Statement of Mayor Kapszukiewicz on Placement of Charter Amendment onto the November Ballot

Thursday, August 04, 2022

While the issue placed before the voters will improve the charter in a number of ways — such as making it easier for citizens to overturn decisions of city government and improving the efficiency of city purchasing — I am most excited about the opportunity to fix more roads.

I am thrilled that the Charter Review committee decided to address the issue of road repair, and I believe City Council made the right decision to allow the voters to decide whether they want to city to be able to fix more roads.

This gives us the opportunity to fix a flaw that has existed in our charter for over 50 years. Right now, capital improvement dollars are not allowed to be used to fix unimproved roads (roads without sewers).

This has always been unfair to the nearly 80,000 Toledoans who live on these roads, and a YES vote on this amendment will correct this injustice.

One of my proudest accomplishments as mayor is how much progress we’ve made fixing our roads. If this issue passes, we will be able to fix even more roads — and improve upon the record-setting amount of road repair we’ve achieved over the last two years.

There will be those who focus on the other aspects of this amendment, and all recommended charter changes deserve discussion and debate.

But there is no question what the most important part of this ballot issue is — the chance to fix ALL of Toledo’s roads.

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