The condition our condition is in

After taking a couple of weeks over the holiday to do something of a political detox, I got back into it last night by attending both the City Council meeting, where they passed the 2009 budget, and the Mayor's State of the City speech.
I'll start with a couple of observations from the Council meeting. The first is that I noted the absence of WSPD or anyone else from Take Back Toledo. Maybe someone was there who I didn't see, but I did see people from both papers and all four television stations there. I'm still behind the effort to bounce Carty, but I'd feel better about what Take Back Toledo says is their motivation if I saw them at other events like this.
That said, I have to applaud a few things I heard at the meeting. The first would be Councilman Tom Waniewski when he pointed out that the Council has let the city down, referring to the fact that they have not provided for promised city services like police and fire as promised in the 3/4 percent campaign. Second would be Councilman Collins' and Ashford's impassioned speeches against passing the budget based on what is most likely faulty numbers and not providing for public safety as promised. Finally, and possibly most importantly, was that Councilman McNamara's amendment to provide for the people to vote on the reapplication of the 3/4 percent to allow for a police and fire class. I still contend that this adds police and fire too late in the year to do any good, but it's better than what some of the council members (George Sarantou leading that charge) wanted to do, which was nothing and hope for the best down the road. My word to council, you've passed a plan B, now find the plan A, which is putting the money together for a police and fire class that will allow us to see more cops and firefighters in Toledo before 2010.
Now, on to the Mayor's speech. It was quite impassioned, very upbeat, and like so many other things that the mayor says - was tainted by his rose-colored glasses and missed the point in several ways. For those of you who didn't attend or couldn't see it on WGTE, Maggie Thurber has published the complete text of his speech on her blog. Or you can read it on Glass City Jungle.
Having waited to see the end of the budget discussion in council, I was late to the mayor's speech and apparently missed the fireworks. I was told that someone stood up and sang the Marine Hymn until he was removed by police. Kudos to him! Now onto the speech at hand...

The mayor posed this question..

Why is it that ABC News, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The London Financial Times, and the Governor all praise Toledo’s transformation — and Toledoans remain our own worst critics?

Perhaps, Mr. Mayor it could be that, unlike me, the producers at ABC News didn't call the city to complain about trying to negotiate the three-inch thick ice rink that their street had become only to be told that the city wouldn't be coming out to do anything about it? Could it be, Mr. Mayor, that unlike my neighbors, the producers at CNN didn't call the Toledo Police Department following a break-in at their house only to be told that they couldn't spare an officer to come out since the burglars weren't still in the house? Maybe, Mr. Mayor, it could be that, unlike some of us, the editors at The New York Times didn't drive through town and notice the increasing number of boarded up buildings. In short, Mr Mayor, could it be that they don't live here?
In his speech, the mayor pointed out that privatization of some city services was a realistic option. Really? The mayor who put the city into the ambulance business and put private ambulance companies out of the business is going to privatize city services? I really don't think so.
He pointed to a number of business developments in the area, but so many of those are either not actually in Toledo or, like the Westgate shopping center, developed in spite of the mayor's efforts. He has instead turned to these Joint Economic Development Zones to attach Toledo's name to the success of other cities in attracting business.
On that same line, he pointed to all of the high-tech training that is going on at the 49 colleges in the Toledo region. Of course, to do that, he had to go well into Michigan to the north, as far south as Lima, to the Indiana line to the west, and, I think nearly to Cleveland to the east.
It would seem that the Mayor is going with the success by association thought. As long as the areas around Toledo are doing well, Toledo must be doing well too, right?
Toledo needs a cheerleader, there is no doubt, but the mayor is so caught up in the cheerleading that he fails to see the forest for the trees. Cheerleading and positive speeches are just hollow words if they aren't backed up by actions.
Which brings me back to the council meeting. Councilman Craig said of his fellow councilpeople in that meeting that saying they support a police and fire class without actually coming up with the money to do it is just hollow words. I couldn't agree more. This, of course, came just moments before the council passed the mayor's 2009 budget, with the numbers some of them are saying are faulty, and without the police class that so many of them spoke in favor of, 7-5.
This is why I would like to see the Take Back Toledo folks at these meetings. Getting rid of Carty is a good idea, but holding a council that rubber stamps his every move accountable is just as important.

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.

Union issues

In the face of these trying economic times, it boggles my mind that unions seem to be willing to cut off their own noses.

In his latest incarnation of the budget, the mayor proposes three days of layoffs for "nonessential" employees, and the unions are fighting it in court. According to an article in the Toledo Blade, they are filing for a restraining order to stop this because it didn't go to arbitration.

I understand the motivation. Technically, the union is trying to protect the workers' contract, but it seems that effort (like so many efforts that unions make) is quite short sighted. According to what I heard on WSPD yesterday, while the city may not have the legal right to do these three-day layoffs, union officials admit that the mayor does fully have the legal right to do permanent layoffs. What a great idea. Save the three days pay for those non-essential employees and put the city in a position where they have to permanently put some of your membership out of work.

Look at the automaker situation. In spite of the fact that the cost of labor for the US automakers is nearly twice that of their competitors in foreign and transplants (foreign companies who manufacture in the US), Ron Gettelfinger says that the UAW is unwilling to make any concessions. The simplest of economic theories says that if you leave your cost of making your product at an uncompetitive level, you will not be able to stay in business. So, again, save your people some money in the short term, lose them their jobs in the big picture.

Where I work, management put a freeze on overtime. Last year, I made about $7000 in overtime. This year will be considerably less than that, and next year will be lower still. It's a lousy situation that has caused me to find part-time work and tighten my household budget some, but the fact is that I and all my coworkers still have jobs.

A few years back, in my hometown, there was a foundry that went out of business, idling about 200 workers. The six management-level employees went out and found some small manufacturing contracts, put together some financing, bought the building and went about opening it up again. Their plan was to work the floor themselves and make whatever it was the contracts called for. The union said they couldn't do that because they weren't using the union workforce. The new management said that they couldn't afford to do it at that point. They said that if they could develop the business, the union workers would be the first people hired as soon as they were able to hire anyone beyond themselves. The union said that wasn't good enough and went to court. Fortunately, the judge saw things the way of the new owners and didn't put the new company in a position where they couldn't afford to start up. Typical union short-sightedness. They couldn't have what they wanted in the short term and they were willing to kill the potential of having jobs come back down the road. Today, that foundry is still open and is employing about 150 union workers.

What the unions seem to be unwilling to accept about the economy today is that, to quote one of my favorite movies, Full Metal Jacket, "it's a big sh** sandwich and everyone is gonna have to take a bite." The union leaders need to realize that a small bite for everyone is better for their membership in the big picture than putting a smaller number of their people in a position to take a really big bite.

Too little, too late?

City Councilman Joe McNamara held a press conference today to push for a ballot initiative to reallocate the monies from the 3/4% to allow for police and fire classes. Here is 13abc's report on it:

They've also put the entire press conference up on their website. View it here.

On its face, this looks good. After all, I'm all for more police in our town, but there are a couple of things that bother me...

1) McNamara says that a special election would cost $200,000, so it won't hit the ballot until September. So, even if the voters pass it, the police class won't start until the end of 2009, meaning we won't see any new police on the streets until 2010.

2) This is going to take funds away from things like road repairs. We've got so many roads that drive like bombed out airstrips now that I don't think taking away from infrastructure is such a hot idea.

3) I still stand by what I said in yesterday's blog. I feel cheated. During the campaign for the 3/4%, they sold it that if it passes, we wouldn't have to worry about things like this.

The mayor said in a press conference that there wasn't a need for the police class because crime in Toledo is down. I would beg to differ. According to a report by WSPD:

Murder-last year 4, this year 7 up 75%
Manslaughter-last year 1, this year 5 up 400%
Robbery-last year 561, this year 619 up 10%
Burglary-last year 2,565,this year 2,896 up 12.9%
Arson-last year 139, this year 188 up 35%

They also say that rape, larceny and auto theft are down. Rape is a different story, but my criminology minor in college tells me that the other two are due to underreporting. Toledo Police don't have the manpower to come out and take a report when it's just something was stolen. I know this from personal experience. With this in mind, unless someone is turning it in to his insurance, he's not going to make the effort to go make a report just for the record. If they can't turn out to take a report, they certainly aren't going to try to solve the crime, so why bother reporting it?

With these crime stats in mind, I agree with McNamara, we need a police class. However, while this seems like a good plan on its face, it's a lot like putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound. It's an effort and it's better than nothing, but it's not going to fix the inherent problem. The problem here is a City Administration that spends time and money planting flowers and putting up lights in the name of making the city more attractive to citizens and businesses instead of addressing the real issues. And for those of you who may have missed the meeting, the real issues are that the roads drive like bombed out airstrips, the police have a one to three day response time to crimes that don't involve shooting at the moment of the call, and the school system is on academic watch with the state. Solving those problems will attract more people to live and do business in Toledo than any amount of flowers and lights.

Excuse me, I want my 3/4% back

Dear City of Toledo,

I would like to request my 3/4% back please. When we this was on the ballot, you told us that without it, the city would essentially go broke. You said that the city could go into receivership and the state would take over running things (although, at this point, how much worse could they do?). You said that there would have to be reductions in Police and Fire services. You promised us that if we passed the 3/4% tax, you wouldn't have to reduce services, you wouldn't have to reduce police and fire.

So we passed it.

Now, on my way into work, I hear that the city is looking at laying off people, cutting back services and that they're not going to have a police or fire class in the upcoming year. For those of you keeping score, that means that by attrition (retirements, etc.) there will be reductions in the police and fire departments. I heard sound bites from councilmen saying that it will be harder to get things done in the city because there won't be as many people to do things.

I've only needed the police in my neighborhood a couple of times. Once when my garage got broken into -- they wouldn't come. Instead, they told me to stop by a station and make a report in the next few days. The second time was for a problem between a couple of my neighbors that was in danger of becoming a fight in the front yard-- it took four hours. As we lose officers to retirement, etc. in the coming year, with no police class, we'll have even less response.

Fortunately, I haven't needed the fire department.

So, being that the City of Toledo is unable to deliver on their end of the bargain, I would like to request my money back.

P.S.

The Toledo Police Patromen's Association has a suggestion for taxpayers that is posted on their website: