Former Toledo Mayor Mike Bell has scheduled a public Internet event for Friday morning, raising speculation that he will announce a decision about running for mayor in the upcoming special election.

The website www.friendsofmikebell.com today issued an invitation to join him on “Periscope” for a “livestream” at 10 a.m. Friday. A click on the link on Friday will likely take one to a Twitter-sponsored streaming site.

Mr. Bell, who was mayor from 2010 through 2013, has said that he was keeping an open mind on running for mayor in a special election set for Nov. 3. Voters will pick for a mayor to serve the two years remaining in the term of the late Mayor D. Michael Collins, who died Feb. 6.

Four other people are already actively campaigning: incumbent Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson, the former council president who automatically succeeded Mr. Collins; Sandy Drabik Collins, Mr. Collins’s widow; former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, who has not officially declared, and evangelist Opal Covey.

The deadline to file petitions with at least 750 valid city of Toledo voter signatures is Sept. 4. No primary is being held, so the election will be among all the candidates who get certified to the ballot.

Mr. Bell’s web site appears designed for a political candidate. It shows Mr. Bell in a baseball cap and a University of Toledo jacket, with the city skyline behind him. Lettering that fades in and out, movie-style, identifies high points of his biography: son of Norman and Ora Bell, 1973 graduate of the Woodward High School, 1978 University of Toledo graduate, former Toledo fire chief, former Ohio state fire marshal, and former Toledo mayor.

Mr. Bell, 60, was defeated in his 2013 re-election by Mr. Collins. Both were political independents.

Contact Tom Troy: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058 or on Twitter @TomFTroy.

First Published August 5, 2015, 11:03 p.m.