In an anticipated move today the Loan Administration Board voted by a margin of 3 – 1 – 1 to extend the due date of the $200,000 Earthcare Energy loan to March 1, 2016. This date will fall after the next city election cycle and 2 months after the next Mayor has been sworn in.
Connie Robinson voted NO and Evansville Commerce Bank employee Luke Yeager failed to register a vote. GAGE President Debbie Dewey was joined by Greg Wathen and the representative from Banterra Bank in voting YES.
Dewey was vocal about supporting the extension stating that the only reason the company had not gotten any traction was because of bad press. There was no mention of other companies who signed onto the Langston device from Houston, Reno, and Canada that have also failed to successfully introduce any of the products anywhere.
In a statement that sent shudders through the attendees Ms. Dewey and City Attorney Ted Ziemer stated that “this is not taxpayer money it is federal money”. It was pointed out that all federal money is taxpayer money to no avail.
Five City Council members (Friend, Robinson, Lindsey, Riley, and O’Daniel) showed up and were chided by Mr. Ziemer for being in violation of Sunshine laws even though they did not arrive together and had no opportunity to vote.
In perhaps the most confrontational moment of the night Mayor Winnecke’s Chief of Staff, Steve Schaefer showed contempt for the City Council members in attendance and when asked about their resolve to rescind the $4.8 Million loan agreement commented “Do It” loud enough to disrupt the discussions. At the end of the meeting after the loan had been extended Mr. Schaefer was immediately on the phone, supposedly with Mayor Winnecke whom had expressed his support for the extension.
Most mainstream media did not cover this event.
WE ARE EVANSVILLE!
Of course, WE ARE SUCKERSVILLE..
Wayne how proud of your leadership are you now? Winnecke must be at 90% approval rating by now?
There has to be some sort of deadline by which movement on this project must take place, or the money must be returned to the granting agency.
WHAT IS THE DATE?????
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March of 2016?
BS
Good luck on getting city council to approve the funding.
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Just don’t get what all these political hacks attachment to Earthcare is.
If this does not get some people to go to next week’s council meeting and voice support for rescinding the $4.8 M and to rage against the contempt these people (Winnecke, Ziemer, Dewey, Schaefer) showed for the people of this community then Evansville is not worth spit. Wallow in your sewers, watch your silly games, and keep letting your elected officials plunder your treasury. I will watch from Marrietta next week but if you people don’t express your distaste for this stuff I am done reading the CCO, the CP and everything else about this moronic little settlement where I was raised.
Maybe Mr. Haney knows a few things about how the original deal was transacted that some people would rather keep quiet. Give me another 2 years, or else!
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Well this is good news. Don’t ya see, this is the plan to bring jobs to Evansville. Now every huckster will in the country and if luck form overseas (those Nigerians have tons o money stashed in banks) will be flocking here to pitch their spiel which means……. they will need hotel rooms. Finally, something created by Evansville politicians will make a profit.
That will give downtown a real “cosmopolitan flair”, finally.
Mmmm, I was hope for more of an international flair. But I’ll settle for cosmopolitan.
Thank God I’m out of that sh!thole town. What an utter clown show.
CCO will you please submit a freedom of information request to find out how much all the victims of EPD brutality have gotten in settlements since Bolin has been chief?
“In perhaps the most confrontational moment of the night Mayor Winnecke’s Chief of Staff, Steve Schaefer showed contempt for the City Council members in attendance and when asked about their resolve to rescind the $4.8 Million loan agreement commented “Do It†loud enough to disrupt the discussions.”
This is shocking to me. The idea that the Mayor’s “Chief of Staff” would behave this way toward members of the City Council. The first Mayor Lloyd created the position, then called the “Mayor’s Administrative Assistant” for Randy Shepard, who went on to become Indiana Supreme Court Justice.
Maybe the City Council should change Mr. Schaefer’s job title and description and cut the pay by about 50% in the next budget, as they will obviously be having to find ways to cut costs.
Good job, CCO!
Let SBR make the motion and invite themayor and dirtbag Steve to attend so it wasn’t done behind their back. Get the TV cameras there so everybody an see their faces. “Do it!!!!”]
I’m stunned. It was Dewey and Ziemer who pushed the Earthcare deal on City Council in the first place. Today they pushed the Evansville Loan Board to give Earthcare an additional 2 years to repay this $200,000 subsidized loan by the taxpayers of this community.
Please -please-please CCO on behalf of your good conservative readers please take Ziemer and Dewey to task. Both should be stopped from serving the masses in Government they exhibited disregard towards the taxpayers of this community.
If I have a questionable loan and want a bank to approved it I now know where to go. The answer is Banntera Bank and Evansville Commerce Bank. All I shall do is ask for the banking Executives that serve on the Evansville Loan Administration Board to do the vetting of my commercial loan.
Luke Yeager and Chris Rutledge have proven today that they are tools of the Winnecke Administration. No banker would ever approve something like this. They are destined to be koozee buyers like Winnecke was when he was calling himself a banker.
Hey, the Courier finally did a story on the Earthcare default. Go carpet bomb those water packing motherf*^&%$# with comments.
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2014/mar/03/loan/
And drive up their hit count? Ignore them like yesterday’s news.
Now I know why the Mayor can’t fund the police and fire overtime comp pay for this year. They waste money on bad loans.
Let’s back up for a second. How did Winnecke ever have legal permission to loan anybody money????
Isn’t the city council supposed to have complete control over the city’s finances?? No checks are to be written no cash deposited without their oversight or delegation thereof.
Who signed the check to begin with? Where’s the backup documentation?
This is a loan committee for the EDA (Econ. Dev. Auth. I think- there are so many). They are 5 mayoral appointments with the ability to loan funds within a particular criteria. These are supposed to be high risk loans, and there is no check other than the loan guidelines. For some reason this committee struggles to find applicants. They apparently need stupid ideas from out-of-town folks.
Our mayor was a former banker. Banks don’t make loan mistakes. If loans go south, they invent fees to spread their losses. Problem solved.
I was told that Debbie Dewey make about $!20,000 a year not including benefits. Let’s see the Windmill mfg. company left owing the taxpayers about $183,000 and now Earthcare $200,000 loan to the city can’t be repaid to the tax payers of this community. The Mayor is paying this Dewey lady a yearly salary more than he makes. Whats wrong with this picture?
Surely there is some loophole having to do with this Loan Administration Board having “Federal Money”, but I don’t know. It’s definitely a question worth asking. I expect Councilwoman Brinkerhof-Riley would know the answer.
This was meant as a reply to BB.
John Friend for Mayor.
Mike Goebel for Mayor.
“Strong” city council to appoint/elect city manager, while voters elect the “weak” mayor for photo ops!
Dewey was for the extension? Could be the Stockholm syndrome of bad investments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
Just shameful.
Leadership?–Nothing but LOW DOWN SCUM, completely without a shred of integrity!—If this all Evansville’s Leadership pool has to offer today, and for the future, the only answer is to get the Hell out of Evansville people!–
There is–NO STOPPING–these DESPICABLE CREEPS.
“Dewey was vocal about supporting the extension stating that the only reason the company had not gotten any traction was because of bad press.”
“In a statement that sent shudders through the attendees Ms. Dewey and City Attorney Ted Ziemer stated that “this is not taxpayer money it is federal moneyâ€
WOW! It’s not tax payer money it’s federal money???!!!!!!! You guys could make Mother Theresa cuss! Where the %*##! do you think federal money comes from? IDIOTS!
And Dippity Dewey, “bad press?” From whom, the CP? I guess tinkers like me and other professional engineers begging you to look closer at this snake oil scam was just bad press. Aren’t you an engineer? You claim to be an engineer and you’re overpaid enough to buy yourself a calculator and run the numbers. Do you think if the numbers worked anywhere other than the University of Nevada’s basement “bad press” could keep good investors away?!!!
The un-teachables
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on8dIlN2RjA
Extend the payments to 2050. After all, we have his signature boilerplated on Charmin, the document paper of those in the know.
Could be a forgery. Haney’s always been known as a Great Northern Ultra Plush man. It’s the standard parchment of conmen. First sign of a grand jury convening and it self immolates.
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