Toledo Mayor Mike Bell officially announced he is running for a second term.TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) -
Toledo Mayor Mike Bell
officially announced he is running for a second term. Taxpayers in attendance
at a city budget meeting voiced their opinions on Bell's announcement.
The budget meeting had a
high attendance, just hours after Bell's State of the City address. Bell also
attended the meeting to explain the budget and explain his dedication to
increasing police and fire, and paving more streets.
"Now some
people will say, ‘Well, you are just doing that because it's an election year,'"
Bell said. "Well we had to fix the $48 million deficit first before we could
start doing a lot of these things."
While some people are
supportive of Bell's decision to run for re-election, others are not.
Robin Deters said she doesn't
want a second Bell term because he supported Senate Bill 5, which would have
limited collective bargaining. Voters repealed the bill in 2011.
"The biggest thing was on
Senate Bill 5," Deters said. "I think he stabbed his own brothers in the back
on that. He sided with Kasich instead of the rest of the union firemen."
Shirley Simon agreed, adding
that the former fire chief did not appeal to a lot of people in this strong
union city by supporting the bill.
Other concerns included Bell's
decision to deal with Chinese investors.
As for the city budget,
council will vote on whether or not to approve the mayor's general fund and the
capital improvement budget on Tuesday.
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