IS IT TRUE the City County Observer has received some details concerning the accounting fees the City of Evansville has paid to two professional accounting firms over the past two years [2011 & 2012]?…one firm that has been heavily involved in the attempt to integrate the MUNIS software and reconcile the books has been paid $232,058 and the other has been paid $874,516 for a grand total of $1,106,574?…it has been asserted that there is no requirement for bidding out the GASB 34 conversion, and NOW you know why?…the SBOA has told certain elected officials that the conversion will cost us as much as $250,000 and will NOT do one thing for the City of Evansville?…in this case the City of Evansville has everything to loss nothing to gain?…paying a person with accounting experience, who has passed the CPA, CMA, and CPM (Certified Project Manager) examinations a mere $20,000 is the bargain of the century when compared to what the City has been paying in accounting fees?… that if the Winnecke Administration is going forward with the GASB 34 conversion, the City needs to bid out the engagement, at least on a per hour basis?…what really begs a question is why the City of Evansville does not just have 3 or 4 staff accountants to handle these duties so it does not need to hire outside help to do basic operations? …that the above accounting fee figures doesn’t include the months of Jan., Feb. and March of 2013? …that these figures don’t include what we are paying to run the accounting offices of the city controller and water works departments?
IS IT TRUE the Evansville Water & Sewer Utility Board approved a $2.5 million settlement that will resolve the litigation brought by the city and utility against Environmental Management Corp.?…EMC operated Evansville’s wastewater treatment plants and sewer system from August 1992 to March 2010 a period of nearly 8 years?…the litigation came about from federal and state enforcement action brought in September 2009 alleging Clean Water Act violations?…the settlement approved resolves all city claims against EMC?…the press release states that the EMC “denies any and all liability,†but under the agreement the company agreed to pay the city $2.5 million?…we wonder if there will be more fines and violations post 2010 that the City will have to pay out of its own coffers?
IS IT TRUE the unemployment rate in Indiana rose to 8.6% last month despite relatively strong hiring?…the reason given for this rise is that there were a lot of people of the ghost category who entered the workforce who were not previously counted because they had given up hope?…it is nice that they have hope and are starting to fill out job applications but this instance verifies and validates the CCO assertions that the “official†unemployment rate during the 2012 election cycle was manipulated meaningless prattle?…any official statistic that ignores 10 million plus people because they are discouraged is designed to mislead?…get ready for the next round of spinning that a rising unemployment rate is a GOOD INDICATION?…as sick as it sounds that is the truth but it is only the truth because the US Government created a metric designed to deceive?…the Cost of Living increase is similarly false omitting the costs of energy and food from the calculation?…these are really about all we really NEED other than housing yet they are ignored to make us all feel secure that the inflation monster is still caged?
IS IT TRUE there is no joy in Lexington today as the defending NCAA basketball champion Kentucky Wildcats were eliminated last night by Robert Morris University in the NIT?…cat fans have had a bad week courtesy of poor team play with their hated Louisville Cardinals taking over Rupp Arena for the weekend, being relegated to the NIT (aka losers tournament), and then losing on the road to a school more like the University of Evansville than a big basketball tradition university?…it was also learned that President Obama is picking the Indiana Hoosiers and the Louisville Cardinals to make the Final Four with the Hoosiers winning it all?…that may lift the hearts of Hoosier fans but this is also the President that did not pick Kentucky last year and had to watch the cats plunder the tournament winning every game by a comfortable margin?…in yet a third post season tournament called the CIT the Evansville Aces picked up a win against Tennessee State before a sparse official crowd of 2,300 at the Ford Center?…the Aces should find out today where their next game will be played?…if the next game is in the Ford Center the CCO encourages our readership to get down there and root for the Aces?…making the post season deserves more than 2,300 die-hard fans in the seats?
Yep. It ain’t cheap to bring in Umbaugh’s Big Dan to feed him! The problem here is that they refuse to hire competent people. Former Controller Jenny is an accounting flunkie. No CPA next to her name. Her intelligence was rewarded by creating her a new position in the Utilities. The current deputy controller doesn’t have an accounting degree.
Quit hiring idiots and your problems will be solved. There is no sense to have to fork out that kind of money for Big Dan’s services!
What would be more interesting given this whole outsource everything bullcrap started with Weinzapfel would be to see just how much Umbaugh and Harding donated to his campaign fund. Same goes for Winnecke.
Did he get any kick back campaign donation from the million dollar accountants?
Does the Jenny Collins get any kick backs from CCO, since when they mention her name or her position in any of there articles, those articles seem to get the majority of the responses. Last weeks article got “57” responses, this article already has “15”, JUST SAYING”!!!!! No One seems to be interested in anything else that goes on in the City of Evansville, just Jenny Collins. That is a whole lot of talk about one person.
Please realize that we did not print Ms. Collins’ name anywhere in our article. The comment section is where her name was introduced.
Same can be said when the nane Mosby is mention
It brings out some people south of broadway west of mud center creek and north of red bank to write on blog
How about this one…Stephen Titzer who is a huge Jenny Collins supporter is the Chairman of the Board of Harding, Shymanski which is one of the two CPA firms that received lots of City money for accounting services.
I UNDERSTAND THAT JENNY COLLINS CAME FROM THE VANDERBURGH COUNTY CENTER (listed in a city county directory from a few years ago)IN A FINANCIAL POSITION. ANYONE EVER CHECKED THEIR FINANCES WHILE SHE WAS THERE. PROBABLY A PROBLEM ALSO. JUST GUESSING
WOULDN’T THAT BE “JUST RUMORING”!!!! I’TS REALLY FUNNY HOW THOSE “RUMORS” GET STARTED, “JUST GUESSING”!
Find a city county telephone directory when David Mosby, Susanne Crouch and Catherine Fanello were commissioners. It is listed under Evansville Auditorium and Convention Center, Jenny Collins , Finance Manager. I,m Looking at it now.
Titzer serves on the Utility Board which created the CFO position for Jenny and then immediately adjusted her pay to $81K (was originally budgeted for $60k)
From what I can gather at the Civic Center, I don’t know how the State Board can audit the GASB 34 statements. They are removing the competent CPAs for independence issues and replacing them with an auditor that sleeps and another one who’s known as Airhead. Should be an interesting audit this year!
Moving to Warrick County very soon. Hooray! Looking forward to, telling The Evansville Gang, as Joan River´s would say, “Pick a Finger!”
The Aces didn’t even get 2,300 fans. It was officially 2,324- a whole 376 fans less than the amount of permanent seats in tiny PAC.
Correction- I meant to say they didn’t get it when actual attendance was counted. The official attendance was the 2,324 officially but it looked much less than that.
A million here, a million there, pretty soon, you’re talking real money.
Speaking of real money, didn’t the city beancounter waste a million dollars designing a ball field to nowhere?
Some things never change.
Has Harding & Shymanski REALLY received $ 874,000 total over 2 years ???What do they do for that kind of jack ?
That is the $900,000 question.
CCO:
The total has gone up another $ 26,000 overnight ! Put in a FOIA Request today for a copy of each paid invoice from H & S for calendar years 2011 + 2012, and publish it. The citizenry demands answers, and a picture will be worth more than a thousand words.
Where are all the minimum wage RTW jobs that were supposed to pour in by the thousands?
They are in a holding pattern waiting to see just how bad Obamacare is going to slaughter their business models. You can bet that when industrial expansion starts again if it does it will be in right to work states. Until that village idiot health plan has worked its kinks out do not expect much job creation anywhere.
It’s kinda hilarious how union apologists and naysayers expect decades of illness to be cured instantly, especially when not much even changed on the national scene since RTW passed.
Weinzapfel, Winnecke and Tornatta all were on the executive board of GAGE during the “pay Barnett under the table” scandal. I would start my next investigation into forensic accounting THERE…. FAST….
If we really wanted to fix the national economy on a more permanent basis we’d abolish the Federal Reserve, restore either a gold standard or equivalent commodity/non-inflationary currency ensuring people weren’t afraid of building their savings, abolish the federal income tax, abolish state and federal minimum wage laws to put people to work who have been priced out of the job market due to lack of skills, abolish federal price controls on goods and services entering the country to ensure Americans can reap the benefits of cheap technologies from the far east like solar panels and wind turbines, abolish the welfare state (both corporate and personal entitlements), relax the immigration laws and work VISAs to give Americans a chance to use their savings and build businesses employing low wage workers in THIS country rather than seeing them shipped out of the country, shut down our bases overseas and bring our troops home in a defensive rather than offensive posture, slash the “defense” budget, negotiate better intellectual property rights agreements with China, close down 50% of our federal bureaucracy (CIA, IRS, DHS, EPA, Dept of Education, Dept of Energy, Dept of Transportation, TSA, etc.)…
Do all of these things and the economy would come to life. Do half of them and the economy would recover. How many do I expect will be done in my lifetime? Zero. This is why I have little hope of our fiat/debt based, i.e. fake, world economy to ever pull out of this tailspin. They will just keep plastering over the cracks until the whole damned thing blows up into another World War over resources.
In viewing the re-run of the past council meeting and heard Dan Hedden, the Umbaugh guy said that services do not require bidding, when asked by Councilman Friend what the cost of the GASB 34 [whatever that means]will be for Umbaugh’s involvement. And, now I see why!!!
GASB 34 stands for Government Accounting Standards Bullletin # 34.
You are welcome.
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