IS IT TRUE November 1, 2012
IS IT TRUE that October of 2012 is now officially the highest internet traffic month ever for the City County Observer?…the CCO set records for pageviews, visits, unique visitors, and that every goal that was set in the strategic planning for 2012 will have been achieved in the next couple of weeks?…that much of that can be attributed to actually going through a planning and goal setting process in December of 2011?…that the City of Evansville continues to flounder in the strategic planning department having no plan at all in place for the future of the City?…the CCO first exposed this vacuum of leadership in charting a course back in 2010, and again in both 2011 and 2012?…we actually placed putting together a strategic plan as the top priority for the City of Evansville in all three years?…that not a darn thing has been done about that by either the Weinzapfel or Winnecke Administrations?
IS IT TRUE that as much as predictable and growing readership is the direct result of planning for the CCO that the failure to plan or even to think is most likely the driving force behind the utter and complete incompetence that has been exposed in city government during the last 4 years?…that things like a rotting down McCurdy, an empty lot where the unplanned hotel should be by now, the Earthcare Energy fiasco, the inability of the City to balance its books (still continuing), the misplaced $1.6 Million, Roberts Stadium’s demise, dilapidated parks, and a starry eyed desire to build more of them that have taken on epidemic proportions are the result of not planning and not thinking by our city government?…consolidation will not solve this using the current leaders and the plan that the upcoming referendum is about?…if and we must say if consolidation fails at the ballot box by the kind of substantial amount that our Moles tell us it is failing in the polls that many political careers will be in ashes over supporting something that was meticulously planned to do nearly nothing?
IS IT TRUE that after all of the fanfare and claims in the summer that the McCurdy was on a track to be refurbished that on November 1, 2012 the Vanderburgh County Assessor’s website still reports that the owner of record is City Centre Properties LLC of Carmel, IN?…the Vanderburgh County Treasurers website however reports that the taxes are now up to date and that the owner of record is McCurdy Development LLC located at 510 Main Street right here in Evansville?…both of these public websites cannot be correct?…we wonder which of these entities is actually being expedient and efficient in keeping this information up to date?…we invite both the Assessor and the Treasurer to chime in and tell our readers exactly who owns the McCurdy and when the change of ownership took place if it indeed has happened and slipped under the Assessor’s nose?
IS IT TRUE the grades came out from the State of Indiana on the accountability of the schools and 15 of the schools operated by the EVSC got an F?… four EVSC schools were awarded “A” grades. Two received “Bs,” eight “Cs” and six “Ds?…if you count them up that 20 out of 35 of the EVSC schools got either a D or an F?…this is not acceptable and will not impress any site selectors who are assessing the desirability of Vanderburgh County as an acceptable place for educated young professionals to raise a family?…EVSC is already consolidated?…if one wants to do something to attract outside interest and investment that having an award winning school system will do that?…that any gains that may be achieved in the minds of the unsuspecting by putting in ball fields, parks, or consolidating local government are totally wiped out by a school system that has over half of the schools getting D’s or F’s in national performance metrics?…the funniest part of this was the headline in the Courier and Press that reads “State gives failing acountability grade to 15 EVSC schoolsâ€?…the author of that article and the spell checkers over at the CP seem to have taken spelling at one of the 15 schools that got Fs?
Congratulations to the CCO on beating your traffic numbers, and BTW the new header looks great also. Keep it up! 🙂
JMHO
This school corporation is in a crisis. A long time ago, without any public discussion, the corporation made a decision to place more focus on providing redundant social services to students and their families. There has been a steady increase in these services while there has been a steady decrease in the the corporations academic performance. It seems that the school corporation has forgotten its Raison d’être, or has intentionally embarked on a social services mission over its contractual mission to EDUCATE STUDENTS.
___
It is time to replace the socialists with EDUCATORS!
___
Congratulations on the increase in traffic. Reading the facts, presented as soon as they are available and without bias will always bring the readers who wish to be informed. Keep at it.
As for the spelling in the C&P headline, check out the following headline from the weekly “E-EVSC NEWS” published in-house and emailed to all employee:
“…Tri-State Spellig Bee Competition
This school year’s Tri-State Spelling Bee will take place Feb. 16 at Ivy Tech Community College.”
People who believe they know everything don’t use Spell Check or even look for the red wavy liner. Sarah and Heather, your faces should be red.
Everybody needs to stop blaming the prior and current administration! How about the State Board of Accounts people? One of the auditors has audited the City for 20 years plus and another is a former employee who is closely related to someone that is high up in the City. “Independent” auditor’s report my ass!
I fail to see how anyone other than the past administration and the city controller could be at fault for getting caught in failing to reconcile the city’s accounts for over a year, it’s a weird kinda’ logic that places the blame on the SBOA auditors. It like saying the cops are to blame for investigating and uncovering a murder….but what ever floats your boat. 😉
JMHO
I agree with your assessment of fault. The former Controller should become unemployed before she causes more problems in the water department.
As for the SBOA, they DO have an office in the Civic Center manned by people from this area. As a result, I believe they are too close to local politicians and education administrators to do an truly objective audit. From personal experience, I believe they “tip off” those at fault and give them the time to cover their tracks before being audited and publicly embarrassed. A little public embarrassment could go a long way in bringing the sloppy, local financial mismanagement to a halt.
A fresh, unassociated audit team from Indianapolis should be sent in to do a REAL, professional audit of City of Evansville’s books, not just to check to see if the correct procedures are being used or to reveal a few token instances of cellphone misuse or coding mistakes.
Is it possible that the $1.6 mil that went to the North HS Construction Account could have been an under the table loan by the city? Just to help the EVSC out with a temporary revenue shortfall, of course. The transmittal chain from 5/3rd to ONB and to the EVSC, doesn’t make much sense. Why is ONB falling on their sword, when 5/3rd sent them the money? Why did they send it to ONB? If it wasn’t supposed to go to the EVSC, where was ONB supposed to have sent it?
Inquiring minds would like to know all the details.
The former controller is still running around the Civic Center making $81/k a year to mess up the Utility accounting records! It’s time for these people to man up, throw in the towel, and admit defeat. They are all way in over their heads. If they weren’t, why would they need to hire consultants? Vote “Hell No” on Tuesday because we don’t need them bringing down the County too!
Those two auditors aren’t bad. At least they are CPA’s unlike the former Controller, the Deputy Controller and their own Supervisor. Their own Supervisor has a speech impediment like Tom Brokaw. Independent or not, they are qualified and shouldn’t be taking any heat for reporting the truth about the mess in the Controller’s Office
Councilman Friend even said that he talks to one of the auditors daily and that her husband used to work for him. Same auditor for 20 years. I think the AICPA should be tipped off. This is absolutely a SOX violation.
Why did the SBOA say they could not audit the financial data for the six years of contracts, 2006-2011, between The City of Evansville and SM&G Inc.?
What makes that data unauditable?
____
That was the guy from Harding Shymanski that said that.
You mention the lack of planning by the present and previous city administrations. Could that be similar to the deliberate lack of scheduling and maintaining of Roberts Stadium in an attempt to prove it was no longer valuable and in need of demolition? Could this lack of planning be intended to show that a “bright, new and innovative” group of politicians, brought in for election and to run the new “consolidated” government couldn’t help but do a better job? WHERE will these wonderful people come from? Surely they are not going to market Eric Williams as having an innovative mind, quick, facile and innovative. We’ve watched him try to promote the YES! Trojan Horse and found it amusing as he found he was constantly saying, “We don’t kNOw” when asked to explain details about it.
Is the most innovative thing Winnecke can come up with is picking up trash with a bunch of high school kids? Most don’t know they were getting credits for the Community Service required by the EVSC before graduation. It should be easy for anyone to do better, with or without consolidation.
Evansville’s greatest threat is OWENSBORO, KY. Smart, innovative people go where there are bright, creative, flexible and innovative people to work WITH, not FOR. Just looking at the new riverfront they are building shows what can be accomplished when ego’s are put aside and the people and city are put first.
Evansville’s business and political machines, are frozen in the past. They keep doing the same things over and over, expecting a different result or that the people will forget that it has been done before. Unfortunately, they are driving more of the city/county economy into the ground and people into survival mode.
Voting for the “Plan” is not the “…the right choice.”, as the sweet old ACTRESS says in the latest TV commercial.
There is no content or future in this “Plan” for the taxpayers and citizens, only the select few politicians and insiders.
Vote NO on NOvember 6th!!
Do you or anyone know how the growth rate for Owensboro/Davies Co. compares to Evansville/Vand. Co.?
The growth rates between 2000 and 2010 for:
Owensboro/Daviess Co. — +0.6%
Evansville/Vand Co. — +0.3%
As per the US Census Report’s “Quickfacts”.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html
Use the map and click on the state(s) desired.
Use the county and city “drop down” windows to select the reports desired.
Other reports are available, but being in the same format, these are easy to compare.
Interesting statistic is that Owensboro issued 269 building permits and Vanderburgh Co. only 226.
NMD…..
I like your analogy, it’s is correct IMHO, if I assume that we elect smart forward thinking intelligent people to represent us as taxpayers there is really no other explanation than it is deliberate acts that leaves us scratching our heads in amazement. Without the premise stated above what we are left with is a ship full of buffoons similar to the old monkey ship at the zoo….naw, couldn’t be…could it?
JMHO
Creating a plan and goals would mean actually having to have a budget and having to admit you can’t afford every dog park you might want to build.
The fact is, the “budget” is in non-existent, and apparently the Council doesn’t have the balls to ever say “no” when push comes to shove. The City Council is as much or more to blame than the Administration. They should be saying “no” a lot more than they are. They should have said “no” to the 2013 budget.
When planning fails, you have to have a last line of defense or your castle will fall. The City Council have basically thrown down their swords and opened the gates of Rome, allowing the hordes of Visigoths to storm in.
To approve the budget is to approve the agenda.
Rome on Rad, Ree needs a rew rog park rho Raggy ran play rith me.
Three people voted against the budget, but I guess they don’t count. And no one has approved a dog park. There is no money in the 2013 budget for this nor any agreement to put some in. whatever is to happen to the Roberts Stadium site has not been determined.
Regarding McCurdy ownership. It is common for the Assessors office site to be a month or more behind the Treasurers office site. I’m not sure why this is, but it is always that way.
Then those folks should do their jobs. If one is doing their job, they have the county t’s crossed, and i’s dotted-when asked where the money is-they dont have an IT dept to blame for their lack of records and balances.
Even gas stations have a hand written acct of each shifts’ daily balances in case the computer blows. No office that is paid for by the public should EVER be so haphazard and nonchalant about the work it does or the purpose it serves, that its’ records are months or YEARS behind-if it LOOKS crooked, it usually is.
We all know it is, and has been for quite some time.
Winnecke is going to hurry and do maximum damage, as he has been told to do by whomever’s back he still has to scratch (is Klenck the one that left the landfill behind The John, lo these many months?)
Glad I didn’t vote for him, and will NEVER vote for any of his Dem buddies (you know who you are) ever again-pack your bags, your day will be done soon too.
And hope it was worth leaving us all to clean up your $$$ mess for years to come-wish any of you had sense enough to be ashamed.
Makes me prouder of the ones with the backbone to stand up and say NO-there’s a few…
Jenny Collins ought to hang her head in shame, but I bet she cashes that check she didn’t work for happily every payday. Kharma’s-well you’ll find out-three times, actually.
Hell what do expect from the EVSC people because they received a $1.6 million dollar check from the City of Evansville and deposit in their account and kept it for months.
If it wasn’t for city Councilmen John Friend finding this bookkeeping error the money would been long gone!
It’s this the same system who teaches students to add and subtract?
John Friend did not discover the error of the $1.6 million check deposit. John was speechless at the last City Council meeting when Russ Lloyd informed the Council of the error. And we all know, John isn’t speechless often.
The error turned up after the last city council meeting. What channel are you watching? There hasn’t been a city council meeting that discussed this issue yet. But I guess your fabrication of something that didn’t happen is lot more interesting.
It was at the last Finance Committee/Budget meeting of the City Council, and yes it was brought up at that meeting. Sorry you missed it.
To settle this argument, I sit on that committee, and there was no discussion of the check and the EVSC. It was revealed since our last meeting. We have not met for almost two weeks. It will be discussed at our next meeting. John Friend has made an information request to the Administration and DMD and both will be present to answer questions.
Congratulations CCO on the increased ratings.
Stephanie,
Thank you for the update. We sure need more people like you in local government, city and county.
Is there any doubt in any sane, intelligent person’s mind that Evansville will be the next San Bernardino (a city in bankruptcy)?
Comments are closed.