Don't blame the city's problems on its unions, Toledo's two ex-strong mayors said at a news conference Thursday aimed at derailing Issue 2.
Instead, start taking a sharper knife to city spending, they suggested to the current mayor, a staunch supporter of the issue.
Jack Ford and Carty Finkbeiner, who preceded Mayor Mike Bell, stood outside Government Center on Thursday to side with representatives of several public employee unions against what they saw as a campaign to undermine collective bargaining because of a temporary financial downturn.
Both mayors battled deficits, and battled city employee unions, but Thursday were standing with those same unions.
"I had a $15 million deficit when I came into office," said Mr. Ford, who stood with the help of a friend following a recent serious hospitalization. "We had a hiring freeze and we did not hire folk, unless I specifically gave the sign-off. We froze non-essentials like subscriptions, trips. I would do all those things before I would introduce a plan that essentially begins to damage collective bargaining," he said.
Mr. Ford recalled that the safety unions endorsed his opponent, Mr. Finkbeiner, in 2005 because he threatened to lay off police officers and firefighters, though it was avoided at the last minute.
"If you have a situation where you cannot muster support for a tax increase maybe you have to consider a layoff. That may be a bad thing from a fire and police safety standpoint. But you have to weigh what processes are important in the fabric of the community and if you hold up collective bargaining as an important thing you don't damage that in tough times," said Mr. Ford, now a member of the Toledo board of education.
Mr. Finkbeiner, despite being endorsed by the safety unions, laid off 75 police officers in 2009 because of the severe recession that began in 2008, reducing the city's tax revenues.
It was Mr. Finkbeiner who in 2009 introduced the idea of unilateral cuts in city union contracts by citing so-called "exigent circumstances." Mr. Finkbeiner said he backed away because of advice that the city would be on questionable legal ground.
"In situations, just like Mayor Bell had a year ago, where you are between a rock and a hard place you must look at everything in your legal tools available to you. I thought it was something that was going to get the attention of our unions," Mr. Finkbeiner said.
The following year, 2010, Mr. Bell got city council to give him authority to make cuts in union wages and benefits under exigent circumstances, and then used the leverage to force concessions from city unions. Mr. Bell has since moved to obtain more concessions from city unions, and has also taken a leading role in the state in helping Gov. John Kasich campaign for Issue 2.
The referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot, if it passes, would enact a Republican-backed law to curtail collective bargaining rights that have been in state law since 1984.
Mr. Finkbeiner Thursday faulted Mr. Bell for not showing more sacrifice on the part of the highest paid city officials, some of whom have already retired and are drawing a state pension in addition to the city salary. He said the collective bargaining law has functioned well, including in the present.
He said Mr. Bell should be demanding more savings in overtime spending and in less hiring of administrators.
"I don't think the new administration has looked seriously, other than selling city property, in a disciplined manner at how you can reduce," Mr. Finkbeiner said, through such steps as furloughs and four-day weeks. He said he cut his own pay and had his directors do the same.
"We cut grass on Saturday mornings for free. I've seen no evidence of sacrifice from the top down. I had directors take cuts of 10 to 20 percent less in pay," Mr. Finkbeiner said.
Also making comments in favor of defeating Issue 2 were City Councilman D. Michael Collins and Toledo school board member Brenda Hill.
Mayor Bell's deputy mayor for operations, Stephen Herwat, told reporters that the city doesn't have the revenue to maintain both the current level of services and wages and benefits to its employees.
He pointed to a chart showing a drop in the general fund end-of-the-year balance from $19.5 million in 2001 to a deficit of $8.6 million in 2010. In that same period, he said, the rainy day fund plummeted from $14.3 million to zero, although it now has $50,000.
"You can only bargain with the available revenue that you have," Mr. Herwat said. "Reasonable reforms, asking employees to pay their 10 percent share of pensions, asking them to pay at least 15 percent of their medical costs, as many in the private sector do, that is a reasonable thing for government to ask.
"There has to be significant structural change for us to continue to provide services. Mayor Bell, who was a laid-off firefighter in 1980, does not want to lay off a single employee and does not want to cut services, but we have to live within our means and Issue 2 will let cities like Toledo do that," Mr. Herwat said.
First Published October 7, 2011, 4:15 a.m.
