According to this Blade article, of the 2,500 solicitation letters, only 25 - or 1% - expressed any interest and only four actually made a commitment to place an ad on a car.
Those four companies - Toledo Mud Hens, Promedica Health Systems, Mercy Health Partners and Yark Automotive Group - did so more to support the police department rather than expect this to be an effective form of advertising.
"Joe Napoli, general manager of the Mud Hens, said he was in favor of supporting the police department through advertising. A Mud Hens' logo branded on the side of a police car could have potentially prompted thousands of people to buy tickets to a game, he said."
Come on, Joe - you really didn't expect that seeing the Mud Hens logo on a police car would prompt "thousands" to buy tickets, did you?
"ProMedica made a monetary donation in support of the police department, said Tedra White, spokesman for Toledo Hospital. She declined to disclose the amount of the donation."
Well, Ms White, the amount of the donation is a public record, so everyone who wants to know will be able to get that information. (On Wednesday, after the holidays, I'll ask and then update this post as soon as I get the amounts.)
The sad part of all this is that the police department didn't purchase any vehicles last year because of budget issues, so they're behind in the much-needed replacement of cars. But we did get new bike paths ... talk about priorities!
4 comments:
T-townjoe made this comment under a different post, but I've moved it here where I believe it was intended to go.
I would like to throw in my two cents here why here in Toledo of all place's should we be having to look to companies to purchase advertising space on the side of police cars in order to raise money to purchase new police cars?. We should be able to turn to Jeep and have our police cars supplied for free after all we gave them millions and millions of dollar's in tax relief (i.e.) tax abatement's that just seems like a win win for Jeep and Toledo.
T-townjoe
I agree totally with both T-Town and you maggie. I wrote a piece on this as well and I'm just flabergasted that Mike blamed the whole idea on Finbeiner. What a joke these 2 yahoos are.
First, there has to be a market for the advertising. Since the Toledo "Market" has shrunk substantially, well, there ya go. The priorities are so askew, it will take the next mayor 2 years just to undo the damage and restore fiscally responsible, forward progress. The next problem is that by the time the change in administration is done, it will likely take much more serious unitial cuts and the seriousness of the situation will be obvious to everyone at that time.
With the way this City Coucil and Administration have been mucking up the place with smirks and cheesey grins, the taxpayer, the employer, the employee have all taken 50 lashes for no justifiable reason. At the pace of this clown ac, there will likely be darker days to come. I do however know in my soul, a new Administration lead by a common sense oriented, conservitive with drive and "I'll do whatever I have to to get the job done for Toledo" mentality will make the transition as painless as possible while not hiding the truth under false pride.
Navarre should step down, and there needs to be serious consideration into whom takes the helm now. Carty needs a reality check on the importance of a good fleet for the city crews, Cops, Firefighters and other essential personel like the neighborhoods dept, the water department etc.
Simple basic principals for any city administration should be:
Basice services such as Safety Forces, Fire, water, sewer,Streets/Bridges, parks, and so on.
2nd, Economic Development. Doing whatever it takes to bring in business and jobs for the citizens, tax revenue for the city services and thus expanding the population which will sell homes, generate more retail development etc.
3rd, Neighborhood Improvement.
etc
I agree that Chrysler should be approached. They've had a good relationship with Auburn Hills PD, and I believe they've given Chargers and Magnums to them. The Magnum easily outperforms the Crown Vics and would be a fine replacement. Or they'd probably be willing to donate a few Charger V6 models, which are nearly as fast as the Fords and handle and stop better.
A couple of thoughts:
Years ago, when Jeep still owned Jeep, somebody got the bright idea that all the Police cars should be Jeeps, much like the rest of Toledo's fleet, except for the bigger trucks and the heavy Public Safety Rigs.
Anyway Jeeps as Police cars were a disaster; that's why Toledo buys and uses so many Jeeps elsewhere.
Years ago, Toledo's people learned what works and what doesn't work for certain purposes and they try to buy (outside of mayoral meddling) what works.
Toledo's fleet of Police cars is now several years past the prime replacement time and, as a result, Toledo's repair costs are out of sight. This serves the mayor's agenda in that everybody sees that we need new police cars and therefore the mayor has his leverage, via the skewed costs, to pretty much get his way in picking our pockets seemingly at will.
Inside information reveals that ALL of Toledo's police cars need replacing.
Toledo needs professional business management that will not let us throw good money after bad by updating and properly maintaining its rolling stock.
(Ahem..., IMNHO.)
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