IS IT TRUE Part 2 September 12, 2013 “Messing with Vetting and More Delusions†IS IT TRUE that City Councilman John Friend learned this morning in an email exchange with Brad Dewael of Crowe-Horwath the firm that the City Council voted to hire to do the Vetting of the downtown convention hotel deal that City Attorney Ted Ziemer has injected himself into the process of formulating the statement of work without advising the City Council that he has been doing so?…Ziemer’s meddling has not only delayed the start date of the Vetting but has also increased the probability that whatever statement of work and contract show up in the next couple of days will not be acceptable to Councilman Friend or City Council President Connie Robinson?…in response to learning that he statement of work has been developed without the input of the City Council, Friend fired off the following email to Crowe-Horwath as an advance warning that they may have made themselves a tool of the Winnecke Administration by conferring with the wrong customer? Brad, The council is the client, not Ted, and during our tele-conference it was made clear that, I, as the Finance Chair would be contact person. We passed the resolution on Monday, 8 to 1, to engaged your firm, not the administration. As a fellow CPA, I have developed a concern about a possible conflict and independence issue. It is simply, Crowe gives us what we think is the mission via the engagement letter, the council reviews and determines if adequate, we sign, and HCW provides the data or does not provide the data, if the latter, then you have a scope limitation, duly noted in your report. Creating the engagement letter around what Ted says and through HCW is NOT acceptable. The council will be pressured to vote on this and, as Chair, I will be forced to leave it in the committee. The public NEEDS TO KNOW THAT THE CITY ATTORNEY, and Crowe being the facilitator, will be delaying this debate. Please advise as to when our President will be receiving the engagement letter. John Friend IS IT TRUE that the City Administration has been calling for a quick vetting and a rapid vote on this incentive package?…in all likelihood the meddling of Mr. Ziemer has wasted at least a week making the September 23rd City Council meeting unlikely as a good time for a vote?…of course the City Council is not particularly wanting to raise water rates 68% and commit to a $37.5 Million giveaway at the same meeting?
IS IT TRUE with 1,462 students on 8 campuses the Indiana University Medical School is currently the second largest medical school in the United States?…if these students are evenly distributed across these 8 campuses including the one at USI that would mean each of the campuses would host just under 150 medical students?…given that the IU Medical School has only 1,100 students and the average campus size is under 150 students we find it to be astonishing that a local business leader is claiming that the Evansville campus will host 1,600 medical students?…that’s right, John D. Englebrecht of South Central Communications and a member of the Evansville Regional Business Committee has sent out a letter of support for the $37.5 Million hotel grant claiming that: “We can afford it and I believe it will be self sustaining. I also believe that it would go a long way in attracting the proposed IU Medical center to a downtown location. If the Med center were to go downtown that would mean 1,600 med students would be down here and would be the catalist we need to get our downtown revitalized.â€
IS IT TRUE we thought that Mayor Winnecke was going to win the prize this year for the most exaggerated mis-statement in Evansville for claiming that the hotel itself will create 250 jobs when his own consultants estimate that number to be 41?…Mayor Winnecke has now been demoted into second position as Mr. Engelbrecht’s claim that the Evansville Campus will have more students that the total of all 8 IU Medical School Campuses now occupies 1st place in the mis-statement contest among the supporters of the big giveaway?
There you go again, John. Flaunting that CPA around like it means something. You should have mentioned that the State Board folks and their supervisor who are currently auditing the City’s books don’t have one. What is up with that?
look at the medical facilities that have sprung up along the I-164 corridor. If you notice, most of them have been built on the Warrick County side of the counties border.
In short, this means that any COIT funds go to Warrick County, NOT Vanderburgh County.
How much has this cost Vanderburgh over the last ten years and for many years into the future.
Great planning, Vandy.
Correct. Without government assistance in building that boondoggle of an interstate that is up in the multi BILLIONS now, we wouldn’t even be arguing the subsidy for a downtown hotel as the market demand would be sufficient enough for one not to be needed.
Time to file a complaint with the State Bar, Councilman Friend, –Ethics? This Administration doesn’t know the meaning of the word
When is John Friend going to learn the proper use of commas?
It seems that the Winnecke administration is comma deficient, 37,500,000.00. As long as Friend understands those commas, I am good with him.
To Sarah Phinney of Eyewitness News,
Thank you for extending the offer to have our thoughts on Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry’s visit publicized.
We, the Citizens of Evansville Against a Taxpayer Funded Hotel join Mayor Winnecke in welcoming the Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry to our fair city.
While we remain skeptical of the true purpose of a visit from the Mayor of a competing city for convention business, we relish the opportunity to get his response to a few concerns we have with the true performance of the Fort Wayne Convention Hotel.
A recent STR Global report has revealed the occupancy rates for both Evansville and Fort Wayne have declined over the last three years. Fort Wayne’s occupancy rate has lagged Evansville’s by a full 2.6% margin in that period.
While the average daily room rate (ADR) for Evansville increased by $3.39 over the last year to $84.53 per night, Fort Wayne’s has declined to $74.81 per day, a level 13% below Evansville’s rate.
We feel this drop in occupancy rates and average room rates among Fort Wayne hotels, even relative to Evansville’s market, can be directly attributed to the stiffer competition their new convention hotel has caused.
The failure of the Fort Wayne Marriott, which closed its doors within two years of the opening of the subsidized convention hotel, is further evidence of this increased competition a subsidized hotel has wreaked upon existing, 100% private investments of other hoteliers.
Fort Wayne’s hotel market is showing clear instability and increased competition reflected in declining in room rates while continuing to decline in overall average occupancy rates. All of this comes at a time when the oversupply of convention space nationally has coincided with a 17-year-long decline in convention attendance nationwide.
We extend the Fort Wayne Mayor a warm welcome and invite him to stay in one of our city’s comfortable, existing hotels for the duration of his visit.
Sincerely,
Brad Linzy
Citizens of Evansville Against a Taxpayer Funded Hotel
Brad: As usual you are wrong again. You state above “The failure of the Fort Wayne Marriott,”—- the Hotel that failed is not a convention hotel. The hotel that failed is 15 miles from downtown Fort Wayne.
And yes that’s a good thing as it’s pointing towards city development moving back into their downtown. Fort Wayne is prospering because they are focusing on downtown and downtown only. So that opens up a whole new can of worms. For example, is the mayor going to bring back and then up date the 01 downtown master plan as he promised when he was candidate winnecke?
What I’m saying is this: Yes an arena a convention center are nice, but it makes no sense to keep throwing money at downtown while the rest of the government is throwing millions and billions on the far east side.
We need someone and some organization formed whose only goal is to lobby for downtown. This person needs to be charged with bringing back and then up dating the 01 master plan (they shall do this by hosting non-rigged open house listening sessions at the centre as was done in 01), they shall be charged with executing the plan, lobbying and twisting arms to get any and all development projects like the iu med school, like the tech park, like the ball fields, etc, etc built either in downtown or a connecting neighborhood.
This person and organization shall also be charged with maintaining downtown’s historic buildings, they shall be in charge of marketing downtown, they shall be in charge of cleaning up downtown’s housing and building blight, and they shall be in charge of establishing connector developments with nearby neighbors in Franklin, Jacobsville, and 41 just to name a few.
This person and organization should not be led by someone who is a political hack. They should also vow to stay out of politics that don’t involve downtown (i.e homestead tax, earthcare, johnson controls).
My question to Mr. Parke is this. Is that something you and the mayor would agree needs to happen?
Rails,
One point you are not taking into consideration. Most people don’t want to live, shop, dine, or stay anywhere near downtown freaking Evansville!
They don’t want to eat at Milano’s, Angelo’s, Abbey Road, or the multiple restaurants next to Trop? Obviously, ghost town GLVC Tournaments don’t do a lot of good for the area’s image, but Downtown Evansville has a whole lot more to start with than what Franklin Street had when its Events Association started up. And what they’re doing with Franklin Street is quite impressive.
The fact that downtown has such a negative stigma attached to it is all the more reason why we need a person leading an organization like the one I described above. And yes, I am kind of puzzled why Mr. Parke would not support something like that. How can you be pushing a hotel but not want a group and person charged with the one and only task of lobbying for and building up downtown?
The thing the locals need to realize is that these problems themselves are not the problems. Every single issue we’ve ever discussed on here has been very easily correctable (is that a word?). The problem is the gov’t and those who want to have a monopoly over the decision making progress instead of wanting whats best for the city. That is why the city is in a mess it has never been in before.
to hell with the commas, let’s hope his abilities to vet remain keen…it’s sure evident this administration doesn’t know how to spell the word… Just keep using your weapons of mass distraction….
Winnochio’s most embarrassing endeavor, up till this 37 million dollar Fairyland Hotel Give-away, was when he got caught organizing and concealing the Homestead Property Tax Grab. Or was it Earthcare, Vibrant River, We are EVV, Crossgate, operation Hot Mess, Chicken Dancing Toadies, the George Madison takedown, or perhaps participating in the hijacking of the last Mayoral?
These guys can’t even do “sneaky” well. Hey Mr Ziemer!
We can see you! (No you can’t) Yes we can! … LOL
Before Crowe even has a chance to dig into HCW, the expected report is feared to be tainted. I would not trust the report now that Ziemer has touched it with his grubby little paws. The contact to Crowe by Zeimer is such a cheap shot, but what else can you expect from this Mayor and the sleazy group he surrounds himself with? John Friend and Council members: do the right thing and cancel the contract with Crowe, then go out of state to an un-named consultating firm for the vetting of HCW. Then file an ethics complaint against Ziemer.
“Ziemer the Schemer”
zenarcher,
I agree with your statement of changing the accounting firm and addressing the behavior of Mr. Ziemer. Such actions should be readily accepted by a city council who has the anatomy to stand up for the people they serve and who does not feel subordinate to the administration with whom they work. Ted Ziemer has his fingers into way too many pies and needs to have a few amputated. He has a grand opinion of himself as well.
If you ever wondered why SLEAZY has a “Z” in it’s spelling instead of another “S”, –Now we know!
Taken down because post was off message.
Taken down because comment was off topic.
I appreciate John Friend keeping everyone up to date on how this process is really going. Without these types of things being known to the public, and without city council people like Friend fighting these type of behaviors, we will end up back in the same hole we’ve been in with just about all capital improvement projects the city has invested in in the last decade or so.
If John would just change his opinion on the demolition of Roberts he’d be the perfect candidate for mayor. I can live with Johnson Controls and the pay raise thing (all that is is about money, there’s plenty of people in this town who can fight those wars), but I cannot support anyone who stands against Roberts.
But outside of that, he’s done a lot of good. He went to the council to get funding for the cemeteries (and he toured them as well I’d like to add). He also is the reason why a lot of financial investigation is taking place despite the powers that be loathing it. His hiring of Garrett was much needed in a time when the city’s budget was a bigger mess than the pile of rubble behind the Ford Center.
I got really lucky that Rick Davis ran for mayor in 2011. I basically agreed with everything he said and stood for. I also bought into the way he conducted his business. But now, I don’t see another Rick Davis running and I’m afraid the CCO and CP are going to pick losers unless Friend runs.
Right now, Friend is the closest to Davis with Roberts being the last thing he needs to work on.
How can he work on Robert’s? It’s gone get over it. Unless you want to start trying to glue the pieces they recycled back together. The only problem I have with Roberts park is that if the city wants a nice park in the center of Evansville then they should close some of the other smaller parks in the city. Here’s an idea for every 5 acres of Roberts park close at a minimum half an acre to an acre of other parks.
Is your name John Friend? Didn’t think so (heck you can’t even post your real name. I don’t blame you). Of course, every one of you in the Winnecke camp would love to implore the “just forget it” motto before 2015. What politician wouldn’t love to just do whatever they felt like and then ask voters to completely forget about it before the next election? Not happening.
And eliminating acres of park land at other parks in no way shape or form eliminates a bill that is now going up to $8 to $10 million for virtually nothing that will ever stand a chance of financially taking care of itself. Not to mention it isn’t even close to being a park in the center of Evansville. And what park acres could be sold? And why sell other valuable parks for what is literally nothing more than a “great lawn”? A demolished arena changes none of that. An election changes all of it.
John isn’t dumb, he knows this plan makes about as much financial sense as gifting a hotel company 20 extra mil or spending 12-15 mil of innkeepers money on ball fields in the boondocks. If he states publicly that “Roberts Park” was a mistake I will support him. If he doesn’t I simply cannot. Plain and simple.
Boohoohoo, they tore down a old tired stadium and didn’t save it just so it could sit empty…GET OVER IT, it’s gone and there is NOTHING you can do about it. I am sorry that I am part of the 30 and under crowd that wants things like a new stadium and places I can take my kid. But I get really tired of listening to people like you talk about how we don’t need this or that. It is people like you that make people like me want to take my family and move to somewhere that is progressive and moving into the 21st century not just getting around to entering the 20th. And let’s get one thing straight I do not want this hotel built, if its to be built it should be done without our money.
As far as the parks my idea of trading land for land is so that the parks department might actually be able to take care of the property. But what do you care you are going to bad mouth anything that gets done anyway. Instead of being so negative get out and make a difference. Oh and I don’t post my name because I don’t want to just like you haven’t posted yours
“they tore down a old tired stadium”
Since when is a 22 year old arena tired and old? You do realize that only the roof beams are left over from 56 right?
“and didn’t save it just so it could sit empty”
Three tenants, two operators, a FEMA/Red Cross Associate in D.C, multiple parking lot tenants, and those wanting to put on trade shows qualifies as empty to you? And of course, the “great lawn” isn’t a text book example of empty.
“it’s gone and there is NOTHING you can do about it.”
I can’t wait for the “Hi I’m Lloyd Winnecke. Please re-elect me because face it, there’s nothing you can do to correct my screw ups any way. Get over it and give me another 4 years.” commercial.
“And let’s get one thing straight I do not want this hotel built, if its to be built it should be done without our money.”
Of course, just like your $8 mil park right?
“As far as the parks my idea of trading land for land is so that the parks department might actually be able to take care of the property.”
Because trading off one area for another is really going to motivate them isn’t it. Again, what parks are worth trading for a “great lawn” ? Dpn’t argue that you’re trying to help solve the parks problem when your solution is to add another one when another park should have never been discussed for this lot in the first place.
“Oh and I don’t post my name because I don’t want to just like you haven’t posted yours”
Everybody knows my name on here. If they don’t my name is linked to my blog with my name on it. If not it’s Jordan Baer. Now go ahead, let’s hear your name.
This post here is eerily similar to the one posted by a C&P screen name who claimed to be a Roberts family member and was verified by the Roberts family themselves not to be.
This reminds me of something that Mr. Dave Coker said at one of the Roberts Task Force Meetings. It was something like (paraphrasing) “There will be many political causalities over this building and the media knows it.” That’s why these anon sns are appearing on here with the simple phrase “get over it” instead of “I can prove the task report wasn’t rigged” or ” I can prove that Roberts Park is a better financial decision than Roberts Stadium.”
I urge John Friend to dump these losers immediately.
Name:
They are called “neighborhood parks” for a reason. Some very good and caring people over the years took the initiative get a park located in their neighborhood for the benefit of families and children.
It is a shame the Parks Dept. does not take better care of them, but if was living in the area of one of these parks and it needed attention that I and my neighbors could supply with little effort, I would make that effort. Call a neighborhood work day and see who shows up. You might be surprised.
___
You might be surprised. Take a look at Tepe, a park that during the summer has to have bags of litter and trash hauled out of it on a daily basis. Or anthony Oates with glass broken consistently on its courts, or any of the numerous other parks that are not taken care of by these neighborhoods that supposedly wanted them so long ago. If they can’t take pride in what they have then they shouldn’t have anything.
I would talk to law enforcement about enforcing the city’s litter laws. The EPD is fully capable of videoing the perps and arresting them. It would give them a good reason to use their night vision equipment.
The perps would get tired of paying fines after a while.
Taken down because statement was off message.
John Friend says: “I have developed a concern about a possible conflict and independence issue.”
So does John Friend think he has projected an image to the public that he is not bias? Give me a break!!
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