Mayor speaks out about taking time off

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - After getting criticism for cutting back his office hours for the next month, Dayton's Mayor Gary Leitzell spoke out on 2 News about his reasons for taking the time off.

Mayor Lietzell told 2 News he needed to take care of personal projects at home.

Leitzell showed 2 News some of the projects he was working on. All of them involving renovations to his home, that was more than a century old.

"I'm not really taking the month off, I have a roof to replace," said Leitzell, explaining that he had already collected two buckets full of water from his leaking roof.

Just like most Dayton residents, the mayor explained that he lived on a budget, and said repairing the roof of a home built in the 1840's was neither easy, nor cheap.

"I don't mind telling people, I had five local companies quote the job. 4 of them refused to do it. It was beyond them. It's very specialized work. There's a lot of carpentry involved, and some soldering. The fifth company quoted me $43,000 for the job. I figured it was worth 3 weeks of my time to save $33,000 and do it on my own," said Leitzell.

The mayor stressed, it would not be at the cost of his duties. Leitzell said he still planned to attend every city commission, school board, neighborhood association, and Downtown Partnership meeting.

"Just so people know, I've only missed one commission meeting so far this year. when I was in Washington DC to meet the president." said Leitzell.

While slating his leaky roof. Mayor Leitzell said he still planned to be in touch. He had access to his work desktop computer at home, and wireless phones he planned to take up on the roof, so legislative aides could get in touch with him whenever they needed to.

Leitzell asked residents to understand that in addition to being a politician, he was also a father and a homeowner.

"Some people just probably want to have any reason they can to slam the new mayor. Basically I'm hard working and this is proof," said Leitzell.

Leitzell did have plans to leave on a 6-day family vacation that had already been planned. He said that was the only time he would be gone from the city, and it would be the second time he would miss a city commission meeting since he took office.