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Who shall the people of Lucas
County elect on November 6 to join Pete Gerken and Tina
Skeldon-Wozniak on the Lucas County Board of Commissioners,
the legislative trio empowered to administer the county’s
$625 million operating budget? And will the people’s choice
fine tune the 8th floor of One Government Center,
adjusting its political influence and decision-making or
will the soon to be refigured ensemble remain business as
usual playing “oldies all the time?”
I spoke with music lover Gary
Byers about his quest to add his voice to the Lucas County
Board of Commissioners, a position made available by
commissioner Carol Contrada’s decision not to seek
reelection. This is the conclusion of our two-part
conversation.
Perryman:
Earlier you talked about your plans to reduce the racial
disparities in our criminal justice system, continuing the
county’s partnership with the MacArthur Foundation. What
other issues are you looking at that affect the black
community in particular?
Byers:
And the other issue I guess that I wanted to talk about is
that we need to work together as a region and whether it is
developing a water policy that we can all agree on or
whether it is doing a regional approach to jobs and making
sure that we train the people in our community so that they
can do the jobs that we have. Lucas County is really booming
with all kinds of building projects and we just need to
train our own residents to do these jobs so that they can
stay in the community and be active and have good lives.
And we need to do that on a regional basis.
The decision for these
companies looking to come to Lucas County is not whether
they’re going to go to Toledo or Sylvania, but it’s whether
they’re going to go to Lucas County or Los Angeles. You’re
competing against the world and in order to be effective on
that stage we have to work as a region. And I really do
believe that together we can do it better.
Perryman:
How can we improve the relationship between law enforcement
and the African-American community?
Byers:
That’s tough. We all see the things that are on TV and the
things that have happened, sometimes locally. If I was an
African-American male and I’m stopped, you worry. I think
we have good police officers in Lucas County and I saw them
as a judge, but we just have to make sure that people are
communicating and I think interaction in the community is
key. Our communities are great as far as the people. If
you get to know the people in the community, whether they’re
police officers or whether they’re people living in the
central city or North Toledo or South Toledo or West Toledo,
you have to open the lines of communication.
Gun violence worries me.
We need to reduce the number of guns in our community. A lot
of things go together in making this work. Again, I think
having jobs for the entire community is important. I think
education is important. I think communication between
police and the different communities that we have is
important.
As a general rule, Toledo
is a kinder place to be then some other communities and
we’ve just got to make sure that that continues. That’s my
take on that. There’s no silver bullet, so to speak.
You’ve just got to work at it, and one way to work at it is
making sure there’s good communication.
Perryman:
So you’ve been working primarily in Maumee. If elected, what
barriers do you face or what strengths do you bring with you
coming to Toledo, which has a higher percentage of African
Americans?
Byers:
As with all of the courts in the county, a lot of times you
see people that would have a case in Maumee and Toledo or
Oregon, and so the community that ends up in court is
basically the same as other parts of town. I think having
worked one on one with people, I always did a thing where I
tried to, before I accepted a plea if it carried a
possibility of jail, I would talk to the defendant myself
and make sure that they would understand what they were
giving up and what the deal was, what the potential was and
whether somebody had promised them anything. I think again,
that it’s about communication and hopefully whether you’re
talking to other commissioners or you’re talking to the
sheriff’s department or you’re talking to the police,
hopefully that communication is something that I can bring
to the table because that’s key to making sure people know
what’s going on, and hopefully that’s a benefit.
Perryman:
What unique strategies or experiences do you bring, that
might differentiate you from your others vying for this
political office?
Byers:
Well, the big thing is I’m the only one in the race that has
actually sat in a court with heroin addicts and tried to
keep them alive, one on one. Also, 70 percent of the county
budget deals with criminal justice related decisions and I’m
the only one with real experience when it comes to justice
reform and the jail. The county commissioners are going to
build a new jail and whether it’s going to be north or
downtown or wherever, it’s not going to be on the exact same
site, because it’s just not enough room there, but you do
have to transport prisoners.
My idea is that instead of
trying to work out an expensive way to transport people that
are in custody, let’s rotate judges and build a courtroom
actually in the facility and you can do those initial
appearances and set bond and resolve as many of the
misdemeanor cases as you can right there at the new facility
by having a courtroom there and having the judges and
lawyers and prosecutors rotate through there so that you can
work out as many cases so you have fewer people to transport
and you can save funds for the community and it expedites
proceedings for the people that are involved.
Perryman:
So what do you say to the opponents of the jail levy?
Byers:
Often, those that are going into that facility, these are
people that made a bad decision on a night that they’ve been
out partying or whatever and then all of a sudden they end
up in custody. It’s primarily a misdemeanor facility and so
you need to have it in such a situation that it can actually
work.
People with mental health
problems, being able to have a facility that can accommodate
them in an appropriate way, having somebody with mental
health problems and just keeping them in custody because
there is nowhere else to put them is not good for our
community, it’s not good for the defendant, it’s not good
for anyone. So we need a new jail, and hopefully my
experience will ensure that any decisions that are being
made are the most informed decisions that we can make and
make the best decisions on behalf of the community.
Perryman:
You mentioned 70 percent of the county’s budget has to do
with criminal justice and 70 percent or above of the people
incarcerated in the jail are there because of some type of
mental health or substance use issue.
Gary:
Yes. If we can divert those folks out of the criminal
justice system and get them the mental health treatment that
they need, that’s a big deal.
Perryman:
Will you be advocating then, for additional programs and
services that will address diversion?
Byers:
Oh absolutely. I did as a judge and I would continue as a
commissioner to say listen, this is money well spent because
it saves in other places if you’re getting folks the
treatment that they need, whether its drug and alcohol
addiction or whether its mental health. If you can divert
those folks from the criminal justice system, it not only is
good for the community, but it saves money for the community
and I’ll be a big advocate of that.
Perryman:
Thank You!
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org
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