A Democratic candidate for Toledo City Council District 6 yesterday launched her campaign and criticized the Republican incumbent for "flip-flopping" on the trash tax approved by council.
Lindsay Webb, 31, claimed that Councilman Joe Birmingham let down his district by voting for the tax after saying he opposed it.
Standing with Ms. Webb at her announcement outside Government Center was Democratic Councilman Mark Sobczak, who also changed his vote - from abstention to yes - to allow the trash tax to become law.
Ms. Webb said she didn't want to Monday-morning quarterback the trash fee, but said people in her district were upset at Mr. Birmingham's unexpected change of vote.
"There are a fair number of folks that are unhappy about the trash fee. Those folks thought that Joe Birmingham had their back," Ms. Webb said.
She cited statements Mr. Birmingham made in newspaper and radio reports.Ms. Webb also claimed the public was left in the dark throughout council's budget debates, for which she blamed the incumbent.
Mr. Birmingham, 37, was one of six councilmen who initially refused to support Mayor Carty Finkbeiner's proposed $6 trash fee as well as after the mayor increased his request to $8 a month.
He changed his position on March 30, joining a seven-vote majority that approved the trash fee to raise about $2.9 million as part of a $246 million general operating fund budget for 2007.
Mr. Birmingham said yesterday that he voted for the fee because council and the administration had cut as much as possible without cutting police and fire protection.
"I have had enough discourse with people in the district to know the temperature of the situation. They did not want a trash fee, but they also did not want police and fire layoffs. That's where we were headed, absolutely," Mr. Birmingham said.
The fee is $5.50 a month, or $3 a month for those who pledge to recycle.
Mr. Sobczak, who is an at-large councilman and not on the ballot this year, abstained from early votes on the trash fee because he is vice president of Teamsters Local 20, which represents city trash workers, and the Teamsters publicly endorsed the fee.
Mr. Sobczak said he got a legal opinion that voting on the amendment to the budget and the budget itself - both of which authorized the creation of a trash fee - were not conflicts of interest.
Ms. Webb is the only Democrat to screen with the Lucas County Democratic Party so far from District 6, which includes Point Place, West Toledo as far west as Douglas Road, and part of the Lagrange Village.
She is expected to get the party's endorsement, as evidenced by the presence yesterday of John Irish, the Lucas County Democratic Party chairman.
Ms. Webb was the party's central committee chairman from 2000 to 2002.
She has a bachelor's and a law degree from the University of Toledo.
She said she was brought up in Point Place and has lived most of her life there.
Contact Tom Troy at:
tomtroy@theblade.com
or 419-724-6058.
Search
advertisement
