Police and living wage

There were two things yesterday that caught my interest.

The first would be the report I heard on WSPD that a local businessman is making an effort to raise private money to fund a police and fire class. I was disappointed that in the report, they never elaborated on who or how, but I found it interesting. I was hoping to find a link to a story about it where I could get more info, but I could not. Hopefully I can soon.
Even more interesting was the mayor's reaction, saying that the businessman should not bother and that his office was better equipped to deal with such things. Apparently, the mayor hasn't looked at his budget lately. That would be the budget that contains no money for a police and fire class. One can only assume that if the businessman had been raising money for flowers in front of vacant storefronts, the mayor would have been on board.

The second item of interest was Ben Konop's attempt to institute a living wage resolution for the County Commissioners. An interesting idea, but from my research, not something that the commissioners can do legally. According to Maggie Thurber, Pete Gerken attempted this before and was informed of the same thing. You can link to her blog at the left to read about it. You would think that a lawyer would be able to figure these things out ahead of time. Maybe it's just best that Konop stick to his own version of planting flowers and tend to fairly harmless and uncomplicated things like poet laureates, artists and fat czars.

At some point, the city and the county have to elect some public officials who can do something besides rearrange the deck chairs on this sinking ship without tripping over themselves.

Why are we trying to recall the mayor?

I happened to hear part of 13abc's interview of Mayor Carty on Friday during their extended weather coverage. They broke into their coverage, which had broken into programming (a double break in, pretty cool) to talk about the bailout announcement from the President.
The wisdom of the bailout not withstanding (you can, and maybe have, read my thoughts on the bailout on my other blog) I found the the mayor's comments to be interesting to say the least. To say the most, they were absolutely hysterical. These were my two favorites...
First was his comment about the CEOs' first trip to Washington in their private jets. I actually laughed out loud when he mentioned their lack of common sense in spending. Honestly, though, of all the people who should know about a lack of common sense in spending, it should be the man who is cutting public safety spending in favor of such gems as lights on trees outside Government Center, flowers in front of a vacant mall on Reynolds Road, and a shower in his office.
Then there was the tap dancing that he did when Jeff Smith asked him about union concessions. He certainly couldn't very well say that the UAW should give concessions since they do represent a large voting block in Toledo. On the other hand, he couldn't very well say that the union shouldn't give concessions, since that's exactly what he's asking for out of the city's union workers. Quite amusing, quite amusing.
I really can't understand why Take Back Toledo is trying to recall a man who has worked so hard to give us all a few laughs.

The mayor's proof

The mayor called a press conference yesterday to react to the Take Back Toledo effort. In it, he succeeded in proving why he needed to go. As usual, he went out and shot his mouth off without knowing what is going on.

He attacked the members of the group, starting with Tom Schlacter; saying that Schlacter has never lived in the city. Apparently, living in one of the suburbs and only owning a business in the city disqualifes him from the process. Actually, according to Schlacter, this isn't accurate anyway. Schlacter, while he doesn't live in town now, lived in Toledo for 40 years. According to Schlacter on WSPD this morning, his not living in the city didn't prevent the mayor from accepting donations from him during the campaign.

The mayor went on about the rest of the effort's founders, and those inaccuracies are addressed in the Toledo Free Press.

One thing that the mayor missed is that the city charter doesn't say you have to live in the city to mount a recall effort. That's apparently stored in the charter alongside how the city's bills are paid.

The crown jewel in the mayor's speech has to be his swing at WSPD. He is apparently going to turn the station in to Henry Waxman and have them investigated under the Fairness Doctrine. Alongside the recall info and the bill info in the mayor's file would be the news that the Fairness Doctrine was abolished 21 years ago. He said that he's going to send tapes of the last three years of WSPD's shows to Waxman for the investigation. I would be interested to see those tapes. That would have to rank right there with the Nixon Whitehouse. My guess is that is just more of the mayor's hollow words.

In his call for an investigation, the mayor was citing "vicious, one-sided diatribes" about him and not giving him the opportunity to "rebut the falsehoods and glaring misstatements of WSPD radio." Based on that, perhaps what he's actually reaching for is the Equal Time Rule, which actually doesn't apply either, since it is limited to political candidates, not office holders.

As is his style, the mayor has failed to engage his brain before opening mouth.

In his speech the mayor said, "I have made mistakes - but they have been in advocacy for Toledo. Never have I attempted to advance anything but Toledo and its citizens."

I'm not doubting his love and advocacy for the city, however, when you become a trivial pursuit question, are featured on Comedy Central and have a book published about your gaffes, it's time to realize that you have become a joke and for the good of the city that you love, it's time to get out of the way.

Take Back Toledo Response

We've heard from the mayor on the efforts of Take Back Toledo.
The mayor, not surprisingly, came out swinging, calling the effort "selfish" and citing all the work that he's done for the city, such as The Marina District and Southwyck. I happened to be driving over the Glass City Skyway when I heard that on the radio. I looked over and thought what a fine job he did with that. Docks that nobody uses alongside roads leading to vacant lots where businesses were supposed to be. Then, of course, there is Southwyck. I know that most people probably haven't noticed because they are so dazzled by those fabulous lights and planters on Reynolds Road, but there is a giant hulk of a vacant building still there - another fine job. Then there was the Erie Street Market, which is now a concert venue - which is going largely unattended. Of course he did get Costco to come to town. No, wait, Costco managed to put up a store in spite of the mayor's efforts. We do, however have some really nice lights on the trees outside Government Center; and lest we forget, a really fabulous bathroom on the 22nd floor. Way to go mayor!!!

Toledo's bastion of journalistic excellence, The Blade, helping to bolter WSPD's image that Carty is their man; did a followup story about the Take Back effort. Headlined, 'Carty Finkbeiner recall drive launched at meeting,' they went out and found people who went to the meeting and didn't join the board. They also found city leaders who weren't invited to the meeting and/or didn't know who was backing the effort, almost all of whom wouldn't give an opinion. Excellent work.

And so the battle continues. Things should get interesting come January, when the effort to get signatures for the recall begins.

It's about time

I listened as Tom Schlacter announced the Take Back Toledo PAC on WSPD. In case you missed it, you can listen to it on podcast here. Off the jump, it seems to be an interesting movement, but the jury on this blog is still out as to how good it is.
Their first effort is going to be a recall movement against Mayor Carty Finkbeiner. Good start. As long as it's just that. A good start. Being that this is a young blog, I haven't addressed my opinion about the mayor a lot, but I do think the mayor is one of the big things that is holding this city back. Time and space is prohibitive of going deep into that now. I have other fish to fry in this blog. You'll read more as this effort goes, but Schlacter is right in what he said on WSPD yesterday, the mayor has a little over a year to go in his term, and he does damage to this city every day he's in office -- another year of his administration will just leave a bigger mess to clean. They have my support in this effort.
Now, having said that about the mayor, I have a couple of concerns. First, I don't want this to be simply a get rid of Carty effort. Certainly Carty is a part of the mess, but there are so many others in this mix that their efforts cannot stop at the 22nd floor. Schlacter outlined some broad strokes of a plan beyond a change at the 22nd floor. I hope he and his people follow through on this.
Second, I noticed an article on their webpage titled "A Pantload of Negativity." Anyone who has listened to WSPD knows that the word pantload is a favorite word of Brian Wilson when talking about the mayor. WSPD and Brian Wilson in particular, have a bit of tunnel vision where the mayor is concerned and I think that they spend a fair amount of time just baiting the mayor for the purpose of getting rating boosting sound bites. Certainly, they are a sympathetic medium for an effort such as this, so I see why the announcement was made on WSPD, but my concern is how much involvement WSPD has at the top of this movement. As a business in Toledo, WSPD and Clear Channel can have a place at the table if they want, but I want to see someone besides them running the show.
Those are my concerns. Toledo is a great town, it has a lot of potential, but currently, we have roads that drive like bombed out airstrips, the school system is on academic watch and the police have a one to three day response time to any call that doesn't involve shooting at the time. The city leaders over the past years have allowed this city to slide, and a movement like this is certainly a breath of fresh air. I have a few suggestions as the project continues and I'll be listing them in future entires, and I'll be watching closely as the Take Back Toledo effort continues.

Outside Agencies

Why is it that the mayor can't seem to trust the city to do the city's business? The latest incarnation of his lack of faith in the city is that he wanted to spend $60,000 to hire an outside marketing firm to promote a rolling holiday trash schedule. Thankfully, the city council stood in the way of this latest stupid money decision. Councilmen Tom Waniewski and Joe McNamara both pointed out that they think there are less expensive ways to do this.

Of the $60K, $25K was going for postage. That leaves $35,000 to go to the firm for thinking up mailing out flyers? I find it hard to believe that in all of the city, nobody could have thought of mailing out flyers without the help of an outside agency. The city has an in-house print shop to print the flyers. They already mail out utility bills to everyone who gets trash service. This isn't rocket science.

Then there's the $50,000 bill for an outside law firm to represent the city and the mayor in the Perlene Griffin firing. Here again, the city has a legal department. Why does the mayor think that the city's lawyers aren't competent to represent the city? Councilman Collins said that he thinks the fees should come from the mayor's pocket. Given the back story on the Griffin affair, I agree, unfortunately, state law says that the city has to pay to defend the mayor. However, maybe the council could not approve the money for the use of an outside firm and instead make the mayor utilize the legal eagles that the city already employs. Again, doesn't seem like rocket science to me.

I believe that the outside law firm is already approved, but I look for the mayor to take the same financial high road he took on the Erie Street Market to pay for the marketing firm. I see six marketing projects at $9,999 each on the horizon.