The Magical Mystery Tour

This all reminds me of a magic show in Las Vegas. The mayor and Windsor City Council display all the hallmarks of good trickery. You know the ones: palm, ditch, steal, simulation, load, misdirection, and switch. It would all be very entertaining if the tax payers weren’t the ones in line to be sawed in half.

Palm

Now you see it, now you don’t. In December 2006 Mike Dunbar submitted his audit of the construction of 400 City Hall Square West, otherwise known as the “400 Building”. You know the report is real; even the present audit committee admits to its existence. However, the committee has retained the services of Toronto lawyer, Andrew Roman, a partner at Miller Thompson LLP. Why a law firm from 400-500 km away and not an outfit from Windsor? What is Edgar saying about Windsor law firms? Nothing but the best for Edgar, as long as it’s not coming out of his pocket. Thanks tax payer.

Andrew Roman has decreed that to release the contents of the Dunbar Report would be “a violation of Ontario’s Municipal Act.” So…”Poof” it is gone. Never to be seen again.

Nice trick despite the dissenting opinion of University of Windsor law professor Marcia Valiante.

You have the section. It’s ambiguous and they are sort of taking advantage of that in some ways since they haven’t actually hired an auditor general.

Mike Dunbar, former city auditor and the author of the report, is even more damning of the audit committee and the decision by Andrew Roman (an unelected official and not accountable to the tax payers of Windsor).

This is unbelievable. The whole purpose is supposed to be transparency and accountability. This goes against everything the federal and provincial governments are doing with auditor generals. It’s incomprehensible that municipalities can treat an auditor general as something less than the feds or province. You can’t have political appointees to an audit committee making determinations. This is exactly the problem I had before and one of the reasons that I resigned. It’s unbelievable.

Magic usually is unbelievable. The audit committee has performed the equivalent of palming the report, and ditching it right in front of your eyes.

Simulation

So what’s going on with Pelissier Street? The scene of a number of violent crimes, the most recent of which occurred around 2:30 am on 27 September, elicited this from Mayor Edgar Francis.

If people are concerned, they should be concerned. I would avoid that street. At 2 a.m., 3 a.m., 4 a.m., if you're concerned don't be on Pelissier Street on that corner.

During the mayor’s terms at the helm of the city he has done absolutely nothing to deter the incidences of crime in this area; seven gun related episodes including murder. Is the mayor over his head in this matter? No thoughts about what should be done? Even getting together with Chief of Police, Gary Smith, hasn’t provided any relief for the residents and business owners who have to live with this every day.

How many of those gun incidents were committed with weapons dealt out of the back of Windsor’s local strip bars? Where’s the policing in this city?

How about better lighting including the alleys, increased and pro-active police presence, an official condemnation of the violence, earlier bar-closing hours, and better surveillance cameras. There’s a few just to start. It only took me a short couple of minutes to come up with them. The mayor has had years to think over this problem and all he can come up with is to stay away? Thanks for that Edgar.

So what we have here is a simulation of a mayor and Polices Services Board chair. In actuality Edgar continues to sit on his thumb and fails to accept the responsibility to act.

Disappearing Act

Whatever became of the Windsor Star? Have you noticed the blatant bias over the last eight months? The paper has become the defacto official organ of the mayor. I’m sure it has something to do with why the paper is losing subscribers. For instance, not a word, not an editorial, no columns from Gord Henderson or Chris Vander Doelen, regarding the payout to John Skorobohacz. The utter silence is deafening. Maybe they think if they don’t say anything then everybody will forget about it.

Can you really believe what happened? There was no employment contract, as admitted by the city’s Council Services, for the former CAO, despite the mayor and some councilors stating otherwise. Over a quarter of a million dollars is inexplicably paid out to the retiring CAO and the only major newspaper in town doesn’t print a single column, not a paragraph, not even a word about it. They may as well have not published last week at all, except that some bird cages would have gone unlined.

Compare that to the Ottawa Citizen’s view of the role of newspapers within the fabric of Canadian society.

Newspapers are defenders of the public interest. Part of this role has traditionally involved taking adversarial relationship with government and the public sector. As journalists, we see ourselves as “speaking truth to power.” We believe that the newspaper plays a unique role in the media ecosystem in defending democracy, rooting out corruption, and looking out for the interests of the common man and woman.

Apparently not at the Windsor Star.

Misdirection

The editorial board at the Star gives Edgar a free ride on the Skorobohacz issue but then tries to divert attention toward Ken Lewenza Jr and his plan in council to release the in-camera motions during the civic strike. Take the light away from yet another blunder by the mayor and shift direction to Lewenza.

But Vander Doelen’s attempt to broach the subject was ham-handed at best.

Some of the votes were a little murky. But mostly it's crystal clear which councillors were willing to force taxpayers to pay gigantic sums to give CUPE what it wanted, and which councillors were resisting the union's siren call.

What? I guess they pay him just to write and not to think too much. The entire point Lewenza was trying to make, and which was proven out by the motions, was that the final settlement was more costly to the tax payer than had the city approved a settlement earlier in the strike. The mayor says to move forward and Mini-Gord still wants to play the divisive “us vs them” card.

When it is time to objectively review the motions for what they mean, as Ed Arditti did, Vander Doelen instead tries to misdirect, and make the story about Lewenza instead. He used inflammatory words and misleading statements such as,

It's tough to figure out what Lewenza Jr.'s game is

Which constituency he is trying to impress -- big labour, or taxpayers?

Lewenza Jr.'s determination that taxpayers see how many times he voted against their interests seems like a political death wish.

Lewenza Jr’s histrionics

What game is Vander Doelen playing at? Misinformation, misleading, misdirecting, misunderstanding, and misguided.

Load

The mayor was quick with the visual props. Even before the vote on the motion to release the in-camera motions, Edgar was dramatically waving the document in council chambers.

Mayor Eddie Francis didn't seem to be in any doubt about what the in-camera record would reveal to savvy voters: he countered Lewenza Jr.'s histrionics about openness by having the minutes compiled, photocopied and ready for release the minute the vote passed. Wham! There they were.

Forget that the waving of the sheaf of papers was overly dramatic, it was completely rude to do so while Ms Critchley, the City Clerk, was trying to answer a question from one of the councilors. That’s an example of a leader. Not.

Switch

The mayor is like a chameleon. When it suits him he is quick to establish himself as the leader, turning off microphones, reproaching wayward councilors, and providing the vision of his mind’s eye. But in a blink of that eye, when there is just a hint of being blamed, or having to shoulder responsibility, he says, “I’m only one of eleven on council.” Faster than you can say “switcheroo”, Edgar goes from trying to control everything, especially information, to being just one of the guys with not even control over an agenda.

Mayor Eddie Francis said councillors have the power to defer an in-camera issue or request more information if they do not feel comfortable making a decision. “It’s a process they are totally in control of,” Francis said.

Compare that to,

[Skorobohacz] cited several factors in his decision to part ways with the city, including growing disagreements with council, weariness from the heavy-handed control of Mayor Eddie Francis and simply reaching the end of the job's shelf life.

And this classic,

Your arrogance knows no bounds,” Halberstadt shouted at Francis, his fist repeatedly slamming the table. “This is no way to run a city — I’m tired of this crap,”

Or, remember the Caboto Fiasco?

Jim Wood, president of Local 82 said, “I approached Mr. Sadler. I told him I was pissed off. I am at my wit’s end.”

Wood said Sadler told him he had been sent to the club by “upper management, my boss.”

“Well his boss is Mr. Mayor, Eddie Francis. Shame on the mayor,” said Wood.

“If this whole thing falls apart right now, which I have a very good feeling it is, it is the mayor’s fault.”

Against the advice of the CAO, but in tandem with outside legal advice, Edgar Francis put managers into harm’s way and ordered them to hand out a back to work protocol before workers were to vote on the city’s offer of settlement. A back to work protocol that was decided by council to be LEFT OUT of the offer to the union.

Well Edgar, you can’t be one of the boys and the boss at the same time. Like I said in an earlier post, the mayor continually refuses to seek and accept responsibility and chooses to place blame on others when really he should be looking in the mirror.

The Show is Over

And with a puff of smoke and the glint of mirrors, the political shenanigans in Windsor are nothing but a magic show, some kind of dark voodoo that’s being practiced in order to amaze, confound, and deceive the voters. Disappearing newspapers, simulated leadership, misdirected issues, and a report that vanishes right before your eyes. Penn and Teller would be proud.