Campaign sign incident investigated by city
City worker could face punishment
Published : Monday, 14 Sep 2009, 6:03 PM EDT
Michelle Zepeda
Toledo, OH - The debate over Issue one is getting very heated. Alleged sign swipers are out there, stealing signs from supporter’s lawns.
Issue one is not a new tax, but the passage of Issue one would allow 3.9-million-dollars to be reallocated to police and fire from the city’s 0.75-percent income tax.
A laid off Toledo Police officer, whom we’ve decided not to identify, nearly became the latest victim of these sign stealers, but he says he caught one in the act.
He says on Thursday night at 11:30 a person who he describes as wearing all black came on to his lawn and grabbed his "issue one" sign. Then a day later that alleged sign swiper offered him a job with the city.
The officer says he approached the woman and she said she was taking the sign because it was impeding pedestrians' right of way. The sign was in the middle of the officer’s lawn, several feet from the street. That's when that policeman threatened to call 911 and identified himself.
“I told her that I was a laid off Toledo Police Officer and she called me a liar and I asked who she was and she said my neighbor."
The next day that neighbor came back and identified herself as Sue Fredrick, Commissioner of Streets Bridges and Harbor for the City of Toledo. Fredrick was the woman amid the controversial parking ticket story in the headlines months ago. Fredrick allegedly proceeded to offer the laid off officer a job in her division.
Fox Toledo did find out that Fredrick lives in the same neighborhood as the officer, right across the street from him.
Sue Fredrick did not return Fox Toledo’s call, but the City of Toledo did. The Mayor and Chief of Staff were not aware of this situation until Fox Toledo contacted them Monday afternoon. Now they say there is an investigation into this incident and it will take a couple of days to complete. They do tell me if these allegations are true disciplinary action will be taken against the responsible party.
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