Glass City Jungle

This in via e-mail, Kattie Bond is the current director of Neighborhoods, Tom Kroma is the current Director of Public Utilities as an FYI when you read the appointments the quick summary version is Bond is being replaced with Paul Hubbard, Kroma is being replaced with Tom Crothers and both Adam Loukx and Peg Wallace are staying in their departments where they are both acting Directors now. Updated at 4:18 p.m. FOX Toledo has reported that Paul Hubbard has withdrawn his name for this position related to an outstanding loan. Link will be provided later…

Bell Announces Four Directors In New Administration

Mayor Elect Michael P. Bell today announced his intended appointments for the Directors of Law, Human Resources, Department of Neighborhoods and Department of Public Utilities.

Mr. Bell will appoint Adam Loukx to serve as the City of Toledo’s Law Director. Mr. Loukx is currently Acting Law Director. He joined the City Law Department as a civil litigator in 1999 and became General Counsel for the City in 2007. He was previously an associate in a firm specializing in civil defense litigation. Loukx is admitted to practice in Ohio, US District Courts for Northern and Southern Districts of
Ohio, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Appellate District and the United States Supreme Court. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University and Capital University Law School.

Paul Hubbard will serve as Acting Director of Neighborhoods. Mr. Hubbard is a local business owner and previously served as Director of Neighborhoods and Acting Director of Economic Development during Mayor Finkbeiner’s first and second administrations. He further served as a Community Builder for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Hubbard is a graduate of Ohio University and holds a Masters in Community Organizing from Wayne State University with Post Graduate studies completed at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Current Director of Neighborhoods, Kattie Bond, will stay on within the department in another capacity and work closely with Mr. Hubbard in the new administration.

The Mayor Elect will appoint Peg Wallace to be Director of Human Resources. Ms. Wallace has served with the City of Toledo in Human Resources and the Toledo Civil Service Commission in various capacities since 1977. She is also an instructor of graduate and undergraduate studies in statistics at The University of Toledo. She is currently the Acting Director of the Department but will be made
permanent Director of Human Resource for the Bell Administration. Ms. Wallace holds a Bachelors in Psychology from St. Joseph’s College in Indiana; a Masters in Psychology from the University of Dayton and a PhD in Research and Measurement and Health from The University of Toledo.

The Mayor Elect also announced Tom Crothers as Director of Public Utilities. Mr. Crothers is currently the Executive Director of the Downtown Toledo Improvement District. He previously served the City of Toledo in various roles including Chief of Staff, Finance Director and Director of Natural Resources. Crothers has also worked with First Energy/Toledo Edison as an account executive helping to manage client relations, special projects and customer service. Mr. Crothers holds a degree in Business Management from The University of Toledo.

This accounts for the second round of staff appointments the Mayor Elect has announced. Last week Bell announced his Executive Staff appointments. They include Deputy Mayor for External Affairs, Dean Monske; Deputy Mayor of Operations, Steve Herwat; Safety Director, Shirley Green; and Public Information Officer, Jen Sorgenfrei.

Mr. Bell was elected Mayor with 52.3 percent of the vote total. He ran as an Independent in his first bid for elective office. Toledo’s former fire chief and former State Fire Marshal, he received his education in the Toledo Public Schools and the University of Toledo. He will take office on January 4, 2010