Glass City Jungle

Bill Hormann was filling in for Lee Conklin for this week’s Conklin and Company, the first show segment was Toledo City Council members Frank Szollosi and Joe McNamara. Most of the discussion centered around the Mayor’s state of the City address and the recent discussion on the assessement votes that are coming up on Tuesday and the budget deficit. “Someone” disconnected our VCR so my notes are a bit fluid and might not be in precise order but the basic points made follow.

Bill Hormann asked Frank and Joe felt the Mayor “punted” the budget issue back on to City Council, Frank responded that the budget is out of balance but the Mayor does have a professional financial staff that they are part time council persons and it is the Mayor’s responsbility to fill in the budget holes. Council will continue to suggest ideas and involvement but that basically the proposed budget does come from the Mayor’s office.

Joe stated that the City needs to be as efficient as possible and that he continues to support regionalization of services as one way to provide more cost effective services.

Then Bill Hormann raised the issue that if Toledo City Council does not pass the assessments presented to them by the Mayor’s office that money would have to come from the General Fund which would create a situation where the City had to make serious cuts, even layoffs of City Employees. Hormann asked if they were trying to play “chicken” with the Mayor on this issue. A video clip of Toledo City Councilperson George Sarantou was shown where George stated the Mayor needs to make budget cuts and expressed the concern that if assessments had to come from the General Fund it would create layoffs. Neither Frank nor Joe felt this was a game, Frank gave the opinion that it appears there is enough support on council to roll back the dollar amount of the requested assessments to the 2005 dollar amounts. Joe stated part of the issue is the lack of oversight and the amount of money the City has to pay for the debt service. It was brought up that a recent furniture purchase for the Treasury Office was one example of the type of spending that is not related to public service. Later the concept of Citizen based budgeting was mentioned as something that Joe continues to support and that it appears the Mayor hinted at there being more citizen involvement in his state of the City address.

Frank Szollosi prefers the term “dynamic tension” as opposed to Bill Hormann’s suggestion that he was a “thorn in the Mayor’s side” in describing their relationship. Joe was asked what has been his biggest surprise in his three weeks on City Council, he responded with one being the level of collegiality on Council and from the Mayor’s office as far as helping him in these first weeks as a City Councilperson. The letter signed by the five councilpersons against the increase in assessment costs brought up the topic of does Joe McNamara being on City Council benefit the A team. Frank stated that he considers himself an independent Democrat and believes Joe is also an independent Democrat and pointed out that the members on City Council are not always going to agree.

Then the question on the mind of some of us more political devotes, will Rob Ludeman continue to be President of Toledo City Council? Frank said he could not say one way or the other but did state his personal belief that Council should be led by a Democrat that we need a City Council President who can work closely with Governor Ted Strickland. Joe McNamara stated he was the anonomly on City Council not being an A or a B team Democrat and while he does share the belief that Toledo needs a good relationship with the new Governor he was not ready to make a decision on the issue of Toledo City Council President at this point.

It was asked if it was felt that a Democrat as a Governor would do more for Lucas County than a Republican Governor, Frank mentioned recent dollar amounts to Wood County and to Lucas County, I believe he stated Wood got slightly more yet with the larger population in Lucas County that translated to only $67.00 per resident. He was hopeful that more tax dollars from this area would come back to this area. Joe was in agreement on that issue as well.

If you watched the show or Joe or Frank if you have anything to add or clarify? Jump in.