Boo Birds Are Out Already

As a reader wrote to me. The abuse starts now.

I am surprised it took so long for Greg Heil to be smeared. After all, the original story was in the Star on Friday. Mind you, the "abuse" story was on Page 4 of the Monday Star so few will read the nasty comments made against him.

There is that “dismiss” word again when our Mayor does not like something:

• “Mayor Eddie Francis dismissed the resignation as manufacturing an issue and said he was not clear what motivated Heil's decision.
  
  "At the end of the day, a volunteer can do what a volunteer wants to do," said Francis. "I would thank him for his services to the community and wish him luck."

Who said manufacturing has been lost in this City! What a smarmy response. I guess it takes the Mayor to know what “manufacturing an issue” is since he is so good at it, having created many already in his City during his term.

It should be obvious even to Eddie what motivated Heil since he said so clearly. He did not want to be caught up in litigation because the Heritage Committee report was prepared

• “by an outside consultant with no connection to the heritage committee.”

He did not want to be associated with

• “the Olde Sandwich Towne heritage study [which] is being used as a weapon in council's fight to stop the Ambassador Bridge from building a twin span.”

I thought that was pretty clear. Why didn't the Mayor deny those allegations? It would have been so easy to do that instead of using ad hominem arguments and name-calling. That was not worthy of a civic leader.

Eddie's dismissal of a volunteer brings back the memory of John Middleton and how he was treated when he was booted off as Chair of his Committee. I do not think he has ever been told what he did wrong.

Ms. Cuderman is quoted again. She is quite familiar with the Heritage process in Windsor. As I Blogged before about her McGregor-Cowan house on Sandwich Street:

• “it's the one that received money from the City as a heritage building:
  
   $87,900 for a loan/mortgage
   $17, 630 grant for a cedar roof (I was not sure if she also got a requested interest free loan in the amount of $5,876)
   she was requesting "25% of the cost of restoring the main entrance door and sidelights of the house.
   She had in the past appeared as well " before Council to speak in support of the use of the Ontario Heritage Property Tax Relief Program as a pilot project to assist the owners of designated heritage properties in Sandwich."

One matter still requires clarification. The Star claimed that she was living in the 400 block of Indian Road. If true, since Ms. Cuderman sits on the Sandwich Redevelopment Committee, I do not understand this comment

• "To me it's not an issue over the bridge. It's what's best for Sandwich."

As I Blogged before, while she is entitled to her opinion as is any citizen:

• “… isn't she now just a NIMBY-type merely protecting her monetary interests and not looking out necessarily for what is good for Windsor or Sandwich in particular? Is she also in a conflict as an Indian Road resident and as a member of the Sandwich Heritage Conservation Task Force?”

I do not know the answer to those questions.

As for Councillor Jones, what a mean-spirited, nasty comment about Heil who was a member of and Chair of the Heritage Committee for a decade. His comments along with that of the Mayor are certainly words of encouragement for people to spend their time as volunteers on City committees:

• "Since he came to the committee he has been difficult to get along with," said Jones. "All committee members had run-ins with him. I welcome his resignation."

If Mr. Heil was such a poor Chair, why didn't the Councillor do something a long time before to ensure that he was not the Chair.

It won't matter. Mr. Heil will not need to hire a lawyer to explain the purposes of the Report. He was smart enough to understand what it was all about. I wonder if the Mayor and Councillors in the future might envy him since he is out of this mess.

While the Boo Birds did not know why Heil resigned, the many readers who commented on the Star story Friday certainly knew and were not surprised at all. They should check out some of the thoughtful responses.

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/story.html?id=d6ef3353-f838-4ca5-8462-3896270b6ece