Evansville- Today State Representative and candidate for Mayor Gail Riecken released her plan for a more transparent city government. “Evansville residents deserve a city government that is open and transparent, allowing for more information sharing, open discussion and actions that instill trust and honestyâ€, said Riecken.
The Riecken Administration will accomplish this through these policies:
- Whistleblower ordinance. I will propose an ordinance that will protect city workers who report problems with city government so that actions by a city official cannot be retaliatory.
- Responsible bidder ordinance. I will propose an ordinance that sets guidelines for securing service contracts, making sure the city gets the best bids possible for quality services through an open and competitive process.
- Open and consistent public dialogue. I pledge to make scheduled bi-monthly appearances at city council meetings for an open discussion of projects and issues.
- Quarterly reports on city finances. I pledge that reports on the status of city finances will be given by my controller or myself quarterly. We will provide this information at city council meetings and on the internet with discussion from the city council.
- Public Review of Budget. Once the proposed city budget is finalized my administration will give the public an opportunity to ask questions and have input.
- Open discussion of State Board of Accounts audits. Without violating Indiana statute and when legally public. I pledge that the audit process and audit reports for the city and water & sewer department will be discussed in a public forum with city council by the controller or the designated departmental staff.
- Expanded Traveling Town Hall sessions. I will expand the content of these to include information on the general state of city finances, progress on projects and issues discussions. While the public will still have every opportunity to relay problems or concerns to the appropriate department heads, my administration will play a more active role in using the Traveling Town Hall to inform the public of city operations.
Ms. Riecken: a good start. But you left out one of the most critical pieces of transparency: fast, efficient administration of all Public Records Access (PRA) requests submitted by citizens. The City Administration currently either: a) Doesn’t respond at all to those requests which they believe will expose their bad practices; or b) They stall you out for an eternity. Did you know that each PRA request presented to the City has to be reviewed by an attorney (Dirck Stahl) ? Is is true that there is great irony that Stahl puts on a stall ?
Ms. Riecken: put out a statement that your administration will promptly reply to every PRA request submitted by citizens, except for those involving active litigation, without attorney review. People will respond to that.
Its transparent that Hilton is still handing out franchise’s in the Evansville area for private developers. 😉
http://www.14news.com/story/29092844/new-hotel-planned-for-evansvilles-east-side
SOMETHING TO LIKE
At this juncture: Gail has my support.
Before this press release – this reader could not have voted FOR either candidate.
However – proposals and pledges do not equal actions.
Is Lucy holding for Charlie Brown?
Again? …
I like the ‘Responsible Bidder Ordinance’ for services, that will save the City a fortune. Why not bolster that with a ‘Conflict of Interest Ordinance’ which says that professional firms which contribute to a candidate’s election funds automatically exclude themselves from performing services for the City ?
Jeez. Hope she’s at least as transparent as owebama has been.
Here’s a simple fact . . .over the past seven years over 50 million of contracts have been granted by both Mayors Winnecke and Weinzapfel without ONE BID . . . the receivers of those contracts have been engineering outfits, attorneys, Accounting firm (Unbaugh of Indy) you noticed that I did not say firms, but firm. . . and the occasional Information Technology a/k/a Mark Rolley . . . (no know, the guy that lost his yacht at Inland Marina with the help of Bill Marver . . .
Gail needs to implement a policy were each vendor will submit it’s resume to the city and the committee will review and determine if that vendor is qualified . . . RFP’s would be sent to all the qualified vendors in the category of the work to be preferred. . . they will post their bid on the City’s website for all to see and commence a reverse auction process. . . the lowest bidder by the time table set will be awarded the bid . . all of this will be on city’s website for ALL TO SEE… This will save the taxpayers MILLIONs and of course will cost Santa Lloyd thousands in contribution for all those engineering outfits . . . .so sad but sad true . . .
And maybe viable more efficient start-ups could get their big toes in the door as well. For all to see.
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