IS IT TRUE July 17, 2012
IS IT TRUE that the Evansville Fire and Police Chiefs each are paid a salary of about $92,000 a year?…that Mayor of Evansville is paid approximately $98,000 per year?…both Chiefs have the use of city owned vehicles which they use 24/7?…that the Mayor of Evansville doesn’t have a city owned vehicle and he doesn’t receive any allowance for using his personal car for city business? …the CCO believes both Chief’s salaries should be frozen until the Mayor of Evansville has seen sufficient increases to be paid at least 20% more than those who report to him?…the City Council should take a long look at increasing the Mayor’s salary and benefits so that the highest elected office in the City is paid competitively with those who report to him?
IS IT TRUE that as long as the City of Evansville expects the Mayor to actually run the business affairs of the City as opposed to entrusting such things to a professionally trained City Manager that the Mayor should earn more than his or her reports?…that if the State of Indiana and the City of Evansville ever adopt modern management principles like hiring a City Manager to run the City and letting the Mayor do ceremonial tasks like kissing babies, dining out with sister city Mayors, and backslapping then the Mayor should be paid like a City Manager even if they are clueless about doing such a job?…that in Louisville that has a City Manager that is paid about $300,000 per year to manage the City that the ceremonial role of Mayor still pays a ceremonial salary of $100,000?
IS IT TRUE that the presidential campaigns are getting pretty darn dirty pretty early this year?…that the outright lies and character assassination games usually do not start until the last weekend before the election?…that the Romney campaign is now openly calling President Obama a liar?…that the Obama campaign has flat out accused Mitt Romney of committing a felony?…that both of these things are easily vetted and the accusers on both sides should be tarred and feathered and barred from future political involvement if they are doing what in childhood was described as bearing false witness?…that if Mitt Romney has truly committed securities fraud that the Justice Department should file criminal charges against him as they did against Bernie Madoff and let a jury decide?…that if this accusation turns out to be false that a criminal charge should be brought against all of the people in the Obama campaign that went to that extreme position to try to get a couple of polling points?…that it is one thing to call someone a liar (both candidates have earned a multiple Pinnochio awards already) in a campaign without evidence but it is quite a different one to accuse someone of a felony?…that accusing someone of a felony for personal gain constitutes the criminal charge of slander?
IS IT TRUE that the McCurdy Hotel still owes two installments of property taxes and a penalty?…it has been over 4 years since a smiling Mayor Weinzapfel announced the deals to convert the McCurdy to apartments and that a 4 Star Convention Hotel would be located in downtown Evansville if an Arena was built?…this is just another example of the old adage that failing to plan is the same as planning to fail?
IS IT TRUE that many Evansville taxpayers are quite interested to see exactly how the recommended raises for 10 and only 10 City of Evansville employees with play out at next Monday’s meeting of the Evansville City Council?…the real interesting thing prior to the meeting is whether or not public pressure will get Councilman John Friend to rescind the resolution or if a live vote will determine the outcome?…the City of Evansville is pretty much damned if they do and damned if they don’t on this issue?…that just a little bit of thought up front would have tossed this issue first to a third party to evaluate the salary schedules that the City has shackled itself will prior to making any recommendation for such large percentage raises for a select few?
Don’t worry raises for the city leaders are coming with “UNIFICATION”.
They wouldn’t even look at a plan utilizing a City Manager but pushed the STRONG MAYOR plan. After all Evansville wouldn’t be Evansville without someone able to put the political screws to the party and the sheeple.
Where would these people be able to get a job if it weren’t for all the cronyism and nepotism.
Yes, but the overall amount paid will finally be decreasing with “UNIFICATION”. We’ll eliminate five positions and save $442,693 from that alone. Thank God!
Eliminate is a word perhaps not used correctly here. Replaced would probably fit better. The mayor will get a 35,000 raise, his assistant will make at least 100, 000. The open ended statement, “and whatever other positians the mayor deems necessary”, leaves an uneasy taste in my mouth. I normally fill in the amount on my check before I send it in. Way too many unanswered questions in this proposal, not well constructed, or thought out.
The Plan of Reorganization will eliminate the County Council (7) and City Council (9) and replace them with a Common Council (15), resulting in a reduction of one. The plan will also eliminate the County Commissioners (3) and the City Clerk (1). The means ELIMINATION of five positions.
Any hires by the Mayor would require approval by the council, and that’s absolutely no different than our current system for the mayor or the commissioners.
The only unanswered questions are those you don’t seek an answer for.
So you eliminate 5 positions, but you add a Deputy Mayor, Director of Finance, and Public Information officer, net loss is ONE. Now the Mayor will get a raise of $18.788 so his salary is $117,351. The Deputy Mayor and finance will demand no less than $100,00 each, and the Public Info $75,000. Since the Mayor got a 19% raise, the Common Council will expect the same percentage. Under our current salaries, the total salaries of the above mention is $455,535, but if you consolidate, the salaries will total $727,717. That is an increase of $272,182.
No, you don’t add those. They exist currently, just typically with slightly different titles (“Chief of Staff” becomes “Deputy Mayor”). You can oppose unification, but don’t do so by distorting the facts or twisting the truth.
Ultimately you are defending the very status quo that has resulted in all of these problems.
With savings like that, we could pay off the “John” (Ford Center)in just under 290 years. That’s assuming no interest though…
How much of a raise do you think the consolidated department heads will want? How many assistants will they need?
Why aren’t all of the consolidation plans in writing? Why will most of the decisions be made after it is voted on? You might remember Hope and Change 4 years ago, Evansville doesn’t need it now, and I don’t trust the political cronies that will be making the decisions to look out for the people when they have only proven themselves to look out for the political machine.
The Gang has decided it is time to pay some of the cronies!! The sheeple of Evansville need to speak up or just get ready to be fleeced again!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Evansville!!! Assume the position! Bend over and grab your ankles.
Is John Friend really a friend of the taxpayer?
Is it true……That the spiraling cost of fire and police salary and benefits has been identified as a major factor in the City of San Bernardino’s bankruptcy filing?
And there is also this:
Authorities probe bankruptcy-bound San Bernardino, Calif.
By msnbc.com news wires
The Sheriff’s Department said Thursday it was working with police and the district attorney’s office to investigate possible criminal activity within the government of San Bernardino, where city officials voted this week to take the rare step of filing for bankruptcy.
Sheriff-Coroner Rod Hoops said in a statement the investigation began at the request of city officials several months ago.
City Attorney James Penman said earlier this week that the City Council had been presented with falsified documents that masked the city’s deficit for 13 of the past 16 years, and he had given evidence of financial mismanagement to “appropriate government agencies,” declining to provide further details.
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IF Unification doesn’t pass, we need to ask our state elected officials look at the “City Manager” type of government.
If it was adopted by the state, I bet you would see most of the City of Evansville Employees called “The Fab 10- We deserve a Big Pay Raise Group” showen the door to seek another career in the private sector.
It’s time for the self serving attitude to stop in our fair city!
Fair City? There is nothing fair about Evansville. Either way the unification vote goes we need a City Manager. The people of Evansville have proven over and over that they are collectively too ignorant to choose competent leadership.
By the way, get ready to pay over $200,000 per year for a competent City Manager. This is not a job for some inbred cousin of a machine boss.
Why only these choices in the CCO poll for the next Mayor? Why leave off Rick Davis? Has Eric Williams stated publicly that he intends to run for mayor?
Pappa….
Insider sources have confirmed that Mr Williams has political aspirations, the only avenue open to him really is to run for mayor so it’s a educated guess that he will throw his hat in the ring next cycle, but would it be a change having Williams a democrat in charge or just a continuation of the machine politics?
We do remember our last sheriff that had political aspirations and what happen once elected, not saying they are the same but the similarities are somewhat eerie. That said I think Mr Williams has done a fine job as sheriff but that’s a far cry from the politics involved in running the city of Evansville, but his experience fighting crime should prove useful dealing with the ins and outs of city government in Evansville. 🙂
JMHO
Will he have a run-off with Rick Davis in the Democratic Primary first though? I’m sure Missy, Connie, Weaver, & the like would do anything and everything to ensure that Davis loses. My main point was if the CCO is going to put up a poll about who the readers preferred as Mayor, why not include more people choices and leave off the one about The Machine? It’s a given that the Machine choice is going to draw a lot of votes, but doesn’t really help to answer the question.
I hear what you’re saying about Brad Ellsworth. I was aquainted with him before he ran for congress and told him I would do anything to help him get elected and get Hostettler out of there. Man was I disappointed. Now he works for The Evil Empire!! I don’t know much about Sheriff Williams, but a few things have hinted that he’d be more of the same. I don’t want more of the same.
Pappa….
Someone floated the idea that Mr Davis should run as an independent, honestly it’s his best hope but still a very long shot, if he runs as a demo yeah there would be a primary election to choose the candidate as always.
I don’t personally think Mr Davis has a snowball’s chance to win if he repeats his steps from the last election, it was proven that if they (the machine) want someone particular in office they can sway enough votes to make it happen given the current voter turnout numbers….
Get more people out to vote and the machine can easily be defeated and a peoples choice elected, but that is the problem…how to motivate people to vote.
Again it’s JMHO
BUSINESSWEEK.COM
Bloomberg News
Bondholders See Eminent Domain as State Attack: Mortgages
By Jody Shenn and John Gittelsohn on July 13, 2012
Bond investors who will be needed to reduce taxpayers’ role in U.S. mortgage lending have a new reason to stay away: the threat of outright confiscation by local governments.
A plan under consideration in San Bernardino County, California, would use a local government’s eminent domain authority to confiscate and write down mortgages for borrowers who are underwater on their loans, meaning they owe more than their houses are worth. The plan would raise borrowing costs and deter private lenders from returning to the $10 trillion mortgage market, according to bond buyers such as Pacific Investment Management Co. and AllianceBernstein LP.
“If you know that the county in which you make a loan could force you to sell it for less than it’s worth if it goes underwater, then the rate you will charge, in a free market system, would be a lot higher,†said Mike Canter, head of securitized assets at New York-based AllianceBernstein, which oversees about $400 billion.
About 11.4 million American borrowers — 24 percent of homeowners with a mortgage — were underwater as of March 31, according to Corelogic Inc., with prices down 34 percent from their July 2006 peak. In San Bernardino County, about 150,000 homeowners or half of all houses with a mortgage are underwater and the area’s economic struggles helped push the city of San Bernardino, the county seat, to decide to file for bankruptcy protection.
Government Dominates
Private mortgage securities now fund less than 1 percent of new loans, down from more than a third before the housing market collapsed in 2007. The U.S. government currently backs about 90 percent of home loans, and politicians from both parties say they want to reduce that number.
Advocates of the San Bernardino eminent domain proposal, led by San Francisco entrepreneur Steven Gluckstern, argue it will fight neighborhood blight and help speed the pace of the housing market’s recovery from a six-year slump.
Confiscating the mortgages to reduce the principal for borrowers, while paying investors “fair value†for the loans, will stabilize home prices and thereby fuel issuance of private securities, said Gluckstern, whose company-provided biography describes him as an initial member of the national finance committee for President Barack Obama’s 2008 election and a former general manager of reinsurance operations at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
‘Helpful Solution’
“In our view, this is helpful, not harmful,†Gluckstern, former co-owner of the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders and current chairman of Ivivi Health Sciences LLC., a medical technology company in San Francisco, said in a telephone interview. “There haven’t been very many good solutions to this in six years.â€
San Bernardino officials last month approved an agreement that allows the county and the cities of Fontana and Ontario to create the program being pushed by Gluckerstern’s firm, San Francisco-based Mortgage Resolution Partners LLC, which targets only borrowers who have been making on-time payments and have loans held in mortgage bonds without government backing. The first organizational meeting of a so-called joint-powers authority was today.
Mortgage Resolution Partners would charge flat per-loan fees to the municipality for managing the program, and is seeking to line up financial backers that would fund the purchases and share profits when reworked loans get sold after refinancings with the municipalities. San Bernandino officials will award contracts only after public review, according to county Chief Executive Officer Gregory Devereaux.
Devereaux was elected chairman today of the joint powers authority set up to explore creating a so-called Homeownership Protection Program. Officials will next meet on August 16.
During a comment period at today’s hearing, Brenda Meyer, owner of Cozy Cabins Realty, said that the plan “may appear to be a solution on the surface but for every action there’s a reaction,†warning private lenders will abandon the county.
Tim Cameron of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, whose members include asset managers overseeing more than $20 trillion, said that officials should remember pension plans and individual investors may be harmed. In addition, county residents will find it “harder or impossible to obtain credit†and need to bear the costs of “lengthy and expensive litigation with the holders of mortgage loans.â€
Officials from the California Bankers Association, Inland Valley Association of Realtors, Association of Mortgage Investors and an individual county resident also spoke against the plan at the meeting.
The American Securitization Forum trade group separately told the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors in a letter today that the idea will be “short-sighted and ultimately be counterproductive for the residents of San Bernardino County. Moreover, it would violate both the United States and California Constitutions.â€
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How much does the Superintendent of the EVSC make? Is it right that he makes more than the Mayor?
The Super reports to a different group and has nothing to do with the Mayor. Their salaries are not and should not be the subject of comparison for anything but curiosity purposes..
The Mayor of Evansville does not need a raise. Period.
Comparison to Louisville, a City several times our size, is moot.
Hiring a City Manager and leaving the Mayor to “kiss babies” is likewise ludicrous. It is a paid, elected CEO position that pays $98k. If someone doesn’t want to do it for that monetary amount, they need not apply.
And many with the talent to do it well do not apply. It is a problem that places with City Managers do not have to deal with. There is a town somewhere in Oregon that elected a cat as Mayor.
Yes, but how does that City Manager get hired? He will be appointed by other elected officials using God knows what criteria, and who by your own admission are elected by the same moronic electorate…
So, excuse my vernacular, but I don’t see the advantage of eating sh– now or eating sh– after it’s been regurgitated and digested a second time… You’re still eating sh–.
100k for a Mayor position for this region and this size City is not beneath the pale.
As for Romney being a fraud… those of us paying attention have known that for a long time. Unfortunately, so is Obama, so unless the GOP wises up in time for the Tampa Convention and nominates Ron Paul, whose supporters I assure you will NEVER support Mitt Romney, the country will have to settle for 4 more years of Evil A.
Someone explain to me how Romney can possibly win without Ron Paul supporters. Talk about the 800lb. gorilla in the room.
Ron Paul has supporters?
Ron Paul had 100,000 votes in the Indiana primary, and a delegate plurality in 11 States, according to many sources.
Campaigns are won on the margins, through rallying Independents to your side. Mark my words, and I’m not the first to say it, Romney cannot be the next POTUS without the support of Ron Paul’s people.
Just messing with you.
It’s so hard to tell in print. 😉
Rick Davis’s political career will be very short. Susan Kirk will beat him this November. Ron Paul is not an important factor whatsoever. Even his own son does not support him. People need to move on regarding Paul . He is done!
I sure wish Rick had run for County Clerk to replace Ms. Kirk. Mr. Davis would have been a great Clerk as I hear he is a very fair boss like Ms. Kirk. Also as Clerk Mr. Davis would have been 1 of 3 votes on the electorial board of the County.
I think you missed my point. I didn’t say Ron Paul would win the nomination, in fact, it’s all but certain he won’t. I said Romney will NOT get Ron Paul supporters on board his campaign en masse, and it WILL cost him the election.
Stick your head in the sand if you like, but I’m telling you the truth. We’re talking about a sizable portion of the GOP electorate who claim to absolutely abhor Mitt Romney and will not under any circumstances vote for him, whether Rand Paul copped out or not. Just look at the vitriolic backlash Rand got when he endorsed Romney for evidence of what’s about to happen.
Didn’t Ms. Kirk just hired 4th Ward political boss Rev. Brook daughter to work in her office? Didn’t Ms. Kirk just hired one of her kin folk to work in her office?
Interesting upcoming campaign issues for Mr. Davis.
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