How much does the Mayor of Toledo make?
Last week I was wondering what the salary was for a Toledo city council person as well as the mayor’s salary. After a bit of searching I found out, from a Blade article, that a council member’s salary is $27,500.00. Finding what Toledo’s mayor earns has proven a bit more difficult.
After generally searching the internet and then specifically searching the Toledo Municipal Code I could not find an answer. So last Thursday I decided to call the human resource department for the City of Toledo. It seemed like the right place to ask to me. I was wrong.
At about 8:30 a.m. I spoke with a woman from the H.R. department. I asked her what the salary was for the Mayor of Toledo. She said she didn’t know but would transfer me to the mayor’s secretary. I asked the secretary the question. What is the salary for the Mayor of Toledo? She didn’t know either but was eager to forward me to his assistant. When I asked the assistant, you guessed it, she didn’t have an answer. However she was kind enough to transfer me to Toledo’s Public Information Officer, Brian Schwartz. I asked Mr. Schwartz my question. Big surprise coming here, he doesn’t know either. He did volunteer, however, to find out and get back with me. I left my cell phone number with him and waited for his call. It has been a week. I am still waiting. I still haven’t heard back from Mr. Schwartz.
I thought finding an answer for this very simple and straight forward question would be easy. Obviously I was mistaken. Maybe Mr. Schwartz is too busy to relay information to the public, although his title would suggest that is part of his job. Maybe our mayor doesn’t want the citizens of Toledo to know how much we pay him. Maybe Mr. Schwartz just forgot about me and I need to call back.
One way or another I will find an answer to this question. If you can locate the information, please point me to it. Maybe someone else should try calling the Mayor’s office too. I don’t know… I will keep you updated.
*Funny thing, when I was writing this post I wondered if the mayor would read it. Then I remembered during a debate last year he said he doesn’t check any websites himself. He has someone that checks the news for him. Maybe if Mr. Finkbeiner learned about RSS he would realize how simple getting up to date information can be. Personally it is very difficult for me to imagine waiting to get information from a paper or the 6:00 news. But then again, I have been known to be a bit of a forward thinker.
I found this information in about 4 minutes.
First, I searched google for: Mayor of Toledo Salary. There were no relevent results on the first page.
Then I searched google for: “finkbeiner * a|per year”
Which gave me the answer:
$136,000. The same salary as Ford. However, when Carty was mayor the first time, apparently, he made $75,000.
I am sorry I forgot to return your call. If things get really hectic, I sometimes forget.
Nonetheless, I provide information to bloggers who pose serious questions and raise serious issues. I’m not afraid to answer tough questions. I don’t tolerate name-calling or incivility. We have enough of that in the political process. I’ll play no part it it.
The mayor’s salary is actually $136,650.