WATERMAIN-GATE: Revenge Of The Amoebae

Wow, that would be a great movie title wouldn't it! Or the Amoebae Strike Back! Or how about Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Amoeba-nator.

Councillor Halberstadt suggested that "Mayor Francis and his chorus" are treating me and my fellow harsh Eddie critics --"Al Nelman, Ed Arditti, Chris Schnurr, Les Chaif and Bob Harper"--- "little more than amoeba who have nothing constructive to say about anything." Poor us. We were just lonely before. Now we are a mass of protoplasm.

And then to add to our backhanded praise, we may also be irrelevant. I guess it's because we are mere taxpayers who have the ability to think and are not afraid to confront His Royal Worship. Unlike most Councillors that is who cower in his presence:

• "Even if you believe these citizens are irrelevant (I personally believe that sometimes they are relevant and sometimes they aren't), they should not be excluded from contributing to the municipal debate by high-handed tactics."

Gee thanks, Councillor. Allowing me to participate in our democracy. Imagine, me, an irrelevant amoeba. What a come-down!

Some reflections on WATERMAIN-GATE after a long day running off to DRIC meetings twice, the first time not being able to find a parking spot.

This is a key turning point for this Mayor and this Council and for the City. It is exactly like the vote in March, 2003 over the border. It will impact our future in many ways.

We amoeba have not done too badly after all have we. Remember that Consultants' Report that was not going to be disclosed until after the Council meeting, well the Consultants were there at the Council meeting spilling their guts and answering questions on what they reported. Not too shabby eh.

I assume that we should be given some credit for Eddie folding like an accordion. He was forced to have a Section 9 Municipal Affairs Audit, a huge insult and embarrassment to any Municipal Government in Ontario. It says that citizens have so little confidence and faith in what the Mayor and Council say that we have to go to an outsider to tell us what are the facts! That is not something to have on one's CV.

Seriously, who broke the story of the Zuber memo that ultimately forced the Mayor to have an inquiry. Two of the amoebae!

It did not take the amoebae long to see through the myth of Eddie as the experienced and successful lawyer and business person who would lead us to a better future. The rest of the City is now catching up to us too after the WUC fiasco as the story keeps changing.

No matter what the results of the investigation, our opinion of Eddie will no longer be the same. What a slap in his face. Are you concerned that he is in charge of the US$75M Tunnel deal, or CEO of the new Tunnel and airport corporations, or running the Tunnel. The arena deal is proving to be a huge waste given what the Raceway people would have spent of their own money. We lost at least $50M that could have gone for water mains. As for his handling of the border, well you know my views of that.

I am quite enjoying Monday Night at Council. ABC-TV may have a tough fight for viewers come the fall. Who wants to watch football with this drama, or is it comedy.

Last Monday we had it again. The outside consultants brought in to tell us about the catastrophe we will have unless we spend Councillor Lewenza's one dollar per day (Has anyone added up yet how much we are spending using the Councillor's Math? Talk about being nickled and dimed to financial ruin. If there is an issue, the Councillor comes up with the pennies per day it costs in order to tell us we ought not to worry and can afford it. He ought to be selling cars on the installment plan not working for the CAW!)

I am not going to spend much time on what the Consultants said other than to say that about a third of other Ontario cities are doing what Windsor is doing so we are NOT at the forefront as has been suggested. And yes, I know that money is needed to fix up old pipes but I am not confident that WUC knows what it is doing as you shall see.

Of course replacing watermains is not the issue. It's a tactic to steer our direction away from the big story. Was there a diversion of funds, what role did politics play, who is responsible for the mess and has there been a cover-up to fool us?

But what was revealed at Council suggests to me that we have major problems in this City. Can you believe that we do not know how many problem customers WUC has. Is it 1,000, or even more or the new number, 156? According to the WUC rep at Council, the number of 156 was known in February, 2007---120 residential and 36 commercial.

If that was true, then the problem is the Mayor and the Mayor alone. He is spreading disinformation. Was it to make himself look good by showing how 311 (and NOT Citistat) solved a problem? In his State of The City speech on May 14, 2007 after February, he said:

• "With the new system in place, we discovered that there were one thousand water meters that were hooked up to water consuming customers, but the Windsor Utilities Commission didn’t know, and wasn’t charging them.
  
  And, of course, the customers never called in to tell us that they were getting free water."

The latter remark was wrong it turns out; people did call in. But who told us about the 1,000 customers. None other than the Mayor. Can't he get his facts correct? Is he that sloppy? WUC knew it was only 156 customers 3 months before. And as far as WUC goes, they are not much better. Sylvia de Vries, WUC spokeswoman said recently the number could be 1,000 or more!

• "We did an audit subdivision by subdivision. The audit is still ongoing as we speak. It may not have been a thousand. It could be higher."
  
  On Friday it appeared the utility lost millions in unpaid bills. Francis and acting general manager Max Zalev said the utility couldn't recoup the lost money.
  
  But now it seems the utility is collecting the unpaid revenue and hasn't lost any money.
  
  "The residents have been paying back the bills," said Patricia Devin-Doan, director of customer service."

In fact, it was stated at Council that the meters registered water usage so it was just a matter of reconciling the accounts. Not a big deal after all.

It was great news in May and then when it turned out to be the disaster and seeming incompetence in August costing us millions, we found out what now purports to be the real facts as the Mayor tried to escape blame!

How can we believe anything the Mayor says if he cannot get something so simple right. How can we believe WUC if they cannot get their story straight!

As for the issues of diversion and who knew what when, it is getting worse and worse for the Mayor. As I said in my previous BLOG , we have another story about the use of money in capital and operating accounts. That makes three inconsistent ones so far. Diversion, no diversion and something in the middle. Don't you think it would be nice to know the truth now.

Remember the old regime pulling numbers out of the air and how politics was responsible That changed to unnamed members of previous WUC Administrations who were at fault. On Monday, that position started falling apart too. Let me describe what I mean about that.

Oh sure, perhaps not enough money was initially set aside back in 1988 and then in 1994 but amounts were budgetted. That time period was before Walkerton too, a bogey-man word being thrown around to scare us into submission.

The real crunch came in September, 2002 when the WUC prepared a detailed water main report as I stated previously. It was called a well-done report on Monday night which was used by the new consultants as well. That report detailed what needed to be done. The Report said said:

• "an assessment has been made of the renewal requirements for the next 50 years. The graphical representation of this data is known in the industry as the "Nessive Curve…"
  
  In the worst-case situation, an annual expenditure of $7.2 million is required, while in the best case situation an annual capital expenditure of $5.6 million is required. The average expected annual expenditure based on these two extremes is $6.4 million."

Hardly picking numbers out of the air was it. It was a well-reasoned analysis that gave rise to a number to help solve the problem. Multiply $6.4M for 50 years, add in some inflation and the number is not that far off the number being thrown around today. It looks to me that the 2002-3 WUC Administration didn't do too badly.

As for alternatives to replacement, they looked at that too:

• "The Chief Engineer also explained a new product/process used instead replacement ageing watermains that entails cleaning the watermains and then applying epoxy to seal/repair the watermain thereby significantly extending the life of the watermain…He said the new process is estimated to reduce watermain replacement/repair costs by one-third and cause less system interruption and inconvenience to the customers."

It became clear that more money was needed and in 2003,

• "there is a need to begin the systematic replacement of the older cast iron water mains. This program is anticipated to extend over the next 45 to 50 years and will require rehabilitation or replacement of water mains with an annual cost of $6.5 million based on 2002 dollars...
  
  It has been determined a new Capital Levy of 5% of each customers water bill will be required to provide the additional funding ($1.2 to $1.5 million) to allow this program to proceed."

I read where the WUC general manager, said in November, 2003

• "the increase was necessary to allow the utility to continue a $9-million project to upgrade the watermain system over the next several years. The hike takes into account required capital spending over the next 30 years to improve the system, which the commissioners decided should be paid for through increased billing rather than debt financing."

Again, it appears to me, based on the facts I have seen to date, that someone seemed to be doing his/her job at that time.

To be direct, it seems to me that the whole thing fell apart after 2003 unless there are additional facts that say otherwise. Guess who was Chair of WUC at the time (and it was NOT Junior). The same guy who introduced and had passed a Motion at Council on Monday instead of having a discussion! Eddie Francis.

We learned from the Consultants that staggering of costs can be undertaken, financing is possible and the life of pipes can be extended. Did you hear any of this before? Was that ever discussed with the public? I do not remember it if it was. All we heard were huge numbers justifying huge water rate increases and even bigger sewer surcharge increases. What's scary is that this surcharge money is under Council's control!

To be blunt about it, I think our Mayor and several members of Council who are or were on WUC have a lot of explaining to do. Why it was only in 2005 when the Mayor said:

• "The Windsor Utilities Commission will have to justify any water rate increase this fall, Mayor Eddie Francis said Wednesday.
  
  "I pay for water and I want to know what we pay these rates for," Francis said at a meeting of the commission.
  
  "(The rates) have to be justified. We aren't going to stand by when they say 'We need this.' We are going to ask why."
  
  Francis said in an interview he believes water rates are too high...
  
  When the study is completed, Francis said he hopes it will show water rates can be decreased."

Can you really believe that remark in light of what has happened with the huge increases! Perhaps decreasing rates in 2005 and in 2007, mammoth increases. What is going on here?

In the end, the Eddie-myth is over and now he has been brought down to earth with the need for an outside investigation. We do not know if there is a problem or not since stories keep changing. We are not sure if what is being spreading is the truth or misinformation.

Sure we know we have watermain problems in Windsor. We are not dumb for heaven's sake. But every month when the bill has to be paid we will look to the Mayor and Council and wonder what really is going on. Even with complete exoneration from an independent audit, will they ever be able to recover from this financial fiasco?