OUTGOING STATE REPRESENTATIVE GAIL RIECKEN WAS AN ADVOCATE FOR THE DISADVANTAGED AND SOCIAL CHANGE

 STATE REPRESENTATIVE GAIL RIECKEN WAS AN ADVOCATE FOR THE DISADVANTAGED AND SOCIAL CHANGE

People enter politics for different reasons. At a recent award presentation held by the City County Observer Gail Riecken daughter Julia, remarked that Gail entered public service because of her desire to help others.

It is no surprise that social issues have been the cornerstone of her career, whether in volunteer or paid work or elected office. Considering the influence in her early years of the Rev. Dr. Joe Baus and Sue Woodson of her church, First Presbyterian, and her present day minister, Rev. Kevin Fleming and his wife Wendy McCormick, it would be hard not to acknowledge the importance of such issues in society as equality, justice and fairness among peoples of all races, orientation and sexes.

After college Gail served women and children in a barrio in Santa Domingo while in the Peace Corps. She returned to Evansville and worked for CAPE serving people in the Oakdale-Sweetser and Fulton areas. It was at that time she joined the NAACP where she met Willie Effie Thomas, whom she remembers fondly today.
While at CAPE, she learned how effective neighbors can be working together to solve their problems and became a leader in the infancy of her own neighborhood association in downtown Riverside fighting street crime and vacant landlords. She says people deserve a safe place to live and should be able to walk their streets without fear or concern for their safety. She took that interest to the state legislature and worked with others in Financial Institutions committee for better laws regarding vacant and abandoned properties.

Last year Gail worked on the new law, body camera bill, and believes it has a good start toward improving relations between law enforcement and neighbors, but needs some revisions as we learn more of the challenges to our communities and law enforcement.

This past summer Gail continued efforts to address blighted neighborhoods. Republican leadership in the House and Senate allowed her a presentation before the Tax Policy Interim Committee for an income tax credit idea to encourage further rehab and rebuilding in neighborhoods affected by blighted housing by individuals and for profit corporations. She hopes the idea continues to receive the positive response it received from the state cities and towns and county associations.

Gail is very practical and when things just don’t make sense, she jumps in to be a part of a solution. She listened to presentations in Evansville about child abuse and neglect, thinking we have to do something to support families. Among other accomplishments as a volunteer, Gail is noted as the co-founder of the ARK Crisis Nursery, now the ARK Child Care Center, but she is quick to note it would never have happened if the Junior League and her church didn’t step up and help—as they did later with the well-baby voucher program for young families, Little Lambs, which is housed in her church.

Gail took that experience of bringing people together to solve problems to the Statehouse in 2008. She fought the administration on Medicaid issues standing with the people. It was IBM’s computer problems that lost clients’ paperwork and the fault of the clients. The issue was resolved with the administration backing their clients and filing suit against IBM.

She stood with working families on wage and safe working conditions and risked her reputation and political standing leaving the state to oppose the bill that threatened working familys’ rights. The Indiana State Conference NAACP presented it President’s Award to Gail in 2011 for quote her “courage and protection of our civil rights by leaving the State”.

She stood with members of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus fighting the new law that members called racist and prejudicial, RFRA (pronounced “rifer”), the new law in Indiana that raised criticism worldwide and cost Indiana millions in revenue.  In her remarks on the floor of the legislature she cited the unnecessary hurt to people and the risk that an unintentional result of the law could be that basic health and safety standards for children in day cares in churches could be compromised.

Gail supports efforts to increase opportunities for success for all. And so, she supported the medical school here in Evansville, although taking a public stand that without Ivy Tech’s facility at the campus, the project missed the opportunity for over a thousand students to improve their chances for an education in a progressive and exciting model of health care delivery that is the cornerstone of the school’s education. She spoke out as a member of the Ways and Means Committee and will continue to speak to others to encourage legislators to add $20 million dollars to the Ivy Tech capital expense to the next state budget for the facility.

Families need support financially and often have to lean on expensive pay day loans to meet those emergency expenses. Gail authored and advocated the new law on prize linked savings accounts where those persons saving can win money in raffle drawings to add to their savings accounts. Marketing efforts for the new law started this October and three local credit unions have shown interest.

Children will always remain important to her and she was instrumental in the new design in law for local and statewide infant mortality review committees. She was also involved in the new law initiating the Commission on the Improvement of the Status of Children, the only commission of this importance having all three branches of government as equal partners-legislative, executive and judicial-designing progressive advances for our children in education, incarceration, and health and welfare.

And finally, we can’t forget the two changes in State law that will benefit Indiana and Evansville, in particular. Through the combined efforts of legislators from this area Evansville will see the casino move to land and the medical school. Gail supported and advocated both in her caucus and in Ways and Means as a member. But, she notes that she took a stand in Ways and Means and with other legislators to push for the inclusion of Ivy Tech. She believes today that without location of the Ivy Tech facility at the school, the benefit to those who support medical professionals, the technicians, the nurses trained at Ivy Tech, will lose out. As a private citizen we predict that Gail Riecken will continue to speak out and continue to speak to our elected officials  and encourage them add an additional $20 million dollars to the Ivy Tech capital expense in the state budget for the facility.

Gail Riecken has served this community extremely well and we believe she will continue to do so in the future.  We  wish her well and thank her for her outstanding service to our community.