More Undevelopment News

So much going on. So much news. So little focus on Economic Development. Someone must think that our economy is so good such that we can be involved in such distractions.

These lyrics from the Music Man musical seem very appropriate:

• "Well, either you're closing your eyes
  To a situation you do now wish to acknowledge
  Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated...
  Ya got trouble, my friend, right here,
  I say, trouble right here in River City."

Will we be seeing a new Chair soon for the WEDC?

Remo Mancini is one very shrewd person. I do NOT mean it in any negative connotation whatsoever. It is a compliment and I do not give out compliments easily.

There is no doubt at all however, and he knows it better than I do, that he has overstayed his welcome at the Undevelopment Commission. The focus has turned to him and not business development. That will also hurt the Region as long as he is involved as the political fighting between City and County is starting. It will also hurt his career if he wants to be a Director on the Boards of various companies.

On one level, I really have trouble understanding Grace Macaluso’s Column today. Read the introductory paragraphs to her column:

• “For the record, Remo Mancini, himself, disclosed his $1,200-a-day remuneration as acting chief executive officer of the Windsor Essex Development Commission.
  
  I didn't have to pry the information out of him when I interviewed him last week about the commission's failed, 10-month search for a permanent CEO. I asked the question, he answered.
  
  What Mancini, who also serves as commission chairman, may not have anticipated was the fallout from his disclosure. Some local politicians complain that his role on the search committee constitutes a potential conflict of interest.
  
  These days, in the wake of multibillion-dollar government bailouts, CEO compensation has become a touchy subject on both sides of the border. In this economically stressed town, nerves are raw. Any suggestion of wrongdoing -- real or imagined -- can touch off a firestorm. And, that is exactly what the commission's 11 directors are facing.”

Then read her conclusion:

• “If Santos and Francis hope to head off a full-frontal attack on the commission, they, as board members, should insist on Mancini's removal from the hiring committee. The optics are terrible, and will continue to serve as a distraction.“

YAWN!

Surely, she cannot be serious. There has to be more to what she is saying than this. Is she trying to do the Henderson double entendre too. Let me explain.

Mr. Mancini is not that dumb not to understand what is going on in the business world with respect to CEO salaries. One of his claims to fame is that he is a graduate of a Corporate Governance program. He ought to know everything that there is to know about being a Director.

To be blunt about it, if Grace is correct and Mancini “may not have anticipated was the fallout from his disclosure” than he ought not to be in the position of Chair at all. He cannot be that insensitive and remain in that position. After the Big Three private jet fiasco, no one in his position would not understand the consequences of the revelation of his consulting fee.

The penalty that Grace suggested is so miniscule for lack of judgment that it is almost laughable.

The Undevelopment Commission is a mess. For whatever reason, and there’s no point in getting into it now. Someone else can do the autopsy on it later.

What I see is a very shrewd move by Mr. Mancini to get out of the Commission without being blamed for its failures. What I see is Mancini reestablishing his credibility in Grace’s column which allows him to say that he had nothing to hide. He revealed everything. He got not to be condemned for being honest.

The next step obviously is for him to take the usual way out and say that he does not want to be the focus of all of this negative attention in this time of economic distress for the Region because it could hurt the Commission. While he could remove himself as a member of the search committee, in his opinion, he can say, that this would not end the controversy. Accordingly for the good of the Commission and for the Region, he will submit his resignation as Chair and Member of the Board.

Let us see how this plays out.

The only hope that Eddie Francis has now is that Nelson Santos decides not to be a Member of the Board. I just hope that the Warden takes the hint. The last thing that both of them need at this time is to be involved in this mess and to try and salvage it.

Bite the bullet. Wind it up. And start all over again.

One more comment that is even more troubling than the CEO search. It really does impact jobs and what this Commission is or is not doing.

What is Joe Mikhail talking about. He cannot remain silent now. He has to tell us everything:

• "Mikhail said his dissatisfaction was fanned in recent months when he was attempting to lure Rogers Communications to Windsor and potentially thousands of new jobs.
  
  While he was aggressively chasing Rogers in competition with London, the commission was basically telling him to take it easy, Mikhail said. "That's not the way you do business," Mikhail said. "It's cutthroat."
  
  Mikhail said it pained him to speak out and it may hurt his own business, but he could no longer be silent about what he saw as an ineffective organization today."

I do not understand this at all. I thought that the Rogers business was a major coup if we could get it with many jobs to become available. I agree with Mikhail, why would anyone go easy?

Was Mikhail being told to be quiet because HE personally was not going to get the business but someone else in town was? Was he in in effect being told to be quiet because he was jeopardizing that other project? We saw Joe in action with respect to the TD project in downtown. As far as he is concerned, it is not over until it is over.

Perhaps he was being told that Windsor lost the transaction and that another nearby community was going to get it so that he should be quiet. That would be strange if true given what happened with Sutherland:

• "A source close to the negotiations says Mayor Eddie Francis, with help from Economic Development Minister Sandra Pupatello, pulled off a "Hail Mary" in persuading a big-league information technology firm to locate 1,000 jobs in Windsor instead of Mexico.
  
  "Mexico was a 100 per cent done deal. It was gone. They had a site ready to go near the Texas border."

It is all so troubling. Can it get any worse?