Wilkowski campaign release on tonight’s debate…
This in via e-mail from the Wilkowski for Mayor campaign:
DEBATE WATCH: Mike Bell Reverses Position On Police Union Contract
“Whatever,” says Bell when confronted with contradiction on issue impacting public safety and involving millions of taxpayer dollars
TOLEDO – In a stunning reversal, independent mayoral candidate Mike Bell said tonight that he would have probably voted against the city’s contract with the Toledo Police Patrolman’s Association had he been a member of City Council.
Asked in July about the pending contract before City Council, Mr. Bell said that the agreement accomplished what the city needed and should be adopted, saying “It’s just good the police have the negotiations done, both the city and police, so we can refocus on the safety of citizens. That’s been a distraction.” [The Blade, 7/4/09]
But asked this evening in a mayoral debate hosted by WTOL News 11 whether he would have voted for the contract if a member of City Council, Bell said “I’d have probably voted no.”
“Well then, you’ve changed your position then Mike,” pointed out endorsed Democratic candidate Keith Wilkowski.
“Whatever,” Bell replied. Pressed on the contradiction by Wilkowski, Bell said “Whatever. Let’s move. Next question.”
Yikes. I’ve heard this ‘whatever’ out of my teen children and employees. It always strikes me the same – I want to slap the ‘whatever’ right out of their mouths.
Why would Bell answer anything with a catch phrase that infuriates people on every continent? This was just foolishness. And it made me angry. I don’t want a leader who gets backed into a corner and ‘whatever’s’ me. Oh hell no, I don’t. I get “whatever’d” and I’m ready to fight.
October 27th, 2009 at 12:08 amGreat opinion on leadership kateB…just throw out policy and ideas…lets focus on key words and sound bites.
Libs blast the media for sound bites, but gravitate to the same. IF the city “voters” have the same views as you do, I guess we can expect another 4 years of depression in Toledo….and more socialistic views.
October 27th, 2009 at 12:29 amWhat?! I espouse socialistic views? You need to work on your reading skills. I’m a Christian conservative and am the exact opposite of a socialist. So, this makes you what? Misread? Misinformed? Malcontent? That’s as nice as I can be.
We are asking for policies and ideas. I am so sorry if that offends you. But I don’t really care. A “whatever” isn’t a proposed policy or an idea.
And you want to slam me for what?
Seriously….don’t shoot the messenger pal. We don’t accept “whatever” out of our third grade kids. We surely don’t want it from our wannabe Mayor.
October 27th, 2009 at 1:18 am“…just throw out policies and ideas…”
that is the problem with bell’s answer; he contradicted his own policies and ideas on the issue of the contract. the “whatever” reply merely shows a lack of seriousness and understanding of the importance of the issue. “yada yada yada” may be funny on seinfeld but the small language in those contracts is what is currently responsible for a large part of toledo’s budget crisis and our inability to have city services.
October 27th, 2009 at 7:25 amI grew more and more irritated as the “debate” progressed with Mr. Wilkowski’s “I have a plan” to solve every problem in Toledo. If his plan is that unique and great, why, as a democrat, hasn’t he jumped in and offered his ideas to his fellow democrats on council or democratic mayor?
October 27th, 2009 at 12:18 pmAs to the somewhat flippant “whatever” response by Chief Bell, it was the perfect response at the time. Mr. Wilkowski was constantly trying to catch Chief Bell with half quotes or quotes taken out of context. Mr. Wilkowski’s handlers might want to rethink their stratagy of painting his as Toledo’s only savior. It’s a too strong to be believable.
This is obviously a political smoke screen for Wilkowski.
The campaign will focus on this 1 thing while they get away from everything else like: while sitting on TPS board and commissioner he raised taxes twice, once as board member and once as commissioner.
Dont be fooled. The failed Arena deal, lawyers put the deals together, hence Wilkowski was legal counsel. Any business owner knows that lawyers put the final deals together on projects.
Wilkowski said in the past and again last night the city has passed the buck to other agencies in town and that is completely wrong. It shows he has not talked to these agencies re: Port Authority, University of Toledo which provides R&D, UT Business Incubator, RGP is involved in technology projects, LCIC has the county wide jurisdiction that helps with regional projects, City of Toledo that does tax abatement and environmental clean up.
All these organizations work together.
If the casino issue gets passed the site is only available because all the agencies above worked together to clean that brown field up.
Remember, Wilkowski is a lawyer and always will be a lawyer.
October 27th, 2009 at 1:39 pmJason Says:
“If the casino issue gets passed the site is only available because all the agencies above worked together to clean that brown field up.”
Didn’t Pilkington/LOF “clean up” the site, because they had to?
October 27th, 2009 at 1:45 pmHere is a link to the story that backs up what I mentioned regarding the brown field:
Years ago, this property at 1968 Miami Street was used for waste ponds by Libbey-Owens-Ford Co. as part of its glass manufacturing operations.
Now the former brownfield site has finished undergoing environmental remediation, and it has been capped with no less than 2 1/2-feet of dirt through a $3 million Clean Ohio Fund grant administered by the city of Toledo.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080616/NEWS16/897809530
October 27th, 2009 at 2:20 pm“Infuriates people on every continent”… good one kate. I believe people who have met Bell when they tell me he is very personable. And when he appeared to be getting a kind of “nod” from the media and some public figures early on, as though the election were a done deal in his favor, I wondered how he would deal with campaigning, not being a politician.
Personally, I think he is coming across surprisingly negative, judging from comments like “whatever” that suggest “attitude”. Just my opinion, but I think this stems from being in charge for so man years. Firemen have to be strong, independent, and depend on moving up in the ranks based on merit in that profession. Politics, however, is not a meritocracy. Bell doesn’t get that. In politics you have to humble yourself before others, before the general public, and ask humbly for their trust and votes. Bell is fighting that, to his own detriment.
Body language and comments like “whatever” tell me that he does not like the give and take of politics, doesn’t like having to explain himself (bosses never do), and believes his tenure as Fire Chief should have handed him this election without having to ask for it.
In summary, the “whatever” was very telling.
October 27th, 2009 at 2:42 pmThe Toledo blade online poll has Bell ahead 53% – 37% with 14% voting for “not sure”. I voted four times.
October 27th, 2009 at 3:04 pmI am at the point where I want to vote for “none of the above”. If that option were available for the mayoral race, I’m thinking none of the above would out poll both candidates.
KW is no agent of bold change and I agree, if he had such a great plan, where were the ideas over the last two, four or six years. KW has been in the front and back rooms of Toledo politics for 30 years. He is part of the group that led us to where we are and as such makes him part of the problem. I also am utterly turned off by his negative politicing.
Bell is not a politician and looks more and more like someone that really does not want people to come together on the same page unless it is his page. Of the two, Bell is much more the natural leader than his opponent and if he can get over himself, might be the better of the two. He has to understand that his boss is the Toledo public. But…..
October 27th, 2009 at 3:47 pmwait a second – how can you argue both “where has wilkowski been” implying he has not been involved AND “he has been part of the group” implying he has been involved?!
the fact is carty has been mayor for 12 of the last 16 years. wilkowski has not been aligned with carty and “part of the group that led us to where we are and as such makes him part of the problem.” on the other hand carty and bell worked very closely especially when carty gave the unions the outrageously generous contracts that are bancrupting the city.
further carty and his machine are supporting bell, not wilkowski (despite both carty and wilkowski being dems).
over the years wilkowski has been very vocal with both ideas and critical of carty’s mistakes. on the other hand, bell has remained silent – that’s not leadership.
October 27th, 2009 at 6:26 pmI am so glad the election will be over in a week from now. I had really expected a decent Mayoral campaign. I’d thought we would have some substantial discussions on options and resources for Toledo.
Instead we’re having this….
October 27th, 2009 at 6:38 pmVery well put Zim (#12). One thing – political junkies know that Bell is Finkbeiner’s choice. I don’t think most of the general public in Toledo actually know that. I always noticed that when Bell was fire chief at the same time Navarre was police chief, Navarre always appeared to be the mild mannered one, but it was Bell who did what the Mayor wanted at all times. I guess that would amount to “points” for respect for authority, but not necessarily “points” for an original thinker.
Toledo desperately needs an original thinker AND somebody not tied to Finkbeiner – not someone who is going to put long-time friends into public positions. I am afraid that is what Toledo would get with Bell.
October 28th, 2009 at 3:27 pm