Glass City Jungle

Tonight there was a candidate forum held at Dave’s Home Cooked Foods on Reynolds Road, initially five candidates were in attendance, Joanna Baron, Mario Campos, D. Michael Collins, Steve Leggett and Jeff Simpson. Mary Ann Haupricht arrived after the forum started, Molly McHugh Branyan was listed as appearing but did not. Karen Shanhan did not participate in the forum but was in the audience as she, Ed Cichy and Joe Kidd had declined to participate over concerns earlier stated. Joe Kidd supporter, Jon Stainbrook also was there to observe the forum. Dave’s did a very nice job in providing a location for the forum, refreshments were served and despite some initial concerns I expressed as to Rob Ludeman being the moderator, he did a nice job in moderating, questions were from members of the audience. Robert Torres was there helping with the collection of the answer cards. Media in attendance included the Blade, Fletcher Word from the Truth, Fox Toledo and WTVG that I saw present. Louis Escobar was present and I had a chance to meet him and try to sell him on the wonders of Glass City Jungle.

Candidates drew numbers for who would go first in introductions. I have over 20 pages of notes and some of the bio type introduction material has been covered so I’m going to focus on the some of the questions rather than trying to do a summary as I did with the District 6 debate.

What specific education/experience do you have that would make you a better candidate than the others:

Joanna Baron stressed her experience as an Attorney who deals with the City of Toledo on a regular basis as well as knowing the City Code as her strengths.

Mario Campos focused first on his military experience as well as his combat experience in helping him to make tough decisions. He also has experience working with unions and felt he was best able to “sell Toledo”.

Jeff Simpson stated his experience in being an advocate is what sets him apart from other candidates since he would be a strong advocate for District 2. He also stated his experience as a left tackle in Division II football taking on very big, very mean people gave him the additional capacity to work long hours and work hard for residents.

Steve Leggett felt his education and his youth with a new perspective was what he brought to this campaign. He pointed to his working towards his degree in Urban Planning and knowing the cutting edge technology and skills would be of benefit to the City of Toledo. He commented that no politician or elected official had visited UT to see firsthand some of the ideas he and fellow students could share when it came to urban planning.

D. Michael Collins first complimented Steve on running for office, he then focused on what he felt his strengths were, 27 years as a police officer, a BA in Political Science and a Masters in Business as well as being involved in other organizations within the community. He continued he understands what trust is and has held positions of trust including leading the Bargaining Unit of the Toledo Police Union, without ever making threats to the City during that time period but focusing on studying the budget.

Mary Ann Haupricht complimented all of the candidates saying everyone of them were awesome. She shared she had been working on helping people financially and otherwise for years and years and shared a quote from Hillary Clinton, “The best man for the job is a woman”.

Jeff Simpson was the only candidate who was asked an individual question, it was asked how representing criminals such as those facing drug related issues or DUI’s related to running for District 2. Jeff responded, that he represents their rights, he does not play games with the court system and that under the Constitution of the United States every defendant has rights through the whole process. He does not excuse what some of his clients have done but he advocates for their rights under our legal system and places a person’s actions into the context of their life. A safe community for his family is an important goal as well as respect for laws and rights for all of us.

Southwyck, what have you done if anything in regards to Southwyck and do you have an action plan?

Mary Ann stated she has been talking to representatives of Larry Dillin for over a year and a half, she felt Dillard’s leaving was a good thing as far as making progress move forward and that it disturbed her that the mall had been disintegrating since 1993. She felt a solution was encouraging companies like Costco to come there and that we should not focus entirely on Larry Dillin, that our eggs should not be in one basket.

Mario responded that something did need to be done and agreed with Jeff’s comment from his introduction that Larry Dillin knows his stuff when it comes to developments. He said we needed to start thinking outside of the box and promote our Toledo identity, suggesting a Packo’s, a Jeep Store and a Mudhens store at Southwyck. The goal to him was to attrack people to this area with what makes us unique.

Joanna stated she would give Larry Dillin a specific time limit and then we should use eminent domain and take the reigns and do it ourselves.

D.Michael responded that the issue is complex and that Dillin alone does not own the property, and explained about the three owners. He stated he was the only candidate who recently appeared before City Council on this issue and felt that Southwyck is more important to our City than the Marina district. With the tax base District 2 provides and the housing stock that blight would make more houses go up for sale and more people move out of Toledo which would create a further deterioration of the tax base and services.

Steve replied it was time to think outside of the box and questioned if we really needed another place to shop, he felt Southwyck should be demolished and something like a water park put in it’s place where people outside of Toledo would come to. Then concentrate on the Heatherdowns to Airport corridor as far as shopping and other commerce. Young individuals like him discuss ideas like this every day, this is not urban development but urban re-development that is needed.

Jeff believes the Southwyck location is best served as a mixed use, not just retail there is no need to create two half empty malls. A mix of retail/business/residential similar to Levis Commons is what he envisions. He would advocate for Larry Dillin to try to assist him in getting what he needed to finish the project and to discover how to draw people in from outside Toledo, when people travel shopping is part of their experience.

Candidates position on locally owned versus out of town businesses.

Joanna wants more support for local businesses, as a part of her job she has fought with the City on zoning, that the City is not supportive enough of local businesses and felt that the city gives more money away to out of state companies/developers than it should.

Mary Ann agreed with Joanna and asked Rob Ludeman the question why did so much money go to out of state companies. Rob responded that this was not his forum and that he had three months and 26 days left in office. (Yes people laughed).

D. Michael started with reminding people of some of the reasons why Jessup Scott thought in 1896 that Toledo would be one of the largest Cities in the world, and that we still had some of those attributes; water, location, best housing stock for dollar value in area and that we needed to create an atmosphere that is welcoming.

Jeff felt just as you would not eat only one type of food that our area needed a mix of local and national companies, that a variety made us a strong area. Local first should be stressed but that others were also important to our success.

Steve shared a story about an adventure with a part for his car made in China, he stated we can’t make everything needed here but that he agreed with Buy Local but felt Buy American is how we make ourselves a stronger country.

The one minute closing…

Mary Ann said her focus would be on Southwyck/Safety/Spending and she repeated the quote from Clinton, “The best man for the job is a woman”.

D. Michael stated Safety/Sewers, Water/Infrastructure were his priorities that is what is important and was more important than mere beautification projects, he commits to the voters to do that and to be more frugal. He also stated while it may be unpopular he supports the trash fee because of the amount of money residents outside of Toledo are charged for trash collection and he knew many in Toledo could not afford to pay that.

Jeff renewed his promise to be an advocate for District 2 and stated he would bring passion and fire along with his commitment to District 2 and that it was time for South Toledo.

Mario closed with Toledo has always been his home and that he was running as an Independent so that he would only be beholden to the residents of District 2 with a focus on Safety and Southwyck.

Steve reiterated his education using cutting edge technology and his youth to move Toledo forward involving the top minds in all fields. He stated he would get his degree in Urban Planning and that he hoped he had earned the vote of those present, that he did not like to ask for things he wanted to earn them.

There was an additional question from a 23 year resident of South Toledo who said no one had yet knocked on their door, all of the candidates expressed they had been doing their best to meet as many residents as possible. The funny moment in that answer was when Mario Campos stated he knocked on Fred LeFebvre’s door and interrupted his dinner, there was a great deal of laughter over that one. Joanna Baron pointed out her mother in the audience and said if the person who asked the question gave her the address, she’d make sure they were visited, that got a laugh response from those in attendance.

A question as to how they would grade the current City Council was also asked and what they felt their best accomplishment in District 2 was, if there is a great deal of interest in those answers too, I’ll post them tomorrow. If you attended or if you are one of the candidates who would like to offer more information or any clarification of anything you think I missed, you are welcome to post in the comments or email me at glasscityjungle @ gmail.com. If you read to the bottom of this? Pictures! I was solo tonight so I don’t have as many pictures as if I would with Miguel being with me but…all of them can be clicked to be larger.