Not only would rail service help combat higher energy costs and decrease polluting emissions from delivery trucks and passenger vehicles, improved rail lines will contribute to the revitalization of our cities and increase the mobility of the elderly, the poor, and others such as student - how many Toledo kids go to school in or near Dayton, Cincinnati, or Columbus?!

The Governor has shown himself to be a progressive leader. Intermodal transportation links have always been a vital geographic advantage in Ohio and the failure of past administrations to protect that interest is in part why Ohio's economy lags.

This possible new intiative along with alternative energy production research, growth of "new economy" jobs, and strong continueing education programs that help retain important manufacturing jobs will go a long way toward bringing back our State's economic strength.


WI-FI for Toledo

The Toledo Blade noted yesterday that the company that had been approached about the contract to install wireless internet service city-wide in Toledo has reneged on their deal with several other cities. These other cities had been told by California based MetroFi that they would get their systems installed for free with, I assume, incomes streams being generated by advertising as part of the frame of the internet screen.

This business model has not proved to be a reliable path to success in the past so it is not surprising that MetriFi is now attempting to get these municipalities to make significant payments to complete systems that are already underway. There are no freebies and the internet is still a nebulous entity - each new technology that is associated with it must figure a plausible economic value.

The point really is this: installing free WI-FI was a very good idea. The problem is setting an unrealistic goal of doing too much for too little. As Tom Walton, former editor at the Blade, pointed out in an editorial the other day regarding other issues, even when the Mayor is right, he gets it wrong, snatching failure from the jaws of success.

The City of Toledo would have been smart to have paid a fair price to have WI-FI installed in several neighborhoods in the near downtown as part of a strategy to support entrepreneurs in business incubator areas around the Central Business District. Wire the Warehouse District, Uptown, and Main Street on the east side. This would assist start-up businesses such as attorneys, artists, IT companies, light manufacturers, and residents in these regenerating neighborhoods.

Installing WI-FI in these defined areas would have been a manageable and affordable project that would have shown the City was serious about developing the neighborhoods around downtown as mixed-use. As part of a larger strategy that directed CIP spending on other infrastructure improvements in these areas and the other financial incentives already available, the City of Toledo could make progress toward the much sought reputation as a "creative-class" friendly environment, set the table for technology jobs, and start to make serious progress on job creation.


Debate about the structure of the Toledo City Council

The current discussion about reconfiguring Toledo City Council and reducing the salary of the Mayor is politically motivated retribution, theater, and maneuvering.

“Retribution” in that the Mayor, in a tit for tat exchange with several Councilmen, forwarded this proposal in order to put these Members in jeopardy. Joe McNamara, particularly, and other Council Members are the flies that have been buzzing around Carty’s head. This new proposal for Council realignment is the newspaper intended to swat them away.

It has been “theater” in that the savings proposed from both the Mayor’s reduction in salary and the reduction in the number of Members of Council is a trifling in relation to the total budget and the associated shortages – this melodrama is a gaudy gesture to the voters declaring “I am fiscally responsible.”.

Finally, it is “maneuvering” in that the Mayor wants to make “his” office less attractive to potential rivals by cutting the salary. Most people who would seriously run for Mayor and, frankly, be seriously qualified for the office, have higher income potential than what being Mayor pays. By reducing the salary, potential candidates with mortgages and perhaps children in college might think twice about running.

The voters should not fall for this ploy. We need a very highly qualified Chief Executive for the City of Toledo and should be prepared to pay a decent and fair price for that person. But perhaps the citizens should rethink the composition of Toledo City Council.

Here is my proposal:

Make Council a nine (9) member body each elected by district. With nine members, an odd number, City Council is less likely to have a tie. The Mayor, the head of the administrative branch of City government, would NOT be given the tie-breaking vote in City Council, the legislative branch of City government. The Mayor has this vote under the current system. This unnecessarily bogs down the legislative process and the Mayor should not have both a vote and a veto.

Council should be elected by district because, under the current system of mixed district and at-large Council Members, people in wealthy neighborhoods tend to be over represented and poor neighborhoods tend to be under-represented. The at-large Members, tend to disproportionally represent wealthy, non-minority communities. Wealthy suburbanites have greater personal wealth to fund their campaigns and tend to have similar friends, business connections, and neighbors who contribute as well.

Given that campaigns are as much about connections as they are about ideas, candidates from disadvantaged neighborhoods tend not to be able to compete City-wide in this type of system. This tends to skew Toledo City Council away from the democratic principle of “one person one vote.”

Another result of the current system has been very different job descriptions for the two types of Members of City Council. The “District” Members spend a significant amount of time performing constituent service that “At-Large” Members are generally spared. By making everyone “District” Members, that constituent workload gets dispersed among more people – this provides better service for the community and gives all Members of Council equal responsibilities.

Council should, however, be recognized for what it is, a part-time job. Council Members have one full Council meeting a week (alternating between the regular Toledo City Council meeting and, on alternate weeks, the “Agenda Review” meeting were most of the serious work is done outside of public view). On most weeks, Council Members only have 1 or 2 other Council subcommittee meetings per week. Add in several hours of research and taking care of constituents concerns and on the average week, Toledo City Council Members should only need 18 – 24 per week. The actual work-load for Council Members is not heavy enough to justify full-time status.

On top of this, each Member of Toledo City Council has a part-time employee working directly for them, doing research, providing constituent service, writing reports. The usefulness of these positions should be studied by the Clerk’s office to determine their effectiveness and continued need.

Further, we should not be paying City Council Members for the time they spend running for office. Many press conferences, public appearances, and much research time are actually Council Members campaigning.

The $27,500 that Toledo City Council Members get is too little to pay for a full-time job and too much to pay for a part-time job. Further, reducing the pay for City Council Members and the number of hours they are expected to work will make it more likely that Council persons are neighborhood activists and advocates rather than people posturing for their next higher elected office. I would set the half-time pay at $18 – 20,000.

On the other hand, the professional staff at the Clerk of Council’s office should be fully staffed. These are the people who do the heavy lifting - independent research, conferring with the administration, constituent service work, compliance, and writing – that makes for sound legislative policy and smooth running City operations. This office has run 2 or 3 person short for several years and at times it can not help but show the effects of that.

The City of Toledo has too many politicians right now and not enough trained staff and neighborhood advocates. For perhaps the wrong reasons, the Mayor may be right that it is time to change City Council around.