Glass City Jungle

If you followed the notes from the Agenda Review meeting of last week, most of the items that created discussion were covered there, however, with the news concerning the 8 million dollar budget deficit in the 2008 budget, that came up in several aspects of tonight’s Council meeting. This is not an exact transcript, it is typed notes from the Toledo City Council Meeting, words in bold signify a new topic.

Quite a bit of discussion related to the purchase of the carts for the new automated garbage system. Ashford suggested that before we vote on any large dollar amounts we need to really look at it. Sarantou said this was just to purchase the carts and not the trucks, that he felt these carts would be used and would save costs. Ashford said it’s not a cost saving in the long run, it’s a
one time savings of three million.

Ashford suggested a Committee of the Whole meeting for additional discussion on this.

Szollosi asked for a slow roll on the emergency vote, Szollosi, Webb and Ashford voted no – so it then went to passage.

Craig No Shultz No Szollosi No, Webb No Ashford No – ordinance failed.

McNamara spoke about the budget deficit that was just announced and said that while he had concerns that the administration knew before council was told that it was time to move on and that this budget deficit needed to be addressed as soon as possible. He offered legislation for immediate consideration, not to pass tonight but to get on the agenda since there was no agenda review since the time the deficit was announced. The legislation closes out CIP Projects, for at total of 996,900 he felt that closing out CIP projects was better than laying off workers, especially police and firemen. This would fund half of the hole that would be left from taking the whole rainy day fund.

Shultz said it’s the responsibility of the Finance Department to come up with these types of cuts. She said none of these items included on this list have been refused by the Finance Department or the Directors. She is reluctant to approve any of these prior to the review of the Administration. She said that is not the job of City Council, their job is to approve or disapprove and not to identify. She said she knows that there are items on the list in her areas that have not had able to review these, she feels strongly that they need to take a wait and see attitude in the event thatthe administration does not come through with recommendations then Council should either through the Committee of the Whole or a Finance Commitee Meeting.

Ashford asked for a first reading on this for a finance committee or Committee of the Whole, that Council needed to seriously discuss the over 8 million dollar deficit.

Webb stated that she views her role on council differently, feeling that a good chunk of her responsibility is to deal with the budget. She would be remiss if she relied on Mr. Sherbourne to give her accurate numbers given the fact that he miscalculated the budget so dramatically. She agrees with Council meeting and that some of these items she had previously suggested to try to save more of the Ottawa River dredging funding. She also stated even if they accepted every item on that list there would still be a million dollar
deficit. It’s her job as a District Council person to look at prudent spending, we don’t have many options available to us. The time for putting it into committees and waiting is over.

Szollosi commended McNamara for coming forward with some semblance of a plan to address the outrageous predicament we find ourselves in. He also commended Collins for his outspokenness on the labor costs and felt we could have saved money had we had a more congenial approach. This is his 7th year on Council, this is just outrageous that it’s February and they get blindsided by a deficit. If it’s being blamed on computers than we shouldn’t be taking away money for computers but if this happened in the private sector people would loose their jobs over this. It’s not only the administration’s fault but how could our finance committee chairman not know about this, and since we have a Council President hand picked by the Administration is he asking the hard questions? Szollosi said we don’t know the answers to that.

Sarantou said he learned about “the 8 million dollar situation” on Thursday the same day everyone else did. The Mayor told him that he learned about it the day before. The mayor has assured him that they will be coming up with specific suggestions to address this and he welcomes McNamara’s suggestions. He said he has not participated in any cover up, he’s sure that Gov Strickland has his hands full reacting to lessened tax receipts and the economic crisis in Ohio – he didn’t hear anyone calling for the budget director of the governor to be fired. He thinks we all have to get to work to see how we can keep this ship afloat and provide services we are supposed to provide.

Shultz said she agrees with all of the comments with some exceptions, she thinks they should have a committee of the whole meeting, that council needs to have the input councilwoman Webb suggested. she’s been both a district and an at large, many times she couldn’t see what was happening to the city as a whole, she commended the efforts to come forward with the money, however we refer to it as a rainy day fund and it’s raining. She thinks we should see what the administration comes up with and then select the items they think they can support.

Collins said he thinks there should be a committee of the whole meeting, so they can get their arms around this issue, he thanked Ashford for his suggestion.

Ashford thanked Collins for their support and said Council is the protector of the tax dollars. He suggested that we not be in haste to past any budget item with a large dollar amount, he also said they should make sure they close the budget out from that year before they pass the budget for the next.

Collins said we have to have a balanced budget, no matter what happens to our bond rating, it’s council’s responsibility to make sure the city doesn’t go into receivership. 12.5 & 13 million dollars a year for items that are under $10,000, he started going through the list of some of the items. That every month they get the reports and start figuring out what is going on. Collins blames the mayor for taking us down the path of destruction but it’s not going to solve the problem of the deficit, they have to find consensus and we can do that with trust and no hidden agenda’s if we don’t we will be the council that sat at the helm of the city when it went down the tubes. He also said he had enough of Mayor selectively inviting people to the 22nd floor, and that council needs to take their responsibility very seriously.

Craig pointed out the point of order that the immediate consideration had to be passed first – the motion for immediate consideration passed and it was placed into the Committee of the Whole.

Thursday February 12 at 10:00 a.m. the Committee of the Whole will meet on that issue.

Then Shultz asked for a reconsideration of the vote on the carts (garbage cans) Bill Franklin came forward to answer questions concerning the legislation, he said this piece of legislation was just to finance the carts. They feel that automation whether we went though with privatization or not, the city needed to move forward. She said that if the vote is only for buying the carts she wants to change her vote. Franklin said he wanted to remind council that this would be a savings of three million each year not a one time
savings.

Craig said he wants to see how we are going to proceed with trash collection and have this be part of a total plan. They could ask the vendor to purchase these instead, asking about the pricing, Franklin said no they don’t want to capitalize the carts, and if this vendor doesn’t work out the city would not have to worry about the carts and that city’s that privatize do own the carts. Craig said he didn’t want to put the cart before the horse.

Collins said we are not talking about privatization, we are talking about subcontracting – that if we were really privatizing we’d tell the residents of Toledo to find their own garbage collectors. All we are doing is deciding if we are going to subcontract garbage collection out or to continue it by the City. They can’t decide that until they find out what the cost per household is.

Ashford said the reason why he was against spending 9.6 million dollars for containers was not to interfere with streamlining or to avoid subcontracting. It was to look at all financial decisions because of the deficit. For him it’s about them examining every large contract ever ordinance that has a large dollar amount to make sure that there is revenue to fund it. They have to get control of the
finances in front of them. There are two ordinances before Council for almost 33 million dollars.

Copeland said if it quacks like a duck it’s a duck, when we start talking about subcontractors it’s going to land back on the workers, we have to start thinking about all of the people that are going to be laid off, he’s concerned about it, while he knows that it’s to save money, what’s going to happen to the people out there who were doing the work.

Szollosi asked about the notes being issued if they were going to be repaid from the general fund, Franklin said yes, 6 million dollars savings through cutting workers which ends up with a net savings of 3 millions dollars.

Waniewski believes approving this is one way to get it moving faster that they have talked about the advantages of the one person crew, recycling advantages of the one person crew, to get to the paradigm shift to get to this is to purchase the containers. They need to do something different, they’ve done the test routes, they’ve done the study, this is what they need to do to save money.

Sarantou though they had a thorough hearing last week on this issue during the finance committee which is why they voted 5 to 0 to go through with this. They are still waiting for information on the leasing of the trucks. He said this is a separate issue and they don’t know yet if it will be the city or a private company yet.

Shultz asked if they have to return to council to make the purchase, since this legislation is to issue the notes. Franklin said to complete the purchase they would have to come back.

Then the reconsideration of the vote Craig, Szollosi, WEbb, Ashford voted no the others yes so the ordinance passed.

On the issue of the approval of the assessments for city services Ashford wanted this sent to the Committee of the Whole to look into why there has been an increase in these assessments – moved to Committee of the Whole.

Then the intermodal study that’s been previously discussed, McNamara asked if this could be held for two weeks until the budget deficit issue is resolved. No objections.

Then the Local 7 contract – yes by all present.

Then the issue of an amendment to the agreement with the Ottawa River group and the use of the City Landfill for dredging to fulfill the city’s obligation related to the pollution factor submitted by Webb, the language was changed to reflect the concern raised at Agenda Review that the city not contribute a dollar value of services above it’s share of the required responsibility. Ashford raised the concern that as the chair of the committee responsible for this that he did not see the amendment before the Council meeting. He said he agrees with it, but that he felt it was a professional courtesy to let the chair know and that there had been a meeting earlier in the morning with Casey Stephens. Stephens said Webb’s amendment was a protection for the city to make sure we didn’t make a bad deal for lack of a better term that it puts us in a stronger position at the end of the day when the costs are allocated and shared so that the City can be assured that the city is not proving a larger inkind service than what they owe to the group.

Shultz went into some of the history of this…

Webb stated she had expressed dissatisfaction at Agenda Review with the way this was worded and had stated she was considering an amendment, she stated if council wanted to talk about protocol, that perhaps they should talk about attending committee meetings, that Ashford had not attended one of her committee meetings last year. That she asked for a committee hearing on this and instead it happens in forums like this, if you want to talk about protocol, she’d be happy to take her name off of this amendment and put his name on it, because that’s what she has seen from him, so this amendment should be authored under Ashford’s name.

Collins stated that it’s too bad the rabbi left, that they could use him about now.

Ashford said that he agrees with the amendment and he that Shultz does as well, he thinks it’s a good amendment and protects the City’s assets and he’s sorry Webb took this a little too personal and it’s unfortunate that she decided to get so personal, it wasn’t personal it was about just maybe miscommunication or no communication at all.

Webb stated she did not make this personal that she wants it to be understood that communication is a two way street and she feels she followed protocol and if Ashford wants to make the amendment, that’s fine with her. This was not personal it was a matter of public record.

Brown wanted to move on with the agenda she had to leave at 6:00 p.m. the amendment by Webb was accepted with no objection, all present voted yes.

Absences
Ashford – Council Meeting of January 20th since he was at the Presidential Inauguration
Shultz – budget and finance meeting
Sobczack – budget and finance meeting – his mother in law passed away
Webb – budget and finance meeting