From the Ben Konop for Lucas County Commissioner campaign:
Konop Reacts to Sarantou’s Refusal to Support Tough Ethics Policy for City Council
Democratic candidate believes the public deserves a higher standard of leadership
Toledo, OH- Yesterday at city council, Republican candidate for Lucas County Commissioner George Sarantou voted against a tough ethics policy for city council which would have banned all free gifts to council members. Instead, Sarantou supported a watered down ethics policy which will continue to allow him, for example, to accept free tickets to University of Toledo football games and watch the games from luxury boxes. In addition, these free tickets will not have to be reported as gifts.
Konop will address the issue today, at 3pm, at a press conference. The press conference will take place at the University of Toledo football ticket office at the North End of the Glass Bowl on the campus of the University of Toledo.
“I think city councilmen, like you and I, should have to pay for their tickets to a football game and not be handed out freebies because of their status as an elected official,” stated Konop. “In the wake of Tom Noe’s Coingate and the backroom dealings of Bob McCloskey, the citizens of Lucas County deserve a higher standard of leadership.”
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9 comments:
The Toledo Blade article on yesterday's City Council meeting.
The timing of this press conference is the exact same time as O'Neil's in which he will refuse The Blade's endorsement. Is this an excuse so Ben won't have to be at headquarter's for O'Neil's press conference. Was this set up so The Blade had an excuse not to cover O'Neil and to get the camera's away from there and over at UT. I don't know, but it is all VERY suspicious. This makes me question Konop's motives. Will he refuse The Blade endorsement like other candidates this year? This will be his first test of whether he is a leader or just another politician.
Or, it could mean that Ben wasn't aware of O'Neill's press conference when he decided to do his.
I don't know if any other candidates will refuse the Toledo Blade endorsement, so far from my understanding O'Neill is the first. I do agree with you though that now that O'Neill is the first? This will be a larger issue when it comes to accepting endorsements from the Blade for not only local but state candidates.
"...city councilmen, like you and I..."
When was Ben elected again?
Awww come on anonymous...I don't correct their grammar when they send me these press releases. I'm sure you know:
I think city councilmen, like you and I,
means, I think city councilmen should have to pay for their tickets to a football game, just like we do or something along that line.
Now of course I realize some of you will now say you can't vote for Ben Konop because of his grammar or clarity of press conference verbage which probably wasn't even written by him but...let's remember, I am just the blogger when it comes to press releases for all of our local candidates and I have grammar/verbage issues of my own at times.
:-)
I can understand an elected official who gets a coffee mug or other small token (logo-ed t-shirt, not polo) for giving a speech...but, there's no excuse for accepting a ticket to an event. For goodness sake - write a check and pay for the event yourself - it's not like a $16 ticket is going to break the bank!
And if it's so important for them to be at an event, then it's important enough for them to fork over their own money for the function - even though campaign monies can be used for such things.
For years, they got $200/month just to do stuff like this - that's OUR tax dollars which they used to 'lend the prestige of their office' to various groups and dinners. And I believe that even Sarantou said he didn't want to give up that discretionary fund until the public put so much pressure on council that they had no choice.
Oh, and the state ethics law says you can't accept anything of value for doing your job - what do they call a free ticket to a football game so you can have work conversations with trustees?
From The Blade: ""Those types of gatherings are important because you meet the board of trustees, you meet faculty members. I don't go to watch the game. I go to talk to people about different things going on at the university," Mr. Sarantou said."
This is just ridiculous! Pay for things yourself, or don't go!
I figure if you NEED the freebies then you aren't making enough money and maybe you shouldn't be in politics.
But, what do I know, I pay for my own tickets ;-)
And, if someone wanted to pay for my tickets, I'd have to wonder, "What does he want of me?" which is just about right.
Say, maybe if we had council/commissioner candidates that it took more $$$ to "influence..."
It doesn't matter how tight we make ethics policies... they are ineffective if those who know what's going on (such as with McCloskey) don't report and press for compliance. Regarding City Council... they are different from the Mayor and city employees in that these are part time positions and most on council are either retired or have other employment. There are literally hundreds of events that Councilmen are requested to attend and if they do not attend it is considered a snub. Though it seems glamorous to attend ball games, campaign events, recognition dinners, etc.; they are donating their time to attend these events as representatives of Toledo. Some view this as a “perk”, in essence, most events are obligations accepted when elected to office. A partial list of events attended in 2005 when campaigning follows, this is how candidates and elected officials connect with Toledoans. We like access to our elected officials, will we complain when they withdraw from attending events because of the cost. Event Attended in 2005
African American Festival, African American Festival, parade, Art Tatum Jazz Festival, Bike to the Bay 25 & 26, Birmingham Ethnic Festival, Blessed Sacrament Festival, Block Watch Annual Event, Block Watch Picnic, Candidate Forum, Christ the King Fest, Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting, Frank Troy Center's Annual Yard Sale & Fish Fry, German American Festival, Greek-American Festival, Harvard Circle 4th of July , Celebration, Hilcrest Neighborhood Block Party, Irish American Festival, , Jamie Farr, 1 week, Lagrange Festival, 2 Mayoral Debates, Music Under the Stars, HS Football Games, Old West End Festival/Parade, OLPH Festival, Oregon Festival Parade, Peter Ujvagi Paprikas Dinner, Race for the Cure, Rally by the River, Regina Coeli Festival, Rib Off, Riverfest Fireworks, SEIU Local 79 Picnic, Social Security Party, Ss. Peter & Paul , Festival, St George Festival, St Hedwig Festival, St John Baptist, St Pat's Festival, St Thomas Festival, Taste of the Town, Tejano Music Festival, Thunder on the River,
Toledo Blues Festival, Veterans Rally, West Toledo Dems, Point Place Parade.
As a candidate, we were often allowed to enter an event at no charge where food was served, as a courtesy, we did not eat unless there was food left over after everyone else ate. This is not a "whine" this is reality...
If you want ethics in office.. the answer is to report unethical conduct ... laws on the books are of no value if people don't step up to the plate and report what is wrong.
Christine.. good comments... love the dialogue. When I ran last year for Council, I was told by a seasoned democrat that I was politically naive, which is true as I have no political background. So I've made the decision that effective immediately, I'm going to list all invitations to events, programs, etc. which I receive; how received, date of event and cost. This will be posted on my blog http://shanahanselect.blogspot.com/ Hopefully, this will give picture into the world of political invitations. Would you find this interesting?
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