IS IT TRUE? May 17, 2011
IS IT TRUE that the Evansville Redevelopment Commission may have recently paid the Vanderburgh Democratic party an undetermined amount taxpayer money to relocate its headquarters from the Executive Inn parking garage to the old Welborn Hospital building owned by the Kunkel group? …that we wonder why this transaction wasn’t detailed in the minutes of the Evansville Redevelopment Commission?
IS IT TRUE we wonder when political people attempt to use their connections and influences to tamper with the activities of an on-going business it is considered to be an illegal act under State law?…this act could be considered to be “Political Tampering†with a business?…that selective enforcement of laws for political purposes is a sign of tyranny, constitutes abuse of power, and violates the rule of law?…that aside from being inherently unjust selective enforcement almost inevitably leads to favoritism and extortion, with those empowered to choose being able to help their friends, take bribes, and threaten those they desire favors from?…that selective enforcement sets a bad precedent, corrupts governance, and encourages corruption among the general populace?
IS IT TRUE that CCO MOLE #131 reports that all elected City or County officials must file a conflict of interest statement with the Vanderburgh County Clerk?…that these elected officials must report if they or their business entities do business with the political sub-divisions they serve? …that CCO MOLE #131 wonders why individuals who are appointed to serve on boards or commissions aren’t required to do the same?…that it would be great if our Vanderburgh County Clerk would compile a list of present city and county elected and appointed officials who do business with the entities they serve and release it to the media?
IS IT TRUE that our part 2 yesterday regarding the number of dollars spent per person for local governance inspired some researching on the part of two of our comment writers who took issue with the numbers published regarding the comparison of Fort Wayne and Evansville?…that the research that they (JC and Mole #411) did clarified and illuminated much about the Fort Wayne budget?…that due to different publishing habits the “Fort Wayne budget†that we referred to yesterday was not all of the spending that the City of Fort Wayne does?…that Fort Wayne has a separate budget for utilities that needed to be added in?…that adding up the City of Fort Wayne budget of $210 Million, the Allen County budget of $91.6 Million, and the operating part of the utility budget of $65.3 Million that it seems as though the full budget for Fort Wayne-Allen County is $358.8 Million that is spent on behalf of their 355,329 people?…that this works out to a total budget (excluding capital projects) of $1,008 per person?…that if the same exercise is done for Evansville-Vanderburgh (excluding Darmstadt) that the budget is $306.4 Million for 179,703 (including Darmstadt) works out to $1,719 per person, or just over 70% more than is spent in Fort Wayne-Allen County?…that neither of these budgets included the school corporations?…that we wonder if we are missing something?…that we wonder what do we get for the 70% premium on the cost of services?
IS IT TRUE that in the course of doing this research the subject of electricity costs came up?…that the residential rates for Fort Wayne and vicinity that is served by Indiana Michigan Power a unit of AEP that operates a power plant in Rockport are 8.3 cents per KWh?…that Vectren charges us poor locals a rate that is over 60% higher than what the people in Fort Wayne pay?…that your $300 electric bill in Evansville would only be $185 in Fort Wayne?…that while that price is not as sweet as the price in Henderson that it is still enough of a difference to pay for all of a student’s books at USI or UE for a full academic year plus some?…that the City of Evansville is a large customer of electricity?…that if the City of Evansville is paying the same rate as the people of Evansville pay to Vectren that could make up for part of the difference in our governmental costs with Fort Wayne?…that the word “electric†appears 24 times in the 2010 City of Evansville budget and that the line items equal $1.3 Million?…that street lights appears once and the amount is $2.3 Million?…that would indicate that the City of Evansville spends $3.6 Million per year on electricity?…that if the City of Evansville could save the difference in residential rates as compared to Fort Wayne that we could save $1.38 Million?…
IS IT TRUE that this is a link to the Fort Wayne electrical rates?
https://www.indianamichiganpower.com/global/utilities/lib/docs/factsheets/IMFactSheet2011.pdf
Didnt the Democrats have a long term lease? Wouldnt the city as the owners of that site have to pay a termination clause? Give the full details here instead of trying to make it look like some under the table shenanigans
Mark Owen gave an interview to the CP’s Dan Shaw last year and stated that the Democrats would not accept any city money for the move. Our source is a very high ranking Democratic elected official. Here is a link stating that the dems would not seek city money for the move. If our source is right and this source is certainly in a position to know then this is a “shenanigan”. If on the other hand this source is not correct then we have a high ranking democratic elected official that is not telling the truth.
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2010/oct/19/democrats-wont-seek-city-money-for-moving/
PS. It is still easy to know who Curt is.
If the ERC paid one penny to the Democratic Party to move, all members of the ERC should resign. The ERC is looking completely incompetent. They are also paying $15,000 more to their attorney to “negotiate” an arena lease with the hockey team. Hello. Didn’t they think to negotiate terms BEFORE they selected the hockey team??
Is it true that there will be an announcement made today that will either thrill or disappoint Henry, depending on whether he lives only to needle MRO about postponing the awards banquet?
I really hope Owen can pull it off, the Democratic party really needs to come together. Like I have said many times before, I’m waiting to see the invitation in my mailbox.
Henry, Mark is not a bad person. He’s just a hard nosed politician. He’s a complete marshmallow when it comes to his grandkids, and he’s been a wonderful parent as well. Same goes for Jonathan Weinszapel, he’s a great and loving father and family man. Politics just brings out the harshest in people sometimes. And Rick has some share of the responsibility in all of this too. He’s the one who really has the lion’s share of patching up to do. Think about it. It’s really on his shoulders to be the peacemaker in all of this. It wasn’t Mark and Jonathan who took out after him, after all. Was it.
Oh, and Henry, here’s your invite: The 6th Annual Lifetime Achievement Awards, Wednesday, June 8 at 6:00pm
Location: The Bauerhaus. Be there.
yeah it was, Rick has/had every right to run for mayor and Owen, who should have been neutral did everything he could, including funding the opposition to see that he was beaten. It didn’t work. As far as I can tell at this point most of the candidates are starting to work together, excepting of course, Mr Weaver and Ms Mosby who are gonna go their own way for whatever reason and probably lose because of it.
Rick Davis largest contributions came from the EFD. Davis and the EFD worked to beat Mosby. Mosby won 60% 40%. Now the EFD is supporting Walters. Is Davis going to go against his largest contributors if Missy joins the Davis team. I don’t think so.
Jack Waldroup
Henry, it is you who is asking others to make nice and make peace, yet you totally missed my point, and skipped to step two in the war making process. Think back to the first shots fired and who fired them. Then come back and tell me who needs to reach out his hand with the olive branch and to whom.
Based on the info available, your comparison on per capita costs for fort wayne and evansville seems correct, although something may be missing.
Another way to cross reference expenses and revenues would be to compare property tax rates and revenues.
What are the city and county property tax rates in Fort Wayne and Allen county compared to Evansville and Vanderburgh County?
Two differences, one of which you point out, make a difference. Utility rates are more expensive in Vanderburgh County and some labor rates are more expensive in Evansville. Fort Wayne does not use bargaining unit employees for some and possible all of their maintenance work, specifically parks.
Thanks for pointing out the second expense difference. Those two things don’t seem like enough to make us pay a 70% premium though. Maybe they are utilizing lean principles and we are not. Maybe we have more people doing the same jobs. Maybe we are really getting 70% more services but I doubt that having looked through both budgets.
As for property tax rates I would suspect that we are both pushing the 1%, 2%, and 3% caps on all properties. We did check housing values and Evansville and Fort Wayne are quite similar. This will really take a department by department analysis to identify where the premium comes from. If one could get local government at the same spending level as Fort Wayne per person we would save $127.5 Million per year. I just realized typing that it would save us an Arena per year. Quite striking in those terms isn’t it. I wonder what percentage of the savings that the City of Evansville will pay an analyst to identify savings? 10% could set us both up for life.
S IT TRUE that the Evansville Redevelopment Commission may have recently paid the Vanderburgh Democratic party an undetermined amount taxpayer money to relocate its headquarters from the Executive Inn parking garage to the old Welborn Hospital building owned by the Kunkel group? …that we wonder why this transaction wasn’t detailed in the minutes of the Evansville Redevelopment Commission?
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Use this form to request the information you seek from the Evansville Redevelopment Commission.
http://www.in.gov/icpr/files/01365.pdf
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IC 5-14-1.5
Chapter 1.5. Public Meetings (Open Door Law)
IC 5-14-1.5-1
Purpose
Sec. 1. In enacting this chapter, the general assembly finds and declares that this state and its political subdivisions exist only to aid in the conduct of the business of the people of this state. It is the intent of this chapter that the official action of public agencies be conducted and taken openly, unless otherwise expressly provided by statute, in order that the people may be fully informed. The purposes of this chapter are remedial, and its provisions are to be liberally construed with the view of carrying out its policy.
As added by Acts 1977, P.L.57, SEC.1. Amended by P.L.67-1987, SEC.1.
IC 5-14-1.5-2
Definitions
Sec. 2. For the purposes of this chapter:
(a) “Public agency”, except as provided in section 2.1 of this chapter, means the following:
(1) Any board, commission, department, agency, authority, or other entity, by whatever name designated, exercising a portion of the executive, administrative, or legislative power of the state.
(2) Any county, township, school corporation, city, town, political subdivision, or other entity, by whatever name designated, exercising in a limited geographical area the executive, administrative, or legislative power of the state or a delegated local governmental power.
(3) Any entity which is subject to either:
(A) budget review by either the department of local government finance or the governing body of a county, city, town, township, or school corporation; or
(B) audit by the state board of accounts that is required by statute, rule, or regulation.
(4) Any building corporation of a political subdivision of the state of Indiana that issues bonds for the purpose of constructing public facilities.
(5) Any advisory commission, committee, or body created by statute, ordinance, or executive order to advise the governing body of a public agency, except medical staffs or the committees of any such staff.
(6) The Indiana gaming commission established by IC 4-33, including any department, division, or office of the commission.
(7) The Indiana horse racing commission established by IC 4-31, including any department, division, or office of the commission.
(b) “Governing body” means two (2) or more individuals who are:
(1) a public agency that:
(A) is a board, a commission, an authority, a council, a committee, a body, or other entity; and
(B) takes official action on public business;
(2) the board, commission, council, or other body of a public agency which takes official action upon public business; or
(3) any committee appointed directly by the governing body or its presiding officer to which authority to take official action upon public business has been delegated. An agent or agents appointed by the governing body to conduct collective bargaining on behalf of the governing body does not constitute a governing body for purposes of this chapter.
(c) “Meeting” means a gathering of a majority of the governing body of a public agency for the purpose of taking official action upon public business. It does not include:
(1) any social or chance gathering not intended to avoid this chapter;
(2) any on-site inspection of any:
(A) project;
(B) program; or
(C) facilities of applicants for incentives or assistance from the governing body;
(3) traveling to and attending meetings of organizations devoted to betterment of government;
(4) a caucus;
(5) a gathering to discuss an industrial or a commercial prospect that does not include a conclusion as to recommendations, policy, decisions, or final action on the terms of a request or an offer of public financial resources;
(6) an orientation of members of the governing body on their role and responsibilities as public officials, but not for any other official action; or
(7) a gathering for the sole purpose of administering an oath of office to an individual.
(d) “Official action” means to:
(1) receive information;
(2) deliberate;
(3) make recommendations;
(4) establish policy;
(5) make decisions; or
(6) take final action.
(e) “Public business” means any function upon which the public agency is empowered or authorized to take official action.
(f) “Executive session” means a meeting from which the public is excluded, except the governing body may admit those persons necessary to carry out its purpose.
(g) “Final action” means a vote by the governing body on any motion, proposal, resolution, rule, regulation, ordinance, or order.
(h) “Caucus” means a gathering of members of a political party or coalition which is held for purposes of planning political strategy and holding discussions designed to prepare the members for taking
official action.
(i) “Deliberate” means a discussion which may reasonably be expected to result in official action (defined under subsection (d)(3), (d)(4), (d)(5), or (d)(6)).
(j) “News media” means all newspapers qualified to receive legal advertisements under IC 5-3-1, all news services (as defined in IC 34-6-2-87), and all licensed commercial or public radio or television stations.
(k) “Person” means an individual, a corporation, a limited liability company, a partnership, an unincorporated association, or a governmental entity.
As added by Acts 1977, P.L.57, SEC.1. Amended by Acts 1979, P.L.39, SEC.1; P.L.33-1984, SEC.1; P.L.67-1987, SEC.2; P.L.8-1993, SEC.56; P.L.277-1993(ss), SEC.127; P.L.1-1994, SEC.20; P.L.50-1995, SEC.14; P.L.1-1998, SEC.71; P.L.90-2002, SEC.16; P.L.35-2003, SEC.1; P.L.179-2007, SEC.1.
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I have seen you reference the much higher utility rates that we pay to Vectren vs other communities’ rates. While we all feel like we are getting fleeced, I think most of us just assume that other communities are as well. I have a couple of questions for anyone that can help explain.
1. While I realize that Vectren is a valuable community partner, how come no community leaders have yelled a little louder about this?
2. How does Vectren explain, justify, or spin this as necessary? I’m sure they have a reason, no matter how invalid it may be.
Vectren does not deny this. The justify it by advance installation of pollution control equipment. Their rates are approved by the IURC. Both their top and bottom lines are guaranteed by state regulators. The state can’t even do that for themselves. It is centralized planning at its worst.
No leaders come forth because all are recipients of Vectren largesse through their PAC or through “donations”. Gage, the Coalition, and the Chamber are all supported by Vectren as has been the campaigns of nearly every candidate for any office. How can they squawk when they drink from the Vectren fountain?
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