City's Audit Report

by Richard Rosenthal

It is certainly gratifying to know that nothing illegal was done in the building of a major City building and that the final product is excellent and meets the need for which it was built. The auditor's recommendations to make sure future projects are handled properly seems to omit one glaring issue. In the Windsor Star's report there is a paragraph that really needs addressing:
"The weird aspect of this report, to my mind, is that had council executed this project in a manner that would have satisfied the auditors, a local contractor would have lost and taxpayers might have had to pay millions more for the building."
The City's tendering rules obviously are flawed if a local contractor with a lower bid, who obviously built an excellent building, would have lost this contract.
That issue should immediately be addressed by City Council.

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Zero Tolerance for Violent Crimes

by Richard Rosenthal
The recent beating of a young man in downtown Windsor by three other young men is the latest example that we must do something to curb this unnecessary violence in our community. It seems that there is just far too much of this and it is getting worse.
Our court system hands out wrist slaps for many crimes and overly protects "young" offenders which does not provide any real deterrence or punishment. Perhaps its time to implement the type of penalties now in place for drunk driving. My suggestion is that there be no bail for a minimum of 7 days for anyone committing a violent crime (regardless of their age) and that the public insist on harsher penalties. I am well aware that there are those in our society who believe that jail terms do not act as deterrents but at least it keeps these hooligans off the streets and might just work. I also think it is time that we started publishing the names of youth offenders who are convicted of violent crimes as this may put some pressure on their parents to better control them.

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