Konop says he’s identified $10.8 million in savings for City
Also via the Blade, a release was not sent out to share here:
Toledo mayoral candidate Ben Konop said he has identified $10.8 million in savings – including privatizing trash collection – to get most of Toledo’s laid-off officers back to work.
His proposed savings are based on combining some city and county operations and on privatizing trash collection. He said that, at an annual cost of $79,000 per police officer, the city could rehire 72 of the laid-off officers.
On Monday, the mayor lashed out at news reporters who linked the layoffs with the uptick in violence.Mr. Konop said he was “deeply dismayed” by the mayor’s statement that, “Violent crimes, shootings, are not ever prevented by the presence of a police officer, no matter how many thousands of police officers you have.”
He said he believes crime is directly related to the amount of available police officers and hopes to streamline other city government departments so Toledo can have enough money to keep its people safe.
I actually agree with the Mayor, I don’t think the difference between 1.98 police officers per 1,000 residents and 1.75 police officer per 1,000 resident makes the city “unsafe.” Police don’t prevent murders, unless we get to the point where we have one officer for every resident of the City of Toledo to escort around to make sure they are safe. Murders happen in cities that have a much higher level of police per resident numbers than we have in Toledo.
That said, I think it’s a bit hypocritical to lash out at the media when the City Administration used the safety theme in the past when it was asking citizens to support the renewal of the 3/4, elected officials and candidates have suggested we are less safe and police unions here and in other parts of this country have stated that layoffs will impact citizen safety.
Combining county and city services has been suggested by others, this campaign season and previously, the problem with that is it’s not a fast process since it would take the City and the County working together and there would be legislative requirements to make that happen. I look forward to learning more details about where Ben Konop has found the 10.8 million and it’s unfortunate that his campaign doesn’t appear to want us to know about that in detail. The lack of a release doesn’t stop us from discussing it, it can however prevent us from having all of the information…
His idea of combining city and county services is nothing less than a power grab. This idea has been discussed for years so it is not a new idea. Just a bad one.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:01 amThere are probably a variety of ways services could be combined that would be more cost effective, the problem comes in making it happen. There is duplication of services, take something as simple as sending out crews to cut grass, that could be consolidated.
Which is why it’s been suggested by quite a few in the past and continues to be a suggestion by some running now.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:09 amRon Korsog wrote:
Ben has been out to the suburban communities trying to promote uni-gov for some time now. Problem with uni-gov in this area is none of the suburban communities trust Toledo, most likely because they know their tax $ would go to prop up Toledo.
May 6th, 2009 at 12:07 pmSo, where is the $10.8M coming from exactly? The Blade article is a bit thin on details.
May 6th, 2009 at 12:14 pmWith a $21.3 million shortage in the general fund the layoffs would be required regardless of a $10.8 million savings. konop is just blowing smoke.
May 6th, 2009 at 12:24 pmWhat combining is in Konop’s mind, such as the people that
May 6th, 2009 at 2:18 pmpick up the garbage also be police officers?? Or, that Konop would not be
Mayor of Toledo but rather King of
Lucas County??
If we privatize the garbage collection, it still has to be paid for… So, is Ben’s big idea to keep the money the residents pay for trash pick-up and apply that to paying the officers?
We’ll still be paying more! Once for the new garbage service, and once for the reestablished uniforms…
Great idea, Benji. Keep trying.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:19 pmI think it’s important to also point out that they are awaiting the answer from the arbitrator as to the Teamsters versus the Allied Waste decision which is due back May 14th.
If the arbitrator rules that the Teamsters should continue then privatization can’t take place.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:50 pmTerry Biel wrote:
Ben will probably just not pay auto insurance for any city vehicles, sort of like he did with his own.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:25 pmThis in from the Mayor’s office in response to Ben Konop’s press conference:
May 6th, 2009 at 6:35 pmmeghan wrote:
I don’t think konop has a problem spending other people’s money, just not his own.
May 6th, 2009 at 7:08 pmbut….Carty…..you just did the same…….oh nevermind.
May 7th, 2009 at 4:29 ammore details on Konop plan.
May 7th, 2009 at 11:57 am