Carty Finkbeiner wants to mow his budget problems away
Posted by drocolate on May 18th, 2009
Toledo’s Mayor Carty Finkbeiner has a silly name.
He also has a plan. A plan to save Toledo from its current economic problems. His plan is simple.
He’s going to save money on landscaping at city parks by mowing them himself.
Toledo is a town in decline. And as a part of that decline they only had the money in the budget this year to hire about half of the 80ish man staff that typically mows the parks and cemeteries. And instead of moving money around (easier said than done, I know) to bring in the full 80 man seasonal team, Carty volunteered himself and his fellow city directors to help out.
To show just how serious he was he went out on Saturday and mowed the park closest to his house. Check it out:
So is this a brilliant strategy or a really stupid idea? Should the mayor and his staff keep on mowing every Saturday or find a way to hire the 40ish men back to do the said mowing?
Shit. I really don’t know.
Let’s examine Carty Finkbeiner a little closer to see is he’s a guy worth following. Let’s put his past “accomplishments” up against common sense and see how he does.
Exhibit A: Mr. Finkbeiner was approached years ago by county officials to partner with the county and school districts on a sharing plan for lawn care. This plan would have taken care of this current problem for good. Unfortunately Mr. Finkbeiner ignored the plan. Yikes.
Carty: 0 Common Sense: 1
Exhibit B: Carty once suggested that a way to deal with mounting complaints about noise from Toledo’s airport was to simply move all the deaf people out to the airport’s surrounding areas. Oh boy. Foot in mouth.
Carty: 0 Common Sense: 2
Exhibit C: I’m lifting this one straight from Wikipedia (because they’re always right. About everything):
“In summer 2008, Finkbeiner spent nearly $80,000 of taxpayer money (without City Council approval) to renovate Bay 4 the Erie Street Market into a concert venue. According to the City Charter, the mayor may spend up to $10,000 without City Council approval. Finkbeiner broke the nearly $80,000 into 13 separate contracts under $10,000 to circumvent council’s approval.”
Oh shit, man. That doesn’t look good.
Carty: 0 Common Sense: 3
Should I stop there? Nah.
Exhibit D: Back in February of last year Carty kicked 200 Marines out of Toledo right before they were set to start some training in the city. He said he wanted the Marines out because “they frighten people”. Huh?
Carty: 0 Common Sense: 4
Exhibit E: This:
Well that seems pretty cool. Oh wait, the only reason he was doing the PSA is because he was busted TWICE (WTF?!) for leaving poor Scout in the car unattended. Oh, and both times he was parked in a handicapped spot like a classic D-bag. Oh, and the second time he left his car running (so Scout could listen to the radio I’m sure) while he was speaking at an event encouraging Toledo residents to go green by doing simple things like turning off lights and turning off THEIR FUCKING CARS WHEN THEY’RE NOT IN THEM! C’MON, MAN!
Carty: 0 Common Sense: 5
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There’s more, but I’ll stop there. I think we can see, based on past evidence, that Mayor Carty and his lawn mowing DIY program are probably not a strong solution to Toledo’s budget problems.
All Carty needs to do is just hire the 40ish dudes back and find another department to strip. Maybe the police force.
Tags: Carty Finkbeiner, idiots, lawns, recession, Toledo, youtube