IS IT TRUE JUNE 23, 2015

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IS IT TRUE at last night’s City Council meeting a concerned citizen came forward to ask Mayor Winnecke’s Chief of Staff Steve Schaefer pointed questions concerning the proposed Downtown Hotel? …the Mayor’s Chief of Staff wanted to know who styled the questions presented to him by a concern citizen? …at one point Mr. Schaffer charged that the questions were written by the “BLOG” City County Observer? …Chief of Staff Schaefer’s charges are laughable because these questions are much too detailed to be written by us? …we were sent the questions that Mr. Schaefer was given last night by a source that wanted to remain anonymous? …and we did agree the sender shall be anonymous?

IS IT TRUE Mr. Schaefer’s demeanor at last night Council meeting was similar to the way he acted at his old Chamber of Commerce job?

ATTACHED BELOW ARE THE QUESTIONS SUBMITTED TO THE CITY COUNCIL FOR THE MAYOR CONCERNING THE DOWNTOWN HOTEL

IS IT TRUE the original rendition of the Convention Hotel represented 10 stories, 257 rooms, 78 high end apartment with a total public investment of tax dollars at $20 million?

IS IT TRUE we now understand that the 257 room hotel has been cut to 240?

IS IT TRUE we now understand the apartments have been eliminated from the project decreasing the hotel from a 10 story building to only 5 stories?

IS IT TRUE we now understand the original plans had an indoor swimming pool and now we have an outdoor swimming pool?

IS IT TRUE, the original public commitment was only $20 million and now it has grown to at least $23.6 million?

IS IT TRUE  the project alone is $44 million or $183,333 per room and based on Hilton’s 2013 Development Cost & Prototype Building Cost data, the avg. seven-story full service hotel WITHOUT land costs, average less than $165,000 per room? … why is our hotel costing us more than the average? …equaling $4 million more or 10% greater?

IS IT TRUE, that any savings on the project will go to HCW? and who is overseeing the construction cost to keep the other contractors honest?

IS IT TRUE, the streetscape and infrastructure alone on Walnut and down SE Sixth Streets will be funded by funds outside this project and development agreement? . . .what are those project costs and what is the alternative source of funding especially since the April 2015 downtown TIF declined by $5 million?

IS IT TRUE the Garage includes 552 spaces of which 200 are for the Med School costing $10,050,000 or $18,200 per space? .. . the original garage before the Med School was finalized was priced out at $5,461,956 or $16,500 per space .so does is the Med School’s extra 200 spaces have a premium of $1,700 space? …therefore, based on the original design for 332 space vs 552, the total cost should be only $9,081,000 not $10,050,000 a premium of $969,000 to have IU?

IS IT TRUE the garage will be owned by HCW, not leased, and the city will be responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the garage etc? . . .what will this cost the taxpayers of Evansville per year?

IS IT TRUE that the development agreement requires the city to be financially responsible for everything except the hotel with the guarantee going from $7.5 million to $9.9 million? . . .why did the Mayor do this? …those ancillary cost appear to be $16,850,000 plus the guarantee of $9,900,000 equals $26,750,000? . . .so why is the City’s paying $28,250,000 or $1,500,000 more than the project cost?

IS IT TRUE that the City is responsible for the ancillary components budget overruns? …what contingency has been built into the budget to cover? .. .If none, where are these funds coming from?

IS IT TRUE that no members of City Council have a copy of the revised Development Agreement, if not why not?

IS IT TRUE the General Contractor is not required to use local subs and suppliers if the cost and quality is not an issue?

IS IT TRUE that for $44 million each and every hotel room will have a window Air Conditioning units.? .. .it so, will Hilton approve it?

IS IT TRUE the original UV windows have now been replaced with ordinary window glass? . . . so the mirror like glass is gone ?

FOOTNOTE:  As they say, enquiring minds want know. Worst yet, the elected City Council has a legal right to know and the taxpayers of the City of Evansville expect their Mayor to be honest and forthright and disclose the details of this hotel.  So far Mayor Winnecke talks about transparent government,  but talk is cheap.

Lat night Mr.  Schaefer did acknowledge that the new Downtown Hotel will have an outside swimming pool. and will not have window A/C.  He told Council is didn’t know much more than that at this point.  He promised to have answers to these questions at next Council meetings.  All of us demand to know the  entire  truth. about the newly redesigned Hotel plans. Where is the main stream media?   Why  aren’t they asking these questions?  Is the main stream media  granting the Mayor cart blanche on this project?

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25 COMMENTS

    • No the Evansville Courier and Press didn’t give him those questions. Everyone is asking “Is it true” these days. And yes the tax payers IE VOTERS are the bloggers. And they want answers to questions about where their 20 million dollars is going.

  2. Thank you for reporting on this. The city does a project poorly and makes excuses later.

    • I believe so. It’s just not on the rooftop anymore and instead of a bar like you can usually count on at a Hilton it is now a dive. Born and bred by design, hatched from a foul egg, no need to deteriorate into that state. The whiskey will be watered, the hookers dangerous.

      What’d Schaefer even show up for if he wasn’t going to answer any substantive questions? It just made Winnecke look even more scared and ineffectual and resolved nothing. The City Council has a duty to withdraw the money they gave Winnecke, under a whole different set of circumstances, to prosecute his hotel. The citizens of Evansville also have a duty, underscored by the hotel debacle, and that is to remove Lloyd Winnecke from office. If they really want a weatherman in the mayors seat we’ve got a jim dandy waiting in the wings — Tropical Depression Weaver.

      • “The whiskey will be watered, the hookers dangerous.” I like half of this idea.

      • Winnecke should show up to each and every City Council Meeting instead of watching on tv. Who’s running the show anyway?

        If I were Schaefer, Coures or Lloyd, it wouldn’t sit well that the Mayor can’t answer for himself.

        Mr. Danks did put Schaefer in his place when he got a little huffy and one councilman told Coures to step forward if he wanted to answer questions from the peanut gallery.

        Glad I didn’t step out of the room for more than a couple of minutes on the 8% vote. They haggled forever and were going to table it. Then all of a sudden, wham, bamm it passed.

  6. Are they planning to replace a large section of the dilapidated sewer system or are they planning to build a $44 Million hotel and a $60M medical school on top of a sewer that has a high probability of collapsing?

    • If they can finesse the collapse into the right spot the hotel might have an indoor pool afterall.

    • Maybe with the rain it will wash away the arena and flush the whole downtown problem. Would it be that much of a loss?

  7. If Steve acted that way at the Chamber of Commerce job then I can see why he is not there any longer. He was a bumbling idiot last night at the City Council Meeting. He and his boss need to go. It’s no wonder that private developers won’t come here to build a hotel downtown. Bob Green’s executive inn closed at that location for a reason. They might as well put some rooms in the civic center and rent them out to the few people that come to this city and spend the night in order to attend a convention at the Old National Bank Events center.

    BTW when did or did ONB ever pay for those naming rights and how much did they pay the County Commissioner for that privilege?

  8. It is very sad that no matter the winner of the mayoral race, Evansville’s citizens lose. I don’t believe there are any honest politicians willing to take on the job as long as the pitiful make-up of the city council stays in place. I see the only hope of the dirty little river town is Cheryl Musgrave and a total flushing of the city council.

    A city government, strapped for income and comprised of spineless panderers, votes for an 8% homestead credit instead of being true leaders. Of course, if they hadn’t voted for it, they would have spent it on wasteful projects anyway.

    Since Frank Jr. left, Evansville has just slid farther into the septic tank. I think all of the faithful servants have left the city, realizing it’s hopeless to save.

  9. Welcome to the hall of employment shame:

    Russ Lloyd lost his job as mayor, now picked up another public job he is not qualified.

    Dan McGinn was pressured to resign because of alleged Amazonian project overruns.

    Steve Schaefer fired from the Chamber for a failed Coup d’etat against the past executive director of the Chamber.

    What do they all have in common: they work for the Winnecke Administration and you wonder why we have financial problems.

  10. News Flash. . . . . .just confirmed that Tom Bodette is making plans for the fourth annual ground breaking ceremonies for the downtown convention motel . . . since the pool is outdoors make sure you are wearing your sun block and of course, Tom promises to keep the lights on. . . . .

  11. Anyone see this yet? The Evansville Courier and Press gives Whinny a platform to shoot back at the City Council and Gail. If you missed the questioning of Steve Shafer at the City Council Meeting last night it’s on the Evansville Courier and Press Blog tonight. Right now it’s not hidden behind the subscription thing but all the comments are still hidden. IE you can’t read the comments on the article in the EC&P unless you subscribe to the blog.

    http://www.courierpress.com/news/local-elections/winnecke-campaign-accuses-opponent-of-using-plant-at-city-council-meeting-riecken-denies-it_43172919

    I thought that the City Council Recordings were the property of Channel 9 and copyrighted. So how did the EC&P get the video/audio and be allowed to use the audio/video to sell and make a profit off the publics meeting records?

  12. I suspect the concerned citizen was supplied with questions by Mr. Friend. He has done this very thing before. Off-topic financial questions have been directed to Friend and he just happened to have documents at the ready to answer these seemingly random questions. He loves spouting numbers in his garbled, disjointed way. I’ll miss his incoherent comic relief…not.

  13. As it seems due to the folly that Sinister Schaefer provided last evening, nobody grasped the information about the fact that this City received $8 million in revenue from the June 2015 property tax collection compared to the year before . . .yes $8 million . . . we are discussing this ridiculous hotel and have taken our eyes off the ball in regards to properly funding our necessities, i.e. safety and decent road to travel . . .

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