I've been silent for 13 years," said Shultz, who has served on City Council since 1994. "The citizens of the city need to know about it."
This gem of an announcement was made to the Toledo Free Press by Toledo City Councilwoman Betty Shultz.
"The budget problems occurred because the city was unable to provide real-time information and different scenarios such as hypothetical situations for council to review. The problem is the financial information is five to eight weeks old when we receive it," said Shultz.
"We were forced to make an educated guess when it came to the budget and not a very good one at that. We do not have up-to-date equipment that can produce real time financial data."
All of the budget information is housed on one desktop computer with one systems person to address the many requests for that information, Shultz said.
The budget problems occurred because the city cannot provide real time stats? The lack of business growth followed by revenue from the tax base would have nothing to do it, right, Council member Shultz.
The silence on the issue didn't cause part of the problem, Council member Shultz.
How is that these people that get elected to office sit in theses seats and let this happen for decades. How is that the Mayors during this time fail to act. How is that this continues to this day and we have elected officials making guesses about the budget and our city.
Councilman Szollosi made a lot of noise about being shut of meetings and blames the mayor for this and that.
The blame lays at the doors of all the city council members for not acting on this, nobody else.
"Shultz said she cares about the city she has served for 31 years as an elected official. She served 18 years on the Washington Local School Board of Education before being elected to City Council in 1993."
31 years of public service and 13 years of silence about our city, some real fine leadership we have here.
Each and every one them need to be removed from office and elect people that are not silent figures at the helm of the sinking ship.
"I've been silent for 13 years" said Shultz, who has served on City Council since 1994. "The citizens of the city need to know about it."
http://www.toledofreepress.com/?id=5357
Each and every one them need to be removed from office and elect people that are not silent figures at the helm of the sinking ship.
Amen Brother.
(Not that it'll ever happen in THIS town. Sheeple are too brainwashed to ever work for any kind of change.
Look at a couple relative new faces: Ellen Graychek - good voice, good ideas - not coming back. She's had enough. Been bullied by big brother 'the party' too much.
Sobszak - Union employee. His job is to look out for the better interest of the union. If what's good for the union and what's good for the city are at odds, he abstains from the vote because if his vote goes toward what's good for the city, he's in trouble at his higher paying job - if he votes for what's good for the union, he'll get called out on it. So, Why would EITHER the people of the city OR the union want him there??
We get to keep the one who has interests other than the city's foremost in his mind, and we get to lose a good one. Welcome to toledo.
Sheeple are too brainwashed to ever work for any kind of change. - Billy
I'm going out with a candidate this afternoon and knocking on doors. Some people are doing some things. If everybody would do what they could do - we would overcome the situation in no time.
I know why I do the things that I do - because I have passionate beliefs and things that I am passionate about are worth working to achieve.
The question I have is why aren't there more? Many, many more?
As there are candidates running for office it would be a great point of discussion if we were to hear from them on this fiasco of incompetence, the one person in government center has the facts and figures.
It seems to me that for the last 13 years of Shultzs' career she has been relying on information from others or guessing or just simply making an uniformed decision and how can we call these people leaders when they are unable to get to the information.
http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog
this article in the paper when I read it. Wasn't she in office to speak for others? My first impression is that she thought being silent for 13 years was honorable or something positive.
The rest of the council shares the blame along with Shultz for being silent.
It absolutely blew me away when I read this "report of silence." I know that she does not respond to e-mail questions.
How does a person in office for 13 years allow something like this to continue, was she scared, unsure, ignorant of what needs to be done, ran for office for a long term job that just required enough to get reelected year after year....I just do not know nor understand.
When I was in public office for 4 years I did what needed to be done and when it lost its luster I moved and did not take up space like a potted plant.
How can we feel when we have elected officials making educated guesses when it comes to the budget. What else are they guessing about.
I am putting the question to all the candidates, whether or not they represent my district as they are representatives of the populace; with regards to the problems now brought to light what are you going to do about it and when can we expect change. If given the standard issue statement that has many words and little substance, the question will be repeated.
The council is to be held responsible for this by me.
http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog
We have approved funds for technology purchases - and obviously strategic systems were not purchased, or if they were purchased, never deployed.
Does anybody have the ability (or memory of) the technology money trail? I'd like to know what was approved and when - but won't have the time to track it down.
I do remember the issue coming up when Ford went into office and quite a bit of debate about the 'former' Mayor not using computers and not making technology spending a priority. So, that would have been around the time that I believe the purchases were approved.
You went with a councilperson knocking on doors? Looking for public opinion??
No kidding? That's cool - tell us more!!
Ive NEVER had a councilperson knock on my door, or ask for my input ever - nor has anyone Ive quickly asked since I read your post last night...
What questions did you ask? What answers did you get? What was the overall feeling of those you talked to about the job that the council's doing?
Ive NEVER had a councilperson knock on my door, or ask for my input ever - nor has anyone Ive quickly asked since I read your post last night...
I did. Mike Craig was walking through the east side, of course that was durring campaining. But Carty's flunky, who lost, never did.
I was out with a candidate for the election in Nov. And not city council - but wouldn't that be fantastic? If they'd knock on doors after the election and ask opinions......
have a councilperson - once a month, or even once a quarter reserve a large hall in a church or legion hall or somewhere - a place that's IN their district so the constituants wouldnt have to travel too far, and have a town hall.
give a speech as to what's currently going on, and then open up the floor for Q and A.
I bet that'd be way too ballsy for any of the current ones to do.
have a councilperson - once a month, or even once a quarter reserve a large hall in a church or legion hall or somewhere - a place that's IN their district so the constituants wouldnt have to travel too far, and have a town hall
but I doubt they'd have the guts to do it. They might once and after they got their butts chewed they'd cancel any others.
It's no real change. Most of Toledo's gov't has been silent since the mid 80's. Silent gets you reelected round here.
MikeyA
Get over it. It's called democracy. You know, will of the majority, rights of the minority...
And about Sobszak, do you not think that every person brings with them some conflicts of interest on some issues before Council?
What matters is that he abstains from the vote. And while you cast it as nefarious as possible, perhaps he just knows he has a conflict of interest so abstains to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
Politics--in any city--is not the PTA. If Graychek can't stand the heat, then she's more than welcome to get out of the kitchen. I can't speak to how good of a representitive she is for the people of Toledo, but I'll take your word that she's a talented leader. It is unfortunate that we lose a good councilwoman but it's entirely unfair to characterize this as some defect of Toledo.
I think you'll find that politics is a rough-and-tumble business, at least once you're north of the Township Trustee level (and probably even there!).