IS IT TRUE MARCH 7, 2016

1. CCO Editor writes today….”IS IT TRUE its important to point out that the Evansville Brownfield Corp Land Bank deciding not to provide their agenda and financial records to the public have the blessing of GOP Mayor Winnecke? …isn’t this the same guy that promised TRANSPARENCY in his administration?”

   Here we have it. Another case of the Evansville Republican Party public officials at the EBC Land Bank hiding the taxpayer funded business, finances and records behind close doors. So much for standing up for the right thing.

   You know what we need?
   We need an Evansville DEMOCRAT official to serve on that EBC Land Bank Committee to stand up and say “No more. This is total B.S. These are taxpayer funds! Millions of taxpayer dollars! Open the meetings and the books!!”

   Wait a minute.
   We DO have a Democrat on that EBC Land Bank Committee. In fact, that Democrat is the longest-serving Director of that EBC Land Bank Committee – Democrat City Councilperson Connie Robinson. Why won’t she stand up for the voters and demand transparency?

   • Elkaybee:
     You are a regular editorial contributor here at the CCO demanding transparency from our public officials.
     Surely you think the GOP Mayor of Evansville should be accountable and demand transparency
     at the EBC Land Bank? Right?

     • NEWS FLASH: In the spirit of transparency, the General Assembly just voted for allowing the Economic Developments of every city and town to allow a quorum of 1/3 and those not present can vote behind closed doors. What a license to steal. Utter BS. Taxpayers better grab their wallets. According to reports, Rep Riecken was strongly against this nonsense.

       • Republicans at it again.

       • The locals – at least the few who bothered to vote – made a huge mistake that will wind up choking even more of the life out of Evansville. That’s what happens when big money controls the political process, though.

         • ‘…we wonder if Mosby, McGinn and Weaver have advanced college degrees in finance or accounting…’

           A waitress, a butterflymeister and a fool walk into a bar… . One orders a Country Club Dues without the umbrella or payment, one silently hand signals for an Iron Butterfly with extra Kahlua, the third calls the cops and divorces the hostess.

         • This began before the last election and the democrats have twice blown a chance to change directions.

         • Weasel couldn’t make it as a weatherman on local TV and McGinn quit his law practice without explanation and went to work at the zoo. At least those two have education past high school. I heard it took Nosby five years to graduate high school. Unpaid bills must not bother her much or she wouldn’t have run up the bar bill at the country club and gotten sued over it.

   • And wasn’t Connie another one that stabbed Rick Davis also?

2. ERC would also be a good place to “investigate” for transparency.

   • Baby steps first. Let’s fix that – but start with something small like the entire membership of the Brownfields – all seven of them.

   • Absolutely! Between ERC and EBC this city will drown in debt and the only people who will profit will be the cronies. They’ll be able to afford to leave, but the rest of us will wind up living in a smaller version of Detroit.

3. Matthew Neville, Political Director of the Vanderburgh County Democratic Party, has a letter to the editor in today’s Evansville Courier&Press print edition. He is basically pointing out the issues with the City of Evansville’s financial reporting. Mr. Neville takes Mayor Winnecke to task for playing a “shell game” with the city’s finances.

   While I agree with Mr. Neville about the shell game analogy, I feel the need to point out that this all started under the democratic administration of Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel, and carried over to Mayor Winnecke when Mayor Weinzapfel, in violation of existing state statute, handed over financial ledgers that were in a shambles and should have been audited then and there.

   It appears as if this administration is attempting to cover over the shortfalls of the previous administration, while at the same time embarking on a huge capital spending program of their own. I do not think this will ever be pulled off, especially when one adds the EPA Mandate into the mix.

   The law has been trampled under foot in an attempt to salvage eight years of the Weinzapfel administration’s profligate spending, and in the process the Indiana State Board of Accounts has gotten a black eye. It is a bad situation that is far from being resolved.

   • State Board of Accounts – a well deserved black eye. If they are underfunded and cannot provide effective audit services they should decline the engagement – not rubber stamp and attack local officials like SBR for pointing out they are acting as political hacks rather than a professional audit agency.

   • Except for the fact that weinzapfel had 17 mill in the bank.

     • Weinzapfel had no idea where Evansville stood financially when he fled office. Winnecke had to be part of the deal when he did not call for an immediate audit of the books.

       • I never thought of it like that but it makes good sense. Even grocery checkers start off with a balanced register so the don’t get held responsible for mistakes from the person ahead of them.

4. Don Becker’s question about a single member such as Connie Robinson speaking out was answered by Connie Robinson in a statement to me. She claimed that the Brownfield has a policy that no member of their “Board” is allowed to disclose any details of the Brownfields. This was agreed by the membership – all seven – or maybe five at that time.

   • ….this is just plain, out and out, wrong. “That’s the policy”…is not legitimate response.
     DMD’s Coures is driving this thing, that is clear, but he has help and facilitation (and plenty of CYA cover) from his Board of Directors/Executive Board.
     The one person with political courage and integrity is Cheryl. She is under attack for it, but has momentum because she has moral courage and it crosses party lines.
     The same cannot be said about the City Councilperson (and her sycophants) sitting on the EBC Land Bank Board since it’s founding.

     • Don, the land bank expansion is dependent on getting the Tax delinquent properties from the county. Although I asked Cheryl Musgrave to speak out about that she has declined (to my knowledge) to do that and is in effect supporting the Brownfields land grab expansion. Do you have information to the contrary?

       • George….Don’t misunderstand. The process of identifying, acquiring and clearing blighted, non-performing properties and returning them to economic productivity including as tax generating vehicles is valuable activity for an operating, tax payer directed Land Bank in Evansville. And Cheryl is smart, she knows and supports that. But potential conflicts of interest among the Land Bank directors and officials, and their political donors….and rooting out and avoiding corruption…are mandates. And full transparency of the business, records and activities of the Land Bank are mandates as well. Cheryl knows that too. Sometimes the quietest person in the room is the smartest. Might be why she declined your request.

         • Don, No misunderstanding here. We have several land banks. They are broken. Who is going to fix them? Being the quietest person in the room – is going along with the crowd. This situation need to be corrected now – not slowly transformed down the road.

         • George…No. My point is not to say you or anyone else should be quiet about the lack of transparency at the ECB Land Bank. In fact, the City County Observer and you are leading the effort at bringing this dark activity out in the open. And doing a great job. I was only trying to answer your question.
           The CCO has a tiger by the tail, and is quietly being assisted by a whistleblower. It should press the heat on the ECB Executive Board…..

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