TO THE EDITOR OF CCO:
I am writing to say a huge “Thank you†to the person or persons who made the file on the investigation of the admitted predatory activities of Jack Schriber available to the media. If you had not done what you did,  Mayor Lloyd Winnecke would have not made the information public until after the election, if ever, because he wanted the votes that the immensely popular educator would “pull†for him. The Mayor had encouraged his friend and mentor to run because he knew the respect people had for Jack would win votes for the entire GOP ticket.
Now, Winnecke has admitted that he knew about the investigation in July. It is important to note that he only saw fit to tell the whole truth about when he knew what after Rob Faulkner spoke with the media about the certainty that Winnecke and Bolin attempted a Watergate-style cover up of the truth until after the election. They knew they needed the votes that Mr. Schriber would bring to their ticket.
I think we should award our mayor an honorary “BS†in “integrity,†as he claims he was “protecting the integrity of the investigation.†The truth is that he allowed Mr. Schriber to continue campaigning for nearly three months.  He had planned to keep the secret and let t Mr. Szhriber serve on City Council as a “rubber stamp†to whatever he wanted. It would have been easy to get whatever he wanted from Schriber as long as he had that file. If the cat somehow got out of the bag, he could always get Schriber to resign and Winnecke and Wayne Parke would install another person to do their bidding. A true friend would have gone to Schriber and asked him to bow out of the race in July, instead of subjecting him to what Jack has faced in the past two days. The always self-serving Mayor chose to take a chance on keeping things quiet and benefitting from the votes, instead of allowing his “dear friend†to save face.
Even worse, what Winnecke and Parke have done is effectively attempt to steal the At-Large votes and cast them for their choice of a person to sit on Council, as they are sure that they can work their will on the party caucus. I have heard that the planned substitute for Schriber is none other than Wayne Parke himself.
Those of you who still wish to vote for Republicans should not vote a “straight ticket†unless you want to give up your vote for Council-at-Large. If enough straight ballots are cast to allow Mr. Schriber to win, that will let Parke and Winnecke choose who fills the vacant seat. If you don’t want them to make your choice for you, you should vote for individual names and leave Mr. Schriber out.  By not running anyone against Weaver, they’ve already compromised the votes of their party members, but this makes it even worse. If you already voted absentee, you can cancel that ballot by going to the polls in person.
Even if you are a die-hard Republican, please ask yourself if you believe Winnecke is fit for office. The pathetic job of leadership he has done this past four years and his clear dishonesty by continuing to use Jack Schriber once he knew that Schriber was unfit for office should make it hard for anyone to support him. Evansville deserves better than this.
Sincerely
Laura Blackburn
EvansvilleÂ
