Layoff to payoff in 6 months; Free land questions and a photo

Photo of the Day

I thought I would post a picture I took this morning on my way into work. The other day, this family of Canadian Geese were crossing the bike path on Riverside Drive (Yes Monica Wolfson- I broke down and bought a bike, complete with bike alarm.  And yes Councillor PostmaI bought it in Canada and the accessories at a bike shop in Sandwich Town).  So, I brought my camera with me this morning hoping I could get a picture – the baby geese are so cute.

Layoff to payoff in 6 months

And here we thought the budget process was open and transparent.

Think again.

According to today’s Windsor Star over 400 city managers and non-union employees will receive bewteen a 0.5% and a whopping 15% wage increase – and this was already budgeted for:

Council did plan for the salary boost in its budget process, setting aside $1.4 million in 2007 and another $1.74 million in this year’s budget for salary increases.

And yet again, this decision was made behind closed doors – and one really has to wonder why – since by the Windsor Star’s account, some of these positions were those already making more than $100,000 a year and are legally mandated to be disclosed publicly.

But oh my goodness wasn’t it just on November 29th 2007 council was considering massive layoffs – something that Councillor Lewenza wanted discussed openly.  Too bad he didn’t want to discuss this one openly:

Treasurer Onorio Colucci has handed council a preliminary 2008 budget  with a 3.6-per-cent tax increase. He also presented a number of options to chop that down to about a 2.2-per-cent hike.

But council and the mayor are already indicating Colucci’s options may not go far enough and greater job losses must occur, given how much of the municipal budget is tied up in wages and benefits.

We went from layoff to payoff in under 6 months.

 And back in October, Onorio Colucci was warning council:

Colucci hinted layoffs will be tough to avoid if council sets it sights on the lower-end tax increase.

“A large portion of our budget is for wages and salaries, so to make significant reductions without impacting that is just not feasible,” he said.

 The reason for this whopping increase?

Municipalities traditionally measure salaries against each other,” said Helga Reidel, general manager of corporate services for the city. “That’s where the comparable jobs are, not the private sector.”

There is a need to keep pace in order to remain competitive and retain the best employees, she said, especially given the high number of high-ranking city staff scheduled to soon retire — 40 per cent in the next 10 years.

“We expect significant turnover,” Reidel said. “We suggested to council in order to prepare for that you have to ensure salaries are competitive so that you attract strong candidates.”

Of course they do Ms. Reidel – how much of a pay increase can you expect this year?  So over the next 10 years, 40% of the high ranking staff will retire – therefore, it would seem logical to spread the pay increase out AS THEY RETIRE, using Ms. Reidel’s logic.

What is also curious, is that only salaries were compared with other municipalities and not cost of living – something that Windsor was recognized for as having a competitive edge against other municipalities in Canada:

“Your housing affordability is great. You compare that to Toronto or Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, where people are paying obscene amounts for a house and taking on 40-year mortgages for half a million dollars or more.”

Windsor did well in terms of average house price ($162,400), the number of new cars on our streets (15 per cent are 2004 models or newer), and our average household income ($79,135).

And In can only presume our cost of living advantage only got better because these numbers are based upon Statistics Canada number from 2006.

For example, it’s less expensive to live in Ottawa than in Toronto or Vancouver; based on stories form friends who have moved to Waterloo and Kitchener – it is much more affordable to live in Windsor than in these cities.  So really, who are we competing with?

And according to Mercer Consulting, “As an employer, you may want to compensate that person [who is moving] for the differential in the cost of living.”

Cost of living includes the cost of transportation, housing, and food – and in Windsor it has been confirmed it is a bargain – we were 15th overall as the best city in which to live.

However, while we went from layoff to payoff, my blood pressure went through the roof. 

This was done in-camera; was already budgeted for and residents were led to believe we were facing tough budgetary choices – and yet $1.7 million was available at the airport; $1.9 million for planting trees and flowers; $5.4 million that was directed to the reserves as surplus; ; $1.2 million in legal fees to negotiate the Detroit-Windsor tunnel deal; the nearly $1-million spent to date on Greenlink advertising; the undesignated dividend paid from Enwin of $4-million – I’m almost afraid to ask – where else do we have money tucked away?

It seems we have money available for everything except our most basic city infrastructure and services.

And while residents faced a whopping 86% water rate increase with more to come, this council has the audacity to authorise upto an immediate 15% wage increase?

This isn’t to say that some employees may be grossly underpaid – it happens.  But again, this couldn’t be phased in as Councillor Halberstadt suggested?

But I’d really like to know how council can justify debating this massive wage increase “in-camera” when it applied to 400 people.  I’m pretty sure council did not debate each employee by name.

Hello – LAS?

The Free Land Question

In yesterday’s New York Times it was revealed that the City of Windsor had offered free land in an attempt to entice General Motors to build a new plant in a suburban part of Windsor.

But in Tuesday’s Windsor Star, it was reported that the Town of Lakeshore was considered as a possible location for a new GM plant if a product could be found:

Hargrove confirmed Monday that he had been told in the past that the best-case scenario for Windsor Transmission was being given a new product that would be assembled in a new plant to be built in one of Windsor’s neighbouring municipalities, probably Lakeshore.

Lakeshore would be considered, based upon a May 2, 2007 Windsor Star story, the best location because:

Unlike the City of Windsor which is desperate to either acquire or service industrial land of its own, Lakeshore and private land owners have developed as many as 400 acres for tool and die shops, automotive suppliers, printing plants and packaging companies…

Former Economic Development Commissioner CEO Matthew FIscher also highlighted the success of Lakeshore’s industrial park on June 13th, 2007:

The Windsor area will likely see more expansion of call centres, for example, but those jobs pay about half of what automotive workers get, Fisher said…Lakeshore was in a good position to grow with about 160 acres of the 250 acres of serviced industrial land available locally, Fisher said.

 All of this development is causing headaches for companies in Lakeshore, according to a January 30th Windsor Star article:

County municipalities aren’t going to back off on the battle for more federal and provincial dollars to fix their transportation bottlenecks despite City of Windsor objections, Lakeshore Mayor Tom Bainwarned Tuesday….The entire length of County Road 22 — the county extension of E.C. Row — should qualify for multimillion-dollar senior government grants [Let's Get Windsor-Essex Moving border funds] for widening, as well as Patillo Road, a major route for Lakeshore’s growing industrial base…Companies in Lakeshore near Patillo are complaining about the delays in getting trucks to and from their plants, Bain said. “We’re bottlenecked now.”

Now according to May 12th’s Windsor Star, “most of the area’s politicians have spent the last 18  months urging GM to find a new product for the Windsor plant and pledging assistance.”

I just have to ask then, when did the City of Windsor offer the free land to General Motors?

Back on March 20th, 2008, the Windsor Star reported that the Town of Lakeshore was one of the municipalities that did not endorse Windsor’s Greenlinkproposal at the joint city-county council meeting - upset “with the city’s opposition — including threats of lawsuits — to the widening of Manning Road.”

Wouldn’t it be unfortunate, if what Mr. Hargrove says is true, that Lakeshore was a consideration with its fully serviced industrial land that Windsor offers free land in an attempt to pull the rug from under Lakeshore for not endorsing Greenlink?

Was this the root of the problem with the Country Road 22/Manning Road expansion?  Our Mayor knew that Lakeshore was a consideration for GM locating there; Lakeshore knew that in order to handle the increased traffic a GM plant would create, it needed County Road 22 expanded.  Lakeshore endorses the DRIC…

So to solve the problem (or create new ones), Mayor Francis offers free land (probably around Lauzon Parkway See pg. 14).

Though this definitely would have resulted in increased truck traffic on the EC ROW.

So – is the Mayor only opposed to increased truck traffic on EC ROW when the county could benefit?