The Citizens Opposed to Reorganization (CORE) Executive Committee is pleased to support the candidacy of Bruce Ungethiem to become the Republican nominee for the office of Vanderburgh County Commissioner. Mr. Ungethiem successfully demonstrated during the CORE campaign against the consolidation plan that he could lead a campaign to victory, while being out-spent by the opposition. This kind of value proposition of getting more for less will be a valuable asset to bring to local government.
Mr. Ungethiem retired from a distinguished career in which he served in an engineering management capacity for a Fortune 500 public company. His performance depended on his ability to understand complex technical processes that required cognitive thought and disciplined execution. There are only a few occupations that lend themselves to making critical decisions on a schedule to achieve success and both engineering and project management offer these kinds of experiences.
The Vanderburgh County Commissioners provide stewardship over large sums of money for the purpose of maintaining and expanding basic infrastructure like roads and bridges. The North Green River Road project issues could have been avoided if there had been an engineering professional on the County Commissioners when the project was planned and executed. The vital importance of thoughtful planning for expected development along the new University Parkway demands the critical thinking of a professional to prevent sprawl and a repetition of the Green River Rd/East Side situation. To do otherwise will lay waste to a beautiful and desirable resource and to taxpayer dollars. It will take the combined efforts of all who have a stake in the future of the West side to work together for the best outcome. We know Bruce has the people’s trust to help this happen.
Bruce Ungethiem offers a level of technical competence in engineering and project management that has not been present on this governing body for many years. For this reason we feel it is time to make a place on the Republican ballot for an engineering mind with proven his abilities to make big things happen with limited resources and against formidable opponents. Ungethiem’s cognitive abilities and technical excellence will benefit the citizens of Vanderburgh County in ways that have not seen for many years. Please cast your vote for Bruce Ungethiem in the upcoming May 6, 2014 Republican primary. IT’S TIME TO TURN THE PAGE FOR NEW LEADERSHIP!
Sincerely,
CORE Executive Board: Bruce Blackford, Chairman Jayne Buthod, Sec’y Cynthia Maasberg Don Day Chuck Weisling
Editors Footnote: This letter is posted by the CCO, Without opinion, bias or editing. The CCO invites any candidate or their supporters to submit a letter to the editor and we will publish.
Wow, always great to see individuals with credentials, willing to serve their community using their God given talents.
A wise man told me once that after ten years, the best run out of ideas. Question, how long has Ms Abell been in the public arena? More then ten years, I suppose….
My personal acquaintance with Marsha Abell is only on a most casual basis.
Sometimes her comments are not artfully spoken, but they are surely incredibly distorted against her by her opponents and ignorant writers in general who take out of context pieces of what she astutely says. My present subjects of controversy are her comments on (my phrasing) “the economic development value, or not, of Hi-Tech persons†and the “worthlessness of retired peopleâ€; the “mindless gifting of economic financial incentives to anyoneâ€; and “City-County Consolidationâ€.
On (1) “old people not paying enough taxes: and (2) “Evansville can’t survive with just retired people living here†and (3) that “Hi Tech Computer People don’t produce one dime†among opinions allegedly expressed by Abell which also includes (4) her dismay for [….rampant TIF incentive development funding (without discretion of purpose and benefit)]. She is 100% correct even if the news reporting systems distort what she says out of context to make her appear stupid (especially Courier & Press; and while I think CCO is a great deliverer of thought not otherwise available from C&P, it too is often distorting). She is also a realistic supporter of the need for city-county consolidation.
With respect to her remarks on old and retired people, she was not saying they should pay more taxes; rather she was saying that without economic growth in the market that continually attracts and supports a younger work force population of an actively productive age, there will not be economic support for, nor reason by which, Evansville can be what it otherwise might much more positively be as a place to work and live and attract. That is right and common sense as what she really said. … And the whole Evansville regional population should buy into that foresight and efforts of the kind that she advocates.
As to the limited benefits of Hi-Tech computer people, she is really only saying that there have to be jobs available before those high tech people assets can be attracted and retained and utilized.
They themselves don’t directly provide a payoff; she is saying let’s work together to build job creations so we can attract and retain these valuable HI Tech people assets and provide economic growth for our market.
As for blatant TIF incentives, without discriminating as to purpose, benefit and need, she essentially says let’s use financial incentives where there is a need to incentivize to get what we want for metropolitan development and for which we can reasonable envision benefits that will not otherwise be realized. Not every hand holding out needs incentives.
As for city–county consolidation, it is economically and developmentally irrational for our community and market that obstacles are raised to prevent that consolidation.
At the very least Marsha speaks her analytic and insightful mind about issues. She certainly does not follow the normal political train of buying support with ‘good ole boy (or girl)†agreement with no substance.
I hardly know Marsh, but I am fed up with how people in Evansville who are trying to be constructive get butchered, and remove themselves as assets from the process.
https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7166172672/h9F24D7FD/
You know that is a nice bit of insightful spin especially for someone claiming to know her only on a most casual basis and not hardly know her, but cannot agree. She was not being constructive. I listened to that recording several times, more than that actually and cannot come to the same conclusions. If anything she was being exclusionary. Had she qualified some of her statements, then you might have a leg to stand on. As it now, you are doing nothing but blowing smoke up everyones skirt.
Isn’t it fun to be right ….. while in the maze of ignorance.
The voice of rationalized arrogance has spoken and it’s name is Alan Brill. What was Marsha’s position on Roberts Stadium Mr. Brill? Do you know her well enough to know that she fully supported Mayor Winnecke’s tactics to tear it down?
Well I was sure right on that one. and I had the guts to take a legal stand on it, trying to avert the Administration (Mayor) from executing the quickest destruction project the city has ever seen in order to eliminate any possibility of other argument. Where was anybody else except standing gutless hidden in my shadows?
Wow, I am getting as bad as all those other bloggers who just bluster about nothing and waste a reader’s time.
Yes sir you were right but what good did it do? You got crushed by the machine just like everyone else. There were other people standing with you Alan. If you were standing alone then you were tilting at windmills, but you weren’t so don’t act like you were. You had the means to pay to have a lawsuit filed. Why didn’t you appeal? Filing a suit is cheap. Following an appeal all the way up the chain of courts is not. One would almost think you were just showboating just like Winnecke does.
Well actually I did not pay, but spent my own time to do it PRO SE because I believed in it, even taking that time out of the 30 hours of my 24 hour day that I was using in fighting lawsuits that were much more personally important to me.
Well, then congratulations on your failed attempt to fight the machine on principle. You are not the first to take them on and lose. Do you think if you hired an attorney that the outcome would have been different?
I grew up in Evansville but live in CT now. I read this blog often. The CCO is the only thing I have seen that has taken on the machine and survived. That is why I read it. I would be willing to bet the machine has tried to crush the CCO like the did Roberts over your pleas. Why do you think it keeps on going?
No. Actually I was pretty good. That was not the problem. Except that I had other necessary pushes in my life at that time, even I hesitate at the moment to say what the problem was.
They say a man who represents himself has a fool for a client. You got the butt whipping that you paid for. If you really gave a crap for Roberts why didn’t you just hire an attorney to prosecute the case correctly.
that is not worth a reply
The editor must operate under all kinds of names so that he can respond the same words many times.
Shes wants to build a hotel for $40M and the day it opens it will be worth $25M MAXIMUM.
She thinks Evansville is a tourist/convention destination
She signed over the naming rights of A PUBLIC PROPERTY WITHOUT BIDS OR PUBLIC INPUT.
She and Winnecke handed over county property to the city because Weizapfel wanted it without a single objection.
She’s abrasive, rude and condescending.
She’s elbow deep in sneaky back room deals, patronage and nepotism.
Should I keep going???
If they run it right then the hotel will be worth much more … reasonably what it needs to be. That vision is in the area of my expertise. However as I have said in sympathy for John Dunn, it is possible, if not likely, for this Administration and the local market to blow it.
The market desperately needs to be a destination and it naturally has the attribute to get there But the market will and can be a destination only if we make it so, which we can do with proper regional positioning and marketing and involving the community in that belief. It is leadership with the vision and expertise to do that which I find lacking. It is attitudes which you express that keep us from being more than we are … and we greatly need to be more than we are … and it is possible with leadership that offers a pragmatic collaborative vision and knows how things work and reality. we have not had that kind of leadership in generations. Maybe
Frank McDonald II was the closest most recently.
Weinzapfel needs to be in jail.
The good mayor is out of his expertise; maybe Marsha brings a little bit of outspoken reality thought, for whatever good it does.
Virturally, every city in the United States with a population over 100,000 wants to be or is already in the convention/hotel business.
EVERY ONE of those towns and cities have Mayors and City Councils telling their citizens the exact same thing. If only we try really hard, and plan correctly, and market ourselves properly the Hotel/Conventioneers will flock to our fair city and our fair city will overflow with milk and honey.
Ahhh yes Lake Evansvillebegon where all the women are strong, the men are all handsom and all of the children are on honor roll.
Yes every one wants it, but few know what they are really doing … in positioning and marketing and then executing. Go study Reis and Trout “Positioning ….” and the “Art of War” an ancient Chinese bible of execution (action paths to success).
And in our case few markets have the great natural attributes that Evansville has, that most of our population does not even want to recognize…. in fact want to NOT RECOGNIZE, it being more settling to ignore and criticize … and then you don’t have to do anything.
Brains is right on this one. Evansville has a zero chance of being a tourist or convention destination. All of the spending and delusions that are spun to justify it will not change things. Evansville’s leaders are completely incapable of executing any of the lessons of Sun Tzu. The following is as basic as it gets and there hasn’t been a leader here in 60 years that fits the description.
“When one treats people with benevolence, justice and righteousness, and reposes confidence in them, the army will be united in mind and all will be happy to serve their leaders.†– Sun Tzu
As for things like attacking opponents weaknesses and using speed to win, all I can do is laugh. If you want to practice the Art of War in Evansville you had better do it without local government. They are absolutely incapable of practicing such a thing.
They are pretty good at the art of deception and practicing cronyism though. If you don’t know that by now with all of the things you have tried, you have a learning problem. Evansville’s natural attributes are no better than any other river town that is 60 years past its prime. You can join the amen chorus that like to fool themselves. Why don’t you invest in the downtown hotel if the prospects are so great. Even better the McCurdy is looking for money. Go for it and it will break you like it has everyone who has ever tried to take that task on.
Come on man, let Alan “dream his impossible dreams” and get in a fight with windmills. It won’t hurt him to take a few licks while he learns about the corruption in Evansville. Imagine if he would have tried to do an honest deal with Weinzapfel. Winnecke on the other hand is just the sorcerer’s apprentice when it comes to dirty tricks.
As I said he belongs in jail
With all due respect for your opinion, you are just mouthing the defeatism I have heard in Evansville for the last 70 years … ‘We can’t’,‘I can’t’,’ it won’t work’, ‘nobody cares’, ‘why try’ …. etc… impossible to be better than we are. Well, we certainly can’t if we don’t think we can or we don’t try.
I have spent my life accomplishing meaningful things that others told me were impossible … and I have usually succeeded. I intelligently learned how to see to walk across the rocky brook without getting my feet wet. I had to do it without any money because my family did not have a lot and did not give me anything but self-belief and insight … which I treasure. But I could not have done any of that if I had not tried and if I had not believed … and even failed sometimes (but not often).
“No leaders like that in Evansville in 60 years†you say? … like that is impossible to be otherwise? Why cannot some group of pragmatic experienced caring doers, find and cultivate a real leader? Because so many people think it is hopeless and abusive to get involved.
Indianapolis is a model city that has put away its old image of “Naptown†and has become a booming great city … thanks to consistent good collaborative leadership. When I was in college I remember that it was not that way. Indianapolis CHANGED!
Evansville can’t?
Frankly, my next advocacy is to encourage the establishment in Evansville/Vanderburgh of the City-Manager form of government. Then we could have an opportunity for continuity in the longer term with a competent manager leader who would have the experience to run the half billion dollar business that Evansville/Vanderburgh is.
As far as the lack of quality attributes, which absence make Evansville hopeless, you have to be blind. I have been fortunate in my business career — in this phase primarily in the media business — to have been involved in the oversight if not ownership of such businesses in over 150 markets in the US. I can look at them and look at Evansville and honestly say that we have a raw gem in Evansville in the midst of the national ruble. But no one bothers to see it; after all 15 mile out of Evansville is only foreign lands, and who would want to be bothered by them (that is also how screwed up New Yorkers look west of the Hudson river?
Most of the businesses I was associated with were very successful starting from scraps and rising to the leaders in their markets. Starting from scraps because I did not have the money to start otherwise. We built them on positioning and Sun Tzu principles and community caring and involvement, all to have a base by which to build revenues because we brought a product to our customers that they could not live without.
We were the renegades of our industry. Everyone in our industries claimed they were ‘sales oriented’ but most did not even know what a sale was unless it walked in the door. We were one of the few who created belief in our customers that we could “bring customer through their doorsâ€. We sold that. Everybody else said “here we are, so they will come†… just like you are posing the Evansville betterment attitude. It does not work that way. It need not be that way.
One actually has to go out and actually deal with customers after you have a base to deliver them a meaningful product. Evansville could, if it will. Evansville’s challenge though is if it will even try.
I am not talking about isolated examples of really good things like Signature School or the Zoo or the Universities; I am talking about weaving those beauties and more that can now only be visionary into an overall planned fabric of things and relationships and attitudes which sight can reach the tickle of the minds of the populations far away that, first, Evansville exists and, second, that it is worthwhile experiencing. You can be great as you want to be, but if no-one knows, it does little good.
But as positioning and Sun Tzu teach, you cannot image what you claim to be if it is not true. If not true it become an anti-sell.
If Evansville wants to be nothing forever, then it is only its own fault. Surely there are some people here who have a vision, if released and worked, which would contribute to a community growth and help Evansville rise to its better potential.
As an admission I have always blamed this subject on the German heritage of this area of which I am a part. — “it’s worked that way for a hundred years; why change now?”[even when it hadn’t worked].
Attributes? You must be kidding. If Curt John can’t make money after doing insider deals next to the casino and the arena then there is not money to be made. Even the cronies and backroom dealing power brokers lose money in downtown Evansville.
Alan whats wrong with you? Can’t you read or hear anymore? Your remarks are just sad. Come on and vote for Bruce because you know its tim for a change.
Isn’t it fun to be right.
Hey Alan weren’t you a newspaper man in your younger years. Why in the heck can’t you cut through the Mayor and Abells bull sh–. You better than that.
Yes, actually I was an owner of many media properties and before that an oversight executive for another owner of many properties.
Those were part of where I learned to cut to the truth. Just like when I practiced as a CPA and as an investor agent, not only for myself.
Alan wrote what Marsha should have said. I am sure he wishes she said what he did but I listened to that tape and she clearly said “high tech computer people” don’t support anything and then rambled about old people not paying their own way. She never said engineers, accountants, and managers, support manufacturing and that these jobs all work together. She could have but she didn’t. Marsha showed her true colors and Allan doesn’t like what she said anymore than the rest of us did. Allan is however trying to whitewash Marsha’s true colors by filling in the gaps for her. Perhaps Allan Brill would be a better candidate than Marsha. I may vote for a guy like Brill. I will not vote for Marsha.
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