Is Commissioner Ben Konop on the outside looking in?
Since Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop took office there have been a few times when I wondered if perhaps the two other Commissioners, Tina Skeldon Wozniak and Pete Gerken were so used to being a duo that they had not really made an effort to provide more information/input to Ben Konop. It was not uncommon to hear that former Lucas County Commissioner Maggie Thurber was not aware of decisions made/pending, but supposedly that was going to change since she was a Republican and Ben Konop is a Democrat. At first I thought it was just “new kid on the block” syndrome, even though it’s well known that during the primary Skeldon Wozniak and Gerken supported Phil Copeland, Konop won the primary and then won the general election. I do have to admit when I attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Arena, while it’s obvious that Commissioner Gerken is the one who deserved a great deal of credit for the project, hearing Commissioner Konop having his role described by Commissioner Skeldon Wozniak as making sure the arena was fun made me pause for a moment. It seemed dismissive, but I felt that perhaps I was over analyzing that moment so I didn’t make an issue of it.
The situation with LCIC and Konop’s concerns related to performance issues with Shawn Ferguson has created a bit of a public perception that it’s a personal issue between the two men, especially given some of the quotes in the Blade stated to have been made by Commissioner Gerken, just one example:
Mr. Gerken, who worked to create the LCIC and sits on its nine-member executive board, said Mr. Ferguson has refused to complete tasks given to him by Mr. Konop on multiple occasions.
Mr. Gerken said he has a different view of Mr. Ferguson’s job performance than Mr. Konop, noting that his own working relationship with Mr. Ferguson was better.
“There happens to be a disconnect between Shawn and Ben, and it’s Shawn’s responsibility to make sure one of his major investors feels better about his job performance,” Mr. Gerken said.
When you read this morning’s Blade, it’s obvious that Commissioner Gerken has been working well with Shawn Ferguson, to the point of neither one involving or informing Commissioner Konop on something that he had been trying to work on and felt was important enough that he had paid for a trip to China on his own and not on taxpayer dollars to try to accomplish.
The reality is if the contract with Rictor International, was dated March 12 and was for six months why rather than just inform Konop about this Shawn Ferguson did this:
The Chinese delegation arrived the following day and was subjected to a hastily assembled presentation from three companies that sparked no interest from the overseas visitors.
One of the presenters was Mr. Ferguson’s brother, Kevin, who was representing the Roamer Company and spoke to the Chinese about a collapsible motorized wheelchair.
Two specific projects are mentioned in addition to the Chinese trade issue, one is related to a small business loan project that in the beginning of January Commissioner Konop had asked for a written proposal with definitions to create a loan program for small businesses from LCIC. I asked for and received the copy of what was received over a month later. I’ll let you judge for yourself what you think about the quality of this as a proposal, click on it for the complete view:
The other issue relating to “recycled” material on the deal to sell county-owned land is also accurate, an original memo dated May 30th stated there was a transaction closing date expected of July 31, 2007. A memo sent on August 16th contained the exact same information as the May 30th memo including the same July 31st transaction closing date, which was then incorrect. In fact the August 16th memo was identical to the May 30th, except for a small item concerning an environmental study that needed to be done. That sale has still not been completed.
Granted it has been a few years since I’ve been in the corporate work world but I’m fairly confident that had I performed like this for my employer, my days as an employee would be numbered. Are these isolated incidents? Is this real reason why Ben Konop is not getting more cooperation in his requests or being given information is because the “unofficial” policy coming from the other two Commissioners is to not include him on the same level as a Commissioner as they are? The three Lucas County Commissioners should be a trio not a duo, and it does appear from what is coming out that the title of this post is true, Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop is on the outside looking in.
Part of the problem, as I’ve written previously, is the organizational structure of the LCIC and the fact that the county wanted their internal economic development staff located in the LCIC and reporting to the e.d. of the LCIC.
The ‘loan’ outline is typical of many other loan outlines I’ve seen from numerous sources and I see nothing wrong with it as an outline of such a program.
Interestingly, I would question whether or not a single board member of the LCIC would have the ability to ‘instruct’ staff to provide a written proposal for a new loan program to be offered through the organization. This appears to be something that should go before the full board and the executive committee before it got into more details, to be sure that the full board supports such an initiative (in addition to the other loan programs they already administer).
There’s more to this than meets the eye, that’s for sure.
But having the benefit of anticipating such conflicts in authority between the commissioners and the LCIC board when it came to issuing instructions to the executive director or to the county staff who were put into an independent non-profit organization and required to report to the organization’s executive director…I’m not suprised at the disconnect between a new commissioner and someone who doesn’t ‘actually’ work for the county.
October 9th, 2007 at 4:49 pmBeing half-flip here, I am torn between this being a continuation of the Blade/Konop media love affair non-stop campaigning marathon or whining. Seriously, perhaps less time working on buidling up the Lucas County welfare state and actually creating a business friendly government / environment could be the best thing for economic development and the betterment of the county and its citizens.
October 9th, 2007 at 5:05 pmI’d suggest beyond the suggested in half flip, Blade/Konop media love affair, that there are some valid questions being raised when it comes to the LCIC and what has been accomplished. If the Rictor International contract was supposed to be for six months, signed in March, it’s been over 6 months and I wonder what economic accomplishments have come from the $18,000 spent. I googled Rictor and found nothing on them at all on the net. If you search KPGL Innovations what is out there is not impressive at all – all it is is a sample webpage. I’d really be interested in knowing what the County got for the $600.00 a month paid to Lee Russell, and what type of business relationships have been developed.
I think it’s better to point out issues and to ask questions, and since it’s obvious that doing this will open him up to some criticism, at least Ben Konop is not taking the quiet rock no boat mentality.
October 9th, 2007 at 5:34 pmI have been wondering what is up with the Commissioners.
Konop seems/seemed to be the one doing or what looked doing something with nary a peep from the others.
“The three Lucas County Commissioners should be a trio not a duo….”
This is Lucas County after all where change comes slowly and stubbornly.
October 9th, 2007 at 7:17 pmI question what Mr. Konop has really accomplished since being elected a county commsioner except for coming up with all these wonderful ideas none of which have come to fruition.
He has all the makings of being another little spoon-fed,best education money can buy, never worked a real job for very long Carty Finkbeiner clone.
October 9th, 2007 at 10:27 pmIf you do a quick search here of some of things that have been reported here as accomplishments there are quite a few:
one
two
three
four
And there are more…
October 9th, 2007 at 11:18 pmLisa,
The only problem was that you stopped counting too soon. This lack of accomplishment, political back-biting, and media complicity makes me want to count to 10.
And I would too if I could …
October 10th, 2007 at 7:48 am[...] The Glass City Jungle does. [...]
October 10th, 2007 at 7:52 amBeing purposefully obtuse, there are three commissioners because there are not but one.
October 10th, 2007 at 7:53 amWhat is the value of the Lucas County Wiki with so much of the information readily available through Google.
When the report for the 21st. moves from the book shelf to the real world and is applied then we can discuss the reports use and accomplishments. Granted that Konop did push for it. And some of the membership of the committee seemed to me at least not the best choices to lead us into the future. The former Mayor on the committee was the same one that was reported to have made secret land purchases for the city and the deals went sour.
October 10th, 2007 at 7:57 amTim, I could have done more than ten since he was elected, without including things like the statement on the Court House. Considering he has been kept out of the loop, the real question should be how much more would he have accomplished if that didn’t exist?
October 10th, 2007 at 9:20 amNC, I find value in wiki’s, especially when used as a resource as that one was created to be for residents of Lucas County. There was no one location for them to go to and with google, if you don’t know which terms to search for (which many people don’t) it can take you hours if ever to find information on local organizations.
October 10th, 2007 at 9:24 amSorry Lisa, for being deliberately obtuse. My version of counting to 10 was a form of anger management. My inability to do so, simply an illustration of my simple-minded approach to life.
October 10th, 2007 at 11:54 amThat’s okay Tim, I’m not exactly on the ball today as far as comprehension, not enough sleep or caffeine.
October 10th, 2007 at 11:58 am“NC, I find value in wiki’s, especially when used as a resource as that one was created to be for residents of Lucas County. There was no one location for them to go to and with google, if you don’t know which terms to search for (which many people don’t) it can take you hours if ever to find information on local organizations.”
Yes, wiki’s can be good. No doubt about it. Wikipedia is a great tool.
But, in this case and in my opinion, the county would be better served with a directory or a search engine/directory and not a wiki as a wiki is usually editable.
I think most Lucas county folks would not spend hours looking for info on Google as it has ramped up more and more.
October 10th, 2007 at 12:02 pm