The fact that voters in Sharon elected an independent candidate for the first time in history speaks volumes about the state of the city that once was a hotbed of party politics.
Ed Palanski ran as an independent and finished as the top vote-getter, even recording more votes than incumbent Vic Heutsche, a former president of council. And he knocked out newcomer Dion Dellibovi, who had won a slot in the Democratic Party ticket in the primary.
The city has been in a downward economic spiral for years, saddled with loss of business and industry as well as population. Taxes have climbed and residents are now saddled with huge sewer bills to pay for a new treatment plant.
“For Sale” signs dot almost every street in the city, but selling a property is no easy task in a town where unemployment rates are among the highest in the state.
Voters showed their disdain for the way the city was regressing by voting to become a home-rule community and doing away with the strong-mayor form of government to bring in a professional city manager.
Of course even hiring a new manager has been a stumbling block for the city, as a committee to hire the manager narrowed the field of applicants to two, then decided not to hire either. What is that about?
A professional with some experience certainly would have come in handy right now in reviewing the budget introduced by Mayor Bob Lucas, who inherited many of the problems from previous administrations, but exacerbated them by making a tax shift last year from property tax to wage tax.
In some years that might have been a great move, but not while the country was rocked by a recession.
Therefore the Lucas budget proposes a “worst case scenario” that sets total spending at $7.9 million. But that would require a 6 percent real estate tax increase to try to offset the wage tax deficit, which came in about 25 percent less than he had expected a year ago. Most communities have taken a hit in wage taxes, but not nearly that high.
He added, however, that further work on the budget could result in no tax increases, but this was a preliminary budget entered early because of home-rule charter requirements. Sharon residents, already beset by high taxes, are hoping the mayor and council can get to that no-tax boost level.
Then again, other home-rule communities have managers that present first budgets that are pretty well pared down. And maybe if the city had that full-time manager, that would have been the case in Sharon.
Still, when ever a manager is hired, his or her plate will be filled. The problems facing this city are many and there are few easy answers considering the “old boys network” is still partially in place.
But just maybe signs of that are deteriorating when an independent can win a seat on city council. The citizens of Sharon can only hope.
