More Shorter Border Stories

Here are some more stories concerning the border that you must read if you want to stay on top of events in this City. Where else can you get the real lowdown on what is going on and the analysis that you are getting on this BLOGsite.

With all this good information, you can dazzle your friends at the next pool party as you also bore them to death with stories of the Tunnel and the inside machinations at City Hall.

MY RESIGNATION

I hereby officially submit my resignation as a member of the Windsor Naysayers and Whiners Club.

There is no point in me continuing my membership since I cannot compete with the Mayor and Council and their lawyer on the Tunnel file.

There is absolute nothing that I can possibly say or do that is more damaging to the reputation of Windsor than the headline shown on the Channel 4 TV Detroit headline above. On a $75 million transaction, it is stated that Windsor refuses to let Detroit Council in on the information.

That has to make this City a complete mockery and laughing stock to the business and financial community across North America. I do not know how we can ever convince an outside business party to come to Windsor to see our new WOW-factor entranceways that Gord Henderson is so happy about when we have to explain away such news stories.

I absolutely cannot compete with that kind of negative news coverage. I don't have to be called names any longer...I'll let the Mayor and Council do all the bad stuff for me since they do it so well too.

BORDER NUMBERS

I saw this quote from Neil Belitsky of Alinda who runs the Tunnel:

• "Neal Belitsky, general manager of the Windsor-Detroit tunnel, said the Gateway construction has had an impact on the tube.
  
  "Our traffic has been up and we're sure part of the reason is the construction," Belitsky said. He was unable to provide figures."

My information is slightly different. My sources tell me that even with the Ambassador Gateway construction, the numbers to date of the Tunnel car, truck and buses volumes are still down compared with last year. Not by a lot mind you, but still down.

Here's the scary part though. The Ambassador Bridge traffic is down as well. There is no doubt that they have lost volume because of the construction problems. The difficulty is that the other crossings, the Tunnel and the Blue Water Bridge, are not picking up the volumes that the Bridge is losing.

That lost traffic is LOST. It is not coming to Canada at all.

It means not only is the economy sinking since trucks are not coming across the border but tourist traffic is dropping as well. As far as tourism goes, it will be interesting to see what Caesars Windsor achieves as far as traffic numbers are concerned and whether the freefall in car traffic is reversed.

It makes the DRIC traffic projection numbers look even more ridiculous since the economy is certainly not keeping up with the significant increases of the past as forecast.

I GOT SCOOPED

Blogging is a competitive business. Don't you believe anyone who tells you that it is not.

That is why I gave my inside moles a stern talking the other morning after I read the BLOG of one of the other Bloggers in town. It was a BLOG about the possible start of a Councillor putsch against the Mayor.

OK, it was Chris Schnurr's BLOG. Let him get the credit. Here is what he wrote:

• "I was a little surprised that council had a meeting on Thursday (July 10th) regarding the tunnel - even though it was in-camera.
  
  I’m surprised because Mr. Sutts stated to the Windsor Star on July 5th that:
  
  Windsor city council will be updated on the latest turn of events in Detroit sometime within the next couple of weeks as soon as he can assemble a report, Sutts said.
  
  Looks like our Mr. Sutts didn’t need a “couple of weeks” but 5 days to assemble a report.
  
  Or did something else prompt our Mayor and Mr. Sutts to meet with councillors sooner rather than later?
  
  I’ve been a little disappointed in the public responses by some of our councillors with their claims that they haven’t been provided information on the tunnel arrangements.
  
  Disappointed because Section 3.3 of the Procedural Bylaw gives a majority of councillors authority to:
  
  …petition the Clerk to call a special meeting of Council by providing the written petition to the Clerk stating the date, time and purpose for the special meeting.
  
  Now I’ve heard some councillors did just that. But I wonder why it was never reported?
  
  You would think councillors, especially a “majority” of them, would be proud of this accomplishment - that they too, like their Detroit counterparts, can stand up on behalf of residents and demand information to make informed decisions."

I told the moles to get out there and find out what was going on. I wanted the inside info for my readers. You deserved to know. Here is what they brought back.

Apparently a number of the Councillors were very upset that information was being disclosed at Detroit Council but not in Windsor. Accordingly, several Councillors wanted to call a Special Meeting of Council as allowed under the Procedural Bylaw. Over a weekend, signatures of six Councillors were obtained, a majority of Council.

I was told that once the majority of six was achieved then it was felt that there was no need to seek out the other four Councillors. I think that was a mistake frankly since all of the Councillors should have been allowed to sign up since otherwise some people might think that there was a split on Council. Realistically, I believe that the four who were not approached probably would not have signed anyway because there are viewed as being Eddie loyalists.

This sounds exactly like the time period of February/March 2003 when City Council effectively took over the running of Government in Windsor for the rest of the term of ex-Mayor Mike Hurst. His career ended when he lost control of Council. He lost almost every vote that he pushed for from that time period until the end of his term by a majority of 7-3.

Interestingly, one would have thought that our Mayor would be very careful not to offend Councillors since he was one of the people who lead the majority back in 2003. Obviously, he did not learn his lesson very well. Moreover, the issue then as it was now was the border.

This time around, Councillor Jones was asked to participate. One of the big grudges that the Councillor held against some of his colleagues in that 2003 Council was that he was not involved or least given the opportunity to be involved when Councillors first decided that they were going to oppose Hurst's border position.

Unbeknownst to the others, it appears that one of the Councillor signatories to the Special Meeting decided to inform the Mayor what was going on. That Special Meeting would have been held before the regular Council meeting on the following Monday. When Eddie got wind of the proposed meeting, he took action. He took charge and said that he would schedule the meeting. It took place on the Thursday rather than the Monday.

I expect, without knowing, that one of the reasons that the Mayor did not want to hold a meeting on the Monday was that he would have had to tell the Councillors about his press conference on the Tuesday with L. Brooks Patterson. I wonder how many of them were aware of that press conference in advance and might have objected until they knew what the Mayor was going to say. I am certain that some would have opposed what Eddie was going to do for a variety of reasons

The rest is history. What is significant however is that some of the Councillors are perhaps finally figuring out that they need to respect themselves before others will respect them. I do not think yet that they are prepared to take on the Mayor the way 2003 Council did with Hurst. But at least it is a first step and a welcome one as far as Taxpayers should be concerned.

It will be interesting to watch to see what happens... will the ringleaders be punished at Council or in the press, will Eddie change, will Councillors get emboldened and empowered by their action, and will the four who did not sign wonder why they were not asked?

There is no doubt now that Councillors are starting to position themselves not only for the next election as Councillors but if any of them are thinking for running as Mayor. There is no doubt now that some of the Councillors understand that supporting the Mayor is not necessarily in their best interest for election.

If the stories keep circulating that Eddie may run for a third term, then how will some of them feel?

WHERE IS THE EMINENCE GREASIE

He/she has to be on holidays! The political judgment being shown by the Mayor's Office is so poor that Greasie has to be away. The Eminence would not have allowed so many dumb moves.

Some genius probably thought that the L. Brooks Patterson press conference was a good idea instead of the disaster that it became. Rather than helping the Mayor with whatever it is he wanted to achieve, probably about Greenlink, it hurt. Just about everybody not involved was offended by what took place.

Being called an SOB by L. Brooks did not help Eddie's career either. Watch the Youtube video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9S0DjfPMSI

Whoever gave Dave Battagello the story about the in camera Tunnel meeting and what the result of it was was dumb to say the least. That person totally and completely underestimated the Detroit media who grabbed on to what Windsor said and shoved it in the face of Detroit Councillors. I am certain that no one in City Hall expected the negative reaction from Detroit that was received.

At the least, if one is a Detroit politician, one would not like to see some small town across the River cast aspersions to one's reputation:

• "City council will step back from negotiating a tunnel deal until scandals involving Detroit's council and its mayor subside and Detroit can clearly say what it wants.
  
  
  "The distractions of Detroit's council have left the situation so uncertain. Windsor's council does not want to proceed and incur further (legal) expense unless Detroit clarifies its position," lawyer Cliff Sutts, lead negotiator for Windsor, said after a two-hour special council meeting on Thursday."

The comments were probably viewed as being insulting and trying to put the blame on Detroit when the real issue is that our Mayor was unable to get financing so far from the Province of Ontario. That financing is "on hold" now. While it may have played well for the home crowd in Windsor, it did not help Kwame in Detroit in dealing with his Council.

I expect that Eddie was working on Friday, and therefore had to snub John Tory, not on the Tunnel transaction itself but on damage control to try to calm down the Detroit politicians. I expect that the concept of the Letter of Intent was devised but it too has turned into a fiasco as can be seen from the first BLOG above.

GREASIENESS had better ensure that he/she is here all the time or make sure that his/her Blackberry is always available. His/her salary probably has just gone up when he/she comes back since he/she has proven that he/she is indispensable.