Council President Joe McNamara announces the agreement between city government and a group of convenience store owners. To his left are CDC leaders Terry Glazer and Jimmy Gaines.

Code of ethics tied to repeal of carry-out law
By: Journal Staff
The Toledo Journal
Originally posted 7/21/2009 

”Peer pressure” will be an important tool in persuading owners of hundreds of convenience stores in Toledo to adopt higher standards, officials say.
City councilmen, leaders of community development corporations and store owners last week announced an agreement for repeal of a store licensing law in exchange for members of the Midwest Retailers Association (MRA) adopting a code of ethical business practices.
The agreement also calls for the MRA to drop a lawsuit it filed soon after council passed the licensing law in December 2007.
”This proposed settlement is very good for Toledo,” council President Joe McNamara said. ”It is pro-business, pro-neighborhood, it will end the litigation and it will form a new partnership … As an attorney myself, I always tell my clients [that] it’s much better to work it out between the parties than roll the dice with litigation.”
Nabil Shaheen, president of the MRA, pledged that its members would abide by the code of ethics.
”This is the best thing that could ever happen for our members, for our community,” Mr. Shaheen said. ”We took the right approach to make it better for everybody. And we hope to have a good working relationship with everybody – work together for a better Toledo.”
The MRA has about 120 members who operate about 200 convenience stores, said the group’s attorney, Scott Ciolek. That represents about one-third to two-thirds of all carryouts in the city, ”depending on how you define convenience stores,” he said.
”This is setting a standard and there’s peer pressure that can be put on those other stores,” Mr. McNamara. ”I think this new partnership sets the standard on how to run an ethical business in Toledo.”
Terry Glazer, executive director of the United North CDC, also used ”peer pressure” to describe what will be needed from MRA members.
”Peer pressure works,” he said.
The announcement was made in front of the Stop-and-Go at 3841 Airport Highway in southwest Toledo. It’s owned by Dan Ridi. ”The problems are concentrated in certain neighborhoods, inner-city neighborhoods such as the North End,” he said.
Council passed the licensing law in response to complaints about some stores that were poorly maintained, noisy and magnets for criminal activity. In response, store owners formed the MRA and filed a challenge in federal court questioning the law’s constitutionality.
In exchange for elimination of the licensing law, which never took effect while the lawsuit was pending, MRA members agree to:
o Ban the sale of items commonly used as drug paraphernalia.
o Establish a zero-tolerance loitering policy.
o Keep stores clean and well-maintained.
o Not generate any undue noise.
o Sell healthful items like milk, fruit and vegetables.
o Encourage store representatives to attend Block Watch meetings.
o Develop a plan for a coordinated security patrol of member stores consisting of off-duty and laid-off police officers.
o Meet quarterly with representatives of the CDC Alliance to review the relationship between the stores and their neighborhoods.
o Waive any additional attorney fee or damage awards connected to the lawsuit.
Others at the agreement announcement were CDC leaders Jimmy Gaines and Kim Cutcher, and Councilmen George Sarantou and Steve Steel, Ph.D. They, too, praised the cooperation between government, businesses and neighborhoods.
”Let’s move forward and make Toledo a little bit stronger,” Mr. Sarantou said.