Original A Channel Video and Report
1. The Water Main Replacement levy was instituted in 2004 by the current administration. Why are we only finding out in 2007 that it has never been used for it's stated purpose?
2. The Mayor claims "we're not going to play a shell game", but that is exactly what has been going on for the past three years - under his administration. Why did voters not find out about this situation BEFORE the last municipal election?
3. Why are we transferring $1.4 million from the Utilities Commission to the City in order to reduce the 2007 property tax increase if the utilities commission is in such dire straits? I thought we weren't playing "shell games".
Which one of these doesn't match the other?
Councillor Lewenza quoted in yesterday's Windsor Star about the rate increases:
But officials say Windsor’s new rates are high because its the first to come to grips with the common dilemma of deteriorated sewer and water pipes and increased environmental requirements.“One thing to be clear is you can’t make comparisons with other municipalities not doing the (infrastructure upgrades),” Coun. Ken Lewenza Jr. said. “This isn’t a Windsor problem. It’s a North America problem.”
Councillor Lewenza quoted in today's Windsor Star:
Did Councillor Lewenza have a divine revelation between yesterday and today? What else could possibly explain the two different reasons for the rate increases?Coun. Ken Lewenza, who is chairman of the Windsor Utilities Commission, said he didn't know how long the commission had been diverting funds.
Officials were vague on the details about why a designated fee would be used for other purposes, or whether doing so is illegal.
"We've been focused on how do we fix it, we haven't been looking at blame," Lewenza said.
"I don't want to say I'm not concerned (about the practice). (The issue about whether the practice is fraud) hasn't been raised before. I would refer to legal on that question."
Lewenza said he understood the commission started diverting the funds to pay for overhead costs to avoid raising water rates. He suspected it's been a practice for several years and said it appeared politicians didn't want to raise rates, so utility administrators had to find money somewhere.
Since a former regime at the utility left several years ago, councillors have been overhauling the way the utility operates.
"It's been a long and drawn-out process," Lewenza said. "We are finding out things every day. We still need to do a lot of things to better run the utility."
As Chairman of the Utilities Commission, are we to believe he only found out about the Water Main Replacement issue Thursday morning?
As far as the "officials" claim that Windsor is the "first to come to grips with the common dilemma of deteriorated sewer and water pipes and increased environmental requirements", I'll demonstrate what an utter fallacy that is in a series of posts over the next several days.
Later on today, I'll be posting some comparisons of water bills from different municipalities to demonstrate how Windsor's convoluted system of charges and levies does nothing to encourage conservation and makes it very difficult to save any money by reducing usage.
