My criticisms of Marianee Ballas, Jesus and the Arnie’s guy is on solid ground. Ballas inherited a business, as opposed to establishing and running one. Jesus and the Arnie’s guy have produced only minimum wage jobs except, of course, for themselves. Not exactly what we need at this critical juncture. I might have done something like – maybe, just maybe – brought on board more alternative energy, sorar and biotech people. You know – people whose businesses actually employ high paid educated types.

But like Lisa Renee said (#12), I will be cautiously optomistic as to the rest of the list (well, most of them)

Also on the committee are Lisa Canales-Flores, a member of the Lucas County educational service center board; Dr. Helen Cooks of the University of Toledo; retired Judge Andy Devine; Ford campaign worker Kelly Frye; Marge Holt of Connecting Point, Inc., a mental health counseling service; Collette Jacobs, publisher of The City Paper; social worker Traci Jadlos; Fran Lawrence, president of the Toledo Federation of Teachers; Bob Savage, Jr., of Savage Consulting; arts advocate Rory Shanley-Brown; the Rev. John Williams of the Eastern Star Baptist Church, and Chuck Oswald, owner of the Appliance Center.

* Environment, public utilities, and land-use planning, led by Steve Katich, district director for U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo), and Candace Baldwin, director of the Erie Street Market.

Other members of the committee include Bill Rudolph, a principal of Rudolph/Libbe, Inc.; Sylvester Gould of Gould Development Co.; Steve Herwat, director of the Toledo-Lucas County plan commissions; Dave Huey, president of Buckeye CableSystem, and Jim Larson and Dr. Brian Randolph, both of UT.

* Finance, budget, management, and organizational planning, led by Dr. Clint Longnecker of UT, and Holly Bristol, an executive at ProMedica Healthsystem.

The committee includes lawyer Fritz Byers; Dr. Lynn Bachelor, Dr. Paul Kozlowski, and Joyce Chapple, all of UT, and James Haudan of Root Learning, Inc.

* Housing, neighborhoods, health, and community relations, led by Jackie Martin of the Lucas County mental health board, and Jim Hoffman, an executive at KeyBank.

Also on the committee are James Caldwell of the Toledo Northwestern Ohio Food Bank; dentist Joseph Hampton; labor leader Ron Stormer; community activist Howard Cross; Lee Dunn of Charter One Bank; Hugh Grefe, director of Local Initiatives Support Corp.; Doni Miller, chief executive officer of the Cordelia Martin Health Center; Barbara Rudnecki of UT; community activist Ben Tallerico, and Deb Barnett, an executive at Huntington Bank.

* Personnel and staff, led by Yolanda Jackson of KeyBank, and Bruce Rumpf, a principal of Rumpf Development Corp.

Others on the committee include lawyers Tom Palmer and Keith Wilkowski, and Gretchen DeBaker, proprietor of Sufficient Grounds coffee shops.

Toledo Mayor-elect Jack Ford has named additional people to participate on committees working to aid his transition into office in three weeks.

Lawyer Cherrefe Kadri will join the public safety, law, and criminal justice committee.

Sylvia Muniz-Mutchler, a local Hispanic activist, has been assigned to the personnel and staff committee.

Ray Boezi, project manager for the Toledo Cultural Arts Center, has been added to the environment, public utilities, and land use planning committee.

Joel Lipman, an English professor at the University of Toledo, will join the education, youth, natural resources, and the arts committee.

Mr. Ford named several people to an economic and community development and high-technology committee, to be led by Bob Sullivan, chief executive officer of Fifth Third Bank, and Charles Welch, a principal of Welch Communications.

Also serving on the committee will be Betsy Brady, vice president of Plastic Technologies, Inc.; Ron Thompson, CEO of Midwest Stamping; Kathy Crabtree, owner of Health Services Connections; Ken Dobson, director of community and economic development for UT; Pete Gozza, president of Downtown Toledo, Inc.; insurance agent Vince Davis; Karen Ashford, CEO of the Northwest Ohio Black Chamber of Commerce; Olivia Holden, director of minority business services for the Toledo Area Chamber of Commerce; and Lloyd Mahaffey, director of the United Auto Workers’ Toledo-based western Ohio regional office.

Mr. Ford has named more than 65 people to study city operations and suggest improvements.

The co-chairmen are Dennis Duffy, president of the Northwest Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council; Mr. Ludeman, a Republican city councilman; Tom Palmer, chairman of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority board of directors; Kathy Steingraber, executive director of the Toledo Warehouse District Association, and Myron Stewart, editor of the Toledo Journal weekly newspaper.

The committee includes Teresa Graven, who was the campaign office manager; Perlean Griffin, who was director of affirmative action in his administration; lawyer Robert Kaplan; Bill Lichtenwald, president of Teamsters Local 20; businessman Bob Moore; former University of Toledo football coach Jack Murphy; Jonathan Orser, a recent unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Perrysburg; Allison Perz, executive director of the Toledo-based Ohio Council of Community Schools; mortgage broker Norm Rapino; campaign aide Bob Reinbolt; professional photographer Al Smith; insurance agency owner Maria Rodriguez-Winter; lawyer Richard Mitchell, former president of the Northwest Ohio Black Chamber of Commerce, and Mr. Wilkowski, a lawyer.

however, a committee of 31 is hardly productive. it’s a bit like turning a ship around in the maumee river. like you, i maintain optimism.

I slightly disagree with you as to the importance because who you pick as your transition team starts the tone. It is impossible in our divided community to make everyone happy, but it does appear at least that there are some on the list that people do agree should be there.

“Really…Marianne Ballas, secretary to George then his mistress of 14 years then the wife who screwed George’s children out of their rightful inheritance after he died.”

i don’t know any of these people at all but it sounds as though george ballas made all of the decisions that lead to the current situation. ms. ballas has shown herself to be quite a savy business person in that we all have name and brand awareness. other than taylor, she seems to be on top of the game here in town.

this list means almost nothing other than to call attention to people who got him elected and are pals – nothing here to get upset about. when bell starts naming staff and working on budget and legislation, then we can assess his decision making.

This is nothing more than a 31-member transition team to recommend and/or select the appropriate person(s) to Mr. Bell for each city departments and whatnot; the more diverse members the better IMHO.

Sujay, there are at least 12 business people on the list according to my count and who are “you” to call Marianne Ballas, Jesus Angel and Balsharan “Singh” Grewal not business-people? Your comment and attitude is the exact reason of why this city is perceived a non-friendly business community.