THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASK QUESTIONS BY GAIL RIECKEN
I’m asked many times on the campaign trail, “Gail, what would you do differently than Mayor Winnecke?â€Â I always say it comes down to priorities, especially as it relates to fiscal responsibility and the city budget. It is the Mayor’s responsibility to spend our tax dollars wisely, to practice smart, fiscal policy and to make sure there is an open, transparent budgeting process that produces a city budget that reflects our citizens’ needs and priorities.
Mayor Winnecke hasn’t done that. Too often, he has bowed to the desires of our bureaucracy, the special interests or a few well-connected developers and led us into bad deals and a weakened fiscal outlook. As Mayor, I’d have a different approach. My budget priorities would reflect our city’s greatest needs: fighting crime, fixing roads and sidewalks, attacking blight and attracting new businesses and investment to Evansville. And I’d do it with a highly disciplined fiscal policy, where projects are fully and openly vetting before tax dollars are committed, and a responsible budget surplus will be rebuilt to ensure that all of Evansville’s future needs could be met and giving our youth hope for a brighter future in Evansville.
Specifically, this is what I would do as Mayor:
Debt and Covering Expenses: Over the course of the Mayor’s term, our city’s debt has grown to over half a billion dollars. He spends money the city doesn’t have, tapping into the city’s reserve funds with no plan to increase revenue or reduce expenses. This debt can eventually have a negative effect on the city’s finances. As Mayor, I would create a spending plan prioritizing the needs of the city and not just the special interests. I would make sure we know where ever dollar is being spent and that we keep a strict budget, ensuring that we lower the debt and create a prosperous city for years to come. The first challenge will be to have a thorough audit, so that we will know exactly where we stand financially, and can develop a plan to improve our financial standing.
Stopping Tax dollar giveaways: Over the last four years, the Mayor has been spending taxpayer dollars recklessly. He pledged $5 million to Earth Care Energy, which then went out of business. He has committed the city to give $20 million to a private developer to build a convention hotel and when the design was cut back, the city’s costs were not cut back with it. As Mayor, I will be studious in the vetting process, and spend our Tax Dollars the same way I do with my own family’s money. We need to plan ahead, and spend cautiously and carefully.
Fixing the budget and creating a more transparency government: The Mayor’s inability to manage a budget has caused the city to increase its debt to half a billion dollars with no plan to cut spending or increase revenue to eliminate it. He has done all of this behind closed doors. I would get the city’s finances under control. I would create a spending plan and work to decrease the debt by decreasing spending. I would ensure that, as local law requires, all Evansville Board and Commission Meetings are broadcast for public viewing, whether it is on TV or live streamed online, as well as video saved for future reference. And finally, I would make sure all public reports are posted on the city’s website in reasonable style and for easy access by the public. Our friends in South Bend have a website which allows anyone to see a check register for the city. Their database helps create true accountability by allowing all citizens to see what we are spending and who we are spending it with.
Creating Jobs and Eliminating Blight: With the city’s finances in peril, we need to help existing businesses expand and bring new businesses to our city. I would do this with an Evansville First policy, which would help local small businesses compete for city contracts by stressing contracting with local businesses for goods and services. I would work to attract new businesses to Evansville by offering tax incentives to businesses that want to locate to Evansville and incentives that are published and fairly applied without personal likes and dislikes. By tearing down blighted houses or rehabilitating them, we will also create construction jobs for both the deconstruction of blighted houses and the construction of new homes or businesses, while at the same time creating more attractive neighborhoods that will entice new businesses to move there and existing businesses to expand.
Providing Police and Firefighters with what they need: Under the Mayor’s administration, crime is on the rise. The crime rate has gone up each year under his administration, up 13% in 2012, 1% in 2013, and 28% in 2014. There has also been a lack of funding within the fire department, where equipment such as air packs and trucks are in disrepair, and what is working is in short supply. As Mayor, I will prioritize community policing, allowing officers to build trusting relationships with the community, support the efforts to expand the safe places program to help police get dependable information on crimes, and select a police chief whose leadership will raise morale and set a high standard of operations. As Mayor, I will work to reinstate policies that recognize the importance of firefighters as a family unit who must know the territory they are working. I will select a fire chief who will raise the morale within the department and set a high standard of operations. I will work to ensure that not only do we have the best trained police and firefighters possible, but that these heroes of Evansville, who put their lives on the line each day, have safe and functioning equipment, as well as backup equipment. No Evansville family should lose their home simply because they were sent the backup fire truck that was not adequately equipped or maintained as some are now.
Fixing our Sidewalks and Roads: Simply put, our roads and sidewalks are falling apart. There are potholes everywhere and sinkholes are forming at many locations, such as on E. Delaware Street. Sidewalks are cracking and deteriorating and are unsafe to walk on, especially for seniors and the disabled. And that is where there are sidewalks. The mismanagement of city funds during the Mayor’s time in office has led the city to not having the funds to perform the simple tasks needed to improve quality of life in the city by repairing our sidewalks and roads. As Mayor, I will work to fix our crumbling roads and sidewalks and not just during an election year. We need to prioritize the needs of the entire city when spending tax dollars and fixing sidewalks and road should be near the top of that list. No one should ever feel like they are going to damage their car or hurt themselves just by driving to their kids to school or walking to visit a friend.
The next Mayor of Evansville has to set priorities based on the issues that affect the entire city, not just special interests. A lack of transparency and wasteful spending has shrunken our city’s reserves, increased our debts, and has put our bond rating at risk, hindering our ability to make needed repairs to sidewalks and roads, combat blight and to upgrade and replace equipment for our police and firefighters. As Mayor, looking out for the people of Evansville will be my first priority. I will spend every day fighting for the people of Evansville and working to make our wonderful city stronger.
Sincerely
Gail Riecken Mayoral Candidate
Thank you Gail. Still a little ambiguous , but the most specific yet. Will you move forward with the hotel? If so, then can we expect tax increases? That is the only way to increase revenue. We are about to lose another treasury, Mesker amphitheaeter. Do you have a plan for it?
Obviously, our current Mayor plans to proceed with the roadside inn being plopped next to the Ford Center. Have you asked him when to expect the tax increase?
Wait a minute. Ms. Riecken is smart too. Riecken supports downtown development of the Hotel too.
That’s a red herring. Winnecke will have that Pancaked Hilton up before she takes office. It doesn’t really matter what she thinks about the hotel. Your point about Gail Riecken being smart is well taken though.
Why should I? I know he is inept. There is nothing wrong with asking Gail for specifics and if you weren’t to giddy to think you would understand that. Some of us asking Gail for specifics has resulted in her beginning to make some commitments. Is that a bad thing?
Knowing he is inept is one thing, and very kind. I think he is corrupt. Wanting to know when to expect a tax increase is another, regardless of who is in office. Are you trying to imply that the Hideous Hilton will not cause a tax increase under Winnecke, but it would under Gail?
No, I never implied anything of the sort. I asked if we would still have the same hotel deal under Gail. You are to giddy to be objective in your views. Gail wants to vet deals, which is excellent, but why am I wrong to vet her?
The hotel is a done deal no matter who is in office.
This is an excellent article. Good job CCO. Ms. Riecken is quite clear and covers them well here:
1. Reduce the debt
2. Properly vet candidates for business incentive programs
3. Properly budget with transparency
4. Support job creation and stop neighborhood blight
5. Protect our police and firefighters who protect us in the budget
5. Put a focus on roads and sidewalks with the budget
She makes it clear throughout she is a new city leader who believes the City must continue an active role to advocate job creation by supporting existing and new business development. Ms. Riecken deserves great admiration for making clear support for the continued progress underway in downtown Evansville a central part of her campaign. It is quite clear her voting constituencies see that priority. It’s a good letter.
It is the best letter yet, but how will she accomplish these objectives while keeping the same projects as Winnecke? How does that reduce the debt? Vetting is great! However, the $200,000 lost to Earthcare is nothing in the big picture. What portion, if any, should be committed to the hotel or school? And is she still committed to the school be downtown? Why? How will she keep those projects and add roads and sidewalks to our spending? What about bike paths, north main, and the dog park? And let’s not forget that the Rieckens have been recipients of some favors from the city. She is not a new city leader she is part of the entrenched machine.
Now is the time to ask for details.
IE–It would be nice if she questioned why the PEOPLE putting up the money(the Taxpayers) for the
Hotel, and IU thingy will have absolutely NO EQUITY in either project.
These Projects will “BELONG” to someone(?) else,—YET the Taxpayers will be “on the Hook” for close to $100 MILLION DOLLARS +INTEREST.
I don’t like to get involved in political campaigns but after a couple of months trying to get records from city hall and assist the disadvantaged, about all that I have achieved is to bring on a personal attack by the administration. After reading Coures’ covert, personal attack on me in the C-CO this morning — this long time Republican will be Campaigning for Riecken.
I really don’t see any difference between Rieken and Winnecke. They’re both political hacks:
If Winnecke gets re-elected, it will be 4 more years of incompetence, corruption, croneyism, and “sneaky but legal”. Which would be MORE of a DISASTER for Evansville’s tax payers. WINNECKE MUST GET FIRED!!!
If Rieken is elected, likely it will be the same old s#!t as with the last several administrations. However, there is a very small chance that she may want to get it right. She’ll have to prove herself by action…not words.
On voting day: “If they’re in…They’re out!”
“If Rieken is elected, likely it will be the same old s#!t as with the last several administrations”
It will be the same but the new CCO and its adamant posters will ignore it and then praise it as greatness. Why do you ask?, because it is a “D” doing it so therefore it has to be great and for the people. If there is an “R” involved then it is considered the same old Sh**.
Look at the old CCO where they would rail on the local mayor for what he is doing because of the “R”R. But the president is doing the same thing for the country and the “D”D by his name makes it the greatest thing to ever occur.
Personally I think Winnie is a schmuck and agree with the majority of the posters here to that regard. But the big “O” is the same type of schmuck. But they don’t see it that way. He has a “D” label, so therefore if I disagree I must be racist now.
Do you see the hypocrisy? Are you understanding the game they play on here?
Absolutely 1000% agree. The old mission statement regarding good policy has been replaced with whatever the intellectually deficient Democrat platform says. Depressing, but patently democrat.
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