[Subjectivist]

The Mayor suffered a cardiac arrest while driving after leaving a news conference about blizzard clean up work by the city. More details at the link.

D. Michael Collins, a former police detective and police union president who went into politics in retirement and was elected mayor in 2013, died today at the University of Toledo Medical Center five days after suffering cardiac arrest while driving a city-owned vehicle. He was 70.

“His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled. The City of Toledo mourns its Mayor as well as expresses deep sympathy for the family and close friends of Mayor Collins,” said a statement issued by the staff of Acting Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson at 2:23 p.m.

Ms. Hicks-Hudson, the former city council president, automatically became mayor under the city charter. She took the oath of office last Sunday, and it was not clear whether a new oath-taking would be required.

Toledo’s fourth mayor under the “strong mayor” form of government that went into effect in 1993, Mr. Collins had just entered his second year on the job. During his first year, he faced unusually harsh snow emergencies, the deaths of two firefighters in an alleged arson, and a 56-hour period in which citizens were advised not to drink the city’s water because of an algae-related toxin.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

http://www.toledoblade.com/Politics/201 ... 5TzDjfy.99

[Subjectivist]

Hey Sub, got peak-boredom? Come on, there must be a peak-oil spin somewhere in the story? I can't find it. Lost in a snow-drift perhaps?

He had a massive coronary and piled into a light pole. His city owned SUV was running when two passers by stopped to check on it. He was unresponsive and the 911 operator had them break in the rear driver side window to unlock the door and instructed them on CPR. He never regained consciousness and was kept alive by a respirator until this afternoon. Peak oil wise, without cheap energy he would have been declared dead within hours. The real question is which of his plans will now be cancelled by the new mayor. Toledo has a somewhat notorious problem that every time they get a new mayor all the city planning gets scrapped and new plans replace them wasting huge sums of money. Many projects have been studied repeatedly but each time a new mayor comes along they do a new study instead of just building whatever it is based on two, three, or even more existing studies.

[Subjectivist]

I am not happy the man died, but I do not live in Toledo for what I consider valid reasons despite the fact that I was born there and spent many hours there while I was in college. He has a reputation for being a devout Catholic and a decent family man and friend to many. He was only Mayor for 13 months so his plans to improve the situation in Toledo have barely begun to be put in place.