IS IT TRUE sometime during the next week depending on a couple of outside factors the City County Observer will pass another internet traffic barrier?…that it is inevitable that the CCO will enter the realm of the top 300,000 trafficked websites in the world?…that the number of websites out there worldwide recently topped 400 Million?…that places the CCO in the top 0.08% of websites worldwide with respect to traffic?

IS IT TRUE that the whole Johnson Controls line of questioning has us wondering just what can be done when an outgoing administration signs a legal contract during its final hours that turns out to be enough different than it was represented to be at the time of signing that the best solution is to tear up the contract and start over?…we are not saying that is the case with the Johnson Controls deal?…what we are encouraging is for a complete VETTING job including a rigorous financial analysis to be done to see if the numbers in the contract stand up to scrutiny and practical assumptions?…if they do then Mayor Weinzapfel did a good job (in a vacuum) and we can all look forward to having our water meters read through the internet?…the real question becomes what happens if this turns out to be a dud that the Winnecke Administration really prefers not to go forward with?…we think there should be some kind of mechanism to automatically require VETTING of everything that is passed above a certain price threshold in the lame duck days of any administration?…that this $50 Million plus deal would certainly exceed that threshold?…if it really is not a contract that solidly pays for itself with tangible and measurable savings that it should be subject to cancellation?…that what has been shown thus far certainly look like there is a high potential for exactly that outcome?

IS IT TRUE that lame duck elected officials have often pulled plenty of stunts that are less financially impactful than the Johnson Controls deal may be to Evansville?…there was a real concerted effort by the Weinzapfel Administration to jam through yet another deal for the McCurdy in a last minute special meeting of the Evansville Redevelopment Commission?…that the ERC which took 4 years to learn their lesson blocked this effort and sent former DMD Director Tom Barnett stomping out of the room mad as a hornet?…we wonder what would happen if an outgoing President of the United States pardoned Charles Manson and others like him?…we hope that such an executive action could be overturned by saner minds?…that alas we do not think executive privilege has changed much since the words “give us Barabbas” were uttered in Jerusalem?…that does not say much for the advancement of governance?

IS IT TRUE that economist Milton Friedman predicted the fall of the Euro within 10 years at the time it was launched?…that while Friedman may have missed his timing it appears that the probability of Greece and other European countries with excessive debt is getting pretty high?…that when Greece runs out of Euros which they most certainly will that they may return to the Drachma to avoid a devolution into a barter system?…Cypress just requested a banking bailout similar to Greece for the same reasons and that Spain is on the same path?…we should take a lesson from these countries that are several years ahead of us on the debt to GDP curve and right the American ship now?…that counter to what pundits and extremist party hacks say, the escalation of debt started in 2007 under President Bush and has continued unabated under President Obama?…that while these two presidents have different ideologies they pretty much look the same to a financial analyst?

IS IT TRUE June 12, 2012

IS IT TRUE

we are very pleased today to lead off with praise for some very positive change that has taken place with respect to the Evansville Utilities Board since Mayor Winnecke took office and shook up that board and its leadership?…the meeting place has been changed from the dungeon of the Civic Center to a large room on the third floor that accommodates around 50 people?…that agendas are now published on the Friday before meetings are held as opposed to a couple of hours before as had been the custom for at least 8 years?…the meetings of the Evansville Utilities Board are now recording just like the City Council meetings are and that the minutes are recorded verbatim?…that these changes are all designed to promote transparency which is a necessary condition for good public policy to prevail over self interest and crony capitalism?…the City County Observer would like to take this opportunity to thank Mayor Winnecke and the 5 members of the Evansville Utilities Board, including its President Jeff Hatfield, for making the decision to move this direction and having the courage to implement step one to achieving it?

IS IT TRUE we are somewhat confident to say that if this kind of transparency would have been in place during the Weinzapfel Administration that the Johnson Controls contract in its present form would not have had a snowball’s chance in hell of being approved?…programs and contracts that can stand up to honest review and informed scrutiny do not need to be done in dark dungeons out of the public eye by boards that are intentionally manipulated by timing, misinformation, and political pressure?

IS IT TRUE there are a couple of things from the past that have been on our minds for a few weeks and that today is a good day to bring them up?…we are wondering exactly what became of the audit of the City of Evansville Information Technology department?…late in 2011 Councilman John Friend and others were insisting on an audit of the IT department lead by Matt Arvay and that the cost of such an audit was estimated to be just over $100,000?…we hope that the money is in the budget as both City and County officials had said it would be and that the audit will be done on schedule?

IS IT TRUE we are also wondering what the heck is going on with the official default of Earthcare Energy?…the last time we heard anything there had not been any official default letter served upon Earthcare and they were countering Mayor Winnecke’s on camera assertions saying that they were in complete conformance with the contract?…we are also interested in hearing any news that may be out there with respect to the new RFP that is supposedly being crafted to attract a downtown convention hotel developer/operator?…these and other things seem to be in a quiet period which has historically been followed by a storm?

IS IT TRUE that it was reported yesterday that since 2007 the net worth of the average American family has fallen by 40%?…the period of time from 2007 until now is taking on an economic look as though history may look on this as equivalent to the Great Depression?…the NASDAQ stock index is still sputtering at only half of its peak which occurred in March of 2000?…most of the country is still in the midst of a housing contraction that has returned the prices realized for real transactions to values more associated with the 1990’s or even earlier?…that it has been well documented that federal government spending as a percent of total spending spiked by 35% to 27.3% of all spending in 2007 and has stayed there?…that incidentally the time when the federal government spent the least would be the mid 90’s under President Clinton when federal spending dropped to below 20%?…that all governments large and small should take notice of the inverse relationship between government spending as a percent of all spending and prosperity?…that these facts cannot be hidden or explained away as foreign countries with massive entitlement programs were collapsing during the 90’s too?

IS IT TRUE on this coming Tuesday at 1:30 PM there will be a meeting of the Evansville Utilities Board? …that past and present Utilities Board meetings are held in the extremely small conference room located in the Water and Sewer Department office area?…that holding the Utilities Board meeting during this the above time and location keeps the public from attending meetings of this important board?…if the Utilities Board meetings were held in room 301 across from the Mayor’s office the $50 to $80 million dollar Johnson Control project would have allowed the public to feel welcomed to attend their meetings so they could add their input on this project?

IS IT TRUE that the City County Observer spent some time on Google doing some research on the successes and failures of Municipal WIFI services similar to the Johnson Controls project that the Weinzapfel Administration rushed through during the last month in office?…that there are not a lot of reports out there on such things when one excludes reports written by Johnson Controls and reports that are of a financial nature that were written and published prior to installation?…that there is one study that the CCO posted previously regarding a Johnson Controls project in Cumberland, MD that on the surface sounded superb until we realized that it was a projection and not a performance based report?…that the most cited reporting on the first 10 pages of Google references is the failure in Hollywood, FL?…there are plenty of announcements of cities that are planning to do WIFI but most of those result in poor outdoor signals?…that the systems do seem to be capable of checking the water meters fairly well where fiber is fully in place and new meters are installed?…that in the first 10 pages of Google reports when using the search terms “municipal WIFI” or “Johnson Controls+Smart City” that there are exactly ZERO reports of success that are written by a third party?

IS IT TRUE that Evansville City Councilman John Friend, CPA took a bold step last week by challenging the projections for savings that was made to the City of Evansville back during the early stages when the project was under consideration?…in Councilman Friend’s letter of challenge he exposed the fact that the total savings over 20 years for a $57 Million (plus interest) project is only projected to be $87,000?…that will only amount to an average savings of 4 CENTS PER PERSON PER YEAR if it even plays out the way it was bought to be?…Councilman Friend also challenged several methods chosen to do the savings calculations and made a projection of his own that the losses will be over $1 Million?…that was arrived at without challenging any of the assumptions used like the rate increases and higher water and sewer charges assessed to the people of Evansville?

IS IT TRUE that the CCO encourages private vetting efforts and Councilman Friend to leave no stone unturned in getting to the bottom of these numbers which are being called out by many people as not necessarily reflecting a reality of high probability?…we hope to see a hearing in Evansville much like the hearing that the IURC held regarding the Vectren dense pack project?…that both of these projects are projected to save people money but designed to benefit the entities that are doing them?…that is why the City of Evansville should come under the same level of scrutiny that Vectren is now under for cost neutral project?…it is only fair that these projects are VETTED in a rigorous manner?…we do believe that Vectren knows how to add a column of numbers correctly but have no recent evidence in the VETTING department to believe that the City of Evansville can even get 1 + 1 to equal 2?