Mayor notes woes but sees rebound; regional effort promised for success

From left, Toledo City Councilmen Rob Ludeman, Michael Ashford, Tom Waniewski, Steven Steel, George Sarantou, D. Michael Collins, and Adam Martinez listen to Mayor Bell's address. JEREMY WADSWORTH / THE BLADE Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Mayor Mike Bell jammed the news of Toledo's "doom and gloom" and its massive budget woes into the first half of his first State of the City speech last night, but he quickly shifted into his predictions of an economic rebound that includes thousands of new jobs.

"I believe that we have the opportunity in the next 18 months to bring just about close to 3,000 jobs to northwest Ohio" he said. "What we have to do is, we have to start really thinking about how do we create this regional approach that is necessary for us to be successful."

Mr. Bell said he had already begun to "mend fences" with Toledo's surrounding communities and businesses that in the past would have never considered locating within the city.

He also suggested that Toledoans need to start thinking broader to bring the city back to economic stability.

"Imagine a concept of us reaching out to Detroit and creating a larger economic zone with Detroit attached to Toledo," Mr. Bell said.

"Other cities and regions have done this: you've got Tampa-St. Petersburg, you've got Dallas-Fort Worth, you've got Minneapolis-St. Paul. Why couldn't we have Detroit-Toledo?"

The mayor, now 50 days into his term, spoke for just 25 minutes in Nitschke Auditorium at the University of Toledo last night.

He compared tackling the city's budget problems to arriving at the scene of a burning building - something he did many times as a Toledo firefighter and later as the city's fire chief.

"I can tell you, from my former profession as a fire chief, that our budget situation right now is equivalent to a third-alarm fire," Mr. Bell said.

"We have a $48 million deficit that we have to deal with, we have declining revenue and also declining population, we have little or no regional economic development outreach, and still, through all this, we still have to be able to maintain services," he said.

Some of Mayor Bell's budget-fixing ideas have included eliminating 100 percent of the tax credit for Toledoans working in other communities and negotiating midcontract concessions from city unions.

Both ideas have been met with resistance - something Mr. Bell said he fully expected.

Wayne Hartford, president of Firefighters Local 92, who was among the 100 people present for the speech, acknowledged that union members are resistant to givebacks. "We feel like we've given up concessions in the past and it's tough on our members to take more concessions," Mr. Hartford said.

Councilman George Sarantou said the mayor's speech last night was very positive but still realistic.

"It was very truthful and he leveled with us that we have significant fiscal issues that we need to address, but also offering hope to the city of Toledo," Mr. Sarantou said.

A critical piece to the city's recovery will be changing how the city treats businesses, the mayor added.

"We've got to figure out how to be more business-friendly than how do we approach issues," Mr. Bell said.

Mark Connor, Sr., owner of Mac II Enterprises, which manufactures automotive components in China and Mexico, said he is considering manufacturing within the city.

The company currently warehouses goods in Toledo.

"We are from Toledo and there is no reason we cannot be competitive in Toledo, so we'd like to bring something back to Toledo," he said.

Mr. Connor, who owns the company with his son, Mark Connor, Jr., said he has already seen Toledo become more business-friendly.

"I think they are out there not only looking for the big 100 jobs, 500 jobs," the older Mr. Connor said.

"They are out there saying how can we help you bring one job to Toledo."

The mayor referred to the Connors in his speech.

Mr. Bell was critical last night about some of the projects former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner pushed to fund or was passionate about.

"We may not have been as good in the business nature that we need to be," Mr. Bell said.

He said the city could no longer afford to pursue bad business deals, which includes spending about $1.1 million of general fund money a year for debt on the Hillcrest, Commodore Perry, and Museum Place apartment buildings.

The city will continue to pay that amount every year through 2028.

"The thing that makes this thing so amazing is that when we complete paying the bill in 2028, we will not own any of those buildings, so then the question is, why would we do something like that?" he asked.

He also mentioned the city-owned Erie Street Market near downtown, which generates $200,000 annually but costs $300,000 annually in utilities to operate.

The mayor several times emphasized the importance of regional cooperation.

He noted that he arranged it so that Rossford would get the same price for water as southern Monroe County when Toledo negotiated to sell water to both areas.

He credited the Toledo Catholic Diocese for creating a program to help elderly Toledoans with their trash containers.

He asked citizens to believe in the possibility of change and improvement.

"We can do this. It will be unbelievable where we can be in four years," he said.

Staff writer Carl Ryan contributed to this report.

Contact Ignazio Messina at:

imessina@theblade.com

or 419-724-6171.