IS IT TRUE October 29, 2012

1. The truth is that the citizens of this country can’t afford another four years of Democrat control of the Senate and White House, but the illegal aliens Can.

2. Nothing more effecient implementing an agenda, than the Dictatorship/King/Mayor of Evansville’s recent past. Where was the Fairness?–“It” was buried in the concrete poured for the “The John”, right along with ” Integrity”. Vote NO on VandyGrab!

   • This is fair? So let’s vote for more of the same? More of the same political nightmware with the Arena? The same problems you want? And then you come here and say to Vote NO!?!? That the system is broken and you want it fixed, so Vote no?!? You can’t have it both ways Crash!! Voting “No” only takes the existing problem from consolication to annexation. Wake up dude! I think most people will prefer consolidation.

     • what “problem” are you talking about?
       Consolidation of Power is not going to magically create fairness or a receipe for a Honest Government, but enable more abuse by the Few,– on a County-Wide scale!

3. Impressions upon retrieving and perusing the newspaper on this beautiful fall morning, with apologies to my Hoosier port friend:

   ______

   When the frost is on the pumpkin and the fodder is in the shock

   And 240 local homes are on the auction block

   O, it’s then the time a fell isn’t feeling quite his best

   With the rising sun to greet him from a night of little rest

   There is something kind of harty-like about the atmusfere

   When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here-

   The air’s so appetizin’ and the landscape through the haze

   Of the crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days

   Is a picture that no painter has the colorin’ to mock-

   When the frost is on the pumpkin and the fodder’s in the shock

4. Rick Davis believes that government is supposed to be inefficient? Where do you go from there with this type of thinking? Why even try to make changes for efficiency when your opinion is that it is supposed to be inefficient?!? Is this a prelude to his candidacy? Should I be thankful because he admits this as one of his stances?

   Besides boting NO on regorganization, what does RD really stand for? UNIONS? Yeah, I got that message loud and clear. Taxpayers? Nope, you can’t represent the average taxpayer AND be support the government UNIONS. Government Unions…is just another form of a mafia. If it walks like a duck…you know.

   • New GAO Report
     Posted by scottsuhy â‹… August 6, 2012 â‹… Leave a Comment

     It’s good to read this new GAO report (SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT – Effective Practices and Federal Challenges in Applying Agile Methods GAO-12-681) at the same time you read Michael L Marlow’s book The Myth of Fair and Efficient Government: Why the Government You Want Is Not the One You Get

     Marlow says, government is the last place to look for efficiency. It is, rather, private markets that naturally drive toward efficient outcomes and it is unreasonable to expect governments to mimic those effects.

     Anyone that has successfully used Agile in the commerial world knows the impact it could have on most goverment projects saving tax payers money. However we have to realize that there are reasons the government is not setup to be efficient.

     • I am not going to disagree with this report directly. However, my question would be, doesn’t Rick know this and therefore seek to outsource some of the government services to private firms?!? Just to simply draw a line in the sand and say, efficient stops here, does not help his position or ours as a community.

       • The Myth of Fair and Efficient Government: Why the Government You Want Is Not the One You Get

         Michael L. Marlow

         Chapter 4. Government: The last place to look for efficiency

         (available on amazon.co__

     • I believe that Rick Davis understands more about the operation of “governments” than you give him credit for.

       What Rick was saying is that their are fairness issues in government that are not present in private markets. Those fairness issues impact what the private markets term: efficiency.

       ___

     • I agree with Mr. Marlow’s premise on a macroscopic scale. Indeed, government will never be as efficient as private enterprise simply because, as Hayek and Friedman pointed out, no one ever spends other people’s money with as much efficiency and attentiveness they spend their own. However, with the right principled leadership on a microcosmic scale within a single department, great efficiencies can be achieved. I think taxpayers have every right to at least expect efficiency.

       • Ok. I agree with that. And maybe his words are being used out of context.

         • Mr. Davis gives a more detailed explanation of his thoughts on efficiency as it relates to Reorganization here: http://www.core2012.net/?p=619

           “I keep hearing the reorganization proposal is about efficiency. But again, there is no financial cost savings demonstrated by the current plan. I have been told the most “efficient” form of government is a dictatorship. Our government was designed by our forefathers — a group of people who were truly oppressed — to allow for the rights of people and for our ability to own property. So in a sense, the fact that our local government doesn’t run as fast as we’d ideally like it to sometimes is because our oppressed forefathers actually placed these barriers TO PROTECT US from irresponsible decisions being made by our government. We also have checks and balances in place to protect citizens against corruption. I don’t want to make it easier for our government to trample our rights. “Fast” government does not particularly mean “responsive” government.” – Rick Davis

           —

           In this context his statement concerning efficiency makes sense. Considering I have still not seen him address his inconsistent key swipe record into the Civic Center, my endorsement of and intended vote for Susan Kirk stand.

   • I hope no one confuses this unimaginative poster, NoMoh, with myself. I’ve been using NoMoDoh for a number of years, and never shortened it. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, that flattery and $2 will get you a donut and a cup of coffee. Not my respect.

     I am sure Rick is not “boting” about anything, either. Use your spell check or at least look for the wavy red lines and believe you can make a mistake.

     When anything is OVERLY EFFICIENT it tends to provide only BLACK and WHITE results. There are no gray areas and nothing outside those small areas is given consideration. That is where the government “inefficiency” comes in. It takes a little more time, aka: inefficiency and expense, to handle those unusual situations FAIRLY and ETHICALLY to solve their problems.

     Your description of Rick’s comments and positions remind me of the story of the blind men trying to describe an elephant. It’s all you think you know about Rick Davis.

5. I have tried repeatedly to give Rick Davis the benefit of the doubt. He is making that more and more difficult. I know we all say things that could be misconstrued, but I fail to see how anyone could think government should not work efficiently. An office holder especially should strive for efficiency. I think fairness is also a worthy goal, but how is it “fair” to taxpayers to have their government waste their money on inefficiencies?

   A week ago I might have tossed a coin in the Treasurer race between Mr. Davis and Mrs. Kirk and been confident I’d made a good decision either way; however, between this statement and his questionable work schedule, I think I am confident in saying Mrs. Kirk will get my vote.

   I trust she will strive for efficiency and return any budget overages in her department to the general fund.

   Susan Kirk for Treasurer!

   • You can go ahead and vote for Susan Kirk. However, she’s already stated that the Treasurer’s office has no room for improvement – sounding like she is not even going to try. Rick Davis has and continues to make improvements, even if it’s just a dollor here or 2 dollars there on my tax bill – every dollar counts in my eyes. RICK DAVIS IS GETTING MY VOTE… And you did read that Parke’s even stated that the information he came out with about Mr. Davis work schedule, were not accurate and can not account for certain things, DIDN’T YOU READ THAT?

     • I have had private correspondence with Chairman Parke on this subject, and I am convinced Mr. Davis did not have a sufficient explanation of his card swipes. I will copy my remarks from the Parke press release post below:

       ————-

       If I can presume to speak for Mr. Parke for a moment…
       I think the point he is making is this: the keycard evidence, which should by all accounts and measures of building security be an accurate portrayal of the times a person enters the Civic Center complex. In fact, they are REQUIRED to scan their cards upon entering the building.

       The counter argument put forward by Mr. Davis in this matter that others swiped him into the building is false. If it is so, he is actually violating building security by doing so. So we are left with a few possible conclusions we can draw from this…

       A) Mr. Parke is lying about the data.
       B) Civic Center Building Security is extremely lax, allowing for inconsistent records to be kept.
       C) Mr. Davis is accomplishing the duties of his office with limited personal time investment.

       If A is true, then I suspect the record will show that.
       If B is true, then Civic Center security should be reviewed and Mr. Davis chastised for willfully bypassing security measures.
       However, if C is true, there are a couple more conclusions we can draw. They are as follows:

       A) Mr. Davis’ office is over-funded, allowing him to hire out the duties of the job he is payed to perform in which case, there should be a budget review.
       B) Mr Davis’ salary is too generous for the limited hours in which he is able to perform his job duties as Treasurer.
       Now that we’ve worked our way through it logically and without emotion, it would appear that despite the previously miscalculated and off-the-mark attempts by the Republican Party to defame Mr. Davis, Chairman Parke may very well be onto something here.

       Sometimes it requires an additional dash of wisdom to look beyond the messenger and see the underlying truth. This, I believe, is one of those cases.

       • Heard it through the grapevine from a republican higher up that those days Parke mentioned Davis being off were actually during the mayor campaign. I’m sure both Winnecke and Davis were both working very hard during the mayor campaign. Employees are not required to enter Civic Center by badge. They can enter through the metal detectors like anybody else in the public. And many do.

         When Winnecke runs for congress or senate – and he will – as a sitting mayor I don’t think he’d want the Civic Center badge swipes used against him as a true indicator of his work performance as mayor. Just saying this could come back to haunt Parke. It was below the belt politics.

         • But there again… The only logical reason one might not use a key card is if he left it at home, but that still doesn’t explain late swipes at 10:00 or 3:00. Clearly your explanation doesn’t address late swipes.

           Believe me. I’ve struggled to explain them and can’t. The only explanation that makes any sense whatsoever is that he arrived late and swiped back in late after lunch. There is no other logical explanation for this data.

         • I think people like Davis and Winnecke are both out in the community and I like that in our elected people. The treasurer came to a rotary meeting at 7 in the morning to speak to our group once about how he would change our city as mayor and once about yes vs. no and I bet he didn’t get credit for that in his paycheck or on the badge reader. I want to hear from my county treasurer on things like this. I grade my leaders on performance. And our treasurer performs. Does he need a badge to collet our taxes at midnight? I hear he is in person at midnight to collect taxes.

       • How many hours does Rick Davis put in after his staff has exited the building? Parke didn’t mention that. I didn’t see those exit times for Davis mentioned, or is everyone on the honor system and not have to swipe their cards on leaving for the day?

         Most department heads spend time in meetings after their offices close, making both business and public appearances, delivering information about how changes are affecting taxpayers and voters or explaining what is going on in general.

         Most people on salary put in more than 40 hours a week.

         Rick has demonstrated his ability to cut expenses for the city and county and continues to look for more. He knows a wolf in sheep’s clothing, such as the reorganization “plan”, when he sees one and is willing to point it out.

         Pick Rick Davis for Treasurer and

         Vote NO to CONsolidation in NOvember!!

         • There is no data for swiping out. The only data is swiping in. For leave times, we have to rely on eyewitness accounts, which are not always reliable, disinterested viewpoints.

           I struggle to see why a Treasurer would choose to work after regular hours and by so doing make himself unavailable to the public.

           My instinct is, Mr. Davis has too many employees in his office. He is able to accomplish the tasks associated with his elected position on minimal hours. Therefore one of two things needs to occur – either he should agree to a salary cut befitting the hours suggested by this keycard data, or he should lay someone off in his office and take their workload upon his own shoulders to justify his $60,000+ salary.

           Could I be wrong and Mr. Davis consistently stays late to make up for coming in late? Yes. It’s possible, but there doesn’t seem to be any eyewitness support of this theory.

           One thing is certain…the data doesn’t lie. Unless his card was stolen, Mr. Davis did indeed swipe in at those times. It doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes level of deduction to extrapolate his habits from there.

         • LOL….

           You guys still debating Mr Davis’s attendance record based on info provided by Mr Parke?

           Brad I normally agree with your point of view but in you post the other day you left out a few options…. those being.

           C. It’s a Republican vs Democrat thing (opposing factions, finding no fault in his job performance we’ll attack the mans perceived time spent on the job using info that was discredited from the get go by the person providing the info)

           or

           D. Mr Parke has created a non-issue for the sake of smearing Mr Davis’s name or record to further the chances of his candidate.

           or

           E. you’ve been drinking some of that home grown Kool Aid that Mr Parke whips up from time to time. (which surprises me I thought you were in the Libertarian camp and had forsaken Mr Parke and his Republican party)

           But then it is JMHO

         • My views are completely non-partisan. I have been more critical of the YES crowd and the Republican Party than I have of Rick Davis.

           I look at each issue in isolation. The issue of Rick Davis’ card swipe data was never sufficiently addressed by Mr. Davis. While it might well be a true statement to say the data could be an incomplete picture, it is a stretch to get to the point where you can reasonably explain 10:00 and 3:00 swipe ins as anything but tardiness. No alternate explanation makes sense.

           Occum’s razor: the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

           I work on data. There is an input, a process, then an output. Nowhere in my process does partisan politics factor in. Anyone who follows my comments knows that.

         • You know I left out the most sinister option which should be also mentioned.

           F. A deal was cut between the Democrats and Republicans last election cycle which brought both parties together to defeat Mr Davis in favor of Mr Winnecke, as part of this deal Mr Davis got a lesson in politics Evansville style which appears to still be ongoing, kinda’ like a bounty put on Mr Davis in any race he might run in….both parties will work together to teach him a lesson.

           (Actually option F is the most likely given Evansville politics and the history of what went down in the last election)

           Like always it’s JMHO

         • The piece of data that should be considered…

           —————————-

           ““Building Authority Director Dave Rector, who filled the request, said he told Parke that the records aren’t an accurate gauge of how often a public employee enters the Civic Center.””

           ———————————-

           The quote above if true nullifies any reasonable approach to defend Mr Parke’s assertions, it is as they say straight from the horses mouth. If you disregard Mr Rector’s statement then any analysis is flawed.

           But it is JMHO

         • Blanger,

           I agree with F.

           I’ve said before and I’ll say again, I’m proud to have voted for Rick Davis for Mayor, even though I’m a Republican. I think Winnecke is a disaster and a puppet for special interests just like his predecessor.

           But all of that is outside the issue at hand.

         • I read Dave Rector’s statement about that the day it came out in the C&P. I have not forgotten or disregarded it. What I have said is IN SPITE of his statement, it makes very little sense for someone like Davis to have entered the building on time consistently, having someone else swipe in for him, then leave within the first hour or two, again consistently, only to come back at around 10:00 and only this time swipe in.

           Dave Rector’s statement, even if taken as absolutely true, does not account for the data. While it provides some doubt, it does not provide a very plausible alibi.

           The simplest explanation is still that the man is consistently late. As much as I respect him, that looks to be the sum total of it.

         • I saw Mr. Davis address the card swipes on TV.
           I was teetering on whether or not what he was telling the truth until they filmed him on tv walking right into the civic center without using any badge at all. He just walked right in. Case closed. Parke is dirty and can’t be trusted.

   • Agreed option F is the most likely in my mind, let me also go on record saying that I trust Mr Parke’s opinion just about as far as I trusted Mr Owen’s, I’ve heard similar comments or rumblings about both men.

     Anyway you can’t in my mind be in bed with the opposing party in one instance then wash your hands and instantly cleansed like going to confession and being absolved of your past sins. 🙂

     JMHO

6. Davis has been saying the above quote or things very similar for months.

7. Rick Davis’s statement of government not meant to be efficient has been taken out of context. Read his post http://www.core2012, and especially the last paragraph. You should then understand his statement.

8. I have read this online news site for a couple of years and have never felt as compelled to comment as I do today. I read the C&P article where Rick Davis made his statement about government efficiency & fairness, but I must have read a different version. In the article I read, Mr. Davis goes on to explain his statement and explained that you need checks and balances in government to keep out corruption. Obviously, in Evansville, we need MORE checks and balances with all of the “snegal,” and perhaps illegal activities of our elected officials, past and present. I credit Rick Davis for the demise of our former mayor’s political ambitions, by standing up to him and the party and running for mayor. Think about it, if it were not for Mr. Davis, the citizens of Evansville probably would not have been informed of the mess he created, because Weinizapfel and his cronies would still be covering them up: Un-reconciled books for two years, the $1.6 million in funds deposited towards North High School “error,” the negligence of Robert‘s Stadium and then under-funding of Roberts Stadium’s demolition. I am sure there are other instances that I am unaware of or have forgotten. What I do know is that the taxpayer’s of Evansville and Vanderburgh County can thank Rick for saving them over $290,000 so far, by eliminating wasteful spending in his office. They can also thank him for receiving their property tax bills much earlier than previous administrations. Have you ever been to the Civic Center on tax deadline day to see Rick Davis at MIDNIGHT accepting tax payments so the taxpayers are not late? Concerning swipe gate, if there is a group of 5 people entering a building at the same time, only one person swipes their card and the rest of the group enters at the same time. Why is that so surprising? Being a Treasurer, I am sure bank runs are made frequently, making a 10 am swipe not unrealistic. These attacks are just absurd. No one is going to find skeletons in Mr. Davis’ closet because there are none. Again, I have been a regular reader of this news site for years, but I am incredibly disappointed in it today.

   • Like I said in my comments previously, if more than one person is entering through the special door on one card swipe, that poses a serious breach of security. It is my understanding that isn’t supposed to happen. If it IS happening, security should put a stop to it. That defeats the whole purpose of having to swipe in.

     I agree that Rick Davis is a far better representative of the interests of residents than Lloyd Winnecke and would have made a far better Mayor. He is on the correct side of the Consolidation issue in my opinion, but so is his opponent, Susan Kirk. He was with the Option B people on Roberts Stadium, so while he wouldn’t have advocated tearing it down, he would have spent more taxpayer money keep the site on government books rather than auctioning it off, so from my point of view, he’s still loses points with me on that one.

     By contrast, Susan Kirk supported my ideological hero, Ron Paul, in his bid for the Republican nomination, so I know she at least understands the concept of limited government and is willing to put her reputation on it. Again, this race was a toss up until the swipegate thing. I just think Mr. Davis failed to properly address it.

     Either way, I hope the loser in that race finds a way to remain in public service. If Mrs. Kirk loses, I’d like to see her run against Lloyd Winnecke for Mayor on the Republican or Libertarian ticket.

     • Voting for Kirk is certainly your prerogative. Are you aware that Susan Kirk is, and has been for years, in defiance of the Vanderburgh County ordinance by closing her office a half our early every Friday, letting her employees leave with pay? Taxpayers foot the bill for thousands of hours un-worked but paid. Per the Vanderburgh County handbook, an employee with Mr. Davis’ years served gets 9 sick days (which carry over when unused) and 4 personal days per year. Mr. Davis also receives 20 days of vacation per year. Mr. Davis is also required to attend mandatory State Board of Accounts meetings in Indianapolis that is 7 days per year. Mr. Parke knows this, but still refused to give Mr. Jack McNeely, Vanderburgh County Democrat Party Chairman, and the C&P the dates in question so that Mr. Davis may defend himself. This is truly a non-issue. I’ve already voted for Mr. Davis.

   • Someone suggested that Lloyd Winnecke will eventually run for congress. People have said the same about Jonathan Weinzapfel. Both of these individuals have made the save fatal error when it comes to getting my vote: you withhold and cover up vital public information from me at the peril of your political career.

     Local citizens should be demanding that an investigation into the City of Evansville contracts with SM&G from 2006-2011 take place as soon as possible, and that every penny of the millions of dollars that ran through those accounts be accounted for!

     ___

     • Press….was that a trial balloon someone sent up? Mr Winnecke has about the same chance getting elected to any state or federal office as Brad Ellsworth had getting elected to the senate. He’s way over his head being a place holder for the next mayor of Evansville (read that as Democrat) talk about setting your sights high or having delusions of what your capabilities are….I’m sure 5th 3rd is still holding a position open in their marketing department for Mr Winnecke.

       JMHO

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