Reading Tea Leaves

My reading of the tea leaves may be right after all.

I told you about it on September 6 when I wrote about "The Plan! The Plan!" I told you there that "The rallying call for the Fast Track Schwartz solution was part of the Plan but mostly a diversion to keep the focus from Eddie’s real objective." I warned you about the infamous Agenda Item #5 in that Blog and about its importance but in much greater detail earlier on September 1 and 2. Councillor Valentinis may have let the cat out of the bag on the Face-To-Face cable interview show, as I told you on October 4, when he talked about Schwartz being the starting point.

On paper, The Plan! The Plan! was brilliant and simple, except for the fact that it could not work in real life. The idea was to lease Windsor’s interest in the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel (and try to convince Detroit to do the same) for a large sum of money and then use the blank cheque given under Agenda Item #5 to start the Schwartz billion-dollar solution so as to force the Senior Levels to go along with it.

Of course, you and I, dear reader, would have had no further role to play in this since we would have given away complete authority to the Mayor and Council. And we know how "open and transparent" they are! Fortunately for us, the Mayor and Council caved in when 16 delegations lined up virtually overnight to speak against Agenda Item #5. Council deferred the matter rather than have it tossed out because of citizen opposition.

Live to fight another day and to do it in another way must have been their motto when they discussed deferring in camera before the public Council session.

OK, OK…why am I more certain about what I said now? Here is a copy of an email that was sent to me about a survey being carried out in Windsor by a Lansing, Michigan firm, EPIC MRA:

"I'll try and bash out what I remember here:

• How often do you vote in municipal elections?




• What is your opinion of PM Martin?




• What is your Opinion of the government of the United States?




• What is your opinion of Mayor Francis effectiveness?




• What is your Opinion of council effectiveness?




• What is your opinion on the effectiveness of council to address windsor's needs




• what issue is most important: 1) jobs 2) crime/drugs 3) city services 4) border/trade




• What is your opinion of the City of Windsor?




• What is your opinion of the liberal party? PC's? NDP?




• How often do you use the tunnel? the bridge?




• Are you aware of, do you have an opinion of CTC? Ambassador Bridge? Detroit Windsor Tunnel Corp?




• Many questions about satisfaction with bridge & tunnel operations, tolls etc.




• They gave a preamble to the deeper set of tunnel questions that identified the different management/ownership structures on either side of the border. They explained that the tunnel commission is chaired by the mayor, has 3 councillors and three mayor-appointed local business reps.
  
  They asked for an opinion on how effective the tunnel commission is performing. They identified the Detroit agreement running until 2020 (I think this is the year they gave) and the windsor agreement coming upin 2007.




• They presented 4 options
  
  -renew the current agreement
  
  -City Windsor take over canadian side of operations-I think he said staff it with city employess
  
  -parties other than the City of windsor taking over canadian side (this is fuzzy, I wrote down 3-not City of Windsor on my jottings as he was speaking.)
  
  -The city purchase entire tunnel operation and run it as a city service staffed by city employees.




• Would it make it more or less likely for me to vote for Eddie if Windsor took over the tunnel.




• Would it make it more or less likely for me to vote for a councillor who supported Windsor taking over the tunnel.




• The reiterated the options and asked: which would you be most likely to support?




• Are you in a labour union or teachers federation?
  
  

I know it has been a long read to here but what other conclusion would you draw? The Plan! The Plan! is coming. All of these tunnel-oriented, taking over, purchasing questions and information on the attitudes of people about the border operators. General quesions, more specific questions and then very detailed questions.

I wonder who is paying for this poll? Could it be the Mayor’s Office, the City, a private party like a pension fund like OMERS or the OTPP (note the question about are you a member of a labour union or a teacher since both Pension funds invest in infrastructure) or someone else?

If I am right, then clearly there is an attempt being made to salvage the disaster that this City is in due to the failed strategy on the border of our Municipal Government. And to figure out how to get the representatives re-elected. That is the most offensive part of the survey poll.

They do need a lot of help since nothing has been achieved by the so-called action-oriented Council on the border issue. Our elected officials rallied for the short term and wanted to spend a billion dollars when the Bridge company solved the problem at their own expense for a few million.

As for building relationships, our Mayor and Council isolated Windsor from the Senior Levels by snubbing them, were caught flat-footed by Governor Granholm’s announcement, were outmanoeuvered by the Border Czar appointment and the former US Ambassador must be wondering why no one has asked them for their up to 50% contribution on the border! Cansult just put the icing on the cake.

If I am indeed correct, then this Mayor and Council must be stopped and stopped now. Look at the experience of our City Government in recent memory on major deals: Canderel, MFP, the arena, the Mady garage, $15,000 study of what went right or wrong on the new Income and Security Building, lack of proper financial controls. They just do not seem to have the skills and expertise needed to do these major deals. If they are to do them, then they must be willing to pay for the professional help required since otherwise City taxpayers are left holding the bag.

We cannot afford any more of this entrepreneurial arrogance at taxpayer expense.

If this poll was undertaken by anyone in our municipal government and to be paid for out of taxpayer money, then we are wasting dollars for that since it is designed for the political objective to re-elect this Council. We should demand taxpayer re-imbursement.