EARTHCARE ENERGY DEAL IS DEAD!

1. Thank you CCO! Your diligence in exposing this and the other “gates” of Evansville has once again saved the taxpayers of Evansville millions of dollars. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

   • But for the CCO, the posters here and Council members SBR and McGinn, the $4.8 million scam would have been rammed through. Thanks to all for what is in effect a TEA Party grass roots movement for fiscally responsible City government.

     • Get over it!!!! The tea party can not claim this. This was a bipartisan (really a non-partisan) victory.

       • I haven’t read MainStreetDemo posting history to know whether or not he is a TEA partisan. But I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and just paraphrase him to say this was a “grass roots” effort that paid off. We shouldn’t taint this great success by misdirecting the credit for it.

         Thank you again, CCO for keeping this story going and special thanks to SBR for her diligence.

         • Jeff, you are correct. I only meant that it was a TEA party type grass roots movement by fed up taxpayers over the arrogance and idiocy of most of the City Counsel and their GAGE sidekick. All credit to stopping this scam goes to the City Council members either smart enough and/or honest enough to oppose this scam, the CCO and don’t underestimate the taxpayers revolt through the postings and contact with the Mayor’s office.

2. Thank God, the CCO, and Winnecke that we dodged the Earthcare Energy bullet.

   • One of these things is not like the others.

     One of these things is responsible for bringing this miserable turd of a deal to the table in the first place.

     • um…yup-and it is not CCO, nor is it Our Lord, and Savior-whom never wants for us to make shifty deals with sketchy entities while the citizens are screaming “NOOOOOO”….

       Great job, CCO.

   • Winnecke??? If he had his way, the deal would have been completed… Thanks to Council woman Briley for stopping this scam…

3. This website in my view HAS to be commended!
   Would we have had this type of info before the internet was a news source? Probably not.

4. I wouldn’t cross that money taking bridge this morning Ms Dewey. You deserve a day off.

5. CCO, take a bow, your fledgling blog clearly prevented this bad investment from being made. However, kind of wish you had just let it go forward and fail . . . failure may have been the only thing which gets enough attention drawn to the fact that the city has NO MECHANISM whatsover for analyzing these job-creating loans. Now everyone will just sit back and wait for one person (SBR) to spend 100 hours researching each deal ! Stephanie–clear that vacation calendar . . . there could be another one coming down the pike any day now !

   • Yes. The blog that Debbie Doobie wouldn’t give the time of day to was instrumental in killing her prized deal. Poetic justice isn’t it?

     • Comment removed by staff

       • Name-calling is not the way to approach this situation. It needs to be addressed with thoughtfulness and professionalism. Her arrogance and dismissal of her critics needs publicly challenged. Maybe she can learn from her errors. I think she should be fired, but I am willing to have the light of openness shine on her shenanigans.

         I think it is easy for public officials (and quasi-public officials) to be overly enthusiastic when presented with “too good to be true” offers of jobs and prosperity. They need to learn from this blunder.

   • Beerguy,
     You have hit it. Now maybe the CCO and others should demand and help to draw up requirements for how the Casino money is spent on “job creation” stating what is in bounds and what is clearly out. Then GAGE, if it continues to operate, will have rules and regulations to follow, and the less informed members of the city council will not vote poorly because proposals brought before them will have been properly screened.

     • 292,

       I am advocating for the City Council to create a pool of money so that they can hire an out-of-state CPA firm, who is completely impartial, to analyze all future deals and provide to the Council the good, the bad & the ugly on every proposal, plus a recommendation (i.e., what would the CPA firm do if it was their money?). The decision itself would of course be left to Council. By doing this, the Council will have received professional advice with which to make a solid decision. Where to find the money ? Complete the IT audit, fire the no-bid firm Mark Rolley Consulting, and have plenty of money for both IT and Council finanical advisory assistance.

       • Like it. Whom would one contact to support this idea? Calm heads and sound minds are needed.

6. Another reason why this website is needed. The Courier “Doesn’t take sides”, even though there is a dominate side to take.

   It’s like we have people in Evansville calling the sky purple and the C&P swallows it and reports that the sky is purple without questions.

   Wow! No objectivity whatsoever.

   Debbie Dewey is next!

   DD

   • Don’t give the C&P too much undeserved credit. It is a skeleton crew and the few people there have political agendas/mindsets (like Langhorne) or else are well-meaning goofballs who cow-tow to whoever can provide them with “news” to fill space.

     Don’t scorn C&P…pity them. They are on a slowly sinking ship and not brave enough to abandon it.

7. Thank you to the CCO and Councilwoman Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley. My hope is that the CCO continue putting pressure for the city to eliminate GAGE’s funding. At minimumg it should never be forgotten that Dewey, Mayor Winnecke, and the 5 City Council reps recommended/voted for this when anyone with a brain bigger than the size of a pea should have known it was bad deal. Not only did endorse/vote for it, but continued to defend the deal despite being smacked in the face with overwhelming evidence that the deal was crap. Remember these people the next time they come up for re-election.

   • First, I want to thank CCO for ajob well done. You did something the CP didn’t have the guts to do and that is report the news.Also,a big THANKS to Stephanie for doing the job that Gage should have done.The Mayor should give Dewey the option of resigning or being fired.She didn’t {hasn’t}perfomed her job sense being in that office.DISBAND GAGE and start with a new organization with guide lines and a new board. GAGE track record so for: Cancel Freedom Fest, Cancel Christmas Parade, and past board $3200 party just to name a few.

     • It doesn’t appear that the mayor will distance himself from Dewey and GAGE as they are holding a joint press conference at 3:30 this afternoon, on Diamond Ave, to announce yet another plan to bring jobs to Evansville.

8. Smells like that Big Doobie got smoked.

9. Well done CCO. If not for CCO bringing this debacle to light in the first place, nothing would have been done to properly research this ‘deal.’ A round of applause to Stephanie Brinkeroff Riley as well, for due diligence and real representation of constituents. As for the Courier & Press and local tv — too little, too late, and perfect illustration of the decline in traditional media. Hopefully our City Council, Mayor’s office, and GAGE have learned something about truth, transparency, and proper governance.

10. Great job CCO and Councilwoman Brinkerhoff-Riley!
    Now for all the county residences: Do you really want this City of Evansville pack of Bozos running the county’s business? Vote no for consolidation in November!

    • Well put. If the reorganization is passed the mayor will haveALL boards under his control, a majority of APPOINTED cronies on each board/counsel to “serve” at his approval or be replaced. And we thought Weinie acted like king john. Off topic I was VERY disappointed with Williams endorsement of consolidation-merger-vandigov-unigov-reorganization. One more incombent to work against.

      • Basically, the mayor (city executive) already controls the majority of appointment to city boards now, as do the county commissioners (the county’s executive branch) exert majority control of the boards to which they appoint members.

        While there are reasons why merger of city and county governments might benefit the citizens, my objections to the current plan include, but are not limited to, a few issues as follows:

        * A better plan would be to follow the county government model with a 3-member executive board (county commissioners), but then have them appoint a professional city manager. That model seems to work well with EVSC – an elected executive board who hires a professional administrator. It also provides more diversity with checks and balances at the top executive and policy making level.

        * If you’re going to call it a merger of government, then merge all the major offices, agencies, and boards that perform like functions. I mean what’s with calling it a merger, but not merging the city police with the county sheriff’s dept., or not merging all fire departments, or having county offices individually performing the same or similar tasks?

        * The vertically aligned, top down, strong mayor, boss hog form of municipal government is a completely archaic, burgermeister, horse and buggy, pre-constitutional, European holdover form of government. Go modern, or go home.

11. It is an insult to Bozo to be compared to Weaver and Mosby.

12. I guess the CCO does not need to worry about revising their FOIA request now. Dewey can keep her records now that they are worthless.

13. It’s Live!

    http://firedebbiedewey.com

    • I think a better way to handle the GAGE problems that are personified in Ms. Dewey is to have a totally independent firm draw up regulations that must be followed when GAGE attempts to “bring jobs to Evansville.”

14. Regardless of how he came to his decision, kudos to Mayor Winnecke for listening to the taxpayers. Whether he pulled the plug because he finally recognized the illegitimacy of the “deal” or he did it just to save face, he did it and I thank him.

    • Let us known when the Mayor collects the $184,000 currently owe by Earthcare?

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