To replace an outspoken member of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority board of directors, Mayor Jack Ford is turning to a longtime Toledo lawyer who once took on the agency in heated legal dispute.

Mayor Ford announced yesterday that he wants R. Michael Frank, managing partner of Arnold & Caruso, to replace board member Jerry Chabler, who resigned Oct. 1 to spend more time with his family.

“Mike Frank is the person we need at this time to have a central-city focus and have an independent voice on the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority,” Mayor Ford said in a statement issued late yesterday.

Mr. Frank, 62, who will serve until July 31, 2005, was picked from eight finalists, including: Mark Davis, a lawyer; Tom Douglas, a lawyer; Peter Garforth, a business consultant; Terry Glazer, a neighborhood activist and member of the Toledo Board of Education; Frank Kozak, a businessman; Ron Rothenbuhler, a union leader, and Rick Rudnicki, an East Toledo development advocate who is chairman of the board of the River East Economic Revitalization Corp.

“I ll do my best in consultation with the mayor and others,” Mr. Frank said, “to advance the interests of the city and its residents.”

Mr. Frank said he has worked outside government and had wanted the chance to work “inside the system.

“I ve always believed that ... progress is kind of ushered [in] or managed by people working both outside and within the system,” he said.

As for specifics about the port board, Mr. Frank said: “I don t think I should take positions on issues facing the board until I know all the facts.”

He said he s been known to have and express his opinions. “Once I know all the facts, I ll give you my opinion in direct and candid terms,” he said.

In an earlier application to join the port authority board, Mr. Frank told county commissioners in March that he would be a hands-on board member. “While special-interest groups have a right to be heard, we also need people on important boards who represent the public interest, do their homework, and are not afraid to ask critical questions,” he said at the time.

He said last night: “You get much more creative decision-making when there are a variety of interests represented.”

But in the process of decision making, “disagreement is not a dirty word,” Mr. Frank said, “as long as it doesn t degenerate into personal attacks. There are professional ways to handle disagreements. And the goal is obviously agreement, not disagreement, but don t be afraid to disagree.”

The port authority runs the region s seaport, train station, two airports, and several business-loan programs.

It is overseen by a 13-member unpaid board - six of whom are appointed by county commissioners and six of whom are appointed by the Toledo mayor and confirmed by City Council. The remaining member is a joint city-county appointment.

Mr. Frank, a native of Baltimore, first gained prominence in 1968 when he began Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc., a group offering legal services to Toledo s poor.

During his tenure, the group sued the city, claiming police hiring practices discriminated against minorities. The city eventually agreed to allow federal oversight of the department s hiring.

As part of ABLE and later in private practice, Mr. Frank pushed everything from the promotion of African-American firefighters to the rights of public-housing residents.

In 1997, he took on the case of Toledo Express Airport tenant Richard Nensel. In a well-publicized confrontation, port authority officials accused Mr. Nensel of improperly parking a fuel truck in a maintenance building, calling it unsafe.

While the port authority pushed misdemeanor charges in court, Mr. Nensel countered that agency officials were singling him out for harassment.

The port authority dropped the case before trial.

Blade staff writer Mark Zaborney contributed to this report.

First Published October 30, 2003, 11:40 a.m.