Tt post may 27 2016

From the mayor's statement released yesterday:

The City received an offer that sought acceptance by close of business on May 24. Because of concerns with the proposed terms, the City submitted comments to the offerer for consideration. The parties are continuing to negotiate in good faith.

Fri, May 27, 2016 - Toledo Blade - $2.8M offer for Southwyck site remains viable, mayor says

A $2.8 million offer from an unknown buyer interested in the city-owned Southwyck Shopping Center site is still on the table, Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson said Thursday.

The mayor said both sides are negotiating through a broker on timing contained in a proposed purchase agreement.

The city also wants the ability to buy back the South Toledo property that is north of the Ohio Turnpike if the developer who buys it does nothing with the former retail site that now is a vacant, blighted eyesore. [editorializing??]

Allowing the deal to expire did not sully the deal, Ms. Hicks-Hudson said. “We are still working on this,” she said.

The mayor said she did not know the buyer’s identity and that does not concern her because of the broker’s reputation.

“What I will agree to is making sure we have a deal that will benefit the city,” the mayor said.

“The larger thing for me is we need to get that land into the hands of someone who can develop because the city is not a good developer."

That's a surprise admission by a Toledo politician. I'll keep that quote in my front pocket. Expect to see it dropped into comments here well into the future.

The lot is vacant. That's likely a fact. But on the rare occasion when I drive by that area, I see open space. I might glimpse some asphalt, but I would not call it an eyesore or blighted, compared to other areas in the city.

It's relative. To people who live near that site, they might call it an eyesore. But in my opinion, "blighted" and "eyesore" are subjective terms that should be reserved for the editorials.

More from today's Blade story:

Dashing Pacific Group paid Toledo $3.8 million for a 69-acre portion of the Marina District in East Toledo in July, 2011.

The agreement between the Chinese company and the city has a provision allowing the city to buy back the property if it is not developed to the city’s expectations within five years, at the same price of $55,000 an acre. Since nothing has been built there, the city may [buy] back the land starting in July through July, 2017.

If the city wants to buy back the Marina District land, then the city needs to sell Southwyck and some other property. ???

Dashing Pacific informed the city last year that it intended to list the property for sale rather than continue efforts to develop the vacant, former industrial land.

Mayor Hicks-Hudson wants the same protection for the Southwyck property because of its importance to the city.

The mayor said she’s not worried about selling it for less than its purchase price because the city would eventually get a return on that investment from development and resulting jobs there.

Toledo’s 2016 general-fund budget depends on $2.5 million in real-estate sale proceeds. Other properties include the land off Alexis Road where North Towne Square once stood and city-owned land in Monclova Township.

Fri, May 27, 2016 - Toledo Blade - Editorial which discusses the $188 million additional cost for painting our water treatment plant.

And worse, Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson knew about the $188 million overage in January, but failed to inform city council. She also failed to tell city council, or the public, that she had an offer on the Southwyck property and let it expire.

It just keeps getting worse for Ms. Hicks-Hudson, and it is mostly her own fault. She has been unable to set priorities and communicate openly with the public. And there is no reason she could not do both. Now she is open to the charge that, not only does she run a rudderless administration, but she is running a dishonest one.

The mayor in her February state-of-the-city address said that the city would make improvements to the water plant to better fight toxic algae in Lake Erie “with no increase in the water rates in place now through 2018.” What was that if not dishonest? This was a month after being told of the $188 million cost overrun.

Technically, our water rates could remain the same through 2018, and then increase after that, meaning that PH2 was accurate.

When confronted by The Blade about the expired Southwyck deal, she feigned total ignorance. What is that if not dishonest?

I have no idea how these deals occur. But as others have mentioned, it might be standard operating procedure to keep things quiet until the details are finalized.

Maybe the Blade editorial board needs to relax a little. Calm down. It appears that the city is still negotiating with the possible buyer. If that land is sold, that's a major deal, even if it remains vacant for a while.

I understand. The almighty media hates being kept in the dark. The almighty media hates that people can do things without the media's blessing.

On this Southwyck issue, I think that the mayor needs more time to ensure that a proper deal gets made.

More from the editorial or is it a news story? I get confused.

Here is the pattern in the administration: Drop the ball; backpedal; sweep mistakes under the rug. How well is that working for the mayor, so far?

The March 15 vote to increase the city’s temporary income tax from 0.75 percent to 1 percent was soundly rejected in large part because the electorate just doesn’t trust what it is hearing out of Government Center.

But I bet if that tax increase proposal makes it to the November ballot, then the electorate will for some reason trust city government and pass the tax increase. And we still have the increase in the illegal refuse fee tax.

If the tax increase is ever to pass, the mayor will need to change the administration. She will need to establish basic competency and transparency.

Earlier this month, mayor Hicks-Hudson announced her intention to run for mayor of Toledo in 2017. She's already in some kind of campaign mode. To appease the voters in 2017, she might make changes. But the voters will have a chance soon enough to make their own changes.

Bottom line, the mayor is hurting herself and letting down the minority and progressive communities who put so much hope in her and delivered such a remarkable victory to her.

Uh, don't overthink this. The above is silly.

The November 2016 Toledo mayoral election was a crowded field, and PH2 was the official, locally-endorsed Democrat. She also had heavy support from the Ohio Democrat party. That's why she won.

Last November, 65 percent of the voters voted against Hicks-Hudson.

Voter turnout was only 35 percent, although that was considered a decent turnout.

64,803 votes were cast in Toledo's November 2015 mayoral election.

If my arithmetic is correct, that means Toledo had 185,151 registered voters. Turnout is determined against the registered voter count. Not all eligible voters are registered. The real turnout was probably around 30 to 33 percent.

PH2 garnered 23,087 votes last November. When that number is calculated against the registered voter count, then PH2 had the support of 12.5 percent of Toledo's registered voters.

Factor in a small percentage of Toledoans who are unregistered, then approximately 90 percent of eligible Toledo voters did not support Paula Hicks-Hudson.

Remarkable victory? Not even close.

But the editorial may have some things right:

She desperately needs to clean house and bring in a professional management team. And then she needs to listen to them.

Time for a reboot, Madame Mayor. Your team is not getting the job done.

What we have in the Hicks-Hudson administration now is a combination of indecision, contradiction, fiscal and managerial incompetence, and cover-up.

Wait. That's hardly unique to mayor Hicks-Hudson. That's a fine and surprising admission by the Blade editorial board, but that description could be considered the norm in city government for past many years.