A Rubric for Shenanigans

After Massillon's former Parks Czar, Kenn Kaminski, left for greener pastures, he realized just how much he missed the City of Champions, and wanted to come home.

No, the Extraordinary One, our Once & Future Mayor for Life was gone, but the Cicchinelli acolytes believe these four years in the wilderness will be but a brief respite from his reign as Lord Sovereign of the City.

And there was a vacancy.

Kaminski's replacement, Bob Straughn, was sacked by the Parks Board.

Apparently, the Usurper, "That Woman" from Perry did not object to the sacking, and did not fight to keep Straughn in charge.

So Doug Nist was made Interim Parks Czar.

By all accounts, Nist, a God fearing, native born Massillonian, graduate of Washington High School, and college graduate with a degree in recreation management from West Virginia University did a fine job running our parks as interim director.

It appears our park system is improving.

Even the infamous "Park Vandals," who so tormented Director Kaminski, have been largely held in check.

And all seemed well in our fair city.

Except we had a problem.

Former Czar Kaminski wanted to return.

When applications were being accepted for the permanent position, Kaminski applied.

And here is where it gets murky.

Would the Parks Board get to make the permanent appointment, or would the Usurper get to make the permanent appointment?

And, allegedly, one of the Parks Board members called Kaminski and told him to not even come to the interview, he had no shot.

And that's when Team Cicchinelli got their dander up.

And that's when the Boy Wonder had a plan, a rubric for better parks management.

To end the debate over who had final say over appointing the parks director, Larry Slagle proposed that City Council decide who was in charge.

And guess what?

City Council would be in charge.

City Council would make the appointment.

Forget the boring text book arguments about legislative versus executive authority in the administration of the day to day affairs of the municipality.... ZZZZZZZ... ZZZZZZ....

Oh, sorry, we dozed off.

Forget that other stuff.

This appeared to be a nothing more than a pure power play by those who wanted Kaminski's return.

And they thought they had the votes on City Council to do it.

So if City Council could make the appointment, the Kaminski supporters had a shot. They could bypass the Parks Board, and the Usurper.

The Boy Wonder then summoned his superhuman powers, and "wrote" legislation fixing the park problems, which would forever settle the debate over who hires the parks director, and would make things perfect in our parks in perpetuity, "ending the politics," as he would remark.

We often joke about something being a cut and paste effort.

This definitely was.

While we were on hiatus, one of our faithful readers sent us Larry Slagle's proposal.

And we shall share excerpts with our faithful readers.

Like this one;

"The Director of Parks and Recreation shall have the control and management of parks, park entrances, parkways, children's playgrounds, public recreation facilities, gymnasiums, swimming pools, playfields, or indoor recreational centers, and any lands or buildings set aside for park or recreational use by the public, and the acquisition, construction, repair, and maintenance thereof. The Director shall create and supervise all Recreational Programs for the City of Brunswick."

Brunswick?

A small piece of advice. If you are going to poach someone else's work, make sure you change the author's name to your own.

Now, once one gets past the fact that Massillon isn't Brunswick, one must examine the rationale for reworking the parks system.

"Councilman at-large Larry Slagle, who proposed the measure Monday, seemed to disagree. “It’s a lot harder for politics to be involved with nine individuals than one individual,” he said." (The Repository, July 9, 2013).

Nope. No politics with City Council in charge.

"Slagle later challenged the mayor by asking why Nist remains interim director after serving more than seven months in the position." (The Repository, July 9, 2013).

It almost seemed that Slagle wanted Nist to get the job.

Almost.