Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Another Secret Council Border Resolution


Did you have fun at the South Windsor arena a few Saturdays ago? Were you made sufficiently angry or concerned so that Eddie and his Councillors can be your champions? How many Councillors were there in attendance? Six I think. Anyway, Windsorites were being manupulated for the sequel to follow.

Windsorites were not asked to endorse the Schwartz Report which was passed by the Mayor and Council in secret since, within days of its release, it was discredited by many thoughtful observers. It was nothing more than a billion-dollar short-term dream that accomplished little for the region.

It would hardly have been a smart move would it to have it voted down by the public after the City spent so much time and money on it. No, it was better to pretend for 7 months, use it as a rallying cry and then call it a "starting point" when its failure was about to be exposed by a Federal Government consultant.

Another Resolution was passed in secret a few weeks ago I was told. This time I heard that the Mayor and Council want to bring it in front of the public.

Surely, now they have finally learned their lesson you say. Open and transparent Government after all of this time with this Council, you say. You have got to be kidding, I say.

It's election time in a few months and this Mayor and Council need to point to something. They promised us a long-term solution and failed. Now they can be our road design champions. (Damn, I should not have exposed the term, Conditions of Design Acceptance.... Eddie won't dare use it now or he will acknowledge the leak. I can just picture in my mind Eddie in a bulldozer crying out "CODA, CODA, CODA" as he leads a charge of the six Councillors who were at the arena down Talbot Road)

It won't matter what the delegations say. We may not even know the wording of the Resolution until after all of the delegations have spoken so that we have nothing to oppose if opposition is necessary. It may then be sprung upon us as something that just "hit" a Councillor who moves the motion. Councillors can speak on it at that time but not the public. But when it is approved in a vote, then the Mayor and Council can say it was done at a "public" session!

For a bit of fun, we should start up a pool to guess which Councillor will introduce the motion. I have my choice!

I trust you understand that anyone who speaks is being co-opted so understand the game being played.

What is the Resolution going to say? Eddie told us in the Star article that the City's response to DRIC will be "based on the feedback from the meeting." And I would not be surprised if the response just ties in almost exactly with what Council already passed in secret! (If it doesn't the feedback will not see the light of day like the consultant's report that never came out after the summer meeting) So what can we get out of the Star story:
  1. "Anything this side of Prospect Avenue is unacceptable" in the words of Ms Cuderman
  2. To avoid an "environmental impact of a potential border traffic feeder route" on Talbot Road and to avoid a road being "five metres from properties backing onto the road", we need an underground tunnel
  3. So that there is no need to use E C Row during construction of Huron Church and so no businesses or homes will be taken by an 80 metre widening, keep the new road west of Huron Church

Now you do not have to go to the Council meeting since you know what the Resolution will be and for the benefit of the Mayor and Council, no delegations need appear so they can practise what the Governor's hubby preached.

Watch it all happen on TV. But shhhhhhhhhh, don't tell them. I am going to be there and I may have a counter-plan I intend to spring on them.

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