A Critical Emergency

On December 21, 1995, Massillon City Council passed Ordinance No. 251-1995.

On December 22, 1995, Mayor Francis Cicchinelli signed Ordinance No. 251-1995.

Ordinance No. 251-1995 granted Mayor Frank Cicchinelli a 21% pay raise for 1996.

It then granted him, members of city council, the council president, the auditor, the law director, and the treasurer unvoted pay raises for life.

If you are going to be mayor for life, you may as well receive pay raises for life.

"Effective January 1, 1997, and thereafter, the elected officials shall receive an increase in pay based on the previous years United States Consumer Price Index" (Ordinance No. 251-1995).

From Section 3 of Ordinance No. 251-1995 -

"That this Ordinance is declared to be an emergency measure necessary for the immediate preservation of the public health, safety and welfare of the community and for the additional reason that the provisions hereby enacted are immediately necessary to amend the pay scale for City Officials prior to December 31, 1995."

"emergency measure"

"necessary for the preservation of the public health, safety, and welfare of the community"

Really?

The "emergency" was that elected officials may not, by law, receive a salary increase once their term of office starts. In Mayor Cicchinelli's case, his third term in office began January 1, 1996 and wouldn't end until January 1, 2000.

If he didn't get his raise by December 31, he wouldn't be eligible for one until the year 2000.

That was the "emergency necessary for the preservation of the public health, safety, and welfare of the community."

The pay raise scheme was passed right before Christmas, because right before Christmas, most of the city's residents aren't paying attention to city government. They didn't realize that the mayor they just elected to a third term had engineered unvoted pay raises for life. The public was busy getting ready for Christmas. People were shopping, cleaning, cooking, wrapping presents, and making merry.

The mayor for life has made a habit of pushing through controversial legislation right before Christmas. The mayor, if nothing else, is one shrewd politician.

If the Frank Cicchinelli pay raise ordinance wasn't passed as "an emergency," the ordinance would have required three readings in council, over three different council meetings, and would not have been passed until early 1996.

And our mayor for life would not have received his pay raise for four years.

And that was the "emergency."

Funny thing, when Frank Cicchinelli was running for his third term back in 1995, we don't recall his campaign platform mentioning a 21% raise for himself when he got elected, and an annual, unvoted, lifetime pay raise every year there after.

We are guessing that he did not share this plan with the voters while he was campaigning.

The residents were not made aware of this critical city emergency.