Carty's appointments and how quickly we forget

Not to mention how hard the City and the Toledo Blade make it to remember....

The race card once again enters Toledo Politics, this time like most times it shouldn't be an issue. Today's Toledo Blade states:

With Carty Finkbeiner's election as mayor, 29 people who were hired or promoted during the single term of Mayor Jack Ford have resigned, retired, or been fired.

Slightly more than half were African-American.

The number of terminations, after the bitter campaign between fellow Democrats Finkbeiner and Ford, has raised eyebrows - even as people recognize the mayor's right to install his own team.

When Jack Ford took office he appointed his own staff, and made a great deal of changes, that of course is not mentioned. Granted, the Toledo Blade makes it impossible to find this information unless you want to pay $2.95 per article and while all the appointments require confirmation by city council, the City Journal for City Council is not available online for previous years, only the past two years. Nor is it designed to be easily searchable. If you are a card holder for the Toledo Lucas County Library, some not all articles from the Toledo Blade are available online, at no cost.

Today's Blade article goes on:

"Maybe Carty couldn't get past loyalty," said Mr. Gilchrist. "There were plenty of Carty people in economic development. Jack knew, and he didn't get rid of them."

Let's flash back...

To January 9, 2002:

The city's chief prosecutor, a supporter of failed mayoral candidate Ray Kest, has been dismissed from his job four days into the new Ford administration.

Meanwhile, the administration asked city council to act yesterday on an ordinance to allow the mayor to hire a national search firm to recruit for the jobs of chief financial officer and economic development director.

Mr. Ford had declined to reappoint, in acting capacities, several of Mr. Finkbeiner's top staffers, who left office when Mr. Finkbeiner's term ended. Mr. Tomczak is believed to be the first to be dismissed.

Then let's move ahead to January 31, 2002:

Mayor Jack Ford has an evangelist for an executive assistant, who plans to take seriously the mayor's plans to involve churches more extensively in community service.

Marjorie Holt, 51, is one of four people introduced by Mr. Ford yesterday as part of his top office team.

Also joining the Ford administration are Jay Black, Jr., a vice president of National City Bank, as chief operating officer; John Loftus, seaport director for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, as assistant chief operating officer, and Anita Lopez, attorney for the Toledo Fair Housing Center, as affirmative action director.

Then, on December 2, 2002; Tom Troy, the very same reporter that wrote today's article had an article titled "Complexion of City Staff Changing - Ford Says He wants to Give Minorities More Chances" in which this is noted:

Since then, the Ford administration has changed the city payroll's complexion, with whites comprising 72 percent of the city's work force. The percentage of African-Americans rose from 20.4 percent to 22 percent, and the Hispanic percentage rose from 4 to 5 percent.

A Blade review of City Hall staffing showed that:

* The mayor created, resurrected, or upgraded nine commissioner and manager positions, appointing blacks to six of them and a Hispanic to one.

* Of 15 administrative positions, the number of minorities rose from six under former mayor Carty Finkbeiner to nine under Mr. Ford.

* The mayor's appointments have occurred as overall city employment has dropped. Since January, the Ford administration has hired 79 people, one-half of whom are black and 6 percent are Hispanic. Overall, however, city employment in the general fund operations has declined by 31 people - from 2,013 employees when Mr. Ford imposed a hiring freeze in February, to 1,982 employees as of Nov. 7.

So after taking a brief visit back into history, what can we surmise? If it is okay for Mayor Jack Ford to make changes to staff and hire who he wants to hire, then it should be the same for Mayor Carty Finkbeiner. Mayor Finkbeiner is not terminating or selecting staff that serves at the pleasure of the mayor because of race. Just as in that same December 2, 2002 article in which Mayor Ford clarifies his position at that time:

"I'm just looking at who I think can do the job on the terms I want them to," Mr. Ford said. "So it doesn't make a difference what the person's color is, although diversity is a goal."