A state regulatory panel Thursday found that Republican businessman Jim Moody violated Ohio elections law by failing to report money spent to criticize Toledo City Councilman D. Michael Collins in the midst of his successful re-election bid last year.

As Toledo endures a plague of gun violence, a proposal to move up the start of the next police academy class from December to July could help put more police officers on city streets sooner...Mr. Collins, a former president of the police officers' union, warns: "We're going to lose our city if we don't have a safe city. Nobody will want to invest in a city that isn't safe."

Now, two years after the mayoral race, allegations have surfaced that Mr. Moody and a former GOP operative tried to sabotage Councilman Collins' campaign for re-election to council last fall. Mr. Moody has been accused in a complaint to the Ohio Elections Commission of financing anti-Collins postcards and robo-calls without the proper, lawful disclaimers describing who paid for the cards and calls.

The complaint came from Dave Schulz, who in 2006 vied for an at-large city council seat and is the leader of a political group called Citizens Organized to Bring Reform and Accountability, or COBRA.

Councilman D. Michael Collins, meanwhile, said he agrees with the former mayor's assessment."I reviewed the letter that came from former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner and I find everything he says in that letter to be absolutely accurate," the councilman said. "I do not feel that he embellished and I have said all along that the $48 million deficit was a myth."