Local blog coverage of City Council's handling of the Windsor Utility Commission's possibly fraudulent rate hike has been excellent. Better and more in-depth than the Windsor Star offerings which were shallow and not well researched (this includes Gord Hendersons column). If you want to gain a good perspective on what the fiasco is all about and perhaps join a forum to sound off yourself please read these excellent blog posts by Chris Schnurr, Ed Arditti and Paul Synnott:
These writers burned the midnight oil last evening to make sure we could get the coverage a.s.a.p. They not only beat the Windsor Star to the draw; they did it with respect for their readers intelligence. So now that you have read the articles from the above links maybe you would like to give em hell as well.
Ah yes...Back to the voting apparatus. In a perfect world it would work like this: You can either vote to accept the water rate hike or you can vote to flush it away. This voting machine is actually quite accurate at measuring voter satisfaction. It actually measures it in gallons. No recounts, no hanging chads (errr).
If you are OK with councils decision to put the infrastructure charges on your back don't flush. If you are mad as heck and want council to address it another way then press the handle to flush three times. Less water in the system means that we are OK with paying (or apathetic as usual) and more water in the system means we are steaming mad and want to send a loud and crystal clear message to our political servants. Oh yeah... We all have to vote simultaneously. For example on a weekend day like this Sunday at 12 noon. Imagine 1.5 million gallons of water from 100,000 households pulsing through Windsors rotting, neglected 100 year old infrastructure.
In a perfect world every blogger would put the word out to their readership and every citizen would e-mail the word out to all of his/her contacts and ask them to do the same. In that perfect world we could all flush for what is right and then lie with our ears to the ground and listen to the gushing sound of democracy.
Thanks to the local blogosphere for putting some serious wheels on this thing. Please stay informed with more thorough and extensive coverage from these same contributors. All of their postings are covered to the left under Nooozbitz. Watch for them on their own blogs and on WeSpeak. Their research into the matter provides needed background and reasoning for ordering up a third party audit into the operations of the W.U.C. We need an answer to the question: What has the W.U.C. been doing with our tax money for the last 40 years? We don't need anymore whiteboard doodles. We need the truth.
NEW TODAY
AUGUST 3rd, 2007:
Internal WUC "Agenda Submission" item dated May 7, 2007 submitted by Victoria Zuber to the Chair and Comissioners of Windsor Utilities.
So funds were diverted!
Read the rest here:
THE FLUSH IS ON!
Throw your vote in the toilet next Tuesday between 12 Noon and 1PM.
Let's flush out this infrastructure mess.
Press:
44 comments:
LOL - I love it. What a unique way to vote. You should look at setting a time - like between 12 noon and 1pm on Monday - to maximize the vote. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing - between noon and 1pm on Monday, find a toilet and flush three times to express your displeasure.
I thought Monday would be good - that way even all the employees at City Hall could take part!
Pick a date and time and I'll create a couple of banners and blog buttons and start getting the word out.
I haven't given this too much thought but I think your onto something. I thought of Sunday because maybe people will be at home and probably staff would be limited at WUC treatment facility. Why don't you make the call, set up a banner etc. as proposed and get it back to all of us. We'll take it from there. Thin and a longshot for sure but what the hay. Thanks Paul.
Forgot the link to the picture.
Flush
http://flushtovote.googlepages.com/
THIS PROVES IT! The best ideas come from the humble commode. And when you mess with a commode, you mess with the man who reigns over it.
Three Flushes, I'm ready to be heard!
Count me in! Flush, flush, flush!
If only we could do this to the mayor, WUC and weak council. Just flush them all away!
I'm all for it. Count my flushes in!! We should all sing a battle hymn to our dear Mayor (not THIS mayor, THAT mayor...), too... Perhaps along the lines of the old Lionel Richie tune... "you're once(flush)... Twice(flush)... Three times (flush) a scoundrel.. and we won't paaay mooorre..."
I just hope we don't literally ALL flush at once.. 1.5 million gallons of water rocketing down the old worn out, outdated, leaking, cracking, corroded and scale-ridden pipes may just cause them to all burst at once! Yikes. In that case, we could retitle this the "Explode the Commode Campaign"!
hmmm.. Now that I type that, I think I'm going to stock up on some bottled water on the way home.... just in case.
Three cheers for the voting.
Flush Flush away !!!
Flush Flush away !!!
Flush Flush away !!!
Inciting civil disobedience. Hmmm. Can they lock you up for that?
Lock you up for what? Flushery. Illegal dumping perhaps.
Keep checking the website - http://flushtovote.googlepages.com/
By Friday I hope to have a petition up asking that the WUC cease the practice of charging levies and surcharges on top of fixed charges. Windsor needs to move to a complete User Pay system. The water usage rate at .266 per cm is too low. Eliminate the fixed charge rate and roll everything into the usage charge. The resulting rate would be around .90 to 1.10 per cm. Now if you apply levies and surcharges, it's applied based on your actual water use and you pay for it as appropriate.
Hello. This is a message for Paul. If you're checking these posts Wednesday night, can you please call Sonja at the Windsor Star at 519-255-5576, re: article on the flush vote. Thank you!
Shouldn't we have more than one planned time though, for the three flushes? Like maybe at noon every day for a week, or perhaps three consecutive days - three flushes on three days for a total of nine flushes? That would REALLY get the message out there! (Or should I say "down" there!!) Monmouth Road is the prettiest street in the city - and obviously one of the classiest - because this "flush to vote" campaign is pure class! So modern! Flush away comrades!
Imagine 1.5 million gallons of fresh, purified, chlorinated, processed water, wasted, when there are millions of people the world round drinking parasite-infested pond sludge. Imagine the amount of unnecessary pollution and energy waste caused by processing that water, and then again, after it has done nothing but pass through your toilets, by re-processing it to return it to the source. Imagine the impact on ecosystems that water shortages, diversions, and water pollution have, and consider the contribution this flushing makes to that.
What an immature, irresponsible way to voice an opinion. I would be deeply ashamed to live in a community that participated in this puerile temper tantrum, which has no hope of achieving anything other than adding a few cents to everyone's water bill (and isn't that what you're whining about in the first place?). There are plenty of other, more effective ways to protest this rate hike without helping to wreck the environment.
To A. Mavrinac: What is puerile is your "just out of college" rant about utopia. What would your solution be? To take hostages? We are not talking about a few cents here but rather hundreds of additional dollars (maybe you don't pay the bills). Also lies and deception.
Why don't you contribute to those parts of the world you mentioned by shipping a sea container of Desani.
To the rest of us it's water in and water out. Just maybe the ecosystem will benefit by it. As they say: "The solution to pollution is dilution". If you have a problem with needlessly flushing an empty toilet then be practical and sit on the dumper when you vote. It's all in the timing my friend. Make good.
blah, blah, blah aaron.
...and Rome wasn't built in a day. Imagine if you didn't scrap your peas in the garbage, imagine if you didn't take a bus or car to work, imagine all you like. It isn't going to change anything. We live in a first world country with first world perks. I do not thin our flush-a-thon is going to hurt anyone half a world away.
Flush on!
Just out of college? As a matter of fact, I'm back there -- doing a graduate degree in engineering. Being educated shouldn't negatively affect the validity of my statement. Oh, and I do pay my water bill.
I'm not proposing an alternative, I'm simply saying that this idea sucks. It's destructive and counterproductive.
"The solution to pollution is dilution" is no solution at all. You obviously don't understand how the local water system or the global ecosystem works. Maybe you yourself should consider college.
"It isn't going to change anything" is either a defeatist attitude or a selfish attempt at justifying your gluttony. Either way, nothing I say will help you. I just hope we don't all have to learn the hard way how foolish that is.
aaron, I would much rather be at the top of the pyramid than at the bottom. THAT, is reality.
Do you really think that the entire world can be at the top? That is unrealistic and utopian at best.
In order for your third world friends to be able to have a lifestyle similar to ours we would need to lower our standard of living substantially and theirs would climb marginally. Then it would be somwhere in the middle.
I don't think you would be able to handle the living conditions you would find yourself in if we did try that route. I know I wouldn't like it.
Human nature is just another branch in the animal kingdom. It is a dog eat dog world whether you want to face those facts or not. Only the strong will survive and I want to survive as long as possible. Call it greed, that is fine but it is also reality. A reality that will NEVER change.
Flush on!
Aaron, Aaron...It's nice to see that you are educated. In a couple of years you might not be such a greenhorn. Some of us are engineers and teachers and we do understand all of those things you'd like to teach us. Please Aaron. Gluttony? Nobody's building an Ark here.
Toilet Duck,
I hope to retain my greenhorn card as long as nature allows. Cynicism gets us nowhere. In any case, I'm not the one who brought up education.
I still haven't seen anyone give a compelling argument in favor of this toilet-flushing folly. Ad hominem attacks and apathy about the environment still don't tell me how you think this is going to solve anything. Let's hear it.
Aaron...
You keep setting yourself up here. So much so that you made this about YOU forgetting the gist of the thing. Stop going for the bate man. You say that no one is giving better answers and solutions but neither are you. You'll be better off by leaving it alone.
aaron - Think of it as contrarian ...civil disobiedence ...Ghandian non- violence protest ... an awareness campaign. From an ecological point of view; would it be better to have thousands of people use resources to drive or bus to a central point to rally and protest? Already this campaign has sparked widespread awareness of the many problems of city government, waste of resources and the WUC. Can you acknowledge the possibility this is of benefit to the community? Through years of neglect our watermain system leaks more water daily than the FLUSH campaign will consume.
Aaron, I can't help but wonder why you are being so negative about our peaceful protest. Protesting from our homes with simple toilet flushing is pretty harmless and is certainly less wasteful then all of us driving our gas-powered vehicles to a central protest site. And nobody said we can't "make use of the toilet", so to speak, before we flush!! Also, you haven't suggested an alternative protest method, or do you just simply think there is no issue here worth protesting? If so, perhaps you would like to pay my rate increase for me! Or maybe my entire utilities bill!
Sure there's an issue to protest. Higher bills hurt me. The WUC mismanaged funds and is trying to make us foot the bill. I get it, and I don't like it.
It's not about the water itself, either. It's about the message it sends about responsibility with natural resources. Would you cut down and burn trees to protest higher paper prices? The WUC has already said they won't even notice the extra water -- should we still plan to waste it (and tell people there's nothing wrong with doing so) just to raise awareness?
I just think someone could have come up with a more responsible and effective plan. Good luck, in any case.
OK Aaron,
We're finding center here. This is an insignificant amount of water in the big scheme of things. I'm sure the system see's more during a heavy downpour and that fresh water goes through the same process before it re-enters the great lakes. What do you think the W.U.C's policy is aboutd this processed water? We need your vote Aaron. Are ya flushin withus or abstainin aginus?
Kirwood Derby said...
"I haven't given this too much thought"
Too true, and you aren't the only one.
Anonymous said...
"Already this campaign has sparked widespread awareness of the many problems of city government, waste of resources and the WUC."
No, I'm pretty sure the widespread media coverage alerted people to this fact than this ill advised campaign ever will.
Anonymous said...
"Can you acknowledge the possibility this is of benefit to the community?"
How is adding more waste on top of existing waste a benefit to the community? How is possibly stressing the system so as to cause more damage (no matter how remote) a good idea?
Anonymous said...
"Stop going for the bate man. You say that no one is giving better answers and solutions but neither are you. You'll be better off by leaving it alone."
They have council meetings, elections, and the sort for a reason. It'd even make more sense to picket someone's home rather than go along with this bird brained idea.
Aaron...You're not buckin for a job at the waste treatment facility are you?
Taken things a bit out of context there aren't you anonymous? "I haven't given it much thought" clearly refers to implemention of a campaign. And what widespread media coverage can you refer to? Coucil meetings and elections? Ahah...Been there, done that. You sound like one of the damage control monkeys we've been listening to for the last several days. I would think that picketing ones house and facing arrest would be more bird-brained don't you?
Aaron, you wrote: "There are plenty of other, more effective ways to protest this rate hike without helping to wreck the environment." However, you haven't actually offered any suggestions. We're waiting, Aaron.
In the meantime, the "flush campaigne" has already been beneficial - after all, it made it to the front page of The Windsor Star today (Aug. 2) and has therefore helped encourage people to protest rather than be complacent.
Due to the publicity alone, the flush campaigne has already proved to be an effective way to tell the mayor and WUC to "FLUSH OFF"!
Did anyone hear the Mayor and WUC boys on CKLW yesterday? If so did you notice that they brought up the Walkerton Ontario disaster? Why? Some sort of scare tactic? If I recall that ordeal it wasn't about infrastructure so much as it was about the top dogs making irresponsible decisions. Thats why they were tried and convicted. Anybody else read it the same way?
My suggestion is to simply refuse to pay the extra on the bill. Each month when we get our bill- subtract the extra they are trying to charge us, and pay only what we have been paying. It would be a ridiculous amount of trouble for them to go after thousands upon thousands of people for that extra, especially when everyone is still paying on their bill. Just everyone don't pay the new cost!
To the Anonymous person who said "Think of it as contrarian ...civil disobiedence ...Ghandian non- violence protest ... an awareness campaign."
Yeah, because wasting some water down your toilet is DEFINITELY comparable to the non-violent protests of the civil rights movement in South America.
If Ghandi lived in walkerville, he'd love to waste some perfectly good water (down the toilet), to protest the rising price of water.
Afterall, Ghandi's got a lawn to water and an SUV to keep clean!
If you're not getting the sarcasm, I'll explain it better.
Having a small percentage of the population flushing their toilets at random times in the course of an hour will not cause any additional strain to "the system". Since it's so spread out over location (since everyone will be at work when this is planned) and time, it won't be much more of a load than the average load.
Also, trying to call this civil disobedience is a slap in the face to anyone who has ever used civil disobedience to fight for important things (you know, basic human rights, or the ability to even get water). Also, even ghandi would probably punch you in the face for trying to make that comparison.
However, what you are fighting for isn't bad. But why not do something that might actually make a difference? Like leaving the house and all going down to city hall?
Even a small number of people standing infront of city hall with signs is a LOT more than are usually down there. (as opposed to a small number of people flushing their toilets, compared to the thousand that doing it right now).
Mike
Ah Mike...Careful man. The rule say's no flame throwing. The comments which you refer to were in response to Aaron's. I think they were only trying to make a simple analogy. Rocket science not required. We also understand about the lessened impact of spreading it out over 1 hour. Deliberate and OBVIOUS don't you think? Go back to the original blogpost. It mentions "we all have to vote at once" for precisely the reason you mention. Not as malicious as you think. The City Hall thing already failed for this same issue. Picket signs? They don't phase anyone these days. The only reason FLUSHING is getting this much attention is because it's a novel and humourous approach with a sense of connection to the issue and, at least in theory, it might actually work. More importantly everyone has an opportunity to easily express their disatisfaction.
Ghandi? The guy who baked off salt water as an act of civil disobedience to avoid paying salt taxes. From a country which will soon be rolling us in car production (all size classes). You sure you want to go there? Too tightly strung my man. Have some fun. FLUSH.
to Mike
I'm in. I'll meet you down at city hall. At the 12-1 time period. While others are flushing we will march.
Are you in?
To Mike and Anonymous...Very cool! A few pickets at City Hall at the prescribed time would actually throw a new prong onto this thing. How serious are you about this and could you organize for more bodies? Use this forum if you like. Thanks guys!
Yes Catch Bucket, The Walkerton reference is a standard propaganda technique; to induce fear. Authority suggests a catastrophic disaster to minimize the current problem that they themselves have created and are responsible for.
Media control straight out of George Orwell's 1984.
Mike - Ghandi originated his protest techniques in South Africa and implemented them in South Asia; not South America. Remember Ghandi's salt protest? To highlight the tax on salt tons of salt was disposed of, a very precious commodity at the time and his location. A direct comparison to this campaign. Do the work Mike. Do the research; before posting.
Who does this Mayor think he is? The Sherriff of Nottingham? How could he expect anything less than a revolt? I hope the sewer lids pop off.
So let me get this straight and ask , how many of you know anything or have actually perticipated in civil disobediance or any type of protest ? Now how is flushing your toilets an act of civil disobeidiance? If the system fails because of the multiple flushes then all you have done is proven the cities and WUC's point that 60% of the system needs replacement if nothing happens then you have proven nothing at all cause no one knows the difference anyways . I can tell the majority of you on here are Conservatives at heart cause you all have no idea what a struggle actually is and what a protest and civil disobeidiance is either . Now you all would be much better off standing outside of city hall with a protest sign , taht way people in the general public and city councillors would actually see a protest and protestors . Good luck with your silly adventures .
Anonymous: You are either completely new or the pink spot on the tail end a donkey. I'll give you credit for being the former. I'm willing to bet that a lot of us have been to more protests and rallys in many parts of the world for a multitude of things like nuclear testing to the seal hunt and various foreign infractions. I know that I have. How about your resume? Do YOU know anything about a struggle?
About the surge in the water system: The system handles that much or more during a good thunder storm. If, by chance, the system did implode then I guess they'll have to fix it sooner rather than later. Big if and if so the better for all of us.
Silly protest? Did you read Saturday's Windsor Star? The battle is almost won. The Mayor agreed to a third party forensic audit. Now if we can get him to shake loose his silly notion of "pay as you go", the city can finace the project in it's entirety starting NOW rather than one bit at a time until whenever. How do you think other municipalities finace such massive undertakings.
A couple of commenters before you also suggested picketing which is also not a bad idea. Why don't you get some paint, paint yourself a protest sign and join them at City Hall. You're not all talk are you? Flush or picket but DO something.
The fact that you and many others are posting here means one of the goals has been acomplished - raising awareness of the issue.
The flush is a way to focus attention. If you choose to write letters, emails, call your Councillor or picket - all the better.
The FaceBook group we created had over 450 invites sent out. 54 have indicated they're participating with another 45 saying maybe.
At the end of all this, hopefully we have a few more people willing to ask questions about their municipal government. Who knows, maybe even a few more can be encouraged to take part in the process and actually vote or run for office.
It's all about engagement.
Your facebook group has 11 members . LOL
I drove by city Hall during the one hour protest. Never saw a single picket sign. I guess the nay sayers here are just that. Whiners. Did you notice that the Flush campaign was a huge success? No lives lost, a boost of pristine pre-cleaned water shot into the environment and no infrastructure wreckage. You can thank all of the flushers for that.
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