Blade coverage of yesterday’s Council meeting
27 Feb 2008
I realize that the Blade does not have the space to cover City Council the way I can do here on the blog, I also realize that the reporter that covered yesterday’s City Council meeting is not the regular “city beat” reporter. That said, if you read today’s Blade article, Council assumes control of trash fee you’ll think that was all that City Council did, with the exception of agreeing to have one additional Committee of the Whole meeting on the 0/10 trash issue, from my understanding that is all that is being done, not any additional public hearings on the issue. Ironically the vote on “Amending TMC Section 963.23 to require Council action for a garbage fee past April 30, 2008″ had no discussion and took less than a minute of City Council’s time to go through the vote process. The Blade article did mention that Council President Mark Sobczak abstained in the past from previous votes related to this issue but the Blade article does not mention that this was raised as a concern by Councilman Szollosi to the Law Director.
The fact that there was no mention of the LCIC issue I found especially bothersome, not just because it took up a large portion of the discussion but because the concerns related to economic development in Toledo are valid and this is a critical concern. The City Administration and City Council does need to take a stand on LCIC, one way or the other.
The additional issues related to the Charter Revision Committee also got no coverage…Nor did the issue of the snag in the negotiations dealing with the criminal justice issue or the lack of scheduling of public budget hearings.
I’m covering what happens in City Council to help provide more information, however no matter how popular this local blog maybe, I don’t come close to Blade readership numbers and the majority of Toledo area residents will not be informed as to these other issues. How can we expect our community to be more informed when important items dealt with are not covered…
I think the Blade only covered the trash fee because it is something that most people are aware of. It’s one of the latest buzz topics and a subject that was heavily discussed during last year’s election.
You are right, about people being informed. Maybe (if it isn’t already being done) city council could provide a transcript on their website.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:27 pmHow about if the Blade, or the City itself (via the webpage) engaged in and reported on the following.
Members in attendance -
Members who remained for public comment period -
Members present for vote, and each individual vote -
Members caught snoring or drooling during public comment -
Thanks for the updates Lisa, keep up the good work.
The A-Hole.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:53 pm“Mr. McNamara added that putting the power in council members’ hands will force them to debate the issue.”
Debate the issue?
What’s to debate?
The fee is needed for the budget shortfall and without the money, the sky will fall.
February 27th, 2008 at 3:59 pmOne item which slipped by and passed by 11-1 was the joint agreement between the city and the port authority to operate the Willis B. Boyer. The devil is in the details. According to Paul LeMarre who runs the non profit which runs the Boyer the city will be paying the utilities for the next five years to the tune $5 grand. The ordianance also says the city will do whatever is necessary to maintain the ship as the Director of Law allows. Apparently council members were told the Boyer would only be getting an outlet to plug into not that we would be picking up the bill. After 20 years shouldn’t this thing be self sufficient? Remember the 3/4% is only a renewal.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:57 pmFred, I did hear that vote, but I don’t remember if they mentioned the dollar amount. I’ll have to go back and listen to see if in the verbiage read by the acting Clerk of Council the dollar amount was mentioned. The amount is not listed on the agenda.
I don’t believe there was any discussion on that when it came up for vote…
February 27th, 2008 at 8:15 pmNo Lisa they didn’t mention the dollar amount because the ordinance is worded “utilities for five years”. The dollar amount comes from Paul LeMarre who runs the Boyer and gave me the figure this morning on air. It came as a suprise to Tom Waniewski who I spoke with this morning also. Council was told nothing of the cost.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:42 pm“because the ordinance is worded “utilities for five years”. ”
Who or what party out the ordinance together?
Someone would have read the ordinace before the passage, right?
February 27th, 2008 at 8:50 pmProbably not, with these wakos on council.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:25 pmThanks Fred, I haven’t replayed the video yet, normally they mention a dollar amount so it will be interesting to find out why the normal procedure was not followed.
If you put a podcast up for the interview with Waniewski, I’ll definitely link it as well as listen.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:02 pmI did play the video, no mention of dollar amount and Councilman Ashford was the only no vote.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:39 pmTom was in my office, no podcast. The podcast of Paul LeMarre however is podcast.
February 28th, 2008 at 5:05 am