'No' vote was because of race!

Well, there you have it ... Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop's explanation for why he voted against business owner Robert Robinson for a seat on the Lucas County Improvement Corporation board. (My post on the appointment vote where I asked why he voted no.)

According to his quote in The Blade,

"Mr. Konop said he cast the dissenting vote against Mr. Robinson - who is white - because the board is made up mostly of whites and needs to be more representative of the county's diverse culture."

So he voted in favor of the other two nominees who happen to be African-American - and against the white man because he was white. I guess the depth of his experience was irrelevant.

So let's take a look at the resume of the man Ben Konop rejected.

He started out at The Lathrop Company where he was an engineering manager, project manager and vice president of operations at one of their affiliates in Columbus.

He left Lathrop and went to National City Corporation where he spent 25 years in executive management in all aspects of the business. For 10 years, he was the Chief Financial Officer and became known as the 'turn-around' manager. He was assigned a special project in Indiana where he was sent to "avert a total acquisition failure. Employing strong leadership skills, within short period of time, the acquired bank was back to its place of high esteem within the Indiana community. Working with local management in a hostile environment, rapidly rebuilt strong relations with corporate and community leaders, got local buy in from employees and corporate administration plus restored morale..."

He's been the president of the UT Alumni Association, trustee of the Edward Drummond Libby Trust Fund (fbo Toledo Museum of Art), member of the Chamber of Commerce, Pr0Medica Health Care board, past chairman of the Corporation for Effective Government, and Chairman of the Resource Development Committee of the Board of Boys and Girls Club - among others.

While in Indiana, he served as a business advisor to the Indiana and Purdue University at Forty Wayne (IPFW), was a member of the Fort Wayne Area Chamber of Commerce and was the chairman of their Workforce Development Committee.

He's also been a guest lecturer at IPFW and the University of Michigan.

But Konop rejected him because he's white.

And let's remember, Konop says we need to be more accountable in terms of the economic development of the area and the LCIC needs to have better results for their efforts. So a person like Robert Robinson would certainly have a lot to offer - some would say much more than the president of the local NAACP whose profession is as a teacher and union steward - or a personal financial planner who happens to also own a newspaper that endorsed Ben for election (pages 4 and 14).

This is not to say that the other two appointees are not qualified for the board - but to reject an individual like Robinson because of the color of his skin is racist and should condemned.

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...