 "Photo: Nate Croak/ IC")
 "Photo: Nate Croak / IC")
Nearly 200 people gathered Wednesday in Nitschke Auditorium at the University of Toledo’s College of Engineering to hear Toledo Mayor Mike Bell give his first State of the City address.
Bell, who ran as an Independent candidate in Toledo’s 2009 mayoral race against Democratic opponent Keith Wilkowski, focused his address to the city on the theme of inclusion.
“This whole issue of being able to turn this city around is actually about us all working together, about us being very transparent in its approach and about us being very inclusive in its approach,” Bell said.
He admitted that, after only 50 days in office, he has learned that delivering Toledo from its economic troubles won’t be an easy task.
“I can tell you from my former profession as a fire chief, that our budget situation right now is the equivalent of a third alarm fire. We have a $48 million deficit that we have to deal with. We have declining revenue and also declining population. We have little or no regional economic development outreach,” Bell said.
However, he made it a point to mention that he has begun to establish a culture of inclusion within the city — a key area of his campaign platform.
“To this date, we have included council people in, we’ve included businesspeople in, we’ve included normal citizens in, we’ve included media members in, to be able to all have a portion of the discussion necessary to turn this city around,” Bell said.
While Bell emphasized inclusion as a way to solve the city’s problems, he also devoted the first half of his speech to what he referred to as “doom and gloom” — reminding Toledoans that inclusion does not mean the process will be easy. Bell stressed the point that everyone has to “do something” and that there is “no easy way” out of the city’s budget crisis.
Bell told the audience that whenever he has shared his ideas for fixing the city’s budget, many people are reluctant to change or to accept the idea that every citizen has to play a role by making sacrifices and contributions.
“We have to do something. We have no ability not to act on this $48 million deficit. Even our unions are resistant to the idea that they might have to do something. Everybody is resistant to the change that has to occur in our city,” he said.
Although no single Toledoan caused the $48 million deficit, Bell believes every Toledoan needs to be “a part of the solution.” He explained that the budget deficit — the largest ever experienced by the city of Toledo — cannot be solved by laying people off or closing pools in the city.
“We can almost wipe out any major department in our city in trying to balance that budget. It’s not a mere idea of just laying a few people off. It’s not that you’re going to gain a whole lot of money in closing pools,” he said.
Bell also addressed the misperception many Toledoans have that the city has an overstaffing problem that is leading to budgetary problems. According to Bell, Toledo has “the leanest workforce of any major city in Ohio.” He cited the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, which has 16,000 more people than Toledo and 3,700 more city employees, to prove his point that Toledo has a “lean employment staff.”
While Bell expressed confidence in Toledo’s ability to maintain an efficient workforce at the city level, he was critical of the way the city “does business.” He noted that, although the nation-wide recession has caused economic difficulties for Toledo, a major factor behind the city’s economic woes is its ineffective “business nature.”
Bell cited three city-owned properties — the former Hillcrest Hotel, the Commodore Perry and the Museum Place — that are draining $1.1 million from the city annually as examples of unsuccessful business-model plans pursued by past city leaders.
“This is why cities don’t necessarily get involved in being a business. This is why we have to change how we do business. I’m quite sure the intent of those projects was to actually make our city better, but when you realize what you can actually do with $1.1 million that you have no ability to use at this time and you have a budget deficit of $48 million, it makes you wonder, ‘Why?’” he said.
After Bell discussed the financial and economic problems facing the city, he changed the pace of his speech to provide a more positive outlook on Toledo’s future and plans on how to improve the city.
According to Bell, Toledo’s potential is “unlimited.” It was this potential, he said, that brought him back to Toledo to run for mayor even after his appointment as Fire Marshall in Columbus, Ohio.
“One of the biggest issues that made me want to come back here and be mayor of the city of Toledo, or at least try to, is the idea that we are at a tilting point and we have never, ever, achieved what people call our potential. But I know that we have the ability to do that,” Bell said.
In order to achieve that potential, Bell said he believes that the city needs a change in attitude and more collaboration on the city level and regional level.
“We have to change our attitude; we have to start believing in what we can do. There is no secret to being able to work together accept that you need to reach out and hold your hand out and hope that the other person holds their hand out, and we can figure out how to develop a relationship to where we can bring businesses into our city,” he said.
In an interview with Bell after his address, the mayor reiterated his position that the city needs to reform its outlook and move on.
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