New ECHO Housing Director Chris Metz Speaks About EPD Investigation
New ECHO Housing Director Chris Metz Speaks About EPD Investigation
MARCH 27TH, 2018Â 
MELANIE ZAYASÂ EVANSVILLE, INDIANA
ECHO Housing Corporation officials are teaming up with financial crimes officers from the EPD.  They’re hoping to get to the bottom of the organization’s finances after former Executive Director Stephanie Tenbarge allegedly misused funds. Metz says he is fully cooperating with the EPD during this very difficult time. Meanwhile – Evansville City Council is set to vote on an ordinance to withhold roughly $460,000  from ECHO housing until the investigation is complete. $300,000 of that is slated for the construction of the Garvin lofts, while $80,000 allocated for the low-income housing development Lucas Place – and another $80,000 was set aside for the Promise Zone. Metropolitan Development Executive Director, Kelly Coures says, “We’re certain that our funds have all reimbursed legitimate expenses for ECHO because of the processes that we have in place but the ordinance is talking about money that we won’t even receive until September. So I’m hoping that council will take a hard look at that.â€
Metz also wants his ECHO housing clients to know their housing will not be impacted in any way because of this investigation. Metz explains, “The residents and the clients served by ECHO’s programs are certainly our priority and the main thing that we want to communicate to them today is your house is not in jeopardy and your services are not in jeopardy. The ECHO Housing Corporation will continue to do the work ECHO Housing Corporation does.†The Evansville City Council is scheduled to vote on the ordinance come April 9th.
“READERS FORUM” MARCH 28, 2018
We hope that today’s “Readers Forumâ€Â will provoke honest and open dialogue concerning issues that we, as responsible citizens of this community, need to address in a rational and responsible way?
HERE IS WHATS ON OURÂ MIND TODAY?
We find that yesterdays joint TV appearance on Channel 44 concerning ECHO HOUSING problems very interesting. Please take time and review the Channel 44 News interview featuring newly appointed ECHO Housing Executive Director Chris Metz and Metropolitan Development Executive Director, Kelly Coures. Tell us what you think about this Channel 44 interview.?
WHATS ON YOUR MIND TODAY?
Todays “Readers Poll” question is: Do you feel that the current ECHO Housing board members were not good stewards of the public trust and should be immediately replaced?
Please take time and read our articles entitled “STATEHOUSE Files, CHANNEL 44 NEWS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, READERS POLL, BIRTHDAYS, HOT JOBS†and “LOCAL SPORTSâ€.  You now are able to subscribe to get the CCO daily.
If you would like to advertise on the CCO please contact us CityCountyObserver@live.com
Commentary: The Politics Of Pay And Posturing
By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz
IndyPoltics.OrgÂ
This histrionic outbursts and outrage over the thought of Indiana lawmakers having to go into a special session in mid-May (and subsequent shrieking over lawmaker pay) are not only laughable but once again proves we don’t spend enough money on civics education in this state.
As you are probably aware, since you are reading this, last week Indiana lawmakers hit their sine die (that’s fancy Latin for adjourning for the year) deadline with several bills still on the table which means they were dead for the session.  The legislation included school safety dollars, money for Muncie schools and some changes to the tax code to put it more in line with recent federal tax reform. Also dying was legislation regarding autonomous vehicles.
There were a lot of reasons as to why this happened and plenty of blame to go around. Â Some lawmakers were a little difficult to deal with. Â There were some honest differences of opinions. Over in the Senate, there were some leadership issues coupled with the fact that the recent retirements of some experienced lawmakers also played a role. Regardless, some bills died.
Fast forward a few days later, and Gov. Eric Holcomb decides to call a special session to deal with a handful of items. Based on the reaction from some Democrats and some other members of the outrage class, you would think RFRA was making a comeback.
One of the big issues was whether lawmakers should get paid for going into “overtime†and would they take a salary. Democrats, which include some of the same people who fled the state in 2011 over the right to work and then sued the state to get their back pay, have called on Republicans to donate their pay. Republicans responded, and by my last count about 15 of them will donate to charity, which is five more members than the entire Senate Democratic caucus.
Once again, this entire controversy shows how little people understand the process. In addition to their base salary, Indiana lawmakers get a per diem. They make $173 a day when they are in session. They earn $69.20 per day if they are not in session. And if they are out of session and have to come down to the Statehouse for work, they get both, but they have to sign in. And they also get the standard mileage reimbursement rate of about 54 cents per mile.
So, assuming lawmakers did not have to come back, the taxpayers would have been paying each of them $69.20 per day, which translates into $6,920. Assuming a special session takes three days, if lawmakers do come back, they (all 150) will get paid about $78,000 in per diem. Please note, you’re already paying them nearly $21,000 over the same period regardless, and that’s only if none of them are down here for work. I can think of a lot of things to get worked up over, but $57,000 over a three-day window to come back and get some work done ain’t one of them.
Part of the problem is that Statehouse Republicans have been victims of their own success.  They’ve balanced the budget every year since taking office. They’ve created healthy cash reserves to weather financial storms which have helped the state’s credit rating. They’ve responsibly cut taxes while increasing school funding. Republicans came up with a long-term road funding plan that is the envy of the nation and made Indiana one of the best places in the country for job creation, so much so that Amazon is looking at setting up shop here in the heartland. With all that success, I can see why some folks might be shocked that lawmakers have to go long because they couldn’t reach agreements on other issues.
Well, guess what, sometimes even the best Statehouses have issues. But this is the first special session since 2009, which was a budget fight and the first time a special session was needed regarding a short session, by all accounts since 2002. Overall, that’s not a bad track record. It would be one thing if lawmakers were missing deadline after deadline and ended up having to come back and do the people’s business, but that’s not the case here. This special session is the exception, not the rule. Now if it happens again next year, that’s a different story, but for now, people just need to calm down and put the histrionic displays of outrage on the table. It’s not special.
FOOTNOTE:  Abdul is an attorney and the editor and publisher of IndyPoltics.Org. He is also a frequent contributor to numerous Indiana media outlets. He can be reached at abdul@indypolitics.org.
The City-County Observer post this article without bias, opinion or editing.
Congress Gives $410 million to Legal Services Corp.
Marilyn Odendahl for www.theindnaianalawyer.com
The omnibus spending bill passed by Congress on Thursday includes not only funding for the Legal Services Corporation but a raise as well.
According to a press release from the American Bar Association, the legislation provides $410 million to LSC for the fiscal year 2018. This is $25 million increase in the funding level from the last two fiscal years and the highest appropriation since 2010.
Significantly, the rise in appropriation comes after the Trump Administration proposed defunding LSC completely. In its fiscal year 2018 budget proposal, the White House eliminated funding for 19 agencies, including LSC.“The ABA is encouraged that Congress sees the importance of LSC in the lives of their constituents,†ABA president Hilarie Bass said in a statement.
Bass said the LSC helps more than 1.8 million low-income Americans with their civil legal problems involving domestic violence, disaster relief, housing, veteran benefits and child custody. The additional funding will enable the civil legal aid organization to assist at least another 100,000 individuals.
Indiana Legal Services relies on LSC for the bulk of its funding. In the fiscal year 2017, ILS received $6.64 million from the national organization.
When LSC made its budget request to Congress last May, the nonprofit had asked for $527.8 million for the fiscal year 2018. The organization received $385 million in both fiscal years 2016 and 2017.
More funds were required, LSC told Congress, to meet the overwhelming need for civil legal services in the United States. The organization said 60.6 million Americans, or almost 20 percent of the U.S. population, are eligible for LSC-funded legal aid services across the country.
“Even with this welcomed increase, more funding is needed,†Bass said. “In the past year, low-income Americans received inadequate or no legal help for 86 percent of their civil legal problems, according to a nonpartisan research organization at the University of Chicago. For (fiscal year) 2019, the ABA is requesting LSC funding of $482 million, which would match the (fiscal year) 2010 funding level when adjusted for inflation.â€
With Storm Season Approaching, Vectren Reminds Customers Of Easy Outage Reporting Tools
As we enter into spring, which also means storm season is right around the corner, Vectren is reminding customers of the quick and easy-to-use outage reporting tools available, as well as where to find information on electric outages.
Last year, Vectren launched a new feature which allows customers to report their power outage by texting the word OUT to 83212. Customers can easily save this number to their phone contacts to ensure quick reporting by visiting www.vectren.com/text from a smartphone to access and save the contact information. Customers who want to provide Vectren their mobile number to ensure its on file can do so by creating and/or logging in to their Vectren.com online account and visiting the Login & Accounts section, or they may use the Live Chat feature on Vectren.com.
Also launched last year was the redesigned outage center on Vectren’s fully responsive, optimized website, which features a new Google map platform with more defined outage information including crew status and an overlay feature showing current weather. A special zooming feature allows for street-level viewing of the outage area.
“We continue to explore ways to improve the customer’s experience by providing various options to make reporting a power outage and getting updates about restoration easier,†said Brad Ellsworth, president of Vectren Energy Delivery of Indiana-South. “Since smartphones are so highly utilized by our customers, being able to use these options via their mobile devices provides them with additional self-service options.â€
Customers can still report their power outages on a smartphone via Vectren’s website and mobile application. Customers are also encouraged to follow @VectrenStorm on Twitter for real-time outage updates.
These services are offered to continue to improve the customer experience as part of Vectren’s Smart Energy Future strategy. For more information on Vectren’s efforts, please go to www.vectren.com/smartenergyfuture.
 About Vectren
Vectren Corporation (NYSE: VVC) is an energy holding company headquartered in Evansville, Ind. Vectren’s energy delivery subsidiaries provide gas and/or electricity to more than 1 million customers in adjoining service territories that cover nearly two-thirds of Indiana and about 20 percent of Ohio, primarily in the west central area. Vectren’s nonutility subsidiaries and affiliates currently offer energy-related products and services to customers throughout the U.S. These include infrastructure services and energy services. To learn more about Vectren, visit www.vectren.com.
Public Law Monitor
|
|
||
|
||
|
||
