Six candidates are vying for four Maumee City Council seats in the Nov. 3 election, and each candidate sees obstacles upcoming for the council.
Incumbent council members running for four-year seats are John Boellner and Dan Hazard. They will face challengers John Schafer and Dave Kissinger. Voters will elect three council members from those four candidates.
Mr. Kissinger, 43, is a Republican and health-service consultant with Accenture. He is concerned about the city’s water quality in the wake of the Toledo water crisis of 2014. He wants Maumee to seek another water source and consider leaving the Toledo system.
“It’s important to have clean water and first responders to ensure health and safety of the community,” he said.
Schafer, 55, running as an independent, is the owner of the Village Idiot in downtown Maumee. He said the community has been so good to him, he’d like to give back and serve. He sees a main issue facing council as the loss of revenue from The Andersons leaving.
“They’ve been here forever. We’ll have to balance the budget,” Mr. Schafer said.
The company announced in 2014 that it would move its headquarters from Maumee’s Arrowhead Park to a new 55-acre site in Monclova Township. He also is concerned about a lawsuit in which the Maumee Municipal Court Judge is asking a court to force the city to budget more money for the court.
Looking for his second term, Mr. Boellner, 64, is a retired mail carrier who says he learned a lot about problems of the working people with his job. He is interested in feasibility studies to see if cutting ties from Toledo for water would be beneficial. He’s also concerned with how the city funds the court.
“I want to see how this water thing works out,” the Democrat said. “I like giving back to the community.”
Mr. Hazard, 42, also is seeking a second term. The Maumee attorney, running as a Republican, said he’s worked as a councilman to control the city’s budget. He said council has made cuts without affecting services. He also wants to cut the municipal court budget.
“I’m proud of the leadership role I’ve taken in cutting our deficit,” he said. “We’ve worked hard to do that without cutting services.”
In a race to fill two years of a four-year term, Tim Pauken faces Dyana Davis.
Mr. Pauken, 55, resigned from council on Oct. 31, 2014, in a move to preserve his state pension. Mr. Pauken retired from Maumee Schools after 30 years, but could not access his School Employees Retirement System pension in 2014 if he was still serving on city council, he said. As a councilman, he also participates in the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. After resigning from council, he retired from the school district and accessed his pension.
Maumee Council then reappointed him on Nov. 3, 2014, to his former seat. Voters on Nov. 3 will decide between Mr. Pauken or Mrs. Davis to serve the remaining two years of that term.
Mr. Pauken has served 10 years on council.
“With The Andersons leaving, we’ll need to work to get that leveled out since we’ll be losing about $1 million,” he said. “We were able to sustain our police and fire services through the economic downturn. We’ll have to continue that.”
Mrs. Davis, 64, is a Democrat and first-time candidate. She works as a massage therapist in Michigan. She’d like the city to create a park in the grassy area near Union Elementary School. She’d also like to see more senior housing so residents stay in Maumee.
“We need more transparency, and I’m a problem solver,” Mrs. Davis said. “We’re draining our money with the incident with the court versus the city. It looks like ego is getting in the way. We have to reach a common ground. There’s a better way.”
Contact Matt Thompson at: mthompson@theblade.com, 419-356-8786, or on Twitter at @mthompson25.
First Published October 26, 2015, 4:00 a.m.