City demotes Frederick to finance dept

TOLEDO, Ohio - City of Toledo officials have removed Sue Frederick, acting Commissioner of Streets, Bridges and Harbor, and demoted her to the city's finance department.

Her demotion also cost her $8,000 in pay.

Frederick was suspended from the city for one month without pay in September after she was accused of trying to steal a campaign sign across the street from someone's yard.

The campaign sign was in favor of Issue 1, which was also known as the Safety First plan. The issue failed during the Sept. 15 primary.

A laid off Toledo police officer said he caught Frederick five days before the Sept. 15 primary, in the act of trying to remove his pro-Issue 1 campaign sign from his front yard. The next day she visited him, apologized, and offered him a job within her department.

Megan Robson, spokeswoman for Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, said in a statement that Frederick agreed "that her behavior constituted conduct unbecoming an employee of the City of Toledo."

In June, Frederick and her department fined several residents for parking their vehicles on unpaved residential driveways. The city's actions created a national and international uproar.