Betrayal: It's The 2003 Déjà Vu All Over Again

I have to do this as a two-part BLOG. It is too much for me to say and for you to read in one long piece.

You know I lost it over the weekend. I just kept thinking it is 2003 all over again! Time had stood still

First, on Friday, it was the manipulation of the Council agenda, a cynical action designed to keep information away from Windsorites, for self-justification, to spread responsibility and to prevent debate and any negative comments.

Then, on Saturday, it was the Star "City plots DRIC plan" story that pushed me over the edge!

This first part of the BLOG is dedicated to the Editorial Board of the Windsor Star, and the Star Columnist, Gord Henderson, the huge advocates for a tunnelled solution in Windsor. It will be interesting watching you squirm as your position has been totally undercut by your hero, the Mayor!

Oh I know how it will be rationalized, how you will try to explain it away to your readers...trading the DRIC tunnel for the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel. If the Feds give Eddie his $75M to pay for the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel deal, then you'll let them off the hook for not building a complete tunnelled solution from 401 to the border.

It's politics isn't it, trade-offs! You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. It will be all done in secret too, out of the glare of public oversight. Regrettable but needed in this case because of the high stakes involved. I can just imagine reading it all now in the paper and gagging!

You know what. Mike Hurst is back as Mayor in the guise of Eddie Francis. It was the 2003 secret DRTP reversal all over again but this time it had to do with the tunnel.

I can only hope that we have at least one Councillor who will stand up and have the guts to say in public "Enough already!" as Council did in March 2003. However, from their record so far, I am not so sure there is one.

When Charlie Hotham as Councillor faced down Mayor Mike Hurst at the Council meeting on March 4, 2003 and told him that there was going to be a vote on the border issues that night, Mike Hurst was no longer Mayor of Windsor except in name only from that minute on! A majority of Council at that time took over the running of the City. Their success on the border issue has been squandered by Eddie Francis as Mayor and by two Councils, so far anyway.

My disgust Saturday morning was matched by that which I felt when I learned that Council had seemingly reversed themselves four years ago on opposing DRTP. Here is how Gord Henderson described it at the time:

• "Empty promises
  Windsor Star 02-27-2003
  
  Forget the cheese-eaters. The real "surrender monkeys" are right here in Windsor where Mayor Mike Hurst and seven councillors abandoned a solemn public commitment to city residents after huddling behind closed doors.
  
  I thought a co-worker was pulling my leg when he told me that councillors, at Hurst's cajoling, had secretly backflipped last weekend on their unanimous stand in opposition to the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership (DRTP) plan for an international truck route through the heart of Windsor.
  
  No way, I thought. No way could they run up the white flag after facing more than 800 angry city residents at the Caboto Club on Jan. 27 and passionately professing their opposition to the DRTP plan and the bridge company's proposed parkway through the west end...
  
  But it boggles the mind to realize that a formal council resolution, passed with hundreds of witnesses present and thousands more watching on cable TV, could have a shelf life of only 26 days.
  
  Bad enough that they jettisoned their commitments and sold entire neighbourhoods down the river. What's worse is that they didn't have the guts to do it in public where the shocked victims could hear the rationale and judge the intestinal fortitude of their elected representatives. This after they lectured provincial and federal transportation bureaucrats for failing to be open and accountable."

Is it any different today? The idea of a tunnel from Highway 401 to the border seems to be a popular one although probably unrealistic. The Mayor and Council are in support of the concept and have worked the people up to convince them that it is required. Bill Marra, unfortunately for some, called the Mayor and Council's bluff by forcing the passing of the Tunnel Resolution on April 2, 2007 at a public Council session.

That Motion was clear:

1. Windsor wants a tunnel on the DRIC route


2. There has to be a tunnelled solution on the ENTIRE route, not just parts of it.

This Council is a bit better than the one in January-February in 2003...They took almost two months before they reversed their public Resolution! And like the other Council, they did it in secret headed by the Mayor!

Look at what happened in 2003 and compare it with what happened in 2007:

1. We had a Resolution opposing the entire DRTP in public. We had a Resolution supporting a tunnelled solution along the entire DRIC Corridor in public
   
2. In private, after about a month, in a secret strategy session, Council supported supposedly a DRTP North solution thereby changing their public postion. In private, after about two month, in a secret strategy session, Council supported supposedly a 6 KM tunnelled solution in the South only thereby changing their public postion and even then was prepared to compromise on other corridor "nuances."
   
3. Mayor Hurst opposed all of DRTP yet offered up a partial DRTP solution. Mayor Francis supported all of a tunnelled solution and now offers a partial tunnelled solution.
   
4. Mayor Hurst tried to reach a consensus on how much of the DRTP route was to be used. Mayor Francis "attempted to reach a consensus among them on how much of the route they want tunnelled."
   
5. Hurst said to justify his new position "I believe we have to put something on the table if we hope to be successful at the table..."You can't keep saying no because the feds and the province are only going to wait so long before they impose a solution on us." Francis said to justify his new position "We are aware DRIC is moving towards a decision in regards to the corridor and what the route will be," Francis said. "Our experience in dealing with them in the past leads to concern on what the ultimate decision will be."
   
6. Ward 2 was going to be screwed in 2003 by Hurst's solution. Ward 2 is going to be screwed in 2007 by Francis' solution.
   
7. The area with the biggest noise-makers (and the richest home-owners with the biggest houses) would be the winners in both the solutions proposed in 2003 and 2007 while the other area lost out. The South was going to get a park in 2003 and now would get a tunnel in 2007. Ward 2 gets the trucks!
   
8. That Council said NO to DRTP as their starting and then as their finishing point. This Council said YES to a tunnelled solution and now says that is merely their starting point
   
9. Hurst said "This [his Made-in-Windsor solution] is a framework and it's a beginning not an end. " Francis said "We want something that works. Our starting point is a tunnel."
   
10. In 2003, the Chair of STOPDRTP said "This is the absolute betrayal of the residents of the City of Windsor," said Dave Brister, chairman of the South/West Windsor Ratepayers Association, a residents group fighting the DRTP plan. "Mayor (Mike) Hurst and the councillors who have chosen to turn their backs on the residents of Windsor by now favouring the DRTP proposal have proven that they do not deserve the positions of trust which they hold. "We are opposed to the DRTP in its entirety." In 2007, Councillor STODRTP said.....

I was very involved in the 2003 episode and knew what went on then during this reversal. As the story kept unfolding in the Star at that time, it just kept getting worse for the Mayor and Councillors. A certain Councillor had the courage to accept an invitation for a coffee and then take charge and warn his colleagues about the backlash that they had unwittingly released and what it could do to Government in Windsor.

I doubt that Councillor would meet for coffee this time around. It is very unfortunate that the tunnel boosters do not have the power of the citizens in STOPDRTP. We were able to mobilize Windsorites to stop the 2003 betrayal. I am not sure to be direct who can stop the 2007 betrayal unless Council will on their own.

We had Councillors then who were not afraid and were prepared to face up to a very strong and dominating Mayor---seven of them. Dave Brister was involved as Chair of STOPDRTP then, Councillors Valentinis, Halberstadt and Marra were on Council then as was Councillor Jones. Wasn't Percy Hatfield covering Council for CBC TV then too?

Do we have a Charlie Hotham or a Joyce Zuk in Ward 1 now? Was Councillor Halberstadt "bushwacked" again? Who are our Councillors Francis and Valentinis now who can lead their colleagues? Has Bill Marra passed the 6 month period where he has proved himself to be loyal to his colleagues and will now stand up for his Motion and for Windsor?

Councillor Jones was there in 2003 and did not like what went on. What is he doing now and his colleague who replaced Peter Carlesimo? How are they standing up for their Ward? Do they like what they are seeing now?

It has nothing to do with the tunnel as far as I am concerned. It has everything to do with trusting our Government. With a betrayal such as this on such an important matter, regardless of what your position is, who can believe anything this Mayor and Council says any more? Who can possibly have any faith in their word?

It must be that amnesia bug that is effecting City Hall. Did they all forget what happened in that most tumultuous of times? I sure did not and I am hoping that you did not as well today.

This afternoon, Part Two about the agenda tonight and what this City has become.