Windsor Betrayal: The Sequel

Oh my goodness. We better call the Governor's Hubby again. Windsor Council is dysfunctional. Time for him to make some more money at the expense of City taxpayers to control the children! Well it's either him or SuperNanny.

It really is Eddie now being Mike Hurst in 2003 all over again no matter how you want to look at it. It is nothing more than a reversal of a public position by the Mayor and Council carried out in secret. What more needs to be said? Try and spin it any way you want, it is a betrayal.

And only 2 or 3 people out of 200,000 care what goes on in camera according to one Councillor so they think they can do whatever they want with impunity. Too bad for them that I am one of them and I suspect that a couple of other Bloggers are the other two.

It will be interesting to watch how the Star plays this since Eddie has made a fool out of them completely on a tunnel. Will Henderson finally go after Eddie or will he back off as he did when he undercut his friend the Councillor and flip-flopped on fixing up the Barn? How will the Editorial writers deal with this? Will Battagello do the kind of stories he did with Hurst? We saw their tentative position taken today...more to follow.

Or will it all die out to be forgotten with Eddie forgiven as he now tries to spin what he did to pretend it did not take place? You will have already the transcript of his CKLW interview that I posted. It's fascinating how history is rewritten

Last time around Councillor Halberstadt thought he had been bushwacked....This time he was not. He knew what was going on. What did the unfortunate, under personal attack Councillor tell us:

1. There was an in camera meeeting----what else is new
   
2. Schwartz was back----we'd find that out anyway when the legal bills were revealed or when Sam made his next presentation. His involvement would hardly make anyone shake in their boots anyway. His credibility has undergone a transformation when Fulvio said his Report was just a "starting point." Hmmm no one dumped on him for saying that did they?
   
3. Schwartz is ready to work with the Province to reach a solution----what a revelation that is

That BLOG information really prejudices the City's position...It tells me everything I need to know and I am sure that the Senior Levels learned everything too about the City's position [sarcasm intended]

I wrote at the time since there was nothing of siginifcance in Alan's BLOG:

• "But Alan, tell us the real secrets discussed in camera. Don't give us just dribs and drabs to make it appear that you are letting us in on something.
  
  You aren't part of the PR exercise to soften up poor Windsorites for the big news are you?"

Who actually leaked first that the City's position changed....Why the Mayor himself at his State of the City speech. As I wrote:

• "If Schwartz is in town "to engage in intense modelling with the provinces's engineers to hopefully find a compromise on the route's many nuances." then we know why Eddie and Donnna Cansfield had a nice lunch recently! Why else would Eddie say in his State of the City speech "We are continuing to work with the DRIC on a new border crossing solution" and never once mention the word "tunnel" in his speech!

Where was Councillor Lewenza hammering the Mayor then? If it was in the media, I missed it. Is there a double standard? Only attack Councillors? Is Junior merely doing Eddie's dirty work since Eddie does not have the guts to do it himself. It might damage his squeaky-clean image. Branding and all that.

Isn't the real complaint that the Mayor and Council's hands were caught in the cookie jar? They made us believe one thing to stall the process and to get themselves elected and now did something else. In other words they are angry that we found about their betrayal. Here again is what I wrote:

• "So we learn that the DRIC corridor is to be used and that Schwartz is here to "compromise" the "nuances" whatever those are.
  
  Now please excuse me but didn't Council demand that the entire corridor be tunnelled? Wasn't that the object of the Marra Motion? Isn't that how certain Council members got elected or re-elected? Wasn't that the basis for so many Henderson columns? Were Windsorites played?"

Now who really leaked out what was said. For this one time only I will share with you who my source is and who told me what was the City's position.

Oh surely, you cannot think it was Councillor Halberstadt can you? Now watch for the witch-hunt as the Mayor tries to find out who else I called and spoke with. Here is the startling disclosure Alan told me when I asked, and I always do try, to get a statement out of a Councillor on an issue:

• "You'll have to wait and see"

Wow................that told me all I needed to know! Let's set up an Integrity Commissioner for that!

No my source was:

MAYOR EDDIE FRANCIS

Yes he leaked the information or to be more precise, he gave a "tell-all" story to the Star for Saturday's edition. I did not have to speak to anyone after Eddie opened his mouth and spilled the beans . Now Councillor Lewenza should dump on him. But does he dare? Here is what Eddie said:

• Council met for two consecutive nights this week behind closed doors [No big deal since most of Council's work is done out of the glare of public oversight]
  
• Mayor Eddie Francis said he briefed councillors on his discussions last week with DRIC officials [so he knows what DRIC will do and now we know it is NOT the entire route that is to be proposed by them. So much for negotiations now. Eddie's self-justification need killed that chance to get a resolution]
  
• attempted to reach a consensus among them on how much of the route they want tunnelled. [He is saying that not all will be tunnelled. We already learned in the story that the area north of E C Row would NOT get a Tunnel, only the 6 KM in the south. Here Eddie was seeing how much of a tunnel he could get away with and how much he could screw the "heritage" Sandwich area before the Ward 2 Councillors, Postma and Jones, would complain. Funny, where are the West End activists and politicos like Brian Masse speaking out? Eddie's road will do more to destroy the West end than will the Bridge Co.'s enhancemnt project.]
  
• The city will assemble its own technical information on tunnelling [but Eddie did not tell us the name of his consultant. Is he ashamed of Schwartz or did not want us to know how many people are involved since the fee will be huge. Sam has to cover his costs for his Windsor office somehow!]
  
• We will not accept a cheap solution. [Eddie must have read another book in which "cheap" was the word of the day. Is he telling us the truth making us believe that the entire route is all at-grade so if there is some tunnelling we will call him a hero? That might have happened but it cannot now. It has to be all or nothing for Eddie now or he has FAILED again on the border. How many times is that?]

Finally, the ultimate comment, the one that will haunt Eddie's next 3 1/2 years as Mayor and could truly make him a lame duck Mayor if a few Councillors started reading what their legal duties are:

• "Our starting point is a tunnel."

That line is the betrayal statement for which Eddie must take full and complete responsibility. He, after all, is the Voice of Council! It is his "Legacy Statement." It is his failure statement.

One last thought. This whole issue has nothing to do with Halberstadt. It is nothing more than a desperate move by a micro-manager who cannot stand that anyone other than he has a brain. It is to keep people from butting in with his PLAN. He used Junior who had to make up for attacking Eddie's Diane Francis soiree! Let him shoot off his mouth attacking Halberstadt. As Junior said, as only he can do:

• "Just keep your mouth shut."

By the way, who leaked what happened at the in camera Council session to start this all off? Should that person be censured too?

Look at Junior's charges:

• leaking confidential information on his Internet blog---what did Alan say compared with Eddie's remarks
  
• We are in the middle of negotiations," Lewenza said----oh, what are the negotiating boundaries since Council just met with Schwartz and there have been no meetings yet with Schwartz and the Province. How could there be negotiating sessions or was Eddie acting on his own without their knowledge
  
• Just keep your mouth shut---if only Junior would follow his own advice


• This is a billion-dollar file and he [Halberstadt] is out there saying we want a compromise," Lewenza said. "I challenged him on that.---Did he challenge the Mayor on his starting point remark?
  
• There have been many times each of us as a councillor wanted to say something, but the mayor is the lead.---and when others spoke, did Junior chllenge them or only Alan
  
• Halberstadt's actions have emphasized how the city needs an integrity commissioner to handle altercations and protocol issues, Lewenza said---that is desigend to scare Alan but it won't. And I wish we had one in Windsor. I personally could keep him/her going on the things that I think are wrong with this City!

What a farce. The irony is that it seems that Eddie learned nothing from the Mike Hurst experience. He will make the same mistake subsequently with the Eddie "Made-in-Windsor" solution.

Oh and in case you are wondering, we won't find out soon what the DRIC position really is. Neither Dwight nor Sandra have held their nominating meetings yet for the October election. I contacted their offices to find out when the meetings were scheduled and no dates were set yet.

Nothing will come out from DRIC until after those sessions. Do you think Sandra and Dwight want to have to field unhappy questions or face an opponent at their "love-ins" if there is NO DRIC tunnelled solution? Now they have Eddie Francis to blame for his betrayal of them and of Windsor!

Isn't politics fun?