IS IT TRUE August 1, 2013
IS IT TRUE that a former high ranking State of Indiana official has resigned from his position in the wake of allegations of changing the grade earned by a charter school from a C to an A?…the players in this recent scandal are not from Evansville and have no ties to Information Technology assessment but the allegations are quite similar?…former Indiana Schools Superintendant, Tony Bennett has resigned from his appointed position reporting to the Governor of Florida in the wake of the alleged grade changing that is said to have occurred during his time in Indiana?…Mr. Bennett asserts his innocence and no criminal charges have been filed but even the allegation of changing a grade for a crony has driven him from his position?…we will be interested to see how this plays out and do support accountability for those who cover the tracks of their cronies by deceiving the public when it comes to earned grades of any kind from education to IT assessment?
IS IT TRUE there is a new Facebook page that has been set up by some Evansville people that is quite amusing?…the site is called “Scooter People of Evansville†and features odd uses of scooters as primary transportation and asks readers to “caption†the pictures?…one of the funniest pictures shows a fellow pulling a canoe with a scooter and appears to be on North First Avenue?…this is patterned after the free entertainment website called www.peopleofwalmart.com that features all sorts of zany characters that shop at WalMart stores across the country?…that “Scooter People of Evansville†has collected 4,500 likes in its short time in existence?
IS IT TRUE that the last several days of having reviewed the contents of both the April 8th McGladrey study and the July version of the McGladrey study has led the CCO to wonder just what checks and balances have been in place over the last several years with respect to the IT solutions implemented by the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County?…one would expect that there would be a standing committee or even a commission established of competent people to report to elected officials on the performance of the IT solutions implemented AND more importantly to chart a strategic course for future upgrades?…given the budget and importance of IT in the operation of a city it would be astounding if there has never been any such oversight group formed?…this is a subject of interest that we are going to ask some questions about?
IS IT TRUE that IT solutions may not be the only part of local government that needs its governance reviewed for competency?…the impact that the City and County have on local surrogate organizations that were set up to be at arm’s length like Evansville Brownfields, GAGE, and the CVB all could use a third party assessment of just how exposed local government could be by exerting an undue amount of influence making these entities “alter egos†of local government or even certain elected officials?…the McGladrey studies results may just be the catalyst to investigate the efficacy of each and every thing the City of Evansville has influence over?…it is sort of comical for a City that has dilapidated sewers, pot holes galore, needles in the parks, but continues to spend money like a drunken sailor could be granted much influence over anything?
IS IT TRUE it is time for the people of Evansville to force the Office of the Mayor to operate in a transparent manner and to honor the separation of powers between the Mayor and the City Council?…the time for errors and buffoonery like Earthcare Energy, the McCurdy debacle, the Executive Inn dilemma, the $603k parking lot, McGladreyGate, and the recent controversy over crosses on the riverfront where a sneaky tactic initiated by local government led to an ACLU lawsuit that the City of Evansville lost hands down?…there has just been too much utter incompetency to tolerate?…we are interested to see if the people of Evansville are interested enough to do anything about it?
Anyone notice that C&P put the Computer Services response to the draft online? No fanfare, no UPDATED story or anything. Doesn’t make good news I guess.
We have not seen that. If CS sends us the response we will gladly post it too.
Yeah, it is isn’t a separate story. They just posted the PDF on the original draft story. The article isn’t marked updated either.
The Report
http://media.courierpress.com/media/static/PPT_Response_to_McGladrey_Report.pdf
The Original Story
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2013/jul/30/consultants-draft-report-was-critical-local-govern/
Interesting. This 114 page ppt presentation that rebuts much of the McGladrey study is worthy of being published. It is also the property of a private business and is stamped with “confidential” and “draft” warnings all over. We would need written permission from Mark Rolley to publish this rebuttal. If it exceeds 2MB our platform will not accept it but we welcome an article from Mr. Rolley and will publish without edit, opinion, or bias.
You can use a free file sharing service like http://www.fileswap.com/ to host the file if it’s too big, then just post a link to the file.
I checked out that Scooter page on FB… It’s apparent to me whoever runs it is being promoted by radio stations and funded by insurance companies looking to capitalize on the recent state decision to license, tax, and require insurance for scooters even though their power capabilities are on par with bicycles. Of course, I fervently disagree with requiring licensure, taxation, or insurance for these low-powered vehicles on city streets.
While it’s amusing to see someone toting a canoe, a refrigerator, and lawn service equipment behind their scooter, the reality must be pretty bleak for the people doing it. That page seems to be making fun of poor people just trying to get by the best they can, for being frugal, for living within their means.
If anything, it should cause lawmakers to pause and reflect on why the State of Indiana sees fit to hit poor people while they’re down by requiring that their only affordable mode of transport must be licensed, taxed, and insured. Most of the photos are pretty pedestrian, showing people simply riding a scooter with captions that berate them for not having a government sticker.
Here is a little known fact. People with multiple DUI’s and a suspended license can ride scooters at will. What do you think about that?
I am aware of that fact. It doesn’t bother me since even riding a bicycle drunk on a city street is a punishable offense even without a license, tax sticker, or insurance.
You, like most lawmakers, seem to be confusing cause and effect relationships a little bit. Simply being convicted of a DUI in a car doesn’t necessarily mean the offender will ride a scooter drunk, and even if he does, an LEO still has all the same tools to stop him with or without all the above-mentioned government fundraising efforts. All taxes, licenses, and forced insurance achieves is making scooters a more expensive proposition, which hurts poor people the most.
Good luck getting it through that channel. I doubt that Mr. Rolley would risk it.
I would say that this report was submitted to the City and County and should be under the same rules as what Mr. Danks released to C&P.
McGladrey is a private company and their draft that they DIDN’T want released got out. This is from another PRIVATE company that does business with the City and County.
It should be FOIA-able (or what-have-you).
Probably correct. As no government official has given us the file we are still nervous about posting it. With the McGladrey study (both of them) our source was a government insider as it was with the CP. If Mr. Danks gives us the file we will do our best to post it.
In regards to Mr. Rolley, by the time Mr. Danks gets through this, obvious cover-up and torturous interference, from the usual suspects, Mr. Rolley’s response report will be well-known.
The ANCS rebuttal of the initial draft report – if that is indeed what I’m reading here in this PDF – is interesting.
http://media.courierpress.com/media/static/PPT_Response_to_McGladrey_Report.pdf
Having worked in IT and help desk positions before, I can corroborate much of this rebuttal. It is true that many on the other end of a help desk call can fail to understand the true reasons for delays or failures of a system and simply correlate problems with the help desk, when in fact, much of the time the problems can come from user error or third party provider error.
The initial McGladrey findings I’m seeing here seem extremely vague, and certainly not worth the $112k payday they got for the study in March. I can understand why an Administration would, upon receiving that, come to the table and demand they do more to complete the study if that was what they provided.
On the flipside, I cannot understand why the Administration was so precious with the April 8 document, refusing to share it with everyone. If anything, it should have cast doubt on McGladrey, not the Administration, and not Rolley had they simply cooperated. Now, it just looks like they are protecting Rolley from criticism. This perception could have been avoided with their full cooperation and release of all documents at the outset.
Trying to hide something or claim privilege only makes people suspicious – often for good reason. However you slice it, no matter who you believe, this is quickly turning into another good example of this Administration’s deftness at arousing suspicion and failing to be transparent.
McGladrey
The Weinzapfel–Mark Rolley connection is well established. One has to wonder about security on the system and what sort of access Weinzapfel had to information, including phone records, emails, or anything else held in the system that he might have had a personal interest in.
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Tony Bennett
The Miami Herald 8-1-2013
[snip]
Bennett, a nationally recognized education reformer, came on board after losing reelection in Indiana.
His tenure encountered some early bumps in June, when superintendents leaned on him to institute a “safety net†to prevent school grades from dropping dramatically. Bennett had some misgivings, but ultimately conceded.
The exercise sparked a statewide dialogue about the validity of school grades, which dipped despite the padding. One member of the state Board of Education questioned if the state had to release grades at all.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/01/3535902/amid-grading-controversy-florida.html#storylink=cpy
[snip]
Quick, someone call the Associated Press Political Reporter for Indiana, Tom LoBianca, and inform him that school corporation superintendents in Florida lobbied Tony Bennett to change their grades, and Bennett did it.
This is a much larger story than one about a single charter school in Indiana!
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I did not know until recently that Tony Bennett’s wife took employment with an association of charter schools. The same association that Bennett had hired to run charter schools taken over by Indiana during his tenure here.
That is certainly an ethical lapse of the first order and I believe his stepping down in Florida was the right decision.
I will always thank him for returning Indiana to the A to F grading system, and hope that we never again see such an obscure mess as the previous system used for grading.
I fear however that the teacher’s unions and their media partners will continue to push to return to that failed system.
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