Alan Halberstadt.com

The administration and the councillors should be ashamed of themselves for yet another example of a wasteful expenditure.

Where are their heads at?

At a time when Windsor has the highest unemployment rate in the country and the bureaucracy and the council want to raise taxes, they are stiffing the taxpayer for meals. Call them hogs at the trough?

Why should Windsor's taxpayers pay the administration and the councillors to eat? I cannot think of many jobs where that is a perk--and, in this case, it is completely unwarranted.

Spending $35,000 to eat while proposing a completely unnecessary "communications department" for another $259,000 while raising taxes on our citizens is the height of lunacy.

I think it's time for all the senior bureaucrats and the mostly useless councillors (all they do is concur with silly tax increases) to take a psychiatric test so that we can figure out what goes through their heads.

Councillor Halberstadt, please keep up your work. Expose these abuses. Your fellow councillors seem to be quite happy keeping them.

I'm also sure you can make a considerable number of other cuts like this before raising taxes.

We didn't elect anybody to eat on the taxpayers' tabs. It's got to stop.

My understanding is that most of the catering is from the Cleary... is this just a case of passing city bucks from one pocket to the other minus the cost of the food? If so, it's probably not that bad. But still - for a mayor so intent on communications and propaganda and messaging and image this is bad. And kudos for the Star printing this at tax time... I guess not everyone at the Star takes its marching orders from the mayor's office, just Gord Henderson and a few others.

News of this over spending made me sad and frustrated. Especially with all that's going on with the Capitol right now. I kept hearing how the Mayor puts the taxpayers first when in City Council, or how he's so budget conscious. It looks very bad right now during these troubled times.

My understanding is that most of the catering is from the Cleary. And for the hours that they work it is fine with me!

Unbelievable!!!! Under the failing leadership of this mayor and council, we are spending money that is a complete waste. Who else gets to have their meals paid for in their job? This must stop! Can't these people pay for their own meals just like the rest of us?

When I read this story about the free meals for the people at City Hall, I could not believe my eyes.

How can they expect us to pay extra taxes to help subsidize their meals? They have no greater right to meals than anybody else. I sure did not elect them to have them paid to eat.

I would like to see what the mayor and every councillor has to say about this. And I would like to see which ones support paying for meals and which ones oppose it.

Councillor Halberstadt, you are the one sane voice on that silly band of councillors and I would ask you to bring a motion to stop any payment for meals. There is no reason for it and I would like to see a head count on this one. Believe me, people are up in arms against this and we wonder where else our money is being mis-spent. Start perhaps with the need for a communications office--what a complete waste of money!

So, please bring the motion to stop misusing our tax money. And let's see who votes against it--they are the councillors who should be targeted for defeat.

$35,000 for 57 meals... that is more than $600 a meal!

Wish I could eat $600 meals on a regular basis. What a joke.

Never mind the $60,000 USD going to subsidize the 'wrasslin extravanganza at Ford Field.

The inability of the county to work together as one, combined with the contiunal decrease in the livability of the city, (lack of cultural funding, no decent museum, unckeck sprawl, the dying downtown, the arena fiasco to be) really makes one look outside of Essex County as a place to live and raise a familiy.

It is enlightening to view all of the strong opinions on tax-supported meals servced to Councillors and administrators between meetings on Mondays. Obviously there is a lot of resentment harboured against this Council and administration, only a few months after the election. I need to clarify one misconception. The Cleary does not cater Council meals. The bigger private sector caterers like Koolini's, Franco's, Spaggo, Red Sail and the Tunnel get the business. As for me making a motion to end any funding of Council meeting meals, I will not do that. It would be a counter-productive grandstand move. As chair of the operating budget committee, however, I will ask that the catering food budget be highlighted and debated during the committee's budget deliberations March 17 to 21. Personally, I believe this budget line can be reduced considerably.

Dear Councillor Halberstadt,

As your life long friend of 39 years (I can hardly believe the time has gone by so quickly!) and your canoe body for many trips through the wildnerness--along with our boys, Gord Henderson and his boy--you know I have never shied away from giving advice.

You know I love government. I have studied it, have a postgraduate degree in it, have taught it, along with law after practising in the courts. And you know I care deeply about issues. We have differed at times on our views, but I tend to agree with you on the vast majority of the positions you have advanced at City Council.

You have been the man of the people. I have watched you many times as you took your constituency work over my visits. Or how you cut our canoe trips short because you insisted that you had to attend Council and could not miss a single meeting--even though I thought that was a bit on the ridiculous side.

So what it shows is that you are conscientious. Very conscientious. And I know you care. And I know you work hard at it. You are always thoughtful but persistent in your positions.

I know your constituents like you because every time I come to Windsor by train and I mention your name, their faces all light up. They all like you, interestingly enough! They think you are the man of the people, the only single one on council who cares about the future of Windsor. They like you and surprisingly enough, they like you whether they vote NDP, Liberal or Conservative. They always ask me lots of questions about you and, of course, I talk you up. Because you are worth talking up.

But let me give you some advice: you are taking the wrong stand when you said in your previous statement in the blog earlier today (see above)that you were not prepared to bring a motion before Council to stop all funding of meals to the Council and to the administration. You said you thought it would be viewed as grandstanding.

Grandstanding???

What is grandstanding about saying to your fellow councillors: ok guys, no more feeding at the public purse. We can't ask the taxpayers to fund our meals. How is that conscienable?

How is it conscienable to fund the meals when Windsor has the highest unemployment rate in Canada. And guess what? It's not going to get any better. Just look at the latest projections from The Conference Board of Canada which show Windsor in decline.

When I was in the city recently, I could see it. Things are decaying slowly, bit by bit. And if Ford and GM are gone by 2012 (that is a widely held economic view) because their rock bottom shares will have been bought up by Toyota, what will happen to Windsor? Not good news.

Even if Frank Stronach manages to save Chrysler because he will buy it from Daimler Chrysler (which then once again proudly wear the Daimler Benz name instead of having it polluted by another dying breed of American muscle car)it is still not good news for Windsor.

So, where will this economic prosperity come from? I think Windsor is about to hit bad times. It sure ain't Calgary.

And that is my point: you need to set an example. Why should council members eat at public expense? Was that part of the job description? When one out of 10 people in Windsor don't have a job, you can actually justify eating on their tax bill?

Please. Show some leadership.

It sets a bad example when you eat at public expense when times are tough. And I'm not talking about just reducing your expenses. I'm saying that you should get rid of them altogether. Immediately. Set the example. Others will respect you. The bureaucrats wont like it, but hey, we all know they run the show and want to squeeze as much out of the system as they can.

Example: they propose a $250,000 expenditure--again on the backs of the taxpayers who are increasingly being unemployed--to spout their propoganda.

What nonsense! Try telling your average Windsor taxpayer why you want him to pay 3% more taxes when you have the gall to tack on all of these unnecessary expenditures.
...

I understand your not wanting to grandstand, and would probably do the same thing.

How many have us been in a situation where the general consensus amongst a group is that there is an "entitlement" to a perk or benefit or "right" and even though we have disagreed or had misgivings said nothing? I know I have - many times. Because when you are dealing with this mentality (rampant in Windsor) you have to pick and choose your battles. Which is more important? - to fight with colleagues over ending the entitlement to chicken parmesan and ribs from TBQ or to fight with them over the attitude of entitlement that is so pervasive in ludicrous demands for $4 billion dollar tunnels, compensation for anti-smoking laws, provincial and federal largesse for this that and the other thing, etc etc etc....

Ending the catering would amount to symbolism over substance. Lord knows this mayor loves symbolic gestures over real action.

You sounded slightly surprised at the vitriol towards council. Windsorites are getting tired of the Nero of city hall, playing the fiddle while Rome burns.

As per the collective agreement between the Corporation of the City of Windsor and Windsor Municipal Employees' Local 543 Canadian Union of Public Employees, the unionized staff at City Hall receive a meal allowance of $12.00 if the employee is required to work two hours in excess of the normal work day. That seems like a reasonable benchmark, doesn't it?

That is indeed a reasonable benchmark. Even if they budgeted for 10 councillors, the Mayor and 10 admin staff, that still comes in at 1/3 the current cost. One other factor not considered in this is the staff time to coordinate each weeks feast. Those are additional costs not factored in.

Hi. This is a good way to connect. You get to talk to your council members directly and learn a lot. But I am still interested in knowing how you can find the other councillors' websites or blogs and how much this costs the city?

As far as I know, none of the other Councillors (or the Mayor) has a website and/or blog. The cost to the city is nothing.

Although one of this website's functions is as a blog, it is actually much more. If someone wanted to simply set up a blog - you can get a Google Blogger account for nothing. Takes about 15 minutes to start. My Municipal Shadow blog costs me nothing more than my time in creating posts/modifying the site etc.

Well, instead of spending all that money on a propoganda department which only sends out one side of the story, why doesn't the mayor and every councillor have a blog? It is an excellent way to communicate with the public. Congratulations to you for starting this, Mr. Halberstadt! And please make sure that our tax money is not wasted on meals paid for by the public and also make sure you get rid of that silly idea for a communications department!

My husband is laid off from his job.

I work two jobs to keep us going and I do not have much time between them. It really bothers me when I see how much councillors have become pigs at the trough when they charge us for their food. They are not entitled to such a thing. It is bothersome to me to watch elected representatives eat on our money. What do they think they are--better than the rest of us? I intend to call my councillors in Ward 4 about this ridiculous situation that everyone but you seems to think is OK. They need their heads examined.

I do not understand why councillors cannot bring their own lunch? Administrators, as Paul states above, should be limited to a $12.50. I'm sure with some schedule "re-jigging" the times this would be needed could be reduced.

How much "work" is really accomplished when lips are smacking on ribs and sauce anyway? So I find the argument that the CAO gave for "ordering" in a little ridiculous. Either schedule the "in-camera" meetings earlier, or council later. Schedule in a 45 minute dinner before council. Done. There is no reason for this now, and if there is, RESTRICT the amount spent.

Insofar as expenses - let's see 'em all!

Councilors work 30-40 hours a week on city matters, in addition to their other jobs. The pay is not commensurate with the aggravation, so I don't begrudge them a meal or two a week at the taxpayer's expense. I think a lot of comments here are knee-jerk anti-politician stuff.

However, I do think it is symbolic of a bigger arrogance and disdain that this council have shown towards the citizenry - almost zero disclosure on the nature of agreements made with third parties, failures to respond to and, in some cases, blatantly ignoring FOI requests by people, failure to ask the citizens about their feelings on a tunnel or Schwartz and on and on. This is definitely not a "government of the people".

I think Terry hit the nail on the head. At the end of the day, what is a few meals - though again, every effort should be made to reduce the cost of these - and yet still, I have to bring a lunch to work, even when working overtime - I think councillors could demonstrate some leadership here as they inevitably reach into pockets for more tax revenue.

I have a problem with councillors eating TBQ on pour tab, especially when they deny the Capitol Theater a loan for $60,000 and spend $30,000 on themselves for catering. What joke. kudos again to Alan