How New Windsor Jobs Were Won

Some quick reactions.

Good to know that Dwight is acting and has forwarded my response for an OMB inquiry on the East end arena to the Minister of Municipal Affairs. (see email below) As for my MPP Sandra, I have had 2 conversations with her office and was advised that she too has forwarded my materials to Toronto. Small steps true, but I have also been advised by another inside source that the Ministry is taking my Report very seriously and is reviewing it in detail!

Speaking of Sandra, did you notice the attempt at making up in Gord's column:

• "Considering the bludgeoning Pupatello has taken recently from critics, including yours truly, it will be one sweet "gotcha" moment for her when the formal announcement is made."

Amongst the gushing of praise for Eddie and his brilliance for getting thousands and thousands and thousands (it's Wednesday so hasn't the number of jobs increased dramatically overnight again?) of new jobs for Joe Mikhail's building was this key line:

"When the deal was not there he kept them at the table and brought in Sandra."

Eddie, it seems could not get the deal done so he had to bring in the clean-up hitter to hit the grand-slam home run! Gee, do you think that having a Minister of the Crown there had an influence on the outcome? Do you really think that Sandra played a secondary role "with help from Economic Development Minister Sandra Pupatello."

What won it was simple:

• "The agreement, which includes provincial funding for training initiatives...What matters right now is the training fund the Windsor West MPP is tapping into..."

Eddie's Eminence Grise, given his/her connections in Toronto, must have been dying every time that another Henderson slam was picked up by the NDP for House questioning. He/she recognized, as unfortunately our snubbing Mayor does not, that a municipal government needs Senior Level friends in high places. Just look again at the remarks I posted from the Mayor of London to see how a successful City works with their MPPs.

Windsor is fortunate that Sandra had the sense to overlook the ridiculous campaign to smear her and Dwight and look out for the best interests of Windsor. Obviously she needs the jobs for her Ward too but can you imagine if she declined to help and the story leaked out that Eddie lost the thousands of jobs to Mexico! She could have made political capital out of Eddie's failure and cost Eddie his job right before the election. She refused to be petulant and play childish games.

That's the story about the jobs and how they were won. Eddie's brilliance---hardly!

What it shows you in the end, loud and clear, is the powerlessness of the Windsor Mayor. And why we need to be friends with the Senior Levels. If you are not scared now, wait unitl after the municipal election and see what happens

Dear Mr. Arditti:

Thank you for your letter of October 18, 2006 expressing your concerns with the new arena.

Please be assured that Mr. Duncan will write to the Honourable John Gerretsen, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing detailing your concerns you express with the city of Windsor resolution concerning the arena complex . Mr. Duncan will be pleased to forward Minister Gerretsen's response immediately upon receipt.

Once again thank you for taking the time to bring this matter to Mr. Duncan's attention.

Sincerely,
Constituency Assistant
Hon. Dwight Duncan, MPP
Windsor-St. Clair

Insider City Hall Gossip

Gee, I feel like a Hollywood Gossip Columnist with all of the stories I have been hearing over the past few days.

Apparently, according to the Star's Roseanne Danese in her very flattering comments on my Blog on her blogsite http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/features/blogs/danese.html :

• "The juiciest [BLOG] of all though – the one which is considered a must-read among city hall workers and political hangers-on – is the one that’s posted by Ed Arditti, a municipal politics muckraker and not a big fan of Brister and Mayor Eddie Francis.
  
  Most city councillors will never admit they read Arditti’s blog, but they do. Be certain of that. Privately, city hall employees have said they’ve been surprised from time to time at the accuracy of some of his inside information. He has moles. But no one seems to know who they are."

I must admit I thought the comment was not too nice since I was not sure exactly what a "muckraker" was until I read this explanation:

• "Although the term muckraking might appear to have negative connotations, muckrakers have most often sought, in the past, to serve the public interest by uncovering crime, corruption, waste, fraud and abuse in both the public and private sectors."

I liked that and think it is pretty accurate. So to keep my reputation intact, here are some interesting items circulating around and about Windsor recently:

1. Who owns this Website http://www.windsorcitycouncil.com/ Hint, it is NOT the City of Windsor! What a hoot!


2. Who was the Mayor sitting with at a table recently for dinner at a function at Willistead Manor?


3. Did the Willistead caterers serve egg salad hors d'œuvres with a slightly bleachy taste


4. Are some people worried at City Hall that if the PCR price goes $1 over the fixed $47,920,000 price as set out in the Administration recommendation (That is the amount Council approved by the way), then the whole mess starts over again and has to come back to Council since there is no authorization to go with a different price! [Since GST is an extra, are we in trouble already?]
   


5. Were Eddie's fundraising efforts falling flat? Is that why he is using his old election lawnsigns?
   


6. On which "today" is Our Future starting according to Eddie? The Today in 2003 when he was first elected or the Today in 2006 when he is seeking re-election? Read his lawnsigns and see what I mean.
   


7. Which Super Bowl dynamo is now part of Eddie's re-election team?
   


8. Public school board trustees' massive pay increase--145% here--are not unique to Windsor. But will Ward 5 voters take out the shocking increase on Percy Hatfield since his wife, Gale Simko-Hatfield, is Board Chairwoman even though "the funding for the pay increases is supposed to come from provincial coffers."
   


9. Which candidates for Council, if elected, are going to ask for a judicial inquiry re the arena after the election.
   


10. Who has been writing letters for Eddie this time around trying to raise money for Eddie as he did last time? Like Gord's 1,000 jobs source, were he and his associates "at times... a harsh critic of the current mayor?"
    


11. Is Administration going around to land owners with properties about 20 acres in size and talking a price of about $200,000 per acre for unserviced lands for the arena? Why would they be looking at such small sites if true and isn't that amount high for such land if true also? If putting together several small parcels will be a lot of work, then why doesn't Administration just go out and offer about $15 million for part of the Lear site?
    


12. Why couldn't the Superior Park agenda item be posted before noon on Friday? Now anyone who registers after that time needs Council approval to speak as a delegation if he/she thinks to look again at the Agenda!
    


13. How many Police officers were stationed outside (and inside in plain clothes) Council Chambers on Monday for the Superior Park item?
    
    


14. Which Community Citizens Group leader had an election sign placed at the family home without permission by a Mayoral candidate.
    


15. Will our new signature "Eddie Francis" City Hall Square be built on the site of the Barn to boost the development of that part of the City? Ridiculous you say....then you have not seen the plans for the Tunnel Improvement Plans, heard talk about replacing the Glengarry housing projects and figured out why consultants have been hired to look at the old City Hall. Just ask Councillor Halberstadt about "critical mass." The City Hall complex in Toronto was named after the "Mayor of all the people." Our project will be structured as a Public/Private Partnership too so we won't have to worry about such things as Purchasing By-laws, RFPs and tenders. And Windsor Construction Association members won't get the opportunity to bid on that job either. If they cannot stop the arena, well....


16. Not only was the Council vote a loss for the Superior Park residents, it was a huge loss for Councillor Brister when the majority of Council supported the postion of his Ward mate, Councillor Zuk who is not running again. If Councillor Budget cannot persuade his colleagues to vote his way on a Motherhood issue like a park, one wonders, and so should his constituents, how he will work with the next Council, assuming he is re-elected. How can he be an effective voice for his Ward?


17. When is applause at Council Chambers in violation of the Procedural by-law not applause at Council Chambers in violation of the Procuedural by-law...when it is given for an Eddie Francis election speech at Council after the arena debate (but not if given for speakers in favour of keeping Superior Park)


18. Have political candidates realized yet that writing a BLOG can be dangerous for his/her political health at election time

MFOIA Creeps On

Waiting for the mediator now!

Is Windsor's Water Safe To Drink

I told you before that at the transition meetings of Windsor mayors, the old Mayor passes on in a blood ceremony to the new mayor a secret Mayor's Manual giving the standard cliches to use when certain situations come up.

It's either that or what is happening here is due to the water from the taps being cleaned by the dangerous "lemon-Pepsi" alum. How else can one explain ex-Mayor and DRTP CEO Mike Hurst's Star story "DRTP mulls legal action."

Isn't that almost exactly like the story about Eddie a month ago: "Mayor threatens lawsuit." I bet the people from the Senior Levels were shaking in their boots when Eddie made that threat back in early September. Hmmmmm I wonder if Eddie can write as strong a letter as the one I posted a few days ago that Dan Stamper wrote.

You know what, I would like to post Eddie's letter for all to see. Since Roseann Danese said "Most city councillors will never admit they read Arditti’s blog, but they do. Be certain of that" then I am sure one of them can arrange to forward that letter to me. Trouble is my moles tell me that if such letter has been written, it has not yet been received by the Senior Levels. Must be that slow mail service again.

One could say that it was really an empty threat designed to make Eddie look rough and tough for re-election purposes. For those that are Eddie fans, I will give the excuse that Gord gave us in his latest column: "He's running an election campaign. He's running a city. And yet he made this a fulltime job.[Getting us all of those high-tech jobs]" So Eddie did not have time in his 18 hour day to write a simple threatening letter on the most important issue in the City right now (other than Eddie's re-election).

Now Mike Hurst's threat is just an idle one too, taken from the Mayor's secret playbook. [Mike must have kept a photocopy of it] DRTP does not dare sue and everyone knows it. Mike used that secret word too: "may soon be challenged legally if they fail to reconsider." As in Legal threat "Coming soon."

The DRIC people have already looked at DRTP and dismissed it no matter how it is built and no matter what Mike may claim. He can hardly make a case when he cannot show us engineering drawings, how it links up to the expressways and how DRTP (NOT taxpayers) will pay for it, never mind how it can be built given DRTP's Rail Lands By-law loss.

I dare you Mike. Come on. Take charge. Don't wimp out. Stand up for Windsor. Sue DRIC. Show them who's still boss in this City no matter who may sit at the head of the Council Chambers in City Hall.

I wonder if DRIC will call his bluff. They may even egg him on. They may dare him to sue. He won't just like Eddie won't. Neither of them can win and they both know it.

That's in the secret Mayor's Manual too.

Coming Soon---500 Jobs. No 1,000

OH MY GOODNESS! I have not even had time to use the Saturday Star for my birdcage when the number of “high-tech” jobs has jumped to 1,000 according to Gord Henderson.

I honestly am so tired of this. No wonder people become so cynical about politicians. Another "coming soon" announcement. Just like how many others before this one. Oh I cannot tell you anything, it is confidential or there are big announcements in the next few weeks, more jobs. I am sure you read the Spits story today. Big story but it’s all confidential. For a guy who told us that "I am not a politician" at his Campaign Kickoff Speech, on July 24, 2003, Eddie has learned well in three years.

How convenient this one came out just a few weeks before the election. And the praise for Eddie’s brilliance, why Gord must have forgotten that Bill Marra is not running for Mayor this time. Or is this just more of the run-up stories to Eddie’s provincial campaign as a PC candidate.

Except what is the announcement: HP or no HP, fact or rumour, high-tech diversity or some low-level jobs, confirmation or none. Joe Mikhail can tell us and he is the landlord but Sandra and Eddie cannot. In fact, my source told me over the weekend that if it were not for Joe, and with him granting concessions, we would not have had any jobs here. He is the one really responsible for this and should take the credit.

But I guess Gord’s source and my source are different. Gord’s source said he was at times “a harsh critic of the current mayor “ Hmmmmm I wonder if he was part of the "ABE" movement, one of the founders in fact, that had started at one time. Perhaps he was also part of the group that had the $150,000 supposedly raised according to Henderson to beat Eddie if another candidate for Mayor appeared. Who knows.

Gord describes the employer’s role as “business process outsourcing. It provides customer management operations for major firms in sectors that include banking, financial services, retail, information technology and communications.”

In other words, it is a call centre. It is “[not] another minimum wage call centre” but it is still a call centre. It is not the beginning of some fantastic high tech sector for Windsor that will make us a Silicon Valley competitor. Eddie should have asked Joe about how to do that since he has the Ottawa experience that he can draw upon. Joe’s been there, done that.

Of course, everyone should be happy for the "up to" 500 jobs or as the sub-headline put it "may employ 500" or is now 1,000 jobs but there are some things that bug me.

Doesn't the Eddie/Sandra co-operation on this project make a mockery of the vicious attacks on Sandra over the past few weeks? In other words, it was all a big political game. OR Is Sandra now so mad, that she will stop working with Eddie and there go our jobs in new ventures?

Gord says “By the way, I now understand why Francis kept his head down and left it up to the NDP to hammer Pupatello.” My sources tell me if you ask the big-name Liberals in town about Eddie, you will get another answer. Ask which member of the NDP fed the Party information and from where he got it. Anyway, from my experience, Eddie never does the dirty work. He is too nice a guy for that.

I sure hope that Eddie will invite the Ward 2 Councillors to be part of this big announcement, say right before the election day. They can argue revitalization of the West End too. You know, 1,000 workers and a fast food chain restaurant as their future, sort of like the downtown. So they sell Big Macs and not steaks, big deal.

Obviously Eddie has known about this for some time. I wonder what effort he made to fill the Canderel Building rather than offer rents to others at low amounts. I would have thought 500-1,000 high-paying high-tech jobs would have been the spark to revitalize Downtown Windsor in addition to the 1,000 St. Clair students, a bus terminal and a franchise restaurant. And Joe also has space for rent downtown so he would not have suffered if the location was there instead.

I guess the company who rented the building beside McDonalds is not too concerned about the twinning of the Ambassador Bridge. It makes a mockery of the complaints from West end activists and politicians though doesn't it. Perhaps we will even have sidewalk cafes along Gridlock Sam's Huron Church "Champs Elysee" where these people can sit during their coffee and meal breaks. Perhaps that is how we can make use of the overpass that kids do not use.

“What's exciting about this, said the source, is that the thousand jobs could be the proverbial tip of the iceberg. If all goes well here and certain contracts are landed, the workforce could explode.” Or as one might put it during an election campaign “Coming soon.”

Our New Signature City Hall

We are going to have more Signatures in Windsor than John Hancock had pens!

First Gridlock Sam talked to us about Signature bridges. Last night at Council, Councillor Jones talked about a Signature pedestrian mall downtown. Then we will get our new "public" Signature East End arena complex so the millionaires-owned Spitfires can have a home to play. Then you will hear, about a year from now or so, that we are going to get our new "public" signature City Hall. I mean after all, we are getting a new Casino extension built and we cannot have this old municipal building beside it can we.

Why we can afford another monument to ego can't we? We have been told that "By 2009, when major projects like the Norwich Block fiasco, the city hall welfare tower mistake and the new Huron Lodge at St. Clair College have been paid off, the city will find itself with torrents of money flowing in and no major funding obligations."

Come on, look what the new City Hall did for Toronto. Its image became "Toronto" to the world. Surely we can do the same here. Hmmmm I wonder if a local contractor has some components left over from some other project that did not work out so that they can offer us a building at a discount?

I must admit I do not understand the Rules of Council too well. On some occasions, updates go on the Public Agenda and on others they merely go on the Agenda buried in the Communications package.

Take the item "Corporate Space Needs Study and Site Condition Assessment Study for 350 City Hall Square." It was in the Communications package several weeks ago. Part of the study includes: "To review the opportunity for consolidating various off site satellite administrative operations within a centralized campus environment with a view of creating a long term spatial program that is both efficient and effective while taking advantage of available corporate synergies."

Whew, that tired me out typing this never mind trying to figure out what it means.

What will happen soon is that a Repot will be issued to propose that a consultant be hired to undertake a study which will last between 6-12 months.

I have a better idea. As Councillor Halberstadt asked and was answered at the Council meeting, a new City Hall is a possiblity (although the Mayor did say jokingly that the existing building could be use for the next 50 years)

Save the consultant's fee and tell us we are getting a new Signature City Hall after the next Council is elected. They need some edifice to dream about. I know we are being setup for one. Perhaps we rubber-stamp it now and save the fights and aggrevation later.

Now how do I know we are going to get one. Simple, we spent all of that money on a consultant's study on 400 City Hall Square to tell us how to run projects better. Now that we know how, we may as well do it. We do not want to waste those fees do we?

And can you guess where it is going to go? I'll let you know in another BLOG soon

Issue Advocacy: Send Me The $150,000

I have to be honest with you, dear reader, but people have suggested that with the volume of hits that I am getting per day now on this Blogsite, I should be selling advertising space. I could have made a fortune by now I am told. In fact, one person suggested that he would help finance an ad campaign to drive traffic here.

I have to admit that this was a tempting thought. Believe it or not it is hard work to do some of these BLOGS. It takes a lot of time to do research, the writing, and get it out so you can have something to read with your morning coffee. However, I resisted the temptation.

However, I got a great idea last week from one of Gord Henderson's columns. Frankly, it made any idea to put advertising on here look like chicken-feed. Why I know if Sam Schwartz were here, he would tell me to THINK BIG! So here goes. Here is what Gord wrote:

• "It might be urban legend. But the rumour that refuses to die is that powerful business interests were trolling a $150,000 campaign war chest under the noses of potential heavyweight challengers in a bid to unseat Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis.
  
  According to the rumour, these folks were prepared to dig deep and do serious fundraising to enable a VIP candidate, someone with a prominent name and a solid track record, to conduct a first-rate campaign, turf Francis from office and create a more receptive climate at city hall...
  
  But it wouldn't be the first time a collection of movers and shakers has agreed to bankroll a champion, even if it means reaching out and tapping into a couple of hundred likeminded individuals.
  
  This much is obvious. The big-name candidate didn't bite and the money, the juice needed to run a high-voltage campaign, remains tucked away in its owners' wallets."

Hmmmm there are a bunch of well-heeled individuals with money to burn but who probably like anonymity as well. I don't think they care if Eddie is mayor or not, contrary to what Gord says; they want a city that works. Most of these people have probably made a lot of money here and have a loyalty to the city that made them rich but are frustrated with 3 years of inactivity and the thought of 4 more.

Clearly, it is too late for someone to run since nomination day is done. But it is NOT too late to express their views about what is wrong here. This concept is known as "issue advocacy" in the US or the "the discussion of political issues and ideas." One is "supposed to discuss broad political issues rather than specific candidates."

Here's my concept. About that $150,000....send it my way and as quickly as possible. I will promise to take that money and buy up space in the media and write commentaries similar to what I am doing here and as I have done elsewhere. That will let the entire City know what's wrong in Windsor and what must be done to correct it.

I am told, and I will have to check it out first, that the finance rules under the Municipal Elections Act would not apply to me since I am not running for office. So the cheques can be more than the $750 limit a candidate can receive and I would not have to report the funds so no one would know who contributed.

Sounds like a good deal doesn't it. I get to spread my word and the head honchos get to open their wallets for a good cause. I won't keep a penny; it will all go for the dissemination of ideas. Just email me and I'll tell you where to send the cheques.

Oh and thanks for the idea Gord.