After more than a year on the job, one Toledo City Councilman had taken all he could take of Mayor Carleton S. Stinkyfinger’s administrative shenanigans. Negotiations with a public safety union had broken down amidst a looming budget deficit, and it was high time to take swift, decisive action to take the Fink to task.
“I’ve taken all I can take,” the bellicose Council rep said. So he did what any highly effective policy maker would do: he introduced a resolution.
No-confidence men
Swift, decisive action indeed. The resolution called for Council to publicly express their lack of confidence in the Finkly style. Too secretive, it alleged. In utter contempt for Toledo’s open meetings laws, it said. Belligerently refusing to share information with Council, it accused. And Toledo’s law requiring any expenditure over ten thousand smackers get Council approval? The Fink’s shady dealings included sneakily breaking contracts into smaller, bite size morsels so he could spend as he pleased, the resolution raged.
And of course, it alluded to the Fink’s biggest purported crime: refusing to follow collective bargaining law or providing leadership in the bargaining process.
Why would this last stick so crossways in the Councilman’s craw? Because this very councilman was a former union boss with an axe to grind. And grind it he did, along with his tiny, pearly teeth. Take that, Finkelgruber!
Alas, the resolution fell on hard times, at least in part because it would have been a quixotic tilt at a meaningless windmill. And would have had no greater basic value than the printer toner it was dashed off with.
Cooler heads on Council refused to support the no-confidence tally, and so it withered on the vine. The livid legislator withdrew his motion and the Fink soon thereafter declared his intent to not seek another term.
But the Councilman never forgot that frustrating feeling. It served to fuel his passion for the 22nd Floor. He knew if he ever got the chance he would show the City how the office of Mayor should be run. With complete transparency. And a love of sharing information with all Council members. And of course, strong, steady stewardship of the collective bargaining process.
Yep, he’d leave the stink of the Fink in the past and move boldly forward to a new style of governance.
Until he inadvertently got elected Mayor and the real time doo doo hit the whirling tinny blades.
Déjà vu all over again
As you might have guessed by now, the Councilman in question was one Dennis Mike Collins, then a freshly minted District Two rep and now the Mayor-elect of good ol’ Toodley-doo.’
There seems to be a change of heart in the Council representative. From no-confidence to full faith and credit. The erstwhile Finkenstinker is now one of the co-chairmen of the transition team for the Mayor-elect. The transition team leader is Bob Reinbolt, who served as the Fink’s chief of staff at the time Councilman Collins expressed his lack of confidence in the Fink’s team. And several other administrators from the Finkish years are also on board, including Bill Franklin and Tom Kroma.
The job of the transition team is to ensure that the Collins administration can hit the ground running when it officially takes office in January. Dennis Mikey C. has defended his choice of the Fink and his FOCers (Friends of Carty) for providing policy advice as wanting to draw on their vast experience.
Of what did said experience consist? Secrecy, contempt for open meetings laws, refusing to share information with Council, and, well, all the stuff you read above from the Collins resolution four plus years ago.
With that bit of background it should come as no surprise that the first policy initiative to come from the Collins camp, one which is of such urgency that it can’t wait until he becomes Mayor, is to give a big fat raise to one of his yet-to-be-named top administrators.
Of course, his Council colleagues have questions about this proposal. How will this fit into the overall budget? What is the job description for said individual? Who are some folks who might fill such shoes?
Collins has belligerently refused to share such information with Council. Sound familiar?
That’s right. It has the stink of the Fink all over it. And the leering grin of Herr Reinbolt lurking just behind it.
How could this possibly have happened? Unfortunately it seems Denny boy didn’t learn from the past. We hate to be the bearers of bad news, peeps, but it looks like we just might be doomed to repeat it.
