Finkbeiner names his transition team

Mayor-elect Carty Finkbeiner introduces his transition team at his campaign headquarters.

Mayor-elect Carty Finkbeiner's transition team is made up primarily of his political supporters, along with two former mayoral rivals: Keith Wilkowski and Rob Ludeman.

Mr. Finkbeiner introduced some of the transition team members yesterday at his campaign headquarters in the city's Warehouse District.

He said they would help recruit and interview applicants for top jobs in his administration and recommend policy positions.

Mr. Finkbeiner won the mayoral election Tuesday, defeating Mayor Jack Ford's bid for a second term by 68 percent to 32 percent.

He said he was unsure whether his term begins Jan. 2 or Jan. 3. According to the city charter, the mayor's term begins on the first business day in January. Since Jan. 2 is a holiday, he probably would start work Jan. 3, he said.

The co-chairmen are Dennis Duffy, president of the Northwest Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council; Mr. Ludeman, a Republican city councilman; Tom Palmer, chairman of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Au-thority board of directors; Kathy Steingraber, executive director of the Toledo Warehouse District Association, and Myron Stewart, editor of the Toledo Journal weekly newspaper.

The committee includes Teresa Graven, who was the campaign office manager; Perlean Griffin, who was director of affirmative action in his administration; lawyer Robert Kaplan; Bill Lichtenwald, president of Teamsters Local 20; businessman Bob Moore; former University of Toledo football coach Jack Murphy; Jonathan Orser, a recent unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Perrysburg; Allison Perz, executive director of the Toledo-based Ohio Council of Community Schools; mortgage broker Norm Rapino; campaign aide Bob Reinbolt; professional photographer Al Smith; insurance agency owner Maria Rodriguez-Winter; lawyer Richard Mitchell, former president of the Northwest Ohio Black Chamber of Commerce, and Mr. Wilkowski, a lawyer.

Mr. Ludeman and Mr. Wilkowski ran for mayor, losing in the Sept.13 primary. Mr. Ludeman had endorsed Mr. Finkbeiner for mayor.

Mr. Reinbolt said Mr. Wilkowski, who was out town yesterday, was asked to be on the team because of his expertise in municipal and school district issues.

"We thought he had some good ideas, particularly pertaining to the downtown," Mr. Reinbolt said. Mr. Wilkowski had declined to endorse a candidate after the primary.

Mr. Reinbolt said the gesture could help heal the rift between the A-team wing of the Lucas County Democratic Party, with which Mr. Wilkowski is associated, and Mr. Finkbeiner's B-team side of the party.

Mr. Finkbeiner said his former volunteer coordinator, Elizabeth Phillips, a graduate of Notre Dame Academy and Miami University of Ohio, would become the spokesman for the transition team.