Article published January 26, 2008
Mayor says Rose's call to defeat tax 'uncaring'
Police, fire, trash service would be decimated if .75% renewal fails
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THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON
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By TOM TROY
BLADE POLITICS WRITER
Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner yesterday reminded voters — black and white — that police and fire protection and trash collection would be slashed if they follow the advice of a Valdosta, Ga., preacher and defeat the 0.75 percent income tax on March 4.
The Rev. Floyd Rose, a former Toledo civil rights activist who moved to Georgia in 1995, came back to Toledo this week to urge a newly organized chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to defeat the payroll tax as an act of civil disobedience.
“For a resident of Valdosta, Georgia, or any other state to campaign to defeat a school levy or payroll tax in Toledo, Ohio, is irresponsible and uncaring,” Mr. Finkbeiner said.
The mayor contended Mr. Rose also was targeting the renewal of the Toledo Public Schools’ operating levy because someone in the audience at Mr. Rose’s event Thursday night called for the school levy’s defeat.
At that meeting, Mr. Rose told about 150 people that the payroll tax should be defeated because of a series of affronts to blacks in Toledo.
Those include the firing of Perlean Griffin last year as the city’s affirmative-action director and the demotion of the office to a division of the Department of Human Resources.
Mrs. Griffin is the president of the new SCLC chapter.
Mr. Finkbeiner said the tax, which raises $57.7 million a year, is essential to providing police and fire protection and unlimited trash collection.
First enacted in 1982 and renewed regularly since then, it was last renewed in 2004 with just over 51 percent of the vote.
If defeated in March, the city would have another chance in November to get it approved.
“Now we’re down to, do we lay off policemen, firefighters, and refuse workers?” Mr. Finkbeiner said.
“Police and firemen aren’t going to work for free. Refuse workers aren’t going to work for free,” Mr. Finkbeiner said.
“Whenever you have money on the ballot, you never want an opponent,” he said.
He said Mr. Rose’s remarks appeared to be in response to the firings last year of Mrs. Griffin and Dwayne Morehead, the former co-executive director of the city’s youth commission.
Mrs. Griffin was fired for insubordination after she refused to accept the demotion of her office from a department level to the commissioner level.
Mr. Morehead was fired for what the mayor’s office called “job abandonment.”
Both have filed complaints with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission claiming race discrimination.
“I don’t hire, fire, promote, or demote men or women based on their race,” Mr. Finkbeiner said, saying his personnel decisions are based on performance and available funding.
“Pain and suffering is being felt by a lot of Americans in 2008 and it is not unique to the African-American community in Toledo, Ohio,” Mr. Finkbeiner said.
Art Jones, a black former Toledo councilman and former staff member for Jack Ford, Toledo’s first black mayor who was defeated by Mr. Finkbeiner in 2005, was at the meeting.
Mr. Jones said targeting the tax renewal is a way of getting the mayor’s attention.
He said the most recent affront was the mayor’s involvement in the removal of black Councilman Michael Ashford as council president in favor of white Councilman Mark Sobczak.
The mayor broke a 6-6 tie in Mr. Sobczak’s favor Jan. 3.
“You get fed up with it. The only recourse we got is to stand up and say enough’s enough and vote down that three-quarter percent,” Mr. Jones said.
The mayor brought some representatives of the Hispanic and black communities to the news conference to show a united front. Most of them were his appointees.
One of the black leaders, Bernard “Pete” Culp, a member of the Toledo Plan Commission appointed by the mayor, defended the mayor and criticized Mr. Rose, while also criticizing the Lucas County Democratic Party.
“It’s not Carty’s fault that [black Councilman] Wilma Brown and Michael Ashford are not president of City Council. It’s the party’s fault,” Mr. Culp said.
Mr. Culp said he was not at the event to speak for the black community, and he said, “There is no consensus right now.”
Calling himself a friend of Mr. Rose, he said, “Floyd’s way is to be abrasive and get on the front page of the paper. His talk was just a little narrow and he didn’t have all the facts totally straight.”
Mr. Finkbeiner defended his demotion of the affirmative action office, saying most other cities, as well as universities, place the affirmative action function in human resources.
He credited the current commissioner of affirmative action, Calvin Brown, as being “tough” in enforcing the city’s affirmative action policies.
Mrs. Griffin yesterday cited not her discrimination complaint but the mayor’s controversial spending decisions a reason to wipe the tax off the city’s books.
“We’re saying we’re not happy with the way you’re spending our money. This is one of the ways we get your attention. What we really want to do is make him understand that we’re tired of him squandering money,” Ms. Griffin said.
Councilman Frank Szollosi introduced a resolution for possible consideration Tuesday to have the full council endorse the tax renewal.
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