New LCIC board members

I plan to do a detailed post tomorrow about the shenanigans County Commissioner Ben Konop continues to attempt regarding the Lucas County Improvement Corporation. In the meantime, the Commissioners did appoint their six members to this board today.

Obviously, and in keeping with their long-standing tradition, the three commissioners each have a seat. Commissioner Pete Gerken was selected to continue as the commissioner representative on the LCIC Executive Committee. That was a 2-1 vote with Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak continuing in her support of Pete in this position, and Konop voting no.

The other three board members are Kevin McQueen, Robert Robinson and WilliAnn Moore.

McQueen and Moore each were selected by a 3-0 vote. Robinson got a 'no' vote from Konop.

McQueen, according to his application for the position, is a financial representative for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network and is the publisher/co-owner of the Sojourner's Truth, a weekly newspaper.

Moore is a Toledo Federation of Teachers union steward, president of the Toledo Branch NAACP and a board member of one of the local community development corporations, ONYX (Organized Neighbors Yielding Excellence).

Robinson is co-founder of IP Dynamics, LLC. and its forerunner, CWS Advisors. These companies specialize in financial turnaround management, startups and recapitalizations, according to his resume. Prior to this, he was the chief financial officer at National City Corporation. Before banking, he held several management positions at The Lathrop Company.

While there are certainly positive qualities in all these individuals, I find it interesting that the only individual with significant business experience and skills relevant to economic development (Robinson) got the only 'no' vote - and that by the Commissioner who thinks the LCIC needs to be more accountable for actual economic development within the county.

I can only speculate as to Konop's reason for voting no, since he's stated that he doesn't have a 'moral obligation' to respond to my emails - but that's another post for another time. Is it because he thinks Robinson is a 'Gerken crony'? Or is it because Robinson has extensive business experience and would be very likely to see through Konop's childish behavior? It would be nice if Konop would explain his vote against Robinson while voting for McQueen and Moore.

And while we're asking questions that Konop should answer, perhaps he could also explain just how that search for a new executive director of the LCIC is going ... after all, he's the one who thought they'd be able to find a replacement within 90 days - which he promptly modified to four months. Perhaps he's finding it much easier to criticize inappropriately than it is to actually perform...