The Black Rod

Winnipeg has a new Civic Weasel No. 1! St Vital councilor Brian Mayes' embarrassing performance at the last city council meeting was enough for him to leapfrog over this new council's frontrunner for the title, I'M-MARTY-MORANZ-AND-I'M-A -LAWYER!!!! Brian Mayes went ballistic over a suggestion that the former city council showed favoritism when voting in favour of an amended route for the second leg of the bus rapid transit plan in south Winnipeg. Gee, who would think that?  How about EVERYBODY IN WINNIPEG!  Why? Maybe it's because three audits of city construction projects have found BLATANT FAVORITISM IN THE AWARDING OF CONTRACTS! Nevertheless, Mayes wants people to think this time it's different.  And he demonstrated he's willing to insult, attack, belittle, and denigrate anyone who dares to disagree with him. But while Mayes was playing the right fool, he made the mistake of challenging someone a lot smarte...

Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz says there's no need for an audit of the latest city mega-million-dollar boondoggle---the project to convert the downtown post office into a new police headquarters. Everything you need to know about the reason for the huge cost overruns was explained in a report to his executive policy committee in December, he says. Russ Wyatt, chairman of city council's finance committee, says there's no need for an audit of the latest city mega-million-dollar boondoggle. It's too expensive, he says, and for what ? It will only say exactly what the audit of the project to build four new firehalls said---that the city's chief administrative officer (since departed) was incompetent. Councillor Brian Mayes, a member of EPC, says there's no need for an audit of the latest city mega-million-dollar boondoggle because it's much ado about nothing.  "What we're really looking at here is 12 or 13 percent overrun ... most of it ...