IS IT TRUE PART 2 June 19, 2012 “Township Meltdown Raises its Ugly Head”

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IS IT TRUE PART 2 June 19, 2012 “Township Meltdown Raises its Ugly Head”

IS IT TRUEGerman Township Trustee Fred Happe wrote a check in the amount of $104,000 in January-2012 to the German Township Fire Department?… the check was not honored by the bank due to insufficient funds being on deposit?…that Trustee Happe later wrote another check to them for around $80,000 and they were able to cash it?… the reduced payment of $80,000 made to the German Township Fire Department by Trustee Happe caused German Township Fire Department a financial shortfall of about $24,000 for 2012?

IS IT TRUE the 2008-2009 State Board of Accounts Audit found a considerable number of posting errors that included checks and receipts not recorded in proper categories?…when the State Audit findings were reviewed by Trustee Happe he concurred with the findings of the State Board of Accounts?

IS IT TRUE the German Township Fire Department volunteers do an outstanding job to protect the property and lives of the citizens they serve?…that this fire department also has an outstanding Board of Directors?…that over the last 5 years that Trustee Happe has cut the German Township Fire Department budget over $100,000?…the City County Observer believes that the public should receive a detailed explanation explaining why over $100,000 was removed from the German Township Fire Department budget by Trustee Happe?

IS IT TRUE the CCO believes that it’s time the Vanderburgh County Commissioners should begin an official investigation in order to see if the German Township Trustee’s office is having serious financial problems?…that this probe should be spearheaded by County Commissioner, Steve Melcher since the German Township Fire Department is located in his political district?

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16 COMMENTS

  1. Get it done Commissioner Melcher.

    The citizens of this community know that you shall get to the bottom of this problem.

  2. Don’t tell me we may be looking at another problem similar to what the Knight Township Trustee office had a couple of years back.

    The best choice to spearhead correcting this alledged problem concerning the German Township Fire Department budget problem is Commissioner Steve Melcher

  3. Looks like not only the German Township Trustee needs to do a lot of explaining but also members of his elected Advisory Board.

  5. Isn’t township government separate from county government?

    Should the county commissioners be the lead agent to investigate township government, or shouldn’t the state or local law enforcement and judicial agencies have that responsibility?

  6. But hey, we like more elected officials because it keeps them accountable, right? God forbid we try to make things efficient and have these folks report to county-wide government. But if they did, I guarantee you this kind of crap wouldn’t go on.

    This is what you get with hundreds of elected bureaucrats that no one knows. To the defenders of the status quo – you reep what you sow.

    • Agreed. I’m hoping some day………some how………one of the “retired” past CEO’s of an Evansville, Indiana, large Corporation will one day be a Mayor and clean up things…..help stimulate new growth, do things efficiently, promptly, and with less hassle. I don’t know who folks state are the C Average cronies running things…I hear just a handful….but, really, get out of the way and let folks run things that make sense, make money, allow Job Creation, allow job growth, can see beyond Elberfeld, Indiana, to the World, and get some GREAT things happening. Until that is done, it will be the same-o, same-o, and eventually, Elberfeld may annex this place. It use to be Newburgh, Indiana, but, they’d throw this town back into the water! Heck, Daylight, Indiana, would do that also!

  7. I hope the Vanderburgh County Commissioner will dopt a resolution asking the State Board of Accounts to quickly come in a conduct a full blown financial audit of the German Township trustee office.

    It’s common knowledge if the County Commission ask the State to come in and look at the financial operations of tax supported organization, they shall quickly reply to there requests.

    All eyes are on the Vanderburgh County Commission this evening. They meet at the Civic Center around 5:oo pm.

  9. The State Board of Accounts needs to do audit ASAP. It has been 2 years since they have done one on the German Township Trustee’s office.. The last Audit on Trustee Happe office (2009) was a bad one and it would appear things have not improved and may have gotten worse. The standard operating procedure is the State Board of Accounts performs an Audit and makes the audit public. Unfortunately, the unless the public/media raises hell on a poor audit (as in this case) little to nothing is done about a bad Audit. There really is no higher level government authority over a Trustee. Everyone, including the media, needs to get involved to push this to get another audit done ASAP and if required for the Indiana Attorney General to step in and investigate this matter. Thanks to the CCO for bringing this to light. We must not let the German Fire Department down. Please stand up for these good people.

    • Agreed. I live in German Township and have had to call the German Township Fire Department on several occasions in the past couple of years – they do an incredible job! I don’t understand if the State Board of Accounts did a “bad audit” back in 2008-2009 – why haven’t they came back in and done another audit since then? Why do they wait until “there’s another problem” to come back in?

  10. Hoosiers should’ve heeded Mitch’s advice years ago and done completely away with township government. Then we could’ve leased out the volunteer fire departments, the poor relief, the run down cemeteries, Section 16 land use, and the school book fund to European corporations and collected royalties same as Major Moves!

  11. MySmartGov.org

    Sen. Hume: Townships ‘Functioning Extremely Well.’ Are They?

    February 24, 2009 @ 5:35 pm

    By BRIAN A. HOWEY

    INDIANAPOLIS – Last weekend in defense of township government, State Sen. Lindel Hume told the Evansville Courier & Press, “Don’t get rid of the entire system that’s functioning extremely well throughout the state.”

    Sen. Hume believes that Indiana township government is “functioning extremely well.”

    Functioning extremely well? While there isn’t a complete set of metrics on Indiana’s 1,008 townships that employ one elected trustee and three elected advisory board members each, there are 4,300 pages of State Board of Accounts audits on Indiana townships over the past two years.

    Here are some of the problems documented out of just 500 of those pages by the mysmartgov.org organization pushing the Kernan-Shepard Reforms:

    It’s unclear what the German Township trustee in Vanderburgh County was doing while Susan D. Wargel, the volunteer fire department treasurer, made off with $256,204 – $250,009 in improper purchases and $6,195 in unauthorized pay raises. But we do know Wargel pleaded guilty to theft and income tax violations and was sentenced in August 2008 to 30 months in federal prison. She also was ordered to pay $263,331 in restitution to the fire department and $40,378 to the IRS. Among other things, Wargel used the taxpayer tab to pay her mortgage and credit card bills; buy furniture, clothing and jewelry; and take a Las Vegas vacation and a Caribbean cruise. (more)

    __

    • Someone should have informed Wargel that if you want to screw the public like that you have to become mayor. What Wargel did was chump change in comparison to Weinzapfel’s public/private ventures.

      So many chickens to pluck. So little time.

      __

  12. The only way to stop the corruption that is township government is to eliminate townships. Period. Let’s get this done before the end of 2012, if that’s possible. It is costing the taxpayers a fortune to pay for the overhead of all these tiny fiefdoms.

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