IS IT TRUE April 20, 2012

IS IT TRUE that the six opportunities that have floated to the top of the Roberts Stadium committee are scheduled to be released today?…that whatever these six end up being and whatever the end result for Roberts Stadium turns out to be it seems to have gone through a time tested VETTING process that was carried out in public so that the people of Evansville know the process, will have seen the opportunities, the costs, and the benefits associate with each of the opportunities?…that the forthcoming report is a result of a collaborative community effort that has had sufficient time to do both discovery and due diligence?…that in today’s Courier and Press Mayor Winnecke is quoted as saying the following:

“I said this during the campaign, I want to make a good, data driven decision,” Winnecke said. “I still think that, and I think it should be what’s best for the city financially.”

IS IT TRUE that the reported costs to operate Roberts Stadium so far in 2012 was reported to be $55,754 that is well below the budget for the year of $127,235 according to City Controller Russell Lloyd Jr.?…at this rate of spending and assuming the numbers were for the first quarter that on about August 1st Roberts will reach the point that its budget has all been spent?…that gives any eventual implementation 14 weeks to make the transition from study to action whereby some new budget or hopefully some private entity can take this asset off of the City of Evansville’s balance sheet?…that it seems as though the drum beating of Roberts costing well over $400,000 per year to mothball were off by nearly 100% when this year’s actual costs are used?…that was another Mayor’s assertion at another time and that we are not surprised that the legacy operational costs were overstated?

IS IT TRUE that when Mayor Winnecke stated during his campaign that he wanted to make good data driven decisions that lead to what is best for the city financially that we assumed he was talking about all of his executive decisions and not just the dispensation of Roberts Stadium?…that we have to ask where the data and the transparency are with respect to the Earthcare Energy deal?…that we are also interested in what Evansville City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr. who has diligently counted the pennies over at Roberts Stadium thinks about the quality of the investment summary of Earthcare Energy?…that we wonder if a team of 15 private citizens were convened to collaborate for three months with the charge to VET the investment summary, the market prospects, the management team, and the technology that Earthcare Energy is proposing would come back with an affirmative recommendation?

IS IT TRUE that if the surrogates of the City of Evansville like GAGE and the Evansville City Council will not take the time to do proper VETTING or insist on hiding behind a corporate veil of a separate non-profit to negotiate on behalf of the City that a blue ribbon committee is probably the only way that a data driven decision that is best financially for the City of Evansville that is conducted in a transparent process will happen?…that we are shocked that the City of Evansville obsesses and allocates the resources to VET and manage an aging facility that costs less than $250,000 per year to operate take a secretive and cavalier approach to approving a $4.8 Million loan to an unproven company to build a product that has yet to see a single installed unit paid for by a customer?

IS IT TRUE that Mayor Winnecke is talking out of both sides of his mouth with this whole transparency and data driven decision speech unless he applies the same logic to all decisions?…that Mayor Winnecke’s campaign broke new ground with campaign promises of a deliberative approach to things like tech transfer and angel investing?…that since taking office when it comes to investing that the due diligence that angel investors apply has been thrown to the wind in favor of a secretive and populist anti-vetting process that has divided the Evansville City Council and raised stern questions within the investment community?…that this deal has the potential to take down the self proclaimed Great Collaborator’s administration for failing to collaborate?

IS IT TRUE that it will soon be time to start asking the four members of the City Council who opposed this loan what their reasons for opposition were?…that maybe some information is available now that was either hidden or suppressed prior to the vote that would have made a difference in the outcome?…once again the people who are paid or appointed to VET have failed to do so and private VETTING efforts are making up for those failures and for the veil of secrecy hiding them?