Dear City-County Observer,
Thank you for contacting me and asking me to tell my story. To begin, I am definitely a concerned citizen who has lived either in Newburgh or in Evansville for almost all of my 40 years. I have always worked with the public, mostly in restaurants and retail jobs, but have kept a very private life which makes all of this publicity very uncomfortable for me. I never intended nor desired to be a topic of discussion at the Mayor’s office, the Evansville Courier, or even on Facebook as the City Council Meeting video from June 22^nd is passed around and reposted.

Likewise, I didn’t expect to hear some of the accusations about me that I have heard coming from those sources mentioned above. I have never met Gail Riecken, nor do I work for her or her campaign either as a “plant” or otherwise. I feel that the picture that has been painted regarding my presence and motives at the Council is quite inaccurate at best, that the article in the Courier misquoted me at least once, and deliberately omitted vital information pertaining to my purpose and cause.

What the article did not say (which I stated in the interview) was that I pray for the Mayor, his family, the City Council and their families, the City Controller, the City Attorneys, and the governmental leadership in this city (along with their families) very regularly (and with a steadily growing group of uniting pastors), that I really like the Mayor and think he is a very nice guy with a good heart, and that if there are intentionally negative things happening regarding the finances in this city, perhaps the questions that I have been presenting can help him to locate the issues.

In no way did I make any accusations against the Mayor, his staff, nor his campaign, and my questions have more to do with the goings on within the finances (or lack thereof) in this city than some fictional “orchestrated attack” on the Mayor. I have no desire to come against and accuse someone I am regularly praying for, for I would be defeating the whole purpose of my prayers if that were the case.

I also have no interest in the two-party system because I refuse to side with the lesser of two evils. Instead, I choose to side with God, and I pray that any evils and any corruption in this city be exposed and removed, while anything and anyone that is befitting in the eyes of God for His will and His plans will be blessed to continue in the successes of their office and purpose, but prayer is not all I am called to do. I am also called to “put my hand to the plow” so-to-speak as I step out in faith at an arena in which I am somewhat unfamiliar in an attempt to fulfill my responsibility as a believer in Jesus Christ, a citizen of this city, and holding accountable the offices which make decisions in our city on behalf of the believers and non-believers alike among us.

I am, however, not alone in my prayers as the pastors of Evansville and the surrounding cities, counties, and ultimately the region are and have been banding together to pray for our governmental leaders, not only on a national scale, but very specifically on a local scale… and we are seeing both immediate and gradual results as God moves and works in the lives of the people, calling them to repentance, and to real relationship with Him.

With that said, there are some key issues we are praying about, some of which are the financial conditions of this city, that we are deficit-spending, that we are asking for advancements on the advancements of future taxes that have yet to be collected, that financial reports due in January are still unavailable in May, that 20 million dollar/10-story projects are approved, then cut down to 5 stories and somehow still costs the same or even (3.6 million) more, that the water and sewer department needs 65+ million dollars to add 600 homes to the sewer system after it hires 21 “workers” who are not blue collar hands-on workers but rather top-level white-collar executives, that if they don’t get their 65 million dollars as they have already stated that they will take it out of our bills anyway, that the homestead credit that was supposed to give 8% back to the homeowner, but has only given 6.15% back for the past 7 years at a difference of 7 million dollars that went into someone else’s pockets besides the homeowners, just to name a few concerns. Clearly these discrepancies and the nature therein were here before Mayor Winnecke took office, and those who are benefitting from them know how to move money around seemingly unnoticed. As a concerned citizen, I want to make sure these discrepancies do not remain beyond his term or terms.

While some of these issues are being resolved, the fact that we keep having so many issues regarding finances and their whereabouts seems to be a much deeper reoccurring problem in this city like a hole in the bottom of a boat. This is my chief concern.

While these spending, borrowing, advancing, withholding, and missing monies continue, the homeless remain homeless, the transitional beds remain always full, the abandoned houses remain abandoned, a new homeless shelter at CEO that only requires $170,000 to open sits in the waiting, the impoverished remain impoverished, the potholes line the streets, the 900+ prisoners released to Evansville each year have no jobs and no place to go except back to drugs and back to prison. The drug dealers keep on dealing, the gangs keep on bangin’, the food stamp program is about to drop 20,000 Evansvillians (even those who are disabled) who will all be hitting the job market in October or they will be starving by December, and crime will be increasing… all while we’re playing “Find The Missing Money.”

This seems to be the same problem on a national level, that the leaders use our money to represent themselves, their campaign donors, their pocket-liners, and their closest pals, and to accomplish agendas that do not at all represent the people. The leaders themselves do not represent the people, nor the majority thereof, and they just get richer while the poor get poorer and the middle class disappears. We should all be asking if our leadership represents the people because the current financial status of this nation and this city do not appear so at all.

The city is broke and borrowing from our future and our children’s future, playing a “shell game” with our tax money, and would not be able to afford the cost of recovering from even the smallest of catastrophes if something, God forbid, were ever to happen here. This is unacceptable, and that is why I am asking all the questions I’m asking. The greatest question of all however shouldn’t be where am I getting my information, nor why am I asking these questions, but rather, “Why is it such a problem that I’m asking, and why isn’t anyone else in Evansville asking these same questions?”

Where are the citizens of Evansville, why don’t they care, and when will they come forward to ask the questions which must be asked in order to prevent the flushing of this city and our finances down the proverbial toilet? Will it be too late when we finally decide to do something about it? Or can we do something together about it now?

For quite some time I have heard this city referred to as a “City of Refuge” for those who are in need, but we don’t have any funds, any more beds for the homeless, any plans, or any help for anyone in need because we have limited our own capacity to do so. It’s time for each of us to make our voice heard, stating that we care what goes on in our city, and that we will no longer accept the “shell game” with our finances, but that we will hold accountable all leadership regardless of party affiliation in order to make this city a greater place.

If I am a “plant” as the article portrayed, it is not at all for Gail Riecken or anyone else. When I started asking questions I started getting answers that brought about more questions, and it appears thus far that these are the right questions to be asking. If I am “planted” at all as the article suggested, I am merely “planted” there by the Lord to help in setting right some things that are wrong by asking questions we should all be asking of our city.

Finally, the Evansville Courier & Press reporter was gracious enough to ask me if I had anything else I wanted to say… but they didn’t print what I said.

What I said was basically this, “Evansville, it’s time for us to rise up and pray for our leaders.” To take this a step further; it’s also time to reject any and all corruption in this city, and it’s time for us to declare to God and to each other that which we accept in this city as a people, as one unit, and as one body. Ultimately, the choice is ours. Will we continue to play “Find the Missing Money” in this city, or will we do what we have all been called to do, to rise up and pray for our leaders?

Sincerely Concerned Citizen,

Pastor Steve Ary