IS IT TRUE MARCH 25, 2015

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IS IT TRUE that the City of Evansville towing contract is scheduled to be awarded today?  …we expect to hear a great deal of discussion concerning lot condition and size, available storage, number of trucks available, qualifications of staff, number of minority employed and reputation of companies?  …we would  like to know why the mayor allowed a mother and her daughter serve on the Safety Board and the on the  Towing contract review committee at the same time? …we also are expecting the Safety  Board to ask pointed questions about the Shaggy Towing contract with Tri-State Towing?

IS IT TRUE that the Mayor is going to this attend this coming City Council meeting to discuss the new Downtown Hotel?

IS IT TRUE that we are proud to be hosting the NCAA Division II Elite Eight and we welcome the teams, players, coaches, staff, NCAA Staff and officials the thousands of guests that are arriving for this outstanding event? … tickets are available and we encourage the community to participate in this tremendous event?

IS IT TRUE that Mayor Winnecke proudly proclaimed one of his accomplishments was clean audit opinions from the Indiana State Board of Accounts?  …on February 13th, the State Board of Accounts posted the audit results of the Water & Sewer Utility Department for 2013, fourteen months after the Utility’s year end? …the State Board’s finding were the Utility is cash SHORT by $395,000?  …the State Board discovers again the Winnecke administration still can not properly perform bank reconciliations? …we wonder when they will inform the public of the whereabouts of our money?  ….perhaps the financial officers of the city will be coming forth to reimbursement us for the loss in accordance with the Indiana Statutes?

IS IT TRUE that each and everyday our General Fund spends over $215,000?  …at the start of the first day of January 1, 2015 the General Fund only had $300,000 and by 10 a.m. on January 2, 2015 the fund was broke?  …the next property tax installment will NOT be received until June of 2015 and the General Fund is NEGATIVE by nearly $9 MILLION as of January 31st?

IS IT TRUE our sister Indiana city, South Bend with nearly 25% of its property tax exempt ( because of Notre Dame and St Mary’s college) has nearly $29 MILLION in their General Fund.?  …their cost per citizen is $167 per citizen LESS than Evansville? …you would expect this kind of results because their Mayor is a Harvard School of Business Graduate with a degree in Finance and a postgraduate as a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford, England?

IS IT TRUE that our Mayor proclaims that we are in great financial condition while the operational funds of the city have been over spent by $7,556,000 in 2014?  …the CCO refers its readers to the operational funds of the Water and Sewer Utility?  …those funds have been over spent by nearly $3 million in 2014?  … the property tax General Fund (the primary account) was overspent by $7,556,000?

IS IT TRUE that this Mayor is long on proclamations but SHORT on performance?  …some of our many disappointments. are-Earthcare., Johnson Controls water meter project,  McCurdy Hotel and, the grand pappy of them all, the new downtown Motel proposal?

IS IT TRUE since 2005, the Evansville Police Department have hired 126 officers?
…the 126 officers came from the following areas?
77 officers were from Evansville.

24 officers were from the Tri-County area (Gibson, Posey, Warrick).

13 officers were from Indiana outside the Tri-County area.

12 officers were from outside the State of Indiana.

IS IT TRUE that we also ask the Evansville Police Department how many males vs. females and how many African Americans and Latinos were hired?

Again, the CCO wants to stress, we will take down anything rude or defaming anyone. Please feel free to comment informative information only.

We thank you for your support and look forward to bringing you the news in a way that not only brings you into the discussion but makes you feel compelled to participate. The CCO is alive and well and remains your community watchdog.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

63 COMMENTS

  1. 126 new hired since 2005

    What was not said was the number that left the department during that same time frame. Also Evansville has added more area to patrol, more “want to be” gang activities, maybe changes in practices which requires more
    body count?

    I see where the sheriff office is hiring two more. What was their number of new hire since 2005 and a change of practice as well for them? This information would give us a better “balance” understanding what is going on with our men/women in uniforms in all of Vanderburgh County!

    IIT it is about that time of year on the anniversary on extension of the $200,000 earth care scam? Add the $500,000 that the EVSC had owed the city for police protect, and the money owed by the McCurdy property, and we are looking at $2 million lost?

    IIT that a “real” audit can not be complete when the funds within the General Funds are being bounced around
    like Mexican Jumping Beans? I see South Bend’s numbers floated again. Was there any real investigation in what their doing different? A “figurehead” mayor with pedigree does not create this. it would likely be a continuation of previous practices of former administrations as well. IIT that one/two mayors CAN/DID destroy
    Evansville General Funds!

    • At least a million flushed down the toilet on the hotel. Who is even counting anymore? They have no real auditors to worry about. Pence takes care of his own.

      • So true Ghost. You nailed it. Where did the 29 million lost dollars go and why did Russel Lloyd Jr. have to plug the books to the tune of 29 million dollars. Does the Mayor and his cronies spend the money faster than Russ can count it?

        • I’m curious if you selected your name in honor of moveon.org, the progressive site funded by George Soros. That would explain a lot.

        • The 29 million went to plug the hole caused by the fraud center complements of a democrat mayor and a democrat CC. The 29 million dollar loss was created on the Weinzapfel watch. Winnecke took over a city that has 10,000 abandon houses, close to 2000 jobs lost via the Whirlpool move, a destroyed freedom fest, a fraud/convention center with no motel that cost the city $600,000 a year out of the general fund, the Center with a bridge to nowhere, an empty stadium off the Lloyd, Mesker theater in disrepair, a million dollar loss on the McCurdy and a 50 million dollar contract with Johnson Control. Winnecke was left with an empty plate. I don’t think Winnecke has wasted any money, the first requirement to wasting money is to have money to waste. The city had a visible problem when Weinzapfel attempted to steal the homestead exemption tax, that was an incredibly stupid act that only makes sense now that we are starting realize we have financial problems. Most democrats closely aligned with the democrat party in this city have tax funded jobs and have no worries or vision past their next paycheck.

    • Does anyone know the status of:

      1) Johnson Controls; and

      2) Friend’s ordinance re: Transfers ?

    • EPD manpower is set by contract, and to my knowledge hasn’t changed for some time. I believe standing manpower is 285 sworn officers or thereabouts. EPD regularly loses a percentage of their hires to attrition during their year-long police academy and field training program. It’s a slog, and standards are strict. I’m not sure what the overall fail rate of their academy and probationary program is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 20% or thereabouts.

      SO, if we assume that over the past 10 years the EPD has not added manpower, only replaced retirees, recruits who didn’t pass standards, and officers who left for other reasons, they are replacing around 13 officers per year. That’s an overall replacement of about 5% of the force per year. It might be less – – the numbers provided in this IIT doesn’t say if that is the number of people who were hired and successfully completed their probation, or if that is the overall number of hirees, and they lost X% of that number before they hit the streets.

      Why was this information presented in the first place in the IIT? Will the CCO be presenting hiring stats for every City department in upcoming editions?

  2. Hummmmmmmm editor, you were able to get all those numbers for hire on the police department but couldn’t get the numbers for Latino and African American hires? Your downward spiral continues I see.

    • Editor don’t pay any attention to the trolls. They can’t justify most of what they say. They have no facts or figures only BS.

          • Actually I don’t. I only know of the doll that was out about 50 years ago, the fellow under the bride and someone considered to be ugly. Also it is a term using in fishing. If they gave an award for name calling instead of the use of substance in a post, you and Ghost would share the honors.

        • Trolls like Mega wear a tin foil hat. They vote for guys like Ted Cruz and come to the CCO to bash the editor on a almost daily basis. Then they bash anyone who challenges their bashing the CCO editor and publisher without any facts of their own to back up what they say. Some of these trolls even have more than one CCO account and talk to themselves in here. 🙂

          • Better at what? Negotiating with terrorist? He sure had them on the ropes when he got Bergdahl back safely. A brilliant piece of stradegy.

    • Is truly a wonderment that every post you bring announces the ineffective research of the cco, yet you never offer any of your vast knowledge. Hopefully someone in this metro area has your answers, do you rely on the cco for your total knowledge? The iit is designed to provoke productive comments among citizens, helping raise awareness to the areas problems. So far you offer little enlightenment, keep griping, it becomes you.

    • Casual, It would be interesting to see how many females, blacks and latinos applied versus how many made it through all the testing and training.

    • I think the requirements to be an Evansville Police officer is too high, I’m surprised they can find anyone who qualifies. They expect a candidate to be able to read and write at the 8th grade level to think and reason in the abstract , be physically fit, be able to pass a drug test and have no felonies and have good eye hand coordination. It is also expect that you will be aggressive and get out of the car and pursue criminals. The biggest thing is they must be able to deal with negative and odd people. A police officer will rarely if ever come in contact with a person like me, I avoid criminal behavior, follow the rules, respect them and the job they do.

  3. –It seems those who wish the CCO would go away,–keep coming to this site to predict it’s demise, and continue to use conjecture to try and validate their–“Ivory Tower Analysis”- of the CCO’s “Health”.
    The “Why” — has always been quite clear,—This “Watchdog” has a mean “Bite”.

  4. On the missing $ 395,000 Cash:

    There is an Indiana statute which says that the financial officer in charge of the fund which is missing money is to be held personally responsible. Why should we accept this/ when Jenny Jenny and Rusty could each stroke us a check for $ 197,500 and we could call it a day and move on ?

    More importantly: why didn’t SBOA pursue this missing money in Vanderburgh County, while in Delaware County they are pursuing criminal charges against the Treasurer ?

    • Who enforces those penalties? That is the problem. There is no real enforcement of the rules and there evidently is no penalties from what I have seen so far. I wish that were not true. Some one needs to go to jail.

      I did read where the SBOA recommended a certain accounting method that is suppose to be used but was not. That’s the problem .

    • IIT you are referring to the county seat of Delaware which is Muncie, then a good chance that is
      because there is a (D) is in the mayor’s seat?

      • And downtown Evansville sports bio-medical pharmaceuticals every time you have a combined sewers overflow into the living, or working spaces downtown. Oh do include the closed conditioned entertainment venues as well as the __ord center. Elite eight my foot, some vendor should sell the surgical masks at the gates. Nasty stuff,that CSO.
        Zombie utilities sporting Zombie infrastructures. Uck! It.

        http://eponline.com/articles/2013/04/01/the-effects-of-pharmaceutical-pollution-on-water-quality.aspx

        • Nearly every house hold in most cities in the USA are dumping pharmaceuticals down into the sewers via the drains coming form the house to the sewer system.

          What happens when all those different chemicals combine in the sewers and then get dumped into the creeks and rivers?

          • Hell for environmental signatures, that’s what happens and that’s exactly what needs to be stopped.

  7. Editor

    You deleted my message this morning and I simply said another day of old news. Is It True you are a socialist at heart ?

  8. The Community Organizer-in-Chief is at it again. Now he is turning his back on our NATO allies that are very concerned with Putin’s aggressive threats and Ukrainian land grab:

    “President Barack Obama reportedly will not meet with NATO’s new secretary general when he is in Washington this week, despite requests from the alliance chief’s staff for a get-together.
    …
    The report of Obama’s snub comes amid Russia’s growing willingness to test NATO’s military readiness. On Tuesday, NATO jets were scrambled after four Russian military planes were spotted flying over the Baltic Sea with their transponders turned off. Over the weekend, a Danish newspaper published remarks by the Russian ambassador to Denmark in which he hinted that Russian missiles could target Danish warships if Copenhagen joins NATO’s missile defense system. ”

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/03/25/obama-reportedly-snubs-nato-chief-as-russia-makes-new-threats-against-allies/

    Putin, convinced that Obama is a passive ally, is exporting Russian aggression to the Falkland Islands:

    ” Britain will send two troop-carrying Chinook helicopters and new surface-to-air missile system to the Falkland Islands, amid fears Russia could be arming the Argentine government.

    Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, said the Islands will be ready to repel “any potential threat” following reports that the Kremlin is preparing to lease 12 Su-24 long range bombers to Buenos Aires in exchange for beef and wheat.

    It came as Russia questioned the legitimacy of Britain’s claim on the Islands.

    Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian Ambassador in London compared the referendum held in 2013 that found 99.8 per cent of the Falkland Islanders wanted to remain a British territory to that held in Crimea last year.

    The snap Crimean referendum, held at gunpoint and used to justify Putin’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula, was denounced as a sham by Britain. ”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/falklandislands/11493134/Russia-questions-Britains-claim-to-the-Falklands-as-garrison-reinforced.html

    Meanwhile, back in the middle-east filled with Obama’s friendly Mullah’s and radical Islamists on a jihad:

    “Yemen’s descent into political chaos makes it the latest Mideast nation too dangerous for U.S. officials to operate in — a development intelligence sources say will dangerously limit America’s ability to track and target al Qaeda and other extremist terror movements in the region.
    …
    Yemen is the home base of the Sunni terrorist group, which U.S. intelligence officials have described as the most likely among jihadi organizations around the world to “attempt transnational attacks against the United States.”
    …
    A year ago, President Obama pointed to Yemen as a model for his strategy and a success story in the counterterrorism fight.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/24/yemen-chaos-leaves-us-intelligence-in-dark-on-al-q/

    Our greatest national security risk resides in the White House.

    • The President is doing a good job. He is much better than the people who want to bash him on a daily basis. Those people could not even get elected to “dog catcher”.

  9. Great IIT today. There are obviously some folks that just can’t say anything good. They are bitter and jealous the CCO continues to move forward without the negativism, slander and personal attacks of latter days. Keep up the good work CCO. You can tell the current Editor wasn’t fired by the city like the last one.

  10. For a true comparison one must know the population as well.
    Remember, some annexing went on which should have caused a need for
    more city officers & possibly less Sheriff Deputies.

    • H, I don’t think additional EPD manpower was added due to annexation. I could be wrong on that, though. See my 2:42PM post for information on staffing.

  12. It’s now official Bowe Bergdahl will be charged with desertion. The very same deserter that Obama negotiated his release for 5 high value Taliban radical Islamic leaders. Why trade a deserter for 5 of the Talibans most dangerous leaders? So Obama could claim he’d started peace talks with the Taliban. Wait, you say the Taliban didn’t make peace and pursued their radical Islamic Jihad. Who could have seen that coming?

    “The Taliban has long demanded that the “Gitmo 5” be released in order for peace talks to begin in earnest. The Obama administration has desperately sought to engage the Taliban as American forces are drawn down in Afghanistan, but those talks have gone nowhere to this point. At first, the administration set preconditions for the talks, including that the Taliban break its relationship with al Qaeda. When it became clear that this was a non-starter, the administration decided to make the Taliban’s desired break with al Qaeda a goal, and no longer a precondition, for its diplomacy.

    There is little hope that the peace talks will be more successful now. But the president seems to believe that Bergdahl’s exchange for the Gitmo 5 (who are reportedly being transferred to Qatar) may break the ice. “While we are mindful of the challenges, it is our hope Sergeant Bergdahl’s recovery could potentially open the door for broader discussions among Afghans about the future of their country by building confidence that it is possible for all sides to find common ground,” Obama said in his statement.

    The Obama administration says that security measures have been put into place to make sure that the Gitmo 5 do not pose a threat to American national security. Let’s hope that is true; it certainly has not been the case with many ex-Gitmo detainees in the past.

    http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/five-most-dangerous-taliban-commanders-us-custody-released-pow-exchange_794017.html

    Now, Obama is using his same negotiation (surrender) skills with the radical Islamic Iranian Mullahs who chant “death to America” by Obama attempting to lift their economic sanctions if they promise to more slowly enrich their uranium for “peaceful purposes”:

    On Monday, the White House dismissed Ayatollah Khamenei’s “Death to America” rhetoric, telling CNN that it was “intended for a domestic political audience.” That comment came on the heels of White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explaining that such rhetoric provided even more reason for negotiating a deal with the Iranian regime.

    At the same time that the White House essentially blew off Ayatollah Khamenei’s “Death to America” routine, the White House deliberately misinterpreted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments the day before and the day of his re-election in Israel. Apparently the things said during an election do not constitute electioneering; the things said in a country that has not had free elections for three decades constitute electioneering. Welcome to the delusional anti-Semitic world of the Obama administration, where Palestinian diplomats can refuse to disassociate from Hamas, and Iran can openly embrace the destruction of America and Israel, but it’s the Jews who need to be clubbed into line.

    http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/03/24/white-house-on-ayatollahs-death-to-america-intended-for-domestic-political-audience/

    At this point, it is fair to ask whose side Obama is on.

    • Remember Obama’s former Secretary of State repeatedly telling us the Bowe Bergdahl was “captured on the battlefield” and served with “honor and distinction”.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi9MZJ517Bw

      First the Obama administration at the highest level lied about Benghazi and now they lied about Bergdahl. Whose side is Obama on?

      I

          • You are an internal anarchist JB what you keep hijacking opinions for is old and a no valued BS rant. We’d advise you and the other diversion posters from that failed governance too just stop the hijack its being scored as well as those whom are participating in that mess.
            It really has no useful purpose other than diverting board matters from the locally finagled obvious.
            Guess what its not working ,almost as bad as the local southwestern Indiana utility infrastructure set for sewer and water. Every post is a pointed arrow to the core of the actual problem there. The POTUS has no dump on that, its all locally driven and it continuous to suck hind teat.

          • Chilling indeed, Joe. I was struck by Obama breaking out in an ear to ear grin as Bergdahl’s father praised Allah in Arabic in the Rose Garden.

          • Desertion may be a no value bs rant to you, v, but it’s not to those who have served in the military.

          • Flapping sense , you stupid little non strategic asshole , you have no frigging idea of what serving really is . I , and others do. No little political blog will take that away . And as far as you go. Your a piece, and everybody there knows it , first shot into a fight ballet you’d puss out and run. Its what you do, and everybody knows that as well. Frigging bald headed addicted creep.

          • V,

            It seems to me that he is using your old tactics. Remember way back when (last year) when you would post your global warming/climate change BS every day, even when nothing in the column mentioned such drivel? Plus you would post your little videos and your dictionary cut/paste garbage, just so you could try and seem intelligent and in an attempt to fool everyone into gazing upon your imagined greatness. As usual you cry when the tables are turned on you. Typical leftist tripe.

            By the way, nice composure there. I believe that is grounds for the post to be removed according to the editor, the way you demeaned commonsense. Yet they have not done so. Could it be V’s consortium is in control of the CCO now. LOL

      • Remember when the former GOP secretary of state Jim Baker said that those who wrote the letter to the President of Iran were wrong and should not have sent that letter to the Iranians?

  13. IIT that GOP Senator Ted Cruz from TX has signed up for Obama Care? Ha ha. Now that’s ironic considering he wants to abolish Obama Care.

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