You Can Catch More Flies With Honey

Yesterday's editorial in the Independent newspaper took our Extraordinary Mayor for Life out to the wood shed.

"Council, in a 5-4 vote, said "no" to the mayor's proposed 2011 budget Monday evening, prompting the mayor to blame them for "... placing the very people who voted you into office in harm's way."

"Those remarks constitute political trash talk in the true sense of the term" (The Independent Editorial, March 23, 2011).

"political trash talk"

"The fact is Mayor Cicchinelli's budget does not balance" (The Independent Editorial, March 23, 2011).

and;

"Americans are tired of this type of governing. City council members, at least the ones who are not tied politically to the mayor, get it and voted down the budget" (The Independent Editorial, March 23, 2011).

"at least the ones who are not politically tied to the mayor"

Can you say "rubber stamps?"

Wow.

Not the response our Extraordinary Mayor for Life was counting on.

Of course, we have figured out what the problem is with the Independent's editorial.

They hate Massillon.

As a result, it is now time for our mayor to begin one of his periodic boycotts of the local paper.

He throws these fits from time to time when the Independent does not tow the line.

However, King Francis the Eternal has not yet given up on laying all blame for the budget mess at the feet of the five members of city council who voted "no" on the same budget they voted "no" on three months ago.

Because as we all have learned by now, the buck NEVER stops at the desk of Frank Cicchinelli.

The Lord Sovereign of the City has called for a special meeting of the city council for 7AM Friday morning.

He didn't do this so that everyone could come together, bury the hatchet, and fix the budget.

He used the meeting notice as one more opportunity to blame the members of council who voted down his unbalanced budget.

The notice for the meeting included more ramblings about how city council members violated their oaths of office by not following their mayor blindly over a cliff.

"In his letter, Cicchinelli blasted the five councilors who rejected the budget, including councilmen Larry Slagle and Gary Anderson, saying they have left the city "in peril" and daily operations "hanging in limbo" (The Independent, March 24, 2011).

"By defeating this ordinance you did an injustice to this city and our citizens by trying to force us to go into shutdown" (Frank Cicchinelli, The Independent, March 24, 2011).

We know. And Kathy Catzazaro-Perry is responsible for the Kennedy assassination.

It isn't about fixing his budget.

It is still about passing the buck, and assessing blame to his 'enemies.'

This is a media stunt. We imagine the Independent received the rambling diatribe laced meeting notice before most members of council did.

Cicchinelli wanted to make a political statement, not seriously deal with the budget.

We understand that the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Lap Dog of the Treasury Paul Manson will be on vacation and will not be in attendance.

How will we ever able to tell? Manson will be discussing city finances about as much as he does when he is present.

The mayor's magic trick, if he can pull it off, is to convince the voters that the five part-time members of council are responsible for the city's budget fiasco, and not the full-time mayor, with the large full-time staff, who employs all the city department heads, who work at his pleasure.

He is definitely off to a rocky start.