Friday, July 25, 2008

FOIA Friday - July 25, 2008

My blog postings have followed the fiasco that is the Erie Street Market for some time now. Since the first of the year, the only financial information I've been able to obtain was a simple spreadsheet that covered the time from October to December 2007.

During Toledo city council's agenda meeting Tuesday, Mike Collins (District 2) requested current financial information for the Erie Street Market showing expenses and revenue, etc... He instructed that he wanted the information included in the council members' agenda packet which is usually delivered to them on the Friday prior to their regular Tuesday meeting.

I've made a public records request for the same information the members of council receive - if they get any at all.

We'll see what comes out of this request.

Mayor Carty Finkbeiner continues to insist that the ESM is making money, despite the fact that the last set of financials showed it lost about $7,000. The general consensus is that the ESM continues to lose money - and that's why they don't want to release the financial information.

Time will tell. But it's the persistence in making public records requests that pays off in the long run.

2 comments:

Timothy W Higgins said...

Maggie,

I would go one step further, and hope that the Mayor holds the city to the same standard that he wishes to impose on the Port Authority.

myloach said...

I am frustrated by the whole thing. We are now having concerts in the market, and I am concerned about the guy who is running the deal. He doesn't inspire confidence and the comercials seem to say Let's get drunk and dance. What is the insurance exposure? The city is self insured, so I assume the market is too.
Now we have the budget short fall.
Is the back log in getting financial info due to Betty's favorite topic, computers? It seems they don't know what is going on so they can't get the info they want.

Jayne Manrow

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