IS IT TRUE November 14, 2012
IS IT TRUE the endless parade of financial idiocies that have plagued the City of Evansville must be causing high anxiety for City Councilman John Friend, CPA who heads the budget committee?…at Monday night’s council meeting Councilman Friend slipped into a desk pounding routine that reminded the CCO of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at the United Nations or Panama’s General Manuel Noriega minus the shoe and the sword?…it is about time that someone in Evansville’s elected leadership showed a bit of passion for a City gone wild with ineptness and cover-up?…Councilman Friend has been criticized in some circles for presiding over the budgets of both 2012 and 2013 when the books were not balanced?…that would indeed have been an outrage if Councilman Friend had been informed by the former Controller during 2011 or by the current Controller when he learned about this issue?…Councilman Friend and the City Council were conveniently not copied on any correspondence regarding the City of Evansville’s inability to balance their books with the Million Dollar MIPS program that is still not completely up to snuff regardless of what was stated before Council three meetings ago?…perhaps we should all chip in and buy Councilman Friend a good Russian made shoe and a sword should his table pounding fall on deaf or incompetent ears?
IS IT TRUE hiring an outside auditor to run the traps known as the City of Evansville accounting system is a great idea that is about 50 years overdue?…a forensic audit is immediately necessary to determine if the fiasco with the City’s books was simple incompetence or if something more serious was going on?…it is not a stretch to speculate that over the last 50 or 60 years of “anything goes†patronage hiring in City government that hundreds of millions of dollars could have been “lostâ€, misappropriated, spent lavishly on inappropriate activities, or simply squandered on projects that failed to deliver on promises?…as the CCO pointed out recently, a perfectly functional dog park is a $25,000 item in an existing neighborhood park and not a major construction project?…the number of people who would be willing to drive a dog to take a walk is very small?…the platinum plated dog park and gold plated skateboard park planned for Roberts Stadium site is just another wasteful and unnecessary expenditure originating in the Office of the Mayor of Evansville?
IS IT TRUE that Mayor Winnecke has been photographed showing off a new skill?…this time instead of playing a gunner on the LST or a chicken fat video guy, he has been photographed mounting a backhoe to simulate the demolition of an old bar?…here is a link so you can see Mayor Winnecke in action on the backhoe?
IS IT TRUE that the link that the CCO posted to the Whitehouse.gov petition site attracted more click throughs than any link we have ever posted?…Indiana now has 17,000 signatures and is among 10 states that are clearly on track to get the 25,000 signatures required to get a response from the Obama Administration?…Seven states have already reached 25,000 signatures with Texas leading the pack with nearly 100,000 signatures?…the response is predictable as these signatures are not the way to really initiate secession but these people which will surely number over a million should send a strong message that there is still fear and discontentment with many of our fellow citizens?
IS IT TRUE that imposing economic sanctions on rogue countries has always been a tactic of the government of the United States to attempt to bring places like Iran to their knees and back into the fold of nations that get the US Government Seal of Approval?…sometimes economic sanctions seem to be justified and other times they seem to be politically motivated?…economic sanctions are designed to restrict trade and to keep capital from flowing into these designated rogue countries?…perfect ways to punish a rogue country with economic sanctions is to impose taxes or tariffs so that they are not competitive in the marketplace, oppressing efforts to borrow money, and taking actions to devalue their currency?…that raising capital gains taxes on existing investments and tripling the tax on dividends while printing money as fast as the ink will dry has the same effect on the American economy as economic sanctions have on rogue states?…we wonder just who and why the United States of America is on a course to impose economic sanctions on the United States of America as though it were a rogue state like Iran?
It is time to backtrack and balance the books and set a budget that is real!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quit spending money like you print it!!! Mosby and Weaver need to be held accountable by voting them out of office!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How are these 2 responsible alone? Why not just say you hate them and want them gone (which you do on every post)? You can’t blame the accounting issues on Weaver as he wasnt even on the council at the time they took place, plus its 3 more years til the next city election and your continual rants and hatred towards Mosby and Weaver are tiresome.
Yes, the “hurl and hide” tactics from many posters is very tiresome. If you are so proud of your comment, put you name on it.
Missy is a liar and weaver is a cheater ,,,, neither one of em are looking out for the taxpayer , only thinking of themselves … Kent I know weaver is new on the city council but he went from over appraising homes in evansville for more taxes to doing the total opposite ,,I’ve been attending city council meetings for 6 years now and heard Missy’s bull crap She is a vindictive and if she doesn’t like you she will hit ya below the belt ..politics is very dirty in evansville and numerous should be in prison for their crimes
Oh my, is this Ken Reddington, one of the worst football coaches in Mater Dei Football history?… Doesn’t surprise me you’re on here trying to keep the west side status quo going strong behind the mosbys.
No I see these two as backroom politians that are part of the problem and not the solution. Cronyism and the machine need to be put back on the bricks!!!!!! Me poating my name is my right just as yours is to post some name!!!!
posting for the drammer police
One of the best ever “Is It True”! CCO keep up your good work and the nearly extinct practice of investigative journalism.
“we wonder just who and why the United States of America is on a course to impose economic sanctions on the United States of America as though it were a rogue state like Iran?”
Most excellent analysis editor! Is it true the American people have proven with their votes that our union controlled public school system has failed them when it comes to arithmetic?
“…Councilman Friend has been criticized in some circles for presiding over the budgets of both 2012 and 2013 when the books were not balanced?…that would indeed have been an outrage if Councilman Friend had been informed by the former Controller during 2011 or by the current Controller when he learned about this issue?”
No… It’s an outrage that even after learning about the state of the books, he STILL voted for the 2012 budget that included all the wasteful spending like demolishing a paid-for building. That’s why he’s been criticized.
How is it Ms. Riley and Mr. Adams knew and he didn’t?
^That was supposed to say “2013 budget”.
City Council, where they are responsible for nothing.
Balderdash. It is long past time for the Dem majority of THIS council to be responsible for the crap that is going on. There is no excuse for a CPA holding head of the budget committee to not know about the unbalanced books. Yes, the previous Mayor has some questions that he SHOULD answer and his compatriots on the council should get those answers for this community.
But good government demands holding people responsible for dropping the ball and this Council’s senior members have dropped A LOT of balls. Letting them skate free is an outrage.
Economic sanctions are an act of war, as are trade barriers and blockades. Current sanctions on Iran coupled with the constant proximity of our forces in the region is designed to illicit a hostile reaction from Iran that can then be used to justify yet another disastrous invasion and the further enrichment of the military industrial complex. That’s why the Japanese were pushed to attack Pearl Harbor.
Our bases surrounding Iran: http://www.globalresearch.ca/articlePictures/map%20iran.JPG
Debasement of our currency at the expense of every human being who holds US dollars for the benefit of international bankers is just plain treason. It’s theft on a massive scale. The people who get hurt most are the poor and those on a fixed income like the elderly.
Our dollar’s decline: http://dollardaze.org/blog/posts/00747/ValueOfOne1913Dollar.png
The United States is in shambles. We ARE the monsters under the bed, folks. The last two Presidents we have selected were the equivalent of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. We don’t spend money on “defense”, we spend more per annum than the entire rest of the world COMBINED on a Death Star sized military apparatus capable of holding a boot to the necks of little people in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq while we steal their opium and oil. Resistance means destruction.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m sickened by what we’ve become. Something needs to change…and drastically. Maybe secession is the way to start.
Kudos to Mr Friend….
A couple things that I think need to be said…
1. Some folks have stated that Mr Friend should be auditing the city books since he is a CPA and the council finance chairman, in reality it isn’t part of his job as a city council person or finance chairman to do so and it in my mind would be a huge conflict of interest for him to do so….both ethically and legally.
2. Hiring an outside auditor is again in my opinion a great idea as long as the auditor in totally independent and answers to the city council solely, muddying the waters through a bogus chain of command is the last thing the taxpayers need.
3. It was stated before that the controllers office already has a auditor paid for by the taxpayers who isn’t a CPA, I ask how does that work? if it is true the position should be eliminated or the personal replaced with a qualified accredited CPA who also answers to the city council, if we are going to have a system of checks and balances doesn’t it make sense that the properly accredited people hold those positions and ordinances drawn up/passed that ensure that the city council is in the loop when problems arise.
4. What truly surprises me is that in 2012 this is even something that needs to be considered and that it wasn’t setup years ago, that the system in which our city finances is so broken down that no one on the city council knew while passing budgets and appropriating money that the city books had not been balanced on a monthly basis as is required and that they had gone for 21+ months without a single month of reconciliation.
5. Totally lack of accountability……no one has lost their jobs, no one has received a written reprimand, no one who was in charge either of the controllers office or the city in general has come forward to take the blame or own the problem, instead everything from the SBOA auditor to software is being blamed when no one who received a pay check for doing a job that was botched at best and sabotaged at worst has a single ounce of accountability.
Footnote:(Yeah…Ms Collins when pressed by the city council did admit to not reconciling the books and was apprehensive to name names of who else knew and when they found out….just your basic coverup IMHO)
JMHO
Ms. Collins probably thinks her best defense is in keeping her co-conspirators secret. That way they can help her and advise her through the legal morass and have an incentive in seeing no harm comes to her. If she exposes them, it’ll be every man for himself. This is the point in the show where some investigator comes in and offers her immunity for her cooperation and her body is fished out of a nearby river.
What? You haven’t seen CSI Evansville? Best show on TV after Tom Arnold’s Wide World of Fat Pregnant Teens.
LOL…yeah Brad I have seen both of those shows.
Ms Collins reminded me of a person who was told/schooled to not volunteer any information, and really only answer direct questions after being repeatedly asked over and over….whether she was just playing CYA or covering for someone else she had the look of someone who was hiding something. Every parent has seen that same look in their kids when asking if they broke a neighbors window or taken money off the dresser.
JMHO
Both wieneke and williams are sworn to uphold the law… why no action on the lack of reconcilation monthly or the illegal transfer of funds between accounts documented by the sboa? Their lack of enforcement is kin to cover-up, do the job or quit the job. Enough hay down, put’er in the barn.
The Movie, “Network” comes to mind, as finally, in Evansville, a Consensus is being reached by the Natives,—->>NewsFlash to the Entrenched Politicos,—“We are not going to take it anymore!”
Facts: The City had a Democrat Mayor in 2011. There are 8 Democrats and 1 Republican on the City Council in 2011 and 2012. The Democrats have been in control of the City for years. As for the City’s finances are concern, with a 8 to 1 majority, the City Council has the power to do any thing they want to do–anything!
The City Council has no one to blame for this mess except themselves. On this issue, Democrat controlled City Council (including John Friend) have not done their job. They were asleep at the switch. Sad.
Was that “bar” a smoking establishment?
“5. Totally lack of accountability……no one has lost their jobs, no one has received a written reprimand, no one who was in charge either of the controllers office or the city in general has come forward to take the blame or own the problem, instead everything from the SBOA auditor to software is being blamed when no one who received a pay check for doing a job that was botched at best and sabotaged at worst has a single ounce of accountability.” (Blanger)
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Exactly! Until some actions are taken, it is just the same old cabal of people running things in their own way.
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