My Thoughts For The Weekend

Just a few thoughts that you might want to consider:

WINNING FRIENDS AND INFLUENCING COLUMNISTS

Wow, that was pretty nice press that Councillor Postma received in Gord Henderson’s column the other day.

• “Raised in the tough-as-nails west end and forged in its take-no-prisoners schools and playgrounds, Ward 2 representative Caroline Postma is as close as Windsor council comes to boasting its own junkyard dog.”

Praising the Mayor several times at the Council meeting on Monday about his genius with respect to the hybrid buses works wonders now doesn’t it so that Gord can write:

• “Postma, a mother of three who rode the bus regularly when her kids were toddlers but finds it too time-consuming now, knows the system is dysfunctional but sees a new day dawning now that Mayor Eddie Francis is championing transit as an essential service in need of radical restructuring.”

By the way, in case you did not know, Junkyard Dog was the name of a WWE Wrestler. If the Councillor is a rasslin' fan, then she can head the Windsor committee if Wrestlemania returns.

DID CERTAIN COUNCILLORS NOT GET THE MEMO

Thanks to Gord as well for helping certain Councillors understand that his column the other day on the hybrid buses meant that they were supposed to approve the transaction. There is no need for them to read anything, as with the Arena Deal, or to understand the business case for it as with the Tunnel Deal, when it is presented by the Mayor.

I was sure that you noted in Gord’s column the other day, this comment that was published in the Star on Thursday, before the Council meeting:

• “Lost amid all the hubbub over Transit Windsor's acquisition of 18 hybrid buses, to be formally approved by council today.”

It was a sure-thing as was demonstrated by the unanimous vote. Next time, they will do as they are told so that they can stay at home to enjoy the sunshine.

KWAME’S LEGAL WOES MOUNT

Forget the text messaging scandal and the new messages that may be released and the charges filed against him, Detroit’s Mayor has bigger problems.

According to the Windsor Star, after his not-so-secret meeting with our Mayor

• “He [Kwame] was driven away in a black Cadillac Escalade that had been idling on Goyeau Street since about 8:30 a.m.”

It is not clear from the story exactly where the car was located on Goyeau but if it was parked in front of the building where Cliff Sutts has his office, it is right across the street from Police Headquarters. I was not aware that cars could park in that area.

However the big story is the “idling.” I am afraid that Mayor Francis will have to undertake a major investigation right now to see whether the law was broken. In order to verify the Star story, given the normal prickly relationship between the media and politicians on issues such as investigative journalism, he will have to handle this matter with considerable care.

I expect that this matter will be dealt with at the highest levels. Accordingly, I expect that the Mayor will ask his Chief of Staff, Norma Coleman, to contact one of the Star Masthead Editors to get confirmation of the story.

If that is obtained, the Mayor will be put into the difficult position of whether the Mayor of Detroit and/or his driver should be charged for “excessive idling.”

The City bylaw states clearly:

• “B Y - L A W N U M B E R 233-2001
  
  A BY-LAW TO PROHIBIT EXCESSIVE IDLING OF VEHICLES AND BOATS
  Passed the 18th day of June, 2001.
  
  WHEREAS under section 320 of the Municipal Act, by-laws may be passed by council for providing that any person who contravenes any by-law of Council passed under the authority of the Municipal Act is guilty of an offence;
  
  AND WHEREAS motor vehicles are a major source of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxides and volatile organic compounds (air pollutants) into the outdoor air in the City of Windsor;
  
  AND WHEREAS the levels of air pollutants from vehicle emissions in the City of Windsor are associated with various adverse health effects, including acute and chronic effects on respiratory health, especially among the very young, the elderly and those with respiratory ailments;
  
  1 (2) IDLE – The operation of the engine of a vehicle while the vehicle is not in motion and not being used to operate auxiliary equipment that is essential to the basic function of the vehicle
  
  2. (1) No person shall cause or permit a vehicle or boat to idle for more than five (5) minutes in a sixty minute period.
  
  3. Any person who contravenes any provision of this by-law is guilty of an offence.

Our Mayor has no choice. Sandbox logic one might say. He has to act if he is to be our green champion who will “move smog-choked Windsor into the 21st century.”

Perhaps Kwame's apology and promise not to do this again would be sufficient.

UNITED WE STAND

And perhaps Windsor might actually get some money if we partner with the County:

• "Feds, Ont. announce $6.2B for projects
  Municipalities plan bids for infrastructure cash
  
  Kingsville Mayor Nelson Santos said Windsor, Leamington, Lakeshore, Essex and his town will make a joint submission for sewer projects that will, among other things, stop sewage from pouring into lakes and rivers every time there's a heavy rain.
  
  The plan is to do a joint application for the region," said Santos, also the county warden. "We felt stronger attention would be paid to it if we applied as a number of municipalities under the program."

You will note that the name of Eddie Francis is conspicuously absent. That might be the technique that Councillor Valentinis is looking for so he can stop whinging.

WHY IS THE TUNNEL DEAL SO IMPORTANT

I just don't get it. With all the problems in Windsor and Detroit, the one that our Mayors seem to focus on to the exclusion of most other issues is the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel deal. It is so important that according to A-Channel news

• "At Kilpatrick's request, Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis and his legal team met inside the offices of chief negotiator Cliff Sutts to discuss what it'll take to restart the stalled Windsor-Detroit tunnel deal."

It is so important that Kwame had to come over here and in doing so, Crains reported :

• "James Canning, Kilpatrick’s deputy press secretary,...said that Kilpatrick had gotten prior approval from 36th District Court Judge Ronald Giles to leave the state for the meeting, a condition of his the bond."

I don't understand why. The latest out of Detroit Council that contradicts what Kwame claimed is that a public vote might be needed before the Tunnel can be transferred from the City to the Authority:

• "Council agency: Voters should decide tunnel sale
  
  DETROIT -- The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel should not be sold to an authority that would take over operations until it is approved by a public vote, the City Council's Research and Analysis Division said Tuesday in a report.
  
  Citing an ordinance and the 1997 city charter, the division concluded that the tunnel is a public utility and "cannot be sold to the Detroit Tunnel Authority until the matter is placed on the ballot and approved by a vote of a majority of the electorate."

Of course, our Mayor explained the real reason for the meeting in his interview on A-Channel indirectly:

• "They had indicated very clearly that their Council would need all the transaction documents in front of them, and we indicated, well, to get to the transaction documents we need to spend a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of resources negotiating, and so we have a problem in the process, of one side saying, "Give us the documents; then we'll decide," the other side saying, "Well, wait a minute. If you're not going to do it anyways, why even prepare the documents?"

In other words, the two Mayors must be working together to get in advance a Letter of Intent out of Detroit's Council that will set out the deal terms so that Detroit Council will be stuck when the two Mayors conclude their deal.

The Detroit Mayor would shove the Letter of Intent in the face of Detroit Councillors if they dared renege on the deal once the transaction papers had been prepared. I mean, after all, Cliff Sutts would have spent all that time preparing the papers and that would cost Windsor a lot of money. How could the Councillors in Detroit go back on what they agreed to.

As for Windsor's Councillors, they are irrelevant. They have been fully "informed" according to our Mayor, although they have never seen the business case it would appear and questions have been outstanding for almost a year. They will agree to anything provided that Eddie tells them to sign and Gord Henderson writes a column about it.

NO MORE WINDSOR TRIPS FOR KWAME WITHOUT A HEARING

Oh, oh. Kwame made the Judge mad!

• "Judge: Kilpatrick must post $7,500 bond to remain out of jail
  
  A stern Detroit judge, saying he has thrown people in jail for less, just found that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick violated the terms of his bond in his criminal case after a sheriff's deputy testified he was assaulted by the mayor Thursday...
  
  He also revoked the mayor's right to make any trips -- business or otherwise -- and said he will require a hearing before Kilpatrick can take any future trips. He also ordered periodic and random drug screens for the mayor, though there was no suggestion Kilpatrick was under the influence during the alleged assault."