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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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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Helga’s Cone Of Silence

By Ed Arditti

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Helga Reidel, the City of Windsor Chief Administrative Office could be in serious trouble. Not because of what she wrote, although that is bad enough, but in the manner in which she is trying to control information. Tell me if it seems like overkill to you as it does to me.

Whatever happened to open and transparent government in Windsor?

Clearly, Helga must have wanted to keep something secret in a recent e-mail of hers. She probably did not want mere taxpayers to be able to see it. I guess that whatever it is had to be kept all hush-hush.

She must have revealed something shocking in an e-mail to her confidants, the Senior members of Administration, but it was addressed also to all City Hall employees. In fact, she effectively implored that it be posted because some poor souls working for the City don’t have a computer so could not read it supposedly.

Imagine that, a document that is e-mailed around to employees and posted on City bulletin boards but cannot be forwarded to anyone else. I can understand if it was something secret and confidential, but then, it would not be sent around to everyone and posted on bulletin boards would it.

What’s the big deal then? Why can’t it be sent around for Windsorites to see? I would like to have posted it on the Square but I understand that at the bottom of her e-mail she scares everyone half to death with her “copyright notice.”

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/03/helgas-cone-of-silence/

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AG Blocked From Investigating Fraud

By Chris Schnurr

On the CBC, Mayor Francis may dismiss allegations that he, the CAO, and the audit committee prevented the city’s Auditor General from doing his job as “irrelevant” in the court of law; but when it comes to the confidence taxpayers place in both administration and council, these allegations are very troubling.

In fact, they are so relevant that hundreds of people are signing petitions throughout the city including one calling upon the Auditor General of Ontario (AGO) to take a look at Enwin Utilities, Enwin Energy and Windsor Canada Utilities Ltd. and another asking the AGO to review Windsor’s Office of the Auditor General. A residents group Taxpayers for Accountability in Municipal Affairs has also been created, of which I am a member.

Now we’ve learned through Anne Jarvis’ column the Auditor General, Todd Langlois, was being shut out of fraud investigations and according to emails acquired by the Windsor Square, this may have included an ongoing investigation.

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/03/ag-blocked-from-investigating-fraud/

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“Politicizing the process … and the bureaucracy”

By Ed Arditti

Oh, oh. City CAO Helga Reidel has got to be worrying today. What did she do to deserve this she must be wondering? Annie in her Star column on February 29, 2012 has painted a target on her as another person who might have to take the blame for the Auditor General being forced out. First Zalev and now Helga. If this does not work, then who is next?

Annie describes how Administration wanted to endrun Todd Langlois with respect to possible fraud investigations at City Hall. The approval process that Annie described is frankly unbelievable and supports the view that Mr. Langlois was considered too dangerous and had to have his wings clipped. Obviously, they were clipped permanently given his multi-million dollar lawsuit against the City:

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/02/29/politicizing-the-process-and-the-bureaucracy/

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Is There A “Dirty Tricks” Campaign Going On In Windsor

By Ed Arditti

It is no longer about Todd Langlois only. He just happened to be in the wrong place and at the wrong time as far as I am concerned. It would have happened to anyone who was in his position if he/she did the same things. While it is important that we determine truth of what happened so that Mr. Langlois is being treated fairly, there is something even more important at stake: the proper governance of this City.

I am concerned that we are seeing a possible “dirty tricks” campaign. You know the Watergate cliché as well as I do: it is no longer only is there a “crime” but is there a “cover-up” as well.

The phrase “dirty tricks” is defined this way by Wikipedia:

“Dirty tricks are unethical, duplicitous, slanderous or illegal tactics employed to destroy or diminish the effectiveness of political or business opponents. The term “dirty trick” can also be used to refer to an underhanded technique to get ahead of an opponent.”

While such tactics have been going on for hundreds of years and are still ongoing– look at the robo-call scandal involving the last Federal election campaign– most of us probably understand that term from the Watergate scandal.

I was having breakfast Saturday morning and all of a sudden I got very angry. It was even before I read mini-Gord’s column. I don’t like what is going on in the City of Windsor. It is beyond comprehension to me how the Todd Langlois affair happened in the first place and how it is spiraling out of control. Every day it seems we are learning new facts that seem to contradict what was said before.

However, the tragedy is that we have no one who is in a position to take a look at the books and records of City Departments and organizations to protect the interest of taxpayers and we will not be in such a position for who knows how long I would bet. Get real, the City won’t do anything meaningful before the next municipal election.

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/02/26/is-there-a-dirty-tricks-campaign-going-on-in-windsor/

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Why Did The Audit Committee Members Need A Lawyer

Why Did The Audit Committee Members Need A Lawyer

I must admit that I found it rather bizarre that the Audit Committee members needed to bring a lawyer to the meeting that they requested with the Windsor Star. Was he there to help them out if the questioning got too tough? In fact, I find it bizarre that the Audit Committee went there at all.

Why didn’t they hold a Town Hall meeting with citizens present to get their story across and to allow taxpayers of Windsor to question them to get answers rather than just go to the Messenger. Why, Councillor Dwight-Lite would have been thrilled to provide the technology for them to do so. After all, according to the Star more than 22,000 callers came to Dwight-Lite’s HUM session. I would bet that the number would increase dramatically if there was an Audit Committee Town Hall session.

Heck, I would have thought that the City Council would have demanded their presence at the next Council meeting so that the Councillors could interrogate them in public in front of the TV cameras almost as well as they interrogated the Senior Level officials during the Greenlink/DRIC road cross-examinations. You remember the masterful job that was done by Council members to make those people look so foolish even though the Senior Levels completely ignored Council and built the DRIC road exactly as they intended.

All we know is what the Star told us went on. I must admit that I am disappointed that the Star, who must have been videoing the session since they posted part of it, has not posted it all online so far. It must be really bad for them not to do so.

I do take offence that the Audit Committee has not seen fit to meet with the Windsor Square Editorial Board but then again, they might not like to hear some of our questions.

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/02/24/why-did-the-audit-committee-members-need-a-lawyer/

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Another Windsor Square Exclusive: The Secret Campaign To Salvage Edgar

Another Windsor Square Exclusive: The Secret Campaign To Salvage Edgar
By Ed Arditti

Sigh, another one from your friends at the Square.

I wish that I could tell you all of it at this time, dear reader. However, I cannot because clearly it is a deep dark secret. I can tell you some of it though.

It is just starting and it is extremely well orchestrated. Unfortunately, it is also quite amateurish and obvious and stupid. Undoubtedly, the Eminence Greasie is not involved at all. If he/she was, then there is no doubt that such foolish tactics would never be utilized. There is no doubt that Greasie has been banished for some reason from the E-team. Or that person is on vacation for a long period of time and cannot be reached by normal means of communications, probably carrier pigeon only.

It is a multi-pronged counterattack.

Clearly, the Windsor Star is being used as the first prong. And why not, it is the leading distributor of news in this City. Undoubtedly, Edgar (aka Eddie) signalled what one branch of this approach will take when he talked about the mayoral campaign in 2014 on his radio voice, CKLW. On that station, he announced effectively that he was running again for Mayor 2014 for a fourth term. No complaints because he did not promise that he would not run again the way he did when he promised that he would not run for a third term.

What does mini-Gord in the Star talk about in his column on February 23, 2012:

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/02/23/another-windsor-square-exclusive-the-secret-campaign-to-salvage-edgar/

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Storm The Bastille

By Robert Tuomi

(WINDSOR, ON) – In the land of the unaccountable, the cream rises to the top. The citizens of Windsor appear ready to take the city back. Already the posters on the Windsor Star’s website are nothing if not mad as hell. Some, responding to the sacking of the auditor general are talking of a citizen’s committee. Others are promoting a petition to call in the province.

In other parts of the city, citizens are forming residents’ associations – like the recent one in Walkerville – and others are taking over, with no pay, the jobs that the city’s lazy, selfish and inward council refuses to do but at the same time certainly does not refuse to collect its pay packets.

How bad is this council? Try contacting its members. Most simply won’t respond to emails. This is a trait becoming well known to voters including Immethreesteps who posted a revealing comment, at 4:27 pm, February 17, 2012 on the Windsor Star website, as insight on the work of another poster who listed the email addresses of all councilors.

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/02/22/storm-the-bastille/

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Junior’s Bus Tour Forces Edgar To Announce He Is Running In 2014

By Ed Arditti

I am not fooling. He announced that already, on CKLW, on his love-fest on Tuesday morning. That is the way that Edgar believes that he can control his Councillors and keep them in line so that they will not dare go against his wishes by saying that he is not going to go. Knuckle under or face his wrath for the next 6 years is the threat. No wonder a couple of Councillors were seen turning white today. There go their dreams of being Mayor!

You did not have to go on the bus tour with Ken Lewenza Junior to listen to what was said. All you need to do going check my colleague’s posting where he took a video of the entire trip. Go listen to it for yourself.

Again, the Windsor Square presents to the people of Windsor the opportunity to watch and hear for themselves and to draw their own conclusions without any filtering by the media or even from our own website. You decide for yourself.

Apparently, while the tour was taking place, Edgar (aka Eddie) told us on CKLW that he was at home playing with his children “the wheels on the bus.” Taking such a cavalier attitude to serious allegations like those made by Junior could mean that the wheels might fall off of Edgar’s bus more quickly than he can imagine!

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/02/22/juniors-bus-tour-forces-edgar-to-announce-he-is-running-in-2014/

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