And They Called It ... Puppy Love

This week has seen the return to some level of prominence former mayoral candidate and current Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop. Having taken a rather severe drubbing in September's mayoral primary, Mr Konop seemed to have chosen recently to take a less visible position on topical issues, but no longer. 

Ben has come out strongly in this last week on Lucas County Dog Warden Tom Skeldon and the subject of the number of dogs that are euthanized under his watch in office. Ignoring the fact that a Dog Warden Advisory Committee is currently addressing this very subject in the Dog Warden's office, our youthful commissioner has jumped instead in front of a sham parade being held by the Toledo Blade in calling for Mr Skeldon's removal. 

In this recent awakening, Mr Konop has seen fit not only to attack the dog warden (something that could get him in a lot of trouble if he were a dog and not a county commissioner), but to attack fellow Commissioners Tina Skeldon-Wozniak (whose cousin this dog warden is), and Commissioner Pete Gerken (whose relation will be on City Council and not in the Dog Warden's office). 

Appearing more in the paper and in front of the media microphones in the last week than he did in the month leading up to the November elections, he appears to have found this as the next cause de jure to "sink his teeth in". 

Please understand me here. I am and always have been a dog person, and take a dim view of animal mistreatment. I had dogs all through childhood (a childhood which some have said has yet to end) and it has only been my schedule and landlord that have prevented me from ownership in recent years. I likewise believe that every dog that must be put down is a terrible tragedy; and that everything that can be done, should be done to prevent such occurrences. I should also point out that I cannot call myself any great fan of Dog Warden Tom Skeldon, finding his door to door license searches of the past both onerous and self-seeking. 

While believing that this Warden perhaps needs to be "held on a shorter leash" however, I believe that this recent attack is unjustified and little more than self-serving nonsense. I would suggest that if Commissioner Konop would like to be concerned with something of worth, let him be concerned with the safety of Lucas County residents. Instead of manufactured issues, let him seek to do something about the changing level of protection and the drastically changing fees that the Lucas County Sheriff seeks to charge communities around Toledo for such service (a subject on which his silence, and that of his fellow commissioners, has been almost deafening). 

If not that worthy goal, let him seek a new level of cooperation with the incoming administration of Toledo Mayor-elect Mike Bell. Man's best friend needs our protection and our help, but not the apparently disingenuous affection shown here by the Blade and Mr Konop. If our commissioners would like to show true affection for these four-legged friends, they will find a ready supporter in me. I will not support however this self-serving, self aggrandizing, self-promoting sham of the emotion shown by these recent outbursts. Far from being a show of true caring, these fraudulent feelings cannot even qualify as ... Puppy Love. 

A Gentleman & A Scholar(ship)

One of our current Mayoral candidates, a young gentleman by the name of Ben Konop, has staked out a rather interesting idea as part of his campaign. 

As outlined at least briefly in last week's Toledo Free Press "10 ways Ben Konop can save Toledo if he is elected mayor", he proposes to call for an $80 million scholarship fund for higher education funded on cost savings that would be achieved by the County through cost cutting measures and privatizing the EMS service for the County.  

This is not the first time that this particular mayoral candidate has sought County funding for college tuition, the last time suggesting that such funding could in some part be obtained by refusing to replace windows in a County-owned building that already had an approved capital improvement budget. (This seemed confusing to me at the time, as more energy efficient windows would show our desire to do the right "green" thing by saving energy, and would also save County money through reduced heating and cooling bills. Perhaps I simply don't understand the County Commissioner's priorities however.) However, the concept of where the money comes from deflects our attention from the real questions here: 

- Why would you choose to saddle the county with reduced revenues at a time when you are choosing to remove yourself from responsibility for the county by running for Mayor of Toledo? 

- If you could have saved money for the County by these measures (or any others for that matter), why haven't you already instituted them? - At what point did college tuition become the responsibility of the County (or any level of government for that matter)?

Oregon, OH Mayor Marge Brown and her city council evidently agree with me on this one. Spearheading an effort to shoot this concept down, Oregon just passed a measure opposed to this effort by a vote of 7 to 0 on Monday. As reported in FoxToledo.com yesterday, Mayor Brown in fact pointed out yet another potential problem in this scholarship effort, that being that since Commissioner Konop is a teacher at the University of Toledo, directing County funding to it may well be a conflict of interest.


I wonder sometimes whether it has occurred to any of our mayoral candidates that we could more easily bear the burden of things like tuition, both for ourselves and for our children, if our government were more efficient and our level of taxation were not so high. I wonder what they are really thinking when they propose pie-in-the-sky things like wind farms on landfills with taxpayer funding that can never be repaid by such a project, at a time when every taxpayer in the area could use more of their money back simply to make ends meet. I seriously wonder at any politician who believes that government does a better job of spending the taxpayer's money than that taxpayer does. 

So while I'm sure that Mr. Konop proposed this plan with only the most altruistic of motives, I for one would like to politely decline his offer. We have seen again recently through the behavior of our current Mayor that we may well need a more of a gentleman in office, but we don't need this or any other county-funded scholar(ship). 

(In the spirit of full faith and disclosure, I must also point out that "Ben 10" has been until recently, one of my favorite cartoons. The article in the TFP however, though cleverly titled and illustrated, may possibly have ruined it for me.)