Gone Fishin'

On August 18th, The Massillon Review suggested that the reason our beloved Mayor for Life was having his loyal minions, Massillon Council President Glenn Gamber, and Councilman Larry Slagle fight Councilman Tony Townsend's seemingly harmless proposal to rename Shriver Park in honor of the late councilman T. Roy Roberson, was that Shriver Park was on a list of parks the mayor was considering selling. Can't rename the park after T. Roy Roberson, and turn around sell it. That would just plain look bad.

www.massillonreview.blogspot.com/2010/08/all-kings-horse-and-all-kings-men.html

On August 19th, The Independent reported that, yes, a list of parks that our Mayor for Life was contemplating selling did exist, and that Law Director Perry Stergios was studying the list to see if these parks could legally be sold. Yes, Shriver Park was on the list.

www.indeonline.com/communities/x297564666/City-parks-up-for-sale

Parks Director Kenn Kaminski, Mayor for Life Frank Cicchinelli, and Parks Board Member Tim Muzi, who was appointed by our Mayor for Life, got together three (3) months earlier to discuss parks that could be sold.

It was supposed to be a secret.

Our Mayor for Life didn't share his scheme to sell off our parks with the citizens of Massillon. It was all hush hush. See, he doesn't have the money to properly maintain our parks, even with a parks income tax, because he had to subsidize the failing and heavily in debt Legends of Massillon Golf Course with parks tax money. His budget is also about a million or so dollars short this year, so he could sell some parks, and replenish the city's coffers at the same time. Problem is, the residents don't really think he should sell off the park system piece by piece. It has been suggested that our Mayor for Life wanted to keep it a secret until his plans were finalized, and he had his rubber stamps on council all lined up to quickly, without public debate, agree to sell off the parks.

Unfortunately, the park sale list was leaked, all over town, anonymously, to a whole bunch of people and organizations, including The Massillon Review, and we assume The Independent. Our mayor was checkmated. He now swears he won't sell off Shriver Park and is totally on board with renaming the park in honor of the late T. Roy Roberson.

We speculate that he had this change of heart because his secret plans were laid out to the public. He was stone cold busted and now had to cover his behind. We guess he was none too happy. We guess he desperately wanted to find out who the "Deep Throat" was that leaked his parks for sale list. With his Richard Nixon like paranoia stoked to a high temperature, we are assuming he was trying to identify his leak.

The Independent, it appears, was looking for a leak as well. It has been reported to the Massillon Review that The Independent, on the day after their story about "City Parks up for Sale?" requested, under Ohio's open record laws, every email from every city council member, whether the email was on a city account, or a private account, that dealt with anything related to city business.

It is pretty clear they were on a fishing trip. But what exactly were they looking for? Was it to pin the leaked parks for sale list on a particular member of council? Did they request our Mayor for Life's emails, public and private, as well? We would imagine that those would unlock a treasure trove of reasoned decision making on city business.

The Independent was fishing. But why? Perhaps it was a result of our Mayor's paranoid ramblings related to the parks for sale list. Was it something else? Did they find what they were looking for?

What we do believe is that by leaking the parks for sale list, the leaker, who we assume is a city insider, probably saved a number of city parks from being sold, and may ultimately be responsible for Tony Townsend's success in honoring the late T. Roy Roberson. Hats off to Massillon's "Deep Throat." Keep up the good work!