Monday Night Shenanigans

When our current mayor, Democrat Kathy Catazaro-from-Perry, reached across the partisan divide and hired former Massillon Schools Superintendent Al Hennon as her permanent safety & service director, one would think the Republicans would have been pleased that "that woman" hired a Republican into the top job in her administration.

One would be wrong.

Al Hennon was also the Republican candidate for Massillon City Council President.

Normally, the job of council president is not all that relevant to the governance of a municipality.

The council president simply runs the council meetings.

Except in the case of former council president Glenn Gamber, who acted as the former mayor's loyal enforcer.

Gamber acted as the de-facto boss of council, and the council members, for whatever reason, let him.

The current council president, Tony Townsend, appears to lack Gamber's informal authority and merely presides over the meetings.

We can't imagine Hennon being a head cracker in his role as council president, but we could be wrong.

Hennon, we hear, wanted to be more than the referee at council meetings twice a month, and felt he could contribute more as safety & services director.

The Republicans were enraged that Hennon went to work for the usurper, "that woman," Kathy Catazaro-from-Perry.

They screamed treason and demanded revenge.

And they had a plan for vengeance.

A petty, ill-conceived plan, but a plan nonetheless.

They would smite Kathy Catazaro-from-Perry from their presence and ban her and her administration from sitting up in the front of the council chambers during council meetings.

Seriously.

They were going to make her sit in the back of the council meeting room, away from where the council members sit.

Seriously.

They have turned their rubric for better seating into legislation, and will be voting on an ordinance to move where the mayor sits at the meetings.

Seriously.

This is what some members of council are fixated on.

The city is broke, the State of Ohio has put Massillon under fiscal emergency, and our city council will be voting on moving the mayor and her staff to the back of the room.

Tonight.

Seriously.

Sarita Cunningham stated at a prior meeting of city council that having the mayor and her staff sit up front next to the council members, "gave her the willies."

It gives us "the willies" that council is spending time on this.

We imagine the vote will be close.

We will share the vote tally with our faithful readers, so they know the name of each council member who is so totally absorbed with petty politics, and who has such a total disregard for the real issues of the city, that they are more interested in playing "gotcha" with the mayor than focusing on Massillon's real problems.

We would like to remind council members so inclined to revert to their junior high school method of dealing with people they don't like by moving where they sit in the cafeteria to grow up.

Or quit, so that adults can take your place running the city.