IS IT TRUE? May 6, 2011

IS IT TRUE that at next Monday’s Evansville City Council meeting that there will be an opportunity for our elected leaders to ask questions of John Kish the Evansville Arena project manager?…that many of those questions will be revolving around inconsistencies between previously reported budget line items and numbers on the most recent budget spreadsheet?…that the packets for next Monday’s meeting will be handed out as usual at 4 o’clock on Friday afternoon (today)?…that there will be some very hard but not impossible questions posed to Mr. Kish about some BIG TICKET discrepancies in his budget?…that two examples follow?

IS IT TRUE that on November 20,2009 that the Evansville Courier and Press reported that the total contract for Hunt Construction, the construction project manager was for $5.8 Million including a $500,000 performance bonus that they have not yet earned?…that the final arena construction costs are now expected to exceed $95 Million so Hunt Construction will most likely not earn the $500,000 bonus?…that given that probability that the budget today SHOULD reflect a TOTAL PAYMENT to Hunt Construction of $5,300,000?…that in the John Kish issued spreadsheet titled “Evansville Arena Summary” and dated January 31, 2011, that the line item labeled Hunt Construction Group shows a total of $7,120,000?…that this is only a $1,880,000 increase over the expected value based on published contractual numbers?

IS IT TRUE that the same Courier and Press article stated that Populous (then HOK) would be paid for architectural services an amount NOT TO EXCEED 10% of the Arena Construction Costs?…that number based on a $95 Million construction cost should be budgeted right at $9.5 Million based on current information?…that it has been recently reported that Mr. Kish has stated that Populous will be paid $11,300,000?…that is a number that EXCEEDS their reported $9,500,000 NOT TO EXCEED number by $1.8 Million?

IS IT TRUE that just these two discrepancies amount to $3,680,000 of dollars that the citizens of Evansville have not expected to be spending at all based on previously published numbers attributed to contracts for professional services associated with the Evansville Arena?…that these discrepancies and other smaller ones need to be in the City Council packet and on the docket for Monday night?…that it is remotely possible that the figures reported by the Courier and Press were not correct?…that we would assign a very low probability that the CP reported this wrong because they would have had to pull numbers from the sky to have done so?…that the CP would have had no reason to have done such a thing?

IS IT TRUE that the Evansville Redevelopment Commission would have to approve any change orders that amount to $3.68 Million for these increases to be authorized to go into the budget?…that there is no public record of the ERC approving increases in the amount of $3.68 Million to Hunt and Populous?…that there are not public records available reflecting that the ERC was ever even asked?…then that the question for Mr. Kish is “who granted you the authority to increase these line items by $3.68 Million”?…that another question for Mr. Kish is “WHEN and IF you were granted the authority to increase these line items by $3.68 Million, was this done in an open door meeting or was this another backroom decision”?…that another question for Mr. Kish is “is there any way under Indiana codes that allows an increase of $3.68 Million to be authorized in a non public meeting”?…that we think such things are subject to “Sunshine Laws” but are open to opposing interpretation by learned counsel?

IS IT TRUE that these two bills have not been fully paid yet so correcting them RIGHT NOW can save the people of Evansville $3.68 Million of additional debt that they can ill afford in the first place?