Brister Announces Mayoral Run And Other Stories

Here are some thoughts I had about recent news stories:

EDGAR'S REVENGE

Edgar (aka Eddie) likes to get even, no matter how long it takes. He also learns well from other people and is not afraid to take the ideas of others and use them to his own advantage. After all, why re-invent the wheel. He also likes to one-up others.

Those are just some of his characteristics I noted when I worked for him, to my regret, during his first mayoral run.

So do you like the game that he is playing now... keeping on not announcing whether he is running for Mayor or not. It has to be so much fun for him to keep everyone guessing. What an ego trip---as if anyone really cares. The ABEs have their plans already set up about what they are going to do in the election whether he runs or not

• "It will be at least next month before Eddie Francis announces whether he'll seek a third term -- but even July is not a sure thing.
  
  "I haven't made a decision," he told The Star.
  
  Last month, it was suggested he'd have an announcement by mid-June. As far back as December, Francis said that he'd be sitting down with his family over the Christmas break to discuss whether to pursue a third term in the mayor's chair, contrary to a pledge made in 2003 that he'd vacate the office after two terms.
  
  In his annual state of the city address May 14, Francis gave 50-50 odds that his name would be on the Oct. 25 ballot.
  
  Coun. Bill Marra, considered the likeliest candidate among 10 council incumbents to bid for the mayor's post, announced last week he'll be satisfied with a return to the council table.
  
  Francis said this week he would have preferred to have made an announcement by now but that any consideration of his political future has to await completion of several important economic development files he's been working on full-time for months."

He is such an important man after all. Everything depends on him personally. Well one big plan that he worked on full-time for months is done. We are on the Monopoly Board!

All that he is doing is that he is merely pulling a Mike Hurst in his last term when he announced finally that he was not running during a River walk. It was so dramatic.

Don't expect that Edgar will announce anything until the absolute last minute. That should keep most of the people who want to run against him off balance. But of course there is one person who I think may know what is going on. Maybe. Because there is no doubt in my mind that he is being used by Edgar as well.

We now know that the Councillor formerly known as Councillor Budget aka Councillor STOPDRTP has said that he is not going to run for Councillor again. Which obviously left open the fact that he could run for Mayor.

Readers of the Star obviously have to be impressed about what Gord and mini-Gord said about him in their columns when he announced he was not running. What great and free public relations support that he can use down the road.

Do you think in one of those cell phone calls between the Mayor and the Councillor, a plot was hatched whereby the Mayor would agree to keep everything in a holding pattern, then at the last minute decide not to run so that the Councillor would then run because his family agreed that it was so important for him to do so. He would have everything lined up during the interim... signs, brochures, platform website etc. etc. He would be a shoo-in with all of the Star support.

Now that wouldn't surprise me at all.

However I told you that Edgar likes to get even and likes to one up. I remember him telling me about something that the Councillor did during Edgar's first run that absolutely annoyed him.

How about this for a twist. Edgar does decide to run for Mayor again after all because he could not complete all of these important deals for Windsor before the next election. Brister would not dare run against him because he would suspect that he would lose and he has said he would never run as a Councillor. In this way, Edgar gets rid of Brister from Council without anyone being the wiser. And gets his revenge too. He also turns the Hurst not running on its head.

Moreover, if the Arena audit turns out badly, guess who is the scapegoat. Yeah, former Councillor Brister who is no longer on Council. We saw that played out very well on the 86% WUC increase matter and on the 400 Building audit where people not on Council were blamed.

Perfect. What a plan.

DO NOT OFFER ME A STAR SUBSCRIPTION

Well, Marty Beneteau has no power at his own newspaper. One minute he praises Councillor Lewenza and then his Editors slam him in the usual Star fashion.

I wonder if the Mayor called in his Chief of Staff and complained about how Marty treated him so badly. I wonder what words of encouragement she used to try to brighten his day.

I just do not understand the Star. On the one hand Marty agrees with Lewenza on the need for open and transparent government and then they slam him for political posturing. DUH... if the Councillor did not act in the way he did, then the meeting would not have been made available to everyone in Windsor.

The whole point why the Councillor acted the way he did is precisely because of this sentence in the Star Editorial:

• "we anticipate would be covered by all the city's media outlets."

That is the point isn't it. Most people get their news, if it is not available to them firsthand, from the Windsor Star. The Councillor has already had the experience with the Star with their non-reporting of his Ward 4 meetings where he explained how the hardliners lost the 101 days labour dispute with its workers. The Star could never report that because it would mean citizens would know that the hard-liners cost them millions of dollars extra in taxes.

We already know how the Star is going to report the issue from the Editorial even though most of the attendees at the WUC rate increase meetings supported what the Commission wanted to do:

• "Francis seems to prefer a more modest increase than the six years of annual five per cent increases proposed by Lewenza."

That smacks of the Edgar pre-election political posturing previously that resulted in an 86% water rate increase. But nothing can be done after he is elected.

I liked how the Editorial continues on with the Star tradition not to report key facts such as the Commission asked the Mayor to be put on the June 14 public Council agenda and he refused. Councillor Halberstadt was right about Edgar controlling the Agenda.

I liked the fact as well how the Editorial makes a big point of Edgar not being around on June 28 but did not state that Edgar missed a key Commission meeting when he was out of town again:

• "Mayor Eddie Francis, also a WUC board member, missed Thursday’s meeting because he was overseas"

Perhaps if the June 28 meeting was scheduled and is so important, Edgar could skip his trip to Bahrain or defer it or perhaps send someone else in his place. Sure he won't get all the glory, but after all he is paid to be Mayor and a member of the Commission not a pitch man.

However, the real reason that the Star is so mad at the Councillor is because he decided to have the Commission make its presentation NOT because the Star is going to stream the meeting on its website but because CKLW agreed that it would broadcast the Council meeting live.

WE SHOULD LEARN FROM PORT HURON

They seem to have problems as well with homes being purchased and not torn down by the Government who wants to build a plaza for the Blue Water Bridge. They have a novel approach that perhaps Windsor Council might want to consider:

• "Matt Webb, MDOT's project manager, seemed especially eager to hear our concerns. So, it is more than a little disturbing that MDOT seems ambivalent about the messes it already created -- and not bothered to clean up.
  
  We are talking about the acquisition and demolition efforts now under way -- clearing out 125 homeowners, 30 businesses and one church.
  
  There are too many houses that already have been purchased -- and then left to rot. They are eyesores as ugly as those you'll find in the inner city neighborhoods of our metropolitan areas.
  
  Boarded up houses. Weed-filled yards. Broken windows. They all become magnets for trouble and result in safety issues for neighborhoods.
  
  MDOT officials are quick with bureaucratic answers -- most of which ring awfully hollow...
  
  Once MDOT closes on the sale of a home, the structure should be torn down -- completely down. The ground should be leveled. And there should be an ongoing program to clear the weeds."

Gee, doesn't the Bridge Co. want to do that with their homes and don't the citizens in that area also want that to be done? The only one that it appears who does not want it done is the City. I wonder why not.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO IN PERPETUITY

Has Councillor Jones changed his position? I did not see him requiring the Bridge Company to agree to do something forever with respect to tearing down the homes on Indian Road.

• "I'm always interested in looking for a solution that everyone can live with," Jones said. "I'm asking the people to come forward and I will help to see that those boarded-up houses are addressed."

DUH Ron, you know already what the people want. There is a lawsuit going on for heaven sakes. Perhaps you could ask the Mayor for a copy of the claim and read it.

Don't you find it strange as well that the Star did not interview Councillor Postma who seems to be the one trying to facilitate a deal between the Bridge Company and the City and its residents. Oh I forgot, she is a nonperson now.

WILL GORD PUBLICIZE THIS AWARD

We know that Gord liked rubbing into our faces all of the prizes that Greenlink won. Will he tell us about the one that the DRIC engineers won for their project:

• "10 Canadian projects honoured in global infrastructure report
  
  Ten Canadian projects have landed in a new report to be released Thursday that showcases 100 innovative infrastructure projects from around the world.
  
  Ranging from unique hospital projects in Central Canada, to border-crossing infrastructure work linking Windsor, Ont., and Detroit, to public transit, new schools and construction in Western Canada, the Canadian investments are sharing the spotlight with dozens of other high-profile initiatives around the world...
  
  two projects in the Windsor area to improve traffic to the border: The Windsor-Essex Parkway and the Detroit River International Crossing.
  
  "I think we're seeing governments on both sides of the river and both sides of the (Ontario/Michigan) border coming to terms with the need to do it and then finding the will to act, and I think it's actually a success story because it's multi-jurisdictional and multi-functional," said Beatty."

Here's the funny part. Gridlock Sam won an award for his Greenlink work and that project never went forward. The DRIC gets an award and all that we will get if we are lucky is a below grade road straight to the Ambassador Bridge and the Enhancement Project bridge.

The tearing down of the Ontario tourist centre building means that from E C Row north, the road to the border is the west side of Huron Church Road. The new bridge will be the bridge right beside the Ambassador Bridge. We know that from the Prime Minister's secret mandate letter to buy that bridge meaning that the intention of Canada was always to twin it as it did in Port Huron and wants to do at the Peace Bridge.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO TODD PEPPER

• "Mayor to Introduce New EWSWA General Manager
  
  Media are invited to a news conference at 11 am, at which Mayor Eddie Francis will introduce the next General Manager of the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority."

Remember this back in May:

• "The absence of general manager Todd Pepper -- on leave now for 11 months -- is holding up discussion of major issues like a new business plan for the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority, says Mayor Eddie Francis.
  
  After an hour-long in-camera meeting Tuesday, Francis declined to explain the reasons for Pepper's absence.
  
  "It's a personnel matter," said Francis. "There's nothing I can say."