Mayor D. Michael Collins, a compassionate advocate of working-class Toledoans, dreamed of shepherding his city and its residents into a new era of prosperity, buoyed by economic development, safer streets, and a streamlined municipal government.
Mr. Collins’ mission of improving Toledo’s quality of life was cut short by an unforeseen, fatal medical emergency. Driving Toledo’s streets on Feb. 1, assessing road conditions as a heavy snow began to fall, Mr. Collins suffered cardiac arrest. He remained in critical condition for five days before he was pronounced dead on Friday. He was 70.
Mr. Collins leaves behind unfinished business in the city he loved, where he grew up and spent a long career working to make it better. He was in the mayor’s office for 13 months; during that period, he expressed frustration that he never got to begin fixing the city’s problems in earnest.
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Instead, he lamented that his tenure seemed to spiral from one crisis to another — the deaths of two firefighters in an arson fire; last winter’s record snowfall, bitter cold, and related weather emergencies; last August’s water crisis, when algae in Lake Erie produced a toxin that poisoned the city’s drinking water for three days; and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ threat to stop building the Jeep Wrangler in Toledo.
Still, Mr. Collins went about the city’s business, exhibiting calm amid the crises. He heavily relied upon his staff, and generously praised them for their hard work and dedication.
Mayor Collins considered it important to be a good, decent, God-fearing man, and he often wore his affability on his sleeve. He was an idealistic politician, with a penchant for allegorical story-telling.
He readily shared his life experiences: as a Toledo police officer for nearly 30 years; as a father; as a devoted Catholic, and as a spunky Irish kid who grew up in the central city on Fernwood Avenue and on Orchard Street in the Old South End. He enjoyed a good laugh and a hearty handshake.
Mr. Collins spent his life as a civil servant after he served in the Marine Corps. In 1973, he joined the Toledo Police Department, where he spent 26 years as a patrol officer and detective. For more than a decade, he was president of the Toledo Police Patrolman’s Association.
In 2007, he was elected to Toledo City Council as a political independent. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2009, and was re-elected to his council seat in 2011.
As a council member, Mr. Collins often bumped heads with then-mayors Carty Finkbeiner and Mike Bell. He publicly challenged them when he believed they were abusing their office, especially if it was at taxpayer expense. On the council, Mr. Collins was an impassioned defender of his constituents in South Toledo.
During the 2013 mayoral campaign, Mr. Collins, running as an independent, upset two Democratic candidates to emerge from the primary as Mayor Bell’s challenger, in the general election. That November he defeated the incumbent, who also was running without a party label.
As mayor, Mr. Collins took part in important economic development initiatives for the city, including ProMedica’s decision to move its corporate headquarters to the urban riverfront and the continued progress of the Hensville downtown entertainment district.
His administration also acquired the former Southwyck Shopping Center site, hoping to spur a development deal there. The city bought land next to the Jeep assembly plant in North Toledo, in an effort to coax Fiat Chrysler into an expansion that would accommodate continued production of the Wrangler in the city.
Mayor Collins was Toledo’s fourth mayor under its modern strong-mayor form of government, following Mr. Finkbeiner, Jack Ford, and Mr. Bell. He was part cop, part union negotiator, and part street-savvy politician. If he sometimes charged ahead without adequately consulting council members or his Lucas County counterparts, that reflected his desire to realize his agenda quickly.
Mayor Collins deserves to be recognized and appreciated for his enthusiasm about, and his commitment to, Toledo. No one can fairly question that he did what he thought was best for the city he loved. The greatest tribute Toledoans now can pay D. Michael Collins is to maintain his values.
First Published February 7, 2015, 5:00 a.m.
