Glass City Jungle

Councilmen D. Michael Collins and Mike Craig are here, Steve Steel arrived shortly after things started, no one else is here from Council. The earlier meeting today had over 180 people attend, tonight’s meeting has about 50 people present. Councilman Collins is going through the history of the trash fee, which those of [...]

At times I shake my head and I wonder about the residents of my state and my city. As many of us preach about the importance of information and transparency and argue about how best to insure that qualified people are elected, let’s face it, some of those who vote demonstrate they are not [...]

All members were present with the exception of Phil Copeland. Many items on this week’s agenda were covered during last week’s Agenda Review. What follows is items that were discussed in detail or not previously covered or that had a different result than anticipated.
Collective Bargaining Agreement with Toledo Police Command Officers Association (TPCOA) [...]

The story was reported earlier on Fox Toledo that the Dillin Corporation still had not given the City of Toledo the check for the Marina District. According to the last legislation by City Council, the “closing is to occur no later than July 30, 2009.” While the legislation also gave one additional 30 [...]

I did the quick update earlier and now for the longer transcription/notes of this week’s Toledo City Council meeting, all members were present with the exception of Councilwoman Shultz who was not able to attend for health reasons. As previously pointed out, Councilman Joe McNamara is now Council president, he was nominated by Councilman [...]

I went down in person for this week’s Toledo City Council meeting in addition to doing the transcribing since it was Mark Sobczak’s last Council Meeting. With it being his last Council meeting and with most of the agenda items not being ones that were controversial, there were not many items voted on that [...]

This in via email from the Bell for Mayor campaign:
Mike Bell Welcomes Konop to Campaign for Mayor of Toledo
Responding to Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop’s announcement that he intends to run for Mayor of Toledo, Mike Bell issued a statement welcoming the Commissioner to the race.
“I welcome Commissioner Konop to the race for Mayor. [...]

This was posted about previously, where it was reported that Chief Navarre was going to look at the several plans suggested and then decide which one he felt was the most feasible. As reported in today’s Blade he has opted for the:
The eight-sector plan would require 25 officers assigned to 16 beats, which are [...]

A small blurb appeared in the print version of the Toledo Blade on Friday, January 9th, that stated at the most recent Toledo Public School Board meeting, Steve Steel had been voted in as President again for the next one year term and that Bob Vasquez had been voted in as Vice President, which [...]

The Toledo Free Press has the story:
An Oct. 28 Toledo Police Department news release stated Toledo Police Records Clerk Julie McConnell, has been charged with “Gross Misconduct” for allegedly making an improper inquiry into a state database in search of information pertaining to Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16.
As the story also reports, [...]

Fox Toledo has the story…
Toledo City Councilman D. Michael Collins has accused Mayor Carty Finkbeiner for secretly spending taxpayer dollars amidst a looming $10 million budget shortfall. Councilman Collins blamed the mayor for hiring a consultant for work that used be done by the now defunct Citifest – without anyone’s knowledge.

This week on Conklin & Company with Lee Conklin on WTVG the first segment was with Bill Carroll, President of the Lucas County Port Authority Board and Paul Toth, Jr. who was named as the interim president of the Port Authority.
This segment was filmed before the Blade article about some of the emails. [...]

Testimony on Amended H.B. 477
Rep. Peter Ujvagi
May 28, 2008
Chairman Cates, ranking member Fedor, and members of the Senate State, Local Government, and Veterans Affairs Committee. Usually, when I begin any testimony in this great Chamber or in the [...]