Council First Impressions

There is no sense in trying to make sense out of last night's Council meeting. I cannot do it. You read about some of the things that were done in the Star but let me give you my first impressions:

1) R-E-S-P-E-C-T

That is one thing that this Mayor has little of for some of his Council colleagues at least it seems.

RESPECT---Imagine hearing Councillor Halberstadt say that he knew nothing about the Interim Control by-law, not a word, until he read his Council package on the day before Council. How many others had the same thing happen but did not have the guts to say it so boldly last night. My respect went up for Alan considerably! [I bet that this line shows up in his federal election campaign brochure as an indication of his strength. Today at least, he has my permission to use it]

RESPECT---It was just like what Alan had to do to get letters from the Mayor over the border issue. Stand up at Council and demand them. The Star saw them but not a City Councillor. I wonder if he has read them yet. If he has them, Alan should post them because I bet they will make good reading!

RESPECT---I wonder how many Councillors knew about the Estrin lawsuit or did the Star know about it first again, for months?

Back to the by-law. It's a step that could stop a billion-dollar project, that freezes hundreds of homes in Sandwich, that can give a message to investors to stay out of Windsor and Council does not know about it.

The Mayor acts on his own it seems. Well, not completely. Councillor Jones seemed to have a hint something was coming by his quote in the Star a few days before.

I guess that Alan is on the "outs" these days for daring to question the Mayor. Quack, Quack to you if you dare defy his Worship!

2) Good thing Bill Marra's tunnel motion was withdrawn last night. It gave Gord Henderson another chance to attack Councillors who would dare not support a tunnel. Hey, kids are involved you know.

Bill by now knows he has been played. He should withdraw the Motion. That would be fun too for him and a way to hit back with a smile on his face as he says that there is a need to do more research. I'd love to see how Eddie would scramble then

3) Poor Les Chaif. He must have thought that someone wanted to hear what he had to say about Benson School. Now he knows how the Superior Park people felt. At least he was not called a racist!

4) I really don't know what to make of the Brentwood matter. We can save buildings with hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer aid but we cannot save souls. I wonder which is more important to the community.

I am glad to see that Councillor Gignac opened up her cheque-book publicly so that everyone will know how generous she is. I expect that, if she wins the Brentwood Lottery since she bought lottery tickets too, she will donate the prize to Brentwood too. Sniff, sniff {wiping away tear}.

5) If you want to stop Eddie cold in his tracks when he tries to bully you at Council, as he tried unsuccessfully with Dan Stamper, just tell him that he is wrong and that you have his words from the Windsor Star to prove it.

It was hilarious to watch Eddie trying to be the Teflon Mayor and divert crticism of his actions and see Stamper have none of it. You had to be there to see it in person.

I hope the people from the Capitol stayed around and saw it as the real drama of the evening!

I bet that Eddie stayed up more than his usual 18 hours trying to find the words Stamper was talking about.

6) Congratulations to lawyer Leon Paroian. He has suffered several tragedies in his life over the past few years and it was nice to learn that he is remarrying last night. "Once every 50 years" as he said.

However, his new wife is a lucky lady too. As Councillor Halberstadt pointed out, he will become wealthy as he fights on behalf of the Bridge Co. against the City's Interim Control by-law. She will not have to worry financially about anything! Unfortunately, taxpayers will not be as lucky if the Bridge Co. wins since not only will we have to pay for Mr. Paroian as the losing side must do but our lawyer as well, whoever that is. I wonder how the Mayor, Council and Mr. Estrin will deal with this now.

7) Councillor Valentinis really annoyed me last night. I could not believe the story he gave about the need to introduce and approve the Interim Control and Demolition by-laws in such a stealth manner and to reject a request to defer.

Notwithstanding the undertaking by the Bridge Co. not to take action on new demolitions, they were not the only enemy it seemed. Someone else, who no one knows, might come in and knock down buildings, which no one can identify, for this huge project that is unknown.

Let me give you an example of ONE interim control by-law: the one used to stall downtown development while the Casino moved forward on its plans.

• April 26, 2001 “Jeff Watson, a senior planner with the city, said he's been asked to examine whether an "interim control bylaw" would allow the city to temporarily stop new bars from opening while permanent solutions are found.”
  
• April 7, 2003 “City of Windsor officials will be watching as Guelph prepares an interim bylaw to halt new bars while working on solutions to their city centre problems.
  
  Citing problems with policing its growing downtown bar scene, Guelph is considering an interim control bylaw which would place a moratorium of up to 12 months on new bars while it seeks other ways to deal with the issue.”
  
  
• October 7, 2003 “City council's decision Monday to delay a one-year moratorium on downtown bars outraged one councillor who said the issue has "been studied to death" while injuries pile up.
  
  "The suggestion that we have not provided due process is bunk," said Councillor Alan Halberstadt.
  
  "This has been going on for three or four years, it has been dealt with by a consultant who held public meetings, by the resource team and by the revitalization task force. It has been studied to death.
  
  "It's merely a tactic to put pressure on council to back off," said Halberstadt. "Closed-head injuries downtown are piling up and we need to deal with this now."
  
  The delay was requested by Michael Duben, chairman of the City Centre Business Association and was approved by a 6-4 vote following a 20-minute debate. The issue will come before council Oct. 20.
  
  The remaining 13 recommendations in the long-awaited report from the City Centre Security Enhancement Resources Team (CCSERT) were approved by council.
  
  "Many of our members were not aware this was going to be discussed tonight and believe that it should be looked at more closely before we jump to conclusions," said Duben. "We believe it should be delayed so that a full public process can be undertaken. But we have no issue with the remaining recommendations which we believe should be implemented as soon as possible."
  
• November 5, 2003 It became an election issue too “Eddie Francis and Bill Marra agree on 13 of 14 recommendations made by Peter Bellmio, who conducted a study and survey of Windsor's downtown last fall.
  
  But as far as the other recommendation is concerned, Francis favours an interim control bylaw which places a 12-month moratorium on new entertainment lounge licences in the downtown while Marra opposes such a bylaw.
  
  Francis believes it will give the city a 12-month grace period to conduct a planning study but Marra believes it will create an unnecessary drag on downtown development."

That interim control by-law was years in the making, fully publicized, postponed because people affected were not aware of it and a major election issue but there was a need to pass this one so quickly. No stealth concerns there but one directed against the Bridge Co. here.

What did Mr. Paroian say about "Bad Faith" again last night!

8) Quick call a Doctor. The Mayor's amnesia attack is getting serious. Now his famed photographic memory is failing along with a bad case of amnesia.

Here is the complete Windsor Star story about $400,000 to be spent for a Peace Beacon not $3.2M

• "Dieppe pavilion to cost $400,000; [Final Edition]
  Dave Hall. The Windsor Star. Windsor, Ont.: Oct 7, 2004. pg. A.2
  
  Demolishing the aging concession stand in Dieppe Gardens and replacing it with a pavilion built into the banking along Riverside Drive is expected to cost $400,000.
  
  A suggestion by Councillor Alan Halberstadt that the historical facade of the former Toronto Dominion Bank at the corner of Riverside Drive and Ouellette Avenue be used in the design of the peace beacon in [Dieppe] has been rejected by administration."

It is nice to know that Alan still reads my BLOG although now it appears that the Mayor does not. I guess he cannot stand to see his words thrown back into his face. I guess he does not like it when something sticks.

There's more, but I have had enough as I am sure you can tell.