Tough Times at City Hall

Good Day my friends. Wow I've been caught up in some really good things lately and have failed to keep up here in blog world. That's not so suprising really knowing my "hit and miss" track record. In my defense a .400 average would make me an annaual MVP in the baseball world! I hope you are looking forward to this string of 70+ degree days the forecasters are predicting. I know that I certainly am.

Off we go now. I was watching the nightly news at 11 tonight like I normally do (I'm partial to 13 ABC here in Toledo) and couldn't help but find myself once again fascinated with the City budget crisis. The City of Toledo was facing a 48 million dollar deficit and that I believe qualifies as a crisis. The council made some very tough decisions today in a five hour session that are mostly very unpopular. Then again I don't know if any decision they made with these issues could possibly be granted the approval of the City's cash strapped constituency.

One of the big moves made today was to force some concessions from the Policeman's union. The City is claiming their right to do this based on an emergency situation. I'm not going to get into a big debate over unions in this blog as there is more than enough debate there to fill several future articles. There are a couple of reasons why I'm opposed to the City taking this stance. First the Policeman's Union already agreed on some concessions last year when the City was amazingly enough facing a budget shortfall. I believe that many of the union members believed that the concessions they made last year would be the only ones they had to make for a few years. Another reason is the fact that the union voted on the "forced" concessions last week and voted against them. The City is basically violating the contract they signed with the union.

Now I fully understand that in these tough economic times most Americans have had to concede a few things. I'm not saying that the Police Department is immune to a little sacrificing occassionally. My stance is that the City signed a legal contract and ultimately should do all they can to stand behind it. The folks spending their working hours in One Government Center are constantly threatening to lay off drastic numbers of Safety Officers. Just recently a letter was mailed to 125 patrolmen notifying them they would be laid off. The City reversed course recently and put those layoffs on standby. The emergency forced concessions ordered today were a move to prevent the layoffs. Laying off 125 officers in Toledo, OH would be a monumentally tragic event, especially within a department that is already understaffed. I'm a proponent of the Mayor laying off his entire staff and answering his own phone calls and emails long before we lay off one safety officer. The Patrolmen's union has already given concessions my friends and forcing them to take more despite having entered into a legal and binding contract should be illegal.

The President of the Patrolman's union is indicating he will file an injunction tomorrow morning to block the concessions and that he is trying to prevent a mass block of sick days. The Union is considering a "blue flu" that would shorthand the department the next few days and weeks. I'm certainly not condoning this but in all reality the department is facing a massive layoff and any coordinated call off would only be a precursor to what we Toledoans can expect in the future.

The great minds that be also voted to double tax City residents that work in other suburban towns and to raise the Refuse Fee citizens pay to have their trash hauled away. These decisions meet with equal opposition. It must be recognized here that Toledo has spent the last many years throwing cash at several poorly thought out ideas. We have a "marina district" that lies on prime downtown riverfront property that sits undeveloped and devoid of stores and restaraunts. We have a massive parcel of nothingness sitting where Southwyck Mall used to stand. A couple of major Toledo businesses have already moved their headquarters to the 'burbs and one can only imagine how many more will follow this trend. The Cities unemployment rate continues to rise as the expendable monies of those still employed continues to dwindle. Yes my friends the outlook for Toledo is quite bleak. This doesn't even factor in the large budget deficit our inept public school board is overseeing. How many more delapidated and vacant factory buildings will we see in our future? How many more boarded up and vacant homes will pop up?

I firmly beleive the grit and resolve of the Toledo people will eventually will the City back onto a positive path. I however don't know if the folks currently making our decisions at City Hall are capable of spearheading that resurgance. Ineptitude and idiocy have long been the platform of our local politicians. Yet we continue to do business as usual, electing and re-electing the same tired progress-stifling politicians. Maybe if we re-elect them just one more time things will work out differently. I'm certain of one thing. Things will only get worse in Toledo before they get better.

Don't be so discouraged my fellow residents. Toledo still has many fine places and events to keep our spirits up over what should be a beautiful summer. We still live in a wonderful City and I'm still damn proud to be a Toledoan.