Tag Archives: Detroit International Bridge Company

Editorial: New job poses conflict questions

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LSJ.com

Former state lawmaker Paul Opsommer’s decision to take a job with a company owned by Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel “Matty” Moroun should leave voters with cynical thoughts. They should translate their concern into pressing current lawmakers to pass ethics laws that keep outgoing lawmakers from becoming lobbyists without a cooling-off period of at least a year.

Opsommer, a Republican who had represented the DeWitt area in the House, reached the end of his term-limited time last year. Barely a month after leaving office, he announced last week that he’s taken a governmental affairs position with CenTra Inc., a Moroun family transportation interest, where he will work on policy efforts on both state and federal levels. As chair of the House Transportation committee, Opsommer was an often vocal opponent to efforts to build a new bridge between Detroit and Canada that would compete with the Ambassador Bridge, which is privately owned by the Moroun family through its Detroit International Bridge Co.

Opsommer says he did not take a position with the bridge company to avoid the appearance of impropriety, but it’s hard to see how the public could find much difference. The perception can’t be easily eliminated.

Michigan would be well served to limit senior executive branch officials and lawmakers from jumping directly into lobbying jobs or industry jobs in areas over which they had oversight, such as insurance, health care or transportation. It’s time for reform.

Lobbying oversight needs teeth

Speaking of ethics reforms, Michigan could do a lot to improve its oversight of lobbyists’ spending. An LSJ report this week showed that lobbyists spent some $36.6 million in 2012 to influence public policy in the state, up 3 percent from 2011 and nearly double what was spent in 2001.

The Center for Public Integrity, which did an in-depth state-by-state analysis of ethics, transparency and accountability issues, gave Michigan an overall F grade for integrity and specifically a zero score on key areas of involving lobbyists. A key reason is that while the state has reporting requirements, the center’s review found such reports are not filed frequently enough and are not sufficiently comprehensive. In addition, there are no requirements for auditing lobbyists’ disclosures. And while there is a fine for being late with a filing, there are insufficient penalties for any violations of rules such as spending limits.

Michigan is one of only eight states that got an overall F for in its public integrity score card, and ranked 44th out of 50 states. Again, it’s time for improvement.

An LSJ editorial

Moroun pays Windsor $1.3 million after losing frivolous lawsuits

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Mayor’s secret talks continue with bridge company

The Windsor Star

Doug Schmidt

Make no mistake – as far as the Ambassador Bridge ownership is concerned, the current secret talks between its Canadian Transit Company president and Windsor’s mayor are all about getting government approval for the twinning of its international span.

“Yes … we’re not walking away from that plan, we’re doing everything we can to rev up those plans,” said CTC president Dan Stamper.

The difference now is that, after years of brawling it out in the courts, the owners of the privately owned bridge, the single-richest commercial trade crossing in North America, want to make nice with their Canadian host municipality.

“We’d much rather work with the city than fight the city,” Stamper told The Star.

That’s probably because it’s been a losing fight so far for billionaire bridge owner Matty Moroun. City solicitor George Wilkki said this week that the municipality just received a $1.3-million cheque from the Ambassador Bridge representing court-awarded costs against the company and a residents group led by Hilary Payne that fought alongside it.

“We won the lawsuit — until that point the bridge had little incentive to sit down with us,” said Mayor Eddie Francis, just one of a number of politicians personally named in court actions launched by the owners of the Ambassador Bridge.

But there’s just as big an incentive for the city to sit down, namely to discuss the future of about 100 bridge-owned homes in Olde Sandwich Towne, all vacant and boarded up and representing a large neighbourhood blight.

“The city’s goal is, we want to restore a sense of normal to that neighbourhood,” said Francis.

The question remains, however, as to what the closed-door talks are about and where there might be a meeting of the minds.

“As far as I’m concerned, these discussions have nothing to do with a second bridge span,” said Francis. “Just because the Ambassador Bridge wants something doesn’t mean it’ll happen.”

The bridge company is well aware that the mayor and city council are under enormous political pressure to do something about the ugly neighbourhood eyesore represented by Indian Road and the surrounding collection of abandoned homes. City bylaw officers have been keeping close tabs on the situation, but as long as a private owner continues to pay taxes, tend to the grass and weeds, clean up after fires and vandalism and doesn’t allow the buildings to collapse, there’s little the municipality can do.

Stamper said it would have been his preference to see those homes torn down four years ago. The city hasn’t said no to demolition, but it has long argued the bridge company must first submit a formal plan outlining what it intends to do with property zoned residential and designated for protection under heritage policies upheld by recent court rulings.

Stamper said the several discussions he’s had with Francis so far are about “how to remove those houses that are causing so much aggravation for the community and for us.”

While a second span parallel to the west of the existing bridge is the ultimate goal for CTC, Stamper said the immediate objective is getting municipal and federal approval to expand the existing customs plaza. That’s needed to accommodate secondary inspection of cargo trucks that can currently only occur at an off-site location south on Huron Church Road.

The Ambassador Bridge has acquired properties along Indian Road and elsewhere west of the existing plaza, which Stamper said federal agencies would like to see expanded, but in between lies a stretch of municipally owned Huron Church Road.

“We will not have any discussions that include consideration of closing Huron Church or reconfiguring Huron Church,” said Francis.

One of the carrots being dangled in front of the city is a bundle of approximately 20 of the bridge’s 100 acquired west-side properties that Stamper said the bridge company doesn’t need for its plans. “I’m open to … what the community would like to see,” he said.

But Francis said: “Let’s be clear — they have a long way to go to rebuild the trust of this community.”

While agreeing the mayor should meet and discuss the situation with Stamper, MP Brian Masse (NDP – Windsor West) said the city should be wary given the bridge company’s record. “I don’t see how they should be rewarded, especially after what the neighbourhood has had to endure,” he said.

Masse, who has also had regular run-ins with the bridge company, said he’ll be at Sandwich and Mill Streets on Saturday to protest Canada Post’s proposed closure of its postal outlet at that location. “It didn’t help to lose a hundred households,” he said of the bridge company’s expansion plans, which he also blames for having “a role” in local school and business closures.

The parties involved in the mayor-bridge talks, including a representative of the Canada Border Services Agency in the most recent meeting, aren’t divulging details.

“I do trust the mayor on this issue,” said Ward 2 Coun. Ron Jones.

In an emailed response to a query by The Star, a spokeswoman for the CBSA would only say that it “meets regularly with stakeholders including municipal governments and bridge authorities.”

The owners of the Ambassador Bridge, built in 1929, recently filed an application with Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality, proposing to take the existing bridge out of service and build a new one “to the west of the existing span bridge.”

Moroun asks the government to help him put family owned business out of business

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metrotimes

Bridge boom-doggle

Regulatory change would allow hazmats on Ambassador

By Curt Guyette

Published: January 23, 2013

There are two family-owned businesses that provide a way to move trucks across the river between Detroit and Windsor. One is big, well-known and politically powerful, the other small and relatively obscure.

Now one of them is seeking a regulatory change that, if approved, would likely put the other out of business.

Should the rest of us care?

Definitely.

Here’s what’s going on:

The Detroit International Bridge Company, which owns the Ambassador Bridge and is controlled by billionaire Manuel “Matty” Moroun and his family, is currently prohibited from allowing trucks carrying hazardous materials from using the aging span that connects Detroit and Windsor.

That’s been the law since the Ambassador Bridge was built in 1929.

Because trucks can’t use the tunnel running under the Detroit River, the only legal way to transport hazardous materials across this crucial border crossing is the Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry, located near Zug Island, downriver from the Ambassador.

John Ward and his son Gregg started the ferry operation on Earth Day in 1990.

“We chose this start-up date … to symbolize our commitment to environmental stewardship and a belief that marine transportation can reduce highway congestion, air pollution and consumption of finite fossil fuels,” Gregg Ward told Congress back in 2007, when he offered testimony about border security in regard to transportation issues, calling for more government oversight.

Click here to read the entire article.

Ambassador Bridge Second Span Hits Another Roadblock

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City Administration Recommends Denying Request to Demolish Indian Road

By Kevin McQuaid Jr.

A request from Gagnon Demolition Inc on behalf of the Canadian Transit Company to demolish 75 homes in the Olde Sandwich Town area is being denied by City of Windsor administration. The homes in question have been vacant for years and have sat boarded up in the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge.

A City report says that 31 of these homes fall under the Sandwich Heritage Conservation District Plan, which was passed by Windsor City Council in 2007 to ensure buildings are not demolished that will have the effect of removing viable housing stick from the area. These homes are on Indian Road, Peter Street, University Avenue West and Donnelly Street.

Because these homes fall in the Heritage Conservation District, they are considered heritage buildings by the City of Windsor, and the heritage act requires City Council approval for the demolition. A report is being prepared on each home for a future council meeting.

A demolition control by-law in the area prevents the other 44 homes from being torn down without City Council approval. The city report says that building inspectors have visited the homes on a monthly basis over the past four years, and that there are no orders to repair issues on any of the 44 homes.

The report says that “Today, the buildings remain viable housing stock.”

The report goes to city council tonight, but a request to defer this matter was submitted by Dan Stamper of the Canadian Transit Company on Friday. The letter says the Transit Company “Look[s] forward to continuing further discussions with the city” in regards to the properties.

When will a new bridge be built?

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Process will take a long while, Calley says

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – Lt. Gov. Brian Calley helped defeat a proposal to amend the state constitution requiring a vote before any international bridge is built in Michigan. In Grand Rapids Monday he laid out the reasons why a new bridge is necessary.

A new bridge, he said, would shorten the crossing time and increase trade revenues. The argument the owners of the Ambassador Bridge make is there isn’t enough traffic to justify a new bridge. But Calley said the companies bidding on the process to build the new bridge will research that issue for themselves.

Calley said the bridge building will take a long time. Many things must happen before bids can even be accepted.

And it may cost a bidder more than $1 million just to prepare the bid.

The Moroun family – who owns the Ambassador Bridge – lost at the ballot box by a 59-41 margin. But it’s possible they may file a lawsuit to prevent any forward movement.

As it stands, construction may begin as early as 2014.

Poll Question: Do you still drive across the Ambassador Bridge in its poor condition?

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The Windsor Star

Crumbling pavement and holes in the 83-year-old Ambassador Bridge has made some people nervous. University of Windsor students, motorists and pedestrians are concerned. Do you think the bridge is in poor shape? Do you still drive across it, or would you rather take the tunnel? Vote in our poll.

Phil Power: Learn to live with voters’ picks

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By Phil Power
Center for Michigan

“Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” — Winston Churchill, in the House of Commons, Nov. 11, 1947

Sixty-five years later, it’s clear that Churchill’s comment has stood the test of time. Last week’s election provided two underlying reasons why his remark is still so apt.

First, a democratic system institutionalizes competition in a political system. In elections, opposing candidates and political parties set forth their views on the important issues of the day. They compete for attention and approval before an audience of citizens whose choices will determine which candidate and whose ideas they wish to govern, for however long their elected term lasts. In a one-party state, there is no public competition between candidates or ideas. Such competition takes the form of sharp-elbowed private infighting between contenders, much like several bulldogs fighting under a rug. You see the rug bounce up and down and hear growls, but you never really know what’s going on or why until the victor emerges. Even then, you may not know why.

In a democracy, it’s important that the competition be both periodic and public, because that’s the way we can have political discourse in front of a constantly changing and evolving public. When last week’s national election results were in, much was made of the fact that Republicans wound up on the wrong side of increasingly important demographic components of America: Hispanics (now the most rapidly growing group in our nation) and other non-white minorities and young people. Thanks to the election results, a debate is now starting within the Republican Party about how best competitively to adapt to the changing nature of the American electorate. Competition forces self-examination, drives change, makes things better.

The second reason democratic political systems work well is that periodic and public debate is exactly the way to expose and monitor the powerful influences of special interests.

Left to their own devices, special interests always prefer to lurk in the background, content to let their money or their power exert influence without being publicly exposed.

Without this year’s election, for example, who would have known just how profitable Matty Moroun’s monopoly Ambassador Bridge has been — or how much money he was willing to spend to maintain his monopoly? Indeed, without public exposure, the at-least $33 million Moroun spent to try to feather his own nest would never have been exposed … and his ploy may not have been rejected.

Special interests will always be with us, whether Morounesque monopolies, big banks, bored anonymous billionaires, organized labor, businesses, environmentalists, whatever. The big question is how to establish a political system that forces the special interests — whatever they might be — into the open, where we can all look them in the eye and judge their particular claims on all of us.

In both of these arguments for a democratic political system, it’s very important to recognize the essential role played by what used to be called the media. Whether it’s the newspapers (now sadly reduced in size and capacity) or electronic media (such as mlive.com or The Center for Michigan’s news magazine, Bridge), it is terribly important that people have unbiased, accurate reporting about what’s going on. And without fact-checking services like The Center’s Michigan Truth Squad, we might all be fooled by all of the often blatantly false but oh-so-appealing spots that infest our TV screens.
True, an informed electorate is the iron core of a democratic system. But it’s also important to understand what dynamics lie at the core of any democracy: Competition between ideas and candidates and exposure of special interests to the light of day. These are factors that make our democracy, flawed and contentious as it is, the best political system ever tried.

Former newspaper publisher and University of Michigan Regent Phil Power is a longtime observer of Michigan politics and economics. He is also the founder and chairman of the Center for Michigan, a nonprofit, bipartisan centrist think–and–do tank, designed to cure Michigan’s dysfunctional political culture; the Center also publishes Bridge Magazine.

Give it Up Matty!

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After two years, spending more than $50 million, and being rejected by the voters, it looks like Matty Moroun is going to continue his misinformation campaign. These lawn signs started popping up in south Detroit neighborhoods this week.

Matty Moroun, the same man who generously offered the people of a Michigan an opportunity to voice their opinions regarding the New International Trade Crossing (NITC) via Proposal 6, is now trying to hoodwink the people of Michigan after they rejected his self-serving ballot effort – a losing effort that cost Moroun upwards of $33 million. Moroun has now started funneling his money into a southwest Detroit campaign depicting the NITC as a “Canadian-owned” bridge. This distinction is incorrect, improper, and only serves to further confuse the people of Michigan. The fact of the matter is that the NITC will be jointly owned by Canada and Michigan.

It’s time to give it up Matty. The voters have decided.

Michigan voters spoke, but Morouns don’t seem to listen

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Jack Lessenberry | November 16, 2012

DETROIT — Suppose the day after the presidential election, Mitt Romney had his spokesman announce that he didn’t accept the verdict, that he now believed President Obama wasn’t a legitimate president because he was born in Kenya, or maybe on Pluto, and that he might sue to prevent Mr. Obama from staying in office.

Sound farfetched? Well, no more so than the latest antics from Michigan’s least-beloved billionaire, Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel Moroun. After months of trying to preserve his monopoly with a shameless and misleading ballot proposal campaign called “Let the People Decide,” the people did, indeed, decide.

The Morouns didn’t like the verdict one bit.

On Election Day. Michigan voters overwhelmingly rejected Proposal 6, a state constitutional amendment designed to protect the Moroun family’s monopoly on moving billions of dollars’ worth of goods across the Detroit River.

Mr. Moroun, his wife, Nora, and son Matthew are the sole owners of the Ambassador Bridge, the only place between Buffalo and Port Huron, Mich., where heavy automotive components and other freight can be hauled across the Detroit River.

The Ambassador, which was built in 1929, is showing increasing signs of wear, including holes in the pavement and roadbed. For years, political and business leaders have argued that a new bridge is needed.

This year, they did something about it. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a pro-business Republican, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper signed a deal in June to build a second bridge, tentatively called the New International Trade Crossing, about two miles south of the Ambassador Bridge.

The deal was an amazing bargain for Michigan. Canada agreed to cover, upfront, all of Michigan’s costs, an estimated $550 million. They would be repaid only when the bridge is built years from now, out of the state’s share of tolls.

Additionally, Washington agreed that the Canadian cash can be used as matching funds for a federal highway grant, meaning Michigan should get $2.2 billion in badly needed money to fix the state’s roads, free of charge.

But if that was a good deal for citizens, it enraged the 85-year-old Mr. Moroun, who is believed to make as much as $140 million a year from tolls and sales of gasoline and items from his duty-free shops. He has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Michigan lawmakers’ campaigns and pet causes, and was able to block any bridge bill from coming to a vote in the Legislature.

However, Governor Snyder found a clause in the state Constitution that enabled him to bypass the Legislature by making an “interlocal” agreement with Canada. The Morouns then spent at least $34 million to try to muscle an amendment protecting their monopoly into the state Constitution.

First, they paid out-of-state firms to collect the needed signatures to put the proposal on the ballot. Next, they flooded the airwaves with incessant commercials that the nonpartisan Michigan Truth Squad said were “flagrantly foul,” as in, false.

Canada’s consul general in Detroit, Roy Norton, was peeved that Michigan business interests, primarily the Detroit Three automakers, didn’t fund an ad campaign to counter Mr. Moroun’s.

It wasn’t needed. The voters didn’t buy Mr. Moroun’s lies.

Those who went to the polls rejected the Moroun amendment by a stunning 844,000 votes. Yet the next morning, Moroun spokesman Mickey Blashfield acted as if the election never had occurred.

“It would be a mistake to assume taxpayers support a flawed government bridge that puts taxpayers at risk,” he said. He then charged the proposed new bridge was going to be built over “unstable salt mine foundations.”

The salt mine charge was dismissed with a laugh by a spokesman for the governor, who said of the bridge project: “It’s full steam ahead.”

But Sandy Baruah, president of the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, said he expects the Moroun family to file more lawsuits to stall the new bridge.

“They use the court system like I use the bathroom,“ Mr. Baruah told Crain’s Detroit Business. Mr. Baruah, a supporter of the new bridge, added that for the Morouns, flinging even hopeless lawsuits makes sense. If they can delay a new bridge even a year, that means millions of dollars more in profit for their monopoly.

Even in a best-case scenario, ground for the new bridge is unlikely to be broken before late next year. The soonest a new bridge could open is 2017.

Meanwhile, the Morouns are attempting to confuse things further by alternatively saying a new bridge isn’t needed, and that they intend to build a second one next to the Ambassador anyway.

Canadian government officials say they never would allow that to happen, because environmental concerns and traffic congestion. They also openly loathe and distrust Mr. Moroun.

What may be most baffling is why an 85-year-old man whose net worth is at least $1.5 billion thinks he needs more money, or whether the thrill is in the power a monopoly brings.

Perhaps not even Mr. Moroun really knows.

Jack Lessenberry, a member of the journalism faculty at Wayne State University in Detroit and The Blade’s ombudsman, writes on issues and people in Michigan.

No billionaire bridge?

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Jim Blake | November

Thirty million dollars just doesn’t buy what it used to.

American billionaire Matty Moroun was hoping his $30-million scare campaign to convince Michigan voters they will end up paying for a second Detroit-Windsor crossing would pay dividends in the Nov. 6 vote.

Instead, voters defeated Proposal 6, which would have required an amendment to Michigan’s constitution ordering a statewide vote on any international crossing. In the end, it wasn’t even close with more than 60% of voters rejecting Maroun’s heavily-backed effort.

The fact that Maroun thought his money would buy such a change is a demonstration of how he believes the world works.

The reaction from voters is a demonstration that some things aren’t for sale.

Maroun has every right to wield his power and influence to get what’s in his best interest. His best interest is the status quo, in which his ownership of the Ambassador Bridge is a monopoly for truck traffic using the busiest international crossing between the United States and Canada.

The second best scenario for him would be another span he would own so that he can continue without competition.

For those of us not named Matty Maroun, a second bridge operated independently is exactly what should happen.

In terms of economy (moving goods on a more timely basis) the environment (less time spent idling by thousands of trucks) and security (the threat of terrorism) a second span makes sense.

It’s difficult to imagine a better scenario for Michigan. A billion-dollar span with Canada paying the full cost and a promise that tolls will only be paid on the Canadian side makes it more than attractive.

Government promises have been known to vanish but if it comes down to it, better to trust a government which eventually has to answer for its actions than a private individual who answers only to himself.

The list of those in favour of the proposed span include Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Gary Doer, governments of Great Lakes states and provinces, Ontario’s MIA premier, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Detroit Regional Chamber

No doubt, Maroun has more legal challenges up his sleeve but there is a possibility, given his defeat and the looming prospect of competition, that he might just want to hold onto a few million for a rainy day.

– Jim Blake

– QMI Agency