IS IT TRUE May 23, 2012
IS IT TRUE Mole #24 tells us that the person who would have been responsible for taking the minutes for the meeting of the Economic Development Loan Committee meeting where the advance of $200,000 was approved for Earthcare Energy was none other than Ted Ziemer, attorney for the Office of the Mayor of Evansville?…that we are certain that if our mole is right that Mr. Ziemer was prompt about putting those minutes together?…that what has not been done promptly is the approval of those minutes so the people of Evansville can know for sure what discussions were held and what went down prior to the voter to write that $200,000 check?…it is just disgusting that the City of Evansville and DMD are fully capable of assembling a board of directors and pushing through approval for a loan in 24 hours but that they can’t get together to approve the minutes of the meeting in 3 months?…such things are about as transparent as a Kremlin meeting under Nikita Khrushchev?
IS IT TRUE that we furthermore have a couple of Civic Center Moles telling us that a high ranking emissary came directly from the Mayor’s Office to demand that a long term employee of DMD who can write a check to do so and to make haste doing it?…this all adds up to a cavalier use of taxpayer dollars and a concerted effort to cover their tracks by being complacent about approving the minutes?…that it may just be time for another Freedom of Information Act request?…that this time the CCO will be asking for the agenda and the meeting notice that had to have been distributed for that check writing meeting to have been held?…that we will also be requesting all previously approved meetings of the Economic Development Loan Committee to learn whether the minutes approval process is months, years, or even decades?
IS IT TRUE the people of Evansville are in for an eye popping increase in water rates?… if one goes to the IURC website and pulls up Cause # 44137 one will learn that Evansville Water & Sewer wants to do no fewer than 44 projects over the next 3 years?…the City filed a Case-in-Chief dated 5-18-2012 which requests a 41 % water rate increase over 3 years with year one going up 19 %?…this set of increases has nothing to do with what is coming our way when the Combined Sewer Overflow projects start to be undertaken?…this particular set of increases is largely due to replacing aging infrastructure in the form of nearly 100 year old cast iron water pipes that are prone to failure?…when these old pipes fail they tend to take out roads with them?…that such high increases as the 41% that is upon the people of this city right now are most certainly due to yet another legacy of failures by previous City Administrations to do the routine things that keep a city modern?…that the chickens of Mayors past are coming home to roost?
IS IT TRUE the recent barrage of lawsuits filed against the Obama Administration by Catholic organizations (most recently Notre Dame) will be interesting to watch play out?…that all of these lawsuits will become moot if the United States Supreme Court rules that the national healthcare program commonly called Obamacare is unconstitutional and un-severable?…that means the whole thing goes away and the healthcare clock is turned back 3 years?…it will also be interesting to see if members of the Catholic faith will consider these lawsuits when deciding who to vote for in the Presidential election?…there are nearly 70 Million registered members of the Catholic church in America?…the electorally important state of Pennsylvania is 53% Catholic and that Rhode Island is 63% Catholic?…if this large block all moves in mass to Mitt Romney over the controversy between church and state that this election is over?
Evansville City Councilwoman Brinkerhoff-Riley’s OpEd piece in today’s C&P misses the mark in a lot of areas.
When the public can not even find out who brought the people of Earthcare to Evansville, or can not get a copy of the minutes of the meeting of the Evansville Economic Development Loan Committee that approved a $200,000. loan of grant funds to a proposed project that had not, at that point in time, even been approved by the elected City Council members, there is trouble right here in River City.
As far as “intentional misconduct”, how about paying a professional more than the mayor of Evansville makes when that same “professional” can not perform simple research and background checks that could have saved the city all this embarrassment, not to mention the dollar cost of this mess. In my opinion, such a person is no professional and should either be fired or their compensation reduced to match their abilities. Instead, it fell on the shoulders of a few concerned citizens to sound the alarm in this matter. So this talk about the bell curve where the public is involved obviously does not hold water.
It would also be a good contribution towards openness of council operations if the president of the council could be persuaded to turn on her microphone every time she speaks so those who watch the meeting on television can understand what she is saying.
There is no dancing around this issue, or putting a good face on it: Evansville’s current system of recruiting and vetting business is NOT WORKING, and no amount of circling the wagons in the civic center is likely to change the public perception at this time.
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Someone seems to be going weak in the knees.
Riley has to work within the political system that exists. Give her a chance. Appealing to the greater electorate in pointing out a problem is just the beginning. You are right about GAGE, but for SBR to target GAGE is limiting in its effect and polarizing. I believe that framing the greater issue is important. Although I suspect SBR has what she believes to be the solution, leadership is a cross between listening and talking. It’s appropriate to hear from the community is outlining the answer. What would she be, except more of the same, if she behaved any other way?
The system in Evansville has been either broken or corrupted for a couple of generations now and it shows. It seems as though right now for the first time in most peoples memories that there is a critical mass of people demanding that this bullshit is ceased.
If the Winnecke Adminstration does not get on the stick and put some real vetting process into place after their recent Earthcare failure it is time for someone to initiate a recall election for Mayor and at least 3 City Council members. Enough is enough. It is time to stop letting this kind of governance off the hook.
Maybe Dewey was just following orders.
If she was not, then it is for certain that she lacks the skills and intellect to perform her job in an acceptable manner.
She is truly between the proverbial “rock and a hard place” on this matter.
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Totally agree!
A 41 % water increase over 3 years ??? And this does NOT address the coming big bucks for the Combined Sewer Overflow ? How can they justify putting all of this on the customers all at once ? Also, if the water rates go up 41 %, will the sewer rates also go up 41 % ???
Maybe Vectren and Evansville Water & Sewer can share costs to do dog-and-pony shows rationalizing why each has the HIGHEST RATES IN THE STATE ?
Even IF Dewey was following orders, didn’t she take over after a huge embezzlement situation? If my name was going in as responsible for an organization with substantial public monies, and it had been pillaged by my predescessor-I would completely understand if people wanted full accounting for all funds-it’s not HER money, nor is it the mayor’s, OR the City Council’s-it’s the PEOPLE’S money. Mayor Winnecke can only benefit from open and frank disclosure after too many under-the-radar, help yourself (nobody ever checks on these accounts) outright thefts, and shady deals with sketchy persons-deals we all are suspicious of, then told it’s NONE OF OUR BUSINESS? One only hides when one has something TO hide-
Those days are OVER-when you are elected to office to be a public servant, you run for that office to serve the public-when the public asks where their money’s going, be delighted to tell them-
Rick Davis would.
Neither of Dewey’s predecessor’s were ever accused of swiping anything. It was an employee and the number reported stolen was about $20,000 which is a drop in the bucket compared to $5 Million. The stealing was in the CP as starting after Wallace left and continuing until Dewey discovered it. I think the board was running GAGE during that time with Erika Taylor as acting boss.
Essentially, if you are dealing with public money, and there are questions-answer them! Is that too hard to do? Is it too much to ask, if you’re spending $5 million of someone else’s money, and it’s your responsibility (not to mention your good paying job) to make sure it’s well spent-don’t get bristled if you didn’t do your homework, and people want to know why? And don’t try to brush your mistake off on someone else.
You do realize that even if the minutes are released, they won’t reveal anything significant, right?
Minutes for these kinds of meetings are always written in a way to protect the guilty and minimize real disclosure. And even if, by some miracle, the minutes were thorough enough to indicate who was responsible for this deal…I’m sure that they would be changed before ever seeing the light of day.
On the Water rate increase, question I have is re: doing 44 projects in 3 years. That does not seem realistic. EWS is looking for a bond of $ 32 MM divided by 44 projects is around $ 725,000 per project. With 44 projects and just 36 months, you have to implement more than one $ 725,000 project each month, and do it each month for 3 straight years. This kind of discipline could only be found in the best-of-the-best private companies, and is so far out of reach of our Water Dept. –I am nearly speechless. Who is running this show–the dog or the tail ?
Come on Leo, the turds are running the city now. The dog and the tail got jobs in Louisville and hauled ass.
The tail, no doubt about it.
We tried very hard in the city elections last year. We brought to light the corrupt BS going on in the WEINY administration. We thought we were going to prevail, and then the so called DEMs, Curt, BJ mosby, Connie the con biatch, Jarboe, the mosby clan, leave it to Weavber, turned and supported this clown that cant run a dog, Winnecke. Four years from now, do not forget, and lets take our town BACK. Yes mosby’s dont deserve to be capitalized.
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