Mayor Fred Eisenberger says he was completely "blindsided" by the province's cancellation of Hamilton's LRT because of projected cost overruns.

But was he really?

The bombshell announcement landed Monday. But it turns out Eisenberger must have known the fuse was lit back in September after two private meetings with Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney.

The question is, why didn't he notify council and the public that the smell of cordite was in the air?

Councillors are starting to ask that question themselves now that city manager Janette Smith has released documentation from a Sept. 26 meeting between the mayor and Mulroney.

The document shows that — back then — preliminary capital cost estimates for the supposed $1-billion LRT project were pegged by the province at $2.3 billion to $3.7 billion, with a total cost over 30 years of $4.6 billion to $6.5 billion.

Eisenberger says he didn't share that information with council or the public because it was high-level, assembled by "persons unknown," and really didn't "have any meat to the bones."

By the mayor's own account, he and Smith first met with Mulroney in his office to discuss LRT on Sept. 5.

That meeting didn't go anywhere because Mulroney reportedly asked Eisenberger to sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) covering any conversations they were going to have.

Eisenberger says he refused to sign. He told Mulroney he'd think about it. His office later informed the ministry there was no chance he'd buy into a NDA.

"I cannot be put in a position where I cannot share information with my council and my community," Eisenberger said.

Strong words, good words.

Ironically, however, until now the mayor never did share that or subsequent info with either council or the public.

What happened next, as Eisenberger recalls, is Mulroney agreed to provide some high-level LRT numbers at a later meeting.

Mulroney, in fact, returned Sept. 26 with some "benchmark information" concerning escalating costs on projects across the province and the aforementioned preliminary estimates for Hamilton's LRT.

"We had our LRT staff look at it and they said it doesn't make a whole lot of sense," Eisenberger recalls. "So we asked for additional information and told them we wouldn't meet again until additional information was provided."

According to Eisenberger, some additional information arrived at his office last Thursday, Dec. 12. He says Mulroney wanted to meet with him this past Monday to discuss it.

"We said we're just getting this. Our staff haven't had an opportunity to kind of go through this information. We need some time."

Instead, the ministry told him they were coming to see him Monday regardless — though they didn't say they were also planning to hold a media conference to announce they were pulling the plug on LRT funding.

The rest, of course, is current events.

The fact that the mayor failed to warn council and the community that the province, months before dumping LRT, was sending strong signals that it was taking a hard look at Hamilton's project is a head-shaker.

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Eisenberger doesn't think it was "pertinent" to share information about the requested NDA and he says the preliminary numbers from the Sept. 26 meeting were insufficiently reliable to warrant sharing.

Coun. Terry Whitehead disagrees. He says Eisenberger should have alerted council.

"I guess what's concerning is Fred knew a lot more than what he was sharing with council. He knew that his legacy project was going to be jeopardized based on the costing but he didn't have the open conversation with council."

Coun. Jason Farr says he was completely unaware of Eisenberger's meetings with Mulroney. "It's all news to me."

Farr credits Eisenberger for not signing the nondisclosure agreement and speculates he may have thought the whole thing was so ridiculous he simply didn't consider going public.

Coun. Brad Clark, on the other hand, says Eisenberger should have "100 per cent, absolutely" provided council with what information he had.

A former provincial cabinet minister himself, Clark says requesting a nondisclosure agreement with a mayor is highly unusual. If Eisenberger knew something was in the pipeline months ago, he should have spoken up.

"Had that information been shared with council that a NDA had been requested and that they gave us some really high numbers ... then it would have tempered expectations," Clark said.

That's true.

It's also true that if the info had been shared with the public, it could have given LRT advocates time to rally and exert political pressure on the Ford government to live up to its funding promise.

By staying silent, Eisenberger didn't just lose an opportunity to show forceful leadership, he deprived the community of a chance to fight back while the game was still afoot.

Andrew Dreschel's commentary appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. adreschel@thespec.com @AndrewDreschel

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