Councilman John Friend Provides Documentation On Mayor Winneckes Spending Deficits

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    Lloyd, per your request:

    I have attached the audited financial statements reported by the State Board of Accounts concerning the four operational fund balances as of Dec 31, 2011 (the balance left over by the Weinzapfel Administration) Dec 31, 2012, and Dec 31, 2013.

    In addition, I have attached the operating fund balances as of August 31, 2013 and August 31, 2014 which will demonstrate that during the most recent reporting of the operational period, i.e; Sept 1, 2013 to Aug 31, 2014.

    Please notice the attachment that relates to Dec 31, 2011, the combined operational funds (General, Parks, LIT, and Hospitalization) totaled $22,730,324…please notice the attachment Dec 31, 2012, those funds previously mentioned totaled $15,667,010…please notice the combined operational funds, the same as mentioned above, for Dec 31, 2013 totaled $9,676,276. So, from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2013, the operational funds declined by $13,054,048…as such, this 24 month period of time demonstrates that you were spending more than you are receiving in revenues by $543,919 per month [$13,054,048/24=$543,919]

    In review of the previous twelve months ended August 31, 2014, the combined operating funds were upside down by $2,641,098 compared to the same period one year ago of a positive $2,389,957, or a decline of $5,031,055 or $419,255 per month over the past twelve months….

    Lloyd, you can NOT sustained these declines in your operational funds. Russ, says that this is a timing issue…I strongly disagree. Over the 24 month period of time, from Jan 1, 2012 to December 2013, any timing issues would be resolved, then consider what has occurred from Sept 1, 2013 to Aug 31, 2014, plainly illustrates that you are paying the electric billing with your other funds, i.e. police and fire pensions, grants funds, the rainy day fund, roads and streets, and of course, the riverboat funds which were never intended to be used directly or indirectly for operations,

    So, here’s the numbers: (SEE ATTACHMENTS) RE: THESE ARE YOUR NUMBERS as published by the Controller’s Office
    (A) (B) (C)
    Operational Funds Deficit Spending Operational Funds Balance Operational Funds Balance
    @ Beg of Yr @ End of Yr

    2012 $7,063,314 $22,730,324 $15,667,010

    2013 $5,990,734 $15,667,010 $ 9,676,276

    Fiscal Year Sept 1, 2013 to
    August 31, 2014 $5,031,055 $ 2,389,957 $-2,641,098

    So, as the reader can see, you have been averaging over the 24 months ending Dec 31, 2013 deficit spending of $543.919 ($7,063,314 + $5,990,734 = $13,054,048 divided by 24 months = $543,919 concerning your combined General, Parks & Recreation, Hospitalization, and Local
    Option Income Tax. Actually, I did not divide the ending balances of the Local Option between what is used for Capital Expenditures and Operations. As you know, the LIT is also used for those sort of expenses for Capital Improvements, as well. Generally, spilt 60% operational and 40% Capital which understates the deficit spending in operations by more than I have calculated.

    As such, your proposed reductions in the 2015 General Fund Budget of approximately 1,350,000, in the Local Option Income Tax of approximately 960,000, and a meager 35,000 in the Parks Fund covers only 35.9%% of your average deficit spending ($543,919 x 12 = $$6,527,028)… $1,350,000 + $960,000 + $35,000 = $2,345,000 divided by $6,527,028 = 35.9%…of course, I have not touched the hospitalization fund which, under the current conditions, is of suspect. By the way, Column A is determined by subtracting column B from column C.

    So, it is very probably that if your budget is passed with your reductions as presented, other fund balances will erode by approximately 4.2 million. ($6.5 million less the reductions of $2.3 million) As you are aware, you are commingling other funds into ONE checking account in order to sustain this deficit spending which is not wise knowing that you have the hotel and IU Med school payments in the near future.

    Please let me know if you have any questions.

    Thanks,

    John

    ATTACHED ARE THE LINKS OF THE AUDITED OPERATIONAL FUNDS FOR THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE FOR YOUR REVIEW.  WE URGE OUR READERS TO SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH THEIR CPA”S,  BOOKKEEPERS,  FISCAL OFFICERS, INVESTMENT BANKERS OR ANY OTHER INDIVIDUALS  THAT HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF  FINANCIAL  MATTERS.  WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR COMMENTS CONCERNING THIS ISSUE.

    Evansville Audited Operational Funds – Dec 31, 2011

    Evansville Audited Operational Funds Dec 31, 2012

    Evansville Audited Operational Funds -Dec 31,2013

    Evv Operating Funds – Aug 2013

    Evv Operating Funds – Aug 2014

    THIS ARTICLE WAS POSTED BY THE CITY COUNTY OBSERVER WITHOUT OPINON,  BIAS OR EDITING.

    49 COMMENTS

    1. Wow! —just Wow!
      Where is Evansville on the “flow chart”?——
      Answer?—Up Sh– Creek, or in Bee Slough, take your pick.

      • The Courier & Press did not print this article by Mr. Friend ?

        Did Mr. Friend refuse to send it to “Editor” Tim Ethridge ?

        Is Mr. Ethridge too busy watching the World Series to send it on to the printing presses ?

        Has Mr. Friend gone feeble in his dotage, and just forgot to send it to C & P ?

        Surely the large erosion of City Cash Balances is noteworthy ?

        Should an investigation re: media manipulation ensue ?

        • Channel 14 Noose also does NOT have the Friend story about the evaporation of Cash. Their last story with Friend was dated Tuesday, 10/21 re: the budget stalemate, charging the Council as being SOB’s and the Mayor as the angel who will have to let street lights go dark and elderly people sleep in refrigerator cartons in Garvin Park to save money . . . . .

    2. Never trust an entity that can bleed 24 months and not die. But this is government spending and is different than a family or business budget. It’s investing. We invested in an arena and will invest in a new road for Robert’s dog pile.

      • ‘Never trust an entity that can bleed 24 months and not die’.

        Sometimes you just have to stand on ’em for a while.

    3. Where to begin ?

      1) Remember the infamous Exit Conference where the SBOA Audit Supervisor said ” you can throw the Yellow Book in the trash can” (Yellow Book=City’s Annual Financial Statement). I expect a press conference later today from the Mayor saying ” hey, the auditors said we should throw our financial statements in the trash can. We did ! So we don’t know why Friend continues to cite them ?”;

      2) Russ Lloyd is such a jackass and liar its unbelievable. He lied to the City Council’s face when he told them the 2012 books were fully reconciled, no plugs, and just $ 4K out of balance. Then the SBOA comes out and says that City had to plug $ 29 Million to the 2012 beginning balances just so that year could even be audited. For Russ Lloyd to come out now and say there is a “timing difference” which explains a $ 15 Million or more decrease in cash is felonious. How many more lies does City Council have to hear from Russ Lloyd before they man up/woman up and get him ousted ????; and

      3) Friend needs a life coach. Way too much detail, his writing is littered with misused and misspelled words. Wow. However, Friend does make a compelling point. The numbers Friend cites are the City Administration’s own numbers, not Friend’s numbers. There has been a huge erosion in Cash Balances, and I promise you there is no timing difference (if there was a timing difference, the Plugger-In-Chief would be able to articulate the details, and as usual he is busy looking smarmy and arrogant).

      • You’re spot-on in ALL of your comments. The trouble is that the City-Council can’t get rid of Chef Russ, the book-cooker. He serves purely at the pleasure of the Mayor, and it appears Russ is very pleasing to him. It isn’t every day you can find a CPA who is so willing to put his credentials on the line in order to perpetuate a fantasy world for our MINO to skip around in, sprinkling fairy dust and handing out lollipops to his cronies. What the SBOA did defies all tenets of professionalism and integrity.
        As for Nobody’s Friend, I think he needs more than a life coach, although it may be a good start for him. He needs more free time to enjoy boating, but it looks like he is gearing up to run for office again.

    4. John Friend, you are a blithering idiot !

      You forgot that getting rid of the Weapons of Mass Distraction cost a LOT of money !

      Not to mention the number of shovels needed to give the 2011 and 2012 financial statements a decent burial, extra deep.

      • Careful using the word shovel, it’ll cause the mayor to present ready to turn sand. It’ll get where he’s the only one to show up, a tragic figure. He seems to have traded his personal spade, the one he uses to keep digging against better advice, for a backhoe.

        • I’m considering changing my cat’s name to “Lloyd Winnecke”. He turns sand every day, for the very same reason the two-legged Lloyd Winnecke does…to cover up a load of crap.

          • Might want to lock up your purse and watch your watch if you change the cat’s name. This is uncharted territory, to be safe rename the litter box ‘Schaefer’ or something similar.

            They are probably crafting some sort of rebuttal to Friend’s letter about now. Hard to rebut the numbers but the Sandman’ll probably send one of his lieutenants out with a terse, unbeleivably pat denial of sorts. Then again he might save them for hotel extensions and McCurdy ready-to-goes and rely on his toadie auxiliary to try to refute Friend. Could be treated to another dose of the Phoenix today.

            • I rather expect a rebuttal and cheers for it from the toadies. This can’t be a good day on the third floor of the Civic Center. I expect new jobs for both of the Poop’s “main men” very soon. It’s not easy to find positions for incompetents, but the banks and Vectren seem to always have room for one more.

            • Where are you P. D.? You insinuated in your posts yesterday, that you are not a Coward, —unlike the anonymous posters on this site.
              Cat got your tongue? we are all waiting for your brain dead spin, deriding the Truth Revealed, (about the deficit spending by this Administration) as a malicious attack on the outstanding leadership emanating from,–the Mayor’s office, and the Creep(s) down at Republican Headquarters..
              Looks like a Wimp out by an irrelevant toadie on your part,– Mr. “I use my real Name”.

            • I decided to drive down 1st street today to see where it went. I could not remember if 1st steet connected with all the other cross streets North of the Building next to the Old Hotel. So I had a look at the boarded my old McCurdy Hotel for the very first time from 1st Street. And I discovered that 1st steet is blocked by some huge building of which I can’t remember what is was. But there it was blocking me from going any further NW on 1st street. This reminded me of why I hate driving around the Downtown. Streets that end with a building right in the middle of the street. I mean why not have that happen to 1st street too. Main street already is blocked with a building right in the middle of Main street. It’s a pattern that’s been around Evansville, IN for a long time.

              And what idiots dump their raw sewage right at the end of the main street in the down town area? Who in their right mind puts a cities sewage treatment plant and a thing like B slough right in the down town entrance area? Its’ not wonder the population of Evansville, IN is declining. Even the rats knows that it’s time to move when the Raw Sewage of Humans invaded their home territory. And then we dump our sewage overflows right at the main gathering place on the Ohio River. Dress plaza and right up stream from the Riverboat Casino. Do the gamblers have to pay extra to watch the turds flow by the Gambling Riverboat’s Windows? Oh Please I want a Window seat. This town litterly sucks turds.

              Which brings me right back to Russ.

            • Heck curb the enthusiasm , I’ve got a real nice little desk crystal thingy “awarded” for being the top ranked company innovation leader. Even rated a extra couple of “bone-us” points on a year end appraisal.

              That “one” created a multibillion dollar global development pathway still evolving extreme percentages in job creation and ROI for that outfit, and countless others, to date. Vision, leadership, team development, ideation migration.

              All in the job Pappa, all in the job. 😉

      • By the time the City Council votes on the budget, John Friend will fall right in line and vote for the budget the Mayor wants.

    5. Is it True,–that Mark Twain, who once said– “”There is no distinctly native American criminal class , save Congress.”– never visited Evansville?

    6. Does anybody else question the Mayor’s fitness to continue to serve? All of this is pretty basic arithmetic and to deny it implies that something is wrong with him.

    7. Take a step back from the rhetoric:

      Friend and his cronies on Council (minus SBR) backed off from holding the City Administration accountable for the Fraudit. Why they didn’t think it was their duty to interrupt an SBOA Whitewash still mystifies me.

      But here, I believe we have the case of a politician (Friend) “getting out in front”of the issue of where all the cash has evaporated to/ why we need to (finally) show some fiscal restraint.

      Given Friend’s past bluster on the Ford Center and the Fraudit, for him to get out in front like this must mean it’s really real, and he doesn’t want to get blamed as the City slips further into fiscal exigency.

      • Yeah. How did not your friend vote on the prior winky budgets. I think he voted for all of them. And Earthcare. Seems like elkb is right he is trying to gear up to run on a balanced budget

        • And Stephanie Riley voted for both the med school and hotel. I don’t trust any of them. O’Daniel you’re next in line to prove you can stand up to King Lloyd.

      • Why would Winnecke whitewash an audit from a previous administration? The city council did not want the audit to come to light, the audit was for 2011, the last full year of the Weinzapel years.

        • Why did the Democratic Central Committee Main Members push for Winnie in the Mayors job over Davis? Lot’s of strange people in the same bed but claming to be of different political parties? Humm. Make me go hum?

    8. This is really easy to explain, 8 years of bills came due when Winnecke took office. The 50 million dollars for Johnson Controls was a Weinzapel fiasco that Winnecke had a chance to stop it but didn’t. Except for nickel and dime stuff what has Winnecke spent. Did 6 million dollars of that money go to plug that audit hole? The hotel is not a done deal so that doesn’t count, the IU Med Cen. is not a fully done deal, so exactly how and where did he spend the money? He did tear down Roberts but is that a big money deal, no. The $200,000 to Earthscam was created and sponsored by the African American community and passed by the Democrat controlled city council, so can’t blame that on Winnecke. He had some level of trust in the city council and they scammed him and then pulled a cat trick, they crapped covered it with sand and then pointed toward Winnecke. I would like to see Winnecke act like a fiscal conservative and take a look at all of city government, do some brutal harvesting and fully justify the remaining workforce. Clean up our city for the ones that live here, Evansville is probably as much of a destination city as it will ever be. Evansville is already a good destination city, plenty of out of town people come here they’re just not going downtown.

      • You are so bitterly partisan and racist it’s shameful. Party affiliation means nothing at the local level, moron. I seem to remember republican winnecke smiling like a jackass at all the eartcare photo ops.

        • You are addicted to the defense mechanisms of denial and projection to protect your sanity. If party affiliation was unimportant how do you account for the democrat get out the votes by African Americans and union thugs. When a liberal is at a loss for words and devoid of cranial activity they play the race card. I’m actually anti liberal because of their actions over the pass 50 years that has worked overtime to relieve 4 generations of their hopes, dreams and goals.

            • A guilty white. Your anger is very unreasonable. What could possibly cause that? Maybe gender dysphoria is the problem. Your tone is almost always angry and insulting, with name calling. Maybe you need to lay off the Jenkem.

            • Correction Ghost – you called pov a racist. Name calling is your stock in trade.

          • Also, cite specifics on how liberals have worked to relieve four generations of their hopes and dreams. When you’re finished, kindly check out how republican run states are doing. They lead the nation in every single negative statistic.

    9. So, let’s see were this City will be after another five years of Mr. Winnecke’s spending habits…let’s use the Friend’s fiscal year analysis…..$419,000 x 60 months = $25,140,000….would this be possible…hell no!!! So, anybody who believe that this Administration will not eventually be forced to lay-off police, firefighters and Maintenance personnel believe in “Mother Goose”

      • I’m sure that will be a threat, all politicians always use public safety as their threat. I think most of our police officers and fireman can justify their jobs. The bills from the Weinzapfel regime are coming due. The expenditures are already built in, Friend and all the old liners, some who are no longer in office are trying to cover their rears. The Fraud center has been waiting for a hotel for 3 years and nothing has happened. Exactly where is Winnecke spending this money if not for expenditures incurred by the last administration.

      • Dance: you make an excellent point. This cash balance depletion spending is unsustainable.

        My only pause: why is the City Council only now ( 3 years after LW was inaugurated) just starting to make an issue of this spending orgy ? What if Council had nipped this in the bud in 2012 ? Oh wait, no bank recs for two years.
        My bad.

    10. Something has changed on this web site? My user name email addy are not kept in cookies anymore. That sucks.

    11. OK now it’s working right. Maybe I did something on my computer to erase the cookies?

      The Mayor needs to be impeached if he can’t keep Russ under control and prevent him from cooking the books.

    12. Hey John, don’t worry…. Rumpled bean counter just hasn’t BOUNCED the books yet !

    13. Looks to me that the ship is going down and the rats are motivated and focused on gorging themselves on the grain stores before she slips below the waves. AKA: Little Detroit .

      • Looks like the stores are nearing the bottom too. Fermented grain, they’re direction looks similar to a coop barnyard chickens that’s been picking round the spilt mash.

      • EVANSVILLE TRANSPARENCY:

        Any way you could create an image of the S.S. Evansville listing badly, taking on water; and being towed by the S.S. Hypocrisy (captained by you-know-who, with the red nose and Captain’s hat) ?

        That would be memorable !

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