More Thoughts

Here are some interesting ideas for you to consider:

WESTERN SUPER ANCHOR LANDS

Councillor Gignac had this to say about her family's lands donated for a Church:

"My grandfather gave this property to the diocese of London to build St. Rose of Lima church, so that the community would have a Catholic church to attend without having to go a great distance," said Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac of the 83-year-old church.

"This is virtually a slap in the face," Gignac said. "If they're going to close the church, then do the right thing and give it back to the family."

I am sure that she will lead the fight now to give the lands back to the people whose property was taken for the downtown arena since it is not going to be built. Will the City do the right thing now?

SAVE SCHWARTZ'S PRESENTATION COSTS

Henderson has already told us what is in the Report and how wonderful it is. DRIC has rejected it. Who needs to see it now? Who cares what the artist renditions will show us? It is dead and gone.

This is virtually the same thing that happened with Schwartz I when the Governments rejected it in early summer and then Sam presented it months later after it was tweaked. We played around with it for a year or so to stall off the building fo the road to the bridge until Councillor Valentinis officially killed it by calling it a "starting point." Remarkably similar language to what the Mayor called the tunnel when he killed that concept for Schwartz II.

Let's just cut out the interim step of revealing the final work to the public since it is irrelevant now and Sam can go off and create another innovative Report for which he will be paid a bundle to further stall the process.

Time for Schwartz III

WHO IS HENDERSON'S SOURCE ON THE BORDER

Time to start building up files for the soon-to-be-proposed Integrity Commissioner to examine.

In Saturday's column, Gord said:

• "According to informed sources, the talks collapsed when the Detroit River International Crossing team (DRIC)... offered only token improvements in plans for a depressed roadway running parallel to Huron Church Road."

A bit later in the column he said:

• "Not in the eyes of Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis. He was in a fighting mood Friday as he argued that Windsor is carrying a huge load as Canada's chief trade conduit and deserves nothing less that a first-class solution."

And then there were a whole bunch of Francis quotes.

Who can the source be?

Surely, it cannot be a Councillor since none would dare talk about the border. Eddie after all according to the Council Motion is the Voice of Council in this matter.

Who can it be?

WINDSOR SECRECY IS JUSTIFIED

Whew thank goodness the CAO was around for quotes and no politicans were able to be found to discuss our in camera meetings. He runs the City not our politicans in case you didn't know that.

Thank goodness he says that secrecy may be at an end:

• "Cities are increasingly facing a "philosophical challenge" on trying to do what's best for ratepayers, yet provide greater transparency, Skorobohacz said.
  
  "The challenge is to say 'conduct business in the public domain,' but at the same time it may be in the adverse interest of the taxpayer," he said, citing the potential financial impact of revealing labour contract talk strategies or directions on the controversial border file...
  
  "Once the border is resolved I would expect you will see a significant drop (of hours spent behind closed doors)."

After all, fighting with "the enemy" and reading BLOGs to get your information on the border takes up a lot of time.

His comment does not give me a whole bunch of confidence. Wasn't he the guy who kicked out reporters from a City Hall strategy session and over-ruled the Mayor who said "Apparently I have no authority," Francis said."

• "Windsor's chief administrative officer John Skorobohacz said it was his decision to hold Thursday's workshop behind closed doors and he did not consult with city councillors. He said the gathering was not a meeting in the traditional sense of the word and was not subject to the municipal act's open-meetings rule.
  
  Mayor Eddie Francis asked Skorobohacz to keep the meeting open to the media. But the mayor acquiesced when Skorobohacz held his ground.
  
  "It's a decision of 11 members of city council. I didn't see anybody else object" to the closed-door meeting.
  
  When pressed about whether council voted on opening the meeting, Francis said they didn't get a chance to do so because it was never considered a meeting in the first place. "The chief administrative officer indicated it was a workshop."
  
  Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said it's up to elected officials to set the direction for paid bureaucrats. "It's still the mayor's call. Bureaucrats have no authority to decide what's in-camera."
  
  Skorobohacz said he wanted the meeting closed to the public because he hoped councillors would speak freely about their hopes and dreams during the next four years."

NAMING RIGHTS FOR THE ARENA

I wonder if the financial institution that I heard had an inside track to name the arena pulled out.

Here is the timetable for the naming:

• "In order to be considered for this opportunity, interested parties must submit a sealed proposal addressed to the Purchasing Coordinator, Corporation of the City of Windsor, Suite 404A, 400 City Hall Square East, Windsor, Ontario, N9A 7K6, on or before Eleven-thirty (11:30:00 a.m. E.D.T.). Local Time, Tuesday, June 26th, 2007. Proposals presented to the Purchasing Coordinator after the designated closing time on the due date will not be considered regardless of the circumstances that resulted in the late arrival to the purchasing department."

Apparently, the deadline has been extended:

• "Please note that the closing date has been changed to 11:30 A.M. (E.D.T.), TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2007."

I wonder if the Mayor will say now as he did when the RFP for the operation of the airport was extended:

• "There has been “significant interest” from global airport operators in taking over at Windsor’s airport, Mayor Eddie Francis said Monday.
  
  The city is in the midst of a request for proposals (RFP) to run the struggling local airport after an agreement was reached a couple of months ago for early termination of its relationship with current operator Serco Aviation.
  
  “I’m somewhat pleased to see the level of response as it relates to the Windsor airport,” Francis said. “These are well-known international operators that have expressed an interest.
  
  “There is sufficient interest that we have extended the RFP deadline until the end of June to meet their needs and desire to put good proposals together.”

SANDRA'S PRE-ELECTION BROCHURE

I just got it in the mail since she is my MPP just in time for Canada Day since the back side is a nice Canadian Flag.

The title of the brochure is "4 years of Positive Change for Windsor West."

Now I looked through the brochure carefully and I am positive that I did not see one word about the border crossing issue. I am positive that not much has changed in the last four years when Sandra was a Cabient Member since she positively had to "respect the DRIC process." I am fairly positive that not much will change in the near future either.

I am positive as well that Sandra wants us positively to forget about the border even though her riding is positively impacted no matter what is done.

Who knows, if it is a positive story about Councillor Ron Jones running against her. I am positive that we could have a big fight in the riding for the seat if he did. If he won, we'd have a change but I am positive that Sandra would not think it positive.

I'd be pleased if someone could send me Dwight's brochure to see how positive he is!