What makes Tom Waniewski (A/S ’78) run? Because run he does. Take the morning of this interview. The recently elected member of Toledo City Council was already meeting with a constituent over coffee. As other patrons from his district recognized him and stopped over, each handshake, greeting and promise of “Let me look into that” seemed more energizing to Waniewski than the caffeine in his paper cup.
“I’ve always been interested in informing people,” he says. “I started in radio, then went into television [including stints as reporter and news producer in Toledo and other markets]. There were times when I thought, ‘I’m getting paid for this?’ because I loved it so much.”
So city council is about informing? He answers with a trademark double affirmative: “Yeah, yeah. As a councilman, I spend maybe 10 percent of my time embroiled in the craziness at One Government Center, and 90 percent of my time meeting with neighborhood organizations, parents, residents, and amassing e-mail databases so I can tell people, ‘OK, the city’s spraying for the gypsy moth, and here’s a list of the sidewalks to be repaired.”
He even does house calls, consulting weekly police reports and visiting district people whose houses were broken into. “I tell them, ‘I can’t solve the crime, but I want to know if the police were attentive, if they arrived on time. And I tell them I support the hiring of more officers.
“I can’t tell you how happy the victims are and how gratifying it is for me,” he says, noting that overall, most of his constituents’ concerns “are for two things: police protection and potholes.”
That’s where partisanship has no place, says Tom, who sits on the Republican side of council: “The public is tired of politics as usual. Potholes aren’t a Republican or Democratic problem —they’re a city problem. The same with security. I’d raise taxes if we could get three more police classes.”
Jabbing the table for emphasis, he says, “I was talking with the fire chief the other day. Wouldn’t it be great, we said, if the rest of the country heard that Toledo doubled its police and fire, with officers in the neighborhoods, visiting people, knowing kids by name.
“That tells more about economic development than anything else.”
Sounds like city council is enough work to keep him busy — but the job you’ll find on Tom’s business card is director of resource development for Boys & Girls Clubs of Toledo.
He’s got the report there as well. He’s never without a binder full of Boys & Girls materials, including photos of the kids who use the central-city facility, part of a national organization. And he knows each child’s story, from hurdles to victories.
“They’re great kids,” he says. “There are kids in the program who have problems, but they get the rules right away: no swearing, no demeaning language, no cell phones or gang colors. If you get through the door, you’re a kid who wants to have fun.”
He came to Boys & Girls Clubs through chairing the United Way campaign. “I got to know the 78 organizations funded by United Way, and afterwards, the executive director of the Boys & Girls Club approached me.” Working “the God-awful vampire shift at Channel 11,” Tom took little persuading.
“I believe good Lord led me that way. And the administrators were great about letting me run for council,” he says.
So yes, he runs fast to stay in place, but says he’s having the time of his life: “It’s not an ego thing, but I like to consider myself the mini-mayor of this district. If I had a little more control and more of a budget, I’d like to do some great things. We’re working on some great things regardless, including partnerships with Dr. Jacobs and UT, whether that’s patrolling Old Orchard or having students create art along Kenwood Blvd.”
Sounds as though he’s positioning himself for a real mayoral run. “I never really planned to enter politics, and running for mayor isn’t in my plans,” he says firmly. He’s consulting his schedule and checking his watch for the next appointment when he stops, then adds, “But I wouldn’t rule it out entirely.”