Lap Dog of the Treasury

"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).

Really? "We'll have the dollars to make it through next year?"

Fast forward to Monday's council meeting.

"Mayor Frank Cicchinelli reiterated his request Monday that the city needs new revenue and told council he'd like to see it "take a more active role" in finding money for the general fund" (The Independent, November 30, 2010).

What happened to the dollars will be there?

Of course, in the 'Buck Stops Somewhere Else' world of Massillon's Mayor for Life, it is council's job to secure more revenue, not the mayor.

We are going to interpret the political vernacular of finding money for the general fund into its most common definition. Finding money for the general fund, in the Queen's English, means, literally, a tax increase.

And you don't get to be Mayor for Life by proposing a tax increase while running for re-election.

That's why our Mayor for Life believes council needs to "take a more active role" in finding money for the general fund.

And as we know, the buck always stops somewhere other than at the desk of Mayor Frank Cicchinelli..

While we are confident that Taxman Hersher and the rubber stamps will be happy to take the fall, and front yet another tax increase for their beloved Mayor for Life, the city's budget, as it stands currently, is a total cluster.

Fortunately the good people of Massillon have jaw dropping, awe inspiring, reform minded leadership on city council to force our Mayor for Life to be prudent with our tax dollars.

The good people of Massillon have a guardian, a watchdog if you will, guarding the city's finances. When the mayor came to council on Monday to discuss his unbalanced budget, he came face to face with a skilled financial professional, someone we are confident grilled the mayor over every budgetary line item.

The mayor had to deal with Paul Manson, Chairman of the Massillon City Council Finance Committee, Massillon's Lap Dog of the Treasury.

One would assume the Finance Chairman must have asked the mayor a hundred questions Monday night, vigorously debating the fine points of city finance, because, after all, he is Chairman of the Finance Committee.

One would be wrong.

"Councilmen Paul Manson, David Hersher and Dave McCune did not ask the mayor any questions" (The Independent, November 30, 2010).

Councilman Paul Manson did not ask the mayor any questions?

The budget is unbalanced. Police and Fire salaries are woefully underfunded. The mayor is proposing to spend an additional $524,000 dollars on golf course debt. The mayor is moving $700,000 dollars of bills from this year, into next year, which hasn't even been added to the unbalanced budget, and Paul Manson, Chairman of the Finance Committee does not have one single solitary question to ask of the mayor. Not one.

It is unquestionably clear that either Paul Manson is so completely incompetent that he absolutely does not belong in a position that is supposed to over see city finances, or worse, Manson is so completely and totally in the Mayor's pocket that he is not permitted to question the mayor's sham of a budget.

Either answer is unacceptable.

We have only one question for 'Finance Chairman' Paul Manson.

Why don't you quit. You obviously can't, or won't, do the job.