Toledo Council Makes Important Decisions Regarding Staff

The Toledo City Council unanimously approved that the interim city manager does not have the authority to terminate the Fire Chief. This decision was made after a long executive session. Amanda Carey is the interim city manager, appointed by the council while an investigation is underway against the city manager Doug Wiggins. Because the city manager is an interim employee at this time, the council only has input on whether or not they give her the power to terminate city management. This is something that is part of the city charter to allow authorization or not regarding management employee hiring or firing. This is a formality it is not based on any intentions of firing an employee. The council needed to do this for clarification of duties of the interim city manager.

Toledo Fire Chief Robeson has been on leave for a couple of months now pending an investigation. With this decision, Chief Robeson will not be let go. Though he will not be terminated the conditions on his return to work as Chief are still being worked out with Toledo city management. “We can’t talk about personnel matters.” Council President Kim Bush explained “It’s been really hard not to speak out especially when there has been so much misinformation being distributed. We are all volunteers, none of us has any authority to do anything without the rest of us.” Bush added “Its not that we were hiding things, we weren’t being dishonest we are legally not allowed to say anything”.

The city council also approved bonuses as a way to compensate the police, fire and dispatch employees. Many departments are understaffed and this was a way to recognize the hard work of current employees. The bonuses do not apply to management staff, so chief Pace and Robeson will not be receiving the bonuses. “We are looking for a way to try to recognize and retain the staff that we have.” Said councilor Tracy Mix. “We are struggling to keep our staff here. Its an ongoing issue everywhere, what they do is hard work and they put in many hours of overtime to cover shifts which is taxing on the employees.”

This is still pending as it has to be approved with the collective bargaining unit. These are funds that have been allocated for salaries and wages that because of understaffing has not been utilized. It was already in the budget. The motion passed unanimously with the mayor and council president Bush recused from the conversation and the vote because of a conflict of interest.