MAYOR’S SPOKESPERSON MISSES THE MARK

Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley by 3rd Ward City Council Member

I’m not sure what’s more frightening, that a candidate wrote something so irresponsible or that people might actually believe it.

Republican candidate Jack Schriber attacks City Council in this Comment to the Courier & Press and states a lack of understanding of why City Council was reluctant to immediately transfer $8 million from Riverboat funds and the City’s Rainy Day fund to cover essential operating expenses. In expressing his inability to understand the Council’s delayed action on the transfer, he claims that the City has 145 million dollars in assets and investments with 52 million in cash. It’s interesting how he never touches on why with so much money the City would need to get into its emergency funds.

To catch everyone up, City Council recently passed an ordinance that required rainy day and Riverboat funds to be kept in their own bank account. Rainy day funds are funds that are not counted in determining the amount of revenue needed in a given year for tax purposes and require State approval to spend. This is our emergency fund, and there is about $3 million in the fund. Riverboat funds are by a mid 1990’s resolution only to be used on capital projects. Mayor McDonald sought and passed the resolution when the casino came to town with the hope that the City would never become dependent on the windfall funds. The City gets about $13 million from the casino annually and typically budgets all of it for capital projects. Right now, these funds with rainy day funds total about $16 million. This $16 million are the only funds segregated.

So with the City allegedly having $145 million at its disposal, why do they need $8 million out of these segregated funds? It would seem that the Jack Schribers of the world want it both ways. They want to proclaim the financial strength of the City by throwing out this huge number and then simultaneously decry the act of protecting a measly $16 million for capital needs and emergencies. Could it be that the whopping $145 million alleged isn’t real, or at least not in the sense they would have you believe?

Let’s break it down. The assets of the Evansville Sewer and Water Utility are included in the $145 million number. In fact, its assets make up the bulk of the number at $93 million. The Sewer department is sitting on about $67 million with loans and rate increases coupled with the fact that the Combined Sewer Overflow Plan has not been approved by the EPA. Remember that $600 million project that the federal government is making us do to stop our raw sewage from flowing into the Ohio River and Pigeon Creek?

The Water Department has also taken out loans and had three years of rate increases and is working on replacing those 100 year old pipes that are only good for 100 years. The funds are nowhere near what are needed for the projects, and there’s this pesky state law that doesn’t allow what’s captured from rate payers to be used on spending unrelated to the water and sewer departments. And that’s a good thing. Given the rate increases to come to complete these projects, we don’t want our Utility being used as a piggy bank for the City.

Now let’s look at the $52 million that Schriber claims is in cash. It’s not in cash. It would be unethical for this kind of money to be kept in cash. The City has an obligation to the citizens to act as a fiduciary related to our money. The money is mostly in certificates of deposit or in the Hoosier Fund. The Hoosier Fund allows for investing funds with no required period of investment. We roll money in and out of investment status ad nauseam. There are more transfers in a given week to jockey money around at the Controller’s office than you or I make at our own banks in a year.

But, let’s get back to the $52 million. We’ve only segregated about $16 million. What gives with the other $36 million? Why can’t they use those funds to pay their bills? We have to go deeper on this question. There are Tax Increment Finance funds in that pile that can only be spent within certain areas of the City and on certain types of projects. There are bond payments in there too that our rating agencies like to know are safe. We also have pension funds for the retired police and fire fighters in that mix that are also restricted in use. And there’s legitimately some certificates of deposit of funds slated for projects far enough down the road that they could be invested for 3, 6 or 12 months. When we get down to it, the $52 million that Schriber heralds is all spoken for in one way or another. With a total budget (Utility, City Civil and Capital) budget that tops $300 million, there are a lot of moving parts, and what may sound like a lot of money really isn’t much in the big picture.

Ultimately, the City can’t make payroll later this month and despite the official number of $145 million in cash and investments, they need to get into the $16 million that we squirreled away to keep safe. The transfer will have to occur, and I will vote for it. The ordinance wasn’t created to impede government but to get accurate financial information in real time. The hope was that the transparency required by the ordinance would trigger healthy debate about our upside down financial picture and how we cope with stagnant revenue and rising fixed costs. This type of comment from Schriber flies in the face of honest debate we’re entitled to and should be having.

A link to the Community Comment is here: http://www.courierpress.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/commentary-council-handcuffing-mayor-city-staff_83028728

Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley

3rd Ward City Council Member

Analysis Of The Changes In Cash Balances For Year Ending July 31, 2015

Written by City Councilman John Friend, CPA

.Attached is an analysis of the changes in cash balances for the year ending July 31, 2015.  We are nearly 13 million in the decline in cash balances compare to 6.7 m the year before. In addition, our city ranks in the lower 8 percentile in the cost of operating a city on a per capita basis.

The cost as published by the Dept of Local Government Finance as of December 31, 2014. We are nearly $1,900 per while the average is $900. Out of 550 cities in Indiana, our town has only 39 cities operating at higher costs then Evansville. This can be verified by googling Indiana Gateway, select report builder, select cash & investments, scroll down to expenditures per capita, select governmental unit only.

When Mayor Winnecke says he has to deal with Property Tax Caps, so do the Mayors of those cities as well and so did Mayor Weinzapfel, who spent less money in the General Fund than he collected.  When Mayor Winnecke says he spent $5 Million Dollars less than what the current City Council approved, he is NOT being honest with the citizens of Evansville.   He failed to collect $15 Million Dollars and this was after the advancements he received from the Evansville Water and Sewer Utilities Department on December 29th of 2014.

Statistical facts,  Operational Expenses per capita under Weinzapfel watch was that he kept Operating Expenses within the General Fund budget.  At this juncture, the media apparently has not caught on to this critical financial situation especially the cost per situation and this new July 31, 2015 financial information.

Unfortunately, Mayor Winnecke has failed in the efficiency category as proven by the Statewide reporting as documented in the attached chart posted below.

Respectfully Submitted

5th Ward City Councilmen John Friend, CPA