This is one unbelievable news day in this city of Windsor. People opened their newspapers today only to shake their heads in total disbelief. Our stranger than fiction city council has even trumped themselves by thinking that they could scare residents into accepting another tax increase. Comments to the Star started pouring in immediately. Read the article and comments for yourself here:
http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/story.html?id=944611e4-929b-4e38-a57f-e8a4a317f7ec&k=76862
You have to know that the bloggers aren't going to let this one pass. Ed Arditti was on it right out of the gate this morning. Here are some excerpts from his three postings:
"I am so f*****g angry this morning. To dare to use children as pawns. What a disgrace. But then again, what else can Windsorites expect from this bunch of local Government officials!"...
..."What a cynical manipulation of the public. It is unworthy of our local politicians and they should be forced to apologize for their trickery."...
..."They are scared of the people, very scared. Normally it is the closing of parks that gets people so upset. This time the Mayor and Council decided to scare parents. Use children's safety as their tool. They should be ashamed of themselves."...
Eddie then and now on school crossing guards.
CITY COUNCIL PRESENTATION December 6, 2004:
Judy Lesperance, President, Crossing Guard Association; and Mary DiMenna, Crossing Guard Coordinator. Mayor Francis, on behalf of members of Council, advises that recently he had the pleasure of sending letters of appreciation to the 95 crossing guards, who on a daily basis,work tirelessly to ensure the road crossing safety of the students in this city, and concludes by presenting a certificate and memento of appreciation to Judy Lesperance, President and Representative of the Crossing Guard Association, and Mary DiMenna, Crossing Guard Coordinator.
WINDSOR STAR, December 6, 2007
"If it's taken away there will be issues," conceded Mayor Eddie Francis..."It's not the city's responsibility to take kids from the front porch to school," Francis added. "The practice is in place, but it's not a mandated service."
Gord Henderson wrote this in his article about the conversion of the windsor Armouries:
"I could buy the idea of a $60,000 city contribution to a feasibility study to determine whether the project is viable. That’s cultural seed money and it could hardly be denied by jock-sniffing councillors who forked over $300,000 for Super Bowl festivities, $80,000 to support the Detroit Grand Prix and $60,000 to underwrite Wrestlemania activities."
These numbers total $500,000.00! The Crossing Guard budget is $474,000.00 divided among 75 plus staff. Their average salary is under $6,400.00! Considering council's pitching and approval for the above expenses it is clear that they have no sense of value. Blogger Chris Schnurr had this to say:
...As well, I’m very disappointed that the Windsor Star did not fact check their story before publishing.
The part-time crossing guards add up to the equivalent of 28.3 full-time jobs, plus one co-ordinator employed by the city’s licensing department. Windsor is one of the few cities in Ontario to provide the service.
Is that so? Owen Sound, Sarnia, Brampton, Vaughn, Ottawa, York, Chatham, Brantford, Niagara Falls, Sault Ste. Marie and Guelph to name but a few, also provide the service. A quick “Crossing Guard” and “Ontario” google yields many results.
“It’s not the city’s responsibility to take kids from the front porch to school,” Francis added. “The practice is in place, but it’s not a mandated service.”
So much for creating that “liveable” and “pedestrian friendly” city."...
The most interesting part of Schnurr's posting are his suggestions for the city's budget deliberations. These will be highlighted in red as follows:
Also some other ideas:
Cut 3% from the police services budget of $60 million. There’s $1.8 million.
- Cut the $500,000 Windsor Star advertising budget by 10% - There’s $50,000.
- Eliminate all other non-essential advertising, both print media and broadcasting. Greenlink full page ads I”m guessing cost $10,000 a page at five pages - there’s $50,000. Who knows how much the AM800 radio ads cost.
- Eliminate Ward Funds for one year. There’s approximately $200,000.
- Eliminate council meals for a savings of about $40,000.
- Reduce board payments by at least 50%.
- Roll back wages for all non-union management by 5% - particularly those making $100,000+
- Reduce amount spent on legal fees by 20%.
- Eliminate all travel to conferences and conventions for one year.
- As a last resort, if our budget is so tight, then take advantage of our stellar AA credit rating with Standard and Poors for infrastructure projects.
This has to be the tell tale sign that our civic leaders just might not be functioning properly. How is it that one man (Chris Schnurr) in the span of a couple of hours (this morning) come up with all of these ideas. How long has our entire city council (Mayor included) been gnawing on this? Do they actually think that their brilliant scare tactic would move residents into accepting their tax increase? Here is more from Schnurr:
..."But this “threat” to our community’s children is designed to manipulate you, dear readers into accepting a tax increase. Don’t even think about a tax decrease.
The hard facts are this Mayor and administrators would have known six months ago that revenues would be lower than expected, and yet went on a spending spree.
It is both sickening and manipulative"...
Is this the City leadership we voted for?
Here are the full postings:
http://windsorcityon.blogspot.com/2007/12/weact-kills-school-crossing-guard.html
http://windsorcityon.blogspot.com/2007/12/ps-school-crossing-guards.html
http://chrisschnurr.wordpress.com/2007/12/06/manipulating-the-public-using-our-children/
http://windsorcityon.blogspot.com/2007/12/getting-angry.html
7 comments:
It's been over 25 years since I was in elementary school but I walked almost everyday from 1st to 6th grade. And guess what, the school had 5th & 6th graders who were called safty guards. In fact, I was one for two years. You know how we got paid, with hot chocolate in the winter months. And I never lost a kid or had one involved in an accident. Why not go back to that?
Besides, my friends who have kids under 13 drive them to and from school. So I say crossing guards are a thing of the past. Hey, my school district was so poor there were no buses to Jr & Sr High. I was lucky, my friends parents or eventually my friends with Omni's drove me to and from the institution.
To acht null acht. I like you was a school crossing guard when I was young. Every school still practices that tradition still today. I'm sure you never had to marshall kids across Huron Church Road. These people do a very good job and are very necessary. To be told how appreciated and essential they are one year and to be handed pink slips for christmas the next by the same person is ignorant. Irrelevant though because it's not the mock crossing guard issue which has everyone up in arms. It's the cocky political representatives who are always condescending on Windsorites.
Hey Council and mayor.l We are not falling for your scheme.
How about cutting your dinners and the amount paid to you by the boards you sit on (which you shouldn't be on in the first place)and cut that bloated police budget by curtailing late evening bars that cause the majority of ruckus downtown.
There can be a lot of saving but you STILL like to create corporations. The last time I checked cities are in the business of giving essential services to their residents and for building quality of life issues. Not playing CEO at the taxpayers expense.
Don't worry...They will save the crossing guards and the day. Ra, ra, sis, boom, bang! Yeah team! Our saviours.
acht null, like yourself, it's been over 25 years since I was in elementary school as well, and we had safety guards then too. But that's where your memory seems to fall short. The safety guards then were and to this day are posted on residential street corners. Streets like Tecumseh road had and still have proper adult crossing guards, and that should continue indefinitely.
If city council cuts back so much as $1 from the crossing guard budget, I'll put the name of every councilor who voted in favour on my fridge so I remember in 2010. This city is spending gobs of money where it shouldn't, then claims it has to cut back important basic services after that. Pitiful.
And no, I'm not a crossing guard, related to one, nor do I have children. I just think youngsters should be able to cross major roads on the way to work safely.
...on the way to *school* safely (woops)
A better way to prevent a tax increase and keep crossing guards is to sell surplus municipal lands and buildings. A few examples. Sell the armouries (with a heritage designation) like London Ontario sold their armouries and they did a good job at turning it into a restaurant. A private owner would also pay property taxes on it. They should also sell the urban village lands to a major anchor such as Ikea or Walmart, which would also bring more activity to downtown and increase tax revenue.
Post a Comment