IS IT TRUE May 3, 2013

IS IT TRUE yesterday’s IS IT TRUE regarding the $53 Million Johnson Controls deal signed on behalf of the taxpayers of Evansville without consultation or funding approval by former Mayor Weinzapfel during his last hours in office elicited the most calls and emails that the City County Observer has gotten regarding an article published since the drunken party fueled by lobbyist dollars in 2012?…the particular part of this $53 Million scheme that our readership finds particularly offensive is that the Winnecke Administration who has labored furiously to keep this contract alive after the IURC shot it down is threatening to go forward with this spending with or without City Council cooperation?…our readership is incensed that it is even legal for any Mayor or surrogate of a Mayor has the authority to bind the City of Evansville to such an expensive capital project without having the funding approved by the City Council?…if this is really the case there is no real need for a City Council at all and we along with other Indiana citizens must be voting for a Dictator as opposed to a Mayor every four years?…if this Johnson Controls deal is pursued after a vote of the City Council not to fund we should just disband every City Council in the State of Indiana and resign ourselves to martial law when it comes to squandering tax dollars with no checks and balances?

IS IT TRUE that such an end run nearly happened last year until Mayor Winnecke finally realized he had painted himself into a corner?…there is a new joke in town at the expense of Mayors Winnecke and Weinzapfel and it goes like this?

Q: “What do the Johnson Controls deal and the Earthcare Energy deal have in common?”

A: “an Evansville Mayor did an end run around the City Council to make and fund the spending of lots of taxpayer dollars”

IS IT TRUE in both of these cases Mayors acting in a substantial vacuum from the City Council went out and cut deals to commit taxpayer dollars without having the support of the legal funding authority?…in the case of the Earthcare Energy deal getting the fifth vote from Councilman Conor O’Daniel to fund the Earthcare deal took on the form of a Civic Center Shake Down resulting in a last minute reversal of opinion?…when all was said and done it turned out that the Winnecke Administration had found a SNEGAL (sneaky but legal) way to advance Earthcare $200,000 that is still not paid back but is curiously current on the $380 interest only monthly payments?…it is widely expected that the rush to sneak $200,000 to Earthcare followed up by Mayor Winnecke’s subsequent reversal of opinion will be coming back to bite the City of Evansville squarely on the backside in March of 2014?

IS IT TRUE the Winnecke Campaign was awarded a CCO Mole Award for its clean campaign with a focus on COLLABORATION and TRANSPARENCY?…we stand by that award for the things that then candidate Winnecke expressed when running for office?…what we are wondering is what has happened to the GREAT COLLABORATOR?…a great collaborator does not go behind the City Council’s back to make deals to spend millions of taxpayer dollars?…a great collaborator is always a collaborating with others as opposed to just when he gets his way?…the first 16 months of the Winnecke Administration have not exactly been a time of transparency either?…thus far what we are seeing is an administration that is dedicated to carrying on the Weinzapfel doctrine at all costs?…if the nine members of the Evansville City Council truly believe that putting new water meters on a dilapidated set of pipes (the delivery system) needing over $500 Million in replacements in a city with a looming $500 Million sewer repair on the horizon is the best use of $53 Million taxpayer dollars then by all means vote yes and prepare to face the voters?…if however the members of the City Council are not convinced that having a shiny new meter on the end of a rotting pipe is not worth $53 Million at this time and that Mayors doing sneaky end runs around the lawful spending authority of the council is unacceptable then you members of the City Council who see this light are obligated to vote NO and challenge the threat of forcing the deal through the courts based on the signature of a lame duck Mayor in his last hours in office?

IS IT TRUE we hope that the sometimes complacent people of Evansville will pay attention so that as the old song says “they don’t get fooled again”?

IS IT TRUE May 2, 2013

IS IT TRUE it has now been 17 months since former Mayor of Evansville Jonathan Weinzapfel did an end run around the taxpayers of Evansville by signing an agreement with Johnson Controls to replace all of the water meters (good and bad) in Evansville and to install fiber optics sufficient to read the new meters without any traditional meter readers?…this fiber optic network was touted as having the capacity to raise Evansville from among the 5 worst served cities in the country for high speed internet up to the first quartile WITHOUT COMPETING WITH THE COMMERCIAL SERVICES THAT EARNED US ANOTHER CELLAR DWELLER RANKING?…we hate to be the bearer of bad news but that particular combination is just not possible?…that during the month of December 2011 when then Mayor Elect Winnecke was preparing to take office the City County Observer designated this Johnson Controls deal as one of a half dozen ALBATROSSES that Weinzapfel had hung around the enthusiastic incoming Mayor Winnecke’s neck?…Mayor Elect Winnecke never once tried to correct our version of his unwanted albatross?

IS IT TRUE that the Mainstream Media is now calling the Johnson Controls deal “Mayor Winnecke’s $53 Million Water Modernization Plan”?…last summer when the meat of the Weinzapfel scheme was being analyzed it was quickly determined that the fiber was not going to do what our leaders told us and that most of our water meters are not in need of replacement?…at that time some strong supporters of the Winnecke Campaign openly discussed with us that Mayor Winnecke would be relieved if the Indiana Utilities Regulatory Commission (IURC) turned down the project?…Mayor Winnecke supposedly got his wish when the IURC kyboshed this project for the very reasons that private analysts had predicted?…it seemed as though that albatross had been lifted from the neck of Mayor Winnecke by the astute IURC?

IS IT TRUE that rather than let that bad dog (the Johnson Controls deal) go Mayor Winnecke and his staff jumped into action to alter the deal and resubmit it to the IURC for approval?…we were all flabbergasted that a Mayor who was supposedly relieved to be shed of this BAD DOG had done a 180 degree flip flop and begun to embrace and nurture this BAD DOG?…it is Mayor Winnecke’s BAD DOG now as is memorialized in the new name “Mayor Winnecke’s $53 Million Water Modernization Plan”?…he had his chance to dispose of this particular albatross and chose to carry on with former Mayor Weinzapfel’s bidding instead?

IS IT TRUE Mayor Winnecke loves his BAD DOG so much that he is having the City Attorney advise the City Council that if they do not vote to fund this BAD DOG with borrowed money that Johnson Controls will arrange for other financing and the deal will be done anyway?…the City Council was also advised that Evansville would become the target of a lawsuit if they do not vote yes on borrowing taxpayer dollars to give Winnecke’s BAD DOG eternal life?…the demeanor of the City Council is one of “not so fast” this is allot of money and we may not really need it when it comes to “Mayor Winnecke’s $53 Million Water Modernization Plan”?…it will be interesting to see if these members of the City Council who were mugging for the camera hoping to be seen as conservative stewards of taxpayer dollar are really skeptics or if they are also BAD DOGS howling at the moon for attention before rolling over and casting a vote for their master?

IS IT TRUE during the last 3 days Mayor Winnecke has been rushing like the March Hare to get the so called “in the pocket” City Council to borrow nearly $100 Million for this BAD DOG and for the now $70 Million downtown hotel project?…the third albatross that the Weinzapfel Administration was of course the McCurdy which was announced something like 1,825 days ago along with the $42 Million 4-Star Marriot Hotel that would be built with private funds if only the then City Council would borrow $127 Million to build a downtown ARENA?…what really seems to be true is that there is nothing the Mayor Weinzapfel ever wanted that Mayor Winnecke is not in love with?…all three of the albatrosses that Mayor Weinzapfel dealt under the table to Mayor Winnecke are now treasured and nurtured as though they have always been his own?

IS IT TRUE that it is understandable that Mayor Winnecke wants to rush these albatrosses through the funding votes before the audits of the Ford Center and its IT solution are released and before the determination by the EPA of the city proposal to kick the Combined Sewer Overflow project down the road by another 20 years?…if as expected the two audits expose embarrasment and waste and the EPA says no to extending the mandate no rational human being would vote to subsidize a hotel or to replace water meters on an aging set of pipes?…it is irresponsible and inappropriate to even vote on either of these projects until the outcome of the audits and the EPA ruling are made public.