Mayoral Townhall at Harrison Sets the Tone for the Upcoming Campaign

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Mayoral Townhall at Harrison Sets the Tone for the Upcoming Campaign

The race for Mayor of Evansville got a jumpstart today at William Henry Harrison High School in a town hall style of forum where candidates Lloyd Winnecke and Rick Davis answered questions posed by students of Evansville’s high schools. The format of the day was a one minute opening followed by twelve questions to which each candidate had two minutes to respond to.

The demeanor of the candidates toward one another was candid and respectful with no personal barbs as has become routine in American politics. The City County Observer was on the premises to report and would like to congratulate and thank both candidates for the respectful manner that they treated each other and the various ideas that each campaign has put forward to improve Evansville.

The first question addressed what a Mayor should and can to keep Evansville safe. The candidates agree that public safety is the number one job of government. Mr. Winnecke expanded with an intention to address the maintenance issues within the City of Evansville’s fleet of police and fire vehicles which has been a nagging concern during the Weinzapfel administration with parts being scavenged from one vehicle to keep another rolling.

Lloyd Winnecke
Question two from the audience was with regard to helping organizations that are dedicated to providing help to the “less fortunate”. Mr. Winnecke was first to answer and committed to use the Mayor’s office as a bully pulpit to get the 36 organizations to collaborate fully and to assist the United Way in achieving their fundraising goals. Mr. Davis used this opportunity to point out that much of the need for assistance can be directly traced to unemployment and was careful to point out that non-profit entities are a major employer in the area with some 10,000 people on their payrolls.

Next up was a question on “how to get the people of Evansville involved”. Mr. Davis was first to answer to tout his proposal to hire 50 young people per summer to keep the parks clean but to also leverage the new $128 Million Ford Center to have more young person friendly events than Roberts Stadium has been holding. He particularly cited Roberts for only having 10 concerts in the last year and committed to hold VenuWorks feet to the fire. Mr. Winnecke in a departure from what may be expected acknowledged the litter problem in Evansville and stated an intention to hold monthly neighborhood cleanups that he will personally participate in. He stated that this program while easy is the type of thing that instills civic pride in the community which is missing in some areas.

The subject of consolidation was breached in what was the biggest point of difference of the day. Mr. Winnecke stated his agreement with the theory of consolidation along with his support for the referendum process to allow the people of Vanderburgh County to choose their form of government. Mr. Davis came out as emphatically planning to vote no for consolidation based on the fact that no real savings has been identified in the current plan and stated his support for the so called “threshold rejection” that requires both the city and county to pass this independently for consolidation to be enacted. In an animated moment he referred to the current situation where the city has enough voters to effectively annex the county at the ballot box as a “shotgun wedding”.

Rick Davis
Of course the future of Roberts Stadium was raised with Rick Davis bringing up the idea of converting it to a natatorium and to utilize some of the funding that was planned to build 8 ballfields to be used for the conversion. Mr. Winnecke took the position that the people of Evansville need to be prepared to accept that demolition may be the best solution for Roberts but that he personally preferred that a prosperous solution to maintain the stadium is identified. He also stated that whatever he eventually proposes will identify the cost and funding sources prior to being disclosed.

The next student inquisitor asked what may be done by 2016 when he will be graduating from college about creating a job that he can come back to. Mr. Winnecke used this question as an opportunity to tout some elements of the jobs plan that he released in June like the technology transfer agreement between GAGE and the Federal Labs Consortium and to state that the Mayor should be the chief salesperson for the City of Evansville. He also stated that he would like to eliminate local government red tape so that permitting is simplified. Mr. Davis also touted elements from the jobs plan that he released today with particular preference stated for business retention and expansion. Using a metaphor of growing a one pound bass into a two pound bass as being a very effective way to grow sustainable jobs for Evansville.

Meth was the next topic that was brought up with Mr. Davis expanding on his plan from the previous week that would work to make pseudoephedrine based medicines require a prescription. He told the crowd about how an elementary school child explained to him how the meth dealers in a house that recently exploded would alert the “meth heads” that they were open for business by strategically placing a bicycle in a place that meant “open”. In the only barb of the day Mr. Davis mentioned that Mr. Winnecke was only calling for education on this subject. Mr. Winnecke then countered that by stating that he had never been criticized before for supporting education and continued to expand on how meth is a serious problem and that using law enforcement and education are critical tools to use to fight this battle.

In a quirky question the next student asked “what is something about your own party’s position that you do not personally agree with”? Mr. Winnecke candidly and quickly stated that he disagrees with the Republican Party position with respect to gay rights. For those who do not know that would mean that Mr. Winnecke supports the rights of gay people not to be discriminated against. Mr. Davis stated that even though he is a staunch Democrat that he departs from the party position on the subject of gun control and is himself a member of the National Rifle Association.

The remainder of the questioning was directed at more traditional campaign topics like “tell me why I should vote for you”, “who influenced you most”, and “what will you do first when you take office”. Of course both candidates spoke the truth when talking about their educations, their many years of board membership, and of course giving credit to family and teachers. Mr. Winnecke did mention that one of his biggest influences was President Ronald Reagan.

The townhall closed with a one minute appeal from each candidate to the students to register to vote and to be a part of the election process as a volunteer and to be sure and vote in their first election.
From the City County Observer we thank both candidates for keeping it respectful, being well prepared, and for sharing where you depart from your party’s positions. The CCO supports both gay rights and the 2nd amendment so these “break from the pack” positions were welcomed and appreciated. We are looking forward to the next two debates.

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9 COMMENTS

  1. Requiring a prescription for getting allergy medicine is ridiculous. That means come spring when the pollen is up, I have to spend money to go to the doctor before I can get something to help a friggin’ runny nose? All because of some methhead?

    Furthermore, I’m not sure the local government has the right or power to do that.

    Isn’t there a saying about two wrongs not making a right?

    • I agree – I think the state has to make the determination of whether or not it is sold as prescription-only.

      • You are correct. This is a state decision. Local governance can express their preference and desires but it is the state that must act or change the laws so that local jurisdictions can make the choices. The other substance situation is smoking which the cities are allowed to be more stringent than the state on. With prescriptions they can’t. Government has a way of messing up everything they touch.

        • I hate tell you “Brad” but you can still get allergy medicine without having a prescription. There are medications called gel capsules that have the same effect as the tablets do. You will NOT need a prescription for the gel capsules. Why wouldn’t someone want to cut down on the house fires and the money spent with the hazmat clean-up needed for EVERY meth related bust?

  2. With regard to Rick Davis’s National Rifle Association (NRA) membership, I would like to hear Rick’s position on new firearm “ballistic fingerprinting” (entering into a law enforcement data base the markings on slugs and casings created when firearms are discharged), and the current local requirement for handgun registration, both issues which the National Rifle Association (NRA) opposes. Can we assume by his NRA membership that Davis also opposes both these law enforcement tools even though neither regulation prevents a law abiding citizen to keep and bear arms?

    • I really hate to do this but after your tirade the other day I fell compelled to respond.

      After spending over an hour researching “Ballistic Fingerprinting”, more then a dozen pages of google searches, and 40-50 individual hits it would appear to be yet another attempt to create a national database of guns and gun owners, on the surface the idea is very good if it had any kind of reasonable success rate…but it doesn’t. 90% of the articles I found talked about how easy it was to change the ballistic fingerprint through usage and cleaning, and how handguns like some Glocks because of the barrel design do not lend themselves to be fingerprinted at all. Of course the NRA and other gun advocates are solidly against it, but the only proponents advocating it that I found were the people selling the forensic system, and of course the federal government, groups like Brady, basically anyone who was anti-gun was for the system.

      In the states like Maryland that have had the system in place since 2005 (I think) it hasn’t solved a single crime, but it has created a database of registered (legal) handgun owners and a ballistic fingerprint of those firearms which apparently are not being used in crimes since they have never had a match, yet the cost of the system to taxpayers was initially $1.1m with a annual cost of around $750k to fund/operate it.

      Of the articles I read they all had a common theme stating that sheer number of guns in the USA and the computing power of even state of the art computer systems doom the system to failure because even them most powerful systems couldn’t come up with a match and required the operator to go back to viewing the images manually trying to find a match, this was during testing where the system actually had the ballistic fingerprint they were looking for and could only find the match 38% of the time after repeated searches of the database.

      So…..conclusion? it’s a flawed system at best, a waste of taxpayers money, it doesn’t show any real world successes in placing legal owned guns in any crime scene, it hasn’t stopped or solved a single crime, it’s easily thwarted by simply cleaning the firearm and usage, it’s also flawed because it is only concern with handguns not rifles but it does work very well at creating a database of legal gun ownership.

      Until some form of nano-marking or microstamps are used in ammunition this type of science simply falls into the category of a “feel good” program that on the surface sounds good but has no other real world effect except for the database it creates which is what the NRA are against.

      Side-note: as long as our government agencies are incline to give away guns or sell them knowing that they will be used in crimes it’s hard to get behind any program they come up with, look at all the weapons that were recently sold in the southwest that went to Mexico (or stayed in this country) that have been traced back to crime scenes, it makes you scratch your head in wonder of just what were they thinking and be suspicious of their motivations.

      So while I can’t speak for Mr Davis I’m sure he and Mr Winnecke have more pressing hometown issues they are concern with on the campaign trail at the moment and even though they mentioned gay rights and gun ownership in their townhall meeting the other day I doubt they are real campaign issues in our little race for mayor.

      Just my redneck point of view…. 🙂

      • I see I hit a nerve with my comments regarding racial profiling by redneck political elements, huh?

        Well, thanks for the extensive explanation of the negative aspects of ballistic fingerprinting. I notice you did not explain the NRA’s (and I presume Rick Davis’s) objection to registration of handguns. But screw the small points, right?

        Anyway, about racial profiling as a law enforcement tool that you seem to embrace and promote, look at it this way: There are Italians who look like Greeks, and Greeks who look like Turks, and Turks who look like Persians, and Persians who look like Pakistanis, and Pakistanis who look Bengals, and Bengals who look like Arabs, and Arabs who look like Ethiopians, and Ethiopians who look like sub-Saharan Africans, and sub-Saharan Africans who look like Aboriginal Australians, and Aboriginies who look like Melanesians, and Melanesians who look like Polynesians, and Polynesians who look like Asians, and Asians who look like Eskimos, and Eskimos who look like Native Americans, and Native Americans who look like Hispanics, and Hispanics who look like Europeans which would bring us back to Italians, Greeks, Scandinavians, Finns, Lats, Eskimos, etc. And around and around we go.

        Now, when you get way down deep in Bubbastan, I just don’t trust “racial profiling” in the hands of redneck law enforcement officers. And if you’re familiar with the same political climes I’ve been familiar with over the past many decades, you’ll remember when big cities, oh let’s say Washington, D.C. just as one example, recruited all their rookie officers from Bubbastan. Get it?

        • LOL….

          No nerve to hit, just being a redneck. 🙂

          First let me say that I’m not a advocate nor do I promote racial profiling as it was done in the past hopefully with today’s DNA testing technology travesties of injustice will be few and far between.

          I can’t speak for Rick Davis or the NRA for that matter (no I’m not a NRA member either) but since I am a lawful gun owner I can speak to that topic, all hand gun sales in the USA (non-private sales) require a background check and the serial number of that firearm is registered with the purchasers name, state, address, at the time of purchase all this info is sent to the FBI and the ATF I do believe. It was stated at one time that after the check these records were destroyed but I think that’s not the case, one of the two agency’s maintains the data.

          Technically private part sales are suppose to go down in a licensed gun dealers store who holds a FFL with the same checks as new gun purchases, sadly this rarely happens, then there are gun shows, never been to one or purchased a gun at one so I have no knowledge of how sales are handled but I suspect it’s considered a private party sale, but I’m just guessing on that.

          A CC permit in the state of Indiana requires the serial number of the firearm that you will be carrying on the application (at least it did)a letter to the chief of police stating your intentions or reasons for applying for a CC permit (I think this has changed and the county sheriff handles requests now), you are fingerprinted,and must be approved by the ISP which basically checks databases including the FBIs I believe to make sure you haven’t been convicted of a felony and that the firearm isn’t stolen.

          You are all ready registered in several databases from the time you get a handgun and the handgun itself has a substantial paper trail, if you choose to get a CC permit your again entered into several more databases from the local (city/state) to the federal level.

          They do have legal gun ownership very well documented from the city level all the way to Quantico, which I’d assume is why another database is just intrusive.

          Adding another level of bureaucracy or database will not stop crime, stolen guns kill everyday it’s sad, but as you well know some people should not be given a drivers license much less a handgun, but it comes down to basic freedoms that our country was founded on and the reasoning behind the freedoms. If all the handguns where in the hands of LEOs only, people would still kill one and anther whether it be with a knife or a rock you will never stop killing by removing guns from the equation (all one has to do is look to Great Britain to see what happens) but you remove a basic right this country was founded on and my ability/right to protect myself, my family and my property from the elements in society that place no value on human life. (we won’t even go down that tyrannical government path)

          And I’ll apologize again for offending you with the racial profiling comment, like everything in life we do as a society overcome bad policies from time to time (some take longer then others) today it’s called criminal profiling which is the term I should have used, my comment being nostalgic in nature and content it was the right term to use, but I didn’t mean to offend anyone by the statement.

          BTW I liked your homogenization of the human race…very good point.

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