A review of how business is conducted at Windsor City Hall has become a contentious topic between the mayor and a city councillor.
The city has hired GT & Co. to examine the procedures and processes at City Hall and make recommendations to the next term of council aimed at improving productivity, governance and the efficiency of council operations.
The review, which will cost $24,000 to complete, began August 2 and will run until October 31 - five days after the municipal election.
According to the city, the review was initiated by CAO Ray Mensour in response to concerns raised by members of council over several years such as how quickly administration responds to council questions, whether time limits should be placed on councillor remarks, whether councillors and delegates should have to appear at both standing committee and council meetings, and more.
Participation is voluntary, and Ward 1 councillor Fred Francis has stated he will not be participating for a range of reasons. He says he has concerns with GT & Co. conducting the review, as Andrew Teliszewsky, who served as Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens’ chief of staff from 2020 until 2023, is now a partner at the company.
Francis adds that it’s ‘inappropriate’ to speak on City Hall concerns to a former employee with connections to the mayor, as Francis is running for the mayor’s seat in the upcoming election. Dilkens has yet to announced if he’s running for another term.
Francis says the timing is inappropriate with the municipal election less than three months away.
“I was a little surprised by it because no one asked me about it. I don’t remember council giving direction on this. I don’t remember anyone consulting about this to us. We are in the midst of an election soon, and election day is October 26th. So doing a study of this nature now does seem odd to me.”
He says he raised concerns about the connection to Teliszewsky with administration and the mayor’s office.
“It’s hard for me to sit down with the mayor’s former chief of staff and tell him my ideas on how to make the city better moving into the next four years when I myself am a candidate to run for mayor and will be discussing that with the people in the next several weeks and months as part of my platform. I voiced that concern to them.”
Francis adds that he believes the review would be more useful if it were conducted by the next council, after the election.
“If you’re going to gather information on how to make things better at City Hall, you’re probably best suited to do that from the people that just got elected and just heard from the people directly on the doorstep and just went through a hard fought political battle in the election cycle. So they’re the ones that are going to have the platforms. They’re the ones that are going to have the ideas that people actually voted on.”
Meanwhile, Dilkens rejects Francis’ concerns and says this decision was completely made by the CAO - who has the authority and an approved consulting budget to undertake this review.
Dilkens says Francis’ criticism is being driven by the election campaign, and he’s trying to find issues.
“It is absolutely unconscionable what he’s saying, that he wouldn’t participate in a public survey going out among city councillors and other affected individuals because of a person that used to work for the city three years ago, hasn’t worked for the city for three years. I mean, it makes absolutely no sense.”
He says this review is being conducted with the current council to see where existing procedures could be improved.
“What this is designed to do is get feedback from the existing council that will then be put in the form of a report and presented to the next city council for their consideration on how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of council operations,” Dilkens says. “So it’s absolutely correct that you would do that work now while you still have the existing council here with deep expertise before you get the new council elected.”
He says there’s no conflict of interest having GT & Co. conduct the review,
“The reality is GT & Co has deep bench strength. They’re one of the leading firms in Canada. And I think Windsor deserves people with expertise, including someone who knows the operations of the City of Windsor. You’re not bringing someone in blind who has to read the procedural bylaw and figure out how the operations work. You’re bringing in someone who actually knows how the city functions because he worked here for a couple of years... three years ago.”
Dilkens says the findings will be handed to the next council, which will decide whether any recommendations should be implemented.
The City Hall review is scheduled to wrap up October 31.
The municipal election is October 26. Francis is running for mayor, while Dilkens has not yet announced whether he will seek another term.
