IS IT TRUE November 21, 2012
IS IT TRUE that the City County Observer filed a “Free of Information Act” request with the City of Evansville Water & Sewer Utility requesting 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 check register summaries?… that, although the CCO paid for the years requested, (nearly $44 for over 400 pages), the 2011 information was missing?…that the 2011 year is the period that the Utility could not reconcile the bank accounts?… that Jenny Collins, the Chief Financial Officer of the City of Evansville Water and Sewer Utility told Evansville City Council Finance Chairman, John Friend, that the bank accounts were reconciled and balanced?…if that is the truth and we have no reason to believe that it is where are those records for 2011?… that there may be issues with this particular year?…that we request that the Finance Chairman Friend and Mr. David Garrett, CPA, CMA, accounting liaison for the City Council start their procedures in the Utility commencing starting with 2011?
IS IT TRUE the Hostess Corporation that has been making tasty treats like Twinkies, Ding-Dongs, and Ho Hos for many generations agreed to sit down with its Baker’s Union that staged a strike that became a catalyst for the decision to shut down yesterday?…at the end of the day no resolution was reached to the impasse and the liquidation is set to begin?…in a Wall Street Journal article a Hostess truck driver from Detroit was interviewed and stated that his union had agreed to an 8% wage cut and that the 8% cut that he was in favor of would reduce his paycheck by $200 per week?…that figure raised a few eyebrows as if one divides $200 by 0.08 one finds that this truck driver must have been taking home $2,500 per week?…that is equivalent to take home pay of $130,000 per year?…to take home that much money per week after taxes and union dues this truck driver had to have been earning $200,000 per year ($100 per hour) plus benefits?…that is one eye popping amount of money for a truck driver unless the work location is in Afghanistan where hazard pay justifies such a paycheck?…Detroit, where this driver worked has a cost of living that is about equivalent to Evansville’s and we bet if truck drivers were making $200,000 per year here that there would be a long line of medical doctors, lawyers, tenured college professors, and even some elected officials stand in line to apply for the job?…if one really wants to understand one of the reasons (mismanagement being another) that Hostess was not competitive then $200,000 per year truck drivers are a real symptom of a broken business model?…such compensation packages for getting Twinkies from south Detroit to east Detroit and having the basic qualifications of punctuality and a driver’s license when highly qualified professionals that add much more value to the economy are earning well under half of that amount are unsustainable with or without collective bargaining?…if this is widespread we can expect the bankruptcy courts to be backed up for many years into the future as such plans are not practical, efficient, fair, or competitive?
IS IT TRUE that the CCO is pleased to see President Obama embrace the idea from the Romney campaign about how to increase revenues by limiting deductions to some maximum amount without letting Congress delve into the details about which deductions are more worthy or less worthy than others?…this was a simple plan that made sense and could be constructed to spare most of the middle class a tax increase with simple arithmetic and one line added to IRS form Schedule A?…the CCO did the math and to determined that just under $50,000 would be the correct amount to choose for an across the board deduction limitation to have the same net effect as letting the so named Bush tax cuts expire for the so designated millionaires and billionaires?…we encourage the President to embrace practical and simple to implement ideas for tax reform and to avoid the fiscal cliff no matter where the ideas came from?…with overtime the truck driver from Detroit profiled above may even be tapped for millionaire taxation rates going forward if he can replace the job that he had with Hostess somewhere else?
IS IT TRUE at last night’s meeting of the Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners, Joe Kiefer finally got his request to fund the County’s share to start the IT audit?…that the President of the County Commission only wanted to invest a mere $10,000 towards the audit after she committed to City Councilman, John Friend, CPA to fund $20,000?…we are pleased that Commissioner Kiefer pushed through a whooping $50,000 approval to assist the Evansville City Council in paying for this expensive but long overdue audit of this most important department of city and county government?…we want to also thank County Commissioners Abell and Melcher for finally agreeing to approve this funding request?…we also want to thank Commissioner Joe Kiefer for making a “good public policy” decision?
Just because the truck driver said it would cost him $200 per week doesn’t mean it was true. I think it’s pretty safe to say that there’s N.F.W. he made $200k per year delivering Twinkies.
Either way, the company is bankrupt, so something brought it down. It’s not as if their products were not popular…
I can’t imagine any investor wanting to own stock in a company that deals with union labor. I also can’t imagine any private owner putting up with it either.
Hostess appears to have been Bained, imo.
Brad, you sure like running your big mouth huh? Yup. Have any GM stock? How about Coca Cola? Oh, why even ask you……..you’ll just make another ignorant reply.
I was at the City Council meeting when Ms. Collins told me Friend that teh Water and Sewer Utitiles Department books were balanced.
I also remember the City Controllor, Russ Lloyd, Jr. agreeing with her.
Boy, talking about trust. How much are the taxpayers paying these people?
Little Debbie is more popular…..
Russ Lloyd, Jr., CPA and City Controller makes about $83,000 A YEAR.
The 4 year Graduate in Accounting and Fisal Officer of Water and Sewer Department makes $81,000 a year. Oh, she got a $21,000 raise from the Mayor after 4 months on the job in this newly created position.
What’s wrong with this picture?
I want to know more about her part in the financial recording keeping for the six years of contracts between The City of Evansville and SM&G. The Indiana State Board of Accounts stated that what was supposed to be an “annual audit” of these accounts was changed to an “annual review”, and further stated that none of the annual reviews ever took place and that the data SBOA was given was not sufficient for an audit to take place.
We are talking about six years of financial data for all of the events that took place in all of Evansville’s publicly owned entertainment facilities! How many millions of dollars are involved?
Is all of this going to be swept under the rug?
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I would be greatly surprised to see any investigation into this lack of accountability. Was any money ever deposited into city accounts, or was that just split between JW and JC? Why does Wieneke keep covering for JW?
This whole deal is corrupt. I know it is cause I have insider information. Jenny needs to be FIRED!!!!!
Keep prodding, poking, and stirring. This mess must come to light, and CCO is turning the switch, Thanks
Now that Rick Davis is gone – and let’s face it he’s gone after two losses – I wonder why Lloyd Winnecke is keeping his old Weinzapfel political favor employees around. Jenny Collins. Rose Young. Ed Ziemer. Chris Walsh. All of them are democrats who were loyal to Weinzapfel. Winnecke kept them aboard as a political favor to Weinzapfel and to those 4 in the event he had to run against Davis again. He won’t have to worry about that now.
So how much longer do you think it will be before he fires the two-timing disloyal Democrats and hires Republicans to take their place? To the victor go the spoils. Why are Democrats getting and keeping jobs that true Republicans should be having? Winnecke is smarter than that. Isn’t he?
Weinecke/McClintock know Davis will run. He needs the Democratic faithful more than ever now that Vandygrab has failed.
As for the missing 2011 records, Whinzeapple will bury those as long as he has any political clout. They are likely a component of how he siphoned money during the Fraud Center construction. Eventually, if there is any credible investigation by SBOA, Whinezapple, Barnett, Klipsch, et al will be brought to justice.
Rick Davis will win a major City election again.
I hope you’re right, I know if there were a do-over now for mayor he’d beat weineke 3 to 2. After the first 2 years of this cycle the same number will wish they had someone as treasurer who could keep track of numbers. The dem’s who worked so hard againt him, betraying the party trust will soon be gone.
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