Windsor City Council - Democracy Deficit Amidst Mega Projects

By Alan Halberstadt
http://www.alanhalberstadt.com/

I am starting to regret my support for the resolution to reduce the number of Windsor City Council meetings to two per month. There now appears to be an even further retreat from wide public scrutiny and visibility.

Mayor Eddie Francis has cancelled the March 21st regularly scheduled meeting in Council Chambers at City Hall in favour of another strategic planning meeting, this one at the WFCU Centre. There was no regular meeting this week, due to Spring Break, so Council watchers will be experiencing only two meetings this month, March 7 and 28.

And we have yet to hit May, when the every-two-week cycle is set to begin.

As of Tuesday morning, Face-to-Face host John Fairley informed me that Cogeco Cable had yet to be informed by the city that the venue and the nature of the March 21 meeting had changed. In checking with the general manager of Cogeco, the news came back to John that Cogeco would not be covering the proceedings at the WFCU Centre.

The City Clerk's office subsequently informed me that Cogeco, along with all other media, was sent a fax last Friday advising of the change. The GM obviously didn't see it. And Tuesday, the deputy clerk called Cliff Danby, a guy involved with the Council telecast, to fill in some more details.

Hopefully, Cogeco will be able to set up its equipment in the second floor Michigan Room on Monday, but all of this begs the question -- why couldn't the strat planning session be held in Council Chambers? I trust it's not because a light dinner will be served to Councillors and staff at the WFCU, and policy doesn't allow us to have meals at City Hall.

Another concern is that there is no agenda for the strat planning meeting. Of course, anyone who has not just fallen off the turnip truck knows full well what it is all about.

Mayor Francis, through his media messengers, has told Council that he will be talking about “legacy projects,” specifically a transient marina and aquatics complex, both costing mega millions.

Windsor Star columnist Gord Henderson tells us that "sources" told him that the mayor recently broke bread with Windsors’ own Provincial Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, and Duncan told him to hurry up and get the blueprints for these mega projects together so that he and Sandra Pupatello can hurl pork-barrel money at them before the provincial election in October.

More along these lines in this space later this week.