All the King's Horses and All the King's Men

According to Ohio law, the job of City Council President is to "preside at all regular and special meetings of such legislative authority (city council), but the president shall have no vote therein except in case of a tie."

Seems pretty simple. Council President presides over the meetings, and can only vote in a tie. In theory, the council president would run the meetings fairly and apply the various rules of council equally so that each council member is treated the same.

In theory, but not in practice. Not in Massillon, and not with our Mayor for Life's loyal enforcer, Glenn Gamber, as council president.

Glenn Gamber must see his job a little differently. It is clear to anyone following city council that his job isn't to preside over the meetings in an impartial manner, his job is to protect and further the agenda of the mayor, and to give guidance to the rubber stamps. It appears his other job is to manipulate the council rules, fairly or unfairly, to stop an independent council member from proposing legislation that;

A.) The Mayor for Life does not want and;
B.) Would embarrass the rubber stamps by having to publicly vote no to protect their mayor's interests.

In 2009, the city was in the midst of its Annual Summer Financial Crisis. While city employees were taking unpaid furloughs and pay freezes, the Mayor, Auditor, Treasurer, Law Director, City Council members, and Council President Glenn Gamber were receiving a 4.1% pay raise. When Kathy Catzarao-Perry tried to introduce legislation to repeal the city ordinance giving these folks lifetime, annual, unvoted pay raises, Gamber fought this repeal with every trick he had. He wouldn't even allow a public vote. He asked for an off the record show of hands, so council members who wanted to keep the raises for themselves, and for our Mayor for Life, would not be incriminating themselves with a public vote.

Glenn Gamber's machinations were again on view at Monday's council meeting. 4th Ward Councilman Tony Townsend, not a favorite of the mayor, introduces legislation to rename Shriver Park after former 4th Ward Councilman, the late T. Roy Roberson. Roberson served over a decade as councilman, and the park name change had much support in the 4th Ward. "People of the community respect him (Roberson). He's loved by many" (Tony Townsend, The Independent, June 18, 2010). The councilman who's ward the park was in (Tony Townsend) supported the name change. The residents of Ward 4 seemed to support the name change. And for a brief instant, Massillon City Council looked like they would support the name change. Until, out of the clear blue, the rubber stamps seemed to have a change of heart.

Here is where this gets a bit complicated, so hang on. All of a sudden the "Independent" Parks and Recreation Board claims it has a policy "discouraging" the name changing of parks named after a person. Shriver park was named after the original land owner, Herman Shriver. Now, no one can produce any evidence to show where the "Independent" Parks and Recreation Board passed this policy. It just "exists." For those who have forgotten, the "Independent" Parks and Recreation Board is the five member board that was supposed to administer our parks and recreation department. Of the five members, three are appointed by the mayor, and two are appointed by the Massillon School Board. In effect, the mayor's appointees control the board. It doesn't actually have any real power. Judge John Haas ruled that Massillon City Council has final say over the Parks and Recreation System. This was the result of the Citizens' Lawsuit filed against the city last year. According to Judge Haas, the city may sell park land, and may even take insurance claim money from the parks and use it for anything the city wants to. According to Judge Haas, the mayor and council have final say over what happens to the parks and recreation department. This was our Mayor for Life's opinion all along, and Judge Haas affirmed that view with his decision in the lawsuit.

We are confident that this is merely a coincidence, but allegedly Shriver Park is on a list of park properties that our mayor may be interested in selling off. Can't rename the park after T. Roy Roberson, and then auction it off to the highest bidder. So, the Mayor apparently does not want Shriver park to be renamed after the late T. Roy Roberson. But he can't say that, as Roberson was a popular figure in Ward 4. The council rubber stamps want to do the mayor's bidding, but actually voting against the name change would be an unpopular political decision. They want to kill the name change without actually voting against it. This is where the Mayor's loyal enforcer, Glenn Gamber, comes in.

Even though it is crystal clear that council and the mayor have the ultimate authority over the park system, the council rubber stamps wish to unload this naming issue on the "Independent" Parks and Recreation Board, where Tony Townsend's ordinance will never see the light of day, and never receive a vote. And Glenn Gamber led the manipulation of council rules and procedures to make that happen at Monday's council meeting. Glenn did have help. Councilman Larry Slagle beat up on Tony Townsend pretty heavily to coerce him into acquiescing to moving the ordinance to the "Independent" Parks and Recreation Board. While on one hand claiming he supported the name change, Slagle worked, on the other hand, to effectively kill it.

Gamber and Slagle worked together to give our Mayor for Life what he wanted without actually having to have anyone embarrass themselves by voting against honoring the late T. Roy Roberson. Pretty effective. Pretty disgusting. If they didn't want to rename the park, they should of had a vote, and should have been men enough to vote no. Unfortunately, it appears they lacked the "testicular fortitude," and once more relied on Glenn Gamber's parliamentary slight of hand to avoid an unpopular vote.