Is Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel The Key

Let us have some fun in this strangest of files involving the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel. Let us see if we can shame the Windsor Star Editorial Board and Gord Henderson into doing an analysis about the transaction.

We need to organize a pool to try and guess when an Editorial or Column will be written. And I do not mean a thundering or fuming one about openness and transparency because that is too easy. No, I mean a real analysis of the transaction and whether the City of Windsor should be entering into the deal.

Obviously, by their silence, the Editors and Henderson cannot bring themselves to hammer the Mayor and Council on this foolishness nor to condemn the waste of taxpayer money on legal and consulting fees. They must know it is a bad deal given their connections to City Hall but don't want to let us in on it. I am sure that if it was a great deal then we would have read about it rather than learning about Gord's lack of home renovation skills.

Thank goodness that we have access via the Internet to the Detroit media so that we can know what is going on. A-Channel has sent over a reporter to Detroit to cover some of the stories, Dave Battagello has written some but generally the coverage on this side has been very poor in my opinion.

In the end, I believe that the person who will make or break the deal will be Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel in Detroit. Given her attitude about the Mayor, I doubt that they will break bread together nor will she be hypnotized as one of her colleagues seems to have been.

There really is not much doubt now about what this Letter of Intent is meant to do. Here is what it is all about, as I guessed, as set out in the Free Press. A pressure play:

• "Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said Windsor's lead negotiator, Clifford Sutts, told her staff the Detroit council would not receive financing details until after it approves transferring ownership of the tunnel to the authority. Cockrel has said she must have the information for her to support the deal."

Can you believe this? No information is to be provided until after ownership is transferred. She certainly will not get the clarity that she sought from Windsor after this comment by the City's lawyer!

I wonder if that has insulted the Councillors in Detroit sufficiently so they walk away from the transaction so Eddie can blame them for its failure. In that way, he thinks no one can criticize or blame him for wasting so much money on legal and consulting fees on a failed deal. No finger-pointing allowed at the Mayor.

Let me see if I understand this correctly. If the Authority now owns the Tunnel, why would they have to go back to Detroit Council to get their permission if they want to do something? They are the decision-makers then on the Tunnel, not the Council. Is this a ploy on the part of Eddie and Kwame to end run Detroit Council. Can it be that obvious?

It is so similar to the setting up of the private Company in the Windsor to which the Tunnel assets were transferred that could have taken decision-making out of the hands of our Council. Fortunately, Council Marra was on the ball:

• "We are five and a half weeks from the deadline. The last thing any member of the (tunnel) commission or council wants is to make a decision on this in a short period of time. This is a decision that will have impact for many years and due diligence needs to be involved.
  
  "I won't participate in a last-minute decision."
  
  Marra said he has been assured by both Francis and Sutts that permission from both the tunnel commission and council is still required to finalize the deal."

Oh, I get it. Cliff Sutts thinks he is dealing with Windsor Councillors, telling them the rules and expecting them to back off. Sign on the dotted line without knowing the key details huh. Perhaps as Anthony Adams will explain to him about Detroit Councillors:

• "I think part of the difficulty is they don’t really understand our system of politics,” said Adams. “I think we have a lot more rough system of politics than they have over there.”

Now it looks like the transaction in Detroit giving the Mayor 120 days may be reversed on Thursday:

• "Cockrel said based on what she knows now, she would support rescinding the authority.
  
  "Bottom line, I'm never going to vote to put the tunnel into an authority and not know what the financing is," she said."

It seems that something was delivered to Detroit Council on Tuesday afternoon but will not be debated until Thursday. If there are no financial details, then why bother debating.

That seems like Council President Cockrel's position also when he talked about no signed Letter of Intent. I thought from the A-channel news story that whatever was received was not signed. What is the point of that? There is nothing to talk about. A whole weekend to create a Letter of Intent and nothing has been finalized... where is the sense of urgency?

Or is the Detroit Administration trying to buy more time so that the Mayor can hypnotize a few more people? After all, the sentiments of Councilwoman Cockrel seems to be absolutely clear. She has said:

• " she has not seen the financing plan from Windsor on whether the deal can be made on its end.
  
  "Where is the financing for the tunnel deal?" she asked.
  
  "If this is such a great deal, why hasn't the province of Ontario just said, 'Windsor, here is the money."

Regretfully, the Councilwoman is not going to see anything about financing for some time it would seem. A friend of mine has received written confirmation from the Province of Ontario that:

• "Since Windsor has put their discussions with Detroit on hold, they have requested that we place their application on hold until further notice."

I wonder if a reporter will be able to get a copy of what was delivered on Tuesday afternoon. I am sure it would be fascinating to read.

Let me tell you what else the Councilwoman has said throughout this transaction. It seems pretty harsh and yet the Councilwoman voted to give the Detroit Mayor 120 days. Can anyone figure of what anyone will do on this file by the time is over:

• Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said she would review the letter, but remains wary until she can see hard numbers.
  
  "I do not think you make good public policy decisions that are nonreversible based on letters of intent," Cockrel said.
  
  
• Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel asked Adams at a meeting this morning of the council’s Budget, Finance and Audit Committee to determine Windsor’s official position.
  
  “We need clarity from the mayor of Windsor and his council,” she said.
  
  
• Reeves, council President Ken Cockrel Jr. and Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel -- who all voted yes Tuesday on the tunnel deal -- said they were not necessarily going to vote yes on the final sale.
  

• A lightning strike ignites a fire at City Hall and shuts the building down until at least July 7.
  "It's becoming like the Old Testament," Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said.
  


• Despite the push, the budget committee, led by Coun. Sheila Cockrel, for the second week in a row, recommended against forming the new authority.
  
  
• Cockrel countered to reporters in Detroit following Friday's meeting: "I don't think playing chicken with people's jobs or livelihood is a good thing for any set of politicians to do."
  
  She said trust issues around Kilpatrick following the text message scandal is one factor of why she is leery of the tunnel deal.
  
• Cockrel said the mayor has the power to lay off employees but shouldn't because the city can balance its budget by selling off bonds. She didn't think it was responsible for the administration to put this in the 2008-09 budget "when it wasn't ready. It's voodoo budgeting."
  
• Coun. Sheila Cockrel, who heads the committee, could not be reached by The Star, but told reporters in Detroit after Friday's meeting "it was, in my opinion, malfeasance to put the deal in a budget when you knew you didn't have it done."
  
  She also called the deal "reprehensible."
  


• But Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said she remains opposed to the sale because Windsor has not yet secured the $75 million from Ontario. She questioned the seriousness of the layoff threat.
  


• Cockrel said she simply doesn't trust the mayor "with a stain on his record" to pull off the deal.
  
  "I think there's a desperation that characterizes this administration right now."
  


• Her website: "The [Moody's] opinion also notes “The sale of the tunnel between the city and the city of Windsor has been delayed repeatedly.” (Emphasis added.) The Administration promised to bring the Tunnel Deal to Council for review in June of 2007. However, there have been three different versions of the Tunnel Deal since it was first brought to Council’s attention in 2007. Counsel for the City has repeatedly revised transactional documents, with the most recent version of only some of the pertinent documents being provided to Council on May 21, 2008. It should also be noted that to date there is no financing in place to allow the City of Windsor to lend the money to the Detroit Tunnel Authority, which would then purchase the Tunnel from the City. Council cannot approve this transaction without knowing if financing is even available. The repeated delays emanate from the Administration’s inability to bring forth a complete set of transactional documents for Council’s review."

There is no doubt that Councilwoman Cockrel is quite bright. Based on the last comment that I highlighted, she understands what this is all about. All she is saying is show me the money and yet no one can. As a taxpayer of Windsor, I'd like to know what the money deal is too to see how much it's going to cost me but no one can show me that yet either.

I would have thought that it was a slamdunk that she would oppose the transaction based on what she had said to date, especially if no further information is forthcoming. However on this file, it seems nothing is over until it is over and who knows when it will be over.

Really though, don't feel so bad for the City of Detroit now. It has $75 million from the $400M overfunded Detroit police and firefighters pension plan to replace the Province's money. That seems to be the fallback for the Mayor if he does not want to allow any short-term borrowing fix for the budget deficit! Once he gets his $360M in bonds guaranteed by Casino revenues, he won't care much either.

One last thought. A-Channel reported that President Ken Cockrel Jr. and Windsor Councillor Ron Jones spoke on Friday about the Tunnel deal. I've written to Council Jones asking whether he received permission from the Mayor to do so because Windsor's Resolution stated that the Mayor was the Voice of Council. The Mayor made it absolutely clear what that meant on John Fairley's TV show. Only HE speaks on significant issues re the border. No Councillor does.

I have not yet heard back from Councillor Jones but hope to receive word shortly. I would hate to think that he did this on his own without the advance approval of the Mayor, preferably for Ron's sake, in writing. I would hate to think that, at the next in camera Council meeting, one of his colleagues might shout out [expletive deleted] obscenities at him for breaching the rules.