We all do it: When the task at hand is daunting or unpleasant, we look for distractions. We pick up a cell phone or go for a latte. Never do today what can be put off until tomorrow.
But Toledo City Council has made an art form of distraction. If a rabbit hops by, you can depend on council to chase it.
Meanwhile our streets crumble and blight multiplies.
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Council needs to get down to real business and set aside preoccupations.
For example, council has been kicking around a handful of charter changes for two years. Why? That should be work for the Charter Revision Committee.
Council — and the city administration — should be focusing on the big things. There are plenty of them.
The charter changes were briefly revived in council last week. The main issues being considered are moving the municipal primary from September to May, changing the law so there is no repeat of the seven-candidate mayoral race in 2015 after Mayor D. Michael Collins died, and eliminating a requirement to send certified letters to property owners to advise about service assessments greater than $250.
One can imagine the city’s residents giving a collective shrug. Who cares? Very little of this affects many of their lives.
People care about taxes and the streets.
Charter revision work should be sorted out by the Charter Revision Committee, then presented to council for a vote. The problem is that the 15-member committee rarely has enough people show up to make any sort of progress.
This is just one more bit of evidence that government isn’t functioning well in the city of Toledo. And that is a real issue.
If these potential changes matter — and they seem to keep resurfacing at council meetings — then Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson should appoint people to the charter committee who want to serve and who will show up and get some work done.
Former Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner told The Blade editorial board that he would encourage council to focus on the regional water partnership, putting a strong economic development team in place, and nurturing relationships with private businesses — like ProMedica — that want to reshape downtown and bring jobs.
He’s right.
Water is Toledo’s most valuable resource. While it is crucial to work with the suburbs looking to partner on water, it is equally crucial that the city gets fair compensation for the $500 million in upgrades being done to the Collins Park Water Treatment Plant.
When it comes to economic development, it is clear that the Hicks-Hudson administration is in over its head. The Southwyck debacle is clear evidence of that. A sale of the former Northtowne Mall property evidently isn’t going well.
A professional team needs to be put in place to handle these sales and also to cultivate partnerships with private industry that can make a difference in the downtown renaissance.
And how about making the processes of government itself run more smoothly? Toledo chronically lacks professionalism at the top — not the middle or the bottom — of city administration. Maybe we at least need a hybrid system, like Cincinnati’s and Dayton’s, in which there is a strong mayor, but there is also a city manager. That is a subject worthy of charter review.
And it raises an important point about charter reform: It should not be a political buffet — a little of this and a little of that. Or: something for each squawking special interest. The charter is our local constitution. Charter reform should be about something. There should be overarching themes and goals into which specifics are plugged. Otherwise, we are talking à la carte complaints and agendas, which the law of unintended consequences may turn into more chaos, not less.
Who is to say, for example, that seven candidates for mayor were not better than two?
This council is serving during a pivotal era in Toledo’s history. The distribution of water will be decisive for decades to come. Downtown is finally realizing some of its long-dormant potential, but we need people to live there. That means enough places to live and a few places to shop.
Council should focus on the big stuff and leave the small stuff alone.
And charter reform isn’t worth doing if it’s only about small stuff.
First Published February 5, 2017, 12:00 a.m.
