State Auditor has checked on Toledo's financial condition

According to a letter from Mayor Carty Finkbeiner to members of council, the State Auditor's office has been in touch with the mayor to check on the city's financial situation.

From the letter:

3. The State Auditor's office was in contact with us late last week requesting information on our current financial situation. We explained the plan that had been placed before City Council, and they indicated they would call back after the Tuesday, April 7th council vote to see what action was taken.

However, it is still unknown if Toledo City Council will be taking any action at their committee of the whole meeting tomorrow. Their next regular council meeting is the 14th and tomorrow (the 7th) would be their agenda meeting. They had originally scheduled a special committee of the whole meeting to discuss the mayor's plan to suspend all union contracts for 1 p.m., but it appears that meeting, along with public comment, will begin at 4 p.m. instead.

Also according to the letter, Carty has updated Gov. Ted Strickland's staff about the current situation and his proposed course of action.

The mayor emphasized in the letter that he is only requesting a temporary rollback of the pension pickups and salary. He pointed out that the concessions requested are for a year and that the current and planned negotiations with the unions would continue.

Additionally, the letter states:

Each union has been notified that for severance pay or compensatory time payouts, the employee's pay rate will be frozen at the rate it was on March 30, 2009 and will not be based on any temporary reductions in salary.

This decision is obviously to stem the thought of retirement and to halt the run on payouts of comp time that were being threatened by employees.

The letter: