IS IT TRUE raises were a hot topic at the Evansville City Council meeting last night with the head of the Evansville Department of Metropolitan Development using the Cost of Living as a justification for some very nice raises that he was recommending for a few of his staff members?…it seemed as though he was asserting that Evansville has a higher cost of living index than Indianapolis?…The Southwest Indiana Coalition for Economic Development has a very comprehensive study of comparative cost of living available online so arguing the price of gas, electricity, and haircuts is a moot point when we have the data readily available?…that in the table Evansville is calculated to have a COL index of 93.8 while metropolitan Indianapolis scores a 94.4 which is less that 1% more than Evansville’s?…the real cost of living in Indianapolis and Evansville are virtually indistinguishable but are the highest among Indiana cities sampled by roughly 4%?…for comparing government salaries Indianapolis, Bowling Green, KY, and Baton Rouge, LA are all good comps with similar costs of living?…the following link will allow one to overdose on cost of living data for over 300 American cities so have at it if you wish?

http://www.southwestindiana.org/sites/default/files/COLIQ22012.pdf

IS IT TRUE at last night’s City Council meeting the previously discussed 20%+ raises for a select group of 11 City of Evansville employees when the rest of the employees were recommended for a 3% raise fractured the members of the Council at a 5 – 4 vote?…Councilman Dan McGinn offered up a compromise that limited raises to 9.9% as opposed to the truly excessive raises that were recommended for the GILDED GROUP OF 11 who seem to have been singled out for great big increases without any real data to support such increases?…opposition to the large increases for the GILDED 11 even got Council members Missy Mosby and Al Lindsey to agree?…Mosby and Lindsey were joined in their opposition by Councilman Dr. Dan Adams and Councilwoman Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley?…Councilman Conor O’Daniel who changed his vote to ratify the Earthcare Energy loan of $4.8 Million earlier this year tried to sympathize with the opposition while voting to give the GILDED GROUP OF 11 the raises once again flipped, flopped, and commiserated with one side before voting as Mayor Winnecke wished for him too?…the City Council also voted to take no raise themselves and to give Mayor Winnecke no raise even though they were in line for a 3% increase as well?..that support for the raises was cited by Councilwoman Connie Robinson as a way to keep good employees?…the GILDED GROUP OF 11 were just hired so that argument while valid to open up salary brackets does not hold water in this particular instance?…the committee that recommended the raises in the first place included three members of the Evansville City Council named Robinson, John Friend, and Dan McGinn?…these three votes would seem to be in the bag for their own recommendation?

IS IT TRUE all governments including Evansville need to have talented people?…the current situation with the federal government where government officials have gotten annual increases that put them in standard non super-star positions at over $100,000 per year when their skill would not command even half that in the free market is a testament to government needing to continually adjust salaries?…that when a secretary working for the federal government makes over $100,000 while a similar position in the private sector is only making $40,000 we all have a problem?…that the City of Evansville does need to review all of the positions and make adjustments where necessary to be competitive without being excessive when it comes to pay?…that it is possible that the GILDED GROUP really were all underpaid but that is quite improbable?…it is possible that the entire remainder of the staff performs equally and are all paid correctly and that an across the board 3% increase really was the right thing to do?…for 700 or so human beings to all be exactly the same place in their performance and value is as preposterous as having a real GUILDED GROUP of 11 that are vastly underpaid?..the compensation packages at the City of Evansville after this fracturing exercise in favoritism is still as messed up as ever and that the City Council, Mayor Winnecke, and the Department Heads all get an F for letting this game play itself out without putting a lasting solution into place?…the CCO predicts that next year will bring another GUILDED SMALL GROUP and we shall see another fractured City Council?

IS IT TRUE we expect this exercise in fractured government and favoritism will play into how some people will vote in the upcoming consolidation vote?…the comments thus far do not look good for the YES group?…that when resistance to change is codified by the self proclaimed agents of change outsiders understand how Evansville continues to be governed straight into the Dark Ages?…this is no way to run a city?

IS IT TRUE September 24, 2012

IS IT TRUE this is the week that the rubber meets the road for the funding of the Evansville Human Relations Commission?…it seems as though the Vanderburgh County Commissioners are following through and reducing their contribution to the 9% level that they have been contractually on the hook to pay for many years now?…this whole brouhaha has exposed that the County has been overpaying for longer than anyone can count and no one knows why?…it has been reported that over a period of 8 years in which the HRC spent nearly $4 Million in taxpayer dollars to operate their investigators took on 1,500 cases of which only 5 resulted in probably cause of discrimination?…with a ratio like that and a cost this high ($800,000 per probably cause) it is the overall budget that should be under the microscope as opposed to the percentages that the City and County pay?…with less than 1 probable cause per year it seems as though a more appropriate budget for the HRC would be what is needed for one investigator as opposed to six?…that oftentimes governments are absolutely reluctant to cut anything at all for the sole reason that elected officials do not like the scrutiny that comes from cutting budgets of these so called “necessary” offices?…somewhere in the bowels of the federal government there is a civil servant earning over $100,000 per year to taste tea?…the tea taster is not needed, wastes taxpayer money, but is defending his or her job as vital?…it is time for Evansville to examine the size of the need for the HRC and to make cuts where cuts are needed just like the federal government should with tea tasters and other unnecessary and unproductive legacy jobs?

IS IT TRUE that several of our moles tell us that the State of Indiana has interpreted candidacy laws in favor of Karen Ragland and that the teacher from the Joshua Academy is eligible to run for school board after all?

IS IT TRUE the building of 40 more Front Door Pride houses is proceeding just as the Weinzapfel Administration planned for it too?…there are still at least 6 of the original 17 Front Door Pride houses on the market for $130,000 after taxpayers spent over $200,000 each to build them?…keeping the utilities on so the pipes do not burst and mold does not set in is in all likelihood costing the people of Evansville something like $2,500 per month just for these 6 empty houses that no one is coming forward to buy?…with such a demand no sane business would dare expand such a program without FREE GOVERNMENT MONEY to pay for them?…these next 40 houses are not only being built by a Cleveland based business using mostly out of town labor but that the United States government is footing the entire bill through TAX CREDITS that are reportedly at the level of $10 Million?…that means taxpayer dollars are dropping another $250,000 per house to build houses that are next to crack houses and abandoned buildings that essentially have no value at all?…not to worry because these 40 houses will be rental houses that have rents that start at under $300 per month and scale up to $700 per month depending on the tenant’s income?…that FAIR MARKET RENT in the real world for a structure that costs $250,000 is more like $2,000 per month?…if one want to see GOVERNMENT WASTE IN ACTION, then one needs to travel no further than the Goosetown area of Evansville, IN where taxpayer dollars have fuelled a building binge of $250,000 houses that would not have a vibrant market unless the prices were dropped to under $100,000?…no wonder our country is in debt nearing the point of GREECE, IRELAND, PORTUGAL, and ITALY?

IS IT TRUE that if this company from Cleveland is so intent on taking $10 Million off of the hands of our government to get some houses in Evansville that they should start by buying the 6 remaining Front Door Pride houses from the City of Evansville for $250,000 each?…that would at least take these houses out of the hands of poor management and into the hands of uncertain management?…the legacy of waste and idiocy continues?