OMERS: Dwight Duncan’s Dilemma

Imagine the conflict that Dwight is in as Minister of Finance. On the one hand, he desperately needs the pension money that OMERS has socked away to help build infrastructure in Ontario. On the other hand he is the Minister responsible for the Financial Services Commission of Ontario that has been investigating OMERS for over a year now with no report yet in sight.

The Globe and Mail has just reported that the five new directors quit the OMERS Private Capital board, a group that was to receive about $3.6 billion of OMERS pension money for investment.

While that is scary enough, the comments from one of the people who left ought to turn Dwight’s hair white, and make Sid Ryan of CUPE apoplectic. Paul Morton, said he left "out of a sense of frustration with the incompetence of the OMERS board…Private equity is a promising asset class, but it's not a panacea. If you're not very good at it, you can get your head taken off." Morton is no slouch either being co-founder of what is now CanWest Global Communications Corp., and a former director of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corp. and Onex, Canada's pioneer private equity company.

It is time for the Minister to act decisively. Too much is at stake.

There are better ways to fund CUPE member retirements that meet the CUPE members retirement goals and taxpayer pocket-books. The OMERS Act Governance changes must be stopped immediately until someone figures out what is going on over there. Our Council is already complaining about the increased amounts we in Windsor must pay to OMERS. We will hear the same story from every Municipality in Ontario shortly.

Mister Minister, it is time for a full-scale Judicial Inquiry into the affairs of OMERS

Raceway Wants Arena Cash

Well so do I! I am tired of everyone else asking for money from Government for their pet project. I want some too for mine. I deserve it.

I did not understand John Millson's comment that the Senior Levels and Essex County municipalitites should help pay for a new Windsor arena. Why is Millson delivering a speech about this and not Dave Batten as an example (or Wayne Gretzky if you really wanted to get people to pay since he is still part of the group we are told). When this all started Millson said "Under a partnership with the Jebb group, the raceway would provide the land and Jebb would build an arena. "Jebb will carry the ball from here," Millson said. "All of the operations, all of the finance, that's really the Jebb group. We're merely the landowner."

This is a rather dramatic change in circumstances wouldn't you think. From just being the landlord to pitching for the project. In my opinion, the Windsor Council Spanish Inquisitors should immediately call a into session their Special Star Chamber meeting and ask questions of the landlord such as the following:

1. Can they get Wayne Gretzky's autograph
2. Whose deal is this?
3. What exactly is the Raceway's involvement in the project
4. Will Wayne Gretzky move to Windsor
5. How much more money is required after the City's $15 million contribution
6. Is there any hope of getting this money from the Senior Levels after the Mayor and the Council snubbed them
7. Is there any hope of getting money if five Essex County municipalities said Thursday they will not help Windsor pay for a new arena at the raceway
8. Will Wayne Gretzky give up his coaching job to be involved in this
9. If there are positive spinoffs and benefits and a $78 million direct economic benefit during construction, wouldn't it have been nice to use them to kick-start the urban village downtown?
10. Does the Raceway have Beztak's phone number?

The key comment in the Star story as far as I was concerned was Millson's remark that the arena would generate the development of commercial property nearby. Wasn't that similar to Beztak's approach at Council when the Inquisitors drove them out of town on a rail. Why shouldn't this commercial development be located downtown to kickstart the urban village and the economic revival of the City?

Poor John Millson, poor Tony Toldo, poor people who hoped to cash in on the development in the burbs. All of that wasted effort. They have those Councillors who want the project downtown against them, they have the Budgeteers against them and they have those who believe that Beztak was treated shabbily against them. They should have guessed right at the start. If doing it for free would not impress the Inquisitors, then what they were proposing was a loser right at the drop of the puck!

As Sonny Eliot of WWJ would say. The score of the game will be 6-4 to kill the arena dream and, perhaps the careers of some people on Council.

Dead Last, Again

It is hardly a surprise. After its ranking in the Globe and Mail poll and the past rankings in the Macleans poll, did anyone really expect otherwise. Another Star story on Saturday was to set us up for what we knew was coming

As I wrote before, there is no way that the University of Windsor could do much better. Positioning is decided by the 23 performance measures chosen for determining ranking. Depending on the criteria and the weighting, that almost pre-determines the result.

A good example of that locally was the Report of the Joint Management Committee on the border three years ago. [Man, how do I get the border into everything I write about!] Their "Principles" meant that a certain result was inevitable---truck roads all over the city in the "short-term" so that no long-term route would be prejudiced.

As I said before in my October 13 Blog "Pipedream Or Usefully Provocative Idea," Who cares about the Macleans rankings? As a fellow I know who works at the University wrote to me:

• "I've told people a similar argument when it comes to the rankings.
  
  One point you missed.... There are only 11 comprehensive universities in all of Canada and Windsor is lucky to have one of them!! People forget how lucky their kids are ie. they don't have to leave the city..."
  
  

We need to look more closely at what the University and City can do together, especially in this time of economic turmoil. Read again the speech of Dennis DesRosiers for some provocative ideas (BLOG, October 26) and Dr. Paul's Windsor Star Guest Column, parts of which I quoted (BLOG, October 13).

Frankly, we are lucky that we still have a university here. A few years ago, the Province was thinking of cutting back on the number of universities in the Province. And you know which one would have been first on the "hit list" for elimination.

Since that time, the University has done an excellent job in building up its reputation in areas such as automotive research, the environment, and social justice making it difficult for anyone to think of cutting it back. If we can get a medical school here or at least an expertise in training foreign trained doctors to Ontario standards, then the University would become essential to the Province, no matter what its ranking.

I supported before Dr. Paul's vision of the University and City working together. I repeat again his comments:

• It is important to note that more and more municipalities are investing in their universities and colleges because they understand their critical importance, not only to the economic development of their regions but to the quality of life that they critically help to develop and support.

John Millson's plea for more money and the County's rejection of it are proof that the arena is dead. Let's take the City's $15 million that has already been set aside for an arena, demand financial assistance from the County Governments and Senior Levels, get the business leaders onside (Hell, Beztak was prepared to bet $50 million on an arena downtown as the focus for an urban village) and accomplish something brilliant for the Region by growing the University. I even know a developer or two or three that might be interested.

OK Councillor Jones. You are a member of the "Town and Gown" Association. Take the lead!

Windsor----the Cambridge, Oxford or Ann Arbor of Canada. Sounds good to me.

PS. To the University's PR department...is it really a smart tactic to waste money on a full page "feel good" ad in the Star to try to counter the Front Page story! Western ran a small ad on the first page of the B1 section which will probably get more attention than Windsor's and at a much lower cost.

What Are The Answers

Lots of stuff going on behind-the-scenes on the border file I heard with everyone jockeying for position. A few questions for you to consider over the week-end:

1. Have the DRIC finalists been determined already by the Bi-national engineers and discussed with their political masters
2. Will Dwight and Sandra try to "outgranholm" Michigan Governor Granholm now by giving their opinion that DRTP and the Twinned Bridge projects should be removed from the list of finalists?
3. Why didn't the Windsor Star report on the Detroit Mayoral candidate Hendrix's support of DRTP and his fundraiser held in Grand Rapids by DRTP's Byington
4. Why didn't the Windsor Star report on the visit of Mayor Francis with Mayor Kilpatrick in Detroit earler in the week?
5. Why hasn't the Windsor Star reported on the Mayor's ambitions respecting the Tunnel
6. Has the Federal Government walked away from the Walker Road underpass project and if so, who will take the fall for it happening
7. Has the deal between the Province and City respecting all of those people involved in the Phase 1 projects been agreed to yet
8. Why hasn't the Star phoned up Sam Schwartz and asked him what he is doing for the City now on the border and if a reporter has, then why haven't they reported it?
9. Will the City or the Bridge Co. be the new owner of the Tunnel as it starts its 76th year in operation
10. If the Schwartz Report is just the "starting point" then how much money and time has been wasted over the past year by the City, proponents, Governments and citizens analyzing something that is meaningless
11. Can the funds wasted be claimed back from the City?
12. If the Schwartz Report is just the "starting point," then how can anyone including the Senior Levels and Windsorites take the City seriously after all of the effort put in.
13. For what did Councillor Gignac want to rally for now---the dead Schwartz Plan, some undisclosed new Plan or buying the Tunnel
14. Is it true that Councillors Postma and Jones planned the rally for spring because they knew that it will take the Mayor that long to develop another Plan in secret that won't work
15. Is it true that there is no City Plan that can be produced if someone asks for it
16. If you ask a certain Windsor Councillor something he/she does not like, will you be asked to provide "copies of your phone bills (home, office and cell) over the last six months so we can discern who you have been communicating with and how frequently."
17. How many times has the Border Czar visited Windsor since his appointment?

City Hall To Shut Down Until The New Year

Remember what Candidate Francis promised "We need a starting point, a place to know where we are so that we can judge how well we do when we look at results. We will conduct in depth audits of all of our departments to assess where we are and to identify inefficiencies and implement sound management principles across the corporation."

The recent Sub-head in the Star's front page story made a mockery of that election promise "Mayor: 'No accountability"

The story continued "We're a half a billion dollar corporation ... and there was no process put into place what we were paying out for overtime to begin with," Francis said. "There was no accountability whatsoever...There were employees who had 30 years plus in this corporation, who had banked all their overtime, and there was no way to track or validate if that was the case."

Non-union employees are being instructed to use any banked overtime by Dec. 31. After that, they will lose any time owing. "Use it or lose it," Francis said"

Accordingly, the 430 non-unionized staff members involved are now booking off and returning on January 1 since they all have that much banked time available forcing City Hall to close down for the next two months.

Relax, I am kidding. But it is great to see how tough the Mayor and Council are on non-unionized staff. Too bad they were afraid to take on the unionized workers. Why the City even entered into a 4 year agreement with their unionized workers, adding an extra year to keep labour peace.

This "new way of doing business" at City Hall will cost taxpayers an extra $1.9 million. Interestingly, the financial gurus at City Hall could not estimate "The amount the city will recoup through pay cuts..."

Whatever happened to the promised "in depth audits?" And whatever happened to Citistat? Didn't it save Baltimore $10 million in cumulative savings over a few years in reduced overtime? Why hasn't it been brought into Windsor to save us money?

By the way, I wonder how Dr. Alfie Morgan would rate a CEO who admited that he was involved in a company for 4 years as one of its senior officials and 2 years as its CEO and had no idea about lack of accountability. What would he say if that official knew about the problem "in the last couple of years when [his company] got whacked with eye-popping bills for accrued overtime..." If it takes him years to act on something so simple and obvious, then how would Dr. Morgan expect him to act on something really complicated such as , ummmmmm, the border issue!

Wasn't it fortunate that this just happened before Operating Budget deliberations started. Oh well, just another problem for which Councillor Budget has to find the money to fix without increasing taxes. And if he cannot do it ........there go his chances to run for Mayor against Eddie, even if he was never going to do it.

Hello Devonshire Mall Loiterers

Mayor Eddie Francis has to be a closet Liberal! He must have the blood of Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien running through his veins.

How did Eddie come up with this great idea about a Town Hall meeting for kids. "The town hall idea came to Francis on a recent Friday night movie outing with his wife" said the Star. Now isn't that just like Pierre's walk in the snow when it just came to him to retire or Jean's walk when it came to him not to.

I wonder if this is how it really happened. But it's a nice urban legend to create. There are some people in town who are offended I was told that they did not receive some credit that they think they deserved for what happened at the mall. It's an early lesson to them about politics.

If you want to read what one "youth" had to say, you might want to read "Youth tackles municipal government" in City Times, the newspaper Councillor Lewenza started, in the August edition, It was written a few months before the Town Hall meeting.

Interesting subjects discussed at the meeting too: community centres for youth after hours, stopping of being harassed by mall security, complaints about bus service and coal-fired power plants. I am told that there was not one question about the border or Schwartz. I wonder why.

Let me help His Worship out with the brilliant idea of a teen Youth council to talk about issues.

How about this concept: a Council for both Youth and Seniors (I am becoming one so why not something for me too). Let's set up a Mayor's Youth Cabinet and a Mayor's Seniors Cabinet. The Youth would be recruited through the two school boards, elementary and secondary, through the College and through the University, in addition to some at large appointments. The Seniors would have been recruited through senior's organizations and through at large recruitment.

Those "cabinets" would be set up to deal with the issues that impact those age-groups and to act as soundboards.

Now I don't want to take the credit for someone else's idea. It would not be right. Wasn't this something like what Bill Marra talked about at a UWSA Council Meeting before the last election, a meeting that he and Eddie attended. Bill also talked about holding Town Hall meetings throughout the year at that meeting too.

Apparently Eddie asked the kids at the mall when he first talked to them, "I don't look that old, do I?"

After the border fiasco, the Schwartz rejection, Cansult, the arena location fight, losing $68 million on MFP, the Mady garage mess, the tunnel ventilation building cost, the failure to lease Canderel, the bus terminal, the loss of auto jobs, the problems in the downtown, secret meetings, my own personal injury lawsuit against the City....He sure does!

Border Ramblings

Are you as confused as I am about what is going on with the Border? If someone was ever honest about what was going on, and publicly to boot, then perhaps my head would not hurt as much as it does.

By the way, that's a picture of a Rambling Rose. It seemed appropriate since the border issue is all over the map!

EDDIE’S LEGACY
Did you know that Eddie has been meeting with Detroit’s Mayor as late as Monday. Now there is no need for Councillor Gignac’s meeting with Detroit Council. Eddie has out-flanked her.

I wonder what they were talking about.

Was Eddie speaking to the Detroit Mayor both as Mayor of Windsor and as Chair of the Windsor Tunnel Commission? Were they talking about Eddie’s idea of buying Detroit’s interest in the Tunnel, or a joint leasing deal to DCTC for mega-millions or some third party? Was he trying to convince Kwame to end his deal with the Bridge Co., and work with him? Or were they only talking about Windsor’s snowplowing help during Super Bowl.

Of course, life is more difficult for Eddie since he does not have the authority of Agenda item #5 to act under. But as Chair of the Commission, he can do a deal with the Detroit Mayor and then bring it to Windsor Council for rubber-stamping. The precedent was set when Eddie was on the Commission as a Councillor with the Mady parking garage. ["In April 2001, then-councillor Francis made the motion at a tunnel commission meeting to approve the partnership agreement between Mady and the city. The tunnel commission, which is an agency of the city, approved the deal before it went to city council for approval."] It seems on that deal that no one knew what the terms were to “protect” Windsor’s interests in that deal. Even the Mayor admitted that it was a bad deal.

When the deal is done, expect the Francis road-tour to take place so he can “build relationships” as he tells others how to do this kind of financial transaction. That scares me a lot since if the deal goes sour, does the City have a liability? I wondered about that in the MFP deal as an example.

Of course, if the deal blew up, as the receivership of the garage shows can happen, and the City lost millions, what would he say? Oooooopppps, he would not be around then to have to do that as Mayor since he would have gone on to bigger and better things, right! That would be something for Mayor Gignac to deal with and to blame on the previous Administration. She need only repeat the script that Eddie has used already for that and hire Cliff Sutts.

SWEETS
Speaking of betrayal, I was told to be “polite” by one of my colleagues before the last Community Consultation Group meeting held by the Bi-National Partnership. This is the “citizens’” group that the bureaucrats have used to demonstrate that they are serious about public involvement. This was right after the Michigan Governor hijacked the border issue by disclosing that the bureaucrats had already decided on the “short-listed” crossings and had eliminated the ones her constituents opposed. Only days before, the Engineers had sponsored a boat trip for our Group and our US counter-parts to show us all 15 crossings as if nothing had yet been decided.

Well I was polite at the meeting, for me anyway. And to give them credit, some others were not so nice. We were given assurances that the Engineers were again going to be studying hard and that no decisions had yet been made on the finalists.

Imagine then how much I laughed when I read the Globe and Mail story the other day that said “A short list of contenders to build a new Detroit-Windsor crossing could be released as early as this week.” Not only that, it named the corridors!

Next meeting I may get really angry. They did not have any strawberry tarts there last time. If I am going to be co-opted, I may as well get a TBQ dessert out of it.

MAYOR KWAME
I don’t get it at all. First he signs a binding deal with the Bridge Company and then he pulls it off the table.

Was it a phony deal just designed to get him some votes?

Did he think he would lose at Council and so pulled it off the table?

Was it a tactic to get Hendrix to come out publicly and say that he was in support of the DRTP? [Where is Councillor Gignac demanding a meeting with him to convince him that DRTP is a bad choice?]

Are he and Eddie doing an even bigger deal now that will be announced days before the election to guarantee him re-election and Eddie his entrepreneurial dream?

Do the polls tell Kwame that he has a good chance at being re-elected? Therefore, he pulled the Bridge deal and the Union wage concession negotiations to avoid any negative controversy so that he will not lose any crucial votes. Is his plan then to bring both matters back and shove them down the throats of the Detroit Councillors in the new term? After all he did get great coverage when the Bridge deal was first announced!

Who knows!

RUNNING FOR MAYOR
To “grandstand” means “to perform ostentatiously so as to impress an audience.”

Why am I giving you this definition? After the Council meeting the other night, I was called by a colleague of Councillor Gignac and was asked if I saw her grandstanding on the border at Council. Regretfully, I had to reply in the negative since I had forgotten that Council Night in Windsor had been moved for Hallowe’en. Perhaps I will look at the replay on Cogeco if I have nothing else better to do. The Councillor told me that I was right: Jo-anne Gignac may run for Mayor after all.

But she had better be careful. This issue could bite her.

First Councillor Gignac flipflopped on the Ambassador Bridge proposal that she had approved in secret, then she flipflopped by asking for a meeting with Detroit Council when she had agreed not to do so in camera. Her ignorance on CBC TV of the Bridge’s new proposal shocked me from someone who seems to do her homework. I still have not heard her demand a Special Council meeting on the border for citizens to speak or to ratify the secret endorsement of the Schwartz report. Did she request that a bus be chartered so Council could meet with Freman Hendrix to chastise him for supporting DRTP and to educate him?

However, her position is interesting since it means that there is a crack in the so-called Council unity on Schwartz. She must feel that the Mayor is not invincible on his billion-dollar failed short-term dream. She is taking a run at him on his most vulnerable spot, the border. She is also scooping the issue from her Council colleague, Mr. STOPDRTP to ensure that he cannot run if she chooses to do so. She doesn’t have to worry about that. He is invisible on the border, too busy playing Financial VP of the City.

Clearly, Councillor Gignac is testing to see whether she can gain some momentum for herself by staking out a position now on the border. Being out there in public supporting the public on small issues is a great tactical move but a dumb political move since everyone can see through it.

She has angered some of her colleagues, especially the Ward 2 Councillors colleagues, by playing to the crowds. The Mayor I am sure is amused and relieved as she self-destructs so that he can cross another off of his list of possible opponents.

Anyway, as the Star demonstrated by ignoring her totally, she has a long way to go if she wants to get their good buddy out of office. And it probably did not help her that CKLW interviewed Councillor Postma instead either.


LEADERSHIP
Remember when I said that I thought that Councillors Postma and Jones were our hopes for new leadership on the border issue and that they had to take some tough actions.

According to the Star, the two Councillors are trying to set up a massive rally on the border to oppose certain corridors. Great idea I thought…just like the Downriver legislators in the US who pressured the Michigan Governor to take their communities off of the list of possible border crossings.

Then I read the rally was to take place in the spring. HUH, the spring….you mean 5 or 6 months from now.

If they want to do a rally do it now, not when the tulips come out again.

Joyce where are you? It’s your turn now.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GRIDLOCK SAM
Isn’t it interesting that he seems to have disappeared. Is he on the City payroll still or rather retained by Counsel to keep his materials “confidential?”

I guess since Councillor Valentinis has said that his report was only a “starting point” there is no need to keep paying him. Has the City, in effect, “disowned” him and has no real Plan now? Or rather, have they no real Plan that they are prepared to share with the people who elected them.