Even More Readers' Comments

Here is what some of your fellow readers have to say about some of the go-ings on in Windsor.

You must want to get something off of your chest too. Just email me at the following address: windsorcityblog@yahoo.ca

1) Hi Ed,

I must confess, I voted for Eddie Francis..twice! I truly believed the city needed his entrepreneurial approach, business focus, and executive leadership. After all, if a city doesn't work economically, it surely can not work socially. What I failed to predict was Eddie's inability to adapt his corporate-style of decision making. Is a council vote merely a trivial process? I certainly hope not and it is impossible to run a city of our size with such callousness and arrogance.

You often mention it is the mayor's inexperience which has caused him trouble, but I believe it is fear that has proven to be his greatest obstacle. Fear of losing everything. His willingness to compromise the cities position and his desperation for executive approval are the actions of a scared mayor.

I am sure the mayor believes he is showing leadership by doing what is "right" for the long-term profitability of the city regardless of popularity. I really hope his intentions truly are for the greater good of the city, but as time passes, his actions (and council's inaction) are proving more selfish than selfless.

Is Mayor Francis more concerned about his personal brand than Windsor's brand? I'm guessing so. Unfortunately, whatever legacy he leaves will forever be tied to the city and ultimately, me. This city needs leaders. Not just one, but many. Not just on city council, but everywhere. There is nothing more frustrating than a city filled with apathy. Unfortunately, it has not only become acceptable, but expected.

2) Ed, there will never be a tunnel between the end of 401 and the border;

Traffic is down, see report on tourism, down 30% , trucks at this border are down also

One of the reasons is that the turn around traffic between plants in the old manufacturing and assembly processes because subassemblies are now used, and assembly plants are moving closer to their markets.

The tunnel is at half their previous volume with McQuarrie Bank wanting to bail out.

Of course the City likes to buy assets that are losing money, they hide the capitol cost and preach how they are making money because they only consider operating expenses !!!

Inside city hall has not changed much , just different fiefdoms .

Keep up your blog !

3) Hello Ed.

Well Ed you did a fine job on Monday. I hope you keep it up.

Now Ed maybe you can explain to me what is going on there. First of all I remember when the people on Indian Road were begging the Bridge Company to do something to the old houses on Indian Road because they were in a hell of a mess and they
wanted the Bridge Company to tear them down. Now they are saying don't do so.

Mary Ann says that the wall is to close to the houses. I agree it is, however the Bridge is willing to take those houses down and make it a green area. By doing this they are in fact marking the distance from the wall greater than they actually wanted it to be.

Can you explain any of this to me?

4) Unbelievable how much the Enwin/WUC component is. Considering that at least two counsellors are on each board + Eddie and each meeting has a fee of $500 and each morning they can have three board/committee meetings in three hours, the total really adds up.

Enwin spent nearly $2M in outside consultants fees recently to restructure the company again with no obvious internal savings.

I read Eddie's "State of the Union" speech which actually mentions much about his accomplishments at Enwin/WUC. He talked about the missed customer billings but failed to mention that it only occurred in late 2005 while he was chairman and was spending the money on consultants. Enwin had a program that highlighted any potential missed billings and I now question why this would not have caught the problem.

It appears that profits have been moved from WUC to Enwin due to a reallocation of common costs. WUC has asked for a 35% rate increase which has an impact on the sewer surcharge and is separate from City budget deliberations. Enwin's subsequent higher profitability then becomes available for Eddie to obtain higher dividends for the City to spend. Great plan eh?

5)Just a thought;

At the end of the Schwartz report presentation when Eddie is doing a Q&A session - he proposes using money from the federal strategic infrastructure fund for the city to purchase the two existing CP rail tunnels for $300 million to help CP finance a double-stack rail tunnel (and thus abandon the DRTP idea which was believed to be a merely a method of financing the double-stack rail tunnel), and in return the city would then pursue re-estabishing passenger rail traffic through the tunnels it bought by bringing Amtrack through. All tied to the intermodal facility idea, and a new train station out by the airport in concert with rail rationalization blah blah blah...

6) What this city needs is an investigator reporter on a lot of issues. A Royal Commission to come in and check if the Canadian Government still has them. I would think we might find out who runs the city.

Has Eddie just transferred this idea to a new pet project? Does he still want to tap the federal strategic infrastructure fund to pay off the tunnel purchase, but at an inflated price

7) NOTE: You might be interested in the A-Channel news story about the Bridge Co. demolition denial. Go to http://www.achannel.ca/windsor/news_44657.aspx