Toledo Mayor Dennis “Michael” Collins is in the toughest battle of his life.
Hard to believe for this former Marine and ex-cop. But true. And totally, unexpectedly strange. It’s common in the course of City Politics that Toledo mayors get in fights with Toledo City Council. It’s even common that one or two council members have spats with the 22nd Floor. Just last column we chronicled the rifts between the current Council and Unca Dennis. Since then, the dust-ups have accelerated. He’s gone toe-to-toe with Councilman Mike Craig over street repaving and Councilwoman Lindsay Webb over water line replacement. Council even brazenly overrode the first veto of the Collins tenure. None of that is surprising. What’s truly novel is that Unca Dennis’s biggest foe on Council isn’t even currently in a Council seat. Huh?
The biggest foil to the current Mayor isn’t Council members Craig or Webb or any of their colleagues. Unca Dennis’s biggest critic is instead a Council member from the past. Councilman D. Michael Collins. Seem too far-fetched to be true? Here are some of Councilman Collins’s favorite sayings and how they might be leveled at Mayor Collins’s administration.
Deep doo-doo
“You treat us like mushrooms,” Councilman Collins would say to Mayors Finkbeiner and Bell. “Keep us in the dark and feed us manure.” Consider the fact that Ohio EPA warned Mayor Collins that they were fed up with the Toledo water treatment plant and were on the verge of taking it over. That information was never shared with Council. Neither was the subsequent spike in levels of algal toxins until it was over the top and a “no drink” advisory was issued.
Council members have complained that they were not given adequate information and were kept out of the loop on other Collins administration initiatives as well, from gifting city-owned buildings to no-bid contracts. Forced to get information from media sources rather than the 22nd Floor. Kept in the dark and fed manure.
The current Council has made it clear they want adequate time to consider Hizzoner’s proposals. The City Charter requires two readings of proposed ordinances, meaning most should take a minimum of three to four weeks to come to a final vote. That rule has been routinely suspended in the past, especially when prior administrations brought forward ordinances just before looming deadlines. Gotta pass this today, this minute, no time to discuss or ask questions, because it is due at midnight tonight!
Councilman Collins would often blast former administrations for this tactic. “Your failure to plan does not constitute an emergency for us,” he’d say. “Just because you didn’t bring a proposal in a timely manner doesn’t mean we can’t do our due diligence.”
That last phrase was one of Councilman Collins’s favorites. Didn’t do due diligence. Say that five times fast. Predictably, Mayor Collins has regularly brought forward ordinances that need immediate approval because of deadlines fast approaching. Damn your due diligence. Councilman Collins’s favorite form of due diligence was to ask for a business plan, or what he referred to as a “pro forma.” See, the Councilman was fond of reminding everyone within earshot that he had earned an MBA from UT while a police officer. He has never run a bizniss, mind you, but he has an MBA, dammit!
Mayor Collins, on the other hand, has been eager to bend over backwards to business interests. He’s so excited that ProMedica is planning to move downtown that he’s willing to build a redundant parking facility on a riverfront public park just to please them. For good measure, he also wants to give ProMedica another building in UpTown for some vaguely conceptual community center. And acquire property across from Jeep, just in case they might need it someday. Details to be determined.
Councilman Collins was fond of blasting the Bell Administration for blaming all their ills on the excesses of the previous Finklestinker Administration. But now Mayor Collins has learned the value of the blame game. And he employs it regularly. Water crisis? EPA’s fault. Potholes? Winter’s fault. Can’t fulfill a promise to stop using street repaving money to plug holes in the general fund? Mayor Bell’s fault. Haven’t re-paved the streets you said you would? Lindsay Webb’s fault, and besides, we never promised exact mileage anyway.
End of the line
The Collins vs. Collins bloodbath continues, as Councilman Collins is Mayor Collins’s biggest detractor. But enough of this weirdness. Councilman Collins was infamous for employing the phrase, “I’ll end by saying,” during his endless rants and then rambling on for another ten mind-numbing minutes.
Perhaps someday Mayor Collins will employ the same phrase and be quick about it. He’ll end by saying, “Holy crikey, how did I ever get into this pickle? I quit.”
