Francis Targets Marra

By Robert Tuomi

(WINDSOR, ON) – In the land of the unaccountable the unaccountable smile. They do other things too, like start the election season for the 2014 municipal vote. Chris Vander Doelen, a columnist at the Windsor Star, told us back on February 23, 2012 that we might as well get ready for “a gruelling 33-month-long municipal election campaign.”

Apparently, the campaign began in earnest, at least in the eyes of the mayor of Windsor, an Edgar Francis, when people started questioning why the Auditor General had to go because he was rudely planning to audit things. According to Vander, the mayor personally told him that “several candidates for council have declared an early, early start to the 2014 campaign. Their need to get some muck to stick to him and other incumbents is what’s driving the recent spate of non-scandalous scandal reports emanating from city hall.”

So the games have begun and from the early results it appears that the mayor has identified who he thinks is possibly his most daunting opponent being former mayoral aspirant and current councillor Bill Marra. It is a tactic that may well backfire, if Marra is up to a considerable challenge facing him at the Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital Foundation.

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/03/francis-targets-marra/

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Windsor Is Only A Small Town, Really

By Ed Arditti

I know that the Mayor likes to throw around the word “world-class” whenever he has one of his mind’s eye visions. I guess it makes him feel good to do so thinking that he actually might live in a big city rather than in a town with a population that is probably around 200,000 or even less now with all the unemployed people who moved out of here looking for jobs elsewhere.

Of course, when he comes up with one of these ideas, the Star Columnists have to compare us with all of the locations around the world to make us feel good that we are spending so much money on these white elephants rather than using it for silly things like roads and sewers and watermains.

I wanted to do a Blog about why Dwight Duncan, Deputy Premier/Minister of Finance and one of the two MPPs for Windsor, has been invisible on the Auditor General Termination fiasco. Ultimately, whether he wants to or not, he’s going to get dragged into it. I wanted to try to explain why he is not out in front of this matter rather than being forced to react to it down the road.

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/03/windsor-is-only-a-small-town-really/

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Todd Langlois Affair Solution

By Ed Arditti

Of course, leave it to the Blogmeister to work out a solution that makes everybody happy and solves all of the problems.

The more this AG fiasco goes on, the more that is disclosed to the public, the more likely it is that the City will have to cave in and pay Todd Langlois money to get out of this fiasco. Or rather taxpayers will have to foot the bill because City officials don’t have to pay money out of their pocketbooks even if they screw up…

Would Mr. Langlois be happy? I don’t think so. I think that he would rather work than get some cash in his hand. Like it or not that money will go quickly unless he can get a job offer. I’m not sure how many there are around considering that he was prepared to wait quite a bit of time before the City finally decided to hire him.

For Windsorites, frankly it would be a horrific disaster.

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/03/todd-langlois-affair-solution/

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Where’s The Auditor General And Other Stories Of Interest

Where’s The Auditor General And Other Stories Of Interest

Just a few stores to try to capture your interest

WUC RATES TO BE AT 0% TOO NOW

Where oh where is the Auditor General who should be looking into whether or not our Water Utility is being run properly. Oh, I forgot. We don’t have one.

Oh, is it election time already? I thought the next municipal election was not for a few more years. I wonder why the water rates are now supposed to be kept at no increase when there is an obvious demand for watermain replacement. Just take a look at the photo I posted the other day about the mess at East Gate Estates. Or what took place in front of my house.

Former Councillor Junior will be livid at how this Utility is being run in such a political manner to its detriment. But we know why don’t we. Remember the Inaugural speech from Edgar (aka Eddie) and how it was described by mini-Gord:

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/03/wheres-the-auditor-general-and-other-stories-of-interest/

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Please feel free to add feedback, additional info, alternative contact details, related links, articles, anonymous submission, etc. as a comment below, via web-form, through social media or mail us directly and confidentially at: operationenwin [at] gmail [dot] com

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Join Us In Demanding ENWIN Open It’s Books

Posted on March 9, 2012

Join us Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the Ottawa Street Market as we head to Walkerville and collect signatures asking the Ministry of Housing to have Ontario’s Auditor General open Enwin’s Books!

We were told the Ontario Energy Board looked at EnWin’s books. We were told Enwin’s Books were open to the public.

The city’s Auditor General wanted to look at EnWin’s books, but he was fired.

Residents have been asking for copies of audits of EnWin, but Enwin hasn’t been responding.  We own it, why aren’t we receiving a response?

Contact us at https://windsortama.wordpress.com/contact-us/ for more information and to find out how YOU can help!

https://windsortama.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/join-us-in-demanding-enwin-open-its-books/

About TAMA

Taxpayers for Accountability in Municipal Affairs (TAMA) was created after Windsor’s Auditor General was fired.

Area residents concerned with this firing and allegations of a conflict of interest of the chair of the audit committee organised a group of volunteers numbering over 2o to take action.

We don’t know why the Auditor General was fired, but we do know after he wanted to audit Enwin Utilities, Enwin Energy Ltd., Windsor Canada Utilities Inc. as well as the Aquatics Centre, Windsor Airport, the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel Commission among other areas of the city, he was shown the door on the recommendation of the audit committee – including its chair, Max Zalev, President and CEO of Enwin Utilities.

In response we are demanding accountability.

Join us in demanding the City of Windsor Open Its Books by asking your family, friends and neighbours to sign the petition calling for an audit of Enwin Utilities to be conducted by Ontario’s Auditor General.

Only by working together can we make this happen.

Support us today!

https://windsortama.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TAMA.Windsor

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Zalev and the A-word

By Anne Jarvis

Audits? What audits? If I had a nickel for every time Max Zalev told me “Enwin is audited all the time,” I’d be rich.

Zalev has told me this so many times that it should be the corporation’s new slogan, carved above the entrance to its building on Ouellette Avenue, emblazoned on its trucks criss-crossing the city, stamped at the top of my monthly bill, which I send to my accountant to decipher.

Zalev, of course, is chairman of Windsor’s audit committee and CEO of Enwin Utilities, which is owned by the city. (Lots of people think that’s a conflict of interest.)

Here, straight from my notes, for the record, is what Zalev has said.

http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Jarvis+Zalev+word/6275238/story.html

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Enwin never had detailed audit: OEB

Board counters claims of Zalev, Francis

By Dave Battagello

WINDSOR, Ont. — The Ontario Energy Board says it has never performed a detailed audit of Enwin Utilities nor undertaken a “value for money” investigation.

“It’s not our mandate, it’s not what we do,” said Sylvia Kovesfalvi, acting manager of communications for the province’s energy board.

Enwin CEO Max Zalev and Mayor Eddie Francis say there is no need for the city’s internal audit department to dig deeper into the city’s utility company because it is thoroughly audited by the OEB.

The issue arose following the firing of the city’s auditor general, Todd Langlois, who alleges that among the reasons for his termination was his desire to audit Enwin.

Langlois has launched a $2.4-million wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the city.

An auditor general can undertake a value-for-money audit which can assess the effectiveness and efficiency in the way money is spent. That differs from regulatory or financial audits which focus on compliance, taxation and the accuracy of financial statements.

The mayor has repeatedly indicated anyone is welcomed to audit Enwin, but he added the cost would be huge and a waste since OEB “has auditors who come in” to study the balance sheets.

http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Enwin+never+detailed+audit/6275239/story.html

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TAMA Demands: Open the Books At Enwin/WUC

By Ed Arditti

You have two choices on Saturday morning. Sleep in or join up with your fellow Windsorites. Just keep on reading

Hip, hip, hooray!

The Star finally did an Editorial on the stink that one can smell all over the City. No, not about the Langlois affair and the lack of audit of WUC/Enwin but about skunks. Now that is the kind of hard-hitting, relevant, up-to-the-minute, decisive, public spirited journalism that Paul Godfrey obviously wants for his Postmedia newspapers.

Oh me, oh my. And here I was thinking that I was protected by the Ontario Energy Board who did all these high-priced audits on Enwin according to our Leaders.

Turns out, if one reads Annie and Dave Battagello in the Star today, that this is not so.

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/03/tama-demands-open-the-books-at-enwinwuc/

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This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. and intend its use to be for education and instructional purposes only. Therefore, we believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond “fair use,” you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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Is The City Of Windsor Hiding Something

By Ed Arditti

Slowly but surely the rights of citizens are being eaten away. Secrecy above all has become the rule in Windsor.

I must admit I don’t understand the reason for it all. It really isn’t all that complicated running a town the size of Windsor. Why is there the need to keep so much information away from us?

Are our Leaders so afraid that we cannot handle the truth? Are they keeping away the truth from us because it would be so horrific for us to know? Or could it be something worse or at least something that can give rise to such a concern?

This is not an academic concern. The last thing that we need in this City at this time is to be distracted. Yet we are. The Langlois affair is a disgrace. And then I read Council Halberstadt’s Blog today and was extremely disgusted. I’ll talk about it later.

I found this commentary in the Detroit Metro Times very interesting:

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/03/is-the-city-of-windsor-hiding-something/

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Please feel free to add feedback, additional info, alternative contact details, related links, articles, anonymous submission, etc. as a comment below, via web-form, through social media or mail us directly and confidentially at: operationenwin [at] gmail [dot] com

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This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. and intend its use to be for education and instructional purposes only. Therefore, we believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond “fair use,” you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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Freedom of Information: Is It Time To “Lawyer Up?”

By Chris Schnurr

Have you ever had one of those moments when you don’t know how quite to respond to something and instead sit there aghast in stunned silence? I had one of those moments today courtesy of the City of Windsor.

Now don’t get me wrong with only one exception my experiences with city employees and senior staff have been exceptional. The exception was the frosty reception I received from one senior administrator a few years ago that had me yearning for the warmth of the Arctic Ocean. Next time I will don a scuba suit should I have to deal with that individual again.

But today had me asking myself if transparency and municipal accountability is so important to the City of Windsor, why is it that nearly every single time I request information I find myself wishing I had studied law? I guess I’ll have to “lawyer up” when navigating what appears to be increasingly rough waters to access information.

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/03/freedom-of-information-is-it-time-to-lawyer-up/

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Please feel free to add feedback, additional info, alternative contact details, related links, articles, anonymous submission, etc. as a comment below, via web-form, through social media or mail us directly and confidentially at: operationenwin [at] gmail [dot] com

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