Glass City Jungle

This week on Conklin & Company on WTVG first up was Toledo Council President Mark Sobczak on the Budget, second section was advice to home owners related to foreclosure, Elizabeth Kollar, Fifth Third senior vice president and Keith Foster from the Fair Housing Center were on the program. Take Three saw the return of Schylar Meadows and District 5 Toledo City Councilman Tom Waniewski. As always, this is not a direct transcript but is notes typed while the program is being aired.

Lee Conklin while introducing Council President Mark Sobczak stated at the time of taping the details were being released on the Mayor’s plan to balance the Budget, Sobczak said yes, an additional 2 million from 08 and an 11 million from 09 needed to be balanced, Conklin asked if the City would face massive layoffs. Sobczak stated Toledo already has one of the lowest ratios of public employees to residents, 9.2 municipal employees per 1,000 as an example Cincinnati has 12 per thousand, so to have lay offs would create reduction in services, if all of our counter parts were doing it with more and still struggling, that indicates the economic issues being faced. Conklin asked 12 people are going to be laid off? Sobczak said no police lay offs no fire layoffs, Conklin biggest cost saving? Sobczak stated the 50% tax reduction, now we are giving 100% credit and we are going to trim that back to a 50% credit. If he worked in an area that taxed 1.5 he’d pay the 1.5 to them, he’d get credit for that and would only have to pay Toledo the difference of the .75 owed. The other cities still get theirs, at $36,000 average income being tax you’ll pay $285.00 more for the year, if you work in a community that collects 2.25 you’ll have to pay half of the 2.25 to Toledo costing you over $400.00 a year? (That I am not clear on but that appears to be exactly what Mark Sobczak stated.) They are planning in putting this in place instantly because they are basing the collection amount on ten months for 2009. Once again there was no mention of the impact on this for those who work in a JEDZ area.

Conklin brought up Reinbolt asking employees to take voluntary cuts, Sobczak says this calls for exempt employees to work four 9 hours days, they’re trying to look at ways to do this without impacting senior employees pensions. Sobczak said it’s better to ask for volunteers. Conklin stated some of the usual suspects were not happy with having the details sooner on the budget details, Sobczak thinks at the library what was done could be comfortable, larger capacity than what council chambers could have done; he stated that he and George Sarantou met with the Mayor and some of his staff Saturday at breakfast; they shut the back door and talked about some of these details but the plan was in flux. (Yes, it could be asked why Council President Sobczak and Finance Committee Chairman Sarantou did not share this information with other Council members, but it wasn’t.)

Conklin asked about future of the union for city employees; Sobczak said union membership has increased by 2% in the workforce in the U.S. that “tough times call for tough leaders” saying these are not good options but the best ones we have, Local 7 and UAW have demonstrated their willingness to keep jobs in this community. Sobczak pointed out his feeling on the automaker bailout reaction not beings supportive of those who fought so hard against giving the automakers 15 billion to actually build something, when they handed over 700 billion to Wall Street and the banks for paper, he doesn’t know what they got for that. He’s hoping for senate hearings like back in the 1930’s asking where did this money go and what did they do with it.

On to the topic of Home Foreclosure with Elizabeth Kollar and Keith Foster, Conklin asked from a Fifth Third perspective how are things going? Kollar stated there have been some positives, the opportunity to refinance borrowers is a positive, going into the first quarter of 2009 that these still exist, opportunities to invest/save money interest rates at around 5% that’s a pretty attractive 30 year term.

Conklin asked where the Fair Housing Center comes in, Foster said people come in all the way through the process, in the past they started out with people who had bad loans (predatory loans) they had lenders like Fifth Third that would try to help with options, now they are seeing even people as a part of that product (not having predatory loans) where people have lost their jobs and they want see if there is a way out of this.

Conklin asked Elizabeth Kollar how many payments can you miss before the foreclosure process starts; Kollar answered once you miss 4 payments the language gets more severe, they advise clients to call, get engaged with the lender, there is a process that they can investigate through the lender, most times it might not be directly through Fifth Third, they are a conduit, they help facilitate that process, if you come to us and know you are going to be delinquent, can you refinance, can you restructure – next step is a hardship package and the investor has the option to see if there are options or are you too far behind where you have to sell.

Conklin asked about the banking community reaction to Representative Marcy Kaptur telling people to “stay in your home, legally you have options,” Kollar responded that what it provoked is the borrower to say “what are my options” if you are just going to sit there nothing will happpen, pick up the phone or answer the phone, chances are if you are that far behind they are calling you. Keith there is some misunderstanding some mortgage companies have not been interested in communication, that bridges were burned, but there is a time line where at some point someone might offer options, even if its been difficult, keep communicating. Fifth Third offers loss mitigation classes that you can attend so that you understand the language, Kollar recommends people go someplace where you can get educated, they offer workshops to help people through that process, when you see it advertised go to one, just don’t sit there, you’re going to read language that will mean nothing to you.

Keith Foster stated they deal with people all the times who are in tears, some of them we can help, some of them they can’t, it’s a terrible emotional toll on people, he tells people stress is something you do to yourself you don’t need to lose your health as well, they need to find a partner; in Toledo we have been lucky that the commissioners have been proactive, there are some rescue funds, sometimes if a lender wants to do a loan with a down payment these rescue funds can make a difference.

Conklin asked Foster’s reaction to Geithner’s speech; Foster responded no thunder short on details, he wants to be able to say this is what you can expect, now the process is so individualized because it’s based on the investor. One person from one bank can get one deal and another one does not.

Take Three with Schylar Meadows and Tom Waniewski, Conklin pointed out that Sobczak was here earlier, what did they think were the best ideas? Waniewski gives the administration some credit for coming up with a creative ides, he wants to learn more on the implication on tax increase and the impact of the changes of the work week. Conklin asked Meadows her reaction, she stated, we are in a quandary too bad we are getting disclosure, now, you can’t always blame the mayor, we have to look at the work week how would it impact trash. Waniewski interjected that this would only impact exempt employees that are non union he feels you also have to give the mayor credit for the trash collection creativity changing the holiday reducing workers with automations. Meadows asked how many exempt employees? Waniewski said he believes it’s 260, over 200 exempt employees, Meadows was not sure that small of a number would have an impact from a work week change.

Conklin asked don’t you have to go into every program and make cuts? Waniewski said they have done that but he believes there are more things that can be cut, he and Councilman Jo McNamara have been working on some things, he was looking for money just to get a police and fire class before it was 14 million that he found at least 1 million that were quality of life issues, that could have been eliminated like landscaping. Conklin said aesthetics should be pushed to the side a little bit? Waniewski said yes, “safe and smooth streets” should be the focus, he said the neighbors in the Westgate area in District 5, donate money and they go and do this (landscaping/flower planting) without it cosing the city any money, he sent out calendar for garbage schedules to residents of District 5 without it costing the city a dime, using donations. He feels there should be a Research Development Department to look for ways to save money in ways like this. Meadows said most people are saying, “I want to know why the potholes are not being filled,” and then you have this ballooning process; how do you address the anxiety? Conklin then asked about safety the Mayor and the Chief of Police say City is safe, D. Michael Collins and Dan Wagner say it’s not – what does Waniewski think? He said perception is reality – he doesn’t care if statistics state 2.2 for every 1,000 he’d like that on on every block, you can not have too many officers on the street. Schylar stated she agrees, it’s the perception.