Wade Kapszukiewicz

Kapszukiewicz has Polish origin. He was born in San Diego, California, where his father was stationed in the U.S. Navy. After his father's service ended, the family moved back to Toledo. Kapszukiewicz earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and political science from Marquette University in 1994 and was named the valedictorian of the College of Communication, Journalism, and Performing Arts. He received a master's degree in public policy from the University of Michigan in 1996.^[2]

Kapszukiewicz was the Lucas County treasurer from 2005 until 2018. While treasurer, he worked to change state law in 2010 to allow for the creation of county land bank. He founded the Lucas County Land Bank and was its chairman from 2010 to 2019. He spent one term on the Lucas County Board of Education and was later a Toledo city councilman for nearly seven years. He was first elected to City Council in 1999 and then re-elected in 2001 and 2003. Aged 26, he was the youngest member of the legislative body in 25 years.^[2]

In his first term as mayor, Kapszukiewicz achieved all of his administration’s top goals. He successfully:

• created a regional water system, ensuring long-term affordable water rates while sharing decision-making authority with suburban partners,
• increased the size of the police force,
• restored discipline to the city’s budget, turning a $3 million dollar deficit into a more than $40 million surplus, even in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic,
• improved educational opportunities for Toledo’s youngest residents through the Hope Toledo partnership at no additional cost to taxpayers,
• improved delivery of city services, such as increasing the number of roads repaired annually by nearly 15-fold,
• presided over a period of strong economic growth in Toledo, resulting in Site Selection magazine naming Toledo "first in the nation for economic development among mid-sized cities in 2020",^[4]
• launched a monthly "Wednesdays with Wade" public meetings series and corresponding a Wednesdays with Wade newsletter to encourage greater transparency in city government, reaching more than 60,000 residents weekly.

During his second term, Kapszukiewicz's work has focused on investing resources and implementing the Toledo Recovery Plan.^[5] Among other improvements, the plan has continued to increase the size of safety forces, makes historic investments in youth programming and summer jobs, builds a YMCA in a historically disinvested neighborhood in the central city, creates new affordable housing, demolishes and rehabilitates blighted properties and improves and enhances city parks.

After receiving his master's degree, Kapszukiewicz worked for two years as the policy analysis and research director of the New Ohio Institute, a public policy research organization that studied issues affecting Ohio's urban areas. In April 1998, he accepted the position of manager of planning and development at the Lucas County Mental Health Board, where he worked until he became a member of Toledo City Council. While on the council, he taught a course in American government at Owens Community College and also worked at COMPASS, a social service agency that works with people with drug and alcohol addictions. Kapszukiewicz has been an adjunct professor at Lourdes University where he taught courses in urban policy.

Kapszukiewicz was recognized in 2006 as a "20 Under 40" community leader and, in 2010, ESOP gave him its “Above and Beyond” award. In 2012, he was again honored by ESOP, this time earning its “Rooted in ESOP” award. The Toledo City Paper named him one of its "Big Idea Toledoans" in 2014 for his work creating and leading the Lucas County Land Bank, and again in 2018 for his commitment to pursue an ambitious agenda as mayor. In 2021, the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition awarded Kapszukiewicz its Global Statesman Award for his advocacy. In 2022, he was selected to participate in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative's sixth class of mayors.

An avid baseball fan, Kapszukiewicz has had his research published in the spring 2016 edition of the Society for American Baseball Research's journal.^[6]

Kapszukiewicz is a parishioner at Gesu Roman Catholic Church. He and his wife, Sarah, were married in 2001. They live in the Old Orchard neighborhood of Toledo and have two children, Emma and Will.^[2]

Kapszukiewicz was first elected mayor of Toledo on November 7, 2017, defeating the incumbent mayor, Paula Hicks-Hudson. He received over 55 percent of the vote, winning by an 11 percent margin.

On November 2, 2021, Kapszukiewicz overwhelmingly won a second term by defeating the former mayor, Carty Finkbeiner, winning by a record margin with 68.9 percent of the vote. The previous record was set in 2005 when Finkbeiner himself defeated incumbent Jack Ford with 61.8 percent of the vote.^[7]

Wade Kapszukiewicz at Ballotpedia