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Michael Hood: Democratic Candidate for Lucas County Board of Commissioners

By Fletcher Word
Sojourner’s Truth Editor

“I am running for Lucas County Commissioner because I want to affect the quality of life in Lucas County and specifically in the city of Toledo,” says Michael Hood, a Democrat and candidate for the commissioner’s post being vacated by incumbent Carol Contrada. Hood, a member of the Spencer Township board of trustees for 25 years, has deep roots in the township and many familial ties in the city of Toledo.  For Hood, his number one job as an elected official is fostering economic development by investing in people, first and foremost.
 


Michael Hood

Hood’s opponent in the May 8 primary if the endorsed Democratic candidate, Gary L. Byers.

“Commissioners serve at the behest of the people,” Hood says of the job he is in contention for in the May 8 primary. For Hood, he sees the prospects of public service at the county level as continuing the commitment to constituents he has maintained in the township since being first elected to that job in 1986.

“I want to invest in people rather than in buildings,” he says. “I want to reward citizens and taxpayers.” Hood’s passion during his years of leadership in the township is economic development, a strength he believes will translate into the commissioner’s office. He was a major force in bringing the Joint Economic Development Zone to the township in 2010 creating jobs and revenue, he says.

“We’ve been able to pave six to eight different roads; we have the best roads in the county; we’ve cleared up brown fields,” he says. “I’m a public servant and not a politician.” Spencer Township, he adds is a beacon of cooperation with its neighbors, particularly Swanton and Whitehouse, “collaborating on fire protection, road repair projects and equipment purchases. We know how to do more with less through cooperation and dialogue. We treat our citizens as equal neighbors when the needs arise to keep public service levels up to par.”

Hood has also worked closely with Habitat for Humanity, the Port Authority and in Democratic Party politics for over 20 years and has been engaged with the Lucas County Board of Commissioners for as long as he has been on the board of trustees for Spencer Township.

“We transferred $1.5 million to the Port Authority back for investment into Spencer Township for businesses that reside in the township, that stimulated growth and created jobs,” says Hood.

“My experience engaging with Lucas County and the City of Toledo on hundreds, if not a thousand issues, gives me the insight and expertise in many if not most of the county’s activities,” he says. “I think I can be a valuable asset in bringing people together and balancing the needs of citizens with the requirements of governance and large scale community project management.”

Hood, who earned an associate’s degree from the University of Toledo’s Scott Park Campus is a supervisor at Martin Technology. As he ponders the next step in his life – a life on the Board of Lucas County Commissioners, he ticks off some of the positions that he feels are in the best interests of those citizens he will be serving – smarter water use by holding on to the Collins Water Treatment Plant rather than giving it away as proposed by the recent Memorandum of Understanding proposed by a group of area representatives (“the MOU needs to be renegotiated”); increase the capability of converting to solar energy (“through community-owned solar energy, we can slash utility bills”); place the county jail where citizens want it not forcing it down the throats of a community that doesn’t want it (“in downtown it’s not in anyone’s neighborhood”).

Above all, that which benefits the citizens of the county is all important. “My passion is the economic part … commissioners don’t create jobs but they set the climate and atmosphere to attract companies; if we can grow our economic base we don’t have to keep taxing outrageously.”

Commissioners also need to remember who put them in office, cautions Hood. “Better make sure you are listening to people.”

   
   


Copyright © 2018 by [The Sojourner's Truth]. All rights reserved.
Revised: 08/16/18 14:12:11 -0700.


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