IS IT TRUE SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

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 IT IS TRUE that the City-County Observer strongly supports the men and women of the Evansville Police and Fire Departments.  IT IS ALSO TRUE that they are doing an outstanding job of protecting the citizens of this community and we feel the city should provide them with a quality but affordable Health Care package!

IS IT TRUE that City of Evansville Employee Health Care program is self-insured?  …Has the city hired a consultant to help administer this program?  …no one on City Council or in the Winnecke Administration knows who the consultant is but also how much he is being paid?

IS IT TRUE that a few City of Evansville officials were warned by former Councilman and Finance Chairman John Friend CPA to be prepared to see many more million of dollars of overage in the 2016 City Employees Hospitalization Fund budget? …that Mayor Winnecke, City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr., Missy Mosby, Jonathan Weaver, Dan McGinn, Dr. Dan Adams, and Connie Robinson were all warned by former Councilman John Friend CPA that this financial shortfall monster was at their doorstep?

IS IT TRUE if our elected officials make any more cuts to the Fire and Police Departments budgets we may have to depend on the “Penguin” to help protect us?

IS IT TRUE that we have a financial crisis in the City of Evansville?  …as of June 30, 2016, the Hospitalization Fund was NEGATIVE for $7.5 million dollars?  … employees will use the Health Care system more during the later part of the year because of their deductibles being met?

IS IT TRUE that one year ago City Councilman Dan McGinn stated that Council Finance Chairman John Friend, CPA  actions were just political when he recommend much-needed budget cuts?  …we wonder what Mr. Friend would say about Council Finance Chairman Dan McGinn’s attempt to cut the 2017 City budget?

IS IT TRUE that in December of 2015 (without the approval of City Council) Mayor Winnecke quietly transferred $12.5 million from the Riverboat Fund revenue into the City of Evansville General Fund?

IS IT TRUEif $12.5 million of Riverboat funds had not been transferred into the City of Evansville General Fund, the General Fund balance as of June 30, 2016 would have been OVER DRAFTED by $8.6 million?

IS IT TRUEif City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr didn’t transfer $5 million dollars from the General Fund into the Hospitalization Fund during the second quarter of 2016 the Hospitalization Fund would be an additional $5 million dollars in the red?

IS IT TRUE that former Councilman John Friend, CPA has publicly stated that the Winnecke Administration were over spending about $1 million dollars per month?  …we really hope that Mr. Friend is totally wrong about this issue?

IS IT TRUE Dan McGinn declared that “the city financial deficit is much bigger, and expenses are much higher than we thought”?  …we wonder why City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr wasn’t honest and forthcoming with the information that the City has major deficit issues for 2016?  …if a Controller of a major Corporation withheld this kind of information from his bosses he would have been fired?

IS IT TRUE that Finance Chairman Dan McGinn recently stated, “So no one should be surprised. No one can call me a liar or a cheat or that I’m not transparent concerning 2017 budget issues to be discussed during Council meeting?  …we take Mr. McGinn’s word on this?  …its obvious that officials in the Winnecke Administration and a couple of Council members haven’t been transparent with the public about having advance knowledge of budget shortfalls for 2016?

IS IT TRUE that District 1 County Commissioner candidate Sean Selby should be humbled that fellow conservative and former U.S. Congressman John Hostettler decided to come out into the political limelight to publicly endorse and work for his election to the Vanderburgh County Commission?

FOOTNOTE:  Todays READERS POLL question is: Should City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr tell the public who is the consultant and what he is being paid to administer the Employees Health Care program?

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33 COMMENTS

  1. Shameful the City can waste $16+ million on the idiotic North Main Street bike lane project and then claim no funds for Mesker Amphitheater or to cover the rising health insurance costs for the First Responders .

    • Just as shameful is the Evansville Museum’s acceptance of local tax supported grants from places like the EVSC, while the museum sits on a work by Pablo Picasso that they say they must sell because they can not afford to display the work. In the past there was some rumblings about finding the right buyer. Pure BS, in this world of instant billionaires and ridiculous prices being paid for everything, NOW is the time to sell that work!

      The museum needs to sell it, put the proceeds in an interest bearing account, and use that interest to support the operations of the museum. Then the EVSC and others can keep their grant money and use it for their primary missions.

  2. On the one hand you cry for massive more deficit funding for insurance, and then simultaneously say we’re in a financial crises. Which is it? Whining for more funding and then asking for cuts only adds to the problem. The CCO seems really confused.

    • Gene

      Thanks for you comments.

      For starters Council members could stop having the city provide Health Care insurance to them. Council should put a freeze on the proposed 1% pay raise for 2017, they could stop sending departments on out of town junkets and meetings, take away stipends paid to certain persons serving on City Boards and Commissions for starters. Does anybody have other ideas haw City can save money on the proposed 2017 City budget?

      Thanks for reading the CCO and your input.

      Sincerely,

      Editor

      • They can stop even considering spending one thin dime of public money for penguins, a dog park, or other frills, and they can follow your suggestions This is the third-largest city in Indiana, and we have large swaths of the city that have no sidewalks, we have no 24/7 bus service, serious public safety considerations, and our schools are failing. It appears that the Mayor wants to build a “McMansion” on shifting sands and call it a “vibrant city.”

        • We may even need to consider dismantling the zoo, unless a private benefactor or benefactors to keep it afloat. There are a number of wealthy local people who may wish to pick up the burden of a constant and recurring debit to the City’s books, especially to “save face” for the Mayor and his crew.

      • Agree with all of your recommendations. Serving on one of these boards should be an honor or civic duty, as a community leader; not a paid position. Furthermore, neither City or County Council should get any retirement or insurance benefits….just a small stipend. The main problem with this country is that all politics have got out of hand. Ridiculous.

        • I wish that the founding fathers had written into the US Constitution a clause that stated that the people at any time can call for a special election and throw out the bumbs in office anytime that the people as a whole petitioned to have a recall vote. We need something other than a revolution to get the system fixed. The problem is that those in power will always make the rules that allow them to get more power and money and there is not much we can do to stop this. We can vote them out ever so often but they get replaces by new people who also are greedy and they too do the same thing once they are in office. They all know that they can get by with this until the next election which is 2 years, 4 years or 6 years down the road. They can do a lot of damage to the system in a short 2 year term. And if they get to serve multiple terms they can consolidate their power with others like them.

          Look at the Civc Center. It use to be wide open and anyone could walk in there and complain. Now they have metal detector and major security. If you want to talk to an official you may find out when you arrive that they are said to be out of the office or on vacation or traveling to a conference. You can’t see them easily and they know that they can’t be intimated anymore like in the past. They are more secure in their offices now. So they are less prone to listen to the voters until it’s time for the elections. They cater to the voters in Nov and hope that we have short memories or that we don’t even bother to go vote. The latter is to their advantage. And quite frankly if you don’t vote then that’s YOUR FAULT that we have the system that we have. We all know that a lot of these elected officials are not up to the job and are there for their own purposes.

          We don’t need no sticking bike path or penguin exhibits if the Firemen and Police and other public service operators can’t get health insurance at a reasonable price. We all need to support or Emergency Services people.

      • Get rid of the vehicles provided to people who really do not need them, and pay them mileage when needed instead.

  3. How can someone draw a paycheck for supervising the health coverage and no one knows who he is or what he makes? Is it not in the budget, subject to review by the mayor and council responsible for fiscal control?

  4. IS IT TRUE it has been nearly 3,000 days since a group of senior citizens was marched out of the McCurdy Hotel with a proud smiling Mayor Weinzapfel claiming to have an out of town donor who would convert the old hotel into 93 ultra modern apartments?…I was just wondering yesterday if after 3,000 days, people have started moving into any of those ultra modern apartments?

    • Yes, it is about 3,000 days since our local version of The Trail of Tears march took place. There is a crop of new residents at the McCurdy, but none of them speak English. They speak rat, raccoon, squirrel, and other wildlife dialects.

    • Mayor Weinzapfel said a lot of things, most of which did not manifest, especially concerning the downtown arena. This city will be struggling with the debt load placed on it by Mayor Weinzapfel for a generation or two.

  7. The City’s Health Insurance “Crisis” seems to be a self-inflicted wound ? The reporting on this has been very obscure, from what I can gather:

    1) C&P reports unpaid health claims are “over $ 10 Million”;
    2) C& P reports that of the $ 24 Million of claim costs budgeted for 2016, $ 7.1 Million came from just 18 people, an average of $ 400,000 per person for this high cost group. This implies NO STOP LOSS coverage–i.e., a naked self-insurance program being administered with public funds ?
    3) City HR guy George Fithian stating that soliciting bids for a fully-insured plan would be ” a waste of time”;
    4) Police/Fire Union Reps claiming that Health Insurance contributions for its members are fixed by the Union Contract, and they will sue the city if their members contribution rates are raised; and
    5) Fithian stated on the record that there have been “few changes” in employee contribution rates in the last 5 years (i.e., during the entire Winnecke term in office).

    That’s the SHORT LIST, I am missing something (a lot) here ?????????

    That’s the short list, somebo

    • Elections have consequences, and the city employees thought they were taking care of their own best interests when they did what they did. SURPRISE!!! The workers should have been being “weaned” off their high-end benefits, but that wasn’t done and now they are having to go “cold turkey” on their goodies.

      While I think most first responders deserve excellent benefits because of the nature of their work, Winnecke has spent us broke. It is no longer possible to do what we have done in the past, but I believe that if all of the cronyism is cut out of the process we can do better than the proposed plan. It is a shame that a more realistic picture wasn’t drawn previously, but that wasn’t going to happen in a City election year.

      • Has he turned the back-knife yet, or just stuck it in? Maybe waiting to twist it until closer to Christmas. It’s not like he didn’t already have a history, maybe the city workers just thought he wouldn’t do it to them.

        • I think the Christmas surprise will be layoffs for a lot of people. That will come with “a twist” of peppermint in honor of the season.

  8. I do not know anybody that has a quality but affordable Health Care package! Private or public. I also do not believe we can all go back to a time when we did. Joe was right only he could have said the whole country when he said health care costs are unsustainable locally. Nobody except 1% can afford health care out of pocket. Insurance is not health care. You can not charge people thousands when you do not want to pay them $15 a hour.

  11. Every time we have one of these “debates” we can expect the lamestream media to declare that Hillary won and that she gained ground in the polls. Pure BS, as everyone will find out on election day. No one in their right mind wants to put the Clinton mafia back in the White House.

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