The devil you know

Who has the luxury of thinking about changing the way Lucas County government works? Aren't there more important, urgent things to concern us, most notably creating jobs and lifting Toledoans - and, increasingly, suburban residents - out of poverty?

There's actually a vital connection between county reform and economic growth. Overhauling the county's archaic, inefficient government would equip it far better to attract and retain business and meet employers' needs, especially as the regional economy remains dismal.

But you wouldn't know that from the yawning response the case for county reform has received from many local business leaders, or the hostile reaction it is getting from unions. Maybe preserving the familiar, if unproductive, status quo is simply more comfortable than working for change.

Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop is making the rounds of Rotary clubs and similar organizations, pitching his reform plan. He argues persuasively that our county's economic miseries are at least as destructive as the political corruption that persuaded voters in Cuyahoga County to adopt government reform last year.

Mr. Konop cites a host of dispiriting local indicators: high unemployment and poverty rates, stagnant incomes, bankruptcy filings, population flight. The county is falling farther behind the state and nation, he argues.

Mr. Konop's plan would create an elected executive who would be the county's chief economic development officer. He or she would have broad powers to leverage the county's investment portfolio and other resources, and to work with other regional leaders in business and government to make deals, coordinate plans, cut red tape, and get things done.

The executive would appoint experienced professionals to a variety of administrative jobs now held by politicians. Those appointments would be subject to confirmation or rejection by an 11-member county council elected by district. Elected county officials would be more accountable to voters than they are now on a range of performance issues, including economic growth and diversification.

Assume, for the sake of argument, that Mr. Konop is putting the worst possible face on the county's economic condition to make the case for his reform plan. It's not so easy to dismiss similarly alarming data from a disinterested source - a new report from the Brookings Institution, which ranks Toledo with Detroit and Youngstown "among the most challenged metropolitan areas in the nation."

Brookings, a Washington-based think tank, studied how the 100 largest metro areas are recovering from the recession. It concludes that metro Toledo, dominated by Lucas County, ranks third from the bottom in overall economic performance since 2006.

We're No. 94 over the same period in the strength (more precisely, weakness) of our job market. We're above the national average in the decline of housing prices and in home foreclosures, the report says. We're bouncing back from this recession far more slowly than from previous downturns dating back to 1981.

We might prefer to deny or ignore these findings, but they should surprise no one. Will reform of county government by itself solve these problems? Of course not. Can it help address them? Definitely.

So how to explain the reluctance of much of the local business community even to advocate placing the reform plan on the November ballot and letting voters decide? Instead, the typical response appears to be: We need to do something, but don't expect me to do anything. Let somebody else go first. Maybe we should study this more.

Unions' response to Mr. Konop's plan is equally curious. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, which represents about 1,500 county workers, says the plan would lead to cronyism, as if that weren't an issue in county government now. The president of the Toledo Federation of Teachers warns the proposal would create a "county czar," which suggests comparisons of pots and kettles.

At the same time, the United Auto Workers, which represents workers in the county sheriff's office, is complaining about the department's plans to lay off employees. UAW officials say the department and board of commissioners are working at cross purposes on budget issues, even after employees offered pay concessions. That's precisely the kind of problem that reform aims to solve.

Yet too many business and labor leaders still would rather stick with the way things are than take a chance on change. And Lucas County's economy continues to deteriorate.