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The newly-elected
councilmen (Nick Komives and Gary Johnson), notes Sykes,
will be assigned to as many as five committees the moment
they arrive and will “have to learn fast and quick,” he
adds.
Sykes, a retired banker,
certainly brings a wealth of experience to the task. He
spent years on the Toledo Board of Education before winning
election to City Council and, over the years, has served on
dozens of boards in the community, most notably Lucas
Metropolitan Housing Authority, Metroparks, United Way,
Cordelia Martin and Planned Parenthood. He currently is on
the boards of Lucas County Children Services, St. Vincent
Mercy and the University of Toledo African American
Community Advisory Committee.
“On the boards I have
served on, I have left them better than when I started,” he
says.”These are key boards that have impacted the lives of
hundreds of thousands of people in the community.”
Sykes’ main points of
emphasis for his next term include neighborhood safety, the
opioid crisis, early childhood education, implementing the
lead safe ordinance which he led the fight to pass,
responsible banking, diversity and inclusion, government
consolidation/reorganization, regional water and information
technology.
Sykes, very aware of the
danger posed by lead in so many old central city buildings,
is very proud of his involvement in getting the lead
ordinance passed. “Going into the city [government] I was
able to pass a lead ordinance that had been floating around
for years,” he recalls. It’s an ordinance that has set a
standard for other Ohio cities.
That sort of
accomplishment is why Sykes feels he has evolved from a
newly-elected councilman who did not know where to park when
he first arrived on council four years ago, into an
effective legislator and a leader among his peers.
“I have the knowledge, the
talent, the time and the resources,” he says of his
qualifications to lead City Council effectively over the
next four years. “I have a better understanding of the City
and how it works and the finance committee has done work
that has led to outstanding reports on City finances from
Standard and Poor’s [Financial Services] and Moody’s
[Investors Services] and from the state government.”
Knowledge, talent, time
and resources notwithstanding, Sykes has a few challenges to
overcome in his quest. No stranger to controversy, he is now
faced with the recent publicity that surrounded him
following an altercation with a community activist that
brought about the involvement of law enforcement and caused
charges to be filed. And it brought on Sykes’ head, the
condemnation of The Blade.
“Do I worry about The
Blade? I can’t,” he says. And he advises his colleagues not
t worry either. The impact of that advice is yet to be
determined.
Meanwhile Sykes will
continue to seek the presidency and to take pride in what he
has achieved as an elected official. He did not raise a
great deal of money during this last campaign for office and
he feels no ties to any sort of special interests. “The only
ones I’m obligated to are my constituents and the
community,” he says.
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