Thoughts and Opinions On Today's Important Issues

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Will The Windsor Star Be Banned From City Hall

Things are getting very ugly at City Hall. Apparently people are putting up inappropriate website material.

It must be due to the low morale at City Hall I would suspect. Can you blame employees with the high stress levels there. Dennis Perlin's regime was a picnic by comparison.

Read this, especially the highlighted parts, from the CORPORATE LEADERSHIP TEAM.

Wow, that title in itself scares the bejeebers out of me. It sounds pretty intimidating:
  • From: CAO Office
    Sent: Friday, February 05, 2010 4:22:41 PM
    To: Office of the Chief Administrative Officer; Office of the City Clerk;
    Office of the Chief Financial Officer; Office of the City Engineer;
    Office of the City Solicitor;
    Office of the Community Development & Health Commissioner;
    Office of the Auditor General; Transit Services; Mayor's Office;
    Local 543; Local 82; Fire Association Office
    Subject: Update on Budget and Phase Two Organizational Structure`

    To all City of Windsor Employees:

    ** Please post on internal bulletin boards for the benefit of staff without computer access.

    On Monday night, February 8th, City Council will begin deliberations for the 2010 Budget with a goal of maintaining a zero percent tax increase. As you know, from previous years, this is a challenging task and it could result in service reductions or the implementation of other cost cutting measures. Consideration of the ideas submitted by staff in each department were incorporated where possible into the budget documents prepared for Council review.

    As part of the 2010 Budget deliberations, the Corporate Leadership Team will also present to Council our recommendations for Phase Two of the corporate restructuring initiative. Although it is our intention to be ready to present this information to Council on Monday, we cannot predict how quickly the Operating Budget Committee will complete the budget and restructuring reviews. Therefore we can't guarantee that we will have an update for you on Tuesday, but we can commit to providing that information to you as soon as we do have Council's endorsement of the new organizational structure. We appreciate your patience as we await that approval.

    Phase Two is the last formal step of the corporate restructuring process that was launched last September, 2009 and, when approved, the organizational charts will be shared with all of you. As well, I will soon be meeting with the Senior Management Team who will then be asked to convene meetings with staff to explain any changes to the various organizational structures.

    The financial constraints and resulting decisions that we face are placing stress on many employees and I understand this. However, I would ask each of you, during this challenging time of change, to maintain your professionalism and carry out your duties in the same way the public has come to expect. Unfortunately I have been made aware of a few incidents where inappropriate information has been printed from various websites and posted or placed within the workplace. This type of action has been identified as hurtful or harassing to your colleagues and so I ask you not to do this. I expect that all staff will maintain a Respectful Workplace as outlined in our policy as it is designed to ensure a positive workplace for all of us.

    Your demonstrated care and dedication to the job is acknowledged and I thank for you continuing to meet and exceed the expectations of our customers and our residents. I hope to provide an update to you on the budget and restructuring by early next week.

    On behalf of the Corporate Leadership Team,

    Helga

    Helga Reidel,

    Chief Administrative Officer

Hmmm, this email seems pretty inappropriate to me. I wonder if it was posted.

However, I immediately thought of the big scandal in Australia

  • "The nation's mortgage holders might have been holding their breath for the Reserve Bank's announcement on interest rates yesterday, but one operative at Macquarie Bank apparently had better things to do. During Channel Seven's live cross to the bank's Shelley Street headquarters for its analysis of the decision, viewers' attention was drawn away from the banker doing the talking, Martin Lakos to his colleague in the background ogling at pictures of a naked woman on his computer screen."

Could this be taking place within the confines of City Hall....ogling and then posting dirty pics from websites?

No, that could not be it. Too tame. This is Sin City after all.

I know that my BLOG and that of other Bloggers in town are printed and distributed to people without PCs at City Hall. Speaking for myself, I know that my BLOGs are written in a very respectful and positive manner so it cannot be mine that are being referred to. Moreover, I am told senior people read my BLOG to find out what is going on there.

What about the BLOGs of Councillors. Nope, Councillor Postma has written nothing since June 29. Sure Alan may write some strong stuff but he also did a powerful BLOG recently telling people to vote in the Monopoly Contest. [Yawn]

Then it hit me "inappropriate information has been printed from various websites...This type of action has been identified as hurtful..." It could mean only one thing: Doug Schmidt's Windsor Star BLOG!

I have Blogged before about some of the horrific postings by Schmidt including his use of the shudder "M" word in relation to the Mayor. Now that was hurtful and inappropriate. In my opinion, that is more than enough to get his BLOG banned from City Hall bulletin boards.

Why try and find Roseann Danese's BLOGS or those of Dave Battagello! They have been banned from the Star website itself so they must have been so inappropriate and hurtful to someone.

To Marty Beneteau...clean up your operation before it is too late. Control those reporters of yours better. Let them know how bad a shape the newspaper industry is and that they should be lucky they still have a job.

After all, Danese, Battagello and now Schmidt, that's three strikes...does the Star want to be "out?"