Toledo mayoral candidate Tom Waniewski said the city should rethink how it uses speed cameras on city streets and highways, moving them into neighborhoods and off highways and main thoroughfares.

“If you are not speeding, you don’t have to worry about the speed cameras, but the pendulum seems to have swung to one of blatant fund-raising for the city,” he said, adding the city collected 110 percent of budgeted speed camera revenue for the year by the end of July, with a majority of that revenue coming from out of town drivers.

Mr. Waniewski, a district councilman from West Toledo and the Republican party’s endorsed candidate in the mayoral race, outlined his plans for improving the city for drivers on Wednesday at his campaign headquarters in South Toledo.

Toledo Police issued 29,615 tickets with the handheld devices from Jan. 1 through May 26. Of those citations, 13,574 were sent to the registered owners of vehicles with Toledo mailing addresses.

“I don’t want out-of-towners to start referring to Toledo as a giant speed trap,” Mr. Waniewski said.

Wade Kapszukiewicz, a Democratic mayoral candidate and Lucas County treasurer, said he does not think the city needs to choose between heavy enforcement on the highways or neighborhood streets. 

“I don’t think anyone wants Toledo to have that reputation, but I don’t think we’re there yet,” Mr. Kapszukiewicz said. 

Sam Melendez, campaign manger for incumbent Mayor and endorsed Democrat Paula Hicks-Hudson, said the city’s police department should decide where to deploy cameras. 

“I trust the chief to make that decision,” he said. 

Mr. Waniewski also said he wants to improve what he called unattractive gateways to the city, and re-time traffic lights on Secor Road between Monroe Street and Central Avenue. He also called for a halt to transferring money out of the capital improvement fund.

“I found it was interesting that the city was bragging about paving about nine lane miles of road this year,” he said. “Well, we have 1,100 lane miles, so nine is nowhere near what we ought to be doing.”

Mr. Melendez said that, in every year during Ms. Hicks-Hudson tenure as mayor, capital improvement transfers have declined. 

“She’s cut it every year,” he said. “She’s already doing that.”

Mr. Kapszukiewicz said the reduced transfers are like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Larger-scale moves, like his proposals for consolidating some city and county departments, are necessary, he said.

“Tom’s been on city council for 10 years, and he’s had 10 years to demonstrate his budget priorities,” Mr. Kapszukiewicz said. 

The city closed the books on 2016 with a $3 million transfer from its capital improvement fund to its general fund, a move that would help the city’s bond rating and help save money thanks to lower interest rates, city law director Adam Loukx said.

The city has made such transfers since 2010, when voters approved granting that ability so the city could use money generally meant for things like street repair instead on things like police and firefighter salaries.

Contact Zack Lemon at zlemon@theblade.com, 419-724-6282 or on Twitter @zack_lemon.

First Published August 30, 2017, 5:10 p.m.