City Councilman John Friend, CPA, Fiscal Guard Dog

John Friend CPA learned a valuable lesson during his first campaign effort to grab a seat on Evansville’s City-Council in 1995. Friend, at the time, ran as a Republican in a city that was mostly Democratic. John Friend learned his lesson and though it took some time, he returned in 2007 with a different approach. This time, running as a Democrat in the heavily Republican north side of Evansville, Friend took a very simple, straight-forward, common sense approach to his campaign. Friend told me that the key to his success and ultimate victory rested in answering the call and concern of the tax-payers in his district. “I’ve learned that when you’re contacted by the public a quick response to my constituents is the key. Being accessible, acknowledging issues as they arise, and acting quickly to resolve these quality of life issues are what I try to focus on as representative of the 5th ward.”

John Friend was born in Princeton, Indiana and grew up in Terre Haute, Indiana. Friend was exposed to local politics from a very young age. His grandfather served as the Wabash County Clerk for over 30 years and also served as the treasury and finance officer for the Mt. Carmel School Board. John graduated from Indiana State University in 1973 earning degrees in accounting and economics. Three years after graduating from ISU, John relocated to Evansville and started his own accounting firm in 1981. It was in Evansville that John met, married and started a family with his wife, Marty. They have three children all of whom have graduated college and now work in their respective fields. Melinda Mackey is an honors graduate of Washington University and now works as a RN. Eric received his MBA from USI and is currently a project manager for Summit Contracting, and Lee Vida is a graduate of Chicago School of Art and works in Chicago as a website marketing manager for a medical device company. John and Marty are loving grandparents to four grandchildren, one of which currently attends the University of Alabama.

When Friend is not playing the role of husband, father, and grandfather he is serving as the finance chairman of City Council, no easy task in our city during these times. He has succeeded, while working with every one of his fellow council members, in keeping the public’s money entrusted with good account balances. “What I found out in government is that the return on investment is not as important as image or political agendas. Many politicians look to enhance their public image and reputation by pursuing projects that may be financially unreasonable.” Because of this, Friend looks at the cost of any proposed city project as well as the projected and realistic returns on investment that the project has to offer. Friend’s view of the mayor position is not only the CEO of their city but also a chief marketing director. Friend also added “is that the mayor needs to surround himself with people of talent and direction.” Friend has had positive experiences with the Winnecke Administration thus far as they have been willing to make adjustments to their budget. “During last cycle there were many things eliminated or removed. We (city council) were able to eliminate items from the budget that the majority felt unnecessary.” This helps to free up some funds, but Councilman Friend and the rest of city council still face a huge challenge in how to best guide our city in the right direction both fiscally and municipally.

There are still a few things that have raised the eyebrows of city council and, more specifically, Friend himself. Evansville is now currently out of compliance with two federal mandates that city council will be forced to face. The combined sewer overflows are now non compliant and face the possibility of being subjected to significant fines. Evansville is currently in negotiation with the EPA and is planning in the next twelve months or less city council will be faced with raising sewer rates by 10% per year for the next 6 years. The sewer project is currently projected to cost $410,000,000 to $600,000,000 million of dollars to satisfy federal mandate. We are currently dumping 3.4 billion lbs of raw sewage in the Ohio River and Pigeon Creek per year. Back in 2002 mayor Russ Lloyd Jr. signed a descent decree with the United States Department of Justice agreeing to, in a 10 year period of time to convert our crosswalks to handicap accessible by the year of 2012. We have 8,000 intersections located in the City of Evansville and have only completed 2,000. The non-compliance with the Federal mandates cost the tax payers of this city millions of dollars in possible fines from the Dept. of Justice. On top of this issue the city council is also staring down the barrel of other capital project issues such as the projected $8 million dollar Roberts Park project; Centennial park, another estimated million dollar project; the $28 million dollar Mesker Park Amphitheatre facelift; and the 54 million dollar Johnson Control project that was originally proposed in last days of Weinzapfel’s administration. The project to replace all residential water meters, integrate Wi-Fi in the city and replacing commercial water meters went to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission but was rejected because there was a lack of savings at the end of the project in accordance with state law. I was surprised that Mayor Winnecke brought the project back to life. John Friend and two other of his colleagues pushed to meet with Winnecke, and with the Utilities Department to discuss the stages of the resubmission of the proposal to the State for approval at a reduced price tag of $42 million dollars. Over time the number will reach closer to $61 million dollars.

On top of all of this, and maybe the most debated topic among local politicians and citizens alike, is the proposed multi-million dollar downtown hotel project. Friend’s well honed CPA instincts are alarmed at the fact that all local hospitality developers have decided to distance themselves from this project. “Generally, when private enterprise is willing to invest 100% of venture capital in a project they only do so with full awareness of the market. However, when government is interjected it appears that the market considerations are left on the back burner and again, image and agenda, seem to prevail. If the market is affected we know that the value of the existing structures could be affected negatively. It is obvious to me and others that the increase in revenues as a result of a new downtown hotel and the additional taxes received could be far less than what the decline in property tax values may be, resulting in less property taxes received (a net decline in tax revenues).” Friend finished by saying, “All of us on council are excited by any sort of economic development but before the real political and financial realities set in, the obligations of our citizens over any length of time need to be accurately determined.“

Friend also pointed out that Indiana University will be expanding their medical school in South-West Indiana. Furthermore, initial studies indicate that downtown Evansville is the optimal site for such a campus. When, and if, IU comes they will need, according to their officials, 4 square blocks of site ready land and the campus will have a 15-20 million dollar price tag. I have been told by reliable sources that the University is not planning to pay for any of the expenses associated building a downtown campus when they know they can get the land for free from the University of Southern Indiana and when Warrick County is adamantly pursuing Indiana University for the site themselves. Preliminary studies indicate an initial 1200 well paying jobs would be immediately created, expanding to 3700 well paying jobs by the year 2022. This medical school campus would put Evansville on the map, and with it, create a possible need for a future downtown hotel project much like the one Winnecke is proposing. Councilman Friend added, “Local experts in the industry suggest that with this medical school campus downtown, funding for the downtown hotel , more than likely, would come without public assistance.” I guess the $500,000,000 million dollar question is which project will Evansville choose to pursue at this time? Friend closed by saying, “The finance chair and CPA side of me has great concern towards our local debt, on finished city projects, which is currently at levels of $360 million dollars. We are currently faced with the economic decision to put aside a minimum of $130 million dollars into the Combined Sewer Overflow fund in the very near term to work towards federal compliance. All of these projects add up. I Refuse as a CPA and financial mind to leave this town with a huge debt for things we don’t necessarily need. I choose to have the tax-payer on my mind and have adamantly reviewed and will continue to review all of these proposals as they come in. I’ve enjoyed working with my fellow colleagues on council. We have our differences yet, always seem to work through them and I wholly expect for us to come together, like always, to find solutions to the issues we currently face.