The three Democratic Lucas County commissioners skated on the edge of Ohio's open-meetings law recently when they prearranged and attended a last-minute meeting with Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins.
Commissioners Carol Contrada, Pete Gerken, and Tina Skeldon Wozniak, along with Lucas County Administrator Laura Lloyd-Jenkins, asked to see Mayor Collins after receiving a letter from him about his decision to order police to charge most criminals under state laws rather than city ordinances. The move could save the city $4 million to $9 million but leave the county short that money.
The four took the elevator from the county's eighth-floor office in One Government Center to the mayor's 22nd-floor suite. Mrs. Contrada, president of the commissioners, said it was not a public meeting and not a violation of the law because the three did not deliberate. Continue>>>
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