Mayor Francis Condemns City Of Windsor

Poor Mayor Francis. I think that he is having exasperation attacks. He had one a few weeks ago with respect to the Ambassador Bridge Company wanting to close temporarily their private access road and I suspect he may have had a couple over the weekend.

Just in case you think I am serious, this BLOG is meant to be satirical.

Inside moles have told me that Mayor Francis has blasted the City of Windsor.

• "Who does the City think it is, Enwin Utilities?
  
  Why can't they be good corporate citizens like the nice people at the Ambassador Bridge Company and come to Council to get permission to close down a lane on a City street?
  
  Just because we refused permission to the Bridge Company and will never ever grant it does not mean that we would refuse it to everyone.
  
  Don't these City organizations understand that we have the power to grant exemptions. We can do so just as we can under the City's Interim Control Bylaw even though exemptions are not specifically set out in the Bylaw."

It appears that Ward 2 Councillor, Carolina Postma, upset Eddie when she told the Mayor that the City's lane closing actions on the Expressway could be a precedent used by the Ambassador Bridge Company to start a bad faith claim against the City of Windsor just like the actions by Enwin.

Apparently, she actually informed the Mayor that she wanted to make an arrangement with the WFCU and the Spitfires to show the Examination for Discovery of the Mayor, if there was a lawsuit, on the Jumbotron at the East End Arena to help cover the costs of that premier facility. She was getting nervous that if there were cost overruns, she would be held responsible since she had promised that taxes would not be increased to pay for it. She told the Mayor that she was confident that many tickets would be sold since already some of the private boxes had been reserved by people who expected to spend days there watching the Mayor being examined.

Francis was furious because the City was going to reduce lanes on EC row on a temporary basis. It seems that the number of temporary road lane closings in the City is becoming a pandemic. Francis said it was absolutely clear to him that the City was accommodating people who lived in the County and this is something that he was completely against.

"If I can oppose the construction on Manning Road, then Administration can let County people get lost as far as I am concerned. Let McNamara send out a search parties to find them. I don't care," Mayor Francis said in a fit of pique. He was referring to the following notice that was placed on the City's website

• Location: E.C. ROW EXPRESSWAY
  Project Type: INSTALL OVERHEAD VARIABLE MESSAGE SIGNS
  Closures / Detours LANE CLOSURES FOR E.C. ROW EXPRESSWAY
  1) WESTBOUND E.C. ROW REDUCED TO ONE LANE FROM BANWELL TO LAUZON PARKWAY
  
  2) EASTBOUND E.C. ROW REDUCED TO ONE LANE FROM DOMINION TO DOUGALL
  
  3) DOMINION EASTBOUND ON-RAMP CLOSED
  
  4) DOUGALL EASTBOUND OFF-RAMP CLOSED
  
  Start Date: SATURDAY MARCH 1, 2008 TO SUNDAY MARCH 2, 2008 11:00PM TO 6:00AM"

It appears that the Mayor saw no reason whatsoever to make life easy for County people. He fumed:

• "If they can close down I-75 for 2 years in Detroit for the Ambassador Gateway project, then we ought to be able to close down E C Row completely for 2 days. Who cares about the Americans not finding their way about. It will be good practice for them when they want to find the East End arena! They will get hopelessly lost trying to get to Tecumseh and Lauzon from the Tunnel."

Yes, yes I understand that Mayor Francis is the Mayor of the City of Windsor but that doesn't bother him. He does whatever he wants anyway. Whether it means going after the Bridge Company, the County or his own entities, the Mayor is an equal opportunity slammer.

Mayor Francis was again exasperated, especially when business people and activists were unable to start another rally on the closing of lanes on the Expressway. Francis stated:

• "Again, protesters in Windsor have been deprived of their constitutionally protected right to rally against Enwin and now the City of Windsor. I am tired of them arranging protest marches against private entities only. What is the matter with public authorities? Why can't these people protest against our actions as well? It is unfair discrimination as far as I'm concerned. "

Brian Masse, the NDP MP for Windsor West was, for the first time, at a loss for words. When contacted by the media, he stated

• "I'm going to have to call Councillor Jones to ask him how Bill C-3 applies in this situation. Jones is after all the expert in Black Letter Law as he revealed at Council the other week."

Expect this story not to be reported in the Windsor Star.

By the way, this was a bad weekend for Eddie with respect to the Expressway both as Mayor and as a Member of the Windsor Police Services Board. As you may recall several years ago:

• "Windsor police Chief Glenn Stannard is calling for gates at ramps on the E.C. Row Expressway after officers were tied up almost half a day diverting traffic at a fatal crash early Saturday.
  
  Stannard said since the city has grown by more than 20 per cent in recent years, police resources are stretched thin enough without having cops sit through marathon babysitting sessions at accident scenes.
  
  "We're already having longer responding times to calls because of the size of the city and our resources," Stannard said. "We've been talking about getting these gates off and on for a year or so. I guess Saturday was the last straw..."
  
  Gates would give police the ability to close the ramps in the event of emergencies or border congestion without having to divert officers from their regular beats. They would be extremely useful in hazardous driving situations, particularly in the winter when black ice forms.
  
  "We're seeing increasing numbers of fatalities, especially during winter," Stannard said. "It's no good having only enough officers to close three ramps when six have black ice conditions."

As you may know, gates were installed, I assume because of the Chief's comments. However, it appears that no one has mentioned this fact to the Windsor Police Department. On Saturday morning, because of the number of accidents on the Expressway, police cars blocked the entrance to the eastbound EC Row when I drove by on Dougall. I'm sure that the accidents were caused because of black ice conditions in winter. I wish someone had told the Police that the gates were to be used for emergency purposes and could be closed so that the officers could have been freed up for their regular patrol duties.

I wonder if Mayor Francis was exasperated because of that as well.