IS IT TRUE September 24, 2012

43

The Mole #??

IS IT TRUE September 24, 2012

IS IT TRUE this is the week that the rubber meets the road for the funding of the Evansville Human Relations Commission?…it seems as though the Vanderburgh County Commissioners are following through and reducing their contribution to the 9% level that they have been contractually on the hook to pay for many years now?…this whole brouhaha has exposed that the County has been overpaying for longer than anyone can count and no one knows why?…it has been reported that over a period of 8 years in which the HRC spent nearly $4 Million in taxpayer dollars to operate their investigators took on 1,500 cases of which only 5 resulted in probably cause of discrimination?…with a ratio like that and a cost this high ($800,000 per probably cause) it is the overall budget that should be under the microscope as opposed to the percentages that the City and County pay?…with less than 1 probable cause per year it seems as though a more appropriate budget for the HRC would be what is needed for one investigator as opposed to six?…that oftentimes governments are absolutely reluctant to cut anything at all for the sole reason that elected officials do not like the scrutiny that comes from cutting budgets of these so called “necessary” offices?…somewhere in the bowels of the federal government there is a civil servant earning over $100,000 per year to taste tea?…the tea taster is not needed, wastes taxpayer money, but is defending his or her job as vital?…it is time for Evansville to examine the size of the need for the HRC and to make cuts where cuts are needed just like the federal government should with tea tasters and other unnecessary and unproductive legacy jobs?

IS IT TRUE that several of our moles tell us that the State of Indiana has interpreted candidacy laws in favor of Karen Ragland and that the teacher from the Joshua Academy is eligible to run for school board after all?

IS IT TRUE the building of 40 more Front Door Pride houses is proceeding just as the Weinzapfel Administration planned for it too?…there are still at least 6 of the original 17 Front Door Pride houses on the market for $130,000 after taxpayers spent over $200,000 each to build them?…keeping the utilities on so the pipes do not burst and mold does not set in is in all likelihood costing the people of Evansville something like $2,500 per month just for these 6 empty houses that no one is coming forward to buy?…with such a demand no sane business would dare expand such a program without FREE GOVERNMENT MONEY to pay for them?…these next 40 houses are not only being built by a Cleveland based business using mostly out of town labor but that the United States government is footing the entire bill through TAX CREDITS that are reportedly at the level of $10 Million?…that means taxpayer dollars are dropping another $250,000 per house to build houses that are next to crack houses and abandoned buildings that essentially have no value at all?…not to worry because these 40 houses will be rental houses that have rents that start at under $300 per month and scale up to $700 per month depending on the tenant’s income?…that FAIR MARKET RENT in the real world for a structure that costs $250,000 is more like $2,000 per month?…if one want to see GOVERNMENT WASTE IN ACTION, then one needs to travel no further than the Goosetown area of Evansville, IN where taxpayer dollars have fuelled a building binge of $250,000 houses that would not have a vibrant market unless the prices were dropped to under $100,000?…no wonder our country is in debt nearing the point of GREECE, IRELAND, PORTUGAL, and ITALY?

IS IT TRUE that if this company from Cleveland is so intent on taking $10 Million off of the hands of our government to get some houses in Evansville that they should start by buying the 6 remaining Front Door Pride houses from the City of Evansville for $250,000 each?…that would at least take these houses out of the hands of poor management and into the hands of uncertain management?…the legacy of waste and idiocy continues?

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43 COMMENTS

  1. Unless Governor Daniels stops it, the audit report is supposed to be released by the end of the week. I wonder if JW and Jenny Collins have their passports ready.

    • Couldn’t the SBOA report be obtained with a Freedom of Information Act request even if the Governor stops it? Winnecke needs to let this info out an let people see what kind of a financial mess his mentor Weinzapfel left. Clinging to his master will be nothing but trouble for Winnecke. Time to grow a pair and cut the cord Lloyd.

      • “We are the hollow men
        We are the stuffed men
        Leaning together
        Headpiece filled with straw.”

        To cut the cord is to fall down separately. They won’t do that unless it’s clear the ship is sinking. Then they will behave like rats.

    • I do not believe that this audit went that deep. I would love to see a more thorough audit of the Weinzapfel years, especially since he never published a single CAFR for his entire 8 years in office. The public should demand it!

  2. Evansville Courier&Press
    Debate over Human Relations Budget should be settled this week (9-233-120)
    [Jared Council]

    “A Courier & Press review of those eight years found that investigators have seen more than 1,500 cases, or roughly 200 a year.”

    “Many cases have gone unresolved or were transferred to state agencies. Of the 703 cases that were resolved, probable cause for discrimination was found in only five.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .”

    “No probable cause was found in about 40 percent of resolved cases. HRC officials acknowledged that some complaints appear baseless, but also said discrimination may have occurred in these cases — they just couldn’t find proof.”

    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

    Five cases out of 703 where “probable cause” was found! But in the last sentence they fall back on the Harry Reid option of “it is true its prolific, we just can not produce any proof for you.

    ____

  3. Those new $250,000 rent houses will get torn to pieces by the kind of folks that will rent them. The CP had a story on how to rent the other day. It is basically be poor, have a pulse, and be less than desirable for market rate housing. Look at the projects. These nice new places will be reduced to rubble within 3 years. Then we can waste more money to repair them.

    • This DMD project has to take the prize for stupidity and squandering of the taxpayer’s dollars. It is the ultimate excess in governmental power!

      ___

  4. Please don’t let our city controller off the hook concerning State Board of Accounts audit. Don’t forget he also didn’t balance the bookes since Winnenke has been in office.

    He needs to go also for keeping information from the state auditiors.

    Russ Lloyd, Jr. is a nice guy but should have been open about city books not being balance for 18 months!

    • Without creating a “dummy” entry you can’t reconcile new bank statements until the oldest bank statements are reconciled first. So Russ Jr. can’t reconcile the 2012 bank statements until he finishes cleaning up JW & JC’s 2011 mess.

      What makes you think he is a nice guy? Does he give out full size snickers at Halloween instead of that fun size crap? If so, then he is a great guy not just nice.

  5. Didn’t the Mayor give the past city controller, Jenny Collins a $21,000 raise three months after she took the newly created job with City of Evansville Water and Sewer Department. Fact is, she started out making $61,000 in this job and Mayor Winneneke pushed her to the $81,000 level after 3 months!

    The Mayor is another one that needs to go because of his tax and spend way of doing business!

  6. Lets see, the past city controller (Jenny Collins) didn’t balance the city books for well over 12 months and the old Mayor leaves office and Winnenke agrees to give her a newly created job in the Water and Sewer Department making $61,000 a year.

    Then after 3 months on the job, Mayor Winnenke pushed to raise her salary to $81,000 a year in this newly created job.

    Something is very rotten here. It’s time for the U S Inspector to step in and see what is really going on with this deal. Things just don’t add up.

    We wonder why our water rates a sky high!

  7. Jenny will point fingers at everyone but herself. She was way in over her head with the Controllers position. I can’t believe that JW would reward incompetence with creating a new job for her. Furthermore, why did Mayor Lloyd give her a 20k a year pay bump? Did Russ Lloyd, Jr. withhold information about them not reconciling since December 2010 to the Mayor?

    Jenny doesn’t listen is any professional advice that IT people, attorneys and CPAs give her. And why should she? She went to a college who’s accounting program isn’t accredited and has no initials after her name so she doesn’t need to listen to them.

  8. Get ready for another problem with the books of a city run department.

    Word at the Civic Center is that the Water and Sewer Department accounting department books are also in a mess.

    If true, don’t worry I’m sure that the newly appointed Financial Director, Jenny Collins will correct them quickly!

    Yes, Mayor Winnenke and City Controller, Russ Lloyd, Jr. are well aware of the bad shape that the Water and Sewer Department are in! Looks like another Winnenke and Lloyd coverup!

    Now this is a story for CCO, T V stations and courier and Press to jump on!

    From the Civic Center we hope you have a nice day!

  9. Evansville continues to be an Unfunny Joke,–deplorable, disgusting, and depressing!

  10. I just tried calling Jenny for an explanation of not reconciling her final year as Controller at 867-5309 but the person said that wasn’t funny and hung up

  11. Wow, Civic Center Mole just heard the same thing this this morning from my moles at the Civic Center.

    My contacts are extremely well planted and are in the know of what goes on in the back rooms of our elected officials offices.

    They know how the Mayor cuts back room political deals but they don’t understand why our City Controller isn’t saying anything to the public.

  13. I believe in a free market, which is why I don’t necessarily see a problem with gas price gouging. When some gouge, there will always be those who will undercut and steal business from the gougers. My advice is, don’t buy gas from gougers. Drive less. Make them pay!

    Furthermore, I find it interesting that the loudest decriers of gouging are the same people who advocate more alternative energy and more fuel efficient vehicles. One of the outcomes of higher gas prices is the increased viability of alternative energy in the market.

    A free market without government controls will find its level and create the most benefit to the most people, whereas a controlled market where government tries to make restrictive laws on market forces will always end up favoring special interests in some sector or another, depending on the whims of the politicians.

    • One possible solution to combat gas gouging at the retail end would be to form a private cooperative where members/shareholders only can buy gas at the wholesale price, but you would still have to pay all the expenses of having a retail location, taxes, the cost of employees, etc.

      I think you’d find not a lot would be saved in the end. The margins for gas retail are slim. The best thing we could do to lower prices would be to cut out all the taxes from Federal and State. That would greatly reduce the price at the pump.

      • CNG–We have plenty,–and quit transfering this country’s wealth to the Middle East.

      • Indiana’s gasoline motor fuel taxes combined with federal gasoline excise tax are 57.3 cents.

        Kentucky’s combined gasoline motor fuel taxes, plus the federal 18.4 cents come to 46.2 cents per gallon, or about 11 cents lower than Indiana’s

        About an hour or so ago, I bought gasoline at Marina Pointe for $3.639, which means gasoline across the bridge in Henderson probably is about $3.579 to $3.599 – about 20 cents lower than Evansville. Why?

        Is there no red blooded, honest-to-God, American retailer in Evansville with the competitive balls to start a good old fashioned gas war over that 8 cents per gallon rip that’s dictated in Evansville apparently by Thortons?

        Big Pappa pointed out a couple weeks ago that Thortons posts a Web address on their gasoline pumps whereby a consumer can be notified of impending gasoline price jumps. So, convenience store managers can be notified, and apparently are taking full advantage of advance notification of price jumps. High tech price fixing?

    • In the past, a ‘free market without government controls’ has also resulted in rivers bursting into flame and hundreds dying in factory fires because the owners chained the exit doors shut.

      The inherent altruism/fairness/infallability/efficiency of the private sector is debateable at best.

      • All of those problems are easily remedied if property rights are respected. If, for instance, a river were to burst into flames as a result of some manufacturer’s activities and dumping, the people downstream would have a major lawsuit to bear. Not to mention the endangerment of public safety in which a large-scale class action suit could completely obliterate a business. Companies in this day and age understand fully the danger in having their companies perceived as polluters. Besides, if you dump waste in rivers or in the air, you are polluting your neighbor’s property when that waste is carried there.

        All things considered, this argument of “if we let the market decide, they will pollute and destroy everything” does not hold muster. The market also restrains pollution.

        You cannot compare today’s well-established tradition of civil lawsuit case history post-Industrial Revolution to the 19th Century time period in which all of these issues were still being worked out and the issues of industrial pollution weren’t as well studied.

        The argument you’re making here would hold that no one could ever run a leather tannery because in the 19th Century they used to pollute rivers. No leather tanner today would dream of dumping his raw waste in a river – for one because he would understand it’s bad for his children’s health, and secondly because he would understand it could destroy his business and his reputation.

      • Also, bear in mind, the situation you’re talking about where the sewing factory burned down with all those women inside would never repeat itself in the same way, not because government stepped in and regulated, but because other companies realized they could lose everything they’d worked for – their businesses and their reputations – in a flash if they didn’t make better provisions for their workers in the event of a fire.

        The lack of a repeat of that situation is less attributable to government than to smart risk management by the employers themselves.

        Think about it this way… Companies in the modern age spend a large percentage of their revenue on insurance premiums in an effort to spread risk and avert a catastrophe. What makes you think a businessman would simply be careless in regard to the safety of his workers when even one catastrophic accident could have the potential to ruin him?

        There is absolutely ZERO incentive for smart business people to disregard the safety of their employees. Those who would risk the safety of their employees aren’t any more likely to comply with a government regulation as they would be to comply with the dictates of common sense.

        • You’re right, Brad, U.S. companies (generally) no longer flagrantly violate safety and health regulations. The offshore their production units to countries which HAVE NO safety and health regulations, or at least give mere lip service to those they propose to have.

          Businesses are regulated almost exclusively because they have proved time and again to be annoyingly (and sometimes lethally) incapable of behaving in a moral or ehtical manner. You seem to be a reasonable person, surely you have read endless articles detailing very recent shenanigans by companies in the finance, pharmaceutical, and energy sectors. The guys in charge NEVER get ruined. They get a golden parachute and leave ruin in their wake.

          • I am not so naive as to trust without question anyone who shares this contemptible state of humanity with all it’s vices, which is why I can only stand upon and beseech the modes of justice as they were supposed to work in our Republic – as a system in which juries of peers decide guilt and innocence. It is up to each of us to call out offenders when and where we see them – to boycott and refuse to be swept up in a tide and to bring justice to bear when and where we can.

            It is in this interest I pursue my skepticism of government most voraciously, for it is in government’s capacity to do the most harm by rewarding the very offenders we should be bringing to justice and punishing those who would like to fairly compete against them – all using the false pretenses of “law” to give illusions of security to their offensive and lawless positions.

    • I don’t disagree with your last post. My only concern with the ‘juries and judges’ method of addressing damages caused by unscrupulous business practices is that these are by definition after the fact methods – – the damage has already been done. Proper government/regulatory oversight (or compliance with industry approved voluntary consensus standards) help to insure that damages don’t occur in the first place, ergo no need for the judge and juries solution.

      I’m sure you agree that having fire inspectors point out that fire extinguishers need to be present and up to date and exits must remain open and accessible is far prefereable to a jury awarding millions to the next of kin of those workers who perished in a fire because those standards weren’t followed.

      • ALL regulations only have teeth after the fact. There is absolutely no difference between prosecuting someone who breaks the law and hurts someone through negligence and someone who violates a regulation and gets a fine for it.

        Surely it’s the fear of possible penalty which is the driving mechanism in both cases. Regulations tend to follow the dictates of political whim rather than common sense. The bloated bureaucracy discourages newcomers into a market and solidifies the positions of the big players. It may start out with the best of intentions, but it usually ends up as just another form of government-sanctioned protection for the big companies.

        In your example of fire extinguishers, you are again forgetting that a business owner has zero incentive to put his inventory, his customers, and his employees at risk by failing to provide for their safety. The system of inspections and fines drives up the cost of replacement for extinguishers by mandating how many and how often they are replaced. The replacement schedule is not based on the reality of the actual state of an extinguisher, but rather on the arbitrary guidelines set up by bureaucrats, who were probably lobbied by the companies who make the extinguishers in the first place. And the little yellow “ok” tags the inspectors put on them to say they’re ok is not based on a real world test of the equipment, it is again based on the pressure reading and arbitrary guidelines of the bureaucrats.

        Meanwhile, taxpayers support all the inspectors and bureaucrats, which are non-producing positions and represent a net drain on the productive economy without any additional incentive.

        I support an educational approach.

  14. On the HRC, there are state agencies that do all of it’s tasks. Its necessary. Get rid of it’s staff and create a website/phone number people can call that will direct them to the appropriate state/federal agency.

  15. Alternate energy sources,wind and solar,are the highest cost of energy sources available. Neither would exist to produce electricity if they were not heavily subsidize by the federal government. They are an absolute joke.

  16. The question is,if elected can Karen serve on the School Board without resigning as a teacher. She wanted her name off the ballot but could not get it off. There needs to be a new statue pass to address this issue.

    Karen is a nice person bit she was not a good School Board Member. Karen missed a lot of meetings and show up late to the meetings when she found time attend. We need a different person. Lon Walters is running against Karen.

  17. If the State Board of Accounts audit show major problems with city accounts not been balanced for 18 plus months than Jenny Collins an Russ Lloyd, Jr. needs to be fired!

    Also shame on Mayor Winnenke for protecting the past Mayor on this issue. This is one of the reasons why people are openly stating that he is a one term Mayor!

  18. Get ready for news to break concerning the mess that the accounting records of the Evansville Water and Sewer department are in.

    Yes, the Mayor and present City Controller knows about it and are keeping it quiet!

    I hear information is going to be sent to the CCO (taxpayers watchdog) to publish in the near future concerning the accounting mess at the Evansville Water and Sewer department.

    Isn’t the past City Controller, Jenny Collins the new Financial Director of the Water and Sewer department?

  19. Appealed to the Governor…Imagine how stupid that conversation was.

    Hi Governor, we haven’t reconciled in 20 months. The Board of Accounts called us out on it but we don’t want our audit report to be released to the public. It’s unfair that they are not giving us 20 more months to get stuff reconciled and it will make Lord JW and Princess JC look bad.

  20. Can’t wait how Mayor Winnenke, Russ LLoyd,Jr., City Controller, John Freind, CPA and City Councilman are going to spin the upcoming State Board of Accounts audits findings against the city!

    Word in the street is that past City Controller, Jenny Collins shall be the fall guy!

    Can’t wait to see if City Councilman, John Friend, CPA shall come forward and tell us what a mess the City of Evansville Water and Sewer accounting records are in. Word is that the accounting records in department is worse than the City of Evansville accounting records are in!

  21. Yes it’s true that the accounting records at the Water and Sewer department is worse than the city of Evansville records. The person the Mayor hired to correct these problems at the Water and Sewer department is none other then the past City Controller of Evansville, Jenny Collins!

    Get ready for a real political meltdown!

  22. Oh No it is time to move the slush fund!!!! Do you want this bunch of cronies,crooks and clowns to have the purse strings involved in CONsolidation? Just vote NO to this incomplete plan!!!!!

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