IS IT TRUE December 2, 2014

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IS IT TRUE BREAKING NEWS!…the Mole Nation has confirmed that Jack Schriber will be announcing a run for an at-large seat on the Evansville City Council?…this writer has known Jack for years and is encouraged to learn of his candidacy?…Jack Schriber was instrumental in the excellence off the performing arts in the EVSC in his many years of service and keeps himself current on local, state and world affairs?…what we do not know is what party Jack will be running under but in this case party does not matter?…having a choice that comes from a position of excellence of performance and service is a positive choice that the people of Evansville will have the opportunity to consider?

IS IT TRUE the first two paragraphs are from the IIT from October 16, 2012 and are republished because one of our readers has alerted us that the minutes for the City Council meeting of October 15, 2012 have vanished from the official records that one can access online at the City of Evansville website?…if this is truly the case the is a clear violation of trust and furthermore is worthy of impeachment for any official involved in scrubbing public testimony about public spending?

IS IT TRUE that former Evansville City Controller Jenny Collins was back before the City Council last night to answer questions posed by the membership about just how the MIPS software program integration was botched, who was involved in it, and who knew that the books of the City of Evansville had not been balanced during all of 2011?…the most illuminating admission of Ms. Collins’s testimony was when she clearly stated after some fairly strong questioning that former Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel knew all about it?…she of course did not utter his name but she clearly testified that “her boss” knew about it?…the signature authorizing the $50,000 for consultants to dumb down the program and fix the botched integration came through the chain of command of the Public Works board headed by union boss Jack McNeely?…that at least we all know now and now it will be up to the City Council to decide what if anything should be done about it?

IS IT TRUE many of our readers who were watching were confused by the way Councilman Jonathan Weaver seemed to try to obstruct the investigation even overtly demanding that Councilman Dr. Dan Adams cease with the tough questions?…Councilman Adams response to Weaver was basically to tell him to shut his mouth in a slightly more civil way?…our readership has expressed the question of whether Mr. Weaver was elected by and is working for the people of Evansville or by former Mayor Weinzapfel and a consultant or two?…elected officials do need to be reminded on occasion that the voters put them into office as opposed to one or two puppet masters who encouraged them and helped them run their campaigns?…that Mr. Weaver has seemed pretty independent before last night but is by no means the only elected official in Evansville that seems determined to cover the tracks for cover-ups of the past?

IS IT TRUE while we are on a trip down memory lane, on Sunday the Desert Sun published the first installment of a feature they are calling “Gangsters in Paradise” about the sordid fact that lots of mobsters kept homes in the Coachella Valley?…it was a real surprise to this writer to recognize the car bomb incident in which Ray Ryan was killed in Evansville on the front page?…it was also a surprise to learn that the mob never “whacked” their victims in the Coachella Valley because they valued the beauty and tranquility too much for such dirty work?…the classic difference in these two places that I have called home was emphasized in the story with the quote attributed to a Chicago mobster named Califano “Ryan has got to go, but it can’t happen in the Coachella Valley, Evansville proves to be just the right location?”… Here is a link to the story for those who are interested into a first hand account of that curious murder from 1977?

http://www.desertsun.com/longform/life/entertainment/2014/11/30/palm-springs-gangsters-in-paradise/19040507/

IS IT TRUE economic reports are starting to show some positive data for the hotel business in general with both occupancy and rack rates increasing slightly?…the same is not true for conventions which continue to decline even with the overall economic improvements?…it seems as though Evansville is poised to bet the farm on a losing proposition yet again?…this time they have dragged the collective genius of the Old National Bank into the fracus by getting them to drop $14 million on the worthless naming rights for the Centre?…the City of Redding, CA where this writer visited last week had a problem convention center that was losing a million bucks a year on its hands and did something responsible and revolutionary?…Redding sold their white elephant to a Megachurch that calls itself Bethel?…the white elephant is now generating taxes for the city through the educational subsidiary of Bethel which spends over $4 million per year on travel for seminars?…we wonder with 30 “available” signs downtown already, why not sell The Centre, delay the hotel, and see if some Megachurch can do for Evansville what Bethel has done for Redding?

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80 COMMENTS

  1. Is it true that a former teacher of your current mayor at Central High school, will campaign in his YMCA pancake outfit? A video of the former teacher/student in costume may be in production soon?

  2. So, Winnecke’s game plan is to fill the City Council with friends (Michele Mercer, Jack Schreiber), who will show little resistance to his delusions of grandeur and thus provide a certain Ch. 9 filing for the City.

    We needed some financially-astute people (not Friend) to run for Council and at least try to stem the tide. I thought Weinz was the worst Mayor ever, he sure has some competition now.

    • Holy insight, Batman! Spot-on observations. The fact that Jack is mulling which party ticket to run on is pretty alarming to me. It’s a pretty open admission that the same people control both major parties.

      • It’s been that way since the early 1980’s when a certain Mayor of Evansville appointed a lot of his friends and neighbors onto his administration cabinet.

      • LKB:

        There you go, jumping to conclusions again. IIT simply said they did not know which party, I am sure Jack knows his party. Remember, vote for the person, NOT the party.

  3. Editor, thanks for printing the IIT from two years ago. The City’s deletion of the October 15, 2012 minutes must be cured. The City Clerk should be held accountable for the whereabouts of those meeting minutes. Perhaps one of the Councilors still has a paper copy of these minutes (if I remember the poster from last week, there was no subsequent meeting where these October 15, 2012 minutes were approved; so it may mean that the City Council, themselves , flushed the records ? But why would City Council want to hide these facts ?).

    The Citizens deserve to see the answers provided by Jenny Collins, as well as the interference being ran by Weaver. The blocking of Adams by Weaver is clearly something which his opponents in 2015 will want to be able to use.
    Would WNIN have a copy of the video, and a transcript could be prepared from that ?

    • I had surf the internet for that date and city council meeting. They were sch. to “review the 2013 budget” at that October 15th meeting. The vote was sch. for the following October 22nd meeting.

      • Sounds like the Council talked about a LOT more than just 2013 budget at the mysterious October 15, 2012 meeting–or CCO just made up its IIT of October 16, 2012 ?

        But even if Council JUST talked about the 2013 Budget, those minutes need to be available to the public. Otherwise, how can the public know who should be reelected/voted out of office, etc. ?

        • I remember watching that meeting online live. The IIT was written as the words were being spoken. The minutes often do not convey the reality of the meetings.

          • You’re 100% right about meeting minutes not conveying the reality of the words spoken in them. I would venture to change that statement to “seldom” convey reality of those meetings.

        • The October 15, 2012 meeting of the Common Council was not an official Council meeting. It was a special Finance Committee meeting and the City Clerk has those minutes archived. Transcribing minutes from committee meetings is not required by the SBOA but our City Clerk began that practice in 2012.

          Perhaps she should have been called before aspersions were cast on her record keeping abilities.

          • Lighten up, Ellen. There should have been a ‘Note’ posted under the 10/15/2012 City Council Minutes link, noting that only a Finance Committee meeting was held, and directing a visitor where those Finance Committee meetings can be viewed.

            Likewise, there should be a Note posted under any Monday when there is no meeting held.

          • UFO and Hula – I would suggest that you take your ideas of what should be done to the clerk.

          • To Ellen. As for your suggestion about taking the questions to the City Clerk I would suggest that the people take those questions to the People who vote in the city as they are the City Clerks Boss. They should be the ones deciding what’s the city does and does not do. The people still have the power to vote your asses out of office PDQ if you don’t agree. I would then suggest that you take it up with the people.

            The power of the Press is showing it’s face right now. 🙂

            I would further suggest that you start to study some Public Relations Classes to help improve your image in the press. You could surely use a lesson or two right about now.

          • For somebody who fears her government so much that she won’t answer surveys for fear of being “blacklisted”, you surely do offer your opinion freely here. Don’t you believe that the government you’re so scared of probably has “agents” that report on people who say the wrong things on forums like this? Your paranoia is either disingenuous or your thinking is oddly inconsistent.

          • ELB – My statements today are not opinions; they are facts.
            Moveon – Perhaps they offer group rates for PR Classes. I’m certainly not the only one posting here that could use them.

          • @Ellen:
            What possible difference would it make if you express opinion or state facts? If it is not what those you fear so much want to hear, “facts” will get you on the frightening “black list” quicker than opinion.
            I guess your dramatic “I fear my government” was just a lie, If you fear government, you wouldn’t be on CCO.

          • Appears this was a “finance meeting” according to C&P.
            Appears with a “no formal” vote of 9-0, Robert Stadium officially headed for the wrecking ball!
            Appears that a Cory Mills of Woodward Commercial Realty was there officially for input of that lot!
            Appears to me there was more than “finance” to this meeting!

          • Ellen, LBK is retired, on SS and a pension, not much of a chance of being punished by local government. Even a private business that depends on local government for referrals has to remain silent for fear of punishment. It would be unwise for anyone to openly criticize our local government if they are employed by a business that does business with them. I’ll bet LBK was silent when she was involved with local government as an employee. I could mention a business that learned this lesson the hard way.

  4. Desert Sun article is excellent, thanks for sharing.

    Did anyone read the book about Ray Ryan written by Steve Bagby and Herb Marynell ? Comments ?

    • I did.
      The Marynell book says the investigators thought the bomb was detonated by radio signal, not wired to the ignition as the Desert Sun article posits. The book ‘Mob Murder’ says Ryan’s killers waited until he backed his car a bit out of its spot in the spa lot and then for an innocent pedestrian to clear before triggering it. Ryan died for testifying against Marshall Caifano in an extortion trial.

  5. “IS IT TRUE BREAKING NEWS!…the Mole Nation has confirmed that Jack Schriber will be announcing a run for an at-large seat on the Evansville City?”

    ~b~ Jack is a nice enough guy, has his mind on Civic affairs and is VERY approachable.
    Will consider voting for him (pending future developments)

    _____

    “IS IT TRUE the first two paragraphs are from the IIT from October 16, 2012 and are republished because one of our readers has alerted us that the minutes for the City Council meeting of October 15, 2012 have vanished from the official records that one can access online at the City of Evansville website?

    ~b~ Evansville: where there is more under the rug than on it! …

    _____

    “the most illuminating admission of Ms. Collins’s testimony was when she clearly stated after some fairly strong questioning that former Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel knew all about it?…she of course did not utter his name but she clearly testified that “her boss” knew about it?…the signature authorizing the $50,000 for consultants to dumb down the program and fix the botched integration came through the chain of command of the Public Works board headed by union boss Jack McNeely?…that at least we all know now and now it will be up to the City Council to decide what if anything should be done about it?”

    ~b~ IMHO: Allegiance to “The Machine” will preclude anything being “done about it”

    _____

    “IS IT TRUE many of our readers who were watching were confused by the way Councilman Jonathan Weaver seemed to try to obstruct the investigation even overtly demanding that Councilman Dr. Dan Adams cease with the tough questions?”

    ~b~ Weaver gives me the creeps. Reminds me of Leave it to Beavers’ …
    Eddie Haskel. (such an obvious phony)

    _____

    “IS IT TRUE economic reports are starting to show some positive data for the hotel business in general with both occupancy and rack rates increasing slightly?…the same is not true for conventions which continue to decline even with the overall economic improvements?…it seems as though Evansville is poised to bet the farm on a losing proposition yet again?”

    ~b~ The Fraud Center, The obsolete and dated ONB Non Eventful Center and a
    (to be built) Alpine Ski-jump would complete the perfect tri-doggle:
    “THE MOST OUT OF PLACE, OUT OF TOUCH, FACILITIES IN THE WORLD.”
    People would stream into town to gaze in wonderment … “FOLLY-WORLD!”
    It’s worth a shot.

    Happy Tuesday! …

    • Alpine Ski-Jump downtown is a GREAT idea, bubba !

      How much could the City borrow to start making that a reality ?

    • I will vote for Jack also. He seems like an honest and nice man. Maybe we can get rid of Weazel.

      • Big Mama, even knowing in advance that Big Jack will be a mayoral rubber stamp , I would take him over Weaver any day !

    • Ah, Bubba,—-always good for Food for Thought,- and a Smile, I believe you’ve got Weaver “cornered”.
      –and a Happy Tuesday to you.

    • bubba, the caption of the photo from C&P ends with ‘$RETURN$, $RETURN$’. That is precisely what the citizens need, a return of our dollars on this utterly senseless waste.

      I have left the Backstage Bar on Main, completely sober, in daylight hours–looking at this POS and shaking my head. When it first was installed, I brought binoculars down there on a Sunday morning.

      This is not art, nor does it add any value to the facility.

  6. Check this out if you want a laugh. Evansville ranked #1 in the “Sexiest Place in Indiana” ranking. Per the criteria including the number of strip clubs, lingerie stores, and massage parlors, it doesn’t at all seem like an honor.

    http://www.movoto.com/in/sexiest-places-in-indiana/

    “Whether it is because of the number of universities or in result of, Evansville is easily the sexiest place in the state—in the seediest and best possible way. What we mean is, rather than have the most massage places or even nice hotels, Evansville just gets right to the point.

    It had the second highest number of adult stores, the fourth highest number of lingerie stores, and the eighth most adult entertainment.

    It was even literally hot here during the summers, with an average temperature of 75, so you can say goodbye to all those pesky winter layers and inhibitions.”

    • Great find Big Pappa,
      Just when I thought we had reached “Embarrassment-Saturation,” another heap of
      “tepid crow” plops onto my plate.
      “Sexiest Place in Indiana?”
      In a creepy kind of way?
      Definitely! …

    • Maybe all the offices and commercial buildings in the old “Red Light” district should be torn down and replaced with “charming period-style” brothels. Some real historic entertainment near the Casino might get us some tourist trade and offer a training ground for future politicians.

      • I’m sure some of the jim-dandys we have on the council and advising the accidental mayor could come up with some pretty unique and previously undreamed of schemes for taxing those poor hookers. They’d screw that revenue source up like everything else. They’d give further credence to the truism that they couldn’t run a brothel in a gold rush.

        A case can be made that the former inhabitants of the old ‘district’ were more honest and better people than the current ones.

        • I’m sure if the hookers threatened to leave town or to take away the Machine/Crony discount they offer, they would quickly be offered a tax break and the ERC would overpay for some property that they could use as a new (massage parlor/lingerie store/strip club (aka brothel) and re-sell it to them at a fraction of the price.

    • Big Pappa,

      What I take from this study is that Evansville is # 18 in the State for massage ! That is simply unacceptable !
      We need to put some distance between ourselves and the rest of the pack. Form a Massage Committee and let’s go for it ! Wonder if the Mayor has any appointees in mind ? Living within city limits ?

      • Maybe we rank #18 in over-all massages. I can’t imagine that we aren’t higher on the list for the naughty kind.

      • Yes, the city should fund and build the largest massage parlor in the world next to the Hotel/Convention Center/Ford Center/IU Medical Center. When finished, people will come from around the world to get massages, attend conventions (filling both the ONBEP and the FC) for message therapists, and massage therapy students will flock to get their degree from the school that is in the massage therapy center of the universe. Next they can do the same for tattoo artists.

  7. Thanks for the “blast from the past” today, Joe. The reminders of some of the hijinks that go on in our Civic Center is appreciated. The fact that these statements are being buried is reason enough to call for a full investigation of this administration and the one just prior to it. Maybe it should even stretch back to the one before that, as Russ has demonstrated quite a penchant for creative accounting. I expect the former mayors in question need to bury some bodies of evidence in the foundation of the un-needed, unaffordable hotel.
    As for the literal blast that shook the eastside and ended Ray Ryan’s storied life, thanks for the reminders. We tend to glamorize people with Ryan’s connections, but there is little difference in the lives they lead and those of the vilified drug lords of today. Leave it to Hollywood to romanticize the ugliest segments of our history; the horrible treatment of our land’s indigenous people while we took their lands, the Civil War, and the rise of the Mafia. It’s even made the drug culture hip and acceptable. I wonder if today’s street gangs quit calling themselves gangs and took up the label of “families”, they may become more accepted.

    • Enoch ? There is AMPLE PARKING DOWNTOWN ! Have you forgot the Weinzapefel parking study which concluded that there were 60,000 spaces within a 10 minute walk ? Even if those worshipers drove separately, and didn’t take the church bus, no worries !

    • IE, you forgot the Jehovah Witness that comes in every year! Remember, their the ones the city relies on to do “needed cleaning” of the Ford Center! There is a current “insider owned” cleaning outfit that replaced the city workers that once done it!

    • This is off topic, but wanted to let you know that there is going to be an in-depth study and interviews of SNAP participants in Owsley County, KY by Alex Wagner on MSNBC at 4 today and tomorrow. I’m going to DVR it. I think you can test your “Tuesdays cause rain” theory with some facts out of the mouths of the people of the poorest county in America. Btw, 95% of them are Republicans.

      • Interesting bit of misinformation about Owsley County LKB. Bob Dole sure enough won Owsley County with 53% of the vote in 1996. Since then the presidential election has seen roughly 80% support for the republican candidate with Obama’s 23% in 2008 being the highest for a democrat in recent history. The county seat Bonneville is home to a mayor who has been in office since 1959. By the way the registration is only 70% republican but was overwhelmingly democrat until the 80’s. It seems as though Appalachia did not fall in line with the entitlement policies of Lyndon Johnson. Quite frankly Owsley County is the perfect kind of place to prove that progressive policies do not work. It was impoverished before the Great Society and it still is. It seems that Owsley County has something in common with Detroit and South Chicago as a proving ground for failed social policies. It also seems like the sons and daughters of Appalachia had enough sense to reject the politics of progressives while continuing to take the handouts.

        http://www.kentucky.com/2014/02/09/3078667_booneville-mayor-of-55-years-said.html?rh=1

      • Good one. LOL

        Maybe if they follow Jesus it will only take one spot, “They were all in one Accord.”

        See what you started?

        • Good ‘Acts’. Also, on an automotive note, don’t forget the line in the ‘Convoy’ trucker song ” 11 long-haired friends of Jesus in a chartreuse microbus”. That would cut down on parking !

  8. Re: Missing City Council Minutes:

    Didn’t Winnecke recently float a trial balloon re: posting the City Council Meetings on YouTube ? I like that idea, but shouldn’t we figure out how to do it ‘the old way’ before we spend the $$$’s ? Are there other Meetings which are missing (I am asking, I don’t know) ?

  9. The week before the missing week of 10/15/12, which was the meeting of 10/8/12, was also covered heavily by the CCO –in the CCO archive, look up ‘IIT October 9, 2012 (Quips & Comments about AuditGATE)’. One part of that was statements by MRC (Mark Rolley Consulting).

    My question: What ever happened to the McGladrey (IT Consultant) recommendation to immediately fire Mark Rolley Consulting ? John Friend was all over that “like white on rice”, and then he went ice cold.

    I believe the Mark Rolley Consulting firm has changed its name, but still have the gig at the Civic Center ?

    Anyone know the 4-1-1 on this deal ?

  10. Ohhh Ohhhh (<–spoken in a Horshak way from Welcome Back Kotter) Let vinny get a swing at him. Naw. Dan can handle the punk! Look at Weaver!

    Thank you Dr. Adams for putting the tape over Weavers mouth. You should do that more often. I wonder if Duct Tape hurts when you pull it off your face quickly? What's Weaver trying to hide? How many are in on the missing 20 something million dollars that can't actually be accounted for.

  11. basically with Stephanie retiring and rumors of others leaving, the citizens of Evansville are going to be led to bankruptcy by Winnie and his cohorts. we are totally screwed

    • I hope SBR is going to expose more of the Civic Center “dirt” in the next year. If some of these clowns are under investigation or indictment, we may get a break.

    • Michelle Mercer + Jack Schreiber + Weaver + Missy + McGinn: there’s The Winnecke 5.

      Voters, SOS–don’t allow this to happen !

      • Truisms. Yep; That’s like the vacuum that awaits any human or semi intelligent idiot/organism that might, by cause, or complete stupidity open some door to the ambient while outside the protective atmosphere of most magnetic solar planetary bodies.

        Tang, mixed in space. Didn’t it.? Tang. Ever wonder why that was, or still is?
        Yes, and there is the problem with your local political machine. Idiots.
        “Crack that door” to the scientifically proven entropic universe, accountability by universal law, becomes progressive, real fast, as well as…..Well….We’ll leave that to the local peanut gallery. With the advice if your eating those in any of those downtown Evansville entertainment facilities ,if you might drop one. leave that for the vermin. It’ll take’em out genetically, short time.

  12. Me & many others felt the explosion that took Mr. Ryan’s life while in class @ Harrison High School. I later learned that when Mrs. Ryan got the call she ran all the way there because she was afraid there may be a bomb for her too.

  13. BREAKING NEWS:

    The Indiana Inspector General’s report found that former IN Sec. of Education, Tony Bennett, committed over 100 acts of wire fraud. The report was NOT made public at the time that Bennett received a $ 5,000 slap on the wrist from U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett and the Marion County Prosecutor. One of the charges against Bennett is that his staff used taxpayer money for “responding to political opponents assertions”. ISN’T THAT EXACTLY what Steve Schaefer did recently re: the revelation that Standard & Poors put a negative trend on the Waterworks Bonds ??? Schaefer sent a text to Evansville Transparency, mark that Exhibit A.

    Here is an excerpt:

    Joe Hogsett And Terry Curry Gave Tony Bennett Pass On Multiple Wire Fraud Violations
    Before Inspector General David Thomas entered into a settlement agreement with former Education Supt. Tony Bennett this summer letting him off with a hand slap for using state employees and state resources for political purposes, he prepared another 95-page report in which his investigation concluded there were 100 instances in which Bennett or his staff violated federal wire fraud laws. For some reason, Thomas didn’t bother to release that report at the time he entered into the state ethics settlement with Bennett, but State House reporter Tom LoBianco has now obtained a copy of the original report, which should have been posted on the IG’s website for public inspection but wasn’t.

    . . . In a section labeled “Scheme to Defraud,” the inspector general laid out its case, saying Bennett “while serving as the elected Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Indiana, devised a scheme or artifice to defraud the State of Indiana of money and property by using State of Indiana paid employees and property, for his own personal gain, as well as for his own political benefit to be re-elected to the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.”
    The violations fell into five categories: political campaign fundraising, responding to political opponent’s assertions, calendar political activity meetings, political campaign call appointments and general political campaign activity.

      • Moles are political assholes to, thanks for the edit, Wait. do that in the plural please like the last comment was printed “peoples” yeah right.

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