David Cassivi MUST Be Re-elected

Ward Four voters have a number of good candidates to choose between. I am going to make it easier for them.

One of your votes MUST be cast for David Cassivi. You have no choice but to vote for him. He was the only member of Council with the gumption to stand up for taxpayers. You'll read more about "gumption" soon!

Read again what he said in the Star. It makes such obvious good sense.

• "Cassivi said he still supports consolidating smaller rinks and a community centre.
  
  "There is still a business case for doing that, but to add a spectator arena when Ice Track is a stone's throw away (in Tecumseh) is not prudent," Cassivi said. "Now that we have $15 million set aside ... we should move ahead with consolidating facilities, but we don't need an arena. There may be celebrations today, but we may be saddling our community with hangovers for generations to come. I've tried to encourage the Spitfires to make a deal with Ice Track."
  
  Windsor missed its opportunity by not embracing the Ice Track proposal, the Ward 4 councillor said.
  
  "I can understand the frustration of citizens in missing out on that opportunity," Cassivi said.
  
  "I'm as disappointed as anyone on the foot-dragging and dithering. But it's also my job to make sure the disappointment shouldn't turn into desperation. What we don't want to do is jump on the bandwagon for politically expedient needs. Politicians may need an arena plan, but Windsor doesn't need a badly planned arena...
  
  "For 25 years I've been pressing successive councils for an arena," he said.
  
  "But this time the council agreed to proceed with entering into a development agreement with PCR Contractors Inc. and they did this with no operating cost analysis, no business or risk analysis. There is no location, which is so important to the success or failure to a project."
  
  "I think there is a feeling that we have to deliver an election commitment. When you get jilted at the proverbial alter, you shouldn't propose to the first person you see. You should at least date."

We need more people on Council with business sense, more people with gray hair, more people with experience in the real world. As Mayoral candidate David Wonham said, "The youthful enthusiasm experiment in running City Hall has failed." In my opinion, not only has it failed but it has failed miserably. The latest Arena saga demonstrates it.

Frankly, your second choice has to be between Ed Sleiman and Bill Marra. Perhaps John Middleton since he is a business person provided he tells voters what he stands for.

I must admit that what is being carried on at City Hall is so bizarre to me. No action for three years by this Council and then this huge rush to do a deal. I have done large complicated legal deals in my previous life and they are not something that can be done quickly. We have had that experience here before and it has cost us dearly! MFP, Canderel, the Bus Terminal to name a few.

I hope I am making people angry enough so that when they vote, they vote for the right people. We cannot afford any longer some of the people on Council who have no respect for the hard-earned dollars of tax-payers. More importantly, they have no respect for taxpayers!

I am sure that you noticed that I did not include the name, Ken Lewenza, as one of the people to vote for. I could not. Ken is honest at least----he had the guts to tell us that this year's budget was an election year budget. We should expect higher taxes or reduced services next year. He was also honest in telling us:

• "…it is possible the arena deal will be signed, sealed and delivered before the Nov. 13 municipal election.
  
  A deal with the Windsor Spitfires can be completed in a matter of weeks and the issue of where the arena would be located is coming back to council in one week with potential sites…
  
  “The further we get along in this process, the less of a chance of another council coming in and reversing it,” Lewenza said…
  
  “The majority of council would be overthrown to undo what we’ve done,” Lewenza said Thursday. “I don’t see anyone getting elected on a platform … of trying to undo the project.”

There seems to be an unseemly haste to complete the transaction rather than act in a reasonable and prudent manner in the best interests of residents. Speed should not be the criterion when entering into a project that may cost close to $100 Million by the time it is finished. There are 3 major transactions all at the same time: an arena deal with PCR, a deal with the Spitfires and the land transaction.

There seems to be a desire to prevent the next Council from looking at the transaction that is to be completed just weeks before the municipal election.

The Purchasing By-law provides :

• Sec. 56. Where a Contract may extend beyond the term of Council, the Contract shall contain provisions to minimize the financial liability of the City of Windsor should the subsequent Council not approve sufficient funds to complete the Contract and the City of Windsor may terminate the Contract.

The purpose of the Section is to allow a new Council to have second thoughts about a deal entered into by a previous Council. However Councillor Lewenza seems to want to make that task as difficult as possible thereby frustrating the clear purpose of the By-law.

I would think that he is not the only one that feels this way. Perhaps some others want to do so as well. Perhaps they don't have the guts to say so in public or perhaps they have the "smarts" not to do so.

For that, a thumb up for honesty to the Councillor, but I cannot suggest that the Councillor Lewenza should be re-elected for rushing the deal. For that, a big thumb down.