Monday, October 5, 2009

Are there any Standards at the Windsor Star?

Boy, super snooper Dave Battegello really outdid himself in this past Saturday's October 3, 2009 edition of the Windsor Star. He went a long way to make my point--that standards at the Windsor Star are not what they should be. You wonder just how much embarrassment Chief Honcho and publisher Jim Venney and assistant chief  honcho Marty Beneteau can take.

Super snooper Dave Battegello and whoever runs the Saturday edition dedicated almost the entire front page, and, if you can believe it, all of page 5, to a story regarding professional staff, who have left Windsor city employment. This story, or maybe fairytale, titled "The Revolving Door" with a sub-headline "High turnover costs city hall money and reputations, critics say" deserves to be looked at closely, at least in my opinion.

You guessed it, this is another one of those stories where Star reporters appear to want to be opinion writers. They go out and find "critics" to fit nicely into their story line, gosh how convenient. By the way, is it true that super snoop Battegello no longer covers the municipal scene? And if so, why? Maybe in the interest of transparency, management will tell us why?

Anyway, back to the story, or fairytale. On the front pages of the Star, there are photographs, lots of them, 27 in fact, mine included. My post of today for Fair Play blog will focus on comments made about me and the Windsor Essex Development Commission (WED,C) since I am familiar with the facts and details about the Commission. As my readers will know, I served as Chairman of the WEDC for more than two and a half years and as acting CEO of the Commission for about one year. I was initially appointed to the WEDC by the then Essex County Warden and Mayor of LaSalle Mike Raymond. Mike did a top notch job during his time.

Others talked about in the Battegello story-fairytale will have to speak for themselves, since I, unlike Battegello, don't know their facts or circumstances. But I do know super snoop Dave did not call me for this story.

This is how the story-fairytale is framed for the readers:
  • "Since November 2003, when Mayor Eddie Francis was first elected, more than 30 senior managers have either been terminated, taken other jobs or disappeared into the sunset."
Then our super snooper goes on to say:
  • "Nearly every municipal department, from public works to economic development, has been affected by a steady stream of departures among its highest-ranking bureaucrats."
The above is a serious mistake, in fact. The Windsor Essex Development Commission (WEDC) is not a municipal department. Far from it. It is a corporation and has a legislative framework to follow as a corporation to satisfy the law of the land. Wow, that this important fact was misrepresented to Windsor Star readers is unbelievable.

Super snoop Dave goes on to write about the WEDC as follows:
  • Both Paul Bondy and Roman Dzus were shown the door before Fischer arrived. After Fischer was fired, board chairman Remo Mancini took over, but he was eventually forced out as well.
Another serious factual mistake. I was not forced out as Board Chairman, nor in my role as acting CEO of the Commission. I and my 9 colleagues on the Board all resigned at the same time. We did so because City Council and Essex County Council indicated they wanted elected officials on the Board. This was contrary to policy they established for the WEDC, and totally inconsistent with how we had been recruited. Super snoop Dave obviously doesn't know this and it looks like he never read our resignation letters. The letters were made public and given wide circulation by the Board. Maybe snoop just forgot about them. Hey, he had a story to write, and I am sure time was limited...

At the same meeting where the entire WEDC Board resigned, I informed the Board that my company, Sandstone Strategies, would be concluding my contract as CEO effective with my and all our resignations. Again we all resigned together, and we resigned because the elected officials indicated they wanted Board seats. No problem for us if that is what they wanted, but we certainly did not sign up for a political Board. As a matter of fact, we signed up for exactly the opposite, and I am proud that we, the whole Board, stuck to our guns. I believe time will prove us right.

By the way, if super snoop Dave has any documents that proves I was forced out, he should make them public. Ok Dave, let's have it.

If the Battegello story-fairytale has this many factual errors about the WEDC alone, then I wonder how many other mistakes, misrepresentations, or errors there must be?

Let me say, to the best of my knowledge, neither Mayor Fancis nor Warden Santos interfered with the work of the WEDC. Other elected officials certainly did. I may write more about that in the future.

And finally, nobody did a greater disservice to the WEDC than the Windsor Star; please take full credit for what you have done. Saturday's fairytale effort to put all the blame on the shoulders of Mayor Francis would be laughable if the damage done to the community by the Windsor Star were not so great. To put it bluntly, the Windsor Star is the most negative and harmful institution in our entire region.