Karen Shanahan's White Paper on fixing Toledo

Sep 18, 2007 posting at Karen Shanahan's blog.

I'll bullet-point some of Shanahan's statements. Access her blog posting for her complete list and for details.

Intro

• We need a good school system but we don’t have one. The chokehold TFT (Toledo Federation of Teachers) has on the system inhibits creative, flexible and innovative programs.

• Residents of Toledo do not need to pay more taxes; we need to realign the employee compensation to reflect the market.

• It is time to stop manipulating business opportunities to further political agendas.

• Our community would be in a much better position if we approached the business of the City of Toledo as a business. The residents are the customers of City Government and we are not treated very well.

Education

• Embrace charter schools and the voucher program, it is offering a much-needed alternative to a failing public school system and can be instrumental in retaining and recruiting families to Toledo.

• Send out a blind survey and ask the 60% of teachers and administrators of TPS why they don’t live in Toledo and also to those who do live in Toledo but send their children to private schools.

Budget

• Balance the budget by looking inward for cost savings not outward for more revenue.

• Effective Jan. 1, 2008, all city employees would contribute $100 per month towards their medical coverage and $20 co-pay for office visits and prescriptions.

Business and Economic Development

• Stop bundling groups of legitimate businesses to vilify (i.e., convenience stores).

• Review the cost and frequency of inspections. They may increase city revenue, but at what cost to small business.

• Create a complete list of all yearly inspections and the inspection costs to determine whether they are necessary. Those identified as frivolous and designed primarily to increase revenue should be eliminated.

• Bundle into one package all costs and permits required to establish a new business.

• Eliminate the living wage law in Toledo.

City Beautification

• Seek more volunteer organizations to handle the beautification projects.

City Government

• Reduce the size of council.

• Answer emails and phone calls.

• If a program is going to change, consider the programs a contract with the residents and give at least 30 days proper notification before implementation.

Police

• The police department could use some realigning.

• Create a relationship with Owens Community College to offer a degree which would prepare students to be employed by TPD after graduation so the “police class” could be cut from one year to 3 months.

• What are the 292 policemen duties?

• In the morning and evening, position a police car at a school for 15 minutes during the busiest time and have the lights flashing.

Infrastructure

• Create a web-based list of all repair requests for streets, potholes, and complaints which can easily be accessed by residents.
  • It could be a free Google spreadsheet with a link on the City Web Page.
  • The list should be prioritized by severity, listing: location, type of call, date of call, date of expected repair, estimated cost of repair and completion date.

Vacant Property

• The city has ownership of hundreds of residential properties with 30’ frontage primarily in the central city.
  • They all must be maintained by the city.
  • It drains our resources.
  • Have a fire sale; offer each property to any buyer for $1.00.

Refuse Collection

• Continue the [unlimited trash] program, we already pay for it.

• Educate the residents on the recycle program and be consistent.

• Return trash pickup to the alleys.

• When the ¾% temporary tax was passed, it was to include an incinerator. With the issue of landfills, recycling and energy, it is time to revisit the possibility of an incinerator. A committee should immediately begin researching the latest technology of refuse incineration.