Mayor Dilkens Not “Mr. Popularity” But Who Else Is There?
While it is still 17 months before the next municipal election, political junkies are starting to speculate on whether there is anyone on the horizon who might challenge incumbent Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens.
Reasons are plentiful why Dilkens should be unseated in 2018, but we must start with the premise that there are no obvious contenders. This includes the 10 current City Councillors, although six-term Councillor Bill Marra has stood the test of time, and has an unparalleled resume, having served on two dozen City Council committees and boards.
Marra is still a young man, in his early 50s, and would give Dilkens a serious run. He has sent out signals, however, that this is his last term. He is an upwardly mobile Sunshine List Vice-President at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, with a reported annual salary and benefits of $173,077, which is a smidgeon more than the Mayor’s $172,522.
Meanwhile, Dilkens is benefiting from a local economy that is rolling after several arid years. Windsor’s unemployment rate has plummeted to under five percent.
Jobs, jobs, jobs is a lynchpin of any successful political campaign, even when the ruling party or person has little to do with creating them.
Truth be told, the city has done little to diversify its economy and create sustainable full-time, private sector jobs outside of low wage call centres and incremental expansions of small businesses incentivized by tax deferrals granted by a community improvement program hatched by former Mayor Eddie Francis in 2011.
Francis defeated Marra in the 2003 Mayor’s race and sparred with him during the final eight years of his term after Marra returned to his ward seat with an easy win in 2006.
The lion’s share of the credit for Windsor’s turnaround goes to Fiat Chrysler and the Ford Motor Company for billion dollar investments in their Windsor automotive plants. Fiat has hired 1,200 workers and Ford is expected to employ some 600-to-700.
Dilkens is a tireless photo op seeker. He speaks well at new jobs’ announcements, seems comfortable in his own skin and is adept at presenting himself as the “Friendly Giant” to all manner of children, Vets and special interest groups.
These demonstrations are in sharp contrast to his performance within the confines of City Hall and Council Chambers, where he has been accused of throttling public consultation and using his influence to reverse previous council decisions.
A prime example was the May 8 vote on where to locate a Brock-Tecumseh monument in Olde Sandwich Town. Dilkens violated Council’s procedural bylaw that states Council members shall not enter into debate with delegations. He allowed Councillors John Elliott, Hilary Payne, Ed Sleiman and Paul Borelli to intersperse their personal views ad nauseam with disrespectful questions of Sandwich institutions Mary Ann Cuderman and Gregory Hanaka.
Later that evening the Mayor engineered a pot-calling-the kettle-black moment by halting proceedings for a spell, accusing emotional protectors of Ojibway Nature Reserve of lacking respect for the chamber.
I recently came across an old newspaper clipping dripping with irony. It was dated December 4, 2007, entitled “Council shoots down Dilkens’ bid for info.”
It was about the frustration of a greenhorn City Councillor. First elected in 2006, Dilkens was a bit of a rebel back then, but his bid to access the minutes of meetings from the city’s arms-length corporations was torpedoed by Francis.
Dilkens expressed surprise that his motion for open, transparent government was treated so cavalierly. But, the new kid on the block caught on rapidly. The precocious Francis, while one year younger, took the fledging under his wing, and he soon became the heir apparent.
Dilkens became a student of Francis’ behaviour in ridding the city of its Auditor General, and CEOs of the WindsorEssex Development Corporation and Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island.
This closed-door corporate behaviour continued when Dilkens mounted the big chair and shuffled Parks boss Phil Roberts off to manage Roseland Golf & Curling Club. Roberts holds pro environmental views, such as the protection of Ojibway, not shared by the Mayor’s usual supporters Fred Francis and Jo-Anne Gignac.
Dilkens became a kingpin of many of the aforementioned corporations, including Windsor International Airport and EnWin Utilities, after he was elected Mayor to succeed Francis in 2014. The EnWin boards remain top heavy with Francis himself and his long-time cohorts, including younger brother Fred and Gignac.
Dilkens was the wing man in the campaign to build the $77.6 million Windsor Family Aquatic Complex, which has been bleeding serious red ink since it opened in 2014. While hailing improved profits at the Airport, he has remained mainly mute about mysterious, so-called job-creation projects on airport lands, namely Premier Aviation and the Fedex Cargo Hub, which cost taxpayers of three levels of government $22 million and $16.8 million respectively to build.
Dilkens has earned criticism for cattle prodding six Councillors to support his divisive pet projects through the age-old political tactic known as “pork barrelling.” He has done this by unevenly doling out $10 million annually in capital spending enhancements favouring compliant Councillors.
This practice includes flip flopping a vote to contract out janitorial services, build expensive legacy monuments, kick out ground floor retail at a downtown parking garage (another reversal), play favourites by waiving fees for aquatic complex divers, dish $50,000 a year to the Detroit Grand Prix and host numerous sports tourism events.
Dilkens drew guffaws for branding international diving events as an economic development tool. The economic spinoffs of events like the FINA swimming championships remain unclear. With taxpayers footing the bill for food, transportation and accommodations of the visiting competitors and their entourages, the main benefactors are Caesars Windsor and Devonshire Mall.
Undeterred, Dilkens still wants to build a $15 million tunnel under Riverside Drive and a multi-million dollar indoor sports complex connected to the WFCU Centre. This after recently opening another money-losing swimming pool attachment, costing $7.5 million.
In spite of the relatively good health of the economy, a Postmedia poll early this year ranked him second least popular among Canada’s 10 large city Mayors.
No doubt his style rubs people the wrong way. When Marra announced he was not running for Mayor prior to the 2014 election, he panned Francis for ostracising Councillors who didn’t agree with him.
It was time for a new leader with an attitude of collaboration and co-operation, he said. At this juncture Dilkens has not been that kind of leader.
Perhaps what we need is a draft “Bill Marra for Mayor” campaign.
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