IS IT TRUE – WEEKEND JANUARY 17-18

1. Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus (in the likeness of ol’ Kelly) with Christmas Carol (McClintoch)!!! Egg-Nog anyone???

   • If you wandering the halls of the Civic Center please stop and see the elfs at the DMD and that crazy man in the red suit…we are sure the pork barrel can be found in ol’ Kelly’s closet…

2. Looks like Local P brought his money sniffer with him from American General. No telling what he’ll find next. Maybe he can sniff out that $200,000 Winnecke’s good buddy Haney made off with scot free.

   • Haney was introduced to Winnecke and the CC by local minority democrats. Winnecke acted on the advice of his CC, they all voted in favor and SBR put the ax to it. Earthscam suckered in Friend and the rest of the democrats. Earthscam so easily fooled most of the members of the CC that the member they work so hard to discredit found the truth.

     • I think Haney was steered into his good friend Winnecke by GAGE. ‘Winnecke acted on the advice of his CC.’ Depite your scrambling to do the impossible — put a good face on Winnecke’s participation as a mark in the Earthscam scam, the city council isn’t ‘his’ and they were relying on GAGE and our pitiful mayor’s input. You are right that SBR put the kibosh on it.

   • +1

3. It really doesn’t make any sense that someone who has a successful CPA firm would take a step down to City Controller. He’s not like Russ Lloyd, who couldn’t get paying clients. Russ has to be owned by the City or a bank, because he can’t handle taking care of his own business. John Friend doesn’t need either of them to make a very nice living. I sort of thought the people who were peddling that story were minions of Queen Carol and the Prince Consort.

   • Public service usually is not as rewarding as the private sector. Mr Friend may be set enough in his coming retirement years that he can devote time to helping the city. He has been close to the alleged problems with the city finances.

   • It’s not about the money, it’s about power and having people kiss your rear for favors. Friend admitted publicly that Weinzapfel left Winnecke a mess, why didn’t he help Winnecke straighten it out instead of making it worse. Friend lied along with Winnecke about the SBOA findings, he attempted to politically ruin SBR. EKB, you and Friend and a lot of other democrats have a lot in common, the ability to make the truth sound like a lie and a lie sound like the truth. Biden was a big racist in the sixties, Carter was a racist in the sixties, what happened in the eighties, well they claimed to have evolved. Evolved is a democrat parties way of lying. If Friend admitted that he was going to be the City Controller under Gail it would be a negative for her campaign. If Gail gets elected Friend will evolve and become the city controller. Friend is the type that does nothing for anyone without a little WIFM=What’s In it For Me. Al Sharpton and Friend have a lot in common, both of them like to get in front of the camera and both do equally as bad. The only way for Friend to stay in front of the camera is to be the city controller if Gail wins and continually cook the books and scream about how careless with tax dollars the Winnecke administration was. According to Friend, Winnecke inherited a mess, anyone who can do simple math knows this is true. The only way for Winnecke to save himself is to come clean about the financial status of this city and tell us how we got there. Winnecke is the fall guy, a volunteer fall guy.

     • “The only way for Winnecke to save himself is to come clean about the financial status of this city and tell us how we got there.”

       Nobody with a 3 digit IQ would argue that Weinzapfel is blameless in all this, nor is the second Mayor Lloyd. Weinz and Russ baked the cake and Winnie is frosting it. That being said, why don’t you just hold your breath until Winnie “fesses up”?

4. Friend needs to consider doing BOTH his accounting firm AND the CFO of City position. Rumplebeancounter has no talent in that office (including himself), so he can’t delegate anything. Friend is at least smart enough to hire people who can AT LEAST reconcile a freakin’ bank account ! Also believe that Friend would come in and throw out the bums from Mark Rolley consulting, and use the money from that largesse to beef up the competency and transparency of that snake’s den, the City Controller’s Office. Friend could run the Controller’s office on his lunch break, via cellphone. We’re talking’ Management baby , not Culinary Accounting.

5. People blogging mis-information on this sight, say it isn’t so. I’m shocked.

   • Did you know the mainstream media uses content balancing as a form of censorship?
     Yeah, everybody knows that. Well did you know by actual comment count per issue some sites are less controlled by the governance than others? Oops, what if that comment got taken down?

6. John Friends an excellent accountant. I seriously doubt he has any inkling to walk away from his firm for a job with the city. I do hope his intellect and knowledge of the how Lloyd Winnecke is playing Monte with our money is used once Gail Riecken is elected. He is capable of unravelling the hide and seek mess the current administration has. Everyone knows that the 2 Lloyd’s of Evansville are cooking the books.

   • The bill that Gail is sponsoring for more transparency in the sboa findings only allows a couple more CC members to be present at the out briefing. She does not believe the financial status of this city is of any concern of the local tax payers. There is nothing Winnecke has done that even remotely compares to the $140 million plus unknown dollars dropped in the fraud center. The financial affairs of this city is like a garbage can full of feces and all the politicians are sitting on the lid trying to hold it all in. Gail’s job as the mayor will be to get this mess blamed on the republicans and rekindle the political career of Weinzapfel.

     • Please cite the source where Gail stated that “She does not believe the financial status of this city is of any concern of the local tax payers. ” I’ll bet that is just pov stating your sick twist on the bill she is sponsoring, rather than any kind of reality. If she didn’t say it, you should clarify that this is just your interpretation of the bill.

       • Just read it. Will not be released to the general public. Spin it anyway you want and it comes out the same. The general public does not need this info.

         • Do you really think anything any more open than what Gail is proposing would have any chance of passing the right wing-nut legislature in IN?

       • Nothing that POV say’s is based in reality.

         • Agreed. He’ll write anything for the truth. Really a shame folks have to sift through all that crap. Reality­­­­­‒based? Notagonna happen.

         • Didn’t lBK just admit that what I said was true but now blames the problem on legislators? It’s a shame when Gail is sponsoring a bill that makes local politicians tell the truth about our finances. When Gail says she will release the audit to the general public via the C&P and CCO I’ll be in her corner and actively campaign for her. Her job is not to be the mayor for the people of the city of Evansville but do damage control for the democrat party. It’s obvious that LBK, you and a few others intend to capture this site and use it as a campaign platform for Gail. Hopefully a democrat, not part of the suck this city dry group, will run against Gail, maybe another Rick Davis. Someone from the republican party needs to run against Winnecke. If the unions stick by Winnecke we may have a real race here.

         • @pov: I don’t really see how the two things have any real effect on eachother. It is true that the last three administrations have the most direct effect on our current fiscal mess, and it is also true that IN has a ridiculous State Legislature that would not pass a bill that encourages more transparency than the one Gail is currently sponsoring.
           As for attempting to “capture” this site, why would we try? Winnie supporters are free to use this forum to point out why they think he should be re-elected, but it appears they can’t find much that they can put out for the public to read.

   • Any “unraveling” Friend did would necessarily lead right back to Weinzapfel. That is something that the democrats in charge of the common council have been loath to do from 2004 right up to the present.

     The local prosecutors and the civil grand juries had absolutely no interest in what was happening down there, and the financial reporting by the administration was a disgrace, to the point of violating Indiana statute.

7. I guess I don’t understand – – if everyone says Mr. Friend is capable of unravelling the mess that the city of Evansville’s books are in – – – why is he not (or why hasn’t he already) done so being on the CC? OR, is it that our city administration can do anything they want – – and we are paying our CC members for nothing?

   • Russ and Winnie don’t give City Council access to the information they need to unravel the mess with JF’s guidance. That should be pretty clear from the performances put in at CC meetings by Steve Schaefer. It’s appears Hizzonerlessness and the minions need to keep secrets.
     It’s also pretty hard to try to twist the events to reflect on the City Council, but some of you Poop fans will keep trying. If you really don’t understand, get help, because you’re not very bright.

     • Completely false. Literally the opposite. City Council is able to request any inquiries on financial matters. In the last 4 years, they have submitted 172 requests for information and like confirmed by several members of city council and Mayor Winnecke, the administration granted the council with the information of all 172 request of inquiries. Stop automatically believing what you read on here. Challenge it. This isn’t House of Cards.

       • DS,

         It’s great that you make the claim that all 172 of the requests made by City Council has been fulfilled. List them, including the Requester.

         Also, please, a list of all of the Public Records Access requests filed by citizens, and how many of those have been sent back ‘No Records Available’.

       • need to tell Winnie and Co. that this isn’t House of Cards. They’re the ones that think they’re “big deals.” You probably got extra brownie points for this post. I’ve been privy to some of those replies, and all too often the “reply” is simply a denial of the true situation that the inquiry is based on.
         Does “DS” stand for “Demonic Steve” or “Demented Steve”?

         • That should read “You need…”

     • LKB, Now that wasn’t very nice.

       • Sometimes the truth isn’t very nice. In fact, it has a way of biting a lot of political butts.

     • So you’re saying that Winnecke is not giving JF the financial information from Weinzapfel’s time as mayor? This is all about the arena, everything else is smoking mirrors. The big question is, why is Winnecke and Russ covering for Weinzapfel? How deep does this cover up go? Gail is part of the problem with Evansville.

       • I filed a freedom of information request months ago regarding the Earthscam fiasco. I have not heard a word back. Nothing. While considering filing a formal complaint with State of Indiana I realized Pence and Winnecke are one and the same. Why waste more time and paper? Pence will help cover up Winnickes misdeeds. After all…Winnecke is getting big fat donations from Unions and then sending that money straight to Pence. Imagine being the poor union worker whose money was taken and sent to the very man that pushed right to work through. The very man that crushed unions and workers. Winnecke is Pence’s preferred way to beat down unions. He is getting Union money from Winnecke to break those very unions. How can any Union Business Agent with any soul, pride or integrity do this to their fellow brother?

         • They’ve set it up like a mafia family. Kick the money up or you’ll sleep with the fishes, or in this case swim with the turds in the Ohio river. Pence needs to prop Winnecke up until the gubna’s unrealistic presidential try is finally sat on. That job could fall to the obese bully Chris Christie before he also bows out. Pence’s next public appearance could then be as a special at the IHOP. Pence’s palm prints were all over the SBOA audit of Evansville’s very suspect books. I don’t doubt they cleaned it up pretty good in Indy. Not much sense in looking, even less in asking.

           Winnecke is wrong on so many levels he will be left with only the most rabidly partisan Republicans and a reliance on the general stupidity of the electorate to have any hope of beating Gail Riecken. I don’t think there’s enough of either to get him there.

         • Pence became governor in January of 2013.
           RTW was signed by Mitch in 2012.

           Indiana Chamber of Commerce push (republican state legislators) the issue after pervious state election gave them the super majority.

           For the record, the same C of C gave their marching orders to the GOP legislators after this past state election to pass legislation so our current state elected State School Superintendent becomes a political appointed position. Retaliation for “Ritz” rightfully elected position!

   • Good point, watched his set up interview with Brad Byrd on our normal social economic environmental recovered stuff.
     He’s a good sport golly, one would have to guess. Given our overhead recovered. This summer however, he’d might want to set a solar charged Go-Pro or a trail cam in that boat slip. We’d say that would be preventive navigation light maintenance, at best count. You know how those possum Mounties check them, “Thar”, Nav- lights on the way to the slips……….most of the time? 🙂
     Gee’s given the static lightning discharge safety stuff on modern water craft when the ole planet got tough, who really whuzzed out and cried for the dock? Maybe the ole ESS Hypocrisy’s commodore doesn’t need the inquiry after all.
     And the fella that does the legal stuff, for ‘um maybe the kids high school party could be forwarded to a over head balanced and navigationally illuminated location, next time as well .

     • Good post, it’s not about the drinking, it’s about what you do when you drink.

   • Winkies lawyer bill n ted said a while back that they do not have to share the books with other depts. and I guess they are notgonna

     • Like–the concept of ‘notgonna’ as one word !

       • My grandmother pronounced it ‘notagonna’. The ‘a’ seems to make that fine word flow a littleabetter.

8. I’m sorry, but the assortment of accountants that were aware of the goings on, including Mr. Friend (who tried to burn his colleague at the stake for possible disclosure of the unsavory facts of yet ANOTHER investigation of our audit–remember? Disbarrment, criminal charges, State Police investigation?) It is impossible to consider Mr. Friend seriously for anything responsible.

   He had no issue whatsoever with poor old people getting stuck with $4500 repairs to water lines damaged by inept installers-until HIS bill came due. The rocking rocker pinched HIS tail then, didn’t it? And the howling that issued !!!
   Mrs. Reicken has run with the big dogs. The “transparency” issue is the only one that takes any of the hopefulness away from her announcement to run for Evansville’s mayor. I would guess that, after the incessant bungling, it will take careful maneuvering, and better contacts (there are many in higher circles who are impressed with Mrs. Reicken) to put the IU Med Center back on track.
   I dislike the downtown placement, USI environs seem a better placement, but I am a mere peasant and of no importance (and downtown is where all the backscratching took place).

   I have become jaded…I sadly realize now that backscratching is all part of the big picture. But I have to admit, I’m weary of the childish, baldface lies, and indignant “none of your business about YOUR money” attitudes. I am tired of Democrats who yammer incessantly about their “concern for their constituency” when everyone knows they take their marching orders from the Republican Mayor Winnecke in lieu of lucrative jobs to do his bidding.
   I could just cry when I think of all the GOOD uses (for people who needed help) we could have made with the huge sums of money wasted on someone’s ego trip.

   • Damn good post. Gail Riecken is the best hope for Evansville right now. Winnecke has no record worthy of running on and should resign and drop out of the race, contingent on Cheryl Musgrave replacing him in both spots. She would have the advantages of incumbency and contacts probably equal to Gail’s. Winnecke is an embarrassment to Evansville and if he cares for this city one half as much as he claims he’ll give notice of his departure. No shame in raising the white flag when you’re mired in the situtation he’s maneuvered himself into.

     • Bootsie always seems to make good points in his/her posts. I don’t think Queen Carol will allow any raising of the white flag by the Prince Consort. Rumor has it she has been spotted around town tossing back a few drinks and saying decidedly nasty things about the current state of affairs. She thought there was enough poison in that apple to kill those pesky Democrats, and she’s NOT happy.
       If Winnie has any hope of leaving office with any respect from the citizens, he’d fire his entire “inner circle” and grow a backbone when it comes to his wife’s orders. If he got rid of Russ, Steve, and Kelley there would still plenty of embarrassment for him in City Hall.

       • If he did as you described (and I agree he should) he wouldn’t be Lloyd Winnecke. They didn’t want anyone with a working spine in there. This is what we get.

         ☆ Gail Riecken for Mayor ☆

       • LKB How do you know so many details about the Mayor and his wife’s relationship ? Do you live with them ?

         • It isn’t necessary to live with them when they are so set on making themselves out to be the Evansville Beautiful People. They grab public attention every chance they get. Besides, I’ve known the “First Lady” for about forty years. In that period of time, you kind of get a feel for what kind of person you’re dealing with.

     • Gail is the best hope to kick the can down the road. Musgrave would be our best hope but Republicans have followed the Democrat’s lead of no primary. If Musgrave would step up, Democrats will cross dress into the public an primary. Meet the new boss.

   • +1

     His appointment as Gail’s Treasurer is perfect. He has the software and know how to generate the finance reports she needs. He can help raise money and make appearances at her fundraisers and let his office staff do the grunt work of all the data entry and printing reports. Plus his support shows unity within the party. However, he won’t having any real policy power other than the input of his financial expertise which Gail will need.

     • Bingo! Every political campaign needs somebody with John Friends financial expertise. If they all had someone like him, there would be a lot fewer bungled financial reports filed by politicians. I also see this as the Councilman’s attempt to create a more positive legacy for himself. All of the ugliness that surrounded the audit and the terrible treatment of SBR can now be tempered with some worthwhile public service on CC and in the Riecken campaign.

9. Back Scratching Is the only way to get anything done in this town. See current towing contract.
   The only lucrative jobs in this town unfortunately are government jobs. Government jobs are the last steady jobs left in this country. You can check in right out of school an stay there till you receive a pension. You can debate whether that is a good thing or bad. But there are very few private lifetime careers left for the regular person.

   • “Government jobs are the last steady jobs left in this country.”

     No, not so much. That was fairly true until the turn of this century, but you might want to see how many public jobs went down the drain by 2009. There are laid-off teachers, cops, and public medical workers who could tell you differently.
     I think it is more correct to say that there are no steady jobs left for people who just want to get out of school and go to the same job for forty or so years. If workers don’t stay up to date with their skills and adapt to new trends, they’re toast.

     • I remember the 80’s and 90’s as a time that people left government jobs to take positions in the private sector. That was because the private sector offered better compensation and long term opportunities for prosperity. The risk takers, wealth makers, and job creators migrated into the private sector which is where they should be. The support minded people who had less financial ambition but more of a need to serve worked for the government and were by and large content to do so. It was a good economy with balance.

       The turn of the century changed that dynamic and the great recession finished off much of the risk taking spirit of the United States. The real difference in private employers vs. government aside from service vs. product goals is the velocity in which they respond to changes in the economy. A private business that sees a negative impact to the top line will respond to that with layoffs and other cost reductions within a matter of months. Those that don’t cease to exist. Witness the announced closings of many retail stores right after the Christmas shopping season. Those private companies reacted to diminished sales numbers with closings in two weeks.

       With government this sort of dynamic can take years or even decades due to the resistance to shutter failed programs and labor agreements that do not allow rapid response. LKB is right that government is shrinking and is less secure than it once was but the reason is because retirees are not being replaced. Seldom are there any layoffs, and when there are it took years to implement them. Then there are the automatic pay increases that the civil service is contractually entitled (a terrible but true word for a raise) to.

       When I graduated from UE in 1982 the average pay in the private world was roughly double what it was in government. The best and brightest graduates took jobs in the private sector and the others went into government. Today the opposite is true. Government pays about double what for-profit enterprises pay.

       Government pay is driven by law and private pay is ultimately driven by profits. This is not a bright situation for the future because it is the taxes on profits that fund the government. If we are becoming a society where the best and brightest who have the ambition and capacity to invent, commercialize, and manage profit making businesses are choosing the less risky route to a fat government retirement, leaving the less capable to fund their indulgences, we are heading for a big implosion. To put it succinctly, when corporate profits go down, governments funding sources go down with it. It is only the power of the printing press that is kicking the can down the road right now.

       Any policies, laws, taxes, etc. that are being considered need to consider the deployment of appropriate personnel into their highest and best use. Imagine if Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and a host of other entrepreneurs had faced a world where government work was the best they could aspire to. The USA would be a different and dare I say less prosperous place to live.

       • “Government pays about double what for-profit enterprises pay. ”

         Citation for this, please and thank you, because at first blush it seems unlikely.

         • The 2012 report of the Congressional Budget Office. The difference is total compensation that includes Cadillac health plans, defined benefit retirement plans, and often six+ weeks of vacation in the public sector. Such things no longer exist in the private sector. In 2013, federal worker compensation averaged $115,524 and private employment is $66,357 for a gap of 74%. My memory was a little off but the point remains the same. If one were to place a monetary value to job security that would add to the difference.

           I remember the nonsensical impeachment of President Clinton. Linda Tripp, the civil servant witness for the prosecution, was working as a secretary and was earning $96,000 plus benefits at the Pentagon at the time. I remember being astounded by that because my job at the time was Vice President of Engineering for a private business earning $100,000 with a lessor benefit package. My department secretary was earning under $50,000 at the time.

           http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/01-30-FedPay.pdf

       • Good post. You have a knack for bringing the cookies down to the bottom shelf. Simplicity is indicative of intelligence.

10. I used to bowl with John Friend on the West Side. Have tracked his political career closely.

    He seems an enigma to me.
    He finds the EVSC bills being paid by Arena funds ; then doesn’t pursue a forensic audit of the Arena;
    He rails against the Johnson Controls smart city meters, yet finally votes it in 9-0;
    He leads the rally cry against Mark Rolley Consulting, hires the McGladrey group to do an IT audit; then doesn’t speak out when the Mayor issues a second purchase order to hijack the report, and get a sanitized second version;
    He doesn’t confront the changed audit opinion of SBOA for 2012, then decries it as ‘Weapons of Mass Distraction’ for anyone who would see that unexplained change as unethical; and
    He asks for a laundry basket full of vetting information on the Hotel, gets basically ZERO information on the Developer, yet despite that votes 9-0 in favor.

    A very capable CPA, in my estimation, but he seems to lack the courage to make a difference ” when the going gets tough”.

    • interesting points.

11. @ Joe Wallace –

    Thanks for the link. I questioned your statment, because you said:

    ““Government pays about double what for-profit enterprises pay. ”

    That seemed absurd. I thought you were talking actual hourly wages, which based on the initial chart in the CBO report seems to average out or skew towards the private sector overall (higher for government workers with lower levels of education, substantially lower versus private sector the higher up the education food chain you go). My college roommate took an entry level job with a prosecuter’s office when he graduated from law school, and was probably making substnatially less than half what his fellow graduates who went into private sector made.

    Now, when you fleshed out the actual comparison with this statement:

    “The difference is TOTAL compensation that includes Cadillac health plans, defined benefit retirement plans, and often six+ weeks of vacation in the public sector. ”

    I’ll buy it. I’m not sure what a ‘Cadillac’ health plan is (I hear it as an anti-government worker talking point, but am not sure if there is an actuarial definition per se), but I have very decent insurance, and it’s damn hard to put a price on a defined-benefit retirement plan.

    Of interest, perhaps, I left an increasingly lucrative career path with the private sector to take a job as a firefighter. My friends, also on said private sector career paths, thought I was an idiot, and said as much:

    “Dude, isn’t that dangerous?”
    “Geez, you’re taking a hell of a pay cut…”
    “Screw that. I can’t stand the sight of blood!”
    “Don’t you have to work holidays?”
    “24 hour shifts? What does that even mean?”
    “Well, so much for weekends off!”

    Fast forward a few years when the economy took a dive and some of them experienced layoffs and pay cuts, and I was flabbergasted at how their tunes had changed. All of a sudden I had a cushy gubmint job, must be nice to have a pension handed to you when you retire, the damn public sector unions are responsible for all our financial woes, yadda yadda.

    Here’s the thing. I’m a Captain with 15 years on the EFD, a licensed EMT since 1999 and a member of our surface/subsurface water rescue team, as well as an interagency instructor for local police and fire departments. My hourly pay is roughly what a person at Toyota working the line starts at. That’s neither here nor there, it just is. I’m blissfully happy with my job, and love the fact that I’ll get a modest pension at the end of my career. Maybe that’s a cushy gubmint gig. If so, I’m thrilled to have it!

    • What is a Cadillac health plan? My definition would be something that cost substantially more than what the average benefit is. I will use an Evansville example. It has been published that the average cost per employee at the City of Evansville is nearly $17,000 per year. When I was at GAGE my personal health insurance was about $500 per month and I paid 10% of that making my benefit worth $5,400 per year. I would say that relative to my benefit at GAGE, the City employees with a benefit that was triple mine had a Cadillac plan. Our 401k match was 3% and the City folks were over 10% so that was triple too.

      I am in CA now in a public private partnership and the employee benefit differences are about 3 to 1 here too. I spent most of my career in small businesses that are always low on benefits but high on equity. It has worked out well for me because of stock options at the right place and right time. It does not work that well for everyone. I am not real familiar with big company benefits but I do know they have been cutting them allot lately. One of our local big companies just cut their health insurance subsidy from $18k per year to $9k per year. It is a medical equipment company that justified it by the lost profits from the device tax that came with ACA.

      That is back to what I wrote earlier about the velocity at which private business has to respond to change. Lots of privates have been cutting matching funds for retirement plans too.

12. I think people should have to comment under their real names. It would stop a lot of the lies and nonsense, that I have to wade through to get to anything of importance. Very little said here is important. Just one side trying to attack the other. It’s already old, old, old. Just a reflection of local politics here. Why we can’t get anything done as a city. The leaders are too busy counting coup, instead of building this city up. Just like you people. So it really won’t even matter who we elect.

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