John Friend Gives Danks Approval To Proceed With Obtaining Ziemer’s Billable Hours

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City Councilman John Friend
City Councilman John Friend

Scott,

Likewise, I have had numerous complaints about what Mr. Ziemer has charged our City. Please proceed with the request forthwith. 

John Friend

This e-mail was sent to the CCO by City Council Attorney Scott Danks.  Mr. Danks requested that the CCO posted this e-mail soon as possible.  This e-mail is posted without editing , bias or opinion.

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45 COMMENTS

    • You mean great timing CCO/the John Friend election committee. John Friend (mind you a man who has so little self control recently got a DUI) is literally pimping out Joe,the editor of this rag. It’s sad how he is playing the CCO.

      Every day the stories are anti-Winnecke and Pro-Friend.

      This paper has not published a single positive thought towards Evansville in years. This thing has turned into the “GET JOHN FRIEND ELECTED DAILY.” Disgusting.

      • You’re free to post anything positive that has happened to Evansville in the last 10-20 years.

      • KnowNothing: I agree the CCO is not fair and balanced with Mayor Winnecke and are pro John Fried.
        Question is: Why?

        • We try to be event and policy driven in our criticisms and support. By virtue of his position Mayor Winnecke will by definition have more events to be analyzed. If John Friend should someday become Mayor and proceed to do a bunch of things that the CCO sees as fluff, fun, and games while ignoring important issues he can expect the same kinds of things in the CCO that Mayor Winnecke has had written about him.

          The Mayor of Evansville whomever has the job is the most powerful and visible local office. They routinely take credit for things that happen on their watch that are positive and likewise should be willing to accept blame for what happens on their watch. If you stand up and smile for the camera at the news conference to announce a deal like Earthcare you had better be ready to take your lumps when the deal turns out to be a joke.

          As for any accusation of party preference with the CCO, may we remind you of the coverage that former Mayor Weinzapfel received. We even openly stated that he had hung many an albatross around the neck of Mayor Winnecke which he did. Many of the problems that Winnecke has had to deal with were inherited from his predecessor. The list is actually endless. The McCurdy, the hotel that isn’t, Johnson Controls, unbalanced book, and even Earthcare originated before January 1, 2012 and we have openly acknowledged that. What continues to puzzle us is why Mayor Winnecke has protected these albatrosses as though they were the saving graces of Evansville.

          • Editor: I do like your response above. I wish all your daily articles reflected the same tone/balance.

            Mayor Winnecke plays the cards he is dealt. Even when he did not create the mess he does not publicly complain or blame others. He goes about fixing the problems the best way he knows how.

            Is the Mayor perfect–no he is not. But he is correct the vast majority of the time. He is working hard to be everyone’s Mayor.

          • I think that we can all agree that one of the things that drove us crazy about Obama was his incessantly blaming his predecessor. At least we don’t have to deal with that from the mayor.

          • Maybe Obama wasn’t in bed with his predecessor.

            “Is the Mayor perfect–no he is not. But he is correct the vast majority of the time. He is working hard to be everyone’s Mayor.”

            Is the president perfect-no he is not. But he is correct the vast majority of the time. He is working hard to be everyone’s president.

            If he were a goblin, we would still be losing 700,000 jobs a month.

            But he is not

          • Editor, that schmuck Davis was the one that brought up Obama as is typical of the right. Your smart ass comment is out of place.

  3. How’s that privatizing thing going? If we had a city attorney on staff would his salary be anything close to 1.4 million? This sounds like outright theft!

  4. I like what I’m seeing here. Glad the City Council is in good hands now.

      • Wow he is not off his medication because he does not believe you or hit his head on the ice! Just might being seeing the truth or reality!

  5. “Proceed forthwith.” Now that’s really hilarious. JF trying to do lawyer talk. Funny stuff.

    • As for as I’m concerned, let Friend speak in Pig-Latin, stop the crap and the distractions, unless you don’t give a damn how your tax dollars at spent!!!

      • Love your screen name. One of the reasons that I use my real name is that I’m not creative enough to come up with a catchy screen name.

      • Mr. Liquor:

        You are wrong. Good speaking is necessary. Winnecke couldn’t carry a sentence in a bucket, so he employs Schaefer as his mouthpiece. Friend is similarly afflicted, and needs to hire a PR/Spokesman if he wants to win.

        Hopefully Friend will hire some telegenic PYT, and not a slasher like Schaefer. We want jugs, not thugs !!

    • Friend should have said:

      ” . . . get it on . . . bang a gong . . . mofo run . . . “

  6. Mr. Friend was totally on board with Weinzapfel’s attorney David Jones racking up legal bills like this one all day every day for 8 years. He’s only making a big deal out of this now for political gain. He’s no taxpayer’s friend. He’s an opportunist. He makes me sick. All of this makes me sick. This is why people don’t vote. I do – but I hold my nose and hope I pick the person least likely to nauseate me. I still end up sick at my stomach despite performing my civic duty.

  7. Mr. LewisRules,

    At first I had to agree with you, but, I received a call…The individual that I spoke with indicates that during one of the 2010 and 2011 meeting, Friend joined McGinn in demanding the details of Jones’ billing and Jenny Collins, the then Controller rudely replied to Friend, “you can come down anytime to review our records to determine the amount of payment” This was response to her indication that she was NOT able to retrieve the information. Now, were in the hell is McGinn these days, if true, Friend did not care if a democract or republican mayor held the office. So, sir, stopping being a hypocrite and call out McGinn!!

    • Speaking of hypocrites … John Friend was OK with high legal bills with Weinzapfel/David Jones, but he’s not ok with high legal bills from Winnecke/Ziemer. Friend ran once as a Republican, then ran again as a Democrat. He was president of the city’s finances – but didn’t know the city couldn’t balance its books under both Weinzapfel and Winnecke. And now you say he called Jenny Collins about the high legal bills – but then DID NOTHING about them in 2010. Or 2011. Or 2012. Or 2013. And now that it’s 2014 and he’s exploring a run for mayor he suddenly has HAD ENOUGH?

      I want my representatives to have integrity 24/7 – not just when they’re running for re-election or positioning themselves for mayor. That makes FRIEND the HYPOCRITE.

  8. I often wonder what the city’s expenses are for responding to claims made on this blog. Every time a frivolous FOIA request is filed, it costs the taxpayers. If the city is constantly being accused of impropriety, fraud, etc., I would expect that some of these accusations are discussed with legal counsel (see billable hours). Do you think that Scott Danks’ Facebook post prompted a meeting with the city’s legal team? I would think so. Cha-Ching! Thank Danks for that one. How ironic and humorous would it be if CCO is the cause of a lot of the unneccessary legal and clerical expenses in the city’s spending?

    • The CP also used a FOIA to obtain Mr. Ziemer’s billing records. The received the same thing we did with a different cover letter. Imagine government without the possibility of a FOIA. I prefer the potential for a few FOIA’s that someone may consider frivolous to a case where government gets to decide. Freedom isn’t free. That said responding to one should not cost more than an hour of a secretary’s time if the records are in order. They do charge a dime a page to offset copying costs. My guess is responding to a FOIA cost much less than 20 minutes with any of the attorneys that are billing the city for all sorts of things.

      • Side note on local voting habits.

        2010 election. State and county
        137,790 register
        50,952 ballots cast (36.4%)

        2011 election, City
        92,990 register
        21,980 ballots cast (23.9%)

        2012 election. Federal, State, and County
        142,899 register
        73,486 ballots cast (51.43%)

        Source:City of Evansville/Vanderburgh county: Elections

        • 2008 election 58.23%

          2007 “city” election 19.42%

          2006 election 45.22%

          Is it true that there is a huge disconnect between city residents and their elected city government positions?

    • Phyllis,

      The truth is, these are public records. Nice try suggesting that citizens are running up the legal tab.

      I have a revolutionary idea for your pals at city hall: for every FOIA request, just have the clerks fill the request, WITHOUT ANY LAWYERS having to weigh in. That will keep costs low and transparency high.

      You boys seem to like your secrets. What are you trying to hide ? Do you share grooming tips with one another ??

  9. Shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to find out how your government is spending your money.

  10. editor says:

    March 8, 2014 at 9:46 pm

    Paraphrasing Wayne Parke to absolve President Obama’s shortcomings? Ingenious!
    =============================================

    Never going to be a perfect leader or person, ever.

    Compared to McCain and Romney Obama Obama looks like the best of Winston Churchill, Abe Lincoln and JFK combined.

    The economy, like the cylinders in a car engine not all of them can or should be on the same stroke at the same time, unless you like going down the ecconmoic road like the Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang.

    That means the detractors and naysayers will ALWAYS have SOMETHING to gripe about, always. Hey look some parts of the economy aren’t firing right now.

    The myopic focus of the miserly Teabillies on the deficit isnot only massively hypocritical it’s economically insane.

    When unemployment gets to 5.5-6% then you can think about reducing the deficit.

    Supply is overwhelming Demand, there is no inflation, and the average hourly workweek is going back down, to only 34.2 hours per week for nonmanufacturing work.

    http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

    That’s just terrible.

    We need massive government stimulus MASSIVE, not cuts.

    The US economy is $14-15T/yr in GDP it’s going to take
    $2-3T in spending to move the needle. With the work week hours so low and so many discourage workers YES it’s going to take that much.

    America needs a raise too so the minimum wage increase is desparately needed, yes some will be passed along a price increases, but some will be aborsed by the rich and the corporations exactly what needs to happen as our country has Trillions just idly sitting around in Money markets and across the globe.

    Don’t tell we shouldn’t do it because Congress is crooked and corrupt, that’s a cop out.

    • Good post. The best way to stimulate an economy is to increase consumer spending. That’s why trickle down doesn’t work. The super rich have everything they could ever dream of. Give them a tax cut and the windfall goes straight to the Cayman Islands. Give the middle class a tax cut, ahich is strongly opposed by Republicans, you’ll see it go toward goods and services.

    • Chitty,Chitty = evansville’s infrastructure.

      Bang,Bang = mandate & fines,those = MASSIVE.

      “To improve is to change; To be perfect is to change often.” (Winston Churchill)

      “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.” (John F. Kennedy)

      “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” (Abraham Lincoln)

      Brains,that comment of yours above is a good observation,I guess none of those guys were perfect either….

    • It is impossible to compare President Obama to either Romney or McCain because they have no track record as President. That is sort of like comparing a dairy owner to the milkman. Comparisons of Presidents need to be to other Presidents to have any relevance. We have absolutely no idea how Romney or McCain would have performed or what geopolitical things may have challenged them.

      • Thats a good point, as well.

        But the needs to be driven forward for recovery are kinda sticking out to. As in innovation, we try to see past the point of the present or the past.
        Observations of past and present can define pathways,however any movement forward usually involves finding actual solutions with viability for the efforts given to improve the conditions.

        Be that funding,or that innovative solution derived for the conditions as presented.

      • Lets take this comment a step further. All we know about Romney and McCain is what they said in their respective campaigns. What would the democrat senate have allowed? Could Romney have repealed ObamaCare to avoid the embarrassment and disruption it has caused? Only by executive order and the dems would have howled about him violating the constitution if he did. Where are those dems now that their president is delaying things like a dictator?

        How are those campaign promises going for President Obama? “if you like your policy you can keep it”, “the average family will save $2,500 a year under my plan”, “I will close Gitmo”, etc. etc. etc. came from the lips of President Obama. My favorite of his is the soapbox speech on how irresponsible Bush was for increasing the debt limit. One thing for sure is that campaign rhetoric is hollow.

        Lets hope in 2016 we can actually elect someone who can get something done. I have had enough of the bullshitter in chief we have up there now.

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