IS IT TRUE October 9, 2012 (Quips and Comments about AuditGATE)

IS IT TRUE last night’s City Council meeting was the first in many years that had the kind of INTERVENTION language that can lead to positive change?…that people and cities have to come to the realization that they are face down in the gutter before a resolve to improve can really solidify?…that the City County Observer hopes that last night’s City Council meeting serves as a turning point for the City of Evansville that seems to many to be one scandal away from a Detroit style Kwame Kirkpatrick meltdown?…there were some very revealing statements made last night by a plethora of people that were not rehearsed that say much about where we are as a city?…here are some that we have chosen but we invite our commenters to add to the list?

“Evansville has no grant manager”

“Not having an unqualified audit opinion is trouble”;

“the SBOA Auditor was shocked and amazed that paralleling was not incorporated”

“that earns an F in IT 101”

“the Winnecke Administration was cited for not being forthcoming”

“Fraud has not yet been alleged by anyone”

All from John Friend

“It was caught last year and it is important to note this is resolved” City Attorney Ted Ziemer (architect of the Earthcare Energy Contract)

“This is not completely resolved yet” Controller Russ Lloyd (30 seconds after Ziemer said it was resolved)

“the adjustments appear to have changed the cash balance by about $30 Million” John Friend

“Just when should the City Council have been notified” Councilman Conor O’Daniel

“The Council should know when the books are not balanced” Conor O’Daniel

“Are you telling us that we passed the 2012 budget without balanced books?” Council President Connie Robinson

“the contract looks like you could sell us a person with a GED and no experience for $90,000 per year” Connie Robinson

“Overdrawn accounts have been standard practice at the City of Evansville for years” Controller Russ Lloyd Jr.

“there may be a covenant violation with the Arena Bonds” John Friend

“Let’s finish this up” Russ Lloyd Jr. (repeated at least a dozen times)

“will there ever be a decent readable budget?” Dr. Dan Adams

“if we pay for an outside audit the SBOA may call the Attorney General on us” Russ Lloyd Jr.

“an outside audit will be about $250,000 and Russ Lloyd will have to pay for it” John Friend

“I was not the Controller when this started” Russ Lloyd

“GARBAGE IN = GARBAGE OUT” Steve Titzer, CPA

“the old system with Excel to reconcile worked fine” former Controller Jenny Collins

“switching over without paralleling turned out to be a big mistake” Jenny Collins

“we always thought we were two weeks from being finished” Jenny Collins

“the accountants didn’t understand IT and the IT folks didn’t understand accounting” Steve Titzer & Jenny Collins

“the Munis system is working in Fort Wayne and Plainfield” Russ Lloyd Jr.

“the books at SMG were so bad we could not audit them” Steve Titzer

“the drug purchase money has been comingled for over 15 years” Russ Lloyd Jr.

“the balances were still changing for December 2011 in July 2012” Russ Lloyd Jr.

“Parking loses money so an account was never set up” Russ Lloyd Jr.

“the bottom line is the Weinzapfel Administration dumped a bucket of poop on the Winnecke Administration” Dr. Dan Adams

“You knew what to do and you chose not to do it” Councilwoman Stephanie Riley (directed at jenny Collins)

“We have a contractual issue here” Councilman Jonathan Weaver

“we are not a middle person in any of this stuff” Mark Rolley

“All you have to provide according to this contract is a warm body” Connie Robinson (directed at Mark Rolley)

“Who picked Tyler” several City Council members

“Matt Arvay, myself and MRC person, and the department heads” Jenny Collins (response to Who picked Tyler)

“we saved the City of Evansville $100,000 or more on an overkill server they wanted to buy” Mark Rolley

“I don’t remember if it was an RFP or an RFQ” Jenny Collins

“transferring money from the right pocket to the left pocket and back again runs up the transaction numbers” Umbaugh guy named Dan

“collapsing 8 funds into 2 destroyed the audit trail” John Friend

“most peer cities use CAFR reporting” Dan from Umbaugh

“CAFR was used in Evansville until 2003 when Russ Lloyd Jr. left office of Mayor” John Friend

“Evansville’s financial records do not even resemble those of peer cities” Dan from Umbaugh

And our favorite: “why is there nothing in the Courier and Press about this fiasco” that was posted in many comments and forms this morning.

IS IT TRUE those are the quotes and paraphrases we were able to capture from last night?…this is the voice of a City crying out for leadership and vision after a period in a Sea of Idiocy?…we truly hope that tonight is the night that starts the long climb out of this 60 year hole of incompetence and mediocrity that has been dug by Evansville’s public officials and sanctioned by the people of Evansville by continuing to vote them into office?

IS IT TRUE topic #2 of interest in last night’s City Council meeting was of course AuditGATE? …AuditGATE is the name we are choosing to call the series of events and decisions that lead to the City of Evansville getting a DISCLAIMER statement on the 2011 SBOA audit because the accounts had not been reconciled for all of 2011?…Councilman John Friend made it clear last night that an even bigger and more costly negative associated with this buffoonery is a bond rating downgrade that would raise the interest rate on borrowing?…Friend stated that a 1% rise in interest rates would cost the City $1.3 Million?…what he didn’t mention is that for the $500 Million EPA mandated sewer project that same 1% increase will increase the interest expense by $5 Million per year for the life of the bonds?…that even a stooge can do the math on this one to learn that $5 Million per year for 20 years is $100 Million?…that Friend quoted the SBOA auditor as being “shocked and amazed that paralleling was not done during the time that the new software was being installed to preserve the ability to reconcile”?…the best description of what happened is that the Evansville Controller’s office got an F in Information Technology 101?

IS IT TRUE that one of the things of interest is the timing of who knew what and when with respect to failure to reconcile?…that Jenny Collins, the Controller for the Weinzapfel Administration and some staff members at this time would have been aware of the failures during mid-February 2011 when they would have tried to reconcile the books for January 2011?…that Ms. Collins testified that she brought some consultants in to attempt to correct the situation in the summer of 2011 so at that point the knowledge would have spread to the consultants and the approval chain to pay those consultants?…it is safe to assume that former Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel would have learned of the failure to reconcile at the latest when Ms. Collins needed to pay her chosen consultants?…Winnecke Administration Controller Russ Lloyd was candid in admitting that he learned about these failures in January of 2012 when trying to reconcile the December 2011 books?…that the entrance meeting for the 2011 Audit opened on June 5, 2012 so at that time select members of the Winnecke Administration would have known?…John Friend was advised of what was coming at around that time by an associate at the SBOA?…the lid was blown off the 20 months of keeping the dirty little secret that the City of Evansville could not balance its books when the SBOA posted the audit a couple of weeks ago?…now we all know that the last 21 months have been a time of flying blind in the Evansville Controller’s office and now the real questions are what to do about it and how to prevent it from happening again?

IS IT TRUE that witness after witness stated things that can all basically be boiled down to WORKFORCE ISSUES?…Steve Titzer of Harding, Shymanski, and Associates, one of the consulting firms that Ms. Collins brought in during the summer of 2011 and the final signature on the embattled Johnson Controls deal that the Weinzapfel Administration jammed through in its final week, inelegantly but accurately stated “GARBAGE IN = GARBAGE OUT” when it comes to integrating a software package?…the real problem with integrating the Munis system was started by an internal decision to make the shiny new MILLION DOLLAR software look and feel like the old software that it was replacing?…that is right, a decision was made to dust up, dumb down, and devalue the new MILLION DOLLAR software that has been integrated successfully in other cities across the country so the EVANSVILLE WORKFORCE IN THE CONTROLLER’S OFFICE would be more comfortable with it?…the question of WHO made that decision was asked by several City Council members but a real answer never was given?…Ms. Collins shared that two supposedly key employees left for better jobs during the integration?…Mark Rolley whose firm was hired to assist in the integration but not in financial analysis openly stated that his contract was priced so low that he could not hire qualified people to do the job so he did the best he could?…the most comical part of last night’s intense meeting was supplied by Council President Connie Robinson who read from the MRC contract and stated that “there are no qualifications or education in here for the person you supply to us. You could just get someone with a GED that did their best and we are on the hook for it”?…Robinson delivered the line in a comical way but that it was a pathetic exclamation point on the compensation packages offered for professional employees and consultants that the City of Evansville chooses to hire for dollars and nonsense purposes?…if the City of Evansville under the Weinzapfel Administration could not hire a Controller with a CPA who could not keep professional staff or hire qualified consultants it is no wonder the City of Evansville is in a position of having a DISCLAIMER AUDIT that puts its borrowing cost at risk?…this is a fine example of penny wise and dollar stupid public policy?

IS IT TRUE that the outcome of this latest core value based fiasco is that money was wasted, many funds were comingled, $17.7 Million of ARENA BONDS WERE ALSO COMINGLED, 21 violations of Indiana laws happened, DMD was singled out for having no written plan during the Weinzapfel era, and the City Council was disrespected and intentionally kept in the dark for over a year?…that the last and perhaps most illuminating cascade of stupidity was the exposure that the parking funds were comingled because the parking enforcement department is losing money?…that even middle school class would figure out that the answer to the parking enforcement department losing money is to institute FREE PARKING?…parking enforcement has been a losing proposition for as long as Evansville has had such a thing?…our challenge to the Winnecke Administration is either to remedy this in 6 months or get rid of it and make parking in downtown Evansville FREE?…we wonder if it is really worth making downtown shoppers angry so the City can lose money?…it is time for at least one touch of sanity in what has become a SEA OF MADNESS at the Civic Center?

IS IT TRUE October 9, 2012

IS IT TRUE it appeared as though there were some citizens who showed up at last night’s meeting of the Evansville City Council as the CCO had recommended?…we have no way of knowing how many tuned in to the WNIN broadcast of that meeting that saw a Finance Committee meeting that nearly lasted for four hours?…there was plenty of controversy and enlightenment offered up on the hot button issues of Roberts Stadium and AuditGATE and that there is a more clear understanding of both as a result of some of the dialog?…there was exactly ZERO public comment at the end of that meeting so we must assume that the public has decided not to have any say in the matter while standing before the City Council?…that some of the constituency of Evansville must have been using the phone, emails, or letters to let their Councilpeople know how they feel because those communications were openly discussed during the meeting?…for the first time in a while it seemed as though the City Council actually did two things they are supposed to do before acting?…those things are to listen and to think?

IS IT TRUE the first topic addressed was the looming demolition of Roberts Stadium and the costs associated with that job which has grown from a supposed $200,000 under Mayor Weinzapfel to a quote of $958,000 today?…that Building Commission Director Dave Rector even called that $958,000 a moving target and hinted that it may be done for less?…that moving targets have a way of moving up when it comes to spending government money so to translate Rectorspeak that likely means that the job will cost more, expensive change orders will be plentiful, and other things LIKE THE REMOVAL OF THE PARKING LOT that were not in any of the quotes will add to the cost?…that Mr. Rector’s response when the question of the parking lot removal was that he had a quote in hand to do it for FREE if they move quickly because the quote is only good for 60 days?…that Mr. Rector told us that same story about this time last year about Roberts Stadium?…this revelation was pure déjà vu as the same sucker’s assertion was made last year that Klenck would tear down Robert’s for the scrap value?…we just have to ask “hey Dave, how did that FREE DEMOLITION OF ROBERTS WORK OUT FOR YOU”?

IS IT TRUE that this writer was party to a parking lot removal process in Vanderburgh County in 1999?…that particular project was in the unincorporated county, did not pay prevailing wages as the City of Evansville will have to as an entitlement city, and did not involve any filling of a hole afterward?…the cost of that removal was $3.00 per square foot?…that it would be rash to think that government can do this for less than double that amount?…any way one runs the numbers the removal of a parking lot that accommodates over 3,000 cars at $6 a square foot works out to about $750,000?…this is from the CCO who projected last year that the demolition of Roberts would be about $1 Million when the Weinzapfel Administration and Rector were bouncing between FREE AND $200,000?…this is from the same CCO writer that projected in the summer of 2010 that the downtown hotel would have a value of about $20 Million yet cost $40 Million when all was said and done?…that once again a project seems to have started out like a CARNIVAL SIDESHOW GAME enticing the people of Evansville into the game with promises of FREE work and a Park to play in?

IS IT TRUE that Councilman Adams made a strong constituent based case for auctioning Roberts off and putting it back on the tax rolls even if it only brought $10?…that echoes the sentiments of CCO poster and sometimes author Brad Linzy?…Dr. Adams was correct in his assertion that selling the stadium has not even been given serious thought or consideration?…the CCO has consistently advocated that if Roberts has to be decommissioned that selling to a private entity is the best move and that demolition with public money is a last resort?…that now that we know that the complete demolition will approach $2 Million or more that should be etched in stone?…we completely agree with Councilwoman Mosby who clearly stated that “Evansville cannot afford another park at this time”?…that Councilman Dan McGinn made a well researched plea to proceed to demolition but not with a park on the basis of “these old buildings are bleeding Evansville to death”?…Councilman McGinn cited the Old Court House, the Old Post Office, and the Greyhound Bus Station as old architecturally significant buildings that have bled the City of cash for years while being sparsely used?…McGinn even compared the architecture of Roberts Stadium to a utilitarian facility designed by the former USSR?…he has a point and as usual it was well thought through?…Roberts is actually more Classic Midwest than Klassic Khrushchev but we understand the comment?

IS IT TRUE that when all was said and done the City Council voted 6 – 3 to remove the transfer of $187,000 into the demolition fund?…that the City of Evansville is so poor with managing money that even old Dave Rector had not been paid for work done at Roberts and Mesker?…this was just the latest exposure of utter ineptness in the management of local government?…the incompetence exhibited in the whole Roberts fiasco has been of monumental proportions but it does not compare with what the other 3 hours of last night’s meeting covered which will be the topic of IS IT TRUE Part 2?