Area elected officials and community leaders Thursday called on Lucas County residents to vote in the Tuesday primary for a renewal levy that would continue to provide funds for mental health and recovery services in the county.

“We are encouraging all of Lucas County to vote on Tuesday and to vote ‘yes’ on Issue 3,” said Sena Friedman, Mental Health & Recovery Services Board of Lucas County board of directors chairman, noting that Issue 3 is not a new tax, but a renewal of the levy that was last put to voters in 2018.

“It supports the mental health of our community. It’s a way for everybody to support all their neighbors who are in need… If this doesn’t pass, it will be a very sad situation for all of us,” she said.

Ms. Friedman spoke at the Thomas M. Wernert Center where she was the moderator at a news conference Thursday. Issue 3 is a levy that, if passed, will keep funding for Lucas County mental health services, most of which are run through the county Mental Health and Recovery Services Board.

Approved for the ballot by the Lucas Board of Commissioners in January, the proposed measure is a 1-mill, 10-year renewal that would cost a property owner $24.20 per $100,000 of valuation in hopes of generating $7.9 million annually.

“We’ve had a difficult year-and-a-half in terms of violence... [And] there’s a mental health component to some of the things that break our hearts in this community,” Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said. “Now is not the time to step back our investment in mental health care. Now is the time to redouble our efforts and to do right by our friends, our family members and do the right thing and vote ‘yes’ on Issue 3.”

Lucas County Sheriff Mike Navarre agreed.

“I recognize that people don’t like to pay taxes, but this is important because if you don’t make an effort to treat people for mental illness before they commit criminal offenses, you are certainly gonna pay a far greater expense down the road by adjudicating them and incarcerating them after they are convicted,” Sheriff Navarre said. “In this case, it’s clearly a better choice to spend money upfront and try to deal with the problem.”

In 2021, Mental Health and Recovery Services Board member organizations served 22,000 people. The board consists of more than 70 programs in 29 agencies, such as the Zepf Center, Harbor Behavioral Health, and Unison Behavioral Health.

“We are happy to be here in support of Issue 3,”said Gary Byers, president of the county commission. “This is something that is so critical to our community. And on the board of Lucas county commissioners we all realize that this is a key part of making sure that people who need the resources get [them].”

The news conference Thursday was the second such event held at the Wernert Center this spring. The first one was held March 28 by local mental health advocates and stakeholders.

“That’s … because we want to make sure that the citizens of Lucas County are aware [of this issue.] This is not like a presidential election where everybody’s eyes are on voting,” Ms. Friedman said. “So this is our way of encouraging people to vote in the primary and, of course, vote ‘yes’ for Issue 3.”

Also speaking at the news conference were Lucas County Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak; Commissioner Pete Gerken; the Rev. Cedric Brock, president of the Toledo Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance; Billie Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the Area Office on Aging of Northwestern Ohio; the Rev. Willie Perryman, president of the Toledo NAACP and pastor of the Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church, and Tim Schneider, manager of local government affairs for the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce.

First Published April 28, 2022, 7:20 p.m.