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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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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Asleep at the switch

By Anne Jarvis

The ultimate custodians of the public interest are the people we elect to represent us.

So the question in the tortuous four-year quest for an auditor general in Windsor is, where have councillors been?

Did anyone, besides Coun. Alan Halberstadt, raise an eyebrow when former city auditor Mike Dunbar, one of the whistleblowers in the MFP scandal, quit in 2007, complaining of political interference?

Did anyone wonder why, after council approved hiring an auditor general in 2008, we languished 18 months without one?

Did anyone, besides Halberstadt, start connecting the dots when, after finding a prospective AG in 2010, it took so long – six months – to approve the appointment that the candidate said forget it?

Surely someone, other than Halberstadt, sat up and listened when lead auditor Angela Berry, who had done yeoman’s work, suddenly left on leave last year, hired a lawyer and filed a harassment complaint, accusing the city of being a toxic place to work.

And finally, who, besides Halberstadt, now dismissed as a contrarian, raised a voice after being told Todd Langlois, the first and highly touted auditor general (whose hiring had also been delayed), had to go after only nine months?

No one.

http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Jarvis+Asleep+switch/6238845/story.html

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There Is Only One Person Left To Be Blamed

By Ed Arditti

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

Annie has done it now in her column in the Star on March 2, 2012 “Asleep at the switch.” If this slamming of Council does not stick, then there is no turning back.

There really is only one more chapter that she can write in her book about the Langlois affair. I expect that she does not want to write it but she has put herself in the position where she has no other choice but to do so.

I find it very interesting. The Star Editors can write a scathing Editorial about the Ornge helicopter scandal but not a word about the Auditor General fiasco:

http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/03/02/there-is-only-one-person-left-to-be-blamed/

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Eddie Francis Named In AG Law Suit

By Ian Paulson

(WINDSOR, ON) – Jim Cooke, lawyer for the fired City of Windsor Auditor General Todd Langlois, has filed a $2.4 million suit against Windsor mayor, Eddie Francis, City Chief Administrative Officer, Helga Reidel, and Audit Committee Chairman and Enwin director Max Zalev.

www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/03/01/eddie-francis-named-in-ag-law-suit/

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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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Logic As Sculpted By Francis

By Robert Tuomi

(WINDSOR, ON) – In the land of the unaccountable, the councilors of Windsor are peasants.

Kudos are definitely needed these days and should be lavished on the mayor of Windsor, Edgar Francis legally, Eddie Francis by choice.

He has effectively succeeded in sweeping his councilors under the carpet with none of them offering even a complaint, save maybe that pesky Alan Halberstadt who says he might not run again, making him a lame duck, but who will not do the good taste thing and resign and thus nicely eliminate any resistance or opposition to the mayor, save for that pesky Windsor Square.

Its writers need to take a break, go sit in the sunshine of the approaching spring and bask in all that Francis has done for the city, like building expensive monuments to himself and elites all the while without a smidgen of accountability or even parental supervision. He even managed to extricate the latter from the scene by pitching the pesky Auditor General (AG) to the curb from his perch of overseeing what goes on in the city.

www.windsorsquare.ca/2012/02/22/logic-as-sculpted-by-francis/

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