More On Monday's Council Meeting

Just some more thoughts about Monday's Council meeting:

WOLF, WOLF, WOLF

You may have seen the Star online headline the other day:

• "City may seek legal action to derail DRIC"

It could have been written this way instead based on past examples:

• "City may seek legal action to derail DRIC...OR maybe not"

Our little shepherd boy, the Mayor, and his flock of sheep are threatening a lawsuit again against the Provincial Government road. How tedious [yawn].

Of course, this time, to try to build up their credibility, they had to bring in the heavy artillery by having their outside counsel and experts bushwhack the DRIC representatives. I wonder how much this extravaganza cost taxpayers in airfare alone, never mind legal and consulting fees for so many people. They better have travelled through YQG too. Or else!

I'm sure that our Provincial representatives, Sandra and Dwight, who organized the train trip to Toronto to boost Windsor must wonder why they bothered but for the fact that they owe a loyalty and a responsibility to their hometown.

I wonder what the potential investors in Toronto must think, if they actually even read the stories about Windsor and the border, of a City that is prepared to chase away an investment of several billion dollars over a couple of Schwunnels.

My reaction would be what kind of a City Government do they have in Windsor given the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star stories that outlined Windsor's woes when the Mayor and Council want to bite the hand that feeds them.

I know that if I was in their position, all I would do is shake my head and look to see how I can invest in other areas of Southwest Ontario.

Seriously though, we should all strap a "W" on our chests and get the message out there that Eddie doesn't really mean it. He does not have the nerve to start a lawsuit because if he did he would have started already given what Mr. Estrin had to say.

As I wrote before [May 07, 2008. "The Mayor Who Cried Wolf"]

• "It's all a joke anyway. Eddie has no intention of suing so he should stop posturing before he completely destroys this City. He would be the star witness in the lawsuit and he could not take that kind of pressure. Can you imagine if the City lost and he was forced to take the blame as the Senior Levels pulled out and 12,000 jobs disappeared...
  
  Isn't our Mayor the little shepherd boy. I think I have lost track of how many times he or one of the Councillors threatened litigation against the Senior Levels."

I can just imagine what the DRIC representatives said after the Council meeting on Monday. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaa

THE FINAL POINT

He is not pulling the wool over my eyes!

What a wonderful presentation that David Estrin gave with respect to his proposed lawsuit respecting DRIC's Environmental Assessment process. I know that I would be shaking in my boots if I was a Provincial Government representative after hearing what Mr. Estrin had to say. NOT!

The PowerPoint presentations given by the City's representatives at the meeting totalled 46 pages according to the copy that I was sent after I made a request. What the City was actually trying to accomplish with everything they did on Monday night is the set out in the last point on the last page.

All that Eddie wants to do is talk some more and some more and some more. After his performance on Monday, if I was advising the Province and the Federal Government, I would tell them to ignore him. He is irrelevant from now on in this matter.

NAME-CALLING

What childish behaviour over the border road that is being displayed by our Mayor. He should be sheepish over this

If you don't support Greenlink and everything that he wants, then he calls you names! You are a Nine-Point Planner, an E C Row destroyer and an at-grade road cheapo.

When you are called an "enemy," then you will know that you have made it!

SOMEWHAT FINANCIAL

Eweeeee.

Obviously, one of the weak points of the City's position with respect to Greenlink and the DRIC Road is the high cost of Greenlink. DRIC estimated I believe that the Greenlink cost was $800 million more than that for the DRIC road. It was interesting to me that Mr. Estrin's presentation did not deny the cost differential or, at the least, provide an alternative amount.

The key factors for the difference in costs according to DRIC are:

• Is based on a 7.3 km highway, not the 9 to 12 km highway needed to fully connect
  Highway 401 to a new bridge inspection plaza.


• Does not account for inflation and is presented in 2007 dollars.


• Does not include engineering and contract administration


• Specifies substandard shoulder widths

One would think therefore that a good part of Mr. Estrin's presentation should have been spent on the cost differential so as to justify it. Instead, he just glossed over it using the tactic to ignore it so that it is forgotten and goes away.

Here is how the $800 million difference was dismissed in the PowerPoint presentation

Another slide said

• "While GreenLink is initially somwhat more costly than the Parkway, GreenLink provides more long-term benefits."

Wow...Those Toronto lawyers sure live in a different price bracket than I'm used to now that I live in Windsor. Can you imagine, Mr. Estrin can describe $800 million as "somewhat less," "somewhat more costly."

In my world, that position is somewhat ridiculous.

WHERE IS GORD HENDERSON

I heard from a usually reliable source that none of the DRIC people have been sleeping properly since Monday night. They lie awake in bed at night just counting sheep. Even the "apology" for Windsor's behaviour from the Mayor of Tecumseh did not help. They knew that Gord would not have time to do a column for Tuesday's newspaper but absolutely expected a brutal column to be published today attacking them in a way that only Gord can do.

Shockingly, not only was there no column but there was no Star Editorial either.

I understand that trauma counsellors have now been assigned to some of the DRIC members, who may be in a deep psychological depression due to the Estrin legal attack and the expected Henderson counter-offensive, to help them cope with with what will definitely be a fuming Henderson diatribe, a Star Editorial and cartoon on Saturday.

TOTAL CONFUSION

I thought that the Mayor in answer to Councillor Halberstadt suggested to citizens that all of the Councillors were fully informed about the Tunnel issues. Imagine my surprise when I read this on Councillor Halberstadt's BLOG:

• "I would remind you again of my still outstanding Council question, presented on June 25, 2007, almost a year ago now, asking for an acturarial study, a detailed financial prospective, a risk assessment, a traffic volulme/revenue/expenditure analysis since Sept. 11, 2001, and a projection of the lifespan of the facility.
  
  Counc. Bill Marra has asked for a similar analysis as a member of the Tunnel Commission, and is also cooling his heels waiting for answers, in his case for nine months."

What's going on here? There seems to be two conflicting points of view. Have the Councillors been fully informed by the Mayor and his lawyer or haven't they? Seriously, over a million dollars of taxpayer money has been spent on this file so far. That could have been used to buy a lot of lamb chops for Councillor dinners.

That should be a very simple question to ask and to have answered. Perhaps the Windsor Star and Gord Henderson could start asking some questions because they have been disturbingly silent too.

While it would be nice to know who's actually telling the truth in this matter, I am more concerned about controlling what the Mayor and Council want to do with respect to the Tunnel. Accordingly, in my opinion Councillor Halberstadt should in fact introduce a Notice of Motion at the next Council meeting demanding that no action be taken for 30 days after the Mayor presents his Report to Council with respect to the Tunnel deal so that Councillors and the public have sufficient time to digest the information to determine whether the deal makes sense or not.

At the Council meeting after this when the Notice is debated, assuming that another Councillor has the guts to second the Motion, Windsorites get the opportunity to appear in front of Council as a delegation to express their point of view on the Motion!

In the meantime, the Councillor should demand that the Mayor come clean now and tell us what this deal is really all about in detail.

Don't you wish that we had a Council member who has the intestinal fortitude to speak out like the President of Council in Detroit who said:

• "Cockrel called the proposal to sell the city's half of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel for $75 million an "irresponsible and shortsighted" plan that would fail to address the city's structural deficit, now in its fourth year. Noting it is the second time the mayor has proposed the plan, Cockrel said each time the proposal was given to the council without adequate information or time to review.
  
  "Council has yet to be convinced that limited information in the current incarnation of the deal [is in the city's interest]," he said."

Instead, we get Councillors who are prepared to allow themselves to be muted by confirming a Resolution that the Mayor is the Voice of Council and that they cannot say anything in detail about the border issue without his permission. We also get Council members who seem agreeable with the following since they have been silent on the Tunnel issue as well:

• "Coun. Bill Marra, a member of the city tunnel commission, said councillors have been asked to refrain from commenting until the [Tunnel] negotiations are complete."

All I can say about this is: Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.