Play It Again Eddie

Of course we have a new WUC fiasco. It is called the CUPE strike fiasco. And you know that the City's books are going to be audited again if some people have their way, this time by a forensic auditor whose hands will NOT be tied by restrictive terms and conditions!

Haven't we heard this exact song and dance before to justify an increase in order to minimize it in the minds of the public?

• When does an 86% WUC rate increase become a 36% one?

Now we hear this tune

• When does a 6.3% CUPE increase become a 5.7% one?

The name of the music is

• Play with figures and dates!

Eddie...........let it go. You lost. Get over it.

There is our accurate but narrow Mayor trying to protect himself against what he thinks will be citizen outrage because of the amount paid out to CUPE strikers. Add in the signing bonus and other City losses on benefits and the rate becomes even higher.

Remember this during the WUC fiasco

• "The Windsor Utilities Commission is coming under fire from critics who question whether the utility is engaging in a campaign of misinformation to downplay a recent water rate increase.
  
  "I feel I was duped," Coun. Alan Halberstadt said. "Obviously, they are trying to sell the increase and downplay the actual facts. I hate to say it's deliberate, but it appears to be pretty obvious they (were) trying to downplay the extent of the increase."
  
  Resident John Toth said he got angry when he pulled a shiny, blue pamphlet out of his utility bill last week.
  
  "It was extremely deceptive," he said. "It implies the water increase is in the range of $70, but it's actually ($187). It's trickery. They are only calculating a few months of the increase. On an annual basis, it's much higher."
  
  The pamphlet says an annual water bill will increase "from $219 in 2006 to $298 in 2007."
  
  The quoted increase is 36 per cent --but that's because the 2007 bill contained only five months of the new rate. The increase is actually 86 per cent...
  
  WUC chairman Ken Lewenza Jr. couldn't be reached for comment. WUC's acting general manager Max Zalev was unavailable Tuesday and his staff referred questions to WUC spokeswoman Sylvia deVries, who was on leave in the spring when the utility created the inserts.
  
  "I came back after it was all decided," deVries said. She said the flyer was accurate, although it doesn't reflect the full impact of water rate increase over 12 months.
  
  "The 36 per cent is accurate for 2007," she said. "Rate increases are always difficult. It's not a good news story. I don't think it's misleading. As for 2008, communication hasn't been determined yet."

Now we have this in the CUPE strike fiasco:

• "WINDSOR, Ont. -- Mayor Eddie Francis has taken issue with the way the wage increase in the city’s new contract with CUPE has been reported, saying it is lower than 6.3 per cent over four years.
  
  When CUPE workers ratified the labour deal Friday, announced details included annual wage hikes of one, 1.5, 1.8 and two per cent, adding up to 6.3 per cent over the life of the agreement.
  
  But Francis says the overall wage increase is actually 5.7 per cent because the first year of the agreement will go into effect Aug 1. and will not be retroactive to January.
  
  “As a result of that, when you annualize that number, that translates into 0.4 per cent,” he said. When that first-year increase — which will save the city $400,000 — is added up with the rest, the overall figure is 5.7 per cent, Francis said.
  
  “Those are the numbers,” he said. “That’s the deal. … Those are the facts. That was what was voted on by the union and city council.”
  
  But Jean Fox, president of CUPE Local 543, which represents the city’s inside workers, said Francis is “spinning numbers to make himself look like ... he didn’t give CUPE enough of a raise. It’s creative math if he wants to do it that way.”
  
  “It’s still a one-per-cent raise on my paycheque,” Fox said of the first-year wage increase. “I don’t know what (Francis) is arguing about.”
  
  City treasurer Onorio Colucci said the issue is confusing and can be looked at in two ways, with neither number wrong."

As for me, I do not care. I am waiting for the audit results. The figures and dates will need to be looked at closely to justify my tax rebate!