IS IT TRUE? July 1, 2011

IS IT TRUE…that the City County Observer strives for good public policy?…that one of our most preferred methods to strive for good public policy is through the use of questions?…that the CCO seeks to ask the questions and exposed the malfeasances that others for some reason are reluctant to ask?…that sometimes we already have the answers and use this method to release the truth to our community?…that sometimes operatives try to send us incorrect information to further their own agendas?…that we try very hard to screen incorrect information and for the most part are successful in doing so?…that sometimes something that is not quite perfect does sneak through but not very often?…that if we make a mistake we will always acknowledge it and do our best to correct it?…that E. Lon Walters, candidate for the Evansville City Council made the following post on his Facebook status yesterday?

No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions.—Charles P. Steinmetz

IS IT TRUE that we agree wholeheartedly with Dr. Steinmetz and commend candidate Walters for posting that for all to see?…that it is the failure to ask the tough questions by the Evansville City Council, the Evansville Redevelopment Commission, and local mainstream media that has aided and abetted the insufficient processes of VETTING that has led to the present situation with the downtown Convention Hotel, the McCurdy, and a host of other ill-advised pieces of governance?…that Steinmetz is a particularly appropriate person to quote in the way that he was quoted because he is famous in electrical engineering circles for not only formulating the questions concerning the use of alternating current and hysteresis but also implement the solution to these problems?…that Evansville has needed people and entities to ask the tough questions of local government for a long time now?…that the courage of curiosity is finally beginning to set in with some citizens?…that with the next administration will come an opportunity for some citizens with solutions to step forward and be heard as well?

IS IT TRUE that the CCO has asked many questions regarding the insufficient VETTING process and the disparities between the COSTS and the MARKET VALUE of the new Downtown Convention Hotel?…that big glaring difference in what happened in Fort Wayne and in Evansville is that Fort Wayne has a hotel and Evansville is still holding a rabbit’s foot and crossing its fingers that a financial rabbit will be pulled out of a hat?…that the cost to build a hotel in Fort Wayne and in Evansville is substantially equal?…that the financial incentive package that the City of Fort Wayne offered to White Lodging had a value of between $25 Million and $32 Million depending on how things like parking places and sidewalks are valued?…that the financial incentive package offered by the City of Evansville to Woodruff Hospitality LLC was between $8M and $15M depending on how some of the extras like land and sky bridges are valued?…that Fort Wayne was willing to offer a richer deal by roughly $17 Million?…that this is a sufficient difference to make a package financeable in a way that the developer/operator of a downtown Convention Hotel can sustain a business?

IS IT TRUE that Fort Wayne has a hotel and Evansville has a broken pile of rocks?

IS IT TRUE that White Lodging that was the developer of the Fort Wayne hotel currently has 162 hotels under management 33 of which are in the State of Indiana?…that White Lodging has hotels in 19 states including every border state to Indiana?…that White Lodging is headquartered in Merrillville, Indiana?…that White Lodging submitted a bid to be the developer of the downtown Evansville Convention Hotel?…that the bid from White Lodging was asking for a financial package that closely resembled the agreement that they received in Fort Wayne?…that White Lodging has experience in building and operating hotels?…that there is a very high probability that if White Lodging had been chosen that today there would be a vibrant construction project going on where that pile of concrete, rebar, and guano that was the Executive Inn sits?…that the pile of rubble currently fowls the view of the MLK Entertainment Complex sits as a monument to the governance of the City of Evansville for failing to follow Dr. Steinmetz’s advice and ask the right questions at the right time?…that the time is now to ask even tougher questions lest the ruse will continue?