Next public meeting on county council issue scheduled

Well, there's not been much publicity about this, so I wanted to emphasize that the next public meeting to discuss the county-council charter form of government for Lucas County will be Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. in the Commissioner Meeting Room on the first floor of Government Center.

According to various reports, Comm. Pete Gerken plans to hold a vote June 29 deciding whether or not to put the 15-member charter commission on the November ballot. Under Ohio Revised Code, such a commission would be in charge of drafting a county charter to be put before voters in the following year.

So - if you can make it, be sure to attend the meeting Tuesday at 4:30 and ask all the necessary questions!

***Side Note:
Comm. Ben Konop has been making the rounds at various group/club meetings in the county showing statistics on just how bad off Lucas County is. Here are a couple of additional questions for him:

* How will changing the form of government reduce foreclosures in the county?

* How will changing the form of government decrease the unemployment rate in the county?

* What party/philosophy has been in charge of Toledo and County government over the last 40 years and how will decisions under a new form of government be any different than the ones that got us to this point?

* You came up with some money-saving ideas early in your term of office, but wanted to put the savings toward paying for college education for only certain county residents. That idea is included in your draft of the county charter that you want voters to approve this November. If you could come up with ways to save money, why not just go ahead and do the savings, even if you couldn't then spend the money as you wanted by giving it away to only select individuals? This was one way to actually reduce the cost the cost of government, yet you didn't push the savings because you couldn't get support for how to spend the savings. How will a charter form of government give us real 'savings' if your document calls for the those savings to just be spent in other ways?

* One of your major complaints about 'changing' Lucas County is that you couldn't get the support of two fellow Democrats on the BCC. What makes you think that getting the votes of a majority of people on a county council will be any easier? What, in a county charter form of government, is different when it comes to decision-making that makes you think the 'change' you seek will actually occur?

Plus any you can think of.

***End Side Note