posted 06-16-2009 05:08 PM                  

Residents upset over
parking violations
Updated: Tuesday, 16 Jun 2009, 3:01 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 15 Jun 2009, 8:25 PM EDT

TOLEDO, Ohio - Although not outlined in the city charter, a city memo has allowed workers with the city of Toledo’s Division of Streets, Bridges and Harbor to issue parking citations to citizens.

It was learned over the weekend that Susan Frederick, acting commissioner with streets, bridges and harbor, fined several motorists for parking in their driveways on Holland-Sylvania near Dorr Street.

"I've lived here 43 years and last Thursday we had our 44th wedding anniversary," said Charles Robertson, who received a parking violation. "I got a present from the city. Isn't that nice?"

Residents' vehicles were parked on a turn-around portion of their driveway in front of their property, something they need to safely get out of their drive on Holland-Sylvania, which, at times, can be busy.

Megan Robson, spokesperson for Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, released a statement to the media Monday evening.

"The Commissioner of Streets, Bridges and Harbor responded by going to the location of the complaint to assess whether it was valid or not," Robson said in the statement. "She personally observed that it was a valid complaint. She observed several illegally parked vehicles along the first street she visited."

"While there, a neighbor asked her to check out his street, which also had a number of illegally parked vehicles. Once she observed they too were illegally parked, she cited them as well. The City of Toledo supports its laws in general and illegally parked vehicles can and will be ticketed, and these tickets are considered valid."

The city fined residents $25.

Mayor Finkbeiner said residents who were ticketed in fact broke the law for parking on a part of a drive that was not paved. He stood by Frederick, who wrote the violations.

"Every law in the city should be enforced and I will defer to the director over the media, that's for dag-gone sure," Mayor Finkbeiner said Monday during a news conference for the city's latest model block project. "I will not second guess her because more times then not she's right and the citizens that are criticizing her are not right."

"He made the statement that more times than not we are the ones that are wrong," said Shelly Cousino, who also received a parking violation ticket. "What we were wrong in doing is electing him again."

Councilman Collins met with residents and collected the tickets. He assured the problem would be resolved.

"If we have time for this Mickey Mouse nonsense something is radically wrong with that," Councilman Collins said.

video
http://www.foxtoledo.com/dpp/news/local/wupw_Residents_upset_over_parking_violation s_061509

posted 06-17-2009 06:40 PM                  

The Mayor had pink slipped 150 officers. The gangbangers had tee shirts made that said "150 down & we own the town". 75 officers were called back, but moral is so low everyone is bailing out of the Department.

posted 06-18-2009 11:09 PM                  

As for his party, lets just say I would have never voted for him to begin with.

Controversy

Known as much for his temper as his work ethic, many allegations surfaced throughout Finkbeiner's two terms, and more continue to surface in his third.

Toledo restaurateur John Skiadas filed a law-suit alleging that Finkbeiner physically and verbally assaulted him at the Erie Street Market in 2000. The lawsuit was dismissed by Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Charles Wittenberg in 2004.

Erie Street Market which has become a money pit[citation needed].

In March, 1999, Mr. Finkbeiner called for a boycott of Little Caesar’s Pizza because the franchise owners’ involvement in a proposed Rossford sports arena. Some Little Caesar’s stores renamed their Crazy Bread “Carty Bread.”

In her lawsuit filed in 1999, former city employee Carolyn Smithers claimed that Mr. Finkbeiner “accosted her with a ceramic coffee mug clenched in his fist” and shouted, “I ought to hit you with this!” She contends the mug struck the side of her face. Despite the fact that Finkbeiner denied the incident, Finkbeiner signed the $35,000 settlement on Jan. 29, 2001.

In 1997, Finkbeiner phoned a 19-year-old West Toledo woman from his car to tell her that she may not keep chickens in her yard. Finkbeiner not only denied her a permit to keep the chickens, but he also "got very, very mad" at her.

Finkbeiner was the focus of a segment on the Daily Show poking fun at statements he made suggesting that Toledo could be the next Hollywood. During the interview, Carty expressed his ideas while the camera fixated on Toledo's most rundown neighborhoods, contrasting them with the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. The segment aired during the 1997-98 season.

On July 1, 1998, Finkbeiner was fined $400 and court costs after pleading guilty to ethics charges when he was Mayor, realized a $10,000 profit from Owens Corning's purchase of his condo, and his failure to publicly report the gain [8]
He plagiarized a single line in his KICK-OFF speech in 1998.

Finkbeiner suggested relieving the problem of noise complaints from neighbors of Toledo Express Airport by selling homes nearby at low cost to deaf people.

In early 2006, political adversaries scoffed over the Mayor spending $9,996 of city money to complete the installation of shower facilities in his City Government building office. The project was considered "controversial" in part because the shower quote was originally $10,006, six dollars over a threshold that requires approval from City Council. The contractor was able to shave $10 from the project, thus avoiding a Council vote on the proposal.

In May 2006, he called Toledo's African-American Fire Chief Michael Bell “King Kong” at a staff meeting. Finkbeiner later clarified his remarks as relating to the Chiefs physical stature, and Chief Bell has acknowledged in public that he took no offense to the remarks.

In June 2006, Jack Smith resigned from his brief tenure as Chief of Police after what he described as a near-physical confrontation with the mayor after they exchanged words

In January 2007, Finkbeiner claimed that both he and wife Amy were treated unprofessionally by Ottawa County sheriff's deputies when they tried to visit Amy's son, an inmate, on separate occasions. Amy Finkbeiner claimed she was not allowed to use a ladies' room at the jail, while Finkbeiner said he was denied a chance to visit after visiting hours had concluded. Sheriff Bob Bratton said the deputies were only doing their jobs.

Also, in January 2007 Finkbeiner and his press secretary were sued by radio station WSPD, claiming that First Amendment provisions regarding freedom of the press were violated when the press secretary forcibly kept a station employee out of a public press conference. Finkbeiner's objection to the employee is that he produces opinions and editorials, and is not in fact a reporter on behalf of WSPD. On January 31, a federal judge granted the station a permanent injunction requiring Finkbeiner and his staff to admit station personnel.

Finkbeiner has also suggested a cafe be built on the Martin Luther King bridge so city employees could eat there while the bridge was undergoing construction. [16]
In August 2007, Finkbeiner was confronted on two occasions by reporters because he parked in a handicapped spot and left his dog, Scout, in the car during a hot spell. Finkbeiner was ticketed and fined, but denied mistreating the animal.

In February 2008, Finkbeiner refused to let a company of 200 [18] Marine Corps Reservists engage in urban patrol exercises on the streets of downtown as well as inside the mostly vacant Madison Building, 607 Madison Ave. Toledo police knew about the event three days in advance, but it wasn't until the Marines arrived that "the mayor asked them to leave because they frighten people," said Brian Schwartz, the mayor's spokesman. Finkbeiner defended his decision to cancel the exercise, but in an e-mail to Marine Corps officials, he expressed support for the Marines and the military and invited the Marine unit to return to Toledo for training, but not downtown. In reaction to the uproar Finkbeiner has offered conflicting explanations for his denial. During a recent interview Finkbeiner used the profanity to describe the situation he caused as a "****ing ruckus." In a related note, Schwartz was suspended by the city for 15 days without pay for a series of alleged incidents toward members of the media, particularly one in which he used obscenities toward a producer at radio station WJR in Detroit, who had called to arrange an interview with Finkbeiner. Schwartz later hired an attorney, claiming Finkbeiner and chief of staff Bob Reinbolt violated his civil rights.

In summer 2008, Finkbeiner spent nearly $80,000 of taxpayer money (without City Council approval) to renovate Bay 4 the Erie Street Market into a concert venue. According to the City Charter, the mayor may spend up to $10,000 without City Council approval. Finkbeiner broke the nearly $80,000 into 13 separate contracts under $10,000 to circumvent council's approval. Moreover, Finkbeiner tapped local concert promoter, Rob Croak, to schedule events at the Erie Street Market. Croak was convicted on one count of forgery and has been arrested for but not convicted of underage alcohol sales, according to court records. The forgery conviction stems from a 2001 accusation that Croak falsified records to obtain a liquor permit. Also, Croak owes thousands of dollars in back state and federal taxes. Since December 2008, there have been no concert events held at the Erie Street Market , and the city has not recouped its investment in the concert venue.

In 2009, Take Back Toledo (a group of Toledo area businessmen whose goal is to foster a pro-business, pro-jobs and pro-economic development climate in Northwestern Ohio) led a campaign to recall Finkbeiner from office. On April 15th, the Lucas County Board of Elections validated 20,400 signature, enough to recall Finkbeiner. On April 20th, Clerk of Council Jerry Dendinger hand-delivered a recall notice to Finkbeiner. According to the City Charter, Finkbeiner has five days to resign or face a recall vote on the November election. Finkbeiner refused to resign and hired a law firm to contest the validity of the recall petition signatures. If the recall goes on the November ballot, Finkbeiner will be the second mayor of a major Ohio city in state history to be on a recall ballot. The first mayor of a major Ohio city to face a recall election was Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich, whose recall was defeated on the ballot in 1978.

In April 2009, despite Toledo having the lowest police per 1,000 resident ratio in Ohio, Finkbeiner announced his plans to layoff an additional 150 officers. After the layoffs take effect, Toledo will have only 1.6 police officers per 1,000 residents. In order to maintain a basic level of protection and safety on the streets, numerous units are being eliminated or reduced. Some of these units are the Gang Task Force, Mounted Patrol, School Resource Officer, Crime Analysis, Traffic, SWAT, Vice, and Community Services. This controversy has led to the Toledo Police Department filing a lawsuit against the City of Toledo in an effort to stop the layoffs.

In June 2009, Finkbeiner supported the $25 tickets issued by the Division of Streets, Bridges, and Harbor to residents for parking in their own driveways. He claimed the tickets were given due to a city law that prohibits parking on unpaved surfaces, which includes gravel driveways. Despite criticism, Finkbeiner denied the fines were related to the city's financial woes.

posted 06-19-2009 09:25 PM                  

The annual county fair is held at the fire department fair grounds (which would be a big field) they charge five dollars a car for parking to support the Fire Department.

The Police then stop by and ticket everyone Twenty-Five dollars for parking on the grass. (To support their Mayor's stupidity)