Windsorites' Point Of Personal Privilege

The Procedural Bylaw of the City states:

• “Point of Personal Privilege” means a matter that a Member considers to impugn their integrity or the integrity of the Council.

Council, and Councillor Bill Marra in particular, have no choice. At the next Council meeting, in my opinion, the Councillor must rise on a “Point of Personal Privilege”. He must demand that all of the files with respect to the Tunnel deal must be opened and available to the public now. He must specifically demand that those files and dockets prepared by Mr. Sutts on or after July 10 be disclosed immediately. He must demand that the Mayor forthwith answer the questions that he asked both as a Tunnel Commissioner nine months ago and which he repeated recently as a Councillor. In fact, he must do more as I shall discuss below.

This extreme state of secrecy created by Mayor Francis can no longer be tolerated in this City. Councillor Marra and his colleagues must demand that the sun shine into the Francis files.

The Mayor and his lawyer have made some very serious allegations that have resulted in a major controversy with respect to the Detroit Mayor that could have serious consequences for Kwame and, more importantly, the future of the Tunnel deal.

As was written in the Detroit News, and as I Blogged yesterday, the issue now is:

• “And you can bet they're [Windsor residents] wondering who is really telling the truth: Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis or Detroit's Kwame Kilpatrick.
  
  As a disbelieving judge said to the mayor the other day, that's a no-brainer."

That was an understatment!

Today’s Windsor Star Editorial was a real shocker. While supposedly about the Mayor’s secrecy again, it goes far beyond it. It takes up the issue raised by both Chris Schnurr and myself in our BLOGs

• “Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis told only part of the story when he was asked by Coun. Bill Marra during a recent council meeting whether closed-door negotiations with Detroit officials about the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel had ceased.
  
  A more complete story only came to light this weekend, when Francis sought to distance himself from a version of events offered in court by embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.”

The Editorial is even more interesting because it seems that someone from the Star spoke with Eddie before it was written to give him an opportunity to explain:

• “Francis insists he answered Marra's question "to the best" of his ability and that he couldn't confirm any details of any meeting because he didn't receive official confirmation until Tuesday, the morning after Marra's question and the day before the meeting.”

It must be nice to be able to phone up the Mayor and ask a question and get an immediate answer.

I do not remember reading anything about an "official confirmation." In fact, why would it be given on Tuesday when Eddie was NOT around and could not have a meeting with Kwame:

• "On Tuesday, Francis had to travel to Toronto for a municipal association meeting."

Clearly, there now are other facts that did not come out in the Sutts disclosure that we should know about.

The Star also correctly pointed out:

• “That doesn't quite jibe with quotes attributed to Francis and Sutts in Saturday's Star.
  
  "Then we said, 'OK, Wednesday morning,'" Francis said of plans hatched during the phone call.”

If it does not “quite jibe,” what are we to take from that? It does not seem to “quite jibe” in the same way that the Mayor’s answer to Councillor Marra does not “quite jibe” with what the Mayor said to him and what was said in the Star article.

Let me change the subject completely for a minute and deal with the Mayor’s attempt to bring back the Red Bull Air Race to the Detroit/Windsor area. You will see the relevance as I go through the story in today’s Star.

Please note that the Mayor has been back from his trip to London for about a week, the holiday Press Release has still not been published on the City’s website and the press release dealing with the Mayor’s trip has been removed! Note also that the Star story came out the day after my BLOG on the subject.

I will do a quick “fisk” of excerpts from it and you’ll see what I mean:

• “The Red Bull Air Race may yet return to the area next year, Mayor Eddie Francis said Monday.” [And then again, it “may” not. There is “may” word just as in the meetings “may be some scheduled this week”]
  
  
• “Francis travelled to London, England, last month to meet with Red Bull representatives in the hopes of attracting the high-speed, low-flying acrobatic competition back to the Detroit River.
  
  "It's more alive than it's ever been," Francis said. [This whole extravaganza of the Mayor traveling to England to save the deal seems quite strange. Perhaps it was not the “emergency” that everyone is being led to believe that it is. Consider this back on June 2: “Francis said discussions are already underway to bring the Red Bull Air Race back to the area, though that decision -- like the rest of the show -- is still up in the air.”]
  
  
• “A number of issues, which Francis wouldn't elaborate on, had race directors leaning away from a return the Windsor-Detroit area” [More secrecy that Eddie knows about. What if those issues are fatal e.g. not selling enough tickets, no real commitment by the City until the last minute, poorly organized (See Star Letters to the Editor), no shuttle buses until last minute, underestimating race draw]
  
  
• "We're going to be meeting with the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy in the next two weeks to see how we can work with Detroit” [Why wouldn’t he work with these people or doesn’t he know the difference…. Was he afraid that they would ignore him thinking that he tried to scoop the race from them? “Detroit Air Racing is not responsible or involved with the production of the Red Bull Air Race in Detroit, but only facilitated the key relationships required to enable this race. Detroit Air Racing is now an Agent of the Red Bull Air Race Hospitality Programme in Detroit.]
  


• “Corporate sponsorship and logistics have yet to be worked out before Red Bull will consider a return in 2009.” [Oh, do we have to provide millions for sponsorship as my BLOG suggested. Do we have a committee in place that can organize this thing so quickly before Red Bull makes a decision as to where the air races will take place in 2009?]

There, do you understand what I’m getting at with the Red Bull story.

It’s all there, just like with the events surrounding the Tunnel deal: secrecy, total control in the Mayor, not keeping the Council in the loop, “may,” starting at a convenient time and forgetting about the past Red Bull discussions. “emergency” or not, not dealing with key issues.

The issue involving the Mayor is one of the integrity now. As Mr. Sutts said and as the Star Editorial has now raised:

• “We feel it's necessary to put the record straight…”

I agree! That must be done immediately. But this time around, we cannot have another “whitewash audit” that we had in the "WUC” fiasco. We need a proper inquiry with the proper Terms of Reference in which citizens must have an input.

Fate has a way of mocking mere mankind. By a remarkable coincidence, on the Agenda for the next Council meeting there is an item dealing with the appointment of an Integrity Commissioner. If there was one in place now, then this whole issue could be sent to that Integrity Commissioner for handling.

However, there is none in place now and, looking at the Item, the issue may be quite controversial and may not be decided at the meeting on Monday.

We do not have the luxury of waiting around with a $75M deal that may still be negotiated. In the circumstances Council, and Councillor Marra in particular, cannot allow this matter to drag on. We must know the truth now. We must learn what the Mayor and his lawyer knew or did not know. All relevant files must be made available and the appropriate questioning undertaken under oath.

Accordingly, Council must introduce a Motion to set up an inquiry dealing with this matter. It can be done easily under the Municipal Act:

• 274. (1) If a municipality so requests by resolution, a judge of the Superior Court of Justice shall,
  
  (a) investigate any supposed breach of trust or other misconduct of a member of council…in relation to the duties or obligations of that person to the municipality;
  (b) inquire into any matter connected with the good government of the municipality; or
  (c) inquire into the conduct of any part of the public business of the municipality.

Does this Council have the guts to respect the interests of those who elected them! Citizens of Windsor have a "personal privilege" that needs protection as well.