'The thought of the day': To quote or to gloat?

The city auditor quips that a councilman wants him to be strapped to the electric chair.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
HUBBARD -- A city councilman is questioning the city auditor's decision to quote him on payroll checks sent to city employees.
"I don't know if he has the right to do that," Councilman Patton M. Gilliland, D-at large, said of Auditor Michael Villano.
Gilliland said that the last paychecks received by employees had a message on the stubs: "To get ahead and move on, get out of Hubbard and make money."
The quote was attributed to Gilliland, a statement that the councilman says was taken out of context.
Villano says it wasn't.
For the past nine years that Villano has been auditor, employees have received a message with their paychecks. He terms these "the thought of the day."
"I thought it was a unique quote," Villano said of Gilliland's comment.
The inference, Gilliland argued, was that city employees should leave the city's employ if they want a pay increase. "That's not true," Gilliland said firmly.
Purpose denied
Villano denied suggesting that city employees must leave city employment to get ahead.
"We don't use it [the message in paychecks] as an instructional device" to employees, Villano said.
"I guess he wants to see me go to the electric chair," Villano added.
The auditor said he believes Gilliland's comment "wasn't very becoming to the city" and that it was "a slap in the face" to city workers.
Villano was hired as Boardman Township administrator but quit earlier this month after three weeks on the job.
In a Vindicator article about the resignation, Gilliland said that he gave Villano high marks for his work as auditor and that he was easy to deal with and gave Villano a lot of credit for having made the move in the first place.
"If he was going to get ahead and move on, he had to get out of Hubbard to move on and to make more money," Gilliland said in the published comment.
This was based on Villano's being a certified public accountant with a master's degree in public administration at age 29.
After Villano resigned, he returned to his elected post as city auditor -- because he hadn't resigned from that position.
Will drop it
The lawmaker said he doesn't intend to talk with Villano about the pay stub comment.
Villano countered that Gilliland hasn't called him in six months, anyway.
Gilliland, chairman of council's finance committee, said he believes Villano is miffed because he didn't get a pay raise.
He pointed out that all the other elected officials didn't get raises because voters were promised that revenue from a 0.5 percent income tax increase wouldn't be used for elected officials' pay raises.
However, other city workers have received pay increases.
yovich@vindy.com