As published in Toledo Business Journal - August 1, 2008

 

 

Personal vendetta exposed: Another attack

Finkbeiner to benefit from attack on Port’s Hartung

 

In mid-July, The Blade launched another in a long series of attacks on the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority and its president, James Hartung. It has now been close to ten years since The Blade began its campaign against the Port and Hartung. A recent editorial in the newspaper has now, on another occasion, called for the Port leader’s termination.

The current attack involves Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner’s call for an investigation concerning his allegation that Hartung had an affair with lobbyist Kathy Teigland. Finkbeiner admitted that he had no direct knowledge of this situation but that he has heard about it through other sources.

Teigland has denied having an affair with Hartung. However, many are questioning why the private lives of these individuals necessitate an investigation.

Finkbeiner has responded that he is concerned about the moral reputation of the Port Authority.

In contrast, the Toledo Mayor took a very different position involving the moral reputation of the Democratic Party in Lucas County. Critics raised the issue of morality concerning the use of strippers at a Democratic Party fund raiser last summer and their alleged nude exposure at the political event.

In that situation, Finkbeiner claimed critics of the event were being “moralistic” in their concern about hiring strippers to participate at an official Democratic Party event at a public location on a golf course. He is quoted in The Blade as stating, “Sometimes the finger pointers turn out to be slightly less goody-two-shoes than they made themselves out to be.”

In the attack on Hartung, no legal wrongdoings or violations of Ohio ethics law have been cited by Finkbeiner or The Blade. The Toledo Mayor has used a number of press conferences to call for Hartung’s removal. Finkbeiner also appears to be putting significant effort into attempting to find more charges to level against Hartung in the media.

As we go to press, Finkbeiner and the City of Toledo have launched a separate investigation of their own against Hartung and the Port Authority. The Mayor is using the resources of the City of Toledo law department which has made extensive records requests from the Port.

In an article in The Blade on July 15, the newspaper stated, “But exactly what law or contract might have been violated, even if the allegations of an extramarital relationship prove to be true, remained a gray area.”

The Blade followed this with an editorial stating, “Regardless of the outcome of the investigation involving James Hartung, it has become pretty clear that the president of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority has outlived any usefulness he may have had in the job.”

The Blade is attempting to send a message to members of the Port board who will decide Hartung’s future. Officials at the daily newspaper do not care about the outcome of any investigation. They are clearly frustrated that, after working for close to a decade, they have not been able to force the Port board to terminate this successful community leader.

The current attack by Finkbeiner and The Blade represents another blow to leadership in the area. Lucas County Improvement Corporation (LCIC) board chairman Rob Robinson recently resigned his position. In doing so, he cited the Finkbeiner attack on Hartung, Ben Konop’s opposition and harm to development efforts, and the political environment in Toledo and Lucas County as key factors in his decision.

The possibility of losing an effective community leader as talented and skilled as Hartung is highly concerning to the business community. Hartung has received national and international recognition for his leadership skills in the transportation industry.

The possible loss of Hartung as a strong community leader would be a blow that would cause serious harm to area development efforts.

It is important to understand the long history of attacks on the Port and Hartung by The Blade and its co-publisher, John Robinson Block. It is also important to understand how The Blade and Block have used individuals such as Finkbeiner in their long campaign that has caused significant damage to leadership in the region.

The attacks by the newspaper first began after Block ended his position on the Port’s board of directors.

Block attempted, through introduction of a motion to the board, to prevent Grand Aire Express from relocating over 100 new jobs to Toledo Express Airport. An associate of Block operated a company at the airport that would be competing with Grand Aire for fuel sales and The Blade publisher did not want this to occur.

The Port board unanimously rejected Block’s wrongful attempt to restrict competition and to prevent the relocation of over 100 new jobs to the area. Following the board’s rejection of this motion, eyewitness accounts indicate Block issued a personal threat to those board members present and then left the meeting in anger when he did not get his way on this issue. Soon after his angry exit and publicly issued threat against the Port, Block declined reappointment to the board. Almost immediately, he began to use the resources of The Blade to attack the Port Authority and its president, James Hartung, and members of the agency’s board of directors.

A barrage of articles and editorials involving personal attacks against Port board members and management has taken place. Falsified and misleading information has regularly been published. Some of The Blade and Block’s personal attacks against the Port and Hartung are documented in a series of editorials titled, Personal Vendetta Exposed at www.toledobiz.com.

In the past, The Blade’s efforts to harm the Port Authority and Hartung have almost always relied on someone in the community to initiate a verbal attack against the agency. This has usually been done in an attempt by an individual to obtain personal benefit from their cooperation with Block and the newspaper.

In one past example, Robert Feldstein was used by The Blade for such an attack on the Port Authority and Hartung. The Blade attempted to wrongfully represent that Feldstein was leading a large group of citizens who were angry with the Port Authority.

Community leaders soon learned that Feldstein, in fact, was a “one man show” and the large citizens group against the Port Authority was a fabricated sham used to deceive readers of the newspaper.

Feldstein, in an attempt to win favor with Block and the newspaper, worked closely with The Blade on this particular attack against Hartung and the Port.

Another series of attacks on Hartung by The Blade involved Jerry Chabler, a past Port board member appointed by Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner. Chabler’s appointment to the Port board was important to Block.

The Blade and Block have put significant effort into pressuring and influencing appointments to the Port board.

A quote from a past Toledo Business Journal editorial provides insight into one of Chabler and The Blade’s attempts to harm the Port and Hartung. “Chabler claimed in his report given to The Blade that James Hartung, president of the Port Authority, pressured developer Frank Kass to hire the architectural firm SSOE, Inc. to work on the proposed Marina District project. Chabler further charged that Hartung pressured Frank Kass to use SSOE because he claimed that SSOE has ties to the Lathrop Company, which employs Ray Medlin, chairman of the board of the Port Authority.The Blade article containing this interview with Jerry Chabler then stated, ‘Mr. Chabler described Mr. Hartung's action as a “very serious appearance of impropriety.”’”

Toledo Business Journal’s investigation of the charges publicly issued by Chabler against Hartung revealed that he had falsified his statements published in The Blade. The Blade then used these false charges to publish an article attacking Hartung and the Port.

The Blade never issued a retraction or apology to Hartung for publishing Chabler’s falsified charges and for publishing its own article written in support of Chabler’s sham.

Chabler is simply another example of The Blade and Block’s wrongful use of an individual in their continuing efforts against the Port and Hartung.

Block’s power and influence have motivated individuals in the past to assist, for personal benefit, this vendetta against the Port and Hartung.

Finkbeiner’s recent use of the media to launch his attack against Hartung caught many by surprise. If there were legitimate issues, the Toledo Mayor could have gone directly to the Port board chairman in private and called for an investigation.

Finkbeiner has made many appointments to the Port board. However, he called for an outside investigation indicating that he does not trust board members to act in the way that he wants. Adding to the pressure on Port board members, The Blade and Block have made it very clear about the direction that they expect these individuals to follow.

Finkbeiner then launched a formal City of Toledo investigation of the Port Authority using the City’s law department to do this work. The media was quickly made aware of this effort and the extensive records request to the Port.

Finkbeiner’s attack on Hartung and the way he is using the media even has some staff at The Blade raising issues about the Mayor’s motivations behind this situation.

Why is the Toledo Mayor putting such significant effort into getting Hartung terminated? Why is he spending so much time and City of Toledo resources trying to learn about activities inside another organization, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority?

Why is this issue a priority for Finkbeiner with all of the problems being faced by the City of Toledo?

It is clear that such attention given to the Port by the media reduces the coverage on significant problems and failures facing the City of Toledo.

With the additional damage to leadership in the area that is resulting, how does the community benefit from the Mayor’s actions?

Long time observers of politics in Toledo and Lucas County have learned that such actions by the Toledo Mayor often have multiple objectives.

In the past, Finkbeiner has used such attacks to obtain political benefits. His actions against the YMCA and its leaders provide such an example.

Further, Finkbeiner has less than a year-and-a-half left on his current term in office. He has begun to think about his next options.

In the past, he has been interested in the position of Port Authority president that Hartung currently holds.

A previous article in The Blade toward the end of Finkbeiner’s second term in office stated, “The hottest rumor around town these days has Carty making plans for a move from city hall to the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, where he would replace Port president James Hartung.”

The compensation for the Port president is significantly higher than compensation received by the Mayor of the City of Toledo.

The Toledo Mayor is also considering an election campaign for another term in office. Early polls indicate that he will have a difficult time getting elected again.

Support and endorsement from The Blade are considered to be important by area politicians.

The Blade and Block’s long history of attacks against the Port and Hartung and their need for a cooperating individual to lead a verbal attack now make Finkbeiner valuable to the newspaper and its co-publisher.

As stated earlier, Block’s power and influence have motivated individuals in the past to assist, for personal benefit, this vendetta against the Port and Hartung.

Finkbeiner has stated that he is concerned about the moral reputation of the Port.

Where should concerns about moral reputation be placed?