TOLEDO, Ohio — A Toledo City Council committee is considering plans to re-key every door at One Government Center due to security concerns about rooms holding taxpayer documents.
Emails provided to WTOL 11 show the first incident with keys happened back in June when the now-fired city auditor Jake Jaksetic discovered he could open a door protecting private tax documents for Toledo residents with his key.
City finance director Melanie Campbell claimed the door was then re-keyed a day later, but council member Katie Moline said she was still able to open the door again a month later with a key council possessed. Emails show the tax storage room was "re-keyed" on July 15.
Now a proposal is before council, as requested by the mayor's office, that would require all 200 doors receive brand-new electronic locks. It would cost taxpayers more than $50,000.
Safety Director Brian Byrd would be the only person to carry a master key
and he would be given a tracking system to monitor where all of the building keys are at all times, per the proposal.
But council still has yet to approve the plan.
WTOL 11 was present at Tuesday's council meeting and did not hear anything related to upgrading the building's security.
However, council member George Sarantou said the proposal will be voted on at council's Dec. 20 meeting.
He said ironing out details is the reason it has taken so long for the next step.
"First of all, the proposal came from the administration, and they have been looking at different ways ... should we re-key, should we have electronic cards, and so forth," Sarantou said. "And we do have electronic cards on many floors for many departments. You can't get into that department without a card, electronically. Unfortunately, it takes time. But I'm told once they do it, this can be done within a week or two."
Sarantou said he's spoken to multiple other council members and is confident the measure will pass. He said once it does, both One Government Center employees and citizens of Toledo can sleep better at night knowing private information is secure.