Shadow Poll #4 - Results

I must admit, I was surprised at the results of this week's poll. Either I have less small c and more arts readers than I thought or there's simply stronger support for the Capitol than most imagine.

This week's poll will be posted later today.

Ouch!

Too many idle leeches (subscription required)
Gord Henderson, Windsor Star
Published: Tuesday, March 13, 2007

It would be less costly and more productive to shovel $300,000 in small bills off the city hall roof than to set up a public relations office that would become one more leech permanently mooching off Windsor taxpayers.

I nearly fell off my chair when I returned to the city on the weekend and caught up with the appalling news that city bosses are proposing to squander up to $260,000 annually, plus startup costs of $47,500, to create a communications office with seven employees.

It should be interesting to follow the Letters to the Editor over the next few days. Budget Season is looking lively this year.

Gord - loved the egg salad dig. Classic.

The Mayor and Blogs

Just listened to the story on AM800 regarding the proposed Communications department at City Hall. Certainly sounds like Mayor Francis doesn't care for blogs in general and Councillor Halberstadt's in particular.

REPORT SLAMMED
2007-03-12 06:26:51

Criticism of a report from city hall administration by some city councillors has left the mayor shaking his head.

The report calls for the creation of a communications department of up to seven people at city hall.

Ward 3 Councillor Alan Halberstadt slammed it on his online blog, calling it an "embarrassing proposal."

But, Mayor Eddie Francis says it was council who directed administration to prepare the report.

The report has been deferred to an ad-hoc council committee for discussion

This would be the same report that the Mayor was defending last week as being a more efficient approach - spending $250,000.00 more.

His comment on " politics being played " was priceless. Apparently Mayor Francis is the only politician in Windsor who doesn't practice politics. His altruistic motives leave me almost speechless.

Almost.

They must be selling pieces of that bridge again today.

Update: here's the clip from AM800

Layoffs at the Star

The story virtually every media outlet in the City is covering - except the Windsor Star.

Windsor Star Layoffs
30 part-time employees at the Windsor Star will be laid-off in May. The company says the reader sales and service jobs will be outsourced to a call centre in Winnipeg for efficiency reasons. Union Chair Jim Angus says C-A-W Local 240 will fight hard to save the jobs and continues to talk with the company. The layoffs take effect May 18th.

Although this is tough in a city that is facing an uncertain future, it's what rational corporations due when faced with tough times.

Hopefully the City Council can be inspired by CanWest for this year's round of budget deliberations. Now is not the time to be expanding services and staff.

We still have nine departments that haven't had the benefit of our new (old) modified modified zero based budget process.

Time for a good line by line examination of those departments, as well as all the others.

Find the (in)efficiencies.

What do Windsor Council meals look like?

I wonder if the Windsor Council is as camera shy as their counterparts in Toronto?

Toronto, with a Council 4 times the size as ours, has a budget of $20,000.00 for Council meals as opposed to our Council's $35,000.00 spent last year on the same.

An interesting discussion has developed on Alan Halberstadt's blog regarding this issue. Make sure you stop in and let your views be heard.

Dinner's on us

It seems some councillors were a bit sensitive last week about chowing down on their first free meal -- taxpayer-paid -- as part of their new, shorter dinner break.

A Toronto Sun photographer was barred from shooting the politicians at dinner, despite an invitation from councillor Rob Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North), who vows to put no free food to his lips.

Meanwhile, a Globe reporter -- interviewing willing councillors on another matter -- was first told to leave the council chamber and then ejected from the lounge where members enjoyed their buffet.

Council speaker Sandra Bussin (Ward 32, Beaches-East York) loudly summoned the sergeant-at-arms, after just seconds of discussion.

Perhaps the lefties running city hall are now taking media-relations tips from Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has clashed with the Parliamentary Press Gallery since his election?

Smart business

How can someone resist a good beverage and a FREE movie or two?

The present future at Milk Coffee Bar

On Monday and Tuesday nights, the venue’s proprietor, Angelo Marignani, rolls out the projector, drops a large screen over the front window and plays old and new classics like “Blade Runner,” “Bram Stoker's Dracula” (can you believe it’s been FIFTEEN years since that film came out??) and “Aeon Flux,” to name just a few titles. Best of all, tickets are free. And, on any given movie night, at least two films — but usually three — are screened back-to-back beginning at about 6:45 p.m.

Monday and Tuesday have to be tough nights downtown. I think this is a great idea to drum up some business.

End of an era

A friend of mine emailed me a story link yesterday that made me feel both nostalgic and very sad. A Halifax icon, the North End Pub, otherwise known as "Joe Comeau's" was destroyed yesterday in a fire. Thankfully, no one was injured.

Fire guts popular pub
North End Diner and Beverage Room goes up in flames

JENNIFER TAPLIN
The Daily News

HALIFAX - It looked like the aftermath of a war zone.

Debris fell, a pile of timbers and a crooked power pole burned in the street, and a loud bang startled a crowd of hundreds of onlookers. Firefighters battled not only an out-of-control blaze, but also a -25 C wind chill. It froze their equipment. It even froze the water they pumped, creating an ice hazard.

The North End Diner and Beverage Room went out in a flourish of flames yesterday, creating a spectacle that kept people watching for almost two hours in sub-freezing weather.

I looked around the net for a history of the pub, but couldn't find anything. I know it goes back to before World War II.

The pub was located on Gottingen Street, across the street from Stadacona.

I've a lot of good memories of that place, a few not fit for publishing here!

Great times spent at Joe's as a young Signalman on my TQ5 course. Nothing like a few pitchers of draft and a bunch of glasses to practice your Fleet Maneuvering! Formation Foxtrot's were especially dangerous to accomplish - too much spillage.

No more sliders at Joe's.

Update: just another quick memory. General John Cabot Trail of the Cape Breton Liberation Army and his regular bits from Joe's - Priceless!

Cross Posted from The Torch

Start adding it up

Clock ticking on 211 service (subscription only)

Should the partnership be approved by Windsor council, the city will be required to pay $112,639 of the 211 system's annual operating cost.

The County of Essex, which already approved the plan, would also pay $112,639 for the service, and the United Way would pay $96,548.

According to the story, the Province is supposed to kick in $200,000 for this venture. The problem is, how long will that Provincial funding last? When it disappears, will we reduce the service accordingly or simply increase the amount required by Windsor and Tecumseh?

Hasn't the Province downloaded enough services to the City already without appropriate funding? Now we're actually looking for additional services to download ourselves, with no long term stable funding in place.

Not now, not in Windsor.

If the Province wants cities to provide a 211 service then they should fund the entire service. Period, full stop.

It doesn't sound like much, but these new expenditures are beginning to add up now and will continue to add up in the future. Don't forget, the salaries attached to these positions will all become part of the " non-discretionary increases " that the budget is subjected to each year due to increased wages and benefits negotiated.

$112,639.00 - 211 Service
$259,427.00 - PR Office
$47,500.00 - PR Office startup
$250,000.oo - Environmental Coordinator and staff
$35,000.00 - City Hall meeting catering
??????? - Sewer Surcharge increase
??????? - Water Rate increase

Total so far - $704,566.00 and we haven't even seen the budget yet.

What else is lurking in the unseen budget documents?

Ultimate Spin

City needs $260,000 PR office, study says

As it stands, every city department, including the library, parks department and police service, does its own communications with the public and media, said Mayor Eddie Francis. The proposal is simply to consolidate communications, he said.

“You could deliver it more effectively and cheaply if it’s consolidated,” he said.

If this was so efficient and cost effective, why doesn't the report detail the number of positions that will be reduced across the city administration and the total amount of money saved?

I guess they really do need some Professional PR help at City Hall if this is the type of “bureaucratic bafflegab,” they actually expect people to believe.

H/T to Alan Halberstadt for helping bring this issue to the fore:

1. High Cost of Propaganda

2. Propaganda Spending Deferred

This had nothing to do with being "efficient and cost effective". I blogged about this just recently in Budget Blues. The Mayor talked about it in his Inaugural Address:

" commit the significant funds required, to the development and implementation of a comprehensive marketing strategy that will showcase Windsor to investors and decision-makers around the globe."

" It will be expensive, but by marketing ourselves properly, we can – and we will – achieve results."

Whatever happened to that " fireside chat of the twenty-first century " email newsletter that Mayor Francis promised us? " ... it will provide you with a direct update from me, on the progress we are making and the key issues facing our city."

Now THAT would be efficient and cost-effective! Walk before you run.

(Pssst - blogs are free too!)

Back to the Future

Anyone know what the definition of "near" is in Windsor?

Food for thought

I guess when they were talking about cutting last year's budget to the bone we didn't realize Councillors were talking ham bones, T Bones or TBQ bones! H/T Roberta Pennington



Windsor Star blogger Don McArthur takes a bite out of the Capitol Theatre.

A thoughtful resident offers some suggested dieting tips for the Mayor and Council.

At least now I understand the need for the Corporate communications department. Who better to help Windsorites digest our next tax increase?

Since Council will be off next week due to the March Break, I'll offer my services to collect menu suggestions and recipe ideas for the March 19th meeting. Email your tasty tidbits to bluebloggingsoapbox@gmail.com or just let 'em simmer in the comments.

A Capitol Opinion

I missed Craig Pearson's blog about the Capitol the other day. (I really wish the Star would add RSS to it's blogs!)

The Capitol conclusion

Protecting taxpayer dollars is an important role of elected officials. So is creating vibrant municipalities, which include cultural institutions.

That said, with a city this size, the Capitol simply does not attract enough business to survive on its own. Acting general manager Tom Lynd recently suggested the Capitol would need about $300,000 a year to thrive, roughly equal to the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, about 60 per cent of the Art Gallery of Windsor, and about 30 per cent of the what the Cleary International Centre received for years.

If councilors feel supporting the Capitol is too expensive, so be it.

They should hold an open discussion, however, and let everyone see who votes to save the Capitol and who votes to let it die, and then leave it to voters to decide whether they like the kind of community councilors are creating.

But making unrealistic demands for relatively small loans — when the Capitol clearly needs operating funds — and then saying, ‘Hey, we tried to help,’ seems unwise.

It likely won’t create a satisfying conclusion.

Craig's blog is a thoughtful and balanced piece. You should read the whole thing.

Shadow Poll #3 - Results

Well, at least I know that the majority of people who stop in my blog are of the fiscally conservative crowd.

Latest Shadow Poll is posted at the right.

Have your say! It's fun and FREE!

On "sharing"...

For anyone who watched Council last night, I' m sure they enjoyed Mayor Francis "sharing" his thoughts with Council as much as I did following the Riverside Vista vote.

He's just trying to keep politics out of the Council Chambers, don't you know!

645.17 Extra Large Tims Coffees

That's the price of a meal with "average, Tim Horton's guy Dalton McGuinty" at one of his intimate fundraising dinners. If you want to look at it another way, it's only 1.75 years. Considering I won't go 1.75 days without Tims, I wonder what Dalton charges for just dessert?

Dalton breezed through Windsor last fall, but stopped long enough for dinner. After wading through pages and pages of donation details, here's my best guess for his Windsor dinner dates.

Contributor	Deposit Date	Reporting Date	Contribution Amount	Aggregate Amount
Rosati Contruction Inc	11/30/2006	12/08/2006	1,700.00	1,700.00
Toldo, Tony	11/17/2006	11/22/2006	2,000.00	2,000.00
Canadian Transit Company Ltd.	11/10/2006	11/17/2006	5,600.00	5,600.00
Raymax Construction Ltd.	11/10/2006	11/17/2006	1,600.00	5,600.00
Valiant Machine & Tool Inc.	11/10/2006	11/17/2006	1,600.00	3,100.00

Source: Liberal Party Donations listed on Elections Ontario website. (11520 total donations for 2006)

There may be others that I missed considering the total number of donations that I reviewed to compile this list.

Cross posted from BBS

Quick Links around the City

The Mayor of Monmouth with a piece on graffiti.


Ambassador Bridge hosting another Community Forum.


Alan Halberstadt's latest "Council Chat" video is posted.


International Metropolis tracks the demolition of the old CAA building in photos.


Windsor City Blog with a blog on Heritage Buildings.


Thanks to the discovery of CanWest's new My Feeds Beta, WE Speak now aggregates the Windsor Star's daily Editorials and Opinion pieces.


Looking to promote your Community/Charitable/Non-Profit event? Submit your info here. Submissions generally posted within 24hrs. Note: link updated to new Event Calendar.

Evaluating Non-Profits

The Mayor had some good advice for local non-profits at last Monday's council meeting. Now is the time for a good honest look at the 400 some organizations in the city and what efficiencies can be generated.

Chris at Schnurr's Sound Off has blogged about this several times. I'd like to draw people's attention to one resource that Chris has identified - the Donner Canadian Foundation Awards.

Councillor Gignac's motion directing administration to carry out a study to put a dollar value on the services provided by local organizations fits perfectly with the Donner Non-Profit Performance Evaluation. By participating in the contest, organizations are provided with a free performance evaluation, assessing an organizations performance relative to their peers.

The Donner Awards application covers ten different performance areas:

1. Financial Management. Considers year-over-year financial management, cost containment, program spending and financial reporting.

2. Income Independence. Considers the level of diversification in an organization’s revenues.

3. Strategic Management. Considers the process through which resources are directed towards a common goal or objective.

4. Board Governance. Considers the independence, accountability, and effectiveness of board governance.

5. Volunteers. Considers the number of volunteers, their recruitment, management and development.

6. Staff. Considers the level of programming provided by staff, their recruitment, management and development.

7. Innovation. Considers the uniqueness of programs, how organizations innovate in response to change, and the use of new technology in program delivery.

8. Program Cost. Considers the per-hour cost of providing a program or service.

9. Outcome Monitoring. Considers the extent to which organizations assess their own performance in terms of achieving specific goals in their programs.

10.Accessibility. Considers the extent to which organizations assess need in making scarce resource allocation decisions.

You can view a sample Performance Report here. (.pdf )

If Windsor truly wants to begin leading the country, this is an excellent place to start.

If every non-profit in the city completed this assessment, not only would they qualify for the various Donner awards but we would then have a common base to begin a serious evaluation of our local efforts.

You want positive press for Windsor?

What kind of story do you think could be generated by every non-profit in the city participating in an effort to improve themselves and the services they provide?

Last year's Donner Awards attracted 600 applications from across the country. Windsor could almost double this amount in one year and vault itself into national prominence as a forward thinking city.

Participation in a program such as this would most likely have identified problems at local organizations like the Science Centre and Capitol Theatre long before they reached crisis status.

Strengths and weaknesses across various sectors can be identified. While funds may be the immediate problem for many, it is not necessarily the root cause of some organization's problems. Non-profits strong in governance may be able to offer assistance and mentoring to others that are struggling in this regard. Innovation leaders may be able to inspire others with their unique approach.

The Donner Foundation Award program is based on sound management principles and Windsor could only benefit by it's participation. Now, more than ever, Windsor needs to be agressive and proactive instead of reactive. We can't simply rely on other levels of government. Charity, as they say, begins at home.

Donner Award application Deadline: May 1st, 2007

Shadow Poll #2 - Results

Here are the results for the Councillor Brister inspired poll - are there more than 2 or 3 people in Windsor who care about Open and Transparent government?

33 responses may not seem like much but:

a. I didn't try real hard;

b. it's definitely more than "2 or 3".

One benefit of this exercise is that I now have some really neat Petition software ready to go, should it ever be required. Necessity truly is the mother of invention - along with some judicious Google searching.

Budget Blues

Two quotes stood out for me from yesterday's Windsor Star article on the budget:

"Windsor administrators were told by council Monday to find ways to shave the proposed seven per cent tax hike to an increase that's closer to the rate of inflation."

That's the problem with letting administration set the budget in the first place.

"The council now will break out into operating committees, there's zero-based budgeting that needs to be done on five of the committees or six of the committees that administration has already reviewed," Mayor Eddie Francis said. "By the end of the budget process all the departments that were identified for the zero-based budget will have zero-based budget.

This part really puzzled me. Five or maybe six committees, (hopefully operating in public, but don't hold your breath) will now do zero-based budgeting on parts of the budget that administration has already reviewed? What do we call this "Modified, Modified Zero-Based Budgeting"?

No matter how you spin it, this was not the process that was used over the last two years. The Mayor and administration have been "driving" this budget from day one. Take a few minutes to go back and read the Mayor's Inaugural Address and you can see some of the budget "drivers" that were being prepared.

1. Marketing

To come together, and commit the significant funds required, to the development and implementation of a comprehensive marketing strategy that will showcase Windsor to investors and decision-makers around the globe.

Successful marketing requires critical mass – you can’t do it with small budgets. It requires a consistent message – you need to repeat the same thing time and time again.
So we need to bring groups together. We need to bring our entire region together. And develop a bold, exciting, and modern marketing campaign that tells the world about what a great place this is to live, work, visit, and invest.

We need to do this right, through an organized, deliberate campaign. It will be expensive, but by marketing ourselves properly, we can – and we will – achieve results.

I wonder what kind of budget former Mayor Millson is working with?

2. Communication

It is my hope that during our strategic sessions in the coming weeks, that Council will provide a new framework for how we communicate with our residents.

This could include publishing an annual report that will help people measure us based on our performance. It would help you hold us accountable.

Until then, my plan is to start an e-newsletter, from the Mayor to the people of Windsor.

It is the fireside chat of the twenty-first century.

And it will provide you with a direct update from me, on the progress we are making and the key issues facing our city.

The only thing missing from this section is the $259,000 planned for an improved "corporate communications" office.

Annual report? I can't remember which Councillor it was who asked a question last Monday - what ever happened to the monthly departmental reports that were supposed to be delivered to Council, and by extension, the public? If the Mayor is really looking for the fireside chat of the twenty-first century - email it's not. Try this on for size. You want to communicate with youth? Speak to the people in Planning, they've got the right idea.

3. Police Services

For the first time in nearly forty years, a comprehensive efficiency and effectiveness review of our police service was recently completed, under the leadership of Chief Glen Stannard, his executive team, and the police services board.

The result will be an unprecedented change and modernization of the Windsor police service.
This modernization will include:

• A comprehensive reorganization of the police service, including the creation of a Major Crime Squad and other new units to effectively meet the challenges presented by crime trends and technological advances;

• An investment in new tools and technologies that will allow us to fight crime using the most modern means available;

• Twenty more uniformed police officers on the beat;

• And there will be two patrol cars watching over the streets of each of our municipal wards, twenty-four hours a day.

I don't think many would debate wanting a well equipped Police force ready to meet the challenges of our city, but this seems to be presented as a fait accompli. As with many other things, where was all the talk of these grand visions during the election?

Asking for a budget with target + 1% will get you exactly that - target + 1%. Any contemplated budget below that amount will trigger the automatic warnings of "severe reductions in service"

Virtually every business in this city is having to learn how to do more with less, facing increased taxes, costs and new hurdles around every corner. Why should the City Administration be any different.

Same old, same old.

We have a winner!

Biggest "Not news to anyone" story of 2007

Tax hike likely, mayor says (subscribers only)
Maintaining existing services without increase 'very improbable'
Anne Jarvis, Windsor Star
Published: Monday, February 26, 2007

Facing rising costs and falling revenue, the city will need an extra $27 million -- seven per cent more -- from taxpayers this year to pay for existing operations and some additional staff and improved services, according to a report on the 2007 budget to be discussed by council tonight.

An interesting quote from the Mayor in the article:

"Maintaining existing services without raising taxes would be "very, very improbable," said Mayor Eddie Francis, and council is not likely to want to reduce services significantly, he said."

When the Administration creates the budget, this is exactly what you get. Wasn't this what the Modified Zero Based Budget was supposed to correct? It was lauded as Councillors taking control of the budget process.

Modified Zero Based Budgeting
In 2004, City Council approved a phased implementation to a modified zero based budgeting approach that provides a significantly greater review of how tax dollars are spent. In modified zero based budgeting, every dollar must be justified as opposed to the traditional method of only explaining new programs and the amounts requested in excess of the previous period's funding. In addition to saving money and improving services, it can increase restraint in developing budgets, reduce any sense of “entitlement” to budget increases to cover costs, and can make budget discussions more meaningful. The 2006 budget development is the second year of the 3-year phase-in period with 11 additional departments and agencies being added to the 4 that started the new process in 2005

I guess we'll never know if any "sense of entitlement" existed or restraint was lacking in the 9 City Departments that never faced this process. They are:

* Huron Lodge

* Finance

* Licensing & Enforcement

* Parks Recreation

* Hospitality & Corporate Facility Planning

* Public Works Operations

* Social Support Services

* Housing & Children’s Services

* Windsor Police Services

Some mighty big budgets in that list. And they say it doesn't snow much in Windsor!

Councillor Halberstadt has two good posts on this subject:

High Cost of Propaganda

Utility Rates Piling Up