As reported by 13 ABC Toledo City Council has the opportunity to demonstrate they take both of these issues seriously by taking action as proposed by Toledo City Councilman Frank Szollosi and candidate for Toledo City Council Dave Schulz.
This 12/07/05 Toledo Free Press article demonstrates how long the ethics portion has been on the table and the need for clarification on term limits has been needed for quite some time as well. As the Toledo Blade reported in May, this ethics proposal was announced by Frank Szollosi in November of 2005.
Today Dave provided the following for readers of this blog in response to Bob McCloskey's sentencing today and these two important proposals:
City Council candidate Dave Schulz realizes it is time for the city to move on from this sad chapter in its history but issues remain that must be addressed in order to restore faith in our city government.
These include:
1. Term Limits Reform: The Ohio Supreme Court with its ruling, without an opinion, basically gutted term limits in Toledo. Term limits is now on the honor system. Leaving it up to politicians to determine what term limits mean is very dangerous.
2. Ethics Reform: Council seems to be dragging their feet in adopting some simple and common sense ethics reforms that many cities have adopted. It is time for City Council to make this a priority.
City Councilman Frank Szollosi and Dave Schulz agree on the need for these reforms. In an effort to attract the public’s attention to these important issues, Szollosi and Schulz today publicly called for council to act quickly on them. Councilman Szollosi has pushed to have these items considered for the August 1st Agenda Review meeting so that they can get first readings on August 8th. Schulz expressed his appreciation for Mr. Szollosi’s efforts.
The Term Limits amendment is very time-sensitive. Council must act at the September 5th meeting or it will not be eligible for the November ballot. Schulz calls on the Council Committee of the Whole to debate this quickly and declare an emergency if necessary to pass this measure by September 5th .
“As far as term limits go, it is clear to everyone that there is a problem. My amendment addresses this issue and clarifies the intent of the voters expressed in 1992.”, Schulz declared.
Schulz also sees the obvious need for Councilman Szollosi’s ethics reforms and calls for the passage of them as soon as possible. “All these measures will help restore faith in our local government.”, Schulz states.
Schulz adds, “I want Republicans and Democrats on council to come together and embrace these measures. Politics and personalities are getting in the way of progress.”
Schulz also extends his thoughts to Mr. McCloskey’s family during this difficult time.
UPDATE 7/22: The The Toledo Blade has more...This:
He (Rob Ludeman) said the proposal will be considered, but said the Aug. 25 deadline probably doesn't leave enough time for public hearings, legal scrutiny, and review by the charter review committee.
Raises; A) the excuse that will be used so this doesn't make it on the ballot and B) there would have been more than ample time had Council acted on this months ago when it was presented. I'd suggest that if this is important to Toledo area voters they contact their Councilpersons.
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6 comments:
Dave Schulz's remarks are right on the button and Frank's proposal is what City Council needs.
That being said, it's all about politics, not the common good, I fear. Perhaps Council will surprise me with this.
If the media pays attention to it like 13 did and we let them know it's important maybe...Both Frank and Dave have done a lot of work on this. It shouldn't be this hard but I agree it ends up being all about politics.
I'd really like to see mandatory drug-testing on these elected officials.
Someone throw THAT against the wall.
Term limits here have been around for a while Redhorse. The problem here is the language needs clarification. I'd love to live in a world where it wasn't almost a guarantee for an incumbent to be re-elected but the majority of the time the only way a new person gets on Council is to be appointed because someone moved "up" to another elected position or term limits.
Brian I think you did just throw that up against the wall...
:-)
...and the loss of institutional knowledge severly hinder good governance.
That may be true, Redhorse, but we have lists of politicians who, by continuing to be re-elected have become lax not only in serving their constituents, but in their ethical standards.
Who is to say that Senator X or Representative Y should stay on and on? How many other, even more capable people, are waiting in line to serve their community or state? We'll never know because the lack of term limits renders them invisible.
A little mandatory turnover can be a good thing.
I'd rather see different people take a crack at solving a problem periodically, like say, storm sewers, than to have the same few continually fail at it.
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