Closing statements Toledo City Council Candidates Debate

Last night the Toledo City Council candidates who attended were given two minutes to make a closing statement. As I did with the earlier Commissioner debate I recorded these closing statements and I will do my best to accurately transcribe these statements in full.


First closing statement was by Bob Vasquez:

What I would like to do is to have you consider a couple of things, one that I want you to look at is Leadership, I want you to look at that because I have served on many committees here in the City of Toledo. I have been involved for a long time on these committees as a volunteer citizen, there is a list of them in my hand out for you to take a look at rather than state them now. Listen to what we have said up here, a City Council meeting right now is that the Mayor comes up with a proposal or his staff and he pushes it down to City Council and City Council says Emergency, yes no, yes no and this continues on. What we really need is leadership on City Council right now and by that what I mean is that first of all I don't know why City Council people aren't doing research on their own and not just saying yes or no; saying 'Have you considered this alternative' or 'I have a problem with this part' and send it back up to the Mayor, maybe make a suggestion on how that proposal could be stronger. I also think that takes away from the A Team B Team kind of thing because you are not just saying 'yes no' you are not just voting with your colleagues you actually have some original ideas of your own. We have 12 people sitting on City Council and all they do is vote 'yes no yes no'. We need to start looking at long term planning, they need someone there to force people to look at long term planning and they need people there to show strength and to come up with new ideas when ideas are needed but you have to have someone who knows about government. That's why I'm talking about asset management, infrastructure management, because that sets out goals past one administration and into the other administration. Because of the type of government we have now, strong Mayor, we're going to get this thing over and over and over again, we have to stop that. Who is going to give you consistency in government? It's going to have to be City Council and it's going to have to be coming up with plans, documents, assessment plans, business philosophies, those kinds of things to carry thru. I would like for you to vote for me if you want to see a different way of doing government on November 7th.

Dave Schulz was next:

I actually have a little show and tell here, a vote for me is a vote for results. This is my new sign that will be seen, unlike the Mayor, I really get results. Look at ethics, I beat the drum on that issue during the last City Council race, it's being addressed. I exposed two Councilmen for violating the City Charter, our City Charter, your City Charter. I stuck with that issue and I fixed it, but I encourage you to vote for it again obviously I will be doing it I am the number one champion this issue. I don't have anything else to say, I get results, just think what I did as a private citizen, I will do for you as a City Councilman.

James Mohn:

About the only thing I can say to you is that I am available to you people, I hope you vote for me and in my summary is all of the things that I stand for. My idea is that one person isn't going to change the make up of City Council. I can tell you that right now because they are so indebted in their two cliques. They have two cliques there and it is so obvious, they got the Republican and Democrat clique and then they have the Democrat clique. One person isn't going to change that. They may be able to change the vote sometimes by focusing on parliamentary procedure but the one thing you will see is a difference in the vote. Right now it's always a 12-0 vote, it's always an emergency and it doesn't have to be that way. They do not discuss anything, there is a lot of behind the doors stuff. If you vote for me, I will not go behind the door. They will discuss this stuff out in the open because I will bring it out in the open. I will ask them 'How did you get that decision', in the last meeting that they had it was so devious, some of the members weren't even at the committee meeting, they were somewhere else. But yet, when it came to the meeting to vote on it, it was a good old division, they voted that way so it became law. It will not be that way with me, I will bring it out and they will have to discuss it because I'll point to them 'How did you get to this decision'. Thank you.

Last up was Joe McNamara:

First I want to thank the League of Women voters and the Westgate Neighbors for putting this forum together, I know much work it is first hand and I appreciate it and I had a lot of fun. I also want to thank my opponents for joining up I had fun talking, it wasn't fun when I was attacked but it was good. It's important that you the voters get a chance to see candidates side by side, it's really a shame that not all of the candidates came so that you could compare and that's kind of telling but at any rate, Toledo is facing serious challenges. We are ranked 196 out of 200 cities in job growth by the Milliken institute. Seventy five thousand people have left the City of Toledo in the past thirty years, we can't wait another ten years when twenty five thousand more people have left then try to start something new. I propose new ideas to stop the brain drain, to create jobs and protect public safety. I have a four part to increase the number of police on the streets, and I've been endorsed by the firefighters. You are not always going to agree with me and I may not always get it right, but it's not going to be for the lack of trying, it's not going to be for the lack of hard work and it's not going to be for not trying to put new ideas out there to fix the problems that we are facing. I need your vote on November 7th to turn Toledo around and I promise I'm going to work extremely hard, I love this city and thank you so much for coming out.