So what now?

The death of Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins after barely a year in the office has not just cast a pall over the city. It also has thrown municipal government into turmoil, at a time when city officials must confront an array of urgent issues. These matters — not the jockeying over the election of Mayor Collins’ permanent successor, which already has begun — demand our immediate attention.

“The agenda of the city should be number one by far,” former mayor Carty Finkbeiner told me last week. “Everything else has to be secondary.”

Topping that agenda are the city’s negotiations with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to maintain production of the Jeep Wrangler in Toledo, a decision the company says it wants to make by mid-year. Of course the city, and state, should be ready to go to great lengths to persuade the automaker to keep the Wrangler here, rather than build the popular sport-utility vehicle at another plant and award Toledo Assembly Complex a replacement product as a consolation prize.

But negotiation doesn’t mean merely waving a blank check, signed by city taxpayers, at Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne. The automaker is likely to demand an expensive package of public incentives — perhaps $200 million or more, some analysts estimate — to build the next version of the Wrangler in Toledo. Taxpayers have a right to know what’s in that package before, not after, the deal gets done.

So it was unsettling that in one of his last official statements, Mayor Collins told The Blade that he had agreed with Mr. Marchionne to keep their discussions confidential. It’s even more alarming that his interim successor, Paula Hicks-Hudson, appears ready to preserve the city’s public silence over the Jeep deal.

Such secrecy gives Fiat Chrysler the advantage, because it allows the company to monopolize information about the bidding among Toledo and other plants and their communities for the Wrangler work. It doesn’t benefit the city or its taxpayers to be kept in the dark and to allow the automaker to dictate the terms of the talks. More light, please.

Fix infrastructure

The new mayor and City Council must build on the efforts Mayor Collins launched to prevent a recurrence of last summer’s water crisis, as the emergence of this year’s crop of toxic algae in Lake Erie approaches. Harmful algae blooms in the lake generated a toxin that poisoned Toledo’s water supply for three days last August, denying 500,000 people in the region their usual source of drinking water.

Cleaning up Lake Erie is more a state and federal responsibility than a local one. But the city can — and must — continue to upgrade the antiquated Collins Park water treatment plant, as well as the rest of its ramshackle water system. That will mean reforming the operations of the city’s public utilities department, which has long resisted necessary change and even adequate oversight.

Then there are more-routine, but still important, infrastructure issues, notably street repair. Council members who paid rhetorical tribute to Mayor Collins after he was stricken can show more durable appreciation by heeding the mayor’s plea to invest scarce street-fixing money where it is needed most, rather than slicing the pie on the basis of parochial political clout.

Toledo’s too-prevalent blight also remains to be addressed, despite promising beginnings by the Collins administration. If the city is to retain its middle-class base, and to improve the prospects of its poorest citizens, City Hall can’t allow Toledo to continue to deteriorate. Instead, it needs to generate a sense of well-being and progress among all Toledoans, and an urban appearance to match.

Mayor Hicks-Hudson says she wants to find more money in the new city budget, which the council must approve by the end of March, for municipal pools and other recreation programs. Those were not among Mr. Collins’ spending priorities, but they are important and deserve proper attention.

The budget has other issues. Leaders of some municipal unions continue to ignore the city’s still-fragile economic recovery as they press their demands; the police patrol officers’ union this month rejected a contract that Mayor Collins — a former president of the union — helped negotiate. Toledo’s elected officials need to show taxpayers that they are capable of saying no to powerful interest groups when that’s required.

On economic development, the city must continue to work harmoniously with ProMedica, but in its own interests, to bring the company’s headquarters downtown. Nor can city leaders lose sight of Mayor Collins’ vision of redeveloping the site of the abandoned Southwyck Shopping Center.

Ballot battle

The question of mayoral succession will get resolved in due time. Whoever wins a special election this November will serve the final two years of Mayor Collins’ term. But unlike a standard mayoral election, the special election won’t be preceded by a primary vote to narrow the field.

That means voters could face a bedsheet mayoral ballot in an election that is not likely to attract a high turnout. So the next mayor could be elected with a small plurality of votes.

That reality will reward candidates who can mobilize their voting base, as Mr. Collins did when he came from behind in the 2013 primary and general elections. It may place a premium on name recognition, built through advertising or prior political service.

But it also could enable a fresh face, perhaps a younger candidate, to emerge from the pack. Let’s hope that this year’s field isn’t composed solely of the usual suspects.

Given the cause of Mayor Collins’ death — cardiac arrest at age 70 — the health history of the candidates to succeed him is likely to get special scrutiny from voters. Any candidate who is not prepared to release his or her full medical records will invite skepticism, fairly or not.

Among the thousands of Toledoans who attended the funeral service for Mr. Collins at Savage Arena last Wednesday night, I found myself standing in line beside Toledo Schools Superintendent Romules Durant. He noted that the mayor, a proud alumnus of Libbey High School, had broadened the city school district’s slogan of “TPS Proud” to “Toledo Proud.”

“We’re seeing positive movement” in the city, Mr. Durant said. “The mayor was a trailblazer, rolling out things that will live on.”

Mike Collins was a thoroughly decent, compassionate, and, as politicians go, appealingly humble man. He worked hard in several roles, including finally as mayor, to make the city he loved a better place before he left us too soon.

His successors will serve us all well by resolving to maintain that legacy.

David Kushma is editor of The Blade.

Contact him at: dkushma@theblade.com or on Twitter @dkushma1

First Published February 15, 2015, 5:00 a.m.