TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo City council voted Tuesday to stop the sale of the old Mott Branch Library on Dorr Street to a health care company.
The vote is an attempt to stop the deal with Compassion Heathcare, the non-profit scheduled to take over the former library. While Compassion would pay $1 for the building, the company had committed $500,000 to reinvest in the property.
Both city council and Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz made the deal to turn the building into a community health clinic, but council members said city leaders changed the deal midway through the process and hid information.
Council members claimed administration officials reneged on deals to include the Juice Radio Station, a Black-owned business, in the deal. Some council members also complained that some interested buyers were falsely told by city officials that the building would be sold at market value and that some participants in the process had a conflict of interest.
The city assumed ownership of the historic library building in 2019 when the Toledo Lucas County Public Library built a new Mott Branch Library across the street. At the time city officials said they would seek a new owner to repurpose the old library building into something that would complement the surrounding community.
The Dorr Street neighborhood has a large African-American population. Multiple council members emphasized the importance of adding more Black-owned businesses to the neighborhood.
Councilwoman Cerssandra McPherson said stopping the sale will give the city a chance to reset a tainted process.
"If we're going to work together honestly, for the citizens of Toledo, we're gonna have some hard conversations, and this is one of them. We have to listen to the people, and when processes are tainted, it is our responsibility to fix it, and we can fix it," McPherson said.
Every single member of council but one, Councilman George Sarantou, voted to stop the sale.
Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz has argued that the sale cannot be stopped, even by a vote of council, because contracts have been signed.
UPDATE: George Sarantou says the reason he voted against this passage today was because a contract was already signed by the mayor and breaking that contract would be unconstitutional.
Sarantou tells WTOL 11 that he vowed to uphold the constitution when he took his oath of office.
Councilman Nick Komives was not present at the meeting and did not vote.
WTOL 11 will continue to follow new developments in the status of the Mott Branch Library.
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