County government reform unlikely to go on ballot, Konop says

Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop on Monday wrapped up the fourth speech in his barnstorming tour to promote a plan to reform Lucas County government but said his chances of succeeding with a ballot question this year were rapidly fading.

"Unfortunately it doesn't look like it's going to get voted on," Mr. Konop told students in an American government class at Owens Community College in Perrysburg Township.

Yesterday was Mr. Konop's informal deadline to roll out a final petition and begin collecting signatures.

Instead, he said the unwillingness of the business community to get behind his plan and "confusion" created by alternative reform plans "lessened the chance that we're going to get to vote on it this year."

The class of 21 students was the fourth group for which Mr. Konop laid out his critique of Lucas County's declining vital signs of unemployment, median income, and population.

His solution is to ditch most of the county's traditional system of elected county row officers and adopt a charter with a powerful county executive and an 11-person county council that would concentrate on economic development.

Mr. Konop's campaign has not caught fire in the business community. Strong support from business helped push an almost identical plan through after a successful petition drive in Cuyahoga County last year.

"I tried to talk to the Chamber of Commerce. They didn't even want to talk to me about it. They didn't want to have the discussion," Mr. Konop said.

A message left with Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce

President Mark V'Soske yesterday received no immediate response.

To get a question on the ballot, Mr. Konop's petition would need to have more than 14,000 signatures by July 25. Mr. Konop said that's too tall an order for weekend volunteers.

He also said he doesn't want to stigmatize the government-reform effort as a failure.

"If we try it and we don't get the number of signatures we need or it doesn't win on the ballot we probably won't try this again for another 50 years and we'll continue down the road we've been going down," Mr. Konop said.

With his plan unlikely to move ahead, the remaining scenarios for reforming county government are those advocated by Commissioners Tina Skeldon Wozniak and Pete Gerken.

Mr. Gerken's proposal to put a 15-member charter commission on the Nov. 2 ballot with the charge of drafting a charter to be put to the electorate in 2011 could be voted on today, although it appears to lack enough votes to pass.

Ms. Wozniak said she's backing a third way that she said would involve a community effort with business, labor, citizens, the University of Toledo's Urban Affairs Center, and former members of the defunct Corporation for Effective Government.

Olivia Summons, a former CEG president, is leading a group of 13 former executives of that organization to lay the groundwork to propose a charter that would go on the ballot in November, 2011.

In yesterday's meeting, Mr. Konop tailored his message to students, highlighting Lucas County's low percentage of residents with at least a bachelor's degree. He cited U.S. Census data showing that nationally 27.4 percent of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 23.8 percent in Ohio and 22.7 percent in Lucas County.

"All the data show that folks who have a bachelor's degree or higher make more money, and also have a lower unemployment rate," Mr. Konop said. And he said future potential employers would look at a community's level of college education before making a decision to move there.

According to the U.S. Census 2006-2008 American Community Survey Three-Year Estimates, Lucas County has the second-lowest education attainment of the state's seven large urban counties.

The percentage of people over 25 with a bachelor's degree or higher in the other large Ohio counties was 35.2 in Franklin County, 31.5 in Hamilton County, 29.3 in Summit County, 27.8 in Cuyahoga County, and 24.4 in Montgomery County. The percentage was 20.8 in Mahoning County.

Mr. Konop said there is no guarantee that a county executive/county council form of government would improve Lucas County's economy. He said, rather, such a government would make it more possible for good elected leaders to make necessary changes.

"It allows the community to have a chance to change these things, if we elect the right people," Mr. Konop said.

Contact Tom Troy at:

tomtroy@theblade.com

or 419-724-6058.