IS IT TRUE raises were a hot topic at the Evansville City Council meeting last night with the head of the Evansville Department of Metropolitan Development using the Cost of Living as a justification for some very nice raises that he was recommending for a few of his staff members?…it seemed as though he was asserting that Evansville has a higher cost of living index than Indianapolis?…The Southwest Indiana Coalition for Economic Development has a very comprehensive study of comparative cost of living available online so arguing the price of gas, electricity, and haircuts is a moot point when we have the data readily available?…that in the table Evansville is calculated to have a COL index of 93.8 while metropolitan Indianapolis scores a 94.4 which is less that 1% more than Evansville’s?…the real cost of living in Indianapolis and Evansville are virtually indistinguishable but are the highest among Indiana cities sampled by roughly 4%?…for comparing government salaries Indianapolis, Bowling Green, KY, and Baton Rouge, LA are all good comps with similar costs of living?…the following link will allow one to overdose on cost of living data for over 300 American cities so have at it if you wish?
http://www.southwestindiana.org/sites/default/files/COLIQ22012.pdf
IS IT TRUE at last night’s City Council meeting the previously discussed 20%+ raises for a select group of 11 City of Evansville employees when the rest of the employees were recommended for a 3% raise fractured the members of the Council at a 5 – 4 vote?…Councilman Dan McGinn offered up a compromise that limited raises to 9.9% as opposed to the truly excessive raises that were recommended for the GILDED GROUP OF 11 who seem to have been singled out for great big increases without any real data to support such increases?…opposition to the large increases for the GILDED 11 even got Council members Missy Mosby and Al Lindsey to agree?…Mosby and Lindsey were joined in their opposition by Councilman Dr. Dan Adams and Councilwoman Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley?…Councilman Conor O’Daniel who changed his vote to ratify the Earthcare Energy loan of $4.8 Million earlier this year tried to sympathize with the opposition while voting to give the GILDED GROUP OF 11 the raises once again flipped, flopped, and commiserated with one side before voting as Mayor Winnecke wished for him too?…the City Council also voted to take no raise themselves and to give Mayor Winnecke no raise even though they were in line for a 3% increase as well?..that support for the raises was cited by Councilwoman Connie Robinson as a way to keep good employees?…the GILDED GROUP OF 11 were just hired so that argument while valid to open up salary brackets does not hold water in this particular instance?…the committee that recommended the raises in the first place included three members of the Evansville City Council named Robinson, John Friend, and Dan McGinn?…these three votes would seem to be in the bag for their own recommendation?
IS IT TRUE all governments including Evansville need to have talented people?…the current situation with the federal government where government officials have gotten annual increases that put them in standard non super-star positions at over $100,000 per year when their skill would not command even half that in the free market is a testament to government needing to continually adjust salaries?…that when a secretary working for the federal government makes over $100,000 while a similar position in the private sector is only making $40,000 we all have a problem?…that the City of Evansville does need to review all of the positions and make adjustments where necessary to be competitive without being excessive when it comes to pay?…that it is possible that the GILDED GROUP really were all underpaid but that is quite improbable?…it is possible that the entire remainder of the staff performs equally and are all paid correctly and that an across the board 3% increase really was the right thing to do?…for 700 or so human beings to all be exactly the same place in their performance and value is as preposterous as having a real GUILDED GROUP of 11 that are vastly underpaid?..the compensation packages at the City of Evansville after this fracturing exercise in favoritism is still as messed up as ever and that the City Council, Mayor Winnecke, and the Department Heads all get an F for letting this game play itself out without putting a lasting solution into place?…the CCO predicts that next year will bring another GUILDED SMALL GROUP and we shall see another fractured City Council?
IS IT TRUE we expect this exercise in fractured government and favoritism will play into how some people will vote in the upcoming consolidation vote?…the comments thus far do not look good for the YES group?…that when resistance to change is codified by the self proclaimed agents of change outsiders understand how Evansville continues to be governed straight into the Dark Ages?…this is no way to run a city?
One of the excessive raises was for the “Internal Auditor” in the Controller’s Office. She barely has a GED (Good Enough Diploma), no college degree and certainly no CPA or CIA, which is very common for people in an Internal Auditor position.
Word is in the Civic Center that she is the “MUNIS expert”. MUNIS is the system that the City went live on and didn’t run parallel which if her or her Controller took a good accounting class in college they would know. Under MUNIS, the City hasn’t reconciled in 21 months. But she’s the MUNIS expert so lets reward her with a raise.
The vote “yes” for new government in Vanderburgh County group might as well save there advertising money.
Eric Williams political power grab by getting his political buddy Jim “Tireman” Raben to convince the County Council to give his 88 employess $250,000 worth of raises County County for this coming year, Mayor Winnenke’s deal$5 million dollar with Earthcare, his not reporting to State Board of Accounts that city books hasn’t been balanced for 21 months, he mastermind the raises for the “Guilded Group of 11”, his continue to support the $54 Million dollar Johnson Control after the State has rejected the project, he pushed to give a new employee in a newly created position in the Water and Sewer Department a $21,000 raise after 3 months on the job and now makes $81,000 a year and most of all he hasn’t reported to the State Board of Accounts that the accounting books of the city Water and Sewer department are in worse shape than the the city acoounting records.
Game over for the “YES” crowd because the the way our elected officials on the County Council, City Council, GAGE Earthcare deal and the way that our new City Controller and the Mayor hid inportant financial issues from the public has killed the approval for Vandygov!
According to Evansville City Counciman John Friend that the State Board of Account Audit findings shall be released this week. He also says that the audits findings won’t be good news for the Winnenek Administration.
Does anyone the time period covered by the audit?
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I believe it is just 2011. The last audit that I saw was for 2010. They never reconciled in 2011 so it should make for some fun reading. If Jenny Collins doesn’t get fired over this then I don’t know what.
If the past City Controller alledgely messed up the acoounting books for the city why in the hell would Mayor Winneneke contine to support this person in a newly created position in the Water and Sewer Department at the salary level of $81,000 a year?
Oh, heard that City Councilman John Friend also told some people that the financial records are also in bad shape in the Water and Sewer Department. Wonder why Mr.Clean (City Controller, Russ Lloyd, Jr)hasn’t alerted the State Board of Accounts about this alledged problem?
What a financial and political mess the taxpayers of this community are in!
word at the civic center is that last night salary increase has offically killed the effort to pass “YES FOR CONSOLIDATION” in Vanderburgh County. This was the last straw that I and other loyal City employees shall take from select members of Evansville City Council. Oh, I was going to vote “yes” on this issue until last night!
The against group should thank Mayor Winnenke, City Council members John “can’t trust his word” Friend, Johnnie “Know It All” Weaver, Connie “the God Mother” Robinson, Coner “Flip Flop” O’Daniel and Dan “Has No Idea About A Value of A Dollar” McGinn.
Just another reason to vote HELL NO to the merger ,and vote the scum bags out of office ( yes we know who you are )
Security at the Civic Center, will now require that all taxpayers stand on their head and shake their pockets before entering “The Palace”!
City Council President is smarter than people give her credit. She is strongly against the Consoldation of Vandy County.
She knew if this salary deal passed it would cause major political damage to the this issue being voted in by the taxpayers of this county
The people of this city shall rebell at the ballot box in this coming November!
Job well done Ms. Robinson. Looks like you got you way with this issue!
Pretty bad that the 5 City Council Members that voted for the HUGE salary increases for the select few, are NOT thinking about the citizens of Evansville.
Thank you Lindsey, Brinkerhoff-Riley, Adams and even Mosby for realizing that these ridiculous salary increases are outrageous! If only the other 5 were council members for the city and not themselves!
Weaver one question for you, since when did you know more about the fire department than a fireman??? Oh yeah, YOU DON’T!!!!!! I cannot wait until you are voted out!
You folks that think everyone should get the same raise think like communists. Humans are not alike in their abilities or performance. By forcing all to be the same you reduce government to the lowest common denominator. If you want a bunch of brainless unmotivated stooges on the city payroll just keep it up. The best and the decent will leave and nothing but lazy mindless bums will stay. Oh, that pretty much describes the average civic center worker already. All in all they’re just more bricks in the wall.
Well I hate to tell you this, but the “special ones” that received the huge raise, are not as special as one would think. They knew what their salary was going to be when they took the job 9 months ago. If they didn’t like it then, then they should not have taken the job.
I agree with you that the chosen ones are not so worthy of being chosen. The point I was making is that across the board increases are about the worst thing that be done to maintain a good workforce. ACB raises remove performance from consideration. ACB supporters are STOOGES.
I disagree with some of the claims and wordings of today’s article:
The language you continue to use is “raiseâ€. This implies that a person is continuing to do the same job with no increase in duties but has their pay increased. During the initial salary discussions, I recall several department heads coming before the council and discussing a change in duties and increased responsibility for their SAC recommended employees. An increase in responsibility would call for an increase in pay. A true raise is what the rest of the city received: the 3% across the board deal. So continuing to use this language is misleading.
The statement in regards to Connor O’Daniel flip flopping his vote is also misleading. He changed his vote because what was being voted on changed. Is that not clear? The initial pay increases were reduced by McGinn’s compromise. Therefore, what was being voted on changed.
I continue to disagree with all the raises in the first place. Across the board raises???? “You mean I can just sit here and barely scrape by and play on the internet and get the same pay increase as the workers picking up my slack?†NO! City department heads and city leaders should single out hard workers for raises when they have been earned. Let the excellent excel and reward them as they reward the city with their high level of productiveness.
Alright, someone bash me.
Point well taken. In some cases the term “promotion and raise” would be more appropriate than simply “raise”. As for O’Daniel what we got after him for was flipping his vote on Earthcare not the salary increases.
Council O’Daniel is a spoiled brat and a snob. Everbody knows he was born with a silver spoon and knows very little about common folks.
While I’m at it everybody knows about the way Councilman Weaver mis-treated his ex-wife. I also can’t understand why the Evansville police hasn’t pick him for dunken driven by now! What jerk!
Mis-treated is a understatement more to the point he physically and emotionaly abused her. So now that she has left him all he cando is stalk her right now.
John Friend is one of the biggest political liar in Vanderburgh County. He gets on Tv and promises the people that he is going to do a salary sturdy for 2013.
You guess it, last night he flip flop and and cast the deciding vote to give the “puppet 10” big raises.
I shall never support him again!
The enlighted approach to compensation analysis is to conduct a job classification and compensation study for all employees.
Giving large increases, for the most part, to new political appointees does not appear to be fair and objective. It appears political. Which it is.
Performance is a functin of ability and motivation. Motivation can be improved quickly by treating people fairly and satisfying imployees needs. The perception of treating the chosen people differently and satisfying the few is the approach taken by an uninitiated manager.
Don’t know why City Councilman John Friend lied to us like he did.
I can’t wait when the State Board of Accounts audit is released so I can hear Friend state to us he didn’t know anything about the accounting problems the city is having.
I also was told by a friend who works at the Civic Center that the Water and Sewer department is having a similar booking problem as City. In fact she told John Friend about this issue faace to face. He just looked at her and walked away without comment. Wow, what an outstanding budget watchdog he has turn out to be.
The City Council got it wrong. In my judgment, the City Council members and the Mayor’s office are truly under paid for their responsibilities and time required to properly perform their respective duties. We need to attract good people to hold these positions.
It just occurred to me that maybe the real reason the big push is on the merge the county and city budgets (and resources) may be to obscure the mess that the books/budgets are in. I didn’t realize there was so much question about the actual competence of the money people and management folks running things.
Also seems like merging the two governments will shrink the number of people watching whats going on, and most likely it will be the same people that are running things now. Need even more checks and balances, not less!
The grammar used in these comments is so poor as to have no persuasive content, whatsoever. This city has been going down the toilet ever since Whiny-zapple/zipple crammed the Ford Center down our throats. In the latter half of his second term it became woefully clear to our Whinycrappple that he no longer had the respect and confidence of the citizens of Evansville, and thus he went on a permanent vacation.
He sure spent a lot while on his vacation.
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