Budget woes

I would not want to be on the Capital or Operating Budget Committees this year.

I was interested in Councillor Halberstadt's remark in the Star:

"Coun. Alan Halberstadt said the $7.2-million cash settlement the city recently received to drop the MFP lawsuit "could be going to all these former lifeguards -- the whole bundle..."You talk about why we can't control our budget and we get something like that hurled at us," Halberstadt said. "It's unbelievable."

Nope here is what is unbelievable, and I doubt the list is complete:

1. $68 million loss from the MFP fiasco and nothing being done to recover a penny of it
2. $3 million perhaps lost on the Mady parking garage and no one taking the blame for structuring this deal
3. $1.9 million for "overtime" and no Citistat
4. Millions more being paid out for OMERS contributions (if you tell me whom to contact at City Hall, I will do a presentation on how to try to save money there!)
5. Millions in extra costs for the Tunnel ventilation building and the Mayor wants to buy Detroit's interest too.
6. $150,000 for a few trees as Phase 1 of a streetscaping plan that wasn't to take place until years from now, "interim measures delivered at the urging of [Mayor] Francis."
7. Mould problems at Huron Lodge at an unknown cost. So far "the city only has verbal assurances" that the contractor will pay. [another verbal assurance deal that the City might get burned on like the $100,000 at the Income and Security building?]
8. Numerous businesses could challenge to City licensing fees due to a Court decision (about $200,000 has to be paid back to dancers or strip club owners)
9. Unreported problem worth millions involving a major re-asessment, Income and Security Building extra costs due to another tenant problem, Enwin costs etc etc etc...

Do you see what I mean!

Reading The Windsor Star

I read a "Wikipedia" article about how news stories are written. The article said "Teachers often describe the organization or structure of a news story as an inverted pyramid. In essence, a journalist top-loads the essential and most interesting elements of his or her story. Supporting information then follows in order of diminishing importance. The most important structural element of a story is its lead ... which may in fact be all of a story that many people will read...At the very end comes the non-vital material."

I wondered how correct that article is. As an example, I am sure that you recall how we learned that Norma Coleman, the wife of John Coleman, the Star's Editorial Page Editor, became the Chief of Staff of Eddie Francis: the last paragraph of a story about a Jane Boyd lawsuit against the City. Moreover, in that story we learned that Norma had been appointed to that position two months before!

I thought again about this when reading the front page article about "Kwame's passion pays off." As a political junkie, I was interested in how he had run a campaign that won him an election after being down about 20 points at one time.

Lo and behold right at the end of the story is a section of the article dealing with what Kilpatrick might do with the Ambassador Bridge Co. proposal. I did not know how that fit in with what the story was about but there it was.

In that section we learn what you knew already from this BLOG---that Eddie visited the Detroit Mayor last week. We also learn that the Detroit Mayor thinks "It seems to be a very good deal for Detroit...it might be the best way to go...The bridge company, to date, is probably the best deal we've seen."

One other thing I learned is that Windsor's Mayor may still not understand the proposal. As I understand it, the Bridge Co. would NOT be the Tunnel owner as his comments suggest but it would be the "public" Detroit Port Authority. The Bridge Co. would merely be the operator, similar to how it works now on the Windsor side.

So the moral is that one must read sometimes right to the end of a Star story because that may be where the most vital material is.

ADDENDUM---We don't always get border stories from the Star in a timely fashion either. Remember that most major newspapers reported days before the Star that the Bridge Co. had a 200 booth proposal for the border.

I am still waiting for the Star to report on the Byington DRTP press release which was revealed first from this BLOG. I had to read in Today's Trucking magazine about her comments concerning the re-elected Detroit Mayor for heaven's sake!

Wise Beyond His Years

Did Kwame's relatively young age help him in his stunning victory over Freman Hendrix and if so, should that give our Mayor some comfort?

I read this paragrpah in a Free Press story that I found interesting:
"The mayor's youth -- he became Detroit's youngest elected mayor at 31 -- also seemed to be a factor in his surge. Supporters and voters said his mistakes were the result of inexperience and were not worth turning Kilpatrick out."

Should Eddie also be heartened by the fact that the News said "Kilpatrick was scoring well with voters under 40, among whom he held a 2-1 lead."

Interestingly, similar factors may be at play in Windsor. I heard about some polling done that said that Eddie was viewed as having accomplished little but that in the breakdown between men and women, men were more prepared to give him a second chance.

Respecting the young vote, was the Devonshire Town Hall meeting nothing more than an attempt to portray himself as being in touch with the youth of the city. Remember the comment of his when talking to kids at the mall: "I don't look that old, do I?"

However, Eddie may have a problem. He may not be able to play the "inexperience" card. He said about himself in his campaign kickoff speech "I have what it takes. I have the experience, I am a lawyer, a recognized entrepreneur, a proven community leader who has consistently been your voice." Once one is "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" a twice-elected councillor and now mayor, it is difficult to ask forgiveness for inexpereince as Kwame may have done. What helped Eddie overcome the attacks on his age during the last election may now hurt him at re-election time.

Naming Rights

As someone born in Toronto and who has seen it grow from a small "provincial" burg to a world-class city, I always like taking ideas from there and applying it to my new home-town Windsor. The one I saw recently that caught my attention involved Nathan Phillips who single-handedly made Toronto into the great city it now is. I respected that man and suggested to our Mayor when he was first elected that he read the book about Phillips so that he too could learn how to become "The Mayor of All the People" as Phillips was affectionately called.

So imagine my surprise when I saw this Toronto Star article

• Renaming city hall square mulled
  Could it generate cash by renaming city hall square? Audit calls for greater scrutiny of building costs
  
  PAUL MOLONEY
  CITY HALL BUREAU
  
  The city has fallen so far behind in the maintenance of its buildings it may have to consider selling the naming rights to Nathan Phillips Square to pay for renovations, the chair of the audit committee says.
  
  Councillor Doug Holyday was reacting yesterday to a report from Auditor General Jeff Griffiths that says Toronto faces a city-wide maintenance backlog of $500 million, including $40 million at Nathan Phillips Square.
  
  And one way for the city to pay for renovations to Nathan Phillips Square is to sell naming rights, said Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre).
  
  "I think there could be a way found to still recognize Nathan Phillips but maybe pay a large part of this $40 million cost by utilizing somebody's name on that square. What if it was the Toronto Dominion Bank Square or the Royal Bank Square or the General Motors Square?"

So after thinking about it, I thought it was a great idea. After all, the cost of sponsorship of a "Windsor Star" on the Windsor and Region Walk of Fame requires a $5,000 payment.

So here are some ideas for names of Windsor sites that could have naming rights sold:

1. Eddie Francis Overpass for the pedestrian overpass on Huron Church Road
2. Rename the DRTP corridor to Hurst Bicycle Path
3. Ojibway Prairie Complex renamed to Schwartz Complexity
4. In future, the Western Super Anchor site could be called Chanosos
5. Money Mart or Stop 'N' Cash could name the 2 city-leased floors in the Canderel building
6. The Windsor-Essex Cogeneration Plant that supplies steam to Chrysler Canada's minivan assembly plant could be named the CAW Hot Air Plant

You get the idea....If you have any other suggestions, I would be happy to post them.

What Kwame's Win Means For Windsor

What a surprise when waking up this morning. We still have the same mayor in Detroit! A number of the Detroit TV stations who were predicting that Hendrix would win based on the early results had better check their polling experts' credentials.

Interestingly, Kwame received 53% of the vote...a number very close to that of our Mayor's electoral number. That may be the only thing that they have in common after the Detroit Mayor's win.

I have enough trouble understanding Windsor municipal politics without pretending to understand anything about Detroit's but a few comments can be made. The most important in my mind is what the relationship between the two Mayors will be. I wonder if Detroit's Mayor will be as cordial to Eddie when Eddie stuck his nose into Detroit's affairs by trying to kill the big deal that Kwame signed with the Bridge Co. just before the election. Windsor needs Detroit's help if we are going to have regional economic development. Has that been set back by our Mayor's actions?

There are a number of new Councillors on the Detoit Council. I must admit that I do not know where they stand on many issues. If Windsor Council truly wants to start a dialogue with their counter-parts across the river, then now is the time to do it.

We have to be grateful for one thing. If Freman Hendrix were Mayor, then DRTP was back into the game. Marge Byington gambled and gambled big. And it appears that she lost big too. She held a fundraiser for Hendrix just before the election and he came out supporting DRTP. Her attack on the Detroit Mayor in Today's Trucking magazine ought not to help the DRTP cause.

The Detroit Mayor's deal with the Bridge Co. may well mean that we see 200 booths being built for Customs that should help get the border working for many years to come and see the start of economic development for Detroit anyway. What it means for the Tunnel will be interesting as well. Will it mean joint Bridge/Tunnel Customs facilities, the Bridge Co's management of the Tunnel for the Port Authority and the end of Eddie's grand ambition to control the border.

Twin Oaks

Whew----it was better than a kick in the “you know where” for the Mayor, and the City. Finally some good news to break the string of bad headlines and give some hope: 250 "high tech" jobs from an unknown company that will make an announcement in several weeks. And then “more of these types of announcements within the next couple of months.”

I had a few thoughts when reading the story

1) I hope that the Mayor does not give himself a checkmark on his Report Card for Economic Development for this. It does not look as if he or the City’s Economic Development group had much of a role to play. This seems to be strictly a Chrysler deal in bringing a supplier close to its plant as it is doing in Toledo.

• “Tom LaSorda, the Chrysler Group's chief operating officer says the new $2.1 billion manufacturing project in Toledo will utilize outside suppliers to handle key elements of the assembly process. Three suppliers will build and manage key manufacturing process facilities for body, paint and chassis operations that are totally within the plant "footprint" of the new plant that Chrysler plans to have in operation by 2006.”

Clearly the CAW should be congratulated for its foresight in inking the deal with Chrysler during the negotiations

2) “Senator” David Cassivi better start getting concerned about the next election. The Mayor’s cultivation of the Lewenza’s, Senior and Junior, paid off in many respects: support of Schwartz, Casino contract (eventually), jobs and no running by Junior for mayor this time around. As more plant job announcements get made and when Henderson starts praising the Lewenzas, then you know that David is in big trouble.

The main concern for David, however, is that if Bill Marra decides to run for Council in Ward 4, as rumours suggest, then it would be a real fight amongst the three of them. If the arena deal goes sour will voters take it out on him?

3) Governor Granholm was the biggest champion of the East End of Windsor on the border issue, not the Mayor whose base of support was Ward 5 nor Councillor Gignac. If she had not killed the east end bridge, can you imagine the pressure today to build that bridge now given the development of the Twin Oaks site….straight down Lauzon and across the river. And if that bridge were built, then guess what….DRTP is back.

4) The Ambassador Bridge Co. was right again. They have been arguing that if truck border traffic is not increasing at the optimistic rates of the Engineers’ projections, or even decreasing, then we might not need another crossing for many years. The Chrysler/supplier plant above may mean that parts do not cross the border as much as before thereby reducing truck volumes.

5) I don’t know how this works but I see that the City exercised an option to buy the land and then resold it. From whom was the land purchased and at what price? How much was paid for the option? What was the sale price? I was just curious to know if the City made or lost money or broke even on the deal.

6) I wonder if Windsor still has dreams of amalgamating with some of the county towns. Did something happen that I missed recently? Ken Junior said the CAW got written assurances that all new parts suppliers would be within 200 km of Windsor..."We insisted...any plants that are going to do business with Chrysler Corporation are going to exist in the city of Windsor." Wow, Windsor has grown.

DRTP Press Release

Fascinating press release issued today by DRTP out of Detroit. Does this mean that they already know that they have been eliminated by the Bi-National and are setting up the basis for a lawsuit? Does the press release, polling, and full-page Star ad fit into a strategy? We'll soon find out I am sure

DRTP Questions Transparency of Detroit River International Crossing Study

DETROIT, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The Detroit River International Crossing ("DRIC") process seems to have become unhinged, according to executives of the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership. "It has become increasingly evident in recent weeks that political interests are dominating the DRIC study at the expense of objective, technical considerations," said Marge Byington, government affairs director for the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership team.

In one of its latest reports, the DRIC concludes a five- to ten-year window exists before the growth in border-crossing demand between Windsor and Detroit will cause major delays. "Our concern is that premature elimination of any alternative by the DRIC based on insufficient analysis will result in wrong decisions being made for this critical international crossing. Planners need to make sure all possible crossing options get sufficient analysis to make sure the best solution is selected. Any missteps at this point in the DRIC process will have negative effects on the economies and communities of Southeastern Michigan and Southwestern Ontario.

"While we concur with the binational study group that a ten-year window is a short time to plan, design and build a new or expanded crossing," Byington stated, "our partnership is seriously concerned that politicization of this phase of the technical review managed by the DRIC could significantly erode critical path timelines as legal battles arise from a flawed process. Equally troubling is the prospect of selecting a solution that cannot survive the scrutiny of a third-party review or the bright light of Environmental Impact Studies on both sides of the border. This misstep would harm the economies, health and vibrancy of our communities.

"We have participated in good faith for more than three years in various stages to engineer and describe how the partnership's existing rail corridor can be converted into an intermodal transportation gateway," continued Byington, "and now we are deeply disappointed to learn that political jockeying may carry more weight than engineering reports, feasibility studies, community input and common sense. What is even more troubling is the loss of transparency of the DRIC process." As has been shown many times in recent years on both sides of the border, the DRTP executive pointed out, environmentally related assessment and development processes and findings must be transparent and justifiable.