unload the unprofitable, debt ridden legends of Massillon Golf Course on to the Parks and Recreation Board.

This happened ten years ago.

It was ten years ago almost to the night that Massillon's City Council decided to "streamline" city government and "merge" the debt ridden Legends of Massillon Golf Course with the Parks and Recreation Department.

Of course, our Extraordinary former Mayor didn't concoct this ruse without cover.

He claimed his financial hi jinx were merely an attempt to "streamline" city government.

"The Mayor explained that the merging of these two areas will maximize resources of the current departments and provide an organizational structure which will promote efficient operations giving top notch service to the public. The Mayor believes this decision now, in the long term, will be beneficial to everyone, and he stated that they promised the citizens that the city would not subsidize this golf course" (Parks and Recreation Board minutes, November 14, 2002).

Cicchinelli claimed that his proposal "was not a big scheme to have the parks department cover the golf course's expenses" (The Repository, December 17, 2002).

Except that it was "a big scheme to have the parks department cover the golf course's expenses."

A scheme that won't be paid off until 2032.

But he couldn't have done this alone.

Oh, no.

He had help.

He had the vote of then Massillon City Councilman Mike Loudiana.

And Mike was such an extraordinary supporter of our former mayor, that Cicchinelli eventually made Mike Loudiana his safety service director, essentially his right hand man in directing our fair city's ship of state.

And it was Mike Loudiana who was at our Extraordinary Mayor for Life's side while our mayor led our fair city into millions of dollars of debt, all the while racking up copious overtime for himself.

One would think that when the voters repudiated the Extraordinary One, a nickname whose genesis found life in Safety Service Director Loudiana's now infamous quote, that Loudiana would recognize his own role in this debacle, and quietly ride off in to the sunset.

Well, one would be wrong.

According to records at the Stark County Board of Elections, Mike Loudiana is making a comeback, and is running for a Massillon Council seat representing the First Ward, a seat currently held by Sarita Cunningham-Hedderly.

Hey, it's been a year, hopefully everyone will have forgotten Loudiana's role as a key player in the Cichinelli administration.

Or not.

We don't imagine this being the only attempt at political comeback by Team Cicchinelli alumni.

Just the first.

Tomorrow

Believe!

Over?

http://youtu.be/q7vtWB4owdE