Council Reviews Mayoral Appointment, Gets Earful
Toledo Council members were divided Wednesday on how to proceed in finding a replacement for Monica Lyons, who resigned as Mayor January 4. The city charter gives the council three options. It may leave the seat vacant, appoint a mayor from among council members or open the application process to the public. In the absence of a mayor, Council President Ralph Grutzmacher serves as presiding officer. If a mayor is appointed, she or he would serve the rest of Lyons’ term, which expires December 31, 2012. The post of mayor will be on the November 2012 ballot regardless. Council members Nancy Lynne said she would like to see an appointment process, which is opened up to members of the public. “I would like to see…who might be interested in serving as the mayor,” Lynne said. Franki Trujillo-Dalbey said she wants to appoint someone from the council who has been elected, in the absence of anyone coming forward. Jack Dunaway said he would prefer to have Grutzmacher to serve as mayor until the election because he is “already in tune with what we are doing and wouldn’t slip any gears during the remainder of Monica’s term.” Jill Lyon, who is married to Grutzmacher, acknowledged it may be difficult for the public to see her as objective. However, she noted it could look bad outside the city if it is known to not have mayoral leadership. City Attorney Wes Chadwick agreed, in response to a later comment. He said it could harm Toledo’s chances when it moves to sell bonds for its water system later this year. Mark Camara said he is leaning toward waiting for the election. Several council members expressed a preference for a council member as mayor, because the city is involved with a number of complicated issues where detailed knowledge is valuable. The Council will discuss the matter again at its February 15 meeting and decide then on a process and a timeline.
Blackman Chastises Council For Lack of Engagement
Toledo resident Sandy Blackman made a sharp statement during the public comment period Wednesday saying she would “like to see the council set a goal to engage more people to get more involved in city affairs.” She said meeting notices in publications and online “are only announcements, and not invitations to participate. If I feel this way, I think others may too,” Blackman said. She spent several minutes extolling past mayors and council members whom she said “were highly visible and accessible…knew their constituents” and seemed interested in what Blackman called “the collective we.” She challenged council members as a group to “be more visible, seek input and engage all of us.”
Council member Mark Camara responded in a somewhat heated manner that he wanted to “push back” at Blackman, saying “you are pointing a finger” at council members. “I would like to see you here more, and I think people need to take an active role to get engaged. We can’t grab people by the collar,” Camara said. He added, “The meetings are scheduled on regular intervals and people know when they are. Active citizens should engage of their own free will and I would like to see more of that.” In her defense, Blackman noted she serves on several city committees. Councilor Jill Lyon added the matter of better notification was already discussed at the council’s recent goal-setting session. Those 2012 goals were approved unanimously later in the meeting.
Toledo Finances As Clean as Possible
Toledo’s auditor, Glen Kearns, of Koontz and Perdue, told Council members their most recent audit showed “a bit of a boring year, and in our world boring is a good thing.” Kearns said the annual audit said “everything is in great shape and you have a phenomenal staff not only in day-to-day, but also in preparing for the audit. Across the board, there were no issues,” Kearns said. He said has cash balances well in excess of its current needs.
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City Attorney Wes Chadwick agreed, in response to a later comment. He said it could harm Toledo’s chances when it moves to sell bonds for its water system later this year.
So now we have the fifth beatle? As I’ve said before, you should only call a lawyer when you have a problem, not for every day decision making. Is Wes sitting there in the meeting for free or is he getting paid to attend? City Manager can you answer this please?
Anyway I say this because Toledo has went down this road before. Remember how it turned out?
“Anyway I say this because Toledo has went down this road before. Remember how it turned out?”
For the benefit of those of us who may not have been here at the time, can you give us an account of the incident alluded to in your post?
Sandy Blackman’s “earful” for the City Council last night consisted mostly of fond memories of former Mayors who spent great deal of their personal time on highly visible beautification projects and of castigating the current Council for not living up to her personal expectation that we should do the same.
What she seems to have chosen to forget or is willfully ignoring is that while this kind of activity is quite laudable, it is not part of the job description for City Councilors or the Mayor, whose main responsibility is developing policies that ensure that high-quality basic services such as water, sewer, roads, and public safety are provided in a fiscally responsible manner.
In addition, she seems blissfully unaware of the fact that during the same time that the shrubbery was improving under previous admininstrations, our water and sewer systems were deteriorating, the former Chief of Police was engaged in a variety of ethically questionable financial transactions (see yesterday’s NewsTimes for a story about this), the former City Attorney was selling industrial property in ways that in one instance led to a high-dollar lawsuit against the City and a variety of serious problems with higher-level environmental regulatory agencies, and the City was paying property taxes on land owned by an elected official in addition to a variety of other very irregular arrangements between City Hall and private citizens. All of which the long-time City Manager either didn’t notice or chose not to address.
Sandy’s observation that the citizens don’t currently see their elected officials on the business end of a shovel as often as they used to is true enough, but if she would take the time to come to City Council meetings regularly rather than once or twice a year to give us an “earful” and/or read about what happens at these meetings in the newspaper or online, I think she’d find it reassuring that this Council is finally tackling the hard issues that threaten the very foundations of our City rather than hoping that a fresh coat of paint or tile applied with much public fanfare will make our structural problems magically disappear.
I’ve got nothing against the kind of cheerleading and beautification activities that Sandy wants to see more of. They are very important for both our City’s image and our quality of life. However, I have to disagree with Sandy’s idea that members of the City Council with full-time jobs and busy personal lives who already volunteer a great deal of time that could be spent with friends and family to the thankless job of making sure that basic services are available to everyone are somehow falling short of expectations if they aren’t also digging holes on a highly visible street corner every Saturday afternoon.
It would be great if she and others who want to see more of this sort of thing would devote some of their time to developing specific projects and bringing them to the Council to request support rather than attacking folks who are already dancing as fast as they can to do the job they were elected (or appointed) to do.
I’ve previously praised former Mayor Jim Chambers in this forum for his continuing efforts to improve our City, and I’d like to end this comment by encouraging Sandy and others to touch base with him to see if he could use some help in developing and executing his next beautification project.
Very Good points – well said.
Upon an attempt to view Councils proceedings as video, maybe council could learn to address the microphones a little better or allow the media teacher to place the mikes where what is said can be understood. This probem is specific in the horsehoe array and not in the speakers tables. Bad amp maybe?
I would really like to see and hear Mr. Camara doing his territorial imperitive routine everytime someone fails to bow and scrape to council.
Greetings,
To answer FKB, the city attorney receives salary and benefits based on a 20 hour work week. I have observed that Wes often works 20 hours a week and attends City Council meetings. This means that there are times when his presence at city council meetings is compensated and times when it is not.
I hope this answers your question.
Regards,
Michelle Amberg
To add to Michelle’s clarification, Wes as City Attorney has been working closely with our partners in the water bond process, including their bond counsel. He therefore could pass on the counsel’s statement concerning our lack of a mayor, having heard it when none of the rest of us had. The City Attorney is the primary legal adviser for the entire City government, not just the council: it’s his job to keep us from having problems, not just to try to solve them (usually at much greater cost) once they happen. I would expect him to pass on any information that may have a legal or financial impact on the City.
Thank you Mark Camara for reminding us why history repeats itself and by the way that was a better recollection than I had.
“He therefore could pass on the counsel’s statement concerning our lack of a mayor, having heard it when none of the rest of us had.” Jill Lyon
Read your sentence again. LOL. None of the rest ‘eh?
I think Mark should be voted mayor. My 2 cents.
To contact individual council members about this issue, follow this link: http://www.cityoftoledo.org/cot_citycouncil.html
I was at the council meeting on Wednesday, Feb 1st, and would like to give my interpretation of events. I don’t think I would characterize Sandy Blackman’s statement to the council as “chastisement”. I think what she was trying to do was point out a growing disconnect between the elected and appointed officials who do Toledo’s business, and the majority of Toledo’s citizens.
A few weeks back, Sandy Blackman submitted a letter to the Yaquina Wavelength urging citizens to become more involved in local government. At Wednesday’s meeting, she called on the Council to be more inclusive and take steps to seek the greater involvement of citizens. For this, paradoxically, she was taken to task by Councilor Camara, who claims to be a supporter of increased citizen involvement.
Camara seemed to take Blackman’s comments as a personal attack, prompting him to muse aloud in the public meeting about her lack of prior involvement. I know from personal experience, as Mr. Camara should, that Sandy Blackman is active in the Toledo Main Street program, is chair if the Toledo PUC, and a board member of the Toledo Community Center. I believe she also serves the community by her involvement in several other groups, and she is an officer of the Toledo Arts Guild.
It seems to me that Councilor Camara should not invite citizen input, and then browbeat the citizens who come to give their input . His comments in chamber on Wednesday and the subsequent rant published in the Wavelength constitute an unseemly and undeserved personal attack on Sandy Blackman. Ironically, the incident underscores her point that there does not seem to be a free flow of ideas between the Council and the citizens. Do you think this kind of treatment of citizens coming to air their views at council meetings might have a chilling effect?
Bill D.
I guess whether one sees Sandy‘s“earful” to the Council on Wednesday as “input” or “chastisement” depends on which side of the dais one sat on and whether or not one has invested 6 or 7 years in transforming the Toledo city government from a one-person show with a penchant for back room deals, a deep xenophobic streak, and zero tolerance for dissent into an open, transparent, responsible, forward-looking, and collegial outfit.
Nobody’s worked harder than I have to make sure that the citizens of Toledo have real opportunities to participate in governmental decisions rather than being limited to opportunities to contribute manual labor toward implementing decisions made by a small group. Maybe you’ve got a point and maybe I’m over-reacting, but the main “disconnect” as far as I’m concerned is the one between the public’s perception of how the City operated in the past and the realities that I experienced directly.
From my perspective, being told that what I need to do to gain the public’s trust is to emulate a former elected official who once told me that Toledo was her town and that the only roles for a City Councilor with an East Coast accent like mine were to raise his right hand when she said “all in favor” and to dig holes exactly where she pointed isn’t input. It’s an insult.
In my first year on the Council, I championed the idea of asking for citizen input on all decision items in the face of opposition and prevailed. I’ve consistently supported videotaping and televising City Council meetings so that citizens can see how we do business even if they can’t attend meetings. I laid the foundations for the Main Street Program by starting the Toledo Development Association. I made the initial contacts with the Ford Family Foundation that brought their Leadership Program to Toledo and connected us to their grant programs. And I’ve worked hard and long to shift the Council’s focus from beautification to addressing our most pressing and long-term infrastructure problems.
If you and Sandy think that my time would have been better spent tending the shrubs around town, you are entitled to your opinion, but I respectfully disagree.
Mr. Camara brings some strog points to the table in his last post. As to a fresh coat of paint and maybe some fixing of windows, council should look toward the yellow brick building on the corner of Main and whatever Highway 20′s Business Loop is being called. Can we say eyesore?
The eyesore that you speak of is private property, owned by Phil Krause. He ran a gas station and auto repair business there for many years, but since retiring has let the place go dramatically down hill.
I completely agree that it’s a serious problem and that something needs to be done. However, I think it’s the responsibility of the owner, not the City to maintain private property.
One thing you may not realize is that the code enforcement process in Toledo is complaint-driven, so if someone were to fill out a form or two at City Hall, it would be much more likely that the proper authorities would take appropriate action.
Mr. Camara:
It has been my experience that cages are best rattled by elected and appointed cage rattlers rather than complaints filed by ordinary citizens. Perhaps some gentle persuasion by the powers that be instead of generating more and more paperwork would garner more attention and hopefully some positive results, rather than filing endless forms followed by the filing of more endless forms wrangling by lawyer and cries of foul by the status quorum, AKA the good ol boys.
We are not dealing with a national crises here but an eyesore. Perhaps you could step foward with the power of your office and divert some of the funds being spent in rent by the “improvement” group just up the block for maybe fixing up those broken windows and a coat of paint or a wash on that one wall so that visitors to our town do not think they are entering a zone created in a Faulkner novel.
“One thing you may not realize is that the code enforcement process in Toledo is complaint-driven, so if someone were to fill out a form or two at City Hall, it would be much more likely that the proper authorities would take appropriate action” Mark Camara
There isn’t any way you can make that work. There’s no teeth in it. If there were you could make the store fronts on main actually be open during business hours right?
Mark, I appreciate your frustration. I have to admit that you are the only one that keeps coming back (here for comments) and I for one admire that.
Sincerely,
FKB
Councilman Camara was more than on point in his rebuttal remarks concerning Ms. Blackman. I would usually be inclined to scold him for not going far enough even. But I understand his not wanting to start an all out war over the things he had to say.
Councilman, we might think of the term “While Rome Burned”. There were, indeed, a number of enablers in this city who until this day refuse to admit that “While Rome Burned”, as it were, Nero played his fiddle. To those people who still do not get it, I recommend that they simply contact the State of Oregon Ethics Commission and ask for PDF files of the investigations going on that concerned the former mayor. city attorney, and chief of police.
I believe the councilman is referring to the former mayor having one of her lot taxes on A Street paid by the City of Toledo. That file also contains information about two checks given by the owners of the other two properties up on that piece of 5th Street (Is it 5th Street?) to the mayor to pay for their shares of the paving bill up there. Oddly, the investigation was never completed due to untimely and unfortunate events. We’ll likely never know what happened to those two checks.
Fortunately, in the ensuing few years we have had Councilman Camara and other “new members” on the council and a new city manager, and city attorney, all dedicated to good government here in Toledo to pull us out of the morass. While the same folks who were intent on listening to the fiddle playing whist Rome burned, dwell on the “good old days”, these folks worked us out of the sad mess we were in.
We owe them many thanks. We also owe those dedicated city employees who simply told the truth when asked questions by the state investigator. To more than one of those folks, and Y’all know who you are, I personally owe many thanks.