For Steel, who arrived on
Council in 2009 after several years of service on the Toledo
Board of Education which continually faces financial
shortfalls, the good fortune he refers to are the lessons
learned and the experience gained in managing the City’s
finances during such desperate times. Such lessons are
invaluable at all times, even now that the big troubles have
passed and the City’s revenues have improved.
Now, as things improve,
Steel is term-limited from continuing on the job but he
predicts that the task of managing the City’s finances won’t
necessarily become any easier. During the tough times, he
remembers, unions, workers and those expecting services to
be delivered, tended to work together to make concessions.
“Because of those concessions, when will they want something
back?” he asks. “Now the difficulty is working with more
money.”
However, as Steel reflects
on his years of public service, revenue shortfalls have been
the norm. “In my elective life, it’s all I’ve ever known,”
he says. “Now that times are good, do I have to leave?” he
says jokingly.
However, as he packs his
office in preparation for his final hours in elected office
and thinks about the major frustrations of the past years,
revenue shortfalls are not at the top of the list. There are
two major frustrations that he recalls.
First, he mentions the
limited ability of council members to fulfill expectations
on their own.
“I noticed this during the
recent elections,” he says. “People [council candidates]
would say ‘I’m going to fix the streets, bring in jobs ,
improve education.’ But council’s ability is extremely
limited – we don’t determine jobs or streets to be paved;
we don’t deploy. We are a liaison not a decision maker. We
appropriate money but the city administration decides what
to do [with that money].”
Reflecting on his
relationships with the four administrations he has served
with, the council president recalls good relations with all
four. He singles out Mike Bell for his handling of “the most
difficult of economic times” and his responsiveness to that
difficulty.
Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson
has earned Steel’s admiration for her relationship with City
Council. “She had the best handle on the frustrations of
City Council,” he adds.
And Steel’s second major
frustration over the past eight-plus years has been with the
internal workings of council. Having come from a five-body
Board of Education where it was comparatively easy to put
together a stable three-person majority on a variety of
issues and votes, the change was dramatic.
Toledo City Council’s
12-person body requires a seven-person majority and that
leads to so much more fluidity. “Here, alliances ebb and
flow,” he says. “You may think someone is with you but, if
they are, it is the exception not the rule.”
There is quite a lot that
Steel is satisfied with as he thinks about the last eight
years. Money shortages notwithstanding, Steel, a long-time
Old West End resident, feels that Toledo has become a much
“cooler city” in which to live – bike paths, golf carts
downtown, for example, the growth of entertainment districts
and commercial and retail establishments.
Companies such as
Cleveland Cliffs have brought more jobs, the hospitals are
growing and downtown is surging.
He leaves the 21st
floor of One Government Center “cautiously optimistic” about
the progress the city has made. “We’ve turned a corner with
the economy and downtown – but a lot of infrastructure and
neighborhoods need work.”
Even though he will no
longer be an elected official, Steel’s commitment to
improving the lives of his fellow citizens will remain an
important part of his daily tasks.
During the last few years
Steel earned a law degree and started a part-time practice
in labor and employment law. He will be employed full-time
in January “protecting people’s rights.” as he says. “I’m
going to be protecting those who are easily exploitable.”
|