THE TUNNEL DEAL STINKS!

Do you want to know why Eddie has to run for mayor for a third term. Private industry could not afford the time or the money to wait while he completes a deal, if he ever can finalize one! Only taxpayers! Here is what Cliff Sutts said in the Detroit Free Press:

• "he denied the existence of any criticism in Windsor about his legal fees and said his bills cover three years of work."

Three years! With well over a million dollars so far in total legal and consulting fees and expenses, who knows where this deal is. That must mean the deal started sometime in mid-2005, yet the Joint Councils meeting where this was first proposed took place in February, 2006. I wonder if Cliff included in his fees, his work starting with his discussion with Eddie in October, 2005.

What happens to people once they are elected. Do they think that they have become all-powerful, all-knowing. Do they somehow cut themselves off from their constituents? Do they stop listening, or caring? Do they forget why they were elected, becoming intoxicated by power? Is it the Hubris syndrome:

• "the hero wins glory and acclamation by achieving unwonted success against the odds. The experience then goes to his head: he begins to think himself capable of anything."

Remember this. It is what our Mayor said in his mayoral kickoff speech:

• I BELIEVE IN OPEN AND ACCESSIBLE GOVERNMENT:
  
  An environment where City Councillors will become active participants. I fully intend to empower our City council, our employees and our citizens by ensuring they know that their opinions count ……their ideas will be considered, by making sure they have the facts they need to make informed decisions and by respecting the very legitimate concerns of Councillors who work so hard at just trying to be heard...
  
  We will become a council driven, people centered government where we will plan, strategize and set the agenda. Decision-making will be open….. Council will drive the process, we will be held to account for our decisions."

Whatever happened to that guy. Whatever happened to that kind of Council? I would not be writing this BLOG if this Council was open and transparent. You know it is bad. Even the Star complains about the secrecy.

I raise this because of what has happened in the Tunnel deal over the last few days. I am mad. I am disgusted. I feel used. I feel cheated.

I have no idea who is a liar and who is telling the truth or hthere are mere misunderstandings. Statements are made and reported at different times with conflicting remarks. I do not know what the facts are. Everything is being kept in secret even though it is my and your tax money that is at stake.

In fact, is this media stuff all a giant ploy by the two Mayors to sucker their two Councils into agreeing to a "Letter of Intent" so they cannot back out of the deal down the road? Are they piece-mealing Councillors and the Public by not revealing everything at one time. Try and follow along with what is going on and then tell me if you agree with my sentiment:

THE WHOLE TUNNEL TRANSACTION STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN!

I wrote a quick BLOG on Friday afternoon setting out comments from the Windsor Star and the two Detroit newspapers. A lot more has happened since then but I have learned it only from the US side. We have received no further information from our leading media outlet to tell us what is going on. No new stories from the Star, no Editorials, no columns by our leading columnist who thinks that his attempts at home renovations are more important than our $75 million on a deal that may or may not make any sense.

I wonder if Gord's response if he ever chooses to make one would be something along the lines of what he said in an August, 2004 column after a number of us from STOPDRTP met with him concerned about the delays with the Schwartz report:

• "people who are growing impatient for action should kick back and enjoy the final three weeks of summer because the municipal universe is unfolding right on schedule."

Quite a long schedule wouldn't you think!

I wrote an e-mail to the Mayor and Councillors with the following subject line since I was so angry:

• "Are you lying to Windsorites!"

No answers of course yet. I did that because I read the following in a Detroit Free Press article:

• "Detroit Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams, who has been a key negotiator for Detroit in the deal,... said Sutts’ comments in the paper are meaningless. In fact, he said attorney William Phillips, who has represented Detroit in the negotiations, spoke with Sutts as recently as Thursday night, and Sutts asked for Phillips to provide him Detroit documents on the deal...
  
  Adams said Francis told Kilpatrick as recently as last week that the deal was on and he was excited about the Detroit council finally taking a first step toward a sale.
  
  “It’s our understanding that we are still proceeding and continuing our negotiations with Windsor,” Adams told the council."

I read that comment with shock because the Star that morning had written:

• "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...
  
  "We need both parties on the U.S. side to have a common goal and that doesn't appear to exist in Detroit," Sutts said."

Who is telling the truth? What is going on? The Joint Windsor Tunnel Commission/City Council Meeting started at 3 p.m. on Thursday afternoon and went on for a few hours until around 5 or 6 p.m. That saving of further legal fees may have lasted only a few hours if Anthony Adams is correct.

Who instructed Sutts to ask for Detroit documents? Was that in violation of what Council had ordered? On the contrary, read what Mr. Sutts said about his instructions below. I had not heard or read that in the Windsor media. If so, why was that not reported but a different impression was left.

I do know that a Resolution was passed at the in camera meeting but of course no one in the public has access to it so who knows what it says.

I have to admit that I was pretty happy when I saw the Star story initially. This seems like the dumbest of transactions on its face but who knows, there might be a strong business case for it that seems to make sense from Windsor's perspective. After all, our Mayor has spent three years trying to conclude the transaction.

In passing, I noticed that our Mayor snubbed the Progressive Conservative provincial leader when he was in town. Mind you, when you are trying to convince the Liberal Government to give you $75 million to shore up Detroit's financing from an Ontario Infrastructure Fund, then you do not want to be seen to be chumming up with an Opposition party leader. I guess that means that our Mayor is not going to run for them provincially in the next election. How many times now is it that Eddie has dealt a blow to John Tory?

According to the Star, Tory, who was in Windsor to talk about all of the jobs that have been lost in the economy

• "was scheduled to meet with Mayor Eddie Francis, but the meeting was called off because the mayor informed Tory he was too busy dealing with the tunnel deal situation with Detroit.
  
  "He seems fully consumed with the tunnel matter which I guess has taken a turn," Tory said."

That's funny because only a few months before, Eddie said in his State of the City speech:

• "Let there be no mistake. Creating jobs, and re-invigorating our local economy, has to be the number one priority of Windsor City Council. [Eddie's emphasis added]
  
  And it has to become this community’s collective and shared responsibility.
  
  Bringing jobs and prosperity, to continue positioning Windsor for success in the new economy, must be at the heart of each of our decisions. More jobs for Windsorites has to be our primary goal."

I was downtown Friday afternoon near City Hall and saw a Detroit Channel 4 TV satellite news truck and wondered why it was here. Then I read a story from WDIV's website:

• "Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams said there has been no official word from Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis and as far as he knows, the deal will continue to go through.
  
  "We haven't received any notice from Windsor -- official notice that they have terminated negations. The fact that there is an article in the Windsor Star from the attorney. ...We deal with elected officials," said Adams Friday...
  
  Local 4 is seeking comment from Francis to clarify his position."

That was a surprise, no "official" word telling Detroit what our position was. Why not? I knew then why their truck was here.

In watching the Channel 4 news, I was shocked again. They reported that the two Administrations were preparing a letter over the weekend for Detroit Council. How did that fit into what Windsor Council ordered? Is Mr. Sutts generating fees for the weekend work?

More about the letter was revealed in the Detroit media on Saturday. The Free Press reported that:

• "Why would the City of Windsor be motivated to go through all of the difficulties and expense of negotiating this whole deal when Detroit City Council says we’re not sure if we want to sell this asset or not?” Sutts said. “We’ve spent a ton of money in getting to the point we’re at now. … They hate like hell to see that it’s gone to waste.”
  
  Sutts said he still has authority to continue speaking with Detroit officials and negotiations would resume if Detroit council members state their support for finalizing the sale. In fact, he spoke today with Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams and attorney William Phillips, who has represented the City of Detroit in negotiations.
  
  Adams, who has been a key negotiator for Detroit in the deal, said this afternoon that the Kilpatrick administration would prepare a “letter of intent” spelling out the parameters of the deal – the purchase price, range of interest rates and other terms – and ask the Detroit council to approve it as a show of good faith to Windsor.
  
  “I’m going to be making calls all weekend,” Adams said of what he will do to secure council support. “It’s a critical moment in time. But it’s an appropriate moment. We need to move forward.”

Then the piece de resistance in the Detroit News on Saturday:

• "Windsor told the Ontario government Friday to put its loan application for the $75 million on hold, said the city's lead negotiator, Cliff Sutts...
  
  He'll try to soothe Windsor's worries Tuesday by asking the Detroit City Council to approve a "letter of intent," which would outline the city's commitment and the deal's parameters, said Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams.
  
  "It's to give them another level of assurance that their efforts will not be for naught," said Adams, adding that Windsor politicians may not be used to how "rough and tumble" politics can get in Detroit."

Again, that shocker was not reported in Windsor about the application! If the deal was dead until Detroit could give us assurances, then why couldn't Eddie meet Tory? What was he working on that was so important? Why didn't he meet Tory to discuss the poor economy in Windsor. Why did Eddie snub him?

Shouldn't the request to put the loan on hold kill the deal since Councilwoman Cockrel, who is all over the map on this transaction, said

• "But Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said she doesn't want to get locked into a deal without seeing the financing completed."

The financing is NOT completed Councilwoman so how can you support a Letter of Intent? What good is one if an essential term is "on hold."

Can you figure out what is going on? I must admit that I'm having a great deal of difficulty doing so. On the one hand, Windsor does not want to spend any more money on this deal and yet it appears that Mr. Sutts has the authority to keep on speaking to Detroit. It looks like he will be spending the weekend working on a letter with Deputy Mayor Adams.

Let me speculate completely as to what is happening. I knew on Friday that there was something strange going on because no one would speak to my inside moles about what happened at the in camera meeting. If in fact the deal is virtually dead, people would have been speaking about it on Friday. Apparently, I was told, everyone was afraid to do so. That meant something was going on.

The key line in all of the stories I read was that Windsor asked the Province to put their loan application on hold. Now why would Windsor do that? Why not just let the process play itself out? If Windsor wanted to blame Detroit for the transaction failing, it would be easy. Just say that the Province turned the deal down because of all the uncertainty in Detroit. Therefore Eddie could not be blamed for wasting all that million plus of taxpayer money on outside fees.

But that's not the case. My guess is that the Province has already told the City informally either that it has no intention of financing a deal that has no business case going for it and that is effectively outside of the Province in any event or, the Province has offered to put up a nominal amount of money that is insufficient to do the transaction so they won't be blamed politically.

That would effectively kill the deal jeopardizing all of the bond financings that the other side is in the midst of doing. I suspect that the Detroit Mayor's Office is stringing Eddie along understanding that Eddie cannot have this deal fail.

Eddie is playing too. He knows there is no business case for the transaction and that is why he makes these silly comments trying to justify the unjustifiable. If the deal sours financially, Eddie has his built-in excuse. Of course he has to drag in the "enemy" as well:

• "The mayor refered Thursday to the 2005 bid by Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun to gain control of the U.S. side of the tunnel and his suggestion to create a new customs superplaza at the bridge in Detroit that would redirect tunnel traffic...
  
  Windsor has 5,000 commuters who cross over daily to Detroit.
  
  "If somebody comes in and shuts down half the tunnel, all of us would ask why didn't somebody do something," Francis said."
  
  "If you are a commuter, think what it means if there was no public oversight, no control over tolls, capitol improvements or what happens on the other side. That's what continues to drive us."

Seriously, does Eddie think anyone believes that drivel! Does he honestly believe that we are that dumb! During his watch, the Tunnel has lost a huge amount of volume and has lost market share to the Bridge. I would expect that msot people would think that the Bridge Co. coudld run the Tunnel better than Eddie has so far.

What it appears to me is that this is an exercise to force the two Councils into a position whereby they lock themselves in based on a Letter of Intent. Understand, that the rumblings that I have heard on our side of the river is that a majority of the Councillors and Tunnel Commissioners were very upset about this transaction. We know as well that a number of the Councillors in Detroit, even though they gave Kwame an extra 120 days, said that they would vote against the transaction.

What better way to tie them up, put them on the defensive and tell them that they can't change their mind if they agree on a Letter of Intent.

On Detroit's side, it will be a good-faith gesture to Windsor. How could they let their new Canadian friends down? Why do they have to make gestures to Windsor when most Councillors have said they will turn the deal down already? Are they to flip-flop again?

If accepted on our side, well you know how Eddie stuffs approvals down the throats of Councillors if they dare suggest that they might change their minds later. He reminds them of their previous affirmative vote in public at Council to embarrass them and to pressure them to go along with what he wants to do!

If that gets done, then Kwame and his advisors are free again to say that they have a Letter of Intent so that the budget is balanced and they can go and raise their money. Windsor can now restart the process with the Province parading the letter from Detroit in the face of Provincial officials. If a Detroit Councillor should dare ask about financing, well there is no answer at this time because the deal was on hold with the problems caused by the uncertainty in Detroit.

And if a Detroit Councillor still has doubts, why he/she can be hypnotized over dinner by the Detroit Mayor!

At the appropriate time, after the nearly $400M is raised in Detroit, then Kwame can tell Eddie to get stuffed if he chooses to do so!

Oh just so you remember the full Hubris Syndrome, it does not always turn out well for our hero:

• "This leads our hero into misinterpreting the reality around him and into making mistakes. Eventually he gets his comeup-pance and meets his nemesis, which destroys him."