Goings On At City Hall

Here are a few short but sweet stories about recent City Hall matters:

WINDSOR LIBRARY BOARD

I wonder why the Mayor made a very long presentation at the Windsor Library Board meeting the other day.

I hear that he and Michael Duben, General Manager of Client Services, spoke for far longer than the 5 minutes that the Board normally allows presenters. Perhaps the Mayor might understand that and give some leeway when a delegation exceeds their time under the Procedure By-law.

I hope someone tells us what was discussed. Perhaps it had something to do with the Board of Education.

And speaking of the Library, is the audit report out yet? How much money did we actually spend on that and what are the results?

THE SUMMIT: IT'S ON AGAIN

You remember, the conference that the Mayor set up for Mayors across North America, U.S. – Canada Mayors Summit, that he had to postpone because of a variety of excuses such as not having the sense to understand it was a US holiday when it was scheduled. 230 Canadian and American mayors were to have met to discuss the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

It's been rescheduled now for July 20 I have been told. I am not sure if anyone has agreed to come yet.

And if you want to read a hilarious press release explaining why it was "postponed" go to http://www.citywindsor.ca/000810.asp?id=2054

Honestly, it makes failure look like genius!

PROBLEMS AT THE HURON CHURCH OVERPASS

One of the great achievements of this Mayor and Council on the border file was the construction of the overpass on Huron Church Road for schoolkids that supposedly few use. [sarcasm intended]

The pedestrian bridge cost taxpayers $4.28 million (although I understand that the Bridge Co. offered to build an overpass for the City several years ago at no cost to the City). I thought the contractor received several hundred thousand dollars extra too to have it built by the end of September last year.

I understand that the City was to pay the anuual maintenance costs. Budgets must be tight since Councillor Halberstadt said at Council on Monday that there was garbage around the overpass and it was not well maintained. He also asked if there were some other problesm with it because he saw some peeling.

Who wanted a "Champs Elysees" anyway on Huron Church!

BUDGET PROCESS

Did you see the story in the Star about the budget meeting. Perhaps we should all attend.

• "City council schedules public meeting on budget
  
  City council will hold a public meeting Tuesday to discuss how the 2007 budget process will unfold.
  
  The meeting is open to the public and will be held in council chambers at 5 p.m.
  
  City treasurer Onorio Colucci said the discussion will centre on process rather than numbers."
  
  

We should be concerned since Councillor Lewenza has said about next year's budget "there's very little wiggle room in the [2006] budget and taxpayers should not expect to see the frugality of the last two budgets repeated next year. "This is probably the last go- around," he said, adding that there will be either higher tax hikes next year or a reduction in services."

Don't worry, we aren't having a People-based Budget process next year again. We had it once and it won "silver medal at Ottawa's GTEC exhibition of public sector information technology innovation." As Councillor Lewnza said "Looking back on the people based budget, I witnessed minimal value in allowing the exercise aside from allowing citizens to express themselves and for allotting city councillors the privilege to mingle with their constituents."

And don't worry, we still do not have Eddie's crown jewel of the last mayoral campaign, Citistat, around to tell us how Departments are doing so that we can save millions. We still have to wait for reports to tell us what Departments are having problems.

We do need a process that:

• explains how multi-year bank loans are called "bridge financing"
• requires the Mayor when he talks about "projected" debt to include the $42 million debenture for the Lou Romano plant
• requires the Mayor when he talks about "projected" debt to discuss the placeholder of $22 million for debentures for Windsor Utilities Commission
• sets out that our "projected" debt in 2007 will be $56 million more than the amount the Mayor quoted as our amount today and in 2010 $30 million more
• requires when discussing debt to include the Employee Future Benefit Liability that in year end 2004 was over $200 million

TUITION SAVINGS

I wonder why Gord Henderson had to write almost a whole column on the Cleary deal respecting the tuition savings. A "corrections" article in its usual spot is what the Star does if a mistake is made in an article.

Oh I know why, there was a suggestion that Eddie may have made a "bad deal." Whew, cannot have that can we? Plus there was the need to show the City got a good deal for taxpayers.

Now that this little irritant is out of the way, as I suggested in my BLOG the other day [BLOG June 16, 2006 The Marketing Of The Cleary Deal], we can all praise the genius of the deal.

I wonder what questions the St. Clair Board will ask about the deal of their President before they approve it.