Shortly after Toledo City Council ended a lengthy executive session Tuesday and voted to suspend Toledo City Auditor Jake Jaksetic for 30 days, rather than fire him, all scheduled meetings between councilmen and the city’s administrative staff were abruptly canceled.
That action — a directive by Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz — was prompted over concerns for “employee safety,” he said. The mayor did not elaborate on those concerns in an interview this week but called into question Mr. Jaksetic’s behavior with city staff.
“I know that there are employees of the city of Toledo that do not feel safe, who have come to my office crying and worried about their safety,” the mayor said Wednesday.
Mr. Jaksetic was appointed to his post in September, 2014, and is paid an annual salary of $90,469, Human Resources Director Tyrome Alexander said. He is an “at will” employee under the direction of council, not the mayor, so council is responsible for disciplinary action including firing him. Multiple calls seeking comment from Mr. Jaksetic were not returned.
Mr. Jaksetic’s employment file, obtained by The Blade on Friday, does not show that he has been cited for bad behavior or poor performance. The file also does not include the written notice of his suspension following council’s action.
But the file does include copies of several emails sent by Mr. Jaksetic as well as emails that were sent by city officials and city contractors discussing him. Those documents reveal that the auditor came under fire from city council when he refused to wear a mask at work in the early months of the pandemic, and more recently, had a series of interactions with city officials and contractors that were perceived as odd or inappropriate.
In September 2020, Council President Matt Cherry sent an email to Mr. Jaksetic, city officials, and fellow councilmen regarding Mr. Jaksetic’s refusal to wear a mask or have his temperature taken in One Government Center.
When security guards asked Mr. Jaksetic to comply with the mask mandate, Mr. Cherry wrote, "you not only refuse to do so, but also berate these employees for merely trying to do their job," and more than once left a security guard in tears.
"Needless to say, this behavior is totally unacceptable," Mr. Cherry wrote. "While you may not care that you have developed a reputation in Government Center as a boorish and obnoxious blowhard, I assure you that I do. You represent Toledo City Council, at least currently, and you need to act in a way that comports with the values of our organization."
‘Send council a message’
The mayor said that he has voiced his concerns to council regarding Mr. Jaksetic’s behavior and job performance, but acknowledged that the council oversees his employment with the city.
The mayor said that he wanted to “send council a message” for not permanently removing Mr. Jaksetic.
And as of Friday, council members were still unable to meet or speak one-on-one with city staff, even though Mr. Jaksetic, who the mayor stated to be the perceived threat, had been suspended and was no longer working in the building.
“I am trying everything in my power to communicate the seriousness of this matter to city council,” Mr. Kapszukiewicz said. “I am open-minded about this and I am sure I will re-engage members of council on the important matters of the city. Just like anything else in life, I think things need to be re-evaluated from time to time and I am certainly open to that re-evaluation.”
The mayor said he does not believe his action is detrimental to the day-to-day functioning of the local government.
“The work of the government will continue, I‘ve talked to a bunch of them today,” he said the day after the Nov. 1 meeting. “Everything is fine, and that's an absurd reaction if anyone from council is suggesting otherwise.”
Councilman George Sarantou disagreed, saying as of Friday he could not reach anyone at the city building, which left him frustrated and unable to respond to citizen concerns. Daily conversations between councilmen and city staff to discuss a variety of issues or concerns raised by constituents is not uncommon, he said.
“I spent a lot of time Wednesday trying to get commissioners and directors on the phone and nobody was calling me back, and then I was reminded that this is part of the punishment,” Mr. Sarantou said. “I shouldn’t have to go through this. This is not the way a city should operate.”
Referring to the situation with Mr. Jaksetic as a council matter, Mr. Sarantou said that council is working through the process and handling the situation.
“The mayor should not be interfering in this situation, this is our responsibility,” Mr. Sarantou said.
Councilman Katie Moline was also disappointed to learn that two scheduled meetings she had with the administration were canceled.
“It’s really unfortunate that the mayor has taken this action because essentially it will slow down the government,” she said. “This is exerting authority or power or political pressure that the mayor should not be involved with. He is interfering with city council, clearly, and what he is directing his administrators to do, with whom we need to interact.”
The mayor’s directive has also been disruptive for councilman Vanice Williams, who had scheduled budget meetings canceled.
“It is actually hindering things to be done,” she said. “But this is council business and we’ve got to handle it and that’s administration business. We are two separate bodies and he (the mayor) has to handle stuff how he sees fit and we’ve got to handle our stuff how we see fit.”
‘His actions alarmed me’
Ms. Williams became concerned about Mr. Jaksetic’s work performance and behavior soon after her appointment to council in 2020, and called the current situation “a long time coming.”
“The lack of work product and the behaviors that are unbecoming of his office,” she said. “He has been allowed to continue and his actions alarmed me.”
“The bucket [taking action against Mr. Jaksetic] has been kicked down, and kicked down, and kicked down and unfortunately this council got it and we had to act,” she said. “We are doing our due diligence.”
On Oct. 26, Council President Matt Cherry sent Mr. Jaksetic a letter informing him that he was suspended until further notice. “You are also directed not to enter into any city buildings and to surrender your government center ID, keys and laptop,” the letter stated.
Council then voted at a special meeting Nov. 1 to place Mr. Jaksetic under a 30-day suspension with pay.
Legislation to be considered at next week’s council meeting would also address security concerns as requested by the mayor’s office. The proposal calls for the expenditure of approximately $50,000 to “re-key” the entrances to all city offices at One Government Center. According to the legislation, the action is needed to “increase security surrounding access to these floors as well as establish a much-needed monitoring system for tracking the keys.”
Concerns in recent weeks
It’s not known what occurred after Mr. Cherry admonished Mr. Jaksetic for refusing to wear a mask or get his temperature checked in 2020.
But in more recent months and weeks, emails show, city officials and contractors discussed several exchanges they had with Mr. Jaksetic that struck them as strange or inappropriate.
The auditor was showing up to various city construction projects and asking questions — often about an unrelated former project to overhaul Summit Street. The project was completed prior to the Solheim Cup last year.
One June memo to city officials from contractor Todd Larson of B&J Concrete & Construction said Mr. Jaksetic showed up on a job site near the auditor's home, inquiring about the Summit Street project.
"He said he had just been to the store and bought some beer for us to have after I got done working,” Mr. Larson wrote. “Needless to say I didn't accept his invitation."
Douglas Stephens, director of the Toledo Department of Transportation, said in an August email that Mr. Jaksetic had once again been on a jobsite: "His conversation is not appropriate, he has no official business with my people or contractors, and he has no personal protection equipment when he comes on site.”
Last month, Mr. Stephens sent a more strongly-worded directive to city officials and contractors that “under no circumstances is anyone to talk to the city auditor in the future unless I approve it. He needs to come through the administration and not go to contractors or consultants directly."
Last week, a business development leader with city contractor Johnson Controls wrote to some of her colleagues and city officials about another lengthy and unusual interaction she had with the auditor.
At first the conversation was normal, and covered the intricacies of city water meters, but then it went “south," said the contractor, Audrey Noel.
At one point, she wrote, Mr. Jaksetic “kinda went on a long tangent about always getting to the bottom of things, and in fact he stated that the mayor tried to get him fired two weeks ago ... due to unlocking a storage closet no one wanted him to have access to, but that his key fit and there was nothing they could do about it and the mayor can't fire him because he works for council, and he did nothing wrong.”
She wrote that she couldn't recall all the different ways the conversation went, because “half of it made no sense.”
“By now,” Ms. Noel wrote, “I knew I wanted to get off the phone with him pretty quickly.”
First Published November 5, 2022, 12:36 p.m.
