Join In

A worthwhile discussion.

I'll be posting my reply in the comments later on today.

Excuse me

... I think I'm going to be ill

"New Democratic MP Brian Masse who has done masterful work on the border file"

Well, I'll at least give Gord credit for delivering the best and deepest laugh that I've had in years. Loudest, most shrill, most useless press releases - but masterful? LMAO!

"Ward 1 Coun. Dave Brister, who played a pivotal role in the community fight against DRTP, is appalled by the timing of Marra's motion and the naivete of anyone who could be so easily convinced DRTP has capitulated."

Hmm..., yet another attack on someone who doesn't tow the line. How about the naivete of anyone who actually reads Gord Henderson's columns and believes them anymore? Why do we even need to buy the Windsor Star. If someone could just convince the Mayor to actually put out a Press Release we could dispense with waiting another day or two to read about it in Gord's column.

It would be especially helpful if Gord would disclose with every DRTP related article he writes that he lives and owns property along the proposed corridor, whatever it's intended use.

It was pretty obvious to regular Council watchers where this motion was going when Councillor Marra first attempted to move it. It certainly didn't escape the sarcastic comment of the Mayor.
My only hope is the end result of this will be one more Councillor who grows or discovers a backbone. Lord knows it's a piece of the anatomy that has been sorely missing from most elected officials of late.

Don't worry, be happy. We're going to spend $800,000 on branding Windsor this year. After that, everything will be alright.

BTW, I'll vote for this proposal around the same time that CAW 444 begins televising all it's internal discussions and debates. Grandstanding and pandering would be generous descriptions. Yet another example of how Councillor Lewenza wouldn't know what transparency truly is unless it smacked him upside the head. On the other hand, as Chair of the WUC, he could release all of the minutes being requested by Star reporter Don McArthur an d restore our faith.

Transparency isn't a trump card to be pulled out when you think it might be most useful, it should be an ingrained practice of everyday municipal business.

I know, I know, Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

LondonSpeak.ca

LondonSpeak.ca launches today, joining WESpeak as an alternative voice for the average citizen.

If you know of any bloggers in the London and surrounding area, let 'em know. The more the merrier!

A telling sign

Dismissal with disdain. About the same response as anyone with a dissenting opinion in Windsor generally receives. Instead of dismissing the report, the Mayor and Council should be embracing it. It's an objective report by a respected institute interested in advancing the public policy debate in Canada.

At the very least I hope the Mayor and City Treasurer take some time to read the report. They might actually see lines like this:

The ultimate objective of the LGPI (Local Government Performance Index) initiative is economic improvement. By opening up discussion and productive debate around the following three issues, an improvement process for local government will be fostered over the next several annual editions of the LGPI.

The issues are:
• Accounting standards and disclosure issues.
• Financial management practice and asset (activity) management.
• Municipal government culture: a product of the Eighties

This is the first in an annual series focusing on local government. It's an opportunity for Windsor to begin benchmarking ourselves against other municipalities in the country who are, for economic development purposes, our competition. If we can't begin to look at ourselves with a critical eye, we can't expect companies to be lining up to do business here. Our local officials may dismiss this report out of hand, but rest assured, companies who are doing their due diligence are not.

The authors acknowledge the difficulties in assessing municipalities across the country. This report is not meant to be a "who is in first and who is last" ranking.

The aim is not to rank cities but to explore strengths and weaknesses of different municipalities facing different challenges, based on hard financial and statistical data.

Maybe if we told the Mayor that this was a high-priced consultants report, he might be more interested in reading it. All the money in the world spent on "branding" and "selling" Windsor won't amount to anything if we don't begin focusing on the basic principles of municipal management.

What's up Doc?.

This statement by Councillor Brister struck me as strange. He's referring to Council discussions earlier in the day regarding remuneration. The whole statement smacks of posturing and politics for some as yet to be revealed reason.

There's a back-story to this somewhere that we haven't been let in on yet.

Around Town Tuesday - Nov 27th

1. Walkerville Times 2007 Editon - get 'em while you can. (.pdf version available for download)

2. Windsor related Facebook - Habitat for Humanity, Arts Council - Windsor & Region

3. Mezzo Ristorante Dinner Club - a unique night of dining and dancing.

4. AM 800's Cans for a Cause

5. Calling Councillor Ken - whatever happend to the "I'll talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime" when it comes to WUC?

New look National Post

Hopefully this is the new look that Canwest will be rolling out at all their newspapers, it's a winner. After spending several hours, over a couple of days, touring the site, the only weak point I can find is in the Multimedia category. (basically just a Photogallery and some special videos. No avenue that I could find for user submitted content, share/embed videos/recommend photos and videos. Multimedia looks like an afterthought tossed in)

The site autodiscovers RSS in the address bar. RSS is prevalent throughout every page and section of the site. There are numerous ways to access each section, new category, special topic etc. Social Bookmarking is available for over 37 different services. (eg. Facebook, Digg, Furl...)

The Post has gone mobile in a big way with applications for Blackberry and Windows based devices together with SMS alerts and a mobile browser friendly site.

The Post blogs get their own mini-aggregator on the top right hand side of the page. This is something that I had mentioned would be useful for the Star bloggers to increase the ease of access and readership. (instead of having to click through two or three levels to see if new content has been published, the latest blogs are available on the front page)

Oh yeah - everything is available now - free! No subscription walls, no special subscriber areas.

Bring it on!

Border Delay Questions

From GovTech.com, the Congressional Committee on Homeland Security has some questions for the Department of Homeland security regarding the most recent incidents of border delays of Emergency Personnel:

DHS Questioned on Emergency Personnel Delayed at Border

Nov 26, 2007,

Today, Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Subcommittee on Border, Maritime, and Global Counterterrorism Chairwoman Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), and Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness, and Response Chairman Henry Cuellar (D-TX) sent a letter to Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security regarding two incidents at the Canadian border when an ambulance and a group of firefighters were delayed and stopped at the border for secondary inspection. A link to the letter is below.

RELATED DOCUMENTS:

Letter (PDF) [ homeland.house.gov/SiteDocuments/20071120111445-67508.pdf ]

The letter asks for a response by December 3rd, 2007.

Quick Hits - Monday November 26th

1. Item 4 Community Event Partnership Program Policy & Application (CEPP), Notice of Motion M176-2007 - a long overdue policy.

2. Item 3 Site Plan Approval for SPC 008/07 and Exemption from the Interim Control By-law 19-2007 - Maryvale Residential Treatment Building - now we get to see the hypocrisy in action of all the "no exception whatsoever" members of Council.

3. Add up all the money we spend on consultants, including the ones used for this latest report, and there would be money to spare for many other initiatives. Three years to make a decision is about right for "City time".

4. Par for the course these days, and not looking like anything is going to change anytime soon.

5. Golf courses, marinas, airports - why not a tunnel? Anyone got a business for sale - send in a proposal to the City of Windsor. We don't have enough on our plate trying to run core municipal services. If the Mayor and Council are so keen to run all these businesses, why don't they do us all a favour and resign to open their own. That way they get to play with their own money instead of the taxpayers.

6. Nice to see the uploaded 211 service is now up and running. Whatever happened to the Operating Agreement that was supposed to come back to Council for approval?

7. Speaking of reports to Council, has an Audit Committee meeting been held recently to consider the Auditor-General's position? What do you think the chances are this position will make it into 2008 budget deliberations? (see Item 4 for yet another reason a Windsor Auditor General is so sorely needed).

8. International Metropolis with some great shots of the Walkerville Theatre.

9. WE Speak now has some company. London Speak launches this week.

10. If we're still on schedule, this should be Budget Week in Windsor, with the public unveiling of our lastest masterpiece.

Update: Moneysense Best Places to Live in Canada - Windsor makes the list at #18, Leamington at #14.

Budget Questions

I was reading Chris Schnurr's blog last night and came across a report he linked to, completed for London City Council (BMA Management Consulting’s 2006 tax comparison, courtesy of the City of London).

One of the tables listed the percentage of reserves versus total expenditures (2005 figures):

Windsor: Reserves $74,145,712 Total Expenditures $709,476,190

What's got me puzzled is the figures for London:

London: Reserves $194,539,419 Total Expenditures $743,417,186

The next table is similar, but less Unfunded Liabilities and less Water and Sewer:

Windsor: Reserves $71,469,164 Total Expenditures $645,453,762

London: Reserves $120,655,162 Total Expenditures $656,322,951

Windsor's population is 216,000 while London clocks in at 352,000. Why are Windsor's figures so close to London? I'm currently reviewing the 2007 budgets for both cities to try and determine where the differences are. If anyone knows any reasons why Windsor's budget is almost the same as London's, please email me or post a comment.

One other thing I noted from the BMA report is the status of our reserves. Windsor, at 10.1% is below both the median (29.7%) and average (42.9%) of the 76 municipalities studied for the report.

Sound familiar?

H/T to Councillor Halberstadt for the link to Municipal World Magazine:

Believing Every Issue Needs Unanimity

Democracy is not well served by the search for unanimity on a council. Some of the most successful councils have very heated debates on the key issues and resolve such matters by a 5-4 vote. While the mayor may view the matter as very significant, there is nothing to suggest that the issue should result in everyone seeing the issue the same way.

If, after the council has heard all the evidence and still decides the matter by a narrow margin, it may well be that the community as a whole would, if exposed to the same arguments vote in a similar fashion. It is my view that the best councils, like hockey games, are unpredictable in nature, given the propensity of most leaders to see the world somewhat differently.

The key to successful mayoral leadership is the recognition that the key issues were fully debated, the public view was heard, and the majority decided the result. Those matters that do receive the support of all members of council are often quite straight forward or are of a housekeeping nature. It is seldom that a council resolves contentious matters by a unanimous vote. The mayor should not be perturbed by the failure of council to agree unanimously to any matter but, rather, maintain focus on the course ahead.

How many 5 to 4 votes on any issue can you recall at Windsor Council over the last 11 months? Key issues debated, the public heard?

In Windsor, the appearance seems to be the exact opposite. Procedural maneuvering, committees/sub-committees debating issues out of the public eye and without public input or scrutiny, items buried in the consent agenda, stifling of public input, lectures for Councillors when questions are asked, verbal reports in-camera ... the list is long. Every time a Councillor "steps out of line" it seems to generate another edition of the "Cheerleader Chronicles".

How much longer are we to endure this Kumbya council voting 10 - 0 or 9-1 on issue after issue?

I am looking forward to Councillor Postma voting against the budget if it doesn't produce a 0% tax increase. She was well quoted last year as saying that there wouldn't be any tax increase as a result of building the new arena. Since then we've had an 86% increase in our utilities bill, with another hefty increase due next year. Council is currently examining a budget with a recommended increase of 3.6% plus a further 1% levy. Wow, if that's Councillor Postma's definition of no increase in taxes, I shudder to think of what she classifies an increase!

Things to think about

I meant to blog about this recently, and it fell by the wayside.

Jordan Bateman is a Municipal Councillor in Langley British Columbia. I regularly visit his blog. On a recent visit I caught this item:

Cities Fit For Children conference report

On Thursday and Friday, I was in Kelowna attending a conference called Cities Fit for Children. The following is a report I am providing to the rest of Council in a memo today.
-----
On November 1 and 2, 2007, I attended the Cities Fit for Children conference in Kelowna. This memo provides a brief report on that conference.

Overall, the seminars were informative and helpful. As was expected, the keynote addresses by Dr. Stuart Shanker, Dr. Clyde Hertzman, and Dr. Suzanne Crowhurst Lennard were the highlights.

Dr. Shanker opened the conference with a presentation on the science of early brain development. His research shows some worrisome statistics:

What a great idea. Like most Councils, Windsor Councillors and Senior Staff attend numerous conferences, clinics, association meetings and other events. Why don't we ever see reports tabled at Council to share the knowledge learned during these events? A simple report along with any supporting materials should be fairly straightforward to produce and table.

Information is gold and the more we share, the more everyone wins.

On message

Someone certainly got their talking points this week.

One might think this would be a great article to wave around at budget time when you're trying to justify spending hundreds of thousand of dollars on communications departments and branding consultants.

Around Town Tuesday - Nov 20th

1. 48HRFLICKFEST - if you missed the first screening stop in The Room, Friday November 23rd, 6pm. You can also view the Top 10 films online.

2. A blogger with a sense of humour, albeit slightly sarcastic. Luv it!

3. Neighbourhood in Motion - the 800 Block wishes the 900 Block better luck next year.

4. Keep up the heat, otherwise we'll all be paying for it next year.

5. Windsor related Facebook - waste a little time today - You know you're from Windsor when...

If you have any event, post, article or website that you'd like to shill for, promote, shout about...., drop a note in the comments and I'll add it to the list. Busy day today.

Let the sun shine in

Hat tip to Councillor Drew Dilkens for stepping up to the plate. I'm guessing he didn't appreciate being on the receiving end of one of the Mayor's stock "Alan Halberstadt" lectures at last week's Council meeting when he had the temerity to actually ask a question.

If there's ever a motion for citizens to get behind, this is one of them. If you don't feel comfortable appearing before Council to support this, at least take a few minutes to email Councillor Dilkens and let him know he has your support. If you're feeling really energetic, email your own Councillors in support or really throw caution to the wind and let the entire Council and Mayor know how you feel.

Councillor wants minutes of city corporations

Weary of being in the dark over the business dealings of the city's arms-length corporations, Coun. Drew Dilkens wants minutes of every meeting from those entities shared with all councillors.

Dilkens served a notice of motion Monday that he will bring forward his request to council in the next week or two, once it has been fine-tuned with the help of the city's legal department.

Enwin Utilities, Windsor Utilities Commission, the city's tunnel corporation and the airport's YQG Gateway Inc. are among entities that frustrate Dilkens because only councillors who sit on those boards are privy to minutes of meetings and business dealings.

"For me, it's about openness, transparency and accountability," he said. "Residents expect us to be in the know, so it's incumbent upon us to know what's going on in these organizations.

Canwest grows in Windsor

This was quite a surprise yesterday. Congrats to the owners on the sale. I can respect the years of work required to build these publications.

That said, I now have a little more incentive to continue developing WE Speak. CanWest, the Windsor Star's parent company, now controls a significant portion of the county's daily and weekly print media. Now more than ever, this area needs robust platforms that deliver alternative opinions.

There are some improvements to the site planned next year along with SpeakTV, a new live-streamed weekly webcast. LondonSpeak.ca will hopefully be launching within the next several days.

CanWest buys community newspapers in Essex County
Interim general manager named by media company
Staff, Windsor Star
Published: Monday, November 19, 2007

CanWest Mediaworks Publications Inc. has acquired three publication groups that publish five community newspapers in Essex County and Windsor Parent magazine.

The purchases of Phoenix Media Group Inc., Cornerstone Publications Inc. and Sims Publications Inc. mean that CanWest - which owns The Windsor Star - will reach more than 30,000 homes in the region through six publications. They are: The Kingsville Reporter, The Tilbury Times, Lakeshore News, Shoreline Week, The LaSalle Post and Windsor Parent. CanWest has also bought the commercial printing assets of Sims Publications.

Quick Hits - Monday November 19th

1. Some opinions to remember on the Windsor Airport in general and municipal corporate governance in particular. - Windsor Airport - Air Traffic Control. We've added two new "arms-length" corporations in the last year and may yet be adding two more. Is this the correct model for transparent, open and accountable government that most people expect today?

2. Windsor may be addicted to urban sprawl, but other municipalities are starting to realize the true costs. Some are even saying no to new development for the sake of development.

3. One of those things that most of us missed.

4. I'm interested in reader's opinions on our current Ward system for a future blog series that I'm working on. Issues to consider are the current number of wards, size of wards, number of Councillors, remuneration of Councillors and whether or not it's time for Windsor to move towards full time Councillors. Any/all comments, suggestions, links to articles, research etc. welcome. (bluebloggingsoapbox@gmail.com)

5. Just thinking - we can continue to hire outside consultants to study, review, study some more, Council can review the study, request a report and if we're lucky, take some action sometime in the next 3 years. On the other hand - maybe we can pull the finger out and simply make our current City Auditor an Auditor General and start the whole process immediately. Markham has already begun leading the Province by approving the creation of an Auditor-General. Not surprising really. They also believe in consulting with residents before raising water rates, not running damage control after the fact. Their Click With Markham is also a great use of multimedia to connect with residents. (includes .pdf's in eight different languages.)

6. Windsor related Facebook - Tartan Army returns! , Councillors Halberstadt and Dilkens have joined the Facebook generation - will others?

7. Update: In case you missed it - the latest edition of the "Cheerleader Chronicles". Little did Councillors realize when they were running last election that one of the requirements was to ask no questions. Anything less than a 10-0 vote and the dissenting opinions are "naysayers", "blind mice", (insert your own Henderson-inspired negative), ...

If the Mayor is looking for unqualified support from residents, he's doing a damn poor job of selling his own residents, let alone prospective investors. The Mayor and this Council's penchant for secrecy and fait accompli propositions is more to blame for perceived difficulties than any so-called naysayers. Windsor's weekly Council meetings have begun to look more like poorly orchestrated versions of a junior band than anything representing real open and accountable government. You'll have to forgive me if I don't pick up an instrument and join the band each week when I don't get to see the score until after the performance.

Ouch!

Hopefully our City Councillors are reading some of the feedback that is being posted online at the Windsor Star regarding the proposed 3.6% tax increase.

Time to get back to basics. Stop hiring all the consultants and experts. Stop running businesses in competition with the private sector. Focus on core services.

Open government, Windsor style

I'm rather busy with life today, so you'll have to make do with a link to somewhere else.

Take a minute or two to follow along with Windsor Star blogger Don McArthur's uphill battle with the Windsor Utilities Commission, everyone's favourite.

Read the story and then think to yourself - is a 3.6% tax increase by Windsor City Council justified this year?

Catch a WIFF

Local filmaker Gavin Micheal Booth with his behind the scenes look at the 48HR Flickfest:

Gavin spends the weekend filming the behind the scenes of the WIFF (Windsor International Film Festival)'s 48 Hour Filmmaker Challenge to assist Dylan Pierce and document the great, fun event.