Announcer 1: The views and opinions expressed in to the point are those of the host of the program and its guests.

They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of WGTE public media.

I recently read an article that said it's in our cities where the best parts of our country, innovative ideas, entrepreneurship and social dynamism are incubated, implemented and elevated to the broader national consciousness.

Cities struggle with fractures in the larger civil puzzle, it said.

From affordable housing to racial equity to gun violence.

The role of the mayor is clear in this process.

Less obvious is the role of city council.

Can a city council person change the direction of a city in a strong mayor form of government?

Councilman John Hobbs the third, believes so.

He shares his thoughts with us today.

I'm Doni Miller, and welcome to the point.

Connect with us on our social media pages.

You know that.

You can email me at Doni underscore Miller at wgte dot org for this episode and other additional extras.

Go to wgte dot org slash To that point, I am so happy to have with us today, district one Councilman John Hobbs, the third.

Welcome.

Welcome.

John: Thank you, Miss Doni.

It is a pleasure to be here.

This is a very exciting moment.

To have the opportunity to have a conversation and to with one of our giants in our community.

Doni: Oh my goodness.

John: For years.

Doni: Thank you John: all the tremendous community work, especially in the area of health care, which is so important, in the black, Hispanic, poor, white community, oftentimes health care is an issue that eludes, those that don't have, certain expenses to spend or have certain insurances.

And so that you have been so, such a leader and providing that and allowing us to be able to come in and get high blood pressure screenings, get, blood work done to be tested for, you know, to have general checkups.

It is it is a point that, we seem to be losing right now.

Doni: I am so thank you so much for for those kind words.

I really appreciate it.

In fact, we should have you back.

What are you doing tomorrow?

So you can say that all over it.

john: And that's one of the things, you know, we're hoping that in this, big, beautiful bill that doesn't get taken away because we need is, there are so many people that are suffering.

This is the richest country in the world.

How are we not able to have health care for everyone?

Doni: And this is a major, major issue.

You know, you're you're leading me into, that's a tremendous segue into city council.

That's that's what I really like to talk about today.

One of the things that we were saying before the show, in fact, is how few people actually do their homework around the way government works and the way policy works in, in this city.

So why don't we start out by talking about the role of city council?

What exactly does City Council do?

John: You know, our role is to we do our best.

We have a strong mayor system, and so we do our best to work along with the administration, to try to get things accomplished.

We're trying to work together.

Number one, we work for the citizens of Toledo, and we're doing our best to make sure that their needs are met.

To make sure that, neighborhoods and communities have what they need.

Our mayor, the administration, along with council, every now and then, we have some issues that we may see something different than what the administration is doing, but generally we do our best to work with each other, because it is only that way that we are able to get things done in our city.

And so, it is important many times, as a council member, one of the things that happens is, there are people will want a particular thing done or something passed and they will call and many, many times people think because you're a council member, they just you just come in and say, hey, get this done or get that passed and what needs to be understood is that, especially when we're voting on an issue, it takes seven votes all together to get something done.

Seven votes it takes nine.

So that if it's something the mayor doesn't like, he doesn't veto it.

Or if it's something that has been, zoning and planning disapproved, it takes a supermajority of nine to get it passed.

And so that's the one thing that I really wish everyone could understand is because I'm a council member of district one, I still need six other council members to agree with me on something that we're voting on, that we're trying to bring forth to get done.

And so that is an important understanding.

And so once people get that they know, then that we are working together, with other council members, we have six district members.

We have six at large members.

Thank you.

I am over district one.

I am the only district that borders every other district in our city.

I touch every district and because of that, oftentimes, I have several community meetings a month.

Some people call them block watches.

Some people call them town halls.

But I have these meetings.

I'm extremely active in the community and trying to allow citizens an opportunity to come out and express, their feelings on things, what they'd like to see done, what's working, what's not.

And a lot of times we're able to get to a happy medium sometimes, but not sometimes.

I want a particular thing in my district and the council members say, no, we don't want that.

Oftentimes we agree.

And so those are the things that we work together on to get it done.

And with that being said, our, community, you know, one of the things that we're really focusing on is trying to create more housing.

Doni:I want to talk about that.

I'm glad you brought that up, because in your community meetings, I'm sure that's what helped shape the priorities that you take to city council.

Yes.

What do you see as the top three priorities right now in the city?

John: number one is safety for our community, which means we have to be working as hard as we possibly can to make our citizens feel comfortable, in our city, that they're safe.

And, you know, let's be clear that we've had, in the last couple of weekends, we've had some shootings, we've had several murders.

We had a shooting.

An officer involved shooting last night where the, suspect was killed.

And so we're trying to make our community feel safe, safety being one, number two, housing being another one.

And then number three, business.

And I think those Doni: business you mean development, John: developing, businesses, opening businesses, entrepreneurial ship, giving companies the opportunity to come, to our city.

One of the things that if you're following, Toledo, you know, that several national magazines, several national outlets have said that within the next several years, Toledo will want to be one of the top three places and the United States of America to live one, because of our greatest resource.

Our water.

And many places don't have water like we do and the quality of our water.

Another reason is going to be cost of living.

Because of the cost of living and being able to have to live in our city and have a very comfortable, if you if you want to place to live, we have access in Toledo to so many things, such as the zoo, which is top in the nation art museum, our University of Toledo.

So there are a lot of great things that are happening here.

And we also want to have opportunity for businesses to come here and just feel like no matter what that business is, we want them to come and develop in Toledo, because this is a thriving community and there's a tremendous opportunity for business here.

I think that when people feel safe, they're more apt to come and be a part of our city.

Doni: Absolutely.

I think it so if I, if I said to you that when I talk to people, they're a bit confused around this whole idea of safety and, and what the city's approach to safety, is, would that surprise you that people are confused about that?

I mean, just a few months ago, I think it was in May, we had, press conferences.

We heard press conferences where the discussion was that the crime rate was going down.

Yes.

And then recently we've had, uncharacteristically for Toledo, some eight shootings in over the course of four days.

John: Yes.Doni: So what message?

What what message are people to take from that in terms of the city being on top of managing the safety of folks in the city?

John: And so we have several entities that are really working to try to make our city feel safe.

First, our administration, and the, mayor's, safety director, Mr. Malcolm Cunningham, he's working very hard with Muncie to try to work on community and and being involved with, violence interrupters and different ones to help, curtail our, violence in our city.

Our police chief, Chief Trembley, is doing things such as the police officers are have, three places in our city that they're walking out on the beat during, you know, times in our city.

So they're getting to know the community.

It's like, it was when I was growing up.

We saw officers walking the beat there, getting to know the kids, the parents in the neighborhood.

We also have, several places in our city where our officers are owned bikes.

They're riding the bikes, and again, they're communicating with the young people.

They're communicating with parents, they're communicating with different ones in the city.

We also have police officers that are going to all of our pools, our swimming pools for.

So from 1 to 3 it's free.

And then from 3 to 6 our officers are coming in and they're at the pools again, making that connection between law enforcement and community to try to make those things happen.

Our council is constantly, also looking at how do we better improve our, the safety of our city with legislation, with helping, with lighting areas that need to be have more light.

We're doing these things.

We're passing legislation that will help our officers.

Both fire and police have equipment that they need to make our city safer.

So there is no body in our city.

There's no entity in our city that is saying we don't want our city to be.

Say, the truth of the matter is, Miss Doni, is that we don't.

I'll say I, I don't have an answer to how we can.

How we curtail, how we stop these, seeming, outbursts of violence that happens over particular areas or particular times.

For some reason, it seems like in the summertime, I don't know if it's the heat I don't know, people are more irritable.

Doni: but it certainley is more complicatd.

John: But every summer it seems to be when it gets hot or we get outside and get into more events, that there is this uptick in violence.

Doni: I want you to hold that thought, because I'd like to talk about that a little bit more.

And your two other, priorities as well, when we return.

Right.

You stay with me.

John: Thank you.

Doni: Thank you.

We'll be right back.

Doni: Connect with us on our social media pages.

And email me at Doni underscore Miller at wgte dot org And as you know, for this episode and any of the others that you might like to see, all you have to do is go to wgte dot org slash to the point if you missed the first part of the show, I really encourage you to take a look at it on our website.

Great information from district one.

Councilman John Hobbs, the third.

As we went to break, we were talking about the things that the city is doing to make its residents feel a little more comfortable, around the issue of crime.

And I really appreciated what you said and admitting that you just don't know the answer.

You just don't know the answer as to what to do.

But you are trying lots of things, to to make this work, to make this work in terms of the city feeling more comfortable and safer.

You talked about development.

Any great news on that front for businesses?

John: Well, you know, for our business development, one of the things that we're starting to see a resurgence, is there was a time when I was growing up that downtown Toledo was thriving.

Absolutely.

We had, my mom used to take us on Saturdays as little kids to Woolworth and let us sit at the bar and eat, when I was, coming up as a teenager, we had Port Side.

We had a lot of great things that were happening now.

We couldn't all the bus stations, we would catch the bus down there, you know, we had our Michael Jackson jackets and all of that, and we were trying our best to, you know, get together and just hang out and have a good time.

Doni: That was a fun time, though.

John: And so then we went through a time where our downtown, seemed to be, not as exciting as it was, but there's a resurgence in our downtown.

A lot of our downtown businesses have invested themselves on top of, what they may be getting, as far as, grants or certain development opportunities, they are assessing themselves and then they're taking that money that they're assessing the downtown district, and they're putting it back into the community.

And so what happens is sometimes people will see what's happening downtown and they will say citizens say, well, well, you know, city warrant, why aren't you giving us money or we need money over here to do this or any other.

And there needs to be an understanding that that money that you see a lot going into downtown and is not necessarily coming from the city, but it is coming from downtown businesses, downtown investors that are putting money back into the downtown.

I think that's extremely important.

Here's why.

Because if we see downtown willing to invest back into not saying, hey, what can you do or give me, give me me, they're saying we're going to put back into this our own selves.

Then evidently they see something in our city.

They see something that's worthwhile, them putting their own money into to develop.

If we could get other areas, other communities in our city, to say, hey, instead of saying, what have you done for me lately?

What can I do to invest in myself, to invest in my neighbor, to invest in my neighborhood?

And how can we do those things?

Those things will then cause business to not only grow in downtown or resurgent downtown, it will happen in other areas of our city and I think that's very important.

Doni: I would agree with you on that.

Does do these things align with your personal vision for where you'd like the city to go?

You've been a councilman now for, a little while, a little bit.

John: Five years.

Doni: Yeah.

Five years.

That's a long time.

You've had an opportunity to see, the city as you thought it was when you were first appointed as, compared to the way it actually is.

And I imagine there's just a little bit of difference in those visions, but you must have a personal vision for what you'd like to see the city become.

Can you tell me what that is?

John: I'm really loving the the way I see our our neighbor, our city going right now.

I'm loving that the push in the direction is happening.

You know, one of the things that I really grew up seeing Ms. Doni was strong neighborhoods and strong communities.

That's why I keep so many community meetings going.

Neighborhood because I really believe in neighborhoods and communities.

I believe that our neighborhoods, I believe that our small communities are the base.

They are the cornerstones.

They are the structure of which our city has been.

If you don't have good neighborhoods, if you don't have good community development, then your city is not going to be any good.

And so I grew up in in a time where, I grew up on Elliott, we went to my brother's, and I attended Saint Theresa's Elementary, and then I went on to Saint Francis and Ohio State, Barbara College, and the University of Toledo.

But we walked down Clinton Avenue to Oakwood to meet every day.

And on that stretch, all of the, stores, many of them were owned by people that lived in the community.

They were black owned mom and pop stores.

They were stores that you got to see.

And then, Tom's carry out, was on a was on issue when in Bancroft and that was owned by Mr.. Tom and his wife.

They were Greek so we got to see different people in the community next door to me, on both sides of me on Elliott were a Jewish family on each sides of us.

Growing up, Mrs. Shin used to make us peanut butter cookies every Saturday.

I mean, these were the building blocks of community.

If I was doing something wrong down the street and Mrs. Johnson saw me doing it, she could get me, take me home.

My mama was going to do my dad at home.

That that's that's what I really believe.

And we could get back to a neighborhood if we could get back to the village.

Raising the child.

If we could get back to the village, caring, you know, sometimes I have people, Ms Doni.

Citizens that will call and say, hey, we need grass cut here, here, here.

And I say to them, sometimes I understand that, but cut the grass or so do.

I've got neighbors.

I've got properties on my street that no one lives on, and I've cut the grass, or I've cut the grass for a senior neighbor off, shoveled the snow for them.

Those are the type of things that will cause us to believe in community again.

Those are the type of things that our young men and women need to see.

Because if we're investing in it, everyone else will invest.

But if we don't have an investment of what we want, then why would anybody invest in something you don't want to invest?

Doni: That's an amazing vision.

And I think it is the right vision, quite frankly, for government.

Are your peers on city Council aligned with that vision as well?

John: Yes.

Our, my council members, we have, a really good group of council members that are there now that are really trying to make this happen.

Now, we may have different approaches or different ideas, but the center theme of it is how do we make community and neighborhood better?

I was brought on when I came on.

I had strong people mentored me, such as Doctor Cecilia Adams, just, you know, she was a woman of great vision.

Mr.

Rob Ludeman, they, they had vision.

They had understanding.

They knew how to get certain places in the community to get things done.

And so when you bring those groups or you bring the council members that we have on council now, it's been an amazing experience to sit and talk and have these ideas shared.

Be willing to hammer it out, being willing to come back to the table and say, this is how we can get this done, and then to come together and do it.

As far as, what it takes, such as I give you an example, Councilwoman McPherson had a vision for jazz a few years ago, and so now we have this jazz festival that all the council members got together and agreed to do.

And we're producing a jazz festival in our city that is drawing people from Detroit, your home town, and drawing people from Monroe and all over our, our city.

Another thing that we've done is council members having the same vision is for two years, Ms Doni, we had Arpa money to support our young people.

So we had all these amazing programs going on through the American Rescue Plan Act one that went out or ran away.

Then we came back and allocated $1 million from, the city to have the same youth programs happen for our children so that our children would be able to have a great experience this summer.

And then we went a step further.

We allocated $25,000 to mail the booklet to every kid that is in TPS or every child that is in Washington local.

They had it mailed to their home.

So there's this booklet with all of these wonderful things to do for the summer for our young people.

Then our district council members all took dip money, their district improvement money, and they use that to fix up every park in their districts so that our children have somewhere safe to go and enjoy themselves and have a great time.

And I like to say Ottawa Park is the number one part in the state of Ohio.

You should go over and see the amazing things that are happening at Ottawa Park.

We offer more.

We offer as much or more in than any metro park.

But that only happened because our council came together and said, hey, let's do these things for our young people, let's do these things for our city.

Doni: So to those folks who would say, you just got you, do you do exactly what the mayor tells you to do.

That's what city council does.

You would say what?

John: I would say.

We work with the administration as much as we can to get things done.

But there are times where council says, no, this is not the right fit right now.

This is the not right, not thing.

This is not the thing to do right now.

And so in those times we agree, disagree or agree to disagree, but we still do understand at best.

Overall it is what's best for our citizens.

So there are times that the strong mayor and council don't agree that will happen.

But when those times happen, we try to do what we can as a council and say, this is the way we've got to go.

And we always, 99% of the time come to the table and try our best to work it out because what's most important is the citizens of Toledo.

Doni: All right.

We've got two minutes left, and I want to ask you this question.

You probably have more community meetings than any of your peers on city council.

You've heard a lot.

They've talked to you a lot.

You've been amazingly accessible to, to the folks in your district.

What do you think you have learned?

The one most important thing that you've learned from those meetings.

John: The number one thing I've learned is, respectfully, many times, you have to explain to our citizens what's actually going on, because it is very easy for our citizens to get caught up in what social media is saying and not the truth.

And so oftentimes you have to come in and say, you, I'll bring in a person from that department or a person from the city and say, please explain this to this group because I want them to have the truth.

I want them to have what is actually taking place, not what's going to get the likes.

That's what's going to get the thumbs up, but what it actually is.

But the number one thing I've learned Ms. Doni, outside of making sure that proper information is given, is that people really care.

They really care about where they live.

They've really care about what they're grass.

They really care about that.

They really care about their neighbor.

Sometimes people are afraid to express it.

Sometimes people don't know what to do.

But you find out that people really care about the city of Toledo.

And we have we cannot we cannot be deterred by what may be happening with our current administrator and that, it creates an uneasiness when we are around folks that don't look like us or have the same, background economically as us.

We have to remember that we're human beings, and I must do what's best for my fellow human beings.

Doni: Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.

I can tell that you're a preacher.

Thank you so much for joining us.

And thank you all for joining us as well.

And I will see you next time on To the point.

Announcer 1: The views and opinions expressed in to the point are those of the host of the program and its guests.

They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of WGTE public media.

Announcer 2: To the point is supported in part by American Rescue Plan Act funds allocated by the City of Toledo and the Lucas County Commissioners and administered by the Arts Commission.

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