Today Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel responded to the claim made by Rick Davis that he had removed a critical press release regarding the secret meeting to allow Homestead Tax Credit to lapse. The Mayor claims that that press release along with six others of a positive nature that were issued in the month of June in 2009 were never posted for reasons that he is uncertain of.
The City County Observer after learning of the press release that was released on June 18th of 2009 last Friday did some research on it. Our first search of the City of Evansville website revealed that there was a gap of about two months that included the entire month of June of 2009 where no press releases were available. We have previously reported that this did not constitute any reason to allege that any website sanitizing had been done by the Mayor and left open the possibility that the press releases were for some reason never posted in the first place.
On Monday the CCO filed a Freedom of Information Act request with Mayor Weinzapfel’s office to request all of his press releases from June 2009. The Mayor’s staff responded quickly that they would comply by October 3, 2011. We assume they will do so.
The only public record of the now infamous press release is on a June 18, 2009 article published by the Courier and Press that is available on their website.
Link to Mayor Weinzapfel’s Statement
This is so fascinating! I hope we can continue talking about this. It is relevant to my interests.
Removed from website OR not even posted to the website – doesn’t make any difference. Still was not on the up and up with the public.
This issue has just become crystal clear. The press release was never posted. It was wedged between 6 other good news releases that were not posted for show and to make it look like some poor staffer failed in their duties. Sorry folks, this was deliberate, it was deceitful, and it was planned far in advance.
Much like the Homestead Tax Grab, by doing nothing Mayor Weinzapfel deceived the public.
It’s so entertaining to watch as the man who taught me the phrase “It’s the magic of politics” is now so embroiled by that magic. Irony or just plain predictable?
He’s a magician alright… [poof] there goes your tax money!
He was certain that, Mr. Yung wasn’t capable to run Aztar…
He was certain that, Roberts stadium was inadequate…
He was certain that, we didn’t need park rangers…
He was certain that, the McCurdy could be renovated into high end condos…
He was certain that, the stadium bonds needed a COIT pledge, just to get a cheaper interest rate…
He was certain that, SMG wasn’t up to runing the Ford center (you remember, they can’t maintain a bathroom stall or a water fountain.)…
He was certain that, GAGE was a good idea…
He was certain that, FDP was a good idea…
He was certain that, all those Zoo upgrades would pay off…
He was certain that, the downtown location was the best place to put that stadium/hotel combo…
He was certain that, the rubble left from the hotel was “dangerous”…
He was certain that, CVB wouldn’t really drink Opus One at a Christmas party on the government dime… right?
Yet, he can’t seem to get his head around the complicated inner workings of a (his) website?
By the way, I wonder if today’s press release is on the Mayor’s website?
“It’s been my intention to stay out of this race” means I refuse to help my fellow demo office holder, thereby assisting his opponent. Still wondering why Mr. Davis didn’t pick up the phone and call about the Mayor’s unposted press release?
IS IT TRUE the Mayor’s 2 month gap = 18 minutes of silence on the tapes of Richard Nixon’s secretary ?
Also, how much in legal fees did it take to prep this statement ??
Re: the STATEMENT (loved the all-CAPS):
1) Why is the one page statement numbered like this: –30– ??;
2) No signature on the Statement ?
3) The backend database of the Vision Content Management system ? At least they got the ‘backend’ part right, in terms of aroma
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