Mayor asked chief to alter memo

TOLEDO, Ohio - Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner requested Police Chief Mike Navarre to alter word use about how the elimination of 75 police officers would impact the Glass City in leaked confidential memos obtained by FOX Toledo News.

But as the memos -- dated March 23 and 24 -- point out, Chief Navarre stood his ground and refused to give in to Mayor Finkbeiner's request.

"When you're being told to lie to citizens about safety, it goes against the oath we've taken," said Dan Wagner, Toledo Police Patrolman's Association president.

The first memo on March 23, Chief Navarre pointed out to the mayor that the massive loss of officers would have a far-reaching and grave impact on the city. Mayor Finkbeiner responded ordering the chief to rewrite the memo "without making it sound like the roof is falling in."

"It's clear to the public that the mayor is trying to hide things to make the city look safer than it really is," Wagner said.

In the original memo March 23 Chief Navarre pointed out that response would be slower, gang violence would likely go up and propoerty crimes would not be investigated.

"It's what we knew," Wagner said. "The impact of the 75 officers is more than what's being publicly known. It's obvious from the chief's response he's concerned about police operations and response time."

In a second memo, dated March 24, Chief Navarre refused to follow the mayor's request and instead stood his ground with what he said in the previous memo.

"It was not my intention to make it sounds like 'the roof is falling in'," Chief Navarre wrote in the second memo. "It was my intent to advise you of the consequences of laying off 75 police officers prior to the summer of 2009. I would be remiss if I did not do so."

The mass layoff went into effect May 1 in order to help the city with its multi-million budget deficit. The Finkbeiner administration is dealing with a $15 million deficit.

Chief Navarre went before city council Wednesday and admitted his department has struggled since the layoffs went into effect less than six weeks ago.

Late Thursday afternoon in a media release Bob Reinbolt, the city's chief of staff, responded to the leaked memos.

"The City of Toledo is in serious discussions with TPPA and a fact finder. As they have done since Day 1 of our discussions, the Union chooses to publicize private discussions, private memos and any and all material that they believe will compromise the integrity of the discussions," Reinbolt said.

"If the TPPA had showed the leadership Local 7 did, 75 lay-offs would not have occurred. And, if the mayor had not acted, the number of police lay-offs would have been 150 - not 75."

"Thanks to the re-assignment skills of Chief Navarre and his staff, response time has not increased and FBI stats reflect a 7.9% reduction in crime for the first four months of the year. Toledo’s number of homicides for the year to date is significantly less than Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland."

"Toledo remains one of the nation’s safest cities of 300,000 citizens."

(FOX Toledo's Michelle Zepeda contributed to this report)