IS IT TRUE: March 25, 2012
IS IT TRUE that there is a situation about to happen that has the potential to make the City of Evansville an preferred “mark†for every business in the country that is having difficulty obtaining financing to start their latest idea off with a pile of cash?…that in spite of the pleadings of several citizens of Evansville for a public release of a third party technical vetting study of the Earthcare Energy concept with a test under real world conditions and a revised “Investment Summary†that is not full of errors, omissions, and contradictions THE VOTE TO GIVE THEM A $5 MILLION UNSECURED LOAN IS ON MONDAY NIGHTS AGENDA of the Evansville City Council?
1. In your capacity as a CPA would you recommend that your client(s) invest in a business that adds a column of numbers incorrectly in their investment summary?
2. In your capacity as a CPA would recommend that your client(s) invest in a business that is applying for a $5 Million loan but is projecting a cumulative loss of $26,695,185 during its first two years without identifying where the shortfall will be coming from?
3. In your capacity as a CPA would you recommend that your client(s) invest in a business that explicitly states that there will be no founder investment (ZERO) in its investment summary?
4. In your capacity as a CPA would you recommend that your client(s) invest in a business that states on page 3 that the 5th year headcount will be 39 yet conflicts that projection by projecting a 5th year headcount at 120 to the IEDC and on the pro-forma?
5. In your capacity as a CPA would you recommend that your client(s) invest in a business that claims in its investment summary to have a patent that it really does not have?
6. In your capacity as a CPA would you recommend that your client(s) invest in a business that asserts that there is no competition (there is) and summarily dismisses other threats to success such as other technologies that serve the same purpose and low barriers to entry as “two years behind�
IS IT TRUE that if you Councilman Friend and Mayor Lloyd after spending your lives building great reputations in the field of accountancy can answer an emphatic “YES†to all of those questions then by all means provide positive testimony and vote affirmatively on the Earthcare loan resolution?…that your client in this case is the City of Evansville and even though governments do have a different view of the world when it comes to money, governments should share private values when it comes to things like ACCURACY, CONSISTENCY, AND COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING?…that the CCO calls upon you two gentlemen to rise above your peers who do not have the letters CPA behind their names and make the same recommendations for the City of Evansville that you would for your own private clientele?…that your private clientele will be watching how this is handled?
IS IT TRUE that the CCO also calls upon the non CPA’s on the Evansville City Council and in the Mayor’s office to look to these financial people for leadership in making your decision?…that you should all ask yourselves the same six questions and pretend it is your own retirement fund that you are considering to make this loan?…that Earthcare Energy may be nice guys who say they are going to create some jobs but the reality of the situation is that we all know the answer to those six questions?…that we all also know that a real world test by a third party which has been written in the Earthcare investment summary as scheduled for completion in 6 days should be reviewed completely by local technology experts before approving any loan?…that then there is the nagging question that many people have been asking the CCO, “should the City of Evansville be an investment bank for an out of state start-up company even if the planning and concept are flawless?”?
IS IT TRUE that it has now been 72 hours since the City County Observer offered Earthcare Energy a free supportive story if they will send us a third party assessment of their proposed technology that was conducted under real operating conditions as set forth in the report from Concurrent Technologies where they recommended to the Air Force that they should conduct such tests if they really wanted to consider implementing a solution utilizing the Langson device to capture step down pressure from gas transmission lines and turning it into electricity?…that we will extend this offer indefinitely as the financial projections in the “Investment Summary†do not even merit being read for anything but consistency until a real world 3rd party validation by a recognized testing company like Concurrent Technologies has been completed and made available to the people of Evansville?…that between our two 4 year universities, a decent number of companies, and wayward engineers who want to see Evansville do the right thing that there really are a fair number of people who will understand such a report?
I would never do business with a CPA that goes along with this scheme. Some council members are just dumb so I can see how they would be easily tricked by a scam. Any educated member of the city council that supports this resolution should be removed. The dumb ones should have never been elected but we can’t do much about an electorate that puts fools into office.
As long as there are 5 self serving dopes on the council the other four votes don’t matter. SAD, SAD, SITUATION. What do you do when the smart guys vote like dopes to fit in?
Editor, standing applause for this article. You have squarely turned the gun on Councilman Friend and City Controller/former Mayor Russ Lloyd, Jr.
Taking a step back, I wonder if the best possible outcome–for the long run health of the City–is if the $ 5 Million Loan IS approved, and then Earthcare Energy fails in a huge way for all to see ?
The type of people who said the election of Weinzapfel was ” a vote for Stadium over Sewers” (given his opponent’s opposite tact) are now saying that Winnecke ran on a “creating jobs” mandate, and since he was elected there will be jobs created “at all costs”.
And therein lies the rub. You can’t create jobs “at all costs”. Government dollars are more precious now than perhaps at any time since the 1930’s. You have to make sound business choices, especially if you are spending “other people’s money”. It sounds like some of our City Council people may have forgotten their “stewardship” vow.
Finally, I give the CCO a lot of credit for the unwinding of the insider deals which brought Kunkel Group to the brink of moving forward on the Downtown Hotel project. They were never going to be able to do that. The fact that our City Council, on the eve of a new administration voted 8-1 to enter into negotiations with Kunkel, speaks volumes. The new Administration was wise to “call it a day” and call a time out for additional study, thus setting Kunkel free. The reporting of the CCO on the fiasco chronology of Browning, Woodruff, and then Kunkel likely was the catalyst for a punt by Winnecke.
When it comes to the new mandate of “creating jobs at all costs”, it may well take some very public failures for the City Council to realize these have to be “reasonable risks”. I don’t believe they’ve figured that out yet. The City Council is willing to exempt Aztar for smoking for an annual extortion of $ 12 Million; yet will throw $ 5 Million to the wind without even a thought ? Only in the River City !
“Taking a step back, I wonder if the best possible outcome–for the long run health of the City–is if the $ 5 Million Loan IS approved, and then Earthcare Energy fails in a huge way for all to see ?”
I wonder if the best possible outcome-for the long run health of the City- is if the $5 million loan is approved, and then Earthcare Energy is hugely successful. My glass is half full.
Question: did anyone read today’s Editorial in the Courier Press? You cannot argue with facts. Kudos to Mayor Weinzapfel!
Good luck with that middle paragraph, pal. Want to invest any of your money ?
I am an optimist. I believe that the EarthCare proposal is only half full of crap.
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is there a like button anywhere?
Press, agreed re: the half full assessment. The other half is either Cheez-Whiz or that stuff you use on rusted -out cars, Bondo.
I believe the City Council will do the correct thing by voting to delay further consideration the $5 million loan until Earthcare Energy provides acceptable answers to the questions being ask.
By doing so, they will be doing Mayor Winnecke and Evansville a big favor!
CP reporting that the CEO said vote him $5 Million tomorrow or he is crossing Evansville off of his list. Don’t let the door hit you in the butt pardner. Any council member that supports this after being threatened needs to be gone. Mayor Winnecke, show some backbone and send this guy packing. If you can’t do that just go back to picking up litter.
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2012/mar/25/earthcare-founder-says-he-may-locate-elsewhere/?comments_id=1131616
It is high entertainment watching the Courier&Press twist themselves into a pretzel, as they have done today with their headline: “Earthcare deal risky,but solidâ€.
Do not bother looking for the headline and the article on their website. As of this posting it does not appear there. It seems they prefer to cut off discussion before tonight’s vote with their headline, lead story, above the fold, as the last word. It is a tactic they have used many times in the past.
Anyway a good journalist should know an antonym when he sees one, and dissecting their headline I see the word “risky†followed by the antonym “solidâ€.
Pretzels anyone?
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