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Written by BBS
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Friday, 16 May 2008 05:25 |
Amherstburg's police "poison pill", as described by the Windsor Star, would seem to be an insurmountable barrier to exploring other policing options. Seem to be are the key words.
Amherstburg should immediately begin exploratory talks with LaSalle and Windsor regarding the formation of an Essex County Regional Police force. As it's been reported, the "poison pill" only applies to a transfer to the OPP. If this is actually what is spelled out in the agreement, then switching to a Regional force should be a legitimate way of avoiding a clasue that should never have been agreed to in the first place.
Regional Police and Fire Services are long overdue in Essex County and this situation may be just the impetus required to begin talks. If an initial agreement could be reached by these three municipalities, then Tecumseh and Lakeshore could also be encouraged to join in.
Situations like this are where leadership counts. Do we have any leaders out there?
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Written by BBS
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Friday, 16 May 2008 00:27 |
Best wishes to all the Windsor entrepeneurs heading into the Dragon's Den. Fourteen participants from the Windsor area speaks well of the can-do spirit in Windsor.
I wonder if there's some way we can lock up the Windsor Essex Development Commission and Windsor City Council in a room each week and ensure they watch each and every episode.
Windsor enterpreneurs enter Dragons' Den
Ted Whipp, The Windsor Star
Published: Thursday, May 15, 2008
Call it Dragons' Den -- The Windsor Quest.
Fourteen area businesses expect to pitch their plans to the CBC national network TV show's panel of fiery financial executive dragons who decide whether to invest.
Windsor should be tripping over themselves to provide entrepeneurs of this sort every assistance possible. The future of Windsor is here, not in some pot o' gold at the end of a Federal or Provincial funding rainbow.
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Written by BBS
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Thursday, 15 May 2008 23:33 |
The 400 City Hall Square Audit gets more farcical every day.
I've said it before and will continue to say it. The 400 City Hall audit and any others completed by former Auditor Mike Dunbar will be devoid of any value by the time the City finishes putting them through multiple spin cycles.
The real battle is ensuring that Windsor implements the office of Auditor General as Council has approved. We must keep an eye out for any effort to place restrictions on the office that would compromise it's independence or in any way subject it to control and direction by City Council beyond what is already allowed for in the legislation.
The second thing we must push for is the establishment of this office as soon as possible. My guess is that Council will drag out this process into late 2008 or early 2009 before beginning a search for the postion. By the time the Auditor General is finally in place and begins audits it will be 2010. The first audit reports will probably start being released in November or December 2010, right AFTER the next municipal elections.
Hopefully I'm wrong, but I'm not holding my breath on this one.
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Written by BBS
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Thursday, 15 May 2008 17:37 |
May 2008 event details:
When: Tuesday May 20, 2008
7/7:30pm - 10ish
Where: the Coffee Exchange, downtown Windsor, 343 Ouellette Ave
Visit the wiki and leave your name. You can also suggest some topics you would like to talk about or get information on.
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Written by BBS
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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 15:29 |
 Windsor movers, shakers Toronto bound to sell city
That's funny, why do they have to travel to Toronto to "sell city" when, judging by the comments on the article below, our elected representatives long ago sold us out.
Windsor city managers get up to 15% pay hikes
Compare that with:
Windsor ranks as one of nation's best places to live -- really!
Your housing affordability is great. You compare that to Toronto or Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, where people are paying obscene amounts for a house and taking on 40-year mortgages for half a million dollars or more."
Windsor did well in terms of average house price ($162,400), the number of new cars on our streets (15 per cent are 2004 models or newer), and our average household income ($79,135).
"If you look at some of the underlying numbers, Windsor has a lot more to be proud of than I think people realize," McGugan said.
The current Mayor and Council will eventually wake up and realize that it is their own actions creating "naysayers" in Windsor. My fervrent hope is that this realization happens the day they wake up and discover they no longer hold elected office.
Windsor could only be so lucky.
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Written by BBS
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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 06:07 |
The Windsor City Council Voting Database is online, but still under development. Right now I'm working on front end display and search issues as well as some back end organization.
Once I have the format completed I will enter several weeks of meeting data to test with. When I reach that stage I will be looking for a couple of people willing to do either data entry or data verification. My goal is to have every record entered by one person and verified by someone else in order to ensure the integrity of the data.
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Written by BBS
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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 00:26 |
For those with nothing better to do on a Tuesday evening:
There will be a special meeting of Windsor City Council with representatives of DRIC scheduled for:
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 beginning at 6:00 p.m.
Council Chambers, 3rd floor, Windsor City Hall.
TV Cogeco Cable 11 has agreed to broadcast this meeting LIVE.
I think that might be a good time to schedule that root canal I've been putting off.
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Written by BBS
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Tuesday, 13 May 2008 06:37 |
 The Motor City Mini-Mouth TM with yet another shining example of why Ward 4 will be in play next election.
As I've stated here many times before, those wishing so much for an Integrity Commissioner should be careful what they wish for. There's no lack of interesting information bouncing around in the public domain for the Integrity Commissioner to sink his/her teeth into. I guarantee the target won't be what everyone thinks is the obvious choice.
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Written by BBS
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Thursday, 08 May 2008 08:03 |
It was a good idea while it lasted.
When Good News Windsor started blogging I welcomed the blog to the blogroll at WE Speak, no different than any other blog.
While I'm a proud charter member of the "naysayer" crowd so reviled in the inner circle of happening Windsor, I was interested in seeing a "good news" Windsor blog come to the fore. 
On the other hand, what does it say for Windsor when the good news can't last more than a month?
We can either continue to fool ourselves with big bucks "feel good" marketing campaigns or face the reality of our current situation and deal with it.
Unfortuantely, the "feel good" crowd, led by Mayor Eddie Francis, is still winning the day. Local marketing firms and the Windsor Star are reaping the rewards of Mayor Francis's largesse, while Windsor taxpayers are left to deal with the bill.
I still hold out hope that our current Windsor City Council will one day discover a spine, but that hope fades with each passing day.
With a pending Ward re-districting happening before the next election, I hope none of the current chair warmers are getting comfortable. It may still be two years from now, but if any of them think it will be the same old, same old of past Windsor elections, they're in for a shock.
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