CCO to File Freedom of Information Request with the Evansville Redevelopment Commission and DMD

CCO to File Freedom of Information Request with the Evansville Redevelopment Commission and DMD

For the last several months, the City-County Observer has been receiving complaints from numerous people about the Evansville Redevelopment Commission not posting their agenda or officially approved minutes of their recent monthly meetings on their web site.

By doing so, this would quickly resolve our readers’ issues without any public conflict. However, I am disappointed to say that it is obvious that the ERC will not be forthcoming by posting the details of their recent meetings. What puzzles us is that this information was posted in prior years, but this procedure hasn’t consistently been followed in recent months.

As you all know, the Redevelopment Commission handles many millions of taxpayer dollars each year to fund facade grants, loans for condo development, multi-million dollar capital projects for the North Main Street corridor and downtown Main street area and money for start-up and expansion of businesses. It has also been rumored by reliable sources that they may have used public funds to provide seed money for the Evansville Thunderbolts hockey team.

Since they handle federal, state, and local funds for the projects stated above, I feel that this organization should be transparent and held accountable for their actions. By not providing the details of their agenda and minutes to the general public, the ERC isn’t being a “good steward” of the public trust.

I’m presently working on preparing a Freedom of Information Request to submit to the officials of the Department of Metropolitan Development and the Evansville Redevelopment Commission. I will be requesting that they provide the City-County Observer with the minutes and agendas for meetings in 2018 and 2019. After reviewing this information, I may be requesting that they also provide us with all appropriate notes, texts, and e-mails pertaining to transactions of interest.

As soon as I receive this information (and we will be getting it since they are a publicly-funded entity), we will publish them in the City-County Observer without editing. I’d like to thank our readers for directing our attention to this important public policy issue.

Sincerely,

Timothy Justin Phillips

City-County Observer Editor