My way or the highway

Much has been written with respect to the issue of municipally run child care centres, both on Windsor City Blog and Line of Sight – so I won’t get into the nitty-gritty details regarding last night’s council meeting – save for one video clip.

I’ll begin this blog with a video excerpt from last night featuring an exchange between Marion Overholt and Mayor Eddie Francis, which to me, struck to the heart of the issue.

We are reminded daily by this city council and Mayor of how dire the financial situation is in the city.  Falling property tax revenues, declining population and a very severe downturn in the local economy that began long before the nation began feeling its effects.

But throughout this downturn it did not stop this city council from approving expenditures to launch legal challenges (they knew they’d lose); pursue questionable entrepreneurial endeavours such as acquiring the Detroit half the tunnel; pouring money into a profitable airport corporation and of course the Greenlink campaign – to name but only a few.

All told we’re talking millions of dollars over this term – and if we include the east-side arena that may have been accomplished for far less  - we’re pushing nearly $100-million.

However, be that as it may – the past cannot be changed.  My mom’s favourite expression, “what’s done is done” what do we do now comes into play.

This is not to absolve our elected officials by any means. 

The public will have their say on October 25, 2010 and pass judgement. 

But what that short video exchange demonstrated was the exact issue I have with Mayor Eddie Francis and a majority of city council – a continuation of the “my way or the highway” attitude and when the tables are turned, the Mayor doesn’t like it.

Sorry Councillor’s Valentinis and Brister – THAT doesn’t wash with me.

Not one bit.

When asked her honest opinion, Ms. Overholt gave it.  Now if Councillor Halberstadt had access to the mute button, I can only imagine the joy he would have had in using it on the Mayor.

Because the Mayor’s response was classic Eddie Francis – divert attention away from the issue at hand – which was municipally run child care – to one’s “overall” opinion of administration and their committment to social issues.

If you do not want to hear the answer – don’t ask the question, Mr. Mayor.

Getting back to the point at hand – some of the fiscal pressures facing the city were caused by this council with full knowledge as to what was coming – save for the fact the Mayor believed at one time the issues were “cyclical.”

And now – because we can’t change the past – decisions have to be made. 

But what was sorely lacking was any type of community consultation in an attempt to find a solution – as Ms. Overholt pointed out.

The maddening part of all of this was that the Mayor asked:

What is the solution?  If we are not satisfied with what is in front of us this evening, what is the solution?  What is the alternative?

Well that is what some 30 odd delegates were attempting to achieve – let’s work together to find one.

The Mayor got his answer, but he didn’t like it.

And he disliked the answer so much – he didn’t vote on the issue of deferral but made sure he voted – when he did not have to – to ensure the closure of city-run facilities.

In other words, the Mayor wasn’t interested in seeking any type of resolution other than his own.

Think the airport board.  The tunnel.  Greenlink.  The Windsor Utilities Commission white wash audit, or even the Downtown BIA’s simple request for further consultation.

And let’s not forget all the conflicts that suddenly emerged ensuring passage of this council motion knocking off possible opponents of the motion to close the facilities.  I didn’t hear such conflicts existing during the CUPE strike and those councillors participated in negotiations.

Now, this isn’t to say something needed to be done – because unfortunately, the reality is it did – and it would affect real people with real families and real bills to pay – just as you and I do.

But Ms. Overholt hit the nail on the head when she said:

You bring this community together and you ask that very question, because I don’t doubt the answers are there and that we can come collectively to a decision that we all can live with.  And when I look at the divide now between this city council and county council as a citizen, that makes me very concerned. 

And I don’t know why we have to have a decision tonight.  I don’t know why we can’t have that consultation process.  If we set March 1 as the deadline I don’t know people – all the good will – because there’s a lot of good will here and there’s a lot of concern why we can’t collectively come back and look at this issue.

And if we can’t solve it as a community, then go ahead and proceed with your report and make your decision, but what is there to lose in allowing 30 days to review that and allow the community to come together?

Because you yourself Mr. Mayor praise this community for their creativity, for their resilience, for their willingness to sit down and work together, and I just bitterly, bitterly resent the lack of opportunity to allow this community to do that.

I will be straight forward – I do not know what the solution is – but I know I would at least like to hear some suggestions that wouldn’t add to the unemployment rolls or increase taxes.  The two appear to be diametrically opposed.

Perhaps it isn’t possible – but with any significant issue – we the voting public and shareholders of this community at least deserve the opportunity to do so.

30 days may not have changed the outcome – but those affected deserved an opportunity to at least try.

Unofficial polls suggest majority opposed to closures

Now Cogeco TV ran a live poll during the council debate.  While online polls are unscientific – it did pass my own sniff test as I attempted to vote more than once – but couldn’t. 

At the close of council, 61% of respondents stated the city shouldn’t close the centres.

Pshaw you say.  It was all CUPE members watching council last night so they stacked the vote.

Exactly my thoughts so I checked out AM 800 which had conducted a poll a couple of days ago.

Now I’m making an assumption that AM800 has a wider listening audience than Cogeco and the poll was taken on Friday.

It is interesting the results are nearly identical. 

While I take online polls with grain of salt it is a snapshot of a particular moment in time and a rough gauge of the listening/viewing audience.

If these reflect even remotely the general feeling, then Mayor Eddie Francis, Drew Dilkens, Fulvio Valentinis, JoAnn Gignac and Dave Brister didn’t do themselves any favours to at least not pursue consultation.

But don’t worry, Mayor Francis has some exciting announcements to make soon – so all will be forgotten.

Remember – Mr. Farhi is set to unveil his plans:

Windsor’s battered downtown is getting a much-needed vote of confidence from larger-than-life London developer Shmuel Farhi, who has been opening his wallet to scoop up properties here and hopes to make an announcement in February of his plans for the core area (December 5, 2009, Windsor Star).

And the Mayor is itching to announce 3 non-govermental investments:

…As mayor of Canada’s unemployment capital, Francis is itching to announce early in the new year success on three “files” the city has been pursuing, each involving non-government investments with the potential to inject large numbers of new jobs into Windsor (December 29, 2009, Windsor Star).

Perfect timing.

It almost makes me wonder if this was the reason for the haste in last night’s decision.

Can’t have anything marring a potential election campaign kick-off can we?

Proof of Haste?

I just found this on the City of Windsor website dated October 3, 2009:

Interesting – I don’t know what this is about – but now I’m really interested to see what Pauline Lewis’ recommendations were – considering we spent upto $75,000 just a few months ago.