It’s a wrap.
And what a year! Elections, resignations, property revaluations, new tax levies and bond issues, and a significant change to the Toledo City Charter. Twenny twenny-four had it all.
Our job, and we choose to accept it, is to help you make sense of the chaos that is City Politics. As we close out the year that was and move into the brave new one, we take a look back at the best of the best of City Politics. Here are your nominees for the coveted, prestigious, and ever elusive Hildy Awards.
Category: Best Actor in a Mayoral Role
Nominee: Craig Stough. Stough recently announced his retirement as Mayor of Sylvania after twenty-nine years (no pesky term limits hampering a three decade run there!). He is an accomplished architect in addition to being a respected and effective leader of Lucas County’s second city. He has acted as a great public servant.
Nominee: Wade. By contrast, Wade can’t countenance retirement from public office and has not held a private sector job. He hates the thought of releasing his clenched teeth from the government teat. So much that he successfully passed a charter change to potentially extend his mayoral tenure. He’s great at acting like a high minded public servant while be-
ing self- serving behind the scenes.
Category: Best Political Survivor
Nominee: Marcy. She’s been in Congress for forty years, even as the GOP has repeatedly redrawn her district in vain attempts to dislodge her. They once drew a grotesque district that placed most of her electorate in Cuyahoga County. This time they pitted her against Derrick Merrin. She won by amere couple thousand votes.
Nominee: Anita Lopez. A Lo is notorious for jumping from elected position to elected position. And mistreating employees along the way. Even her best friend couldn’t work for her. Eminently vulnerable. Yet the GOP challenged her with a sluggish non-entity. Predictably, she survived.
Category: Political Good Soldier
Nominee: Tom Waniewski. A true unicorn, Tom is a well-liked Republican elected to multiple terms on the Democrat-laden Toledo City Council. He has taken up the GOP mantle to run for multiple offices, including Toledo Mayor and, most recently, Lucas County Commissioner. Instead of being a winner, these tasks have made him a multiple loser. Nice guys finish last.
Nominee: Katie Moline. A Lo jumped ship from the Auditor’s office just before performing her most unpopular task, revaluation of County properties. That odious task falls to her successor, newcomer Katie Moline. Way to take a bullet for the team, Katie!
Category: Keep Your Head Down Award
Nominee: George Sarantou. As a Republican on Toledo City Council, Sarantou was an affable but ineffective political cipher. Then he notoriously resigned as Finance Director of the PHH Administration when he was unable to account for millions of dollars lost in the City budget. Now Sarantou has returned to Council, where he has resumed keeping his head down, affable and ineffective.
Nominee: Pete Gerken. Brash and, at times pompous, Gerken has championed deeply unpopular ideas like putting the County jail adjacent to a residential neighborhood. Since then, he has kept his head down, weathering the political storms to continue winning elections as Lucas County Commissioner.
Category: Send in the Clowns Award
Nominee: Tom Names. This clown keeps running for various offices and losing decisively. Yet he never seems to get the message. Clown gotta clown.
Nominee: Opal Cavey. No explanation needed. The ultimate political clown in the City Politics circus.
Category: Innocent Bystanders Award
Nominee: Lucas County property owners. Every county-wide tax levy and bond issue passed at the ballot box. Meanwhile revaluation increased the assessed value of properties by several orders of magnitude. Unbeknownst to many property owners, property tax liability may be set to explode.
Nominee: City of Toledo stakeholders. Voters changed the City charter to allow Wade to run for a third term. Given the misleading title about term limits, which we’ve written about extensively, it’s questionable whether voters knew what they voted for.
Doesn’t matter. It’s quite likely Wade’s tenure will extend into the perilous time when COVID money runs out. How he will handle lean times is anyone’s guess. Toledo voters effed around, and Toledo stakeholders are about to find out.
Happy New Year!