IS IT TRUE SEPTEMBER 22, 2015

18

IS IT  TRUE “Under the Winnecke Administration crime rates in Evansville have risen sharply, up 13% in 2012, up 1% in 2013, and up an unacceptable 28% in 2014″?

IS IT TRUE we were told the shelves at the Zoo are becoming bare because the Controllers office won’t approve any purchases?  … we also hear  that the Vanderburgh County Building Commission can’t even buy staples?

IS IT TRUE that Mayoral Candidate Gail Riecken sent out a memo stating “Winnecke has called in out-of-town reinforcements”? … Riecken says; she’s heard that the State College Republicans are sending people down here to canvas for Mayor Winnecke? …Riecken continued to state; “It seems he can’t find enough supporters here in Evansville to continue to spread his message of overspending and financial mismanagement, so he’s bringing in outside forces?

IS IT TRUE we wonder what City Council is going to do about the Building Commission paying the garbage collection bills out of the Riverboat Demolition Fund?

IS IT TRUE the Courier and Press was all about Community Blight and nothing else on Sunday? …that the Courier and Press staff kept very busy with the online portion removing both negative and neutral but informative posts from the comments resulting in very few posts because there were no pro comments for expanding the Evansville Brownfield’s land banking operations using riverboat funds.

IS IT TRUE that the issue of expanding the Brownfields land banking operation is as the Courier and Press  says “hanging fire”, but not because of the funding issue but the concept itself and the proposed partner in crime–the Brownfields Corp? ..that land banking should not be the cities only focus to solve the Community Blight problem?   …that the Brownfields has lost its primary funding source, HUD funds, because it was discovered that their land banking operating over the last five years was not an authorized use of HUD funds, and they are now left high and dry?

IS IT TRUE that the COURIER AND PRESS is correct that the city was allocated about $2.2 million in funding from the Indiana Hardest Hit Blight Elimination Program (BEP) in 2014, but misleads the public in the facts of the program? …that the program, although a federal program, was launched with a simple contract between the US department of Treasury and the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA) almost three years ago that stated simply that the funds were to Demolish vacant, abandoned, homes in the communities affected by the housing crisis? …that language was specific that red tape was to be avoided? …that most of the red tape has been created by the people administering the funding?

IS IT TRUE the COURIER and PRESS is totally wrong and misleading when it says the funding is “designed to help program partners–primarily nonprofits and community development corporations–acquire the properties and carry out and acquiring land or rehabilitating structures”?  …that the original legislated use of these funds was to subsidize mortgage payments to keep people in their homes?   …that because IHCDA did such a lousy job administering the program, remaining funds were re-designated, not to help program partners, but to help the communities where these houses were abandoned? …that the “helping program partners” is a help yourself to the money attitude developed as the money changed hands from the U.S. Department of Treasury through the IHCDA , through city leaders and to the neighborhoods needing zombie houses removed?

Please take time and vote in today’s “Readers Poll”. Don’t miss reading today’s Feature articles because they are always an interesting read. Please scroll at the bottom of our paper so you can enjoy our creative political cartoons.Copyright 2015 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

18 COMMENTS

  1. Saw a Winnecke commercial on tv yesterday with some local cheerleaders talking about balanced budgets and what not. It was a disgusting display of lies and ignorance and made me want to vomit.

    • I saw that same informercial, Bob. I will join you at Ye Olde Puking Trough !

      Most troubling: the lady who said ” he has the finances under control”.

      Did you also notice a couple of these “actors” seemed a bit nervous, telling these lies to the camera ?

      • I mostly just thought they seemed like clueless morons and/or directly profiting from Winnecke’s ineptitude.

      • No telling where those folks came from or what agency they were hired through. I saw one of them last week on a Capitol One commercial. Winnecke is a phony, his untruthfulness will get him to the finish line but hopefully not first. He can’t pay the bills. He can’t live within a budget or the very rules he signed. I have never seen a politician so quick to blame others.

        Evansville has a great opportunity to get shed of him and his motley crew this November.

      • They were probably afraid they would spontaneously combust because of the lies they were spreading. The lady who told the whopper about finances was the biggest liar of all, and it was clear that she knew she was lying. I thought it was so phony that they could have easily just said that they know finances are a mess and they want more time to ruin us completely.

  2. Of course Santa Lloyd Winnecke should be recruiting from out of town because he is sending all of OUR MONEY out of town . .it is only right that those panhandlers come down and help out.

  3. Page 7……line 6

    http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/030/030408032/030408032_201312_990O.pdf?_ga=1.33402807.844363631.1442930112

    We have an establishment run newspaper. I wonder if he actually pays the $10,000. a year membership, or if he is comped?

    I have to wonder at what point these people will actually become concerned about the possibility of this city filing for protection from creditors, or are they so focused on their individual piece of cheese that they just don’t give a damn?

  4. Llordie is now saying the city can’t pay its bills because the council won’t re-grant him free rein to transfer money between accounts. He is playing a very dangerous game. He will try to strong arm the council to get his way. They must stand firm, but they won’t.

    • @Bandana: yes, I saw this too, and John Friend is already saying that they’ll “probably” approve this, but Dammit, they (Council) want promises !

      Friend has already inflicted a nice body blow, why cave now ? Russ Lloyd is calling this a “manufactured problem”, I call this a real problem. When that magical November tax installment arrives, and you have to repay the $ 8 Million from before, you are still treading water and digging the swimming hole deeper.

      The problem is: the City has too many fixed costs in Personnel, and when Revenue falls short, they can’t make adjustments quickly enough. The symptom is: they need to rob Peter (Rainy Day, Riverboat Funds) to pay Paul (General Fund). The answer: is to fix the problem–dump a bunch of nonproductive people and their healthcare–and not treat the symptom.

    • Just this once I think they may stand firm. We have the four members who will not be returning to CC and three who are in Whiney’s pocket. That leaves only one of the two who are “in play” needed to do the right thing. Both of those two are in good shape to be re-elected, so I’m rooting for one or both to do what is best for Evansville!

      • The council should remember and consider the fact that Winnecke sued them over the residency requirement ordinance and gloated mightily after the non-binding decision.

        Blackmail is ugly, they should not cave to the little incompetent.

  6. Evansville sorely needs to reel in the cash allotted for the downtown medical extension, and the double wide tree high motel until either have a clean useable environmental footprint to actually build on.
    They do not, due the outdated infrastructures and that’s going to be a cost overrun to both of the present pipe dream projects. Even the transportation logistics spell fail, as they are. Someone there needs to be responsible enough to drop the anchor on those two abominations before the money is all in. You have a whole town to update, forget about the logistically dead zone now, its the largest zombie in town, and we see no plan that will address change for that. Period.

Comments are closed.