IS IT TRUE June 5, 2013
IS IT TRUE Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke recently met with City Council President Connie Robinson to brief her on the Administration’s work to make final changes to the Johnson Controls contract?…the Mayor and the City had to respond to new knowledge brought to light private sector businesses who came forward with various Network Communications options in lieu of the City building and owning a Fiber Optic Ring Network?…Mayor Winnecke seeking to better understand these options and gain an unbiased perspective convened a group of local CIOs to discuss these alternative solutions?…solutions that would meet the Utility’s needs for the Automated Meter Reading Infrastructure were identified and discussed plus the CIO’s suggested the Administration consider other options in the future to meet the City’s Network Communication needs?…by seeking the council of the private sector it is possible that Mayor Winnecke will be deciding to change part of the course defined by former Mayor Weinzapfel in his last minute spending spree and forget about the redundancy of a City Owned Fiber Optic Ring Network.
IS IT TRUE the Mole Nation tells the CCO that Johnson Controls has agreed to remove the fiber optic ring network from the Weinzapfel contract?…removing this unnecessary hardware will save the taxpayers of Evansville about $6.4M from the Weinzapfel contract on top of the other things removed that saved $4 Million after the IURC shot it down as not providing enough margin?…the fiber optic network will be replaced with a private sector solution, which will create significantly greater savings that the public option was alleged to have saved?…it is the intent of the Winnecke Administration to announce these supposedly final changes this week and seek approval of a revised bond resolution by the Utility Board on June 11th and file a bond ordinance with City Council for 1st reading on June 24th?… at the July 8th meeting, Winnecke and friends will present and answer questions on the final contract and bond ordinance?…true to form the Winnecke Administration is planning to arrange meetings with Council members on an individual basis to answer questions and twist some arms?…we really wish these discussions would be held in a public forum so the people of this town do not get yet another closed door deal shoved down their throats?
IS IT TRUE it is somewhat encouraging to see that some level of due diligence is working down at the Civic Center?…this due diligence is being led by Budget Chairman Councilman John Friend with his opposition and questioning of what former Mayor Weinzapfel tried to deal from the bottom of the deck on his way out of office?…this unnecessary contract has now shrunk by $10.5 Million which is a step in the right direction?…it is still appropriate to question the need to replace all of those water meters that are attached to aging and dilapidated pipes?…it would be more prudent to replace 5% of the meters per year along with 5% of the rotten old pipes per year for the next 20 years along with the sewer repairs so at least in 20 years we can say that Evansville has a functional and maintainable water and sewer system for the first time ever?…there is still some more carving to do on this contract and we are counting on our City Council to do their job and keep Mayor Winnecke’s feet to the fire before selling any bonds or cutting any checks?…we have hope that this project that started out as a boondoggle of cronyism may just work out well for the people of Evansville if and only if the financial diligence is maintained?
IS IT TRUE that Mole #33 tells us that GAGE will be adding a seat on its board of directors for a member of the Evansville City Council?…the Mayor of Evansville has always been on this board with the executive committee formed of 3 elected officials, 3 private business people, and one member from USI?…this addition to the GAGE board tips the balance of power to politicians?…this is not a trivial issue?…we are betting that Councilman John Friend may just end up with this appointment?…we wonder if Councilman Friend would have gone along with former Mayor and GAGE Board Chairman Weinzapfel’s scheme to pay former DMD Director Tom Barnett a supplement to his salary through a phantom contract with GAGE?…financial due diligence can help any organization that is dependent on the taxpayers to survive?
IS IT TRUE that USI is raising its tuition by $551 (9%) at a time that salaries are frozen and jobs for graduates are hard to find?…given the state of the economy and the difficulty that graduates are having finding any employment at all much less a job that can support college loans, we find this move to be self serving and usury?…the trustees of USI will be voting on this June 11th and the CCO encourages them to hold the line on tuition until an increase in the value of a diploma can justify the tuition increase?…a time when the value of a formal education is being questioned is no time to raise the price on a USI degree which is not well recognized outside of a few counties anyway?
Same old song and dance by the cronies,crooks and conmenthat run and rape this city and county!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not to rain on the parade, but re: your 3rd paragraph: it is highly unlikely, if not impossible, to change the JCI contract now. The IURC has already ruled on it,and the Contract (as signed) is part of the Record on Appeal; so if you were in JCI’s shoes why would you open the deal up now ?? I don’t think there will be any “carving” on the contract whatsoever, please check your sources.
On a parallel track, Scott Danks just received the Clerk’s Record on Appeal, so he will be filing his Appellant’s Brief sometime around the last week in June. Why the City Council would be willing to meet with the Mayor (especially individually) PRIOR to the Court of Appeals weighing in on the City Council’s appeal is beyond me ! If the Court of Appeals overrules the IURC’s approval, the deal as currently formulated is dead, and it bounces back to IURC. City Council: Hold your ground, wait for the judicial system to weigh in before holding these clandestine meetings.
The current JCI contract covers expenditures for both water and sewage. Scott Banks needs to determine if the the City Council must approve the JCI contract before any money can be spent because sewage is 50 % of the capital dollars of this project. The approval process for sewage expenditures is different than expenditures for water.
This project is dead if the City Council votes not approve any expenditures regardless what the Mayor’s office and JCI sign.
More alternative libertarian criticism of smart meters and who is really behind the push for them: http://www.thenewamerican.com/reviews/opinion/item/15422-the-growing-threat-of-smart-meters
On the subject of USI and tuition… Education is clearly in a massive, government subsidized bubble, just like housing was in the early 2000s. Universities are understandably gaming the system of guaranteed loans and grants in the same way a government contractor would inflate the price of his hammers on a government project.
The current system of guaranteed loans and government grants makes it possible for the C and D student, who should not be seeking higher education but entering the job market out of high school, to go to college anyway and incur massive debts he/she may never be able to repay when they either graduate and can’t find a job or drop out when they discover what they should have known from the beginning – college wasn’t for them.
The current system also makes it possible for anyone, regardless of present financial situation, to go further into debt and attend college. Many of the adults who have lost jobs due to the economic state of our country are going back to school when they can’t find jobs to match their former skill set, thus gambling that the additional educational expense will pay off before they retire. In many cases, it will not.
Any time government gets involved in subsidizing or encouraging one sector of the economy, we run the risk of false economic signals being sent. Investment pours into the sector based on these false signals, e.g. D students investing in a college education. Eventually, the chickens will come home to roost and the fraud will be exposed when the bubble becomes unsustainable and pops. This is why libertarians and Austrian economists rail against government intervention and central economic planning, because it causes the destructive boom and bust cycles and has unintended consequences.
Education is one thing the government needs to get out of from top to bottom. The more they intervene the more they screw people over.
It’s the same with everything. The detrimental wages of government meddling in education just happen to be most obvious. Think about the sectors of the economy with the highest costs – education, heathcare and energy. What do they have in common?
Excellent comment.
If Faegre Baker Daniels is on the receiving end of any of the money from this proposed contract, then it should be DOA at the City Council.
If such IS the case, then this would make Bee Slough smell like rose by comparison!
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A follow up from a previous IIT. Looks like Schnutte Towers really is bad…
https://www.facebook.com/EvvWatch/posts/581080705256162
But I thought all people on assisted housing were living in luxury on our dime according to the tea party? I’m just sure it has marble countertops and a hot tub in every room and each resident owns a 35 ft boat.
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