Curt John Is Winner of Our “Readers Poll”

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We are amazed at the results of our non-scientific but trendy “Readers Poll”. The person our readers selected as the most effective President of City Council was a man who has been gone from the local political scene for the past five years, Curt John.

Mr. John was a well-known name, from his politically connected family, his years as a UE basketball star,  and his past public service. We understand why people call Mr. John the “Dean of local Politics.“

We did find a common thread among the job performance of the top finishers, Curt John,  John Friend CPA , Dr. Dan Adams and Connie Robinson. All  of them presided over City Council meetings that were often contentious, but they did the People’s business in a way that showed respect for their constituents. People who came to meetings were always given a reasonable opportunity to ask questions and share their opinions. City Council meetings sometimes dragged on for hours, but people were heard.

Like many of our readers, we long for the good old days when dissent and diverse points of view were heard, even welcomed, at City Council meetings. Doing the work of the taxpayers isn’t pretty sometimes and it isn’t over with quickly, It seems that our current Council and its leadership just want to do the bidding of the Winnecke political machine, under the alias of “being collaborative”, before anybody knows, what hit them, In less than an hour some of our current “Collaborative Council” members adjourns to Haynie’s Corner for libations and interested taxpayers can go home and watch TV.

We wonder if the dismal ratings of BJ Watts and Keith Jarboe,  are not due, at least in part, to the condescending attitudes they sometimes displayed toward speakers who came before them.

The current President of the City Council, Missy Mosby may go down in history as the least popular occupant of that seat.  Her constant texting during meetings, adamant refusal to really listen to citizens, and shocking lack of familiarity with Roberts’ Rules are big minuses for her.  The decision-making process behind her hiring of a Republican as City Council attorney who lives in Warrick County has left a lot of Democrats mystified, too.

Bottom line,  it looks like our readers miss the strong leadership and collaborative style of past City Council member Curt John!

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7 COMMENTS

  1. Like many of our readers, we long for the good old days when dissent and diverse points of view were heard, even welcomed, at City Council meetings. Doing the work of the taxpayers isn’t pretty sometimes and it isn’t over with quickly, It seems that our current Council and its leadership just want to do the bidding of the Winnecke political machine, under the alias of “being collaborative”, before anybody knows, what hit them, In less than an hour some of our current “Collaborative Council” members adjourns to Haynie’s Corner for libations and interested taxpayers can go home and watch TV.

    It looks like somebody overdosed on commas here. I’m guessing it should read:

    Like many of our readers, we long for the good old days when dissent and diverse points of view were heard, even welcomed, at City Council meetings. Doing the work of the taxpayers isn’t pretty sometimes and it isn’t over with quickly. It seems that our current Council and its leadership just want to do the bidding of the Winnecke political machine, under the alias of “being collaborative”. Before anybody knows what hit them, in less than an hour, some of our current “Collaborative Council” members adjourn to Haynie’s Corner for libations and interested taxpayers can go home and watch TV.

    • Commas and other forms of punctuation, along with spelling, capitalization, and syntax, are not the strong suit of this publication.

  3. January 6, 2003 Evansville City Council Minutes:

    [ Excerpt ]

    President John: Any other matters under Miscellaneous?

    John Hamilton: Councilman Melcher did you want me to speak? A couple of weeks ago you might remember I made a comment on the restructuring of the school tax credit and taxes and the fact that that was going to lower the TIF taxes that they collected and that there is an automatic levee to recapture that TIF. And this Council has a roll in that if you choose to do so. And where it’s at right now I received information that the Redevelopment Commission has submitted phase one so to speak. The State Office of Local Government Finance reviews that since this is an assessment year they actually rework the values and the numbers. They come up with a final levee and they send it back to the Redevelopment Commission. When that happens the Redevelopment Commission has indicated they will notify this Council, because this Council then has an opportunity to say that you are in agreement that they get that credit, or you want to reduce that credit, or eliminate that credit. So I’m just kind of giving you an update. It will be a real short timeframe once they get that notification. Council will have like one or two weeks in order to take any action if you want to take any action.

    President John: Councilman.

    Councilman Melcher: I will say I met with Peggy right before the Council meeting and she was going over some of that with me. And I think we’re talking about $74,410.00 as of right now. But what we have to understand that’s basically what I understand it to be because we’ve been going back and forth phone calls for a month now. It’s actually one quarter of one percent on the tax rate for all the citizen’s of Evansville to go up. If we pass it, I mean if it gets accepted. The Redevelopment Commission has already asked for it, my understanding. They have already asked for that increase. So if that’s the case we’re raising taxes one quarter of one percent to go into the TIF Fund downtown. Now the TIF Fund, my understanding, is paying for the Vectren Riverside One Project and the new stadium project. So if it’s going for the new stadium and that’s part of it then we are starting to raise taxes for the stadium if that’s the case. So that’s something that we need to kind of look at to see if that’s what’s really happening.

    Councilman Kniese: I would like to have clarification on that too, because that was not my understanding that that fund would be used to fund those two developments.

    Councilman Melcher: TIF is…the TIF Fund, the reason why they set the TIF Fund up was to be able to…just like, just like their Riverside One deal, that Vectren deal, it’s going to cost that TIF Bond is about $575.000 a year. When Vectren pays their property taxes is $465,000 so they need an extra $100,000. And that’s going to come out of the TIF Fund. And we’ve lost taxes on…we’ve already lost those taxes. Now we’ve also lost the taxes for all the property around the Greyhound. So we’ve lost those taxes, now all the new taxes and that are going to go into the TIF Fund which is going into an Economic Development Fund to do projects down there. Right now we only have one. The next one will be the stadium. So everything that’s going in there is for those two projects unless we get the housing.

    Councilman Kniese: Just keep in mind the Vectren deal with Riverside One. I’m not sure how far this goes back, but there’s no property taxes being collected on that building to begin with so…

    Councilman Melcher: Well that depends.

    Councilman Kniese: You can’t loose something that you are not receiving to begin with.

    Councilman Melcher: But there is 165 on there they paid it the year before, they were just behind one year. The Executive Inn was a million behind and we collected that. But we do know for sure that for twenty-two years we’re not going to get $465,000. That’s a given. That’s not a maybe, that’s a given. We are not going to get $465,000 worth of taxes plus for twenty-two years.

    Councilman Kniese: But what…and I’ve had this conversation with some other people and I wonder what the City of Evansville would do to…what kind of package would put together to attract that kind of a corporation to have their Corporate Headquarters move to Evansville and the type jobs that that would create here. My guess is the incentive package we’d put together would far out weigh, and be far in excess in monies you’re talking about.

    Councilman Melcher: And that’s why I went to the Redevelopment Commission and asked them, but they never looked at any type of package. They didn’t look at anything they just…it was going to be full steam ahead, because they talked about building a parking garage.

    Councilman Kniese: All I’m saying is, I came out in favor of that deal because I looked at it in the big picture. It said this makes a lot of sense, what would we do to attract new business’ into Evansville. We would put together a heck of an incentive package. And here we’re trying to put together an incentive package to retain a current corporate customer of Evansville. So I understand you know there is going to be some property taxes that wouldn’t go to other areas possibly, but at the same time I think in the big scheme of things it’s money well spent. This is my opinion.

    Councilman Melcher: And it might be but when we start talking about raising taxes that comes back to us. And we’ve got to replace all that taxes.

    Councilman Kniese: I would just..again I would just hate to even think about losing a good corporate customer and the jobs that that creates for the citizens of our city.

    President John: I guess it all boils down to who’s negotiating the deal. When Old National had done a threat to move out to the eastside outside the city limits the current Mayor, the then Mayor, negotiated the Old National not only bought two acres from the city, but paid us a half a million more than we paid for it. So I guess it all boils down to what you’ve got to offer and how you negotiate the deal. And I agree that we did not want to lose Vectren.

    Councilman Kniese: Right. I imagine there are several differences of opinions there, but the bottom line is I think we all want to retain them as corporate customers if at all possible.

    President John: That’s the one given, we all want to retain it. Any other matters to come under Miscellaneous Business? If not we will go to Committee Reports. Finance Chairman Councilwoman Robinson.

  4. Now that Fast Eddie’s is closed I wonder when former Councilman (and now Florida resident?) John will be bringing one if his award winning “Show-Me’s” restaurants/entertainment facilities to Main Street in downtown Evansville? Magic Missy coukd probably pick up a few extra bucks plus tip money while busing tables there.

  5. Now that Fast Eddie’s is closed I wonder when former Councilman (and now Florida resident?) John will be bringing one if his award winning “Show-Me’s” restaurants/entertainment facilities to Main Street in downtown Evansville? Magic Missy could probably pick up a few extra bucks plus tip money while busing tables there.

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