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

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

Doni: So you ask how I know of Toledo, Ohio?

Well, I spent a week there one night, so says singer John Denver.

Well, John should see us now.

We are home to some of the most amazing venues in the country, the Huntington Center, the art museum and the Toledo Zoo, to name a few.

And have you seen the new Glass City center?

Well, Pete Gerken, president of the Lucas County commissioners, would say, just wait.

There's a whole lot more to come.

Join us as we discuss Lucas County new and improved with Commissioner Pete Gerken.

On to the point.

Connect with us on our social media pages.

You may email me at Doni _Miller@wgte.org for this episode and other additional extras, please go to WGTE.org/To the point.

Pete Gerken, It is such a joy to have you here this morning.

You are an institution in this county and I say that in like a really good way, in a really good way.

You've done amazing things for this county and we want to talk about some of those things today.

Welcome.

Pete: Well, thank you and good to be here in the studios of WGTE, a bedrock of information and our community forever.

Doni: And I heard you used to work in public television.

Pete: I did.

I was an employee for a few years.

Went back to their downtown behind the Valentine Theater.

It was a good chance to be behind the cameras, learned how Whiting's goes, and directed a couple of things.

So I like to set.

Doni: Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You are certainly a renaissance man.

And again, thank you for being with us.

I want to start with something that I think is absolutely amazing, and that is the response that the county had to the disaster in point place.

You guys just got on your feet.

You got over there and did all kinds of things.

Tell us about that.

Pete: Well, I think that's just comes from being around a long time and having been through other things.

We knew we had to step up pretty immediately.

Like that tornado happened in the Weather Service didn't even know.

That's right.

So one of the holes that we have in the radar system, we fell into, so we try to respond quickly to do that.

And you talk about Lucas County being a hole of some things.

We had great community partners, Toledo Fire and Rescue, Washington Township, City streets, forestry at Harbor, our connections to the community to get food, shelter and water out there.

Unfortunate.

We've been through a few of these.

We had the Hunters Ridge Department years ago.

We had the water crisis all those years ago.

So when you have some background and training, some experience, you know, really how to to jump in there.

And it became pretty clear early on that the state and the federal government were not going to show up.

So we have this scene right here.

We're not waiting for somebody to come help us.

That's right.

We're going to jump in and start resourcing things out there from job and family services.

Food snap benefits to to hot food and feeding center.

Were.

So we got out of it pretty quick.

It also helped our fellow commissioners.

Lisa So Becky was a resident in the middle of it.

Doni: Right?

That's right.

And I want to say to I want to give an amazing shout out to those folks who live in the North End.

They came together.

They were I have friends who live there.

They were cutting each other's trees out of the way.

And I mean, what a great example of what people can do when they come together without the nonsense and just a sign that they're going to be good human beings and help each other.

And thank you guys for being in the front of that.

We really, really appreciate that there is.

Do you happen to have at your disposal right this moment?

I know you know, you didn't know I was going to ask you this, but there is financial assistance that's going to be made available.

Pete: So right now, if people are on some benefits of the county like care for seniors or disabled people, we can get an emergency cash benefit at up to 1500 dollars for families, $750 for for individuals.

And you've got to be eligible.

We're bringing the governor is come has come in to do this.

And we are really pressing the governor.

This is a during the budget season right now.

So this is an opportunity also to do a little carve out for us here.

Here's a problem.

Lots of people out here maybe not qualified for benefits, but they have such high insurance deductibles.

Let's say you lost your roof and windows that that could be a four or $5,000 deductible.

And then something fell on your car.

That's another $1,000 added.

Some people are stacking those up.

So we're really pressing to the state, the governor in the legislature.

Those are the human level things that you don't think about until you get out there to talk to people.

So we're really going to press on that, see if we can get get somebody carved out of what is otherwise a pretty onerous state budget.

Doni: Yeah, I don't want to get stuck on this point, but isn't there an issue around being a disaster, being determined that.

Pete: Yeah, we have we're just under the threshold somehow because it was a limited area to do it for the state?

The state's ability to send money.

But look, they've made exceptions for everybody else in the state over the years.

I think it's our turn to.

Doni: Yeah, I would agree with that.

I would I would agree with that.

So what's exciting going on?

I want to talk about the Glass City Center.

It's my neighbor.

It is stunning.

It is just absolutely stunning.

Pete: So it's just about a year ago that it opened in July also.

And we opened it in conjunction with a new renovated hotel, the Hilton's that we call them.

There's there's two hotels and one down there.

And we kind of knew that if we had if we built something to connect to look at the fifth third field, nobody has to talk about the history that we all know how wildly successful that is.

Right?

How do you turn centers about 13 years old now, and it's still a premier event place Right now.

We have a brand new convention center.

Everything from our features to a brand new ballroom to refresh wi fi connected to a nice hotel.

So we're really doing a good job of selling that and getting people coming here from elsewhere.

And they all get here and they see the things that maybe Lucas County and tell you and should know more.

You really got an amazing downtown and riverfront and community.

Yeah, we tend to forget because we live here but we have countless testimonials came and said I can't believe this is this is so many of us say, look, we're from Columbus, your town, your downtown, on nights in the weekend far exceeds what we could do in Columbus.

Doni: Wow.

Wow.

So I remember when you were on city council, you were a strong proponent of strategic planning, which I totally support.

Is this part of a strategic plan for the county?

Pete: This really came out of a planning process of the community a couple of years ago.

There was a group of business people came downtown and they had a process and they listed like four or five things that needed to be done.

At the top of that was you need to redo the convention center, get a hotel and help downtown.

So we took the community's input.

It was their strategic plan, not necessarily ours, but if it's the community's, it's ours also works.

That's right.

And we got busy on it and other people said it has a lot to do down there.

Yeah, that's right.

It's done.

Doni: Yeah.

So you guys are talking about the jail.

You've decided on a place for the jail.

Finally, finally, finally, finally.

And it's downtown as well.

Pete: It is.

It's on Cannon Avenue, a block over from where the new jail is.

We owned a lot of the property on that side of Cannon Street.

Anyways, we are the only one property owner that we have to acquire property from, and they were a good partner to work with.

So we've been talking to jail for ten years.

We need a new jail now.

Unlike the Huntington Center, the convention center, fifth the field, it's not quite as sexy or happy or or sparkling to talk about a new jail.

But is is it is central?

Is every other one of those things that are criminals social justice people deserve.

Yeah, right.

When you go to jail in Lucas County, you're pretrial.

You're not convicted of anything.

When you're in our jail, you're awaiting trial.

Right.

So they're innocent until proven guilty.

We have to provide a humane, reasonable, mentally healthy, appropriate people to be held prior to trial.

Doni: Well, are you at all concerned that the jail being so close to downtown will diminish the sparkle of downtown?

Pete: Not at all.

I mean, the current jail, which is Iraq, hasn't done anything to diminish the sparkle of downtown.

That's a good point.

It's near the courthouses.

It needs to be near the courthouses.

We're going to be on Cannon Avenue, kind of just outside of uptown.

So if the old jail did reduce to the sparkle, a new one certainly look like that.

Yeah, probably enhance it.

Doni: Yeah.

So what are you guys going to get started?

Pete: We've already started.

We already through the plan commission.

We're having hearings and for the Planning Commission to get all the bureaucratic stuff.

We got it done.

We're getting a contract already in place to do excavation.

So you're really seeing a in the ground piece later this year, probably in the fall.

Doni: Really?

Pete: You'll see equipment over there.

Doni: How long is to build it?

Pete: It'll probably be the 2026.

It starts to become operational late third quarter, 2026.

It's a big project.

It's a bigger project than the other business projects we've done.

Really?

Yes, because it's complicated.

You know, specialty builds.

You have things like cell doors and locks, especially the trades.

So it's more expensive than the other things.

Doni: But what happens to the current jail.

Pete: Boom.

Doni: Down?

Pete: We're going have to yeah that we looking forward to demolishing that someday open up that green space we have a great civic center mall right.

It's kind of been hindered by this hulking seven story building with prisoners overlooking what should be a great community green space.

So we're headed toward that, too.

Doni: Oh, that'll be really nice.

Yeah, that'll be good.

What are you going to do with the health department building?

Pete: The health department building is really in the hands of the city of Toledo and the health department.

We had looked at, they added a site nobody could agree on where they go next, what they're going to do, how to sell it.

So we couldn't wait another six, eight months or a year.

We picked another site and moved on for that.

But, you know, the health department probably is in some change of their own to get the new leader coming on it.

It operates differently than it did when they went to that building in 1998 99.

So that's a challenge that the county would love to get into it.

We're going to leave that one to the city and the Board of Health.

Doni: Yeah, that makes all the sense.

The world, it seems, is I read someplace that you two were working, both entities were working on what to do with that building together.

Pete: Yeah, we are.

Yeah.

Doni: So?

So, like, what are you most proud of and what's next?

Pete: I think what I'm most proud of is not so much the physical infrastructure that we have.

I mean, that's great.

What I'm really proud of is the work that we've done over the years in housing, affordable housing, and we've taken a good chunk of our ARPA money to push into affordable housing projects because we think that really is a great, great problem.

And Lucas County is affordable housing and where people can access it and who can access it.

So part of our ARPA money we did the first public housing are not public affordable housing project we supported in Miami.

People just don't have to live in downtown Toledo central City to have access to great housing.

We're part of a housing project being built right now adjacent to Toledo Hospital.

Another spot where we think people have an opportunity to live.

Doni: Where everyone at Central, your.

Pete: County or college area, for those that are from the last century, might remember that.

But we're also working with our currently with Green in the central city.

So we've tried to take our housing policies in that concentrated in one place, one place.

Doni: I want you to that.

Pete: Thought give people access.

Doni: Hold it, Hold that thought.

We're going to go away.

Okay.

But we'll be right back.

You stay here.

We will be right back in just a moment.

Jaden: Oh, that's quite a walk.

I'm Jaden Jefferson.

And on this week's edition of On Point, I'm asking people about something that we can't ignore.

The scenery in Lucas County is constantly changing.

So I'm asking people, what's your new favorite part of Lucas County?

What's your favorite addition to Lucas?

Woman: Definitely the the new Metro Park that's here.

It's amazing that.

Jaden: What's your new favorite part of Lucas County?

Woman: And this park is a great place for the kids.

I mean, they're having so much fun and it's first time I've ever been here, so I'm having a blast.

And it's just wonderful to see a to do.

I have a wonderful restaurant up there and splash pad that cabanas I love if I'm older kids playing around and and it's skating and stuff, it's it's a blast She come out here one point this week I'm Jaden Jefferson.

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Doni: Connect with us on our social media pages.

You may as always email me at Doni _Miller@wgte.org, for this episode and other additional extras, please go to wgte.org/To the point.

We are talking to president of the Lucas County Commissioners, Pete Gerken.

And you don't have to live in Toledo to benefit from the services that you guys promote.

Pete: We provide services throughout the county of the unincorporated area.

We have good relationships with that, with the villages and township, so we try to respond to their needs.

I mean, Toledo makes up about two thirds of the county, but certainly we certainly provide services.

That's why it's important for us to get into Miami and try to do something that people access to deliveries outside get a different view of the county.

So I think that was important.

We're going to continue to do that.

Doni: Yeah.

I didn't know that you had started with housing in Maumee.

I wonder how many people actually did know that.

Pete: It's one of those best kept secrets.

I guess you just kind of do it some time and get people where that where they need to go.

But, you know, I think the other thing that we've done I'm proud of, we've done a pretty good job is that reform, lots of reforms are in the criminal justice system since 2005.

Doni: Let's talk about that, because I know people don't know that you're involved in that.

Pete: Well, you know, we got a challenge to the MacArthur Grant Foundation to do some criminal justice reform.

We're like were the longest standing partners.

Many people have fell out of that challenge because it's so difficult.

But just to get a fine point on it is when we started the challenge at our regional jail, you know, striker, that's where people go after they're convicted.

We had 438 inmates just from Toledo and Lucas County.

In that system.

Right now we have 162.

So we've been able to find ways to get people what some people need to be incarcerate.

Don't get me wrong, we need people to spend time with their secure communities safe.

What we found is that not everybody benefits or their families or the community behind.

If they're taken away for six months a year, they don't come back any better generally.

Right.

So how could we transition people to other forms of incarceration, I guess, you know, electronic monitoring, probation, supervised adult parole.

We found that that's been pretty successful.

So we don't just.

Doni: How we've been able to do that.

Is there an organization that's managing it as a service provider?

Pete: Well, it's mostly been led by the commissioner's office and our MacArthur grant were great, great staff that has worked on that very high.

Ramon's been on it.

Lindsey.

Doni: Since MacArthur grant is being administered out of jail.

Pete: Yes, we partnered with the Community Justice Coordinating Committee, the commissioner's agenda.

But I think what the great news is, is that we have reduced incarceration that's unnecessary to try to get people back connected to their families where they belong or mental health services.

And really the helpers on that, the biggest helpers way to get through 20 judges between municipal court and Common Pleas court to all be part of this.

And they did.

I mean, great kudos to our court system, our judges, for stepping up and being a partner.

Could have done without them.

Doni: Mm hmm.

And how did you decide on that being a priority?

What came to you?

Because I wouldn't think that that would be in your bailiwick.

Pete: Well, I mean, we operate we fund the courts, the criminal courts, we fund the jail.

And I've long been disturbed about the over incarceration of minorities and black men, especially for decades.

So here isn't a chance for some other people's money from outside their county to take a deep look at it, to do the research, find out, go to other places and bring back the best of what we found.

So it's been a passion for me to make sure that our criminal justice system works for everybody and doesn't work against people.

Again, if you go to the county jail, you're only charged with a crime.

You're not convicted at that point.

And I believe that the process of due process of government allows you to be treated fairly, put in a humane condition, kept if you're a threat to the community, but released and monitored if you're not.

Doni: That is such an important topic, and I hope you'll come back and talk to us about that particular topic.

I don't think that people really understand the barriers for people of color in poor people when it comes to the criminal justice system, the setting of bonds that you can't ever possibly meet along with other issues.

Really, really important conversation.

And thank you for paying attention to that in your office.

So I appreciate it.

And lots of community activists appreciate that as well.

Pete: So you got one other thing I can plug here.

Doni: Absolutely.

Pete: have I think we're really happy about our work around water quality, too.

Ever since 2015 with the Lake Erie crisis and the river crisis, we've stepped up to that.

May people not know, but we sued the federal government.

Doni: Yes.

And one.

Pete: And one small law firm out of Chicago because we sued the US EPA, effectively the Ohio EPA.

Doni: Tell folks why you sued them.

Pete: We sued them because they weren't doing their job.

There was a Clean Water act passed in 1972 that says you have an obligation EPA to protect the waters of Ohio in the country.

They were ignoring their own laws to do it.

And we tried to have conversations with them.

The bureaucrats all got in the way.

So our great lawyer, Fritz Byers, in our team stepped up and we doggedly pursued the US.

EPA, brought them to the table, got a consent decree, which we just signed about a month ago, which means we're going to hold them accountable for.

Nobody wants to go back to where we were.

The lake isn't great yet.

It's way better, but we can do better than that.

There's a new threat in our in our ecosystem, too, in these concentrated feed organizations, large cattle and poultry farms, they're starting to pollute too far the waters.

Farmers have been good.

They've changed a lot of their practices.

Now we're chasing another devil's tail with feeding operations.

We're not going to give up, if we can, to the federal government when we can make changes.

Doni: So talk to me a bit about the feeding operations.

That's what I knew about the agricultural issues.

And but what's happening?

Pete: What's the biggest threat now to the water races?

Runoff from for manure.

Right.

People have started to populate watershed mostly around Henry County in Defiance County, adding these new large feeding operations where you get 800 900,000 head of either chicken or pork or cattle, keep them confined, feed them until they grow.

They have a lot of waste that comes off that and that's been unregulated.

That needs to be right.

There's more waste that comes out of those those cattle farms that comes out of our municipal wastewater plant today.

They're unregulated.

They're not containing the contaminant onsite very well.

They're spreading it on fields.

And that runs into the thing that's got to stop for all the work we did with the farmers who have been better in jeopardy if we don't take on the cattle in the concentrated feed organizations now.

Doni: So what happens now after the lawsuit?

Pete: Well, part of it is they have to put together is a technical thing called the T mdl.

That's just a measuring tool.

They have to now go out and measure places like these farms and these cattle farms.

They don't want to do it.

We're in a fight with Ohio EPA on the strength of this measuring tool.

It's pretty simple.

What fertilizer manure on land We all like to eat right?

We want good crops, market food.

That stuff's good on land, bad and water shouldn't be hard to figure out how you keep it on the land and off the water.

We all want to eat.

I like meat, I like corn, I like vegetables.

But you got to keep that stuff on your side the line.

Doni: And they are required to implement process.

Pete: Yeah, we're just in the process of negotiating that measuring tool called the GM deal.

Right now.

It's going to be another it's going to be a bit of a tussle.

There's a large interests that work against that, but I think we have a track record of hanging in there.

Doni: Yeah, Yeah, you certainly do.

Certainly.

What else is going on in the county?

Pete: Well, we're not.

We're concerned about the state budget.

We have partners like public schools, public education being under attack by the state budget.

The state budget continues to cut local government funds, which we rely on to do the work that we talked about.

This legislator and governor continue to whack away at that and hand out tax breaks for others.

Look, we pay taxes to it's supposed to go to Columbus and then come back to us.

They're keeping it.

That's had a severe impact on our public school partners, on some of our health care systems.

So we're just trying to be a good partners with those other people that are partners with us for years.

Doni: Do you think the the economic health of the county is better or is there.

Pete: Economic health of the county is strong right now because the economy is strong.

People are spending money.

We've been really good stewards of our dollars since I got there.

25 We weathered the downturn to 2008 nine.

We weathered COVID, you know, and I think our it's as much fun to talk about our financial track, our track record.

I'll put up against anybody in the state.

Doni: It's pretty good.

So I wanted to ask you this as well, while I had you here today, this issue of violence and the never ending discussions about how we fix it and frankly, with all due respect to anybody who's watching us today, it's not getting better.

It's not it's not it seems to be progressively worse and it seems to be affecting those who are younger and younger and younger.

What's the county's voice in all of this?

Pete: I think our voice has been it's been twofold.

And we're again, with partner with people.

I think people like candidates, budget movement, people like Pastor Hank in North Toledo, you know, Alisha Smith and Junction.

Those are the people in those neighborhoods that we should supporting to take the lead.

There's two to phrase two phases to this.

They should take the lead neighbor to neighbor programs and let people know when people are about to be violent people.

No, I think there's not a shooting that goes on in the city that some people in those areas don't know.

No.

And they know who did it and why.

Right.

We need to empower them.

I'm not a fan of bringing people in from elsewhere.

We have enough where we have enough potential resources.

But the long term thing is and we show this, what we've done at the Greenbelt apartments is that you have to reduce tribal violence, comes out of the isolation trauma that society has created.

So how can we in the short term, we can get into neighborhoods with trusted partners and get give the resources, get out of our way?

Right.

And that is a policy is a systems policy.

We have to find ways to reduce trauma.

And you do that through feeding people.

So give them stable housing for making them feel so safe and secure and feel that they have a voice.

Doni: That's right.

Making them feel like they matter.

Greenbelt Parkway, the transformation over there, just from a visual point of view, has been amazing.

Pete: Just the residents not like actually living there that used to have a reputation as the worst.

They were getting new tenants in.

And I have an operating philosophy that why don't we tell her we're not going to do for you without you?

They said, Activist, Don't do for me without me right?

You come first, right?

We're going to we're going to support, but we're not going to do for you at all without you and your permission.

Doni: Do you have any initiatives that are underway that are designed to address violence?

Are you working with community groups?

Pete: Our goal is to work with the community groups.

Look, there's a lot of people in the space right now.

That's right.

Sure.

They need.

Doni: One more.

Yeah.

Pete: And we're not the experts.

I don't live in a neighborhood where there's typically gun violence, so I can understand it from afar.

But I need to connect myself to the people that live it, that know it and need help to do it.

We had so many resources like I was at Lisa Smith Teeter Butts really night and.

Doni: People work hard on the ground.

Exactly right.

Feet on the ground.

Pete: My job is not to lead them into anything at all.

My job is just.

Doni: For them to.

Pete: Take advice, take advice for the people that know what they're.

Doni: Doing right.

Thank you for being here today.

You're welcome.

Always good to talk to you.

Always good to talk to you.

And thank you for joining us.

And I will see you next week.

On to the Point.

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