This week’s council meeting has a few hot button issues that all boil down to a single root cause.

• The big one is the return of the Jackson Park Bandshell which is now recommended to become a monument.
• A report from Administration on the flag-raising, proclamations and other municipal recognitions policy changes moving forward.
• Not on the agenda, but Councillor Marignani is putting forward a notice of motion around Sandpoint Beach Master Plan and bringing that back for discussion after the recent death.

Why are we here?

• As of last fall, the City had 200 vacant positions and implemented a hiring freeze. So when administration speaks of the risks to the city reputation of flag raising and the lack of time effectively research
• This great posts by Adam Castle boils down the City’s decision making in many ways when speaking about the Bandshell
  • The $300,000 feasibility study is something like 0.1% tax increase that wasn’t budgeted for or likely wanted by some. That money could also be spent hiring a few staff to take the load off other administrative functions.
• Although I presume the discussion about Sandpoint Beach beach is about expediting the master plan. Despite the tragic drownings it isn’t planned to get significant improvements until 2030 – where ~$1.5M is allocated representing 10% of the estimated costs (15M total estimated) as of the 2025 capital budget.
  • Although upper level of government funding is being targeted who knows if that will be available or when.
  • The question becomes if this project is expedited, what other projects won’t be done?

Why is this happening

• What are we seeing is the enfeeblement of the City of Windsor.
• The 15 years of hold the line, keep the tax rates at or under the rate of inflation (with 1 or 2 exceptions) means that the city doesn’t have the capacity to tackle basic items in many ways.
• All we can do is react and the knee jerk position of that reaction is to do the least expensive option when when better options are available but they require investment.
  • As residential land Windsor Stadium is probably worth millions of dollars. Do we raise taxes to buy it to save a historic stage – no, we erect a monument and promise another stage in another part of the city as part of another project (Esplanade).
    • Do we hope a developer wants to do a deal?
  • Do we hire a few staff so we can review proposed proclamations and flag raisings – maybe even charge a fee to cover some of the cost – no we give up and recommend that we stop all together.
  • Did we act after the last tragic death at Sandpoint – no we didn’t we made a plan and then put it in the budget 5 years from now to start. My guess is we probably close it permanently to swimming until the redesign can move forward. Then we don’t have to deal with it.
  • The reason is in these two chart.

• The city has been starved for resources – record road and sewer construction – it is just political hay that hides when inflation in those areas has outpaced the levy by 7%. It means there is 7% less for everything else.
• This is why we can’t do anything…. because we haven’t invested.