The Pledge

For the past seven months or so, Massillon's Fourth Ward Council Representative, Tony Townsend, has been trying to get Massillon City Council to rename Shriver Park to T. Roy Roberson Park at Old Massillon Field. T. Roy Roberson was a former Ward Four Councilman, now deceased, considered by many to be a trail blazing politician within Massillon.

The park for which the name change is proposed is within Ward Four. The current Ward Four member of council supports the name change. It is apparent that a large number of Ward Four residents support the name change as well.

"People of the community respect him (Roberson). He's loved by many" (Tony Townsend, The Independent, June 18, 2010).

And it looked for a while that Massillon City Council would support the name change.

Until the Mayor's Loyal Enforcer, Council President Glenn Gamber, and his trusty sidekick, Councilman Larry Slagle, took action. Gamber relied on parliamentary procedure, and Slagle on good old-fashioned coercion to prevent a vote from even being taken.

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

They wanted to unload this issue on the "independent" parks and recreation board. Unfortunately, the "independent" parks and recreation board has a majority of its members, three out of five, appointed by our Mayor for Life. The other two are appointed by the Massillon City School Board. One can certainly question just how "independent" this board is.

Shriver Park was then later "discovered" on a list of parks that the city was researching. Researching to determine if these parks could be sold off. Of course, it would be tough to sell off a park if you just changed the name to honor a deceased community leader.

Our mayor seemed to be in a pickle. He didn't want the name of the park changed, but he really didn't want to come out and publicly oppose the name change either. After all, you don't get to be mayor for life by upsetting an entire council ward.

He was finally cornered at a Ward Four Town Hall meeting. He quickly jumped on the band wagon.

"Mayor Cicchinelli told 4th Ward residents there are no plans to sell Shriver Park, or many others, and he pledged to Councilman Tony Townsend that he would help him rename Shriver by urging his Parks and Recreation Board appointees to vote in favor of it" (The Independent, August 31, 2010).

"he pledged to Councilman Tony Townsend that he would help him rename Shriver by urging his Parks and Recreation Board appointees to vote in favor of it"

Well, the mayor had a nice chat with his park board appointees.

"Cicchinelli claims he did speek with his appointees about the name change" (The Independent, November 20, 2010).

And then they voted no.

At a Parks Board meeting last week, Our Mayor for Life's appointees, Timothy Muzi and Michelle Del-Rio Keller voted against Councilman Townsend's plan to rename the park in honor of T. Roy Roberson. School Board appointee Moe Rickett voted for for the name change. Mayoral appointee Ron Pribich, and School Board Appointee Jeff Thornberry were not in attendance.

It is not relevant if Pribich and Thornberry were in attendance, as the mayor appoints the majority on the board. Pribich is a long term associate of our Mayor for Life and we doubt he would have voted opposite of how the mayor's other appointees voted.

Yes, we were absolutely stunned, stunned we say, to see the mayor's appointees voting against the name change, especially after the mayor's "pledge."

Cicchinelli, however, did make one insightful comment;

"I've been accused of appointing rubber stamps" (Frank Cicchinelli, The Independent, November 20, 2010).

And your point?