Toledo VERY friendly to local businesses

Yea. Uh-huh.

Toledo's new ordinance, that of requiring convenience store owners to install security cameras in their parking lots - Story in the Blah - is a great idea, and might help to catch criminals, but Ludeman's 'acknowledgment' (huh?) that "We did pricing, and it's very inexpensive to put camera equipment in a convenient store," is somewhat of a 'misspeak' (Clinton terminology) and is relative.

'Inexpensive' for him? Probably. He owns at least 3 properties in Lucas County valued at over $380,000. Inexpensive for 'chain' convenience stores? Probably. But for the local 'Mom & Pop' store, an outlay of well over $1000 is certainly not "inexpensive"!

I would suggest that all the 'Mom & Pop' stores call the city on Monday and request a copy of the quotes the city received per Ludeman's "We did pricing..." statement. It would be interesting to see the figures on what Ludeman calls 'inexpensive'! (Matter of fact, I'll be calling the city today and requesting the results of their 'study'!)

Perhaps with additional Police manpower (something more than the bare minimum we now have) and more patrols focusing in problem areas, these crimes might just lessen. Instead, the city appears as though they just want to automate the sh*t out of everything (a'la Red Light Cameras) and keep the Police force at State minimum standards!

Hey, maybe with Toledo being so 'Business Friendly' they'll chip in on the cost or at least offer an interest free loan for the security cameras!

Or not.

(And here I sit, listening to TPD for the 3rd day in a row flying over I-75 catching speeders. Can't afford to replace entire fleet of Police vehicles...all kinds of budget cuts, but we can afford the cost of airplane at approx. $150 an hour!)

created by GraphicsGuy on Apr 04, 2008 at 08:55:32 am Comments: 4

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Excerpts from an Apr 4, 2008 Thurber's Thoughts blog posting titled FOIA Friday :

Today starts a new feature where each Friday I will blog about public records, how to obtain them or people struggling to gain access to information.
We'll start with this post on Toledo Talk from GraphicsGuy, who wants to know exactly what evidence the City of Toledo has to indicate that complying with the new convenience store licensing law is not very expensive. (see next post for more details on this obnoxious law and the lawsuit filed yesterday)

Here's a tip, GraphicsGuy, under Ohio's revised public records law ORC 149.43, you might want to make the request in writing and hand-deliver it to the 22nd floor. Why? Because if the city doesn't respond, that's the only way you'll be entitled to statutory damages should you be forced to file mandamus action against them:

"If a requestor transmits a written request by hand delivery or certified mail to inspect or receive copies of any public record in a manner that fairly describes the public record or class of public records to the public office or person responsible for the requested public records, except as otherwise provided in this section, the requestor shall be entitled to recover the amount of statutory damages set forth in this division if a court determines that the public office or the person responsible for public records failed to comply with an obligation in accordance with division (B) of this section.
The amount of statutory damages shall be fixed at one hundred dollars for each business day during which the public office or person responsible for the requested public records failed to comply with an obligation in accordance with division (B) of this section, beginning with the day on which the requester files a mandamus action to recover statutory damages, up to a maximum of one thousand dollars. The award of statutory damages shall not be construed as a penalty, but as compensation for injury arising from lost use of the requested information. The existence of this injury shall be conclusively presumed. The award of statutory damages shall be in addition to all other remedies authorized by this section."

You can also send your request via certified mail to qualify for the damages. Personally, I think the requirement for delivery of the request is meant to further restrict the public's easy access. In today's world of email and 'receipts' for email messages, there's no reason the public should be required to go to the extra effort of hand-delivering a request - or the extra cost of sending a request via certified mail. But that's another post for a later date.

posted by jr on Apr 04, 2008 at 02:51:00 pm #

Does Ludeman actually OWN those properties, or is he like too many people and he's only making PAYMENTS on them? Renting money from a bank is not really "owning". Ask the Hillcrest guys all about that sort of distinction.

As for friendliness to business, that only applies to a major factory that either proposes coming here (even NEAR here, as Czarty's embarrassing fiasco with the Bass Pro rep showed) or leaving here. The Toledo city government steps right up when that happens. Other than that, the small businessman is just there to be milked. Toledo politicians apparently think the small businessman always has more money laying around, so they can just pass another ordinance and get him to pay.

posted by GuestZero on Apr 04, 2008 at 03:29:40 pm #

It's such a vague and meaningless law, you'd need a law degree to write it.

There are already statutes and civil law that are solid enough, if a business owner is negligent or doing something wrong.

This is just a poorly written law and will be judged as such soon.

posted by charlatan on Apr 04, 2008 at 07:43:42 pm #

As I posted on Thurber's Thoughts I filed 3 Public Record requests Monday morning.

We'll see if I get my information.

(Another one of Maggie's posts has to do with the new law affecting the convenience stores and has a link that attorney Scott Ciolek set up to track the case)

posted by GraphicsGuy on Apr 09, 2008 at 01:38:02 pm #

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