Open letter to Mayor Francis

It is now a little over four years since you were elected as Mayor of this city. Despite much fan fare and your promise of a new era, what has followed is a record of confrontation and secrecy that clearly indicates a profound disrespect for the citizens who elected you.

Your lack of leadership has resulted in a bickering, dysfunctional and self- serving City Council that plays follow my leader to the detriment of taxpayers at large. Largely due to your example, taxpayers’ initiatives to obtain information to which they are properly entitled have been thwarted.

You have used procedural Bylaws to disenfranchise taxpayers wishing to make presentations at public council meetings. You have conducted far too much public business behind closed doors. You have spent millions of tax dollars on legal and consulting fees while failing to co-operate with those who could help us through these very troubling times. You have lost control of the Border file by initiating a vendetta against the Ambassador Bridge Company. As an unintended consequence, West End Citizens are being badly treated while suffering unnecessary interference in their daily lives. You continue to fight totally inappropriate battles with all levels of government and our neighbours in Essex County. You have operated under a cloak of secrecy that is exemplified by your refusal to allow concerned citizens the benefit of a forensic audit of both the publicly owned Enwin Group and the WUC.

The most glaring failure to act as a reliable steward of taxpayers’ dollars was the pre-election unplanned and non-budgeted Arena. This $65 million plus boondoggle raises far too many unanswered questions for comfort. For example:
(1)The size of any lump sum paid to the Windsor Spitfire Organization.
(2)The details of their arena rental agreement with the city.
(3)The inexplicable land deal that positioned the arena in the questionable location that it now occupies.
(4)The dollar value attributable to the publicly owned highly desirable river front property that was swapped as part of the land acquisition.

You have used confidentiality clauses, to hide information that is rightfully in the public domain. Typical examples being;
(1)The Candarel scandal that continues to haunt us when The Keg tenancy is a closed book to the public and certainly to the local restauranteurs who pay market rent and high taxes only to see you initiate and support unfair competition.
(2)The cheap rental sub-leases for space in the two floors for which the City is obligated to pay $24 per foot. Another slap in the face for tax paying owners of rental properties suffering high vacancy rates. Necessity can be claimed for these sub-market rentals but secrecy should not be part of these transactions.

You have initiated secret meetings with Detroit’s Mayor that involve undisclosed and no doubt substantial legal fees while you are attempting to take control of Detroit’s half of the Tunnel. The cost that you have not denied is an unbelievable $75 million tax dollars. There have not been any ongoing public reports or meetings to discuss the current status of this fiscal madness. The reasons given to taxpayers are;
(1) To prevent the Bridge Company taking over the tunnel just to build a wall to close it down. This is preposterous nonsense.
(2) The need to avoid liability in the case of terrorist activities or any other major disaster. I do not believe that any insurance company will offer cover for war or terrorist activity.
(3) The new private company Holdco that you have incorporated is yet another device that you are using to avoid proper reporting to the hard- pressed taxpayers of Windsor.
(4) You have placed the Windsor Airport under the umbrella of a second private company over which you maintain personal control. This again denies the citizens of Windsor any meaningful information respecting the present status and future of the Windsor Airport and its valuable lands.

You mistakenly seem to feel that your position as Mayor entitles you to dispose of taxpayers’ assets without maintaining their tax producing potential. The decision to donate the Cleary Auditorium to St. Clair College under the guise of downtown revitalisation is an example. The Armouries Building has not been put on sale but just stands there year after year, a non-tax producing entity. Already, a “Not for Profit” organization is salivating around that building as they asked for and received financial support from a far too generous council. Not to be forgotten is the Riverfront property used in the arena land swap.

Looking at the way you have handled The Enwin Group, Candarel, WUC, The Detroit Tunnel, The Capitol Theatre and The Border File, is to see a dangerous precedent of circumventing the public’s right to fully participate in the management of their assets and the tax dollars involved. It also reveals an attitude that points to a lack of understanding of the words “Elected Representative”.

You have not set real priorities and have failed to grasp the necessity of spending every available dollar in re-building infrastructure. Neither do you feel the need to reduce the very high cost of city services that coupled with lower taxes would be the magnet to encourage new businesses to invest in this city. You have failed to pass the test of Fiscal prudence, transparency and leadership in municipal affairs. All the above leads to one very obvious conclusion and that is you should not remain as leader of this City.

What is needed is an experienced steady hand on the tiller to steer us through the economic storm that is impacting us all. It is time for you to consider the future of this city and resign.

Al Nelman
March 24, 2008