IS IT TRUE June 4, 2012
IS IT TRUE Civic Center Moles tell the CCO that Vanderburgh County Recorder, Z Tuley will be challenged by an extremely well known Republican in the upcoming November 2012 General election? …that she should be ready to defend why she seems to take off from her job every summer?…that the other election issue that will be addressed is the lack of minority employees working in the Recorders office?
IS IT TRUE it is time to start a serious VETTING effort with respect to the Johnson Controls project that was shoved through by Mayor Weinzapfel during the final hours of his administration?…this particular project will supposedly replace every water meter in the area served by the City of Evansville?…the research to determine the accuracy of the existing water meters only took a few of the meters into consideration and even then determined that they were operating at nearly 99% accuracy?…the limited study assumed that all meters were inaccurate to the low side which is statistically impossible?…if the water meters that are in Evansville are already 99% accurate but 600 miles of cast iron pipes are in need of immediate replacement to the tune of $450 Million it is highly irresponsible to spend money on meters that are not needed and leave the obsolete pipes in service?…the commitment to spend $51 Million ($80 Million including interest) was made without a vote of the Evansville City Council?…the Johnson Controls project was snuck through in a convoluted way that makes the Earthcare Energy $200,000 loan advance look like giving pocket change to a hobo?
IS IT TRUE Mayor Winnecke and the Evansville City Council are faced with a choice that will define them either as a governance team that learned from a small mistake and corrected it OR as a team that gets rolled by every Tom, Dick, and Harry that waltzes through town with a silver tongued front man?…that the deal that Mayor Weinzapfel made with Johnson Controls without seeking City Council approval is 1,500% higher than the entire Earthcare Energy deal and a full 37,500% higher than the $200,000 at risk money already on the table due to non VETTING by five members of the City Council and GAGE?…Mayor Winnecke and the City Council need to hear the demands of the people of Evansville to actually get their college math books out and learn how to do some analysis before moving forward with the Johnson Controls deal?…if they can show definitive proof with sparkling results in other cities that this $80 Million investment will really save the City of Evansville enough to provide a respectable rate of return then they should move forward?…that the current contract ASSUMES 45% of the advertised savings and does not even pretend to test or verify that much of the amount?
IS IT TRUE that our Mayor and our City Council really need to think this through and their track record is not one of doing such things?…allowing this latest act in Weinzapfel’s last spending spree without securing proper VETTING and being transparent with the people of Evansville is simply not an acceptable way to govern?…that soon there will be two tempests in Mayor Winnecke’s teapot?…the Earthcare tempest was of his own making but the Johnson Controls tempest was slipped in by his partner in non-vetting Mayor Weinzapfel?…if Mayor Winnecke wants to redeem himself for the abject failure of the Earthcare Energy project that the Johnson Controls deal is a perfect opportunity to save Evansville $80 Million to make up for squandering at least $200,000?…we are quite curious to see if these old dogs can learn a new trick after 4 serial failures when it comes to VETTING?
There will be no investigating, the present mayor is simply weinsapple lite. Key word simply.
This City of Evansville / Water&Sewer Dept. contract with Johnson Controls Inc. should be a major part of the debate on consolidated government.
The local establishment has thus far followed their usual line of keeping controversial multimillion dollar taxpayer/ratepayer funded projects hidden from the people paying the bills until everything has been passed by your elected and appointed officials.
What do you mean you didn’t know anything about it? It is all right here!
I see now that it has gotten out that there is no real savings to be realized by adopting the current plan for consolidated city/county government, the prominent spokesperson in favor of consolidation, Statutorily elected Sheriff Eric Williams, who will keep his job regardless of the outcome, has switched to plan-B. and is now promoting the plan as affording the best form of government to achieve those savings.
What is that Eric???? You want to run through that again?
The plan we will be voting on this November is an abomination. No one has made any compelling argument for its adoption because none can be made.
I will tell you what Eric, when you and the EPD work out your problems and settle on a plan, and when the EFD and the various VFDs work out a plan, then I MIGHT be willing to listen to you. Until that time this current “plan”, which is not a plan at all, but an undisguised power grab by the city of Evansville, has ZERO credibility.
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Guess who will try to be the new Super Mayor, and in 10 years the mayor will decide how to handle the law enforsement situation,not the voters.
I’m still voting hell no
Will there be a later edition of Is It True Part II for June 4 today? What’s on the horizon for Roberts Stadium? When is the next Parks Board Meeting. Jordan “Save-a-Dinosaur” Baer already sang his swan song over at his blog. He says he’s toast in Evansville if the Parks Board votes to demolish Roberts Stadium and will have to move to another city as a community organizer – http://saverobertsstadium.blogspot.com/ “Going All In On Roberts”
We already have a “community organizer” in the White House. Isn’t one “community organizer”, one too many?
No literate person could read the Johnson Controls documents and believe that this contract is a good deal for the City (however, it is a GREAT deal for Johnson Controls). As the Ed stated, the existing meters for residential are reading at 98.6 % accuracy. Johnson’s proposed meters ($ 80 Million cost over 20 years) will presumably get the accuracy up to 99.5 % No businessman on the planet would spend $ 80 Million for a .009 (nine tenths of one percent) incremental accuracy improvement ! So why should a City ?
Beerguy, excellent post that shows how crazy this proposal really is.
Roberts Stadium:
There are no new ideas at City Hall ! The whole idea of getting the CITIZENS to come up with the 6 ideas is bogus. Very much in favor of letting the citizens speak, but what about the elected officials and the department heads not being able to come up with any ideas on their own ?
For a City Government which can waste $ 800,000 on a grant for McCurdy before any work is done; and can hand out $ 200,000 to Earthcare and approve a loan of $ 4,800,000 with basically no research, the idea of tearing down this building which only costs $ 200,000 a year to mothball is simply INSANE ! Every City needs to have land and buildings ” in Inventory” that are ready for businesses who come looking. Stick it in Inventory, folks, give it a few years to marinate.
“If you keep it, they will come” (Field of Dreams, sorta).
Stop making sense. You are making City Hall look bad when you do that. For the cost of that art thing on the side of the Ford Center and the proposed welcome sculpture at the airport Roberts could be inventoried for a full year. If Vectren would reduce the rate to the Henderson rate Roberts could be inventoried for three years. If no one wants it in three years it is best to tear it down.
strongly agree, no one could argue for longer than a 3 Year “hold”, and then punt after 3 years if at that time nothing has materialized . With 20 commissions, boards, etc. all out chasing Economic Development, we should have Roberts repurposed by the end of this Quarter !!!
I’ll go 50-50 with you. The sculpture planned for the monument garden at the airport entrance will be paid for 100% by private donations. Now your 50% is to tell me how the sculpture at the Ford Center will be paid for. Then we’ll see if any of the sculpture monies qualify for Roberts Stadium’s mothball electric bills.
When one peruses the legal section, AKA public record, of the Evansville Courier&Press, and sees first hand how many local foreclosures are listed for residential properties, how can these poor misguided individuals on the Evansville Redevelopment Commission and the Evansville Common Council sleep at night knowing that they authorized the spending of hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money for incentives for a project that is constructing LUXURY APARTMENTS for the rich.
This is an example of government gone insane. This is a real “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” moment in the history of Evansville government!
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Were you trying to say “they eat cake” or let them eat cake? “laissez-les manger de la brioche” = let them eat cake. It seems as though the originator of that statement was relieved of her head for that attitude.
I would gladly settle for just relieving a few of them from office. Lets not lose our heads here.
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wow, I read we now have a public employee now telling us how to vote on Consolidation of City and County government. He is none other than our liberal Democratic Vanderburgh County Sheriff, Eric Williams.
At last months County Council meeting liberal Sheriff Williams convinced Raben, Terry, Bassemier, Goebel, Swain and Koehler-Lindsey to vote his department employees a $109,088 salary increase for the remaining 6 months of 2012. Rest of the County employees received zero salary increase for the remaining 6 months of this year. Money for these increases came from the rainey day fund of the County. It is important to point out that Terry, Goebel, Bassemier and Koehler-Lindsey are running for re-election in the November election. Let’s hold them accountable for their vote on this salary increase on election day!
This salary deal was cut in a back room political meeting between County Commissioner President Marsha Abell, Council Council President, Jim Raben and our liberal Sheriff, Eric Williams. Word at the Civic Center is that our liberal Sheriff, Eric Williams shall be asking his political buddies (Raben, Terry, Bassemier, Swain, Koehler-Lindsey and Goebel) to support another salary increase for Sheriff Department employees of $251,115 for 2013. Liberal Sheriff , Eric Willams shall not ask County Councilman, Tom Shelter, Jr. to support this increase because he strongly opposed the 2012 request,
What-now our liberal Sheriff Eric Williams is now telling us how we can save money by joining him and his political puppets and vote for Consolidation of City and County Government in Vanderburgh County.
Oh, if you want to see how much our liberal Sheriff Williams saved the taxpayers of this County over the last 7 years. Please go to the Vanderburgh County Auditors web site and pull up his budgets (Jail and Sheriffs Department) during that time. Figures speak for themselves!
You are wrong on some you name as running for council this year. I’ll lay you 50-50 odds you can’t name the incumbants who in fact are running for county council this fall.
Yeah but he sure can throw the “liberal” slur around can’t he?
A liberal!! The horror!
Sure enough, but I take issue with calling Williams a liberal. He’s about as blue dog as they come. When he does run for Merger Mayor he’ll run to the right of Winnecke.
Yes, Shetler opposed the increase for law inforcement but voted to give Dewey a $ 10,000.bonus for screwing up the Gage ptojects. Let Shetler go along with the rest of them in Nov.
And you’re 100% wrong because Shetler doesn’t run again until 2014. It will be interesting to hear his explanation to the FOP as to why he opposed paying the salaries that the County Commissioners negotiated in their contract with the deputies.
MEETING TONITE 6PM Bosse high on water an sewer rate increase.
I hope every Mater Dei graduate votes against Mike Goebel he is a self serving hypocrite who only cares about and supports himself. If the voters in other counties can figure him out why can’t the voters in Vanderburgh County? What a phony I can’t wait to vote against him in November and I can guarantee you none of my friends and family will vote for him either.
I thought Dennis Avery proposed a state law, which passed a few years ago that REQUIRED projects over a certain amount (I believe it was $5 million) to be approved by an elected government body.
I know the proposal became state law, but were there exceptions to the law that permits this kind of hidden activity?
The article states that this contract was snuck through city government in the wanning minutes of the Weinzapfel administration. It would be interesting to implement a state law similar to that applying to the US military. That law permits only 10% of the annual budget for certain projects to be spent in the last quarter of the fiscal year. It does make sense because of the “use it or lose it mentality of government.”
He was able to sneak it through without approval because it fits the cookie cutter definition of a contract that pays for itself through savings. The trouble with that is that 45% of the supposed savings are not measurable and are “assumed”. If it were all measured, tangible, and guaranteed the case may be different. Contracts with unmeasured savings should not qualify as deals that pay for themselves.
There is probably a loophole for “performance based” contracts. Contracts that will supposedly “save” the ratepayer or taxpayer money over the life of the contract.
As beerguy has stated, if you have meters that are operating at 98% efficiency, and you are proposing to spend $80.Million over 20 years to raise that efficiency to 99%, it is definitely NOT worth doing.
Anyone can see this for what it is: A HUGELY EXPENSIVE, LONG TERM (20years), CORPORATE WELFARE SCHEME!
And who would be handling the bond on this fiasco? Would that be the firm that a recent former(?) mayor of Evansville just went to work for?
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Maybe Christine Keck could enlighten us about these type of contracts?
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The former regime that gave us the McCurdy debacle, the Executive Inn debacle, Greyhound Bus Station debacle and the Roberts Stadium debacle, departed after sneaking in the Johnson Controls debacle. Anyone see a pattern?
Mass debaclism. It was debaclysmic. Now the new Mayor has piled on and it will soon be debaclageddon unless someone grows a brain and puts it to use. Maybe some need a backbone like SBR has.
Dan McGinn has a backbone and a brain, which makes him an oddity on the City Council with Robinson, Weaver and Mosby.
The Weinzapfel ERC was a complete joke.
Those are advertisements, Ike. Those are ‘public service announcements.’
(I meant, those aren’t advertisements.)
Not sure what you are saying, but it don’t change the fact the Weinzapfel ERC was a complete joke.
Ike,
Joke? I never laughed (except as a reaction to supress other emotions like disgust or rage). Maybe they were so smart their humor went over my head?? That’s it, I just don’t get it. Maybe I can go ask Bob Goldman to explain the punch lines to me?
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