Don't Worry, Be Happy

Massillon's Mayor for Life is doling out a half a million dollars in pay raises to various city employees next year. The Police, Fire, Parks Department, Street Department, Solid Waste Department, and Wastewater Treatment Plant employees will be receiving 4% pay raises in 2011. It's important to have the employees happy as Massillon's Mayor for Life runs next year for what we expect to be his seventh term as mayor for life.

Of course, the mayor, auditor, treasurer, law director, and council president will be receiving their annual, unvoted pay raise next year, thanks to the 1995 ordinance, approved by Mayor Cicchinelli, granting these folks annual unvoted pay raises tied to the Consumer Price Index. If you are going to be Mayor for Life, you may as well get a pay raise every year for ruling over your kingdom.

City Council receives these raises as well. Rubber stamp for the mayor, get a pay raise. Spend Park tax dollars on a restaurant, get a pay raise. Spend tax dollars to subsidize a private hotel, get a pay raise. Council member Kathy Catazaro-Perry did try to strike down the law granting these annual unvoted pay raises, but Council President Glenn Gamber marshaled the troops, and stopped her cold.

The crack Massillon Review staff has been busy crunching the city's budget numbers all day. If the city is one million dollars short in making budget this year, and the mayor hands out half a million dollars in pay raises next year, that would mean that next year, the city would be one and a half million dollars short. On the surface, we should be concerned, but we are confident that our mayor has a well thought out, detailed plan for dealing with the shortfall.

"We'll be able to pay for these increases," Cicchinelli said. "I'm not concerned about it. We will be there. I feel confident the dollars will be there to make it through this year and we'll have the dollars to make it through next year" (The Independent, July 6, 2010).

Relax. He's confident the money will be there. Just as he was confident Massillon would have a 6,500 seat hockey arena for minor league hockey. Just as he was confident that merging the golf course with the Parks Department was a way to streamline city government, and "was not a big scheme to have the parks department cover the golf course's expenses" (The Repository, 12/17/2002). He's confident. We should chill. The 1.5 million dollars will magically show up. It will be there. Don't worry.