Responsible Citizens for Tiffin (RCT)
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Welcome! RCT (Responsible Citizens for Tiffin) was started in Tiffin, Ohio as a response to local political bullying (a common event) by Tiffin University Administration to force 85 year old Dora Monaco out of her private home. Her private home is on Jackson Street, a public through way near the geographic centerpiece of their campus, surrounded by the 100+ year old Main Classroom building, several modern dormitories, and miscellaneous administrative buildings.
Since 1948, her personal residence has been "home" to four (4) generations of her family. She rented two small apartments there, mostly to college students; an enterprise that supplemented her Social Security income. Tiffin University, having failed to persuade her to sell her home, appealed to Tiffin, Municipal Council, long since populated by Tiffin University officials and former students, to put forth an ordinance to close the public Jackson Street without her permission. Since her rental income from students relied on her annual merchandizing from student drive-by's, this would create a hardship. Such a hardship, in the words of Tiffin University President, Paul Marion, rendered all concerns "irrelevant"! In a small-town political battle to save Dora Monaco's livelihood, and for the second-time, the University-sponsored effort failed!
After three municipal hearings, and after being assailed by Monaco Supporters that filled the room with testimony-after-testimony during the last hearing, and where there was presented documented lies, deceit, emails, and secret meetings, council was so paralyzed that they did not vote on the ordinance under consideration!
Instead, the Tiffin City Council put forth and voted in an ordinance to put the issue to a referendum, if enough signatures could be captured. This required the elderly Mrs. Monaco to fund many thousands of dollars worth of legal fees to format and print the petitions. Then, she had one month to collect 475 acceptable petitioner signatures. For the third (3rd) time, Tiffin City Council/ University assumed she would fail. Dora Monaco's family, elderly friends, church, Tiffin University Staff, and others whom she did not even know, rallied behind her cause! In three (3) weeks, they collected 1176 signatures! Mike Grandillo, the TU official who prompted this unholy attack on elderly women, made sure ALL of the signatures where challenged. Now that this was going to be put onto the official ballot, and he was NOT used to loosing to the poor, uneducated, and certainly unclean regular Tiffin citizens who opposed him, Grandillo hired a political consultant to ensure a win. But, he and Marion went way to far.
Twice during the campaign, Grandillo's subordinate, Ryan Fenick, used university servers to send emails that threatened to harm the Monaco's. The last threatened to harm Dora and my brother Ralph, by name, and to "...fu%^ with your house". When I informed the FBI and asked for an investigation, they tried to make me feel like I was a "nut case". Tiffin City police, finding Fenick immediately AFTER the referendum vote, informed me that they would charge him. I asked "when?". Their response was telling: "We need to get permission from Tiffin University before we can go there." Eventually, he was ordered to pay a small fine and send an apology note that implicated several others.
Before she died at the age of 88, my mother, who had fallen ill during this time, made me promise to forgive "those people", and to stop irritating them into making it difficult for those who do not agree with them. My younger brother Ralph died about a year after my mother. He was ill already, and felt further sickened and betrayed and discounted by his former Democratic ally at the Tiffin University. In the end, Marion and Grandillo got their way and effectively rendered the entire town of Tiffin Ohio's regular citizens, its police force, and their benefactors..."irrelevant".
I have forgiven "those people". Mom was satisfied with that. For the rest, we'll all see the lessons learned from what gets revealed by the future.
The blog entries and their links tell the back story.
Thanks to all the regular and Responsible Citizens for Tiffin who won something in spite of the vote count. Theirs is the real story.
Joe Monaco
Since 1948, her personal residence has been "home" to four (4) generations of her family. She rented two small apartments there, mostly to college students; an enterprise that supplemented her Social Security income. Tiffin University, having failed to persuade her to sell her home, appealed to Tiffin, Municipal Council, long since populated by Tiffin University officials and former students, to put forth an ordinance to close the public Jackson Street without her permission. Since her rental income from students relied on her annual merchandizing from student drive-by's, this would create a hardship. Such a hardship, in the words of Tiffin University President, Paul Marion, rendered all concerns "irrelevant"! In a small-town political battle to save Dora Monaco's livelihood, and for the second-time, the University-sponsored effort failed!
After three municipal hearings, and after being assailed by Monaco Supporters that filled the room with testimony-after-testimony during the last hearing, and where there was presented documented lies, deceit, emails, and secret meetings, council was so paralyzed that they did not vote on the ordinance under consideration!
Instead, the Tiffin City Council put forth and voted in an ordinance to put the issue to a referendum, if enough signatures could be captured. This required the elderly Mrs. Monaco to fund many thousands of dollars worth of legal fees to format and print the petitions. Then, she had one month to collect 475 acceptable petitioner signatures. For the third (3rd) time, Tiffin City Council/ University assumed she would fail. Dora Monaco's family, elderly friends, church, Tiffin University Staff, and others whom she did not even know, rallied behind her cause! In three (3) weeks, they collected 1176 signatures! Mike Grandillo, the TU official who prompted this unholy attack on elderly women, made sure ALL of the signatures where challenged. Now that this was going to be put onto the official ballot, and he was NOT used to loosing to the poor, uneducated, and certainly unclean regular Tiffin citizens who opposed him, Grandillo hired a political consultant to ensure a win. But, he and Marion went way to far.
Twice during the campaign, Grandillo's subordinate, Ryan Fenick, used university servers to send emails that threatened to harm the Monaco's. The last threatened to harm Dora and my brother Ralph, by name, and to "...fu%^ with your house". When I informed the FBI and asked for an investigation, they tried to make me feel like I was a "nut case". Tiffin City police, finding Fenick immediately AFTER the referendum vote, informed me that they would charge him. I asked "when?". Their response was telling: "We need to get permission from Tiffin University before we can go there." Eventually, he was ordered to pay a small fine and send an apology note that implicated several others.
Before she died at the age of 88, my mother, who had fallen ill during this time, made me promise to forgive "those people", and to stop irritating them into making it difficult for those who do not agree with them. My younger brother Ralph died about a year after my mother. He was ill already, and felt further sickened and betrayed and discounted by his former Democratic ally at the Tiffin University. In the end, Marion and Grandillo got their way and effectively rendered the entire town of Tiffin Ohio's regular citizens, its police force, and their benefactors..."irrelevant".
I have forgiven "those people". Mom was satisfied with that. For the rest, we'll all see the lessons learned from what gets revealed by the future.
The blog entries and their links tell the back story.
Thanks to all the regular and Responsible Citizens for Tiffin who won something in spite of the vote count. Theirs is the real story.
Joe Monaco
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5/28/11
10/25/08
10/15/08
10/10/08
10/1/08
9/23/08
9/18/08
9/13/08
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