Thank You Alan Halberstadt

In this month's issue of BizX Alan has taken the opportunity to defend the city's purchasing policy and has referred to my blog. It really didn't matter what he said about my comments as long as he spelled my name right, which he did. Unfortunately, I am not running for public office so the publicity is of little value.
However, I must point out that my position was (and you can verify this in my previous blog): "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."
The key is the word "if".
I have no argument with Alan's detailed explanation of why local preference could be a problem and could even be illegal. My issue only was as I stated and I relied on the Windsor Star report of the audit as did most people. We didn't read the audit and trusted the media for an accurate account.
However, now that he has tried to justify the policy, I must point out that local businesses in Windsor often have much higher costs, due to higher taxes, than some competitors whose businesses are in less expensive tax jurisdictions. This does seem unfair in that they are paying the taxes that pay the contractors who win the business with lower quotes.
There should be some way to compensate for this but I don't know what it is and if I did I would probably have to run for a seat on Council to fix it (and its way past my time to do that).
So Alan, you try to work that one out so it is fair for all concerned. I think you are a very good member of Council and know if anyone can come up with a solution it will probably be you.
by Richard Rosenthal

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Greed and Obscene Demands

I, for one, am tired of hearing Syd Ryan and the other government union leaders complaining that they did not cause the current economic situation so they should not be expected to help pay for it. The taxpayers did not cause it. The auto workers did not cause it either. Certainly the seniors with fixed or diminished incomes didn't cause it either. But Mr. Ryan and his pals want them to not only bear the brunt of their own hardships but be weighed down by the obscene demands of his members.
So who should pay for it? There is no alternative when income is less than expenses but to cut expenses and the largest expense in government is the workforce. The auto workers and most people in the private sector had to to accept cutbacks to survive. Seniors have had to adjust their living because pensions eroded or disappeared. Mr. Ryan and his band of merry reality deniers are just going to have to accept the fact that there is no money to pay them. Does he really think that the rest of the world should continue to award pay increases and hefty benefits out of their diminished resources?
There was a time when civil servants were paid less than the private sector but had secure jobs in exchange. Now the public sector, for the most part, enjoy higher pay, better benefits and significantly more security than the private sector.
Perhaps it is time for unions in the public sector to be banned from striking or perhaps even eliminated. College teachers turning down a 5.9% pay increase in this economy and day care workers insisting that the private sector can't handle their work are ridiculous and they are earning scorn rather than praise from the general public.
by Richard Rosenthal

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