The Buck Stops Somewhere Else

Whenever a new lemonade stand opens in Massillon, our Mayor for Life is there to take credit for the job that was created. Many things, however, he does not take credit for. Every summer, when the city is short money, because city council passed his unbalanced budget, his response is that council needs to do something about it. If there are unpopular cuts to be made, he expects the auditor, not him as the city's leader, to recommend them. When Aqua Ohio, Massillon's water provider, threatened to go to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) and request a 20% increase in water rates, the Mayor's first response was that council dropped the ball and should have negotiated with Aqua Ohio directly. In particular, he placed blame at the feet of Gary Anderson, the council member who is the head of the utilities committee on city council.

See, negotiating a higher water rate is a politically unpopular thing to do. Gary Anderson is only one of three council members who is not a reliable rubber stamp for the mayor. Anderson only won his election to city council last year by a handful of votes. We can see why the Mayor would want Anderson to take the lead on raising water rates. It looks as if Aqua Ohio has a counter offer to city council of a 14.75% rate increase, versus the 20% increase they want to take to the State PUCO. This puts city council between a rock and a hard place.

City Council may choose not to negotiate with Aqua Ohio. Aqua Ohio will then go to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) and probably get close to a 20% increase in the rate they charge their customers. If council negotiates directly with Aqua Ohio, and the rates go up 14.75%, then this politically unpopular decision will lay at council's feet. Of course, you can't blame Mayor Cicchinelli. He claims this is council's problem, not his. If Anderson negotiates a rate hike, the Mayor, come the next election, will blame Anderson for the rate hike as the Mayor and his cronies try and separate Anderson from his council office. You don't get to be Mayor for Life by accepting responsibility for unpopular decisions. The rubber stamps on council will happily take responsibility for this unpopular work, and will allow the Mayor to separate himself from any rate hikes.

The Massillon Review believes that the buck does indeed stop with the Mayor. Mayor Cicchinelli should be involved with any negotiations with Aqua Ohio. He knows these folks best. He spends a lot of time talking to them when he solicits their donations for his "Mayor's Summer Concert Series."