D. Michael Collins had a way to make people feel safe and proud to be Toledoans, but he also had a knack for getting under people’s skin when he thought they deserved it.
“You will do better in Toledo, and it was proven a hundred years ago, and we are going to prove it in 2015 and every year there forward,” Mayor Collins proclaimed publicly on Dec. 17 to unveil roadside signs with the 101-year-old “You will do better” slogan he adopted as his administration’s ambition.
As president of the police patrolmen’s union, and later a city councilman, the man was known to strongly challenge Toledo bureaucrats and other mayors. Mr. Collins was doggedly stubborn and intensively detailed — two things people who worked with him say helped him win a council district seat and, in 2013, the mayoral election after a primary election defeat four years before.
PHOTO GALLERY: Click here to view photos of D. Michael Collins
As mayor for a short 13 months, Mr. Collins irked some former council colleagues and refused to back down against Lucas County officials over things he thought would help Toledo, even if they were at the county’s expense.
“I am the mayor of the city of Toledo and responsible for the people who live here. ... I am not the mayor of Lucas County,” he told The Blade in December.
A tough adversary
Chief of Staff Robert Reinbolt, whom Mayor Collins hired as his right-hand man after the hard-fought 2013 campaign to beat incumbent Mayor Mike Bell, considered his boss a friend — but it wasn’t always so.
“We had many conflicts when he was union president,” said Mr. Reinbolt, who held a variety of high-level city posts while Mr. Collins headed the Toledo Police Patrolman’s Association. “When you dealt with him, he could make your head spin. ... I can remember being grilled on the floor of council, and you knew he always had the answer to his own question before asking, and in reality, he knew more about the subject than anyone, so it just would drive me crazy.”
J. Michael Porter, Toledo’s city manager from 1979 to 1981 before its 1993 switch to a strong-mayor form of government, had similar frustrations with Mr. Collins.
“He and I were polar opposites in terms of the situation,” Mr. Porter said. “That was when we had the horrible [police] strike and so on, and we were, at best, adversaries. But I always respected him. He was a sharp man and always intelligent.”
Thirty years ago and 30 days ago, people said the same things about Mayor Collins.
“If you went head-to-head with him, you had better done your homework,” Mr. Porter recalled from dealing with him at contract negations. “But as much as we were adversaries, he was still a good person.”
Hours after his death Friday, people reflected on his legacy and how he would be remembered and honored.
‘His way’
Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken acknowledged the two were the “highest-profile political adversaries” in Toledo, but it wasn’t personal and there was always mutual respect.
“His legacy is his whole career, because he didn’t get defined in 13 months [as mayor]. Because no one gets defined in 13 months steering a big ship like this,” Mr. Gerken said. “He is Toledo’s version of a Frank Sinatra song: ‘I did it my way.’ And he did. He did it his way from the streets, he did it his way from the TPPA leader, his way as a councilman — he was an individual on council rather than a pack-runner and as mayor was unique.”
Councilman Lindsay Webb said Mayor Collins “gave his life for Toledo, and some could say he is the patron saint of the city of Toledo.”
Ms. Webb said the mayor, while in office, set into motion things that will have long-term impacts on Toledo. Among them were helping ProMedica proceed with plans to renovate the vacant former Toledo Edison steam plant downtown and efforts to help Fiat Chrysler keep Jeep Wrangler production at its local factory complex.
“He made the city come together,” she said. “You could feel the spirit of unity in our community right now. Also, I just loved the fact that he did his homework and he knew the answer to a question before he asked it. You could see the Irish twinkle in his eye before he did something.”
Councilman Steven Steel, also head of the Lucas County Democratic Party, said Mayor Collins was very steady in his leadership and unflappable.
“People sold him short,” Mr. Steel said. “He was always the long shot, he was always the outside voice on council, and people thought of him as the outsider. And then he became mayor and showed that that quiet, unassuming demeanor served him well.”
‘Great American story’
City Councilman and former Mayor Jack Ford said Mayor Collins “showed grace” with tumultuous events last year.
“The ProMedica move process will be part of his story,” said Mr. Ford, who voted last month against a memorandum of understanding Mayor Collins had reached with the company.
“He had some fairly significant things he had to either confront or, in the case of ProMedica, that he had to move along,” Mr. Ford said.
The former mayor said Mayor Collins’ rise from a childhood in what is now Toledo’s central city to a Marine, police officer, union president, and mayor make “a great American story.”
“He was more than just a union leader [as TPPA president]. He influenced policy as a union leader on council, so he had a real legacy toward community service even before he became a councilman,” Mr. Ford said.
Some have noted that Mr. Collins constantly demanded more information when he was on council but as mayor was accused of keeping council in the dark.
“Every mayor is like that. You wait until the deals are consummated, because you’re fearful council will throw a monkey wrench into the deal before it’s done,” Mr. Ford said.
Because he held the rotating post of council president pro tem when Paula Hicks-Hudson became mayor, Mr. Ford is now council president. He said council will probably decide to elect a permanent president.
A ‘decisive’ force
Mayor Hicks-Hudson said Mayor Collins would certainly be remembered for his “decisive” handing of Toledo’s water crisis last August. When algae-related toxins contaminated the city’s Lake Erie water supply, rendering it undrinkable for more than two days, Mayor Collins insisted on multiple water quality tests before announcing it was safe.
He testified before a U.S. Senate committee in December and called on the federal government to devote full attention to improving water quality in America’s lakes and rivers.
“Don’t give this lip service. It’s a canary in the coal mine,” Mayor Collins said. “If we forget what happened in Toledo, it is doomed to be repeated.”
During just his first month in office, Mayor Collins faced record snowfall and historic cold plus the deaths of two Toledo firefighters, Stephen Machcinski and Jamie Dickman, in an alleged arson.
He later negotiated several city union contracts from the management side of the table and pushed through a plan to acquire and then raze southwest Toledo’s vacant former Clarion Hotel as part of a plan to attract a new retailer to the blighted former Southwyck Shopping Center site.
While some recall powerful statements like those he made in Washington last year, frustrating meetings at which he needled people about fine details, dogged investigations of city government as a councilman, or verbose oratories he could easily sustain, others said Mayor Collins’ legacy is compassion.
A man of compassion
He had chosen “Collins Cares” as his 2013 campaign slogan, emblazoned on signs with green backgrounds to show off the Irish heritage about which he spoke proudly.
Renee Palacios, executive director of the Family House shelter in central Toledo, said few other politicians matched Mayor Collins’ compassion and understanding.
“He was the only council person who really listened to the plight of the homeless,” she said through tears. “He always took the time to meet with us and talk about the needs of the families.
“As a police officer, he would find people under bridges and understood homeless people. He understood the root cause was not just the lack of a house.”
For several years, the shrinking federal funding the city doled out to homeless shelters became a rising political fight.
“He took extra steps and he found another way to fund the shelters last year without general-fund money,” Ms. Palacios said. “When he came to Family House, he just sat down and listened to people, and he was able to relate to them and talk to the children in a way that they were eyes wide open.”
One thing Ms. Palacios said happened a lot: “I would say, ‘Hello, Mayor Collins,’ and he would say, ‘Call me Mike.’ ”
Staff writer Tom Troy contributed to this report.
Contact Ignazio Messina at: imessina@theblade.com or 419-724-6171 or on Twitter @IgnazioMessina.
First Published February 8, 2015, 5:00 a.m.