The City-County Observer believes that Evansville is the last bastion of governmental checks and balances in Indiana.  On the state level, the Republicans control the Governor’s office and enjoy a super-majority in both houses of the legislature. Vanderburgh County has a majority Republican County Council and County Commission members.  Evansville has a Republican Mayor and a democratically dominated City Council.

This makeup forces open dialogue in the decision making process in Evansville. In fact, this political friction has proven to be a good thing.  It seemingly forces needed checks and balances. We believe that having two viable political parties is necessary to effective government and good public policy.  In the past few days, we have seen three Republicans Ms. Ann Hargis,  Jack Schriber and Justin Elpers entering the race for City Council in 2015.  All have publicly pledged allegiance to the Winnecke administration and are seemingly committed to advancing his political agenda.  At the same time the very effective 3rd Ward Democratic City Councilwoman Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley announced that she will not seek re-election.  No one can fault her decision to put her family ahead of public service.

We believe that well-informed voters see the value of the adversarial relationship that now exists between our free-spending Mayor and the slip-shod accounting practices he and his strong supporters appear totally happy with.  We strongly feel that single party rule leads to political corruption that accompanies patronage, nepotism, and cronyism.

The existence of at least two strong political parties with opposing philosophies is what strengthens America.  We feel next year’s city election could be “The Vanderburgh County Democratic Party Last Stand” for keeping any real checks and balances alive in local government. It is clear that the very well-financed Republican party sees the Mayor as invincible and believes the city election is a “slam-dunk” to take control of the Evansville City Council. We see a ray of hope for the continued existence of Evansville and the Democratic party in the openness of our readers to seek competent candidates, regardless of gender.  We saw that in our recent non-scientific, but trend-reflecting “Readers Poll”. When we asked if our readers would vote for a female for mayor, 95% responded that they would.  While we realize that is not a radically futuristic response, we doubt that would have been the case a decade ago in this area.

It is obvious that the local Democratic party is in deep trouble.  If it is to survive, it must be led by a strong, forceful and creative Chairman.  Recent dismal party fundraising events and results of the last General election proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the current Democratic Party Chairman is not up to the task of leading the party to victory in the upcoming city election.  In order to salvage the local Democratic party they must field a strong ticket of adequately financed and qualified candidates.  We have strong reservations that current Chairmen can do that.  While we like Mr. Faulkner as a person its time for the Democrats to consider replacing him before the next election cycle. Bottom line, the local Democratic party is in a deep political crisis and it is up to the past and present party leaders to salvage it.  The loss of two-party rule will place Evansville in deeper political crisis than it has now, and we do not want to see the City floating belly-up in its own inadequate sewer system.

Copyright 2014 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

EDITORS NOTE:  THIS LETTER BY MR. FRIEND IS EXTREMELY TECHNICAL. IN NATURE.   HOWEVER WE URGE YOU TO READ THE LAST COUPLE OF PARAGRAPHS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE TO GET THE REAL  JEST OF MR. FRIENDS  BUDGET CONCERNS.

Dear Colleagues

Per the email sent to City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr.  stateing that the Evansville City Council needs some additional information concerning the 2014 Budget Fund deficiencies.  Today Russ sent me vie e-mail of the 2014 budget fund breakdown.  Attached below is a link of the Budget Fund balance changes sent to me by Mr. Lloyd.

Originally,  I included the General, Parks & Recreation, LIT, Hospitalization, Workmen’s Comp,Liability, Unemployment, Golf Non-reverting, and Hwy Vehicle into the operational category. I took Russ’ opinion and now included funds, 202,231,251,253,270,406,407,408, and 806, the yellow marking indicators represent the operational side of the budget.

Please notice line 98 Col I, the total operational deficiency is $9.4 million for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014. go to col R to see that the deficiency is $9.6 million for the prior fiscal year…this is where the 2% improvement over the same period one year ago was derived. Now, the administration is saying this is after the summer and the funds are lower. My analysis isn’t analyzing a point in time (Sept 30, 2014) but changes in points in time which includes all of the high points and low points, between two points. So, do NOT be confused.

Now, I direct your attention to line 103, col K, this is the deficiencies of ALL THE FUNDS excluding our agency funds (Funds of which we have no title) which displays deficiencies of $9,069,000. Please notice line 104, col K, deficiencies of $6,278,000 which is the changes in fund balances for the same period one year ago. This is a 44% decline in CASH or simply put $2,791,000 more in deficit spending.

Now, let’s examine line 11 Col. G, and Line 12, Col G, representing our Police and Firefighters pension money. I direct you Col. H which is the amount of those pension funds that are invested. The total pensions equal $11,786,000 which you would expect would be totally invested, but, look at Col H, the actual amount invested equaling $8,350,000. so where is the difference? Well, it is in the same checking account that the general fund, parks, in other words, all of the operational totaling $3,436,000. Now direct your eyes to lines 5,6,7, & 66, these funds are negative by a total of $13,258,000 and must I remind everyone that we are three months from receipt of the final property tax installment as of September 30th, 2014.

Please do not overlook lines 44, Col G & I because this is the Master TIF Fund that includes our downtown TIF Fund which has declined by 51% or $2,796,000. I have been on Evansville City Council for seven years and have NEVER seen our hospitalization fund this upside down. Our hospitalization is negative by $2,791,000 and places our employees health needs in the balance. Please notice the change is a mere $3,294,000 or a decline of 654.87%.  Can you imagine when the Affordable Care Act kicks in what the negative decline shall be?

What seems to be apparent is that this City Council has voted on very important budget issues without full disclosure. The Administration knew or should have known that Old National Bank would be carving out $1.9 million from the Downtown TIF before we voted on the IU Medical School. This $1.9 million dollars property tax reduction for Old National Bank  represents approximately $30 million dollars of future bonding capacity. I’m not sure about others, but, this would have influenced my decision. The same goes for the Johnson Controls “Smart Water Meters” project.  Either the administration knew or should have known about the budget contingencies deficiencies placing our citizens in potentially financial peril.

According to the email I received from City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr that Old National Bank property tax reduction in the downtown TIF was $1.9 million dollars instead of $1 million dollars. We were told (at least I was) that the downtown TIF property tax reduction was $1million dollars.

The TIF budget for 2014 was $6.6 million dollars. When the TIF was reduced by $1.9 million dollars the value of this TIF would be $4.7 million dollars. The administration budget number was $5.8 million dollars.

Its now reasonable to assume that the downtown TIF will go from $4.7 million to $5.8 million, or greater than a 23% increase? I would expect no more than a 4% increase or $200,000 making the difference declining bonding capacity by $9 million dollars off the budget.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know.

John Friend-CPA
President of Evansville City Council

POSTED BELOW IS THE LINK TO THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE FUND BALANCE CHANGES

Evansville – Fiscal Sept 30, 2014 Fund Balance Changes

This e-mail is posted by the City County observer without opinion or bias.

Copyright 2014 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The following two memorandums were given to the CCO by confidential sources.  Posted below are two memorandums for you to read and draw your own conclusions if indeed the City of Evansville is experiencing current budget challenges.  Our confidential sources also tell us that the Evansville Fire Department is also facing budget issues.

MEMORANDUM NUMBER # 1

DECEMBER 5, 2014

TO: ALL SWORN PERSONNEL

SUBJECT: VEHICLE ASSESSMENT FOR PERSONALLY ASSIGNED VEHICLES

Due to the continuing high costs to provide and maintain a take home / personally assigned police vehicle fleet for EPD Officers, the fuel assessment fee will increase beginning in January of 2015.

Every officer will complete and turn in a “Vehicle Assessment Form”, either denoting the authorization to have a fee deducted from their paycheck or noting that they do not have a personally assigned vehicle. The “Vehicle Assessment Form” can be found in the EPD Documents folder.

The “Vehicle Assessment Form” must be turned in by December 17, 2014 to either Captain Chandler or Captain Cox.

Each officer choosing to receive a take-home/personally assigned vehicle will sign a payroll deduction card that allows the Controller’s Office to deduct the fee from each paycheck.

The vehicle assessment fees are as follows:

$20.00 per paycheck ($520.00/annually) for those officers living within the Evansville city limits.

$38.00 per paycheck ($988.00) for those officers living outside of the city limits of Evansville.

Officers who choose not to sign the payroll deduction card or have not completed it by the deadline will forfeit the use of their personally assigned vehicle as a take-home vehicle.

This administration feels strongly in the value of the personally assigned vehicle policy.  It is our hope that these changes will allow us to continue the personally assigned vehicle policy.

All officers are asked to implement wise fuel-saving practices, including not running vehicles when unoccupied (except K-9 vehicles) and no excessive idling of vehicles.

BY DIRECTION OF,

BILLY BOLIN,

CHIEF OF POLICE

MEMO NUMBER #2 From Capt. S Clark  Concerning Year Of the End Police Budget Issues.

Officers,

As most of you are aware we had to temporarily stop our oil changes and repairs at Muensterman’s due to end of year budget issues.   We now have money in place to begin necessary repairs on vehicles as mechanical issues occur.  We ask that you still hold off on routine oil changes until January.  If you have a mechanical issue, we definitely need to be made aware of them through work orders and we will fix as many of these issues as possible.
We fully anticipate being able to go back to normal vehicle operations and maintenance just after the first of the year.   Thanks to everyone for your patience while we get through the end of the year.

Capt. S. Cox

POSTED BY THE CITY COUNTY OBSERVER WITHOUT OPINON, BIAS OR EDITING

Copyright 2014 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.