Thank you everyone for joining me this morning.
In 2014 & 2015, Mayor Winnecke stood in front of the Evansville Rotary Club, and declared the State of the City to be strong. However, it has become clear to me that the State of our City’s finances is anything but strong.
Today, I want you to understand why we should all be concerned about our city finances.
The starting balance of years 2013 going forward of the General Fund is plummeting.
In 2013 & 2014, the Mayor spent more money than he took in, and he isn’t paying all our bills. His administration are playing a shell game, moving funds from one city account to another at the right moment to show a positive balance.
The Mayor’s Controller admitted this in a City Council meeting on April 13th. He stated it was the administration’s “plan to have a positive balanceâ€.   The pre-mature transfer of $2.5 million from the Water & Sewer Utility to the General Fund is but one example of shell game tactics.
These shell game tactics have resulted in the city using today’s money to pay yesterday’s debts.
So instead of fixing the leaky roof, we are paying for car repairs done 6 months ago.
Following this trend, where do we end up in 2016?
We must change the way we do business, and not let wasteful spending hold us back.
The current administration has become all flash and no substance. Instead of looking at our dwindling General Fund Balance and trying to fix the problem, the Administration simply attempts to cover up the fact that a problem exists. We can do better.
The residents of Evansville need to hold their elected officials accountable. The Mayor and his administration keep spending our money on irresponsible and foolish measures, which has cost the city millions of dollars. Â
These measures show a lack of leadership. It is a lack of leadership that has placed us in the financial situation we find our city in today.
It was a lack of leadership in the Mayor’s Department of Metropolitan Development that caused the city to drastically overpay to the tune of $535,000 for the old CVS Building on Columbia & North Main.
It was a lack of leadership on the Mayor himself that lead to $200,000 in our tax dollars being thrown away to Earth Care Energy. It was a lack of leadership that has led to the city spending at least $1.6 million on multiple failed attempts to build a Convention Hotel.
The Mayor needs to be held responsible for the fact that the city’s funds are being mismanaged. The buck stops with him.
We as a city are on the brink of financial peril. We must admit that we have a spending problem, and begin the work to fix the problem. We need a leader who is willing to admit these issues that we face. For if we cannot admit our problems, we cannot begin to solve them.
We must ensure the financial future of our city. I will work tirelessly as your next mayor to ensure this, not for ourselves, but for my children and grandchildren. My two daughters,  Julia Belle and Katie, and my 3, soon to be 4 grandchildren, deserve the best Evansville we can give them. It is our duty to leave our children and grandchildren a city better than it was left for us.
Our moment is now. Our mission is clear. And our opportunity is in front of us
Thank you.
Gail Riecken Candidate for the Mayor of Evansville
Please take time and vote in today’s “Readers Poll”. Don’t miss reading today’s Feature articles because they are always an interesting read. New addition to the CCO is the Cause of Death reports generated by the Vanderburgh County Health Department.
Copyright 2015 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
IT IS NOT A SHELL GAME
It has been said and written many times “Local finance is a shell game.” It is not.
A shell game is a game involves sleight of hand. Three inverted cups or nutshells that are moved about
in plain view and players try to spot which one has a pea or other object underneath.
One plays a shell game willingly and for entertainment.
Unlike a shell game – we play unwillingly and there is zero chance to win.
Unlike a shell game – Local finances are conducted behind closed doors – away from our view.
Unlike a shell game – there is no pea to find and what is hidden is truth –
the truth that there is no money to find – only abuses and staggering debt.
Unlike a shell game – the hustler claims no responsibility when caught cheating.
THIS IS NOT A SHELL GAME
OK, but every action I have heard form Gail requires more spending. And will we still be spending on a downtown hotel or North main project? There are only two ways to cure a deficit, increase revenue, or cut spending. Where does this speech address real action and hard choices?
I think we agree we have a spending problem, but what I don’t hear from her is any solutions or what she will do to change the course we are on. In other words like the old Wendy’s commercial, Where’s The Beef?
More Shell Games:
C & P front-page article Tuesday, 8-4-15 on Land Bank proposal titled ‘Mayor addresses blight’:
1) $ 26.8 Million cited by Mayor as the costs of things such as police runs to abandoned houses, citing one property that had 290 police runs and 911 dispatches in a five-year period. Then comes Kelly Coures and says:
” Coures stressed that no other city department’s budget would be cut to accommodate the Land Bank proposal”. Comment: the Public is asked to spend $ 10 Million to save $ 26.8 Million in vapor–$ 10 Million spent for the Land Bank with $ 0 of budgets reduced elsewhere to reflect the savings of making these police/911 runs to abandoned houses; and
2) “The biggest number (of the $ 26.8 Million cost of abandoned properties cited by the Mayor) is attributed to sealing and securing blighted structures and then demolishing them. Coures acknowledged that figure, which is intended to represent savings, includes the salaries of the Evansville Vanderburgh Building Commssion’s eight code enforcement offices–an expense that would remain in place if the land bank is created”. Comment: this is just like the shell game on the Johnson Controls project–where the meter readers salaries were cited as savings of the wireless water meters, yet the meter readers stayed on staff.
Point Gail Riecken re: Shell Game, just like the changed Audit Opinion and the Hotel downsizing.
That’s hilarious. I read that too. No budgets cut, no salaries cut, the EPD and EFD have staffing requirements in their contracts – ridiculous. We will “save” money by spending more than we used to spend. Awesome. They don’t even try to hide their manipulative crap anymore. It’s like everyone is tired, and they’ve realized how stupid the public can be at times.
Lime, I may not be a numbers person but I understand what you are saying. The paper must have misunderstood and printed it wrong. No savings here. Taking out those houses will not help – the houses did not start the fire or violate the law.
@Kant Beright:
No, I think the C & P quoted the Mayor and Coures exactly right. Those two gents are convinced that everyone not in the Inner Circle is a freakin’ moron–so they can say crap like this. This land bank ‘creation’ is nothing more than a way for Winnecke to say during the election: ” See, we’re doing SOMETHING” about blight”; just like the lawsuit against the guy in Memphis re: the commerical property which was deeded to a homeless man; just like the new consultant’s plan for downtown development (“See, we’re forward looking about our city-wide development plans . . . we’re spending lots of money for a plan we will ignore !!!”). Everything being done now (and I mean everything) is for the purpose of getting re-elected: skinny down the Hotel until it’s 1/2 the original scope, ignore the trimming away of Ivy Tech on IU Med School and build that the same size, lavish money on North Main, etc., etc.
This guy needs to take a METS bus far away from here !
I would have had a lot more respect and gotten behind a statement that honest- It won’t save money right away, but it will down the road. There’s a value on quality of life and safety that can’t be quantified. Down the road, these actions will stabilize declining neighborhoods, build on stable neighborhoods and spur residential development, but we have to dig ourselves out of a hole first (that might have been exacerbated by my ignoring the problem and cutting the demo budget for the last 3.5 years). What I would give for a little honesty out of this bunch!
Honesty . . Wow . .what an inspiring notion . . the figure don’t lie, and liars figure and the chief figurer is Russ Lloyd and Santa Lloyd , , , the city is now in the land grabbing business and Christmas Carol a/k/a McClintoch the mayor’s just so happens to be in real estate. . . is the average voter’s IQ near or around room temperature??? and we wonder why the youth are taking the train to the coast!!!
Coures’ convoluted attempt to spin our accidental and blighted mayor’s blight proposal is not surprising. Most people simply would not insult the voters with such piffle. That Money Finder nipped around the outside of the inside for many years before someone finally let him in. He’s tailor made for a Winnecke administration. He’ll do as he’s told, he doesn’t want to blow it now.
I am noticing one thing with the mayors race. Winneke only talks about what he did in the past. And Riekien only talks about what Winneke did wrong in the past. I really don’t care the past is past. Neither are saying a word on what they will do in the future as mayor. That is the million dollar question everyone needs to know to choose who is the least dangerous for the city as I feel neither are the best choice for the city.
Well said Yao. I am afraid all the reliable media sources are failing us in demanding something more than platitudes.
Might I suggest two planks for any aspiring candidates platform? Hire a competent city financial officer. Abolish the Evansville Redevelopment Commission.
Nice speech, Gail. Now for some substance. Taxpayer’s are set to go on the hook for $100,000,000 with just three projects; North Main, Hotel, and “Downtown” Med school. Would you be willing to scale back or eliminate one or all of these big ticket spending projects in order to put Evansville on the road to fiscal sanity?
Well put – commonsense!
Your question to Gail is THE ONLY question that addresses the real problem.
And crickets chirp while we await an answer. …
Good question. Maybe that’s why Winnecke got behind that unusual money dump to North Main, so he could delete it (after much deliberation and Jacobsville vote counting) in favor of ‘fiscal prudence’. If re-elected he will surely continue his Ahab-like quest for an unnecessary hotel and a poorly sited medical school.
As far as I know Gail Riecken is still behind the downtown hotel & med. school. Maybe once elected the financial realities facing Evansville will cause her to alter her views on those two projects. I wouldn’t mind hearing her saying she’s reopened her mind on spending all that money downtown, but I’m voting for her regardless.
What would be great to hear from Gail is that the North Main project should be REALLY scaled back to next to nothing and the downtown hotel needs to be dropped like a ton of bricks. The med school needs to be reassessed as far as location is concerned so that the sewers can be fixed in the downtown area. Then maybe a corporate hotel chain will go downtown —- or not. I think she is testing the waters to see who surfaces when she tells the truth about the city and its finances. She will then have the leaders of the major’s cheer squad who are not readily apparent. Sort of a know thy enemy tactic. These are the folks who will come out and say she is dead wrong. We all know she is right however. I am with Bandana. I would like some specifics. But she is navigating the mine field right now. I am looking for specifics to come in mid-September or a little later. She still has my vote because to vote for Winnecke is a death blow for a down and out city.
The answers to your questions are where true transparency begins even if it would not affect one’s vote.
Hey CCO Bloggers, I have a news alert for you. IS IT TRUE that our darling At-Large City Councilman Jonathan Weaver has surpassed the record? What record??? It seems, Mr. Weaver has within the first three and one half years being a member of the Evansville Council has completed his second divorce. His second divorce was recently filed and granted in Warrick County. Why Warrick County? Doesn’t Weaver the At-large City Councilman live in Evansville? This illustrates Jonathan Weavers true colors? Why did he file in secret, one county over? Was it an attempt to hide from that the voters that he’s a two time loser. Mr.Weaver has the he has the gaul to criticize Brinkerhoff-Riley regarding her personal shortcomings. What a complete two face A-hole our At-Large City Council Councilman is!
Hey CCO Bloggers, I have a news alert for you. IS IT TRUE that our darling At-Large City Councilman Jonathan Weaver has surpassed the record? What record??? It seems, Mr. Weaver has within the first three and one half years being a member of the Evansville Council has completed his second divorce. His second divorce was recently filed and granted in Warrick County. Why Warrick County? Doesn’t Weaver the At-large City Councilman live in Evansville? This illustrates Jonathan Weavers true colors? Why did he file in secret, one county over? Was it an attempt to hide his divorce from the voters that he’s a two time loser. Mr.Weaver has the Gaul to criticize Brinkerhoff-Riley regarding her personal shortcomings. What a complete two face A-hole our At-Large City Councilman is!
Comments are closed.