Unconscionable incompetence by commissioners
Blade Editorial Published on Sept. 25, 2017
Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken is right that the county cannot ask voters to approve a new 1.9-mill jail levy without yet having a place to build the jail.
But Mr. Gerken is wrong to blame the city of Toledo for that failure.
The failure must be laid squarely at the door of the county commissioners, especially the president — Mr. Gerken.
The commissioners voted last Friday to remove the levy from the November ballot, throwing up their hands after they could not come to terms with the city to acquire land for the jail.
A deal to use the city’s impound lot on Dura Avenue for the new jail fell apart amid contentious negotiations and a broader feud over several issues.
Because of the pettiest politics imaginable, and because the commissioners could not plan (they literally put the cart before the horse in asking for money before they had a site), and because Mr. Gerken preferred secret dealings to open consensus building, we will not get a much-needed new jail in Lucas County any time soon.
The county has been trying for several weeks — revealed only through letters between city and county lawyers exposed in The Blade in recent days — to claim the impound site for the new jail.
But the commissioners have known for years that a new jail was necessary. They and, mainly, Sheriff John Tharp have made the case for a new, modern jail as part of a larger criminal justice reform movement locally.
The campaign to reach that consensus in the community was successful because it was measured and transparent — showing the public the state of the current dilapidated downtown jail and talking publicly about plans for improved services in a new facility.
That was solid political work, and the same sort of work should have been put into finding a site. Instead, we got back rooms and bullying, and that approach failed.
The levy to pay for the new jail was hustled onto the ballot in July to take advantage of a new provision in Ohio law that would make it possible to combine capital and operating money in one ballot measure. The day the commissioners announced the levy pitch, Mr. Gerken refused to say where the new jail would be — only that it would be in the city.
The first jail site the commissioners chose, along Angola Road in South Toledo, was not workable because of community backlash, leaving them even less time to find a new site as the election approached. Now the second site the commissioners picked, in secret, will not work because the city is playing hardball.
And now the commissioners must take the time to find a suitable parcel — downtown, preferably — and make a decent case to the public for building a new jail in that place.
In short: Do your job, commissioners. And, this time, do it right.
We must again defer building a new jail because of gross and unconscionable political incompetence. Normally, Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson takes first prize locally for ineptitude. Mr. Gerken has managed to make her look good.