toledoblade.com --

City services such as police and fire protection would suffer significantly if voters defeat the 0.75 percent income tax on the March 4 ballot, Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner and other city leaders said during a rally yesterday for the levy.

Addressing nearly 300 city employees, the mayor hinted that the controversy spawned last week when he ordered a company of Michigan-based Marines out of downtown could have an impact at the polls next month. He said it has been "a week that saw a great deal of attention to this city, to me personally, and the Marines Corps."

He said: "I did what I did for one reason - I wanted to protect Toledo men, women, and children first and foremost."

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Mr. Finkbeiner said the city's employees need to encourage support of the tax renewal.

"We really do have it all in Toledo, Ohio," he said. "We need to protect it … If we do our jobs between now and March 4th, we have a chance."

The mayor's office has been embroiled in the Marine controversy.

In a statement released yesterday, the mayor said: "I stated in 2006, I did not wish such patrolling exercises to take place in the central business district. That was communicated, in writing, to the Marine Corps. I stand by that position today."

The statement said there were still unanswered questions about how the Marine exercises were scheduled for last weekend. "Suffice it to say, communication among all parties involved was lacking," it said.

Last Saturday, the mayor said it was possible that the death of police Deputy Chief Ron Spann could have contributed to a breakdown in communications.

"Deputy Chief Ron Spann, who met with the Marines in mid-January, was an excellent police officer, and a deputy chief of great distinction," yesterday's statement said. "Ron had met with the Marines, and when he was hospitalized shortly thereafter, Toledo lost its point of contact with the Marine Corps."

The mayor said he didn't learn about the scheduled Marine training until hours before it was to start.

Deputy Chief Spann, 58, a nearly 35-year department veteran, died unexpectedly Feb. 2 in Toledo Hospital, a few days after treatment for a seemingly minor lung ailment.

Mayor Finkbeiner was one of several people who delivered eulogies at the deputy chief's funeral Feb. 7.

As mayor he has deflected the national criticism he's faced since his decision Feb. 8 to boot Marines from conducting police-approved war training downtown, the family of the deceased officer has been caught in the crossfire.

Deputy Chief Spann's son-in-law, Bruce Johnson, said the family believes it was inappropriate that the mayor was "trying to throw somebody who's not around anymore under the bus."

"It's the easy way out to blame somebody that's no longer with us. That's not going to do any good," Mr. Johnson said.

Deputy Chief Spann's widow, Claudia, spoke with the mayor by phone yesterday to discuss the family's concerns about his comments involving her late husband.

Mr. Johnson said the resulting conversation was "a very amicable, friendly discussion. But you can read between the lines: We're not happy."

"It's really this simple. Ron's police career speaks for itself. It was exemplary and it was awesome. We don't want to get into a 'he said, she said' right now. We want to let him rest in peace," Mr. Johnson said.

Mr. Johnson said several national media outlets have called the family and asked them to respond to the mayor's suggestion that Deputy Chief Spann's untimely death was a factor in the miscommunication that resulted in the mayor's decision to dismiss Marines from downtown.

The mayor's statement yesterday also said he signed a resolution approved unanimously Tuesday by City Council apologizing to the Marines for the mayor's action.

"That apology is genuine and sincerely extended by all of us," Mr. Finkbeiner said yesterday in his statement. "We will learn from this experience and put procedures in place to ensure that this will not happen again."

The controversy started Feb. 8 when 200 members of Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines arrived from Grand Rapids, Mich., to drill downtown but were turned away on the mayor's order.

Regarding the levy - for which the rally was held in Fire Station No. 1 - Fire Chief Mike Wolever said there would be layoffs of first responders should the tax fail.

"I was laid off as a firefighter when we didn't have the 0.75 percent," Chief Wolever said. "It will happen. … Response times will suffer."

The 0.75 percent tax is projected to raise about $57.7 million in 2008 and is part of the city's total 2.25 percent wage tax.

The money would be allocated equally to police, fire, and other safety departments; the general operating fund, and the capital improvements fund.

Contact Ignazio Messina at:
imessina@theblade.com
or 419-724-6171.

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