IS IT TRUE? September 27, 2011 Special Mid Morning Edition

IS IT TRUE that the last 24 hours in Evansville have been a period of significant learning and a time to start to truly start considering the ramifications of the 2012 election when the Pontious Pilate Resolution (consolidation) will go to referendum?…that a perfect opportunity to do something differently to save a significant sum of money was exposed last night when City Councilman Dan McGinn and City Controller Jenny Collins struggled to admit that it was essentially impossible to estimate the amount of legal services with sufficient accuracy to make this a line item in the budget?…that the services of interest that are difficult to predict are billable hours for an attorney at $150 per hour and to a paralegal at $95 per hour?…that it was stated by Councilman McGinn that the billings under this contract seem to amount to $30,000 per month?

IS IT TRUE that at those hourly rates that it would take 122.5 hours per month to run up a bill for $30,000?…that an entire month at 40 hours per week averages 173.3 hours?…that an attorney and a paralegal are already utilized through an hourly arrangement at 71% of all time available?…that the City of Evansville should consider just hiring another attorney and a paralegal at the going rates in Evansville of about $65,000 for the attorney (as per a line item in the city budget) and $40,000 for a paralegal?…that these two salaries even burdened with a 35% premium for benefits would only cost the taxpayers $141,750?…that at $30,000 per month we are currently paying $360,000 per year for these same services and may be held over a barrel for additional money if the work load increases?…that hiring two people into full time jobs to handle the liability and workers comp claims would save the City of Evansville 61% ($218,250) just on labor and benefits?…that the City may also save additionally in the office rent and support staff contracts but that we will go with 61% as an adequate amount?

IS IT TRUE that doing the analysis of what is best to be hired and what is best to be contracted should have been one of the things that the consolidation committee did?…that if the consolidation committee would have identified 61% savings in multiple line items that last night’s vote would not be heading to a referendum with organized opposition?…that we could not wait to vote for consolidation if real and tangible value would have been shown to us?

IS IT TRUE that the City of Evansville routinely has line items in the budget for gas electricity bills that are literally as difficult to predict as the weather?…that the City of Evansville routinely has line items in the budget for overtime pay for public safety employees?…that being able to predict the amount of overtime needed for public safety employees is about as difficult as predicting the crimes and fires along with their locations 18 months in advance?…that the CCO would expect that there are plenty more line items that are variable by more than the variation in worker’s comp claims and legal liability needs?…that just rolling over and accepting the fact that you can’t predict whether a lawyer will bill you for 1,500 hours or 2,000 hours a year while pretending to predict utility bills and crime is quite disingenuous?…that the best way to save money and make this a line item is to hire two people as described above because even if the load increases there is a 50 hour per month margin left to fill?…that if the City of Evansville does this that this will be predictable and an appropriate line item in the budget?

IS IT TRUE that there is a classic lawyer joke about billable hours that we would like to share?…that a 65 year old attorney died suddenly of a heart attack and found himself standing before St. Peter for his judgment?…that this attorney was welcomed into the pearly gates and was taken on his orientation tour?…that he saw a small ramshackle house and asked St. Peter who lived there?…that the resident was Gandhi?…that they continued walking and came upon a home in a typical working class neighborhood?…that St. Peter told the attorney that this was the home of Mother Theresa?…that the attorney was beginning to worry about the kind of box that he may be living in with Gandhi in a scrap house and Mother Theresa in a modest home?…that they rounded a corner and saw a shining mansion on a hill and that the attorney asked if that was God’s house?…that St. Peter advised the attorney that the mansion was prepared for him and that he is special as the oldest man to ever walk the earth?…that the attorney realizing that heaven is not the place for lies corrected St. Peter and told him he was only 65 when he died?…that St. Peter responded that the Heaven Housing Authority had only used the attorneys billing records to determine that he had lived to be 1,000 years old?…that is why in Heaven they hire their attorneys as opposed to giving them a blank purchase order for billing to?

IS IT TRUE that the Evansville City Council passed the proposal to go to a referendum of the voters to let them decide of the governments of the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County should be merged into a single unified governing body?…that this vote was by a margin of 8 – 1 with the only “nay” vote coming from the heart surgeon on the City Council Dr. H. Dan Adams?…that Dr. Adams toiled all weekend with his decision and when coming to the conclusion that the hard work of identifying and proposing real tangible savings had not been done casted his “nay” vote stating that he could not vote “aye” to a “PIG IN A POKE”?…that often the most knowledgeable among us are often the ones who stand up to obsolescence, laziness, and just ill defined resolutions?…that passing the buck to the voters in this particular case is an abdication of duty of the City Council, the County Commissioners, and the hardworking well-meaning committee that worked many hours to bring this to a vote?

IS IT TRUE that the Reverend Adrian Brooks who was a member of the consolidation committee stood before the Evansville City Council tonight to urge them to pass this to the voters?…that Reverend Brooks did this as he was advising the City Council that he does not support the proposal and will be working to help defeat it at the ballot box?…that the Reverend Brooks and Dr. Dan Adams both put up a good fight and asked for tangible value that this proposal will bring?…that finding neither the Councilman Adams chose to vote “nay” to this “pig in a poke” but the Reverend Brooks pledged to work hard to gather hundreds of “nay” votes for next year’s referendum?…that if the will of the voters of unincorporated Vanderburgh County and the will of the realm of Reverend Brooks’ influence align that this proposal is destined for defeat?

IS IT TRUE that this did not have to be this way?…that most everyone is on board with the proposition that consolidation is a good concept and that savings are there to be realized?…that the committee under political pressure failed to tackle the hard realities that sacred cows would have to be slaughtered in order to realize the potential savings?…that succumbing to this pressure and giving in to the powers behind the committee that a great opportunity to transform Vanderburgh County has probably been wasted and set back for another decade or more?…that the last line of defense from sending a flawed document to the voters was the Evansville City Council?…that eight of them washed their hands of the obligation to send their best work with significant impact to the voters?

IS IT TRUE that Pontius Pilate once did such a thing?…that Pontius Pilate knowingly chose the cowards way to govern and knowingly sent a decision to “the people” that he should have made himself?…that when leaders refuse to lead and learned work is sent to the masses by referendum that the best of times is not served?…that through emulating the decisions of Pontius Pilate and sending a decision to “the people” that is not ready for “the people” to have a positive choice that our City Council has washed their hands of this decision just as Pilate washed his hands of his decision to appease a mob in the street?…that this is the Worst of Times”?…that the people of Evansville deserve better than this?

IS IT TRUE that in another example of the “Worst of Times” City Councilman Dan McGinn concurred with Evansville Controller Jenny Collins that the legal services contract for the City of Evansville could not be predicted well enough to become a line item in the budget?…that what was passed is a open ended opportunity for whatever law firm that our next Mayor of Evansville selects to write their own check when it comes to liability and worker’s comp insurance?…that Attorneys bill at a rate of $150 per hour for such work and PARALEGALS are billed to the City of Evansville at a rate of $95 per hour?…that one would think that such services could be reviewed on a month to month basis as opposed to handing a law firm a blank check as has been the practice of the Weinzapfel Administration?

IS IT TRUE that in the year 1859 that Charles Dickens wrote a magnificent novel that would become one of the most read novels ever written?…that “A Tale of Two Cities” was set in London and Paris during the turmoil of the French Revolution has sold over 200 million copies worldwide since it was published?…that this epic novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period?…that this novel was about London and Paris but that at last night’s meeting of the Evansville City Council that remnants of “A Tale of Two Cities” permeated the air and the spirit of the room from the elected officials right down to the least significant of the citizens of Evansville who attended the meeting?

IS IT TRUE that “A Tale of Two Cities” begins with the phrase “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”?…that both the best and the worst of Evansville and its elected leadership came to the forefront last night in a meeting of the City Council that encapsulated who the City of Evansville really is as a people?…that Evansville was truly two cities last night?…that one is worthy of love and devotion but the other is business as usual?…that business as usual will be the subject of IS IT TRUE Part 2?

IS IT TRUE that the “best of times” was in flow and love was in the air when a seemingly insignificant sum of only $2,000 was being contemplated for removal from a City of Evansville grant allocation to a charity called Voices?…that Becky Kasha, the head of the unification committee spoke passionately in favor of continuing the funding for Voices?…that the members of the Evansville City Council was visibly struggling with an impending vote to defund the $2,000 that Voices was counting on?…that as many members of the Council pointed out that the small charitable organizations are impacted the most through removing grants from their funding sources?…that then something magical happened last night at the meeting of the Evansville City Council?

IS IT TRUE that the Reverend Adrian Brooks approached the lectern and committed to voluntarily accept $1,000 less that his daycare center had been allocated by the City Council and asked them to allocate that amount to Voices?…that seeing the actions of Reverend Brooks that commercial realtor Cory Mills acting as a private citizen stepped up to the lectern and committed to donate an additional $1,000 to Voices fully restoring the $2,000 in funding that they had been counting on?…that the pain that was obviously felt by our Evansville City Council, the willingness of Reverend Brooks to give up some of his funding, and the generosity of Woodward Commercial Realtor Cory Mills to step up and make a personal donation is the “Best of Times” in Evansville, Indiana?

IS IT TRUE that City Councilwoman Connie Robinson added to the “Best of Times” moment with her impassioned plea to be forgiving in deciding exactly who will be allowed to live in the forthcoming Front Door Pride rental houses?…that standing up for forgiveness is something that many people of Evansville pay lip service to but when it comes down to codifying such things City Councilwoman Connie Robinson is an example for all to follow?…that some of the Evansville City Council had some “Best of Times” moments last night as did Cory Mills?…that all are to be commended for their generosity, their empathy, and their thoughtfulness?

IS IT TRUE that tonight is the night that the Evansville City Council will have to make a decision with regard to the consolidation plan being adopted to be sent to the voters of Vanderburgh County during the 2012 election?…that as there will be an election for the President of the United States that 2012 is expected to have a good turnout of voters?…that a large turnout for an important decision is a good thing?…that while the CCO accepts the theory that consolidated government should lead to less government we are still not convinced that this plan has even scratched the surface when it comes to taking advantage of potential savings?…that some of the largest line items in the budget are actually forbidden from being discussed for about 10 years?…that leaving opportunities off of the table when it comes to implementing tangible financial benefits is a compromise that was ill informed?

IS IT TRUE that this consolidation plan remains a “buy into the concept now and trust the next generation of leaders and elected officials to get it right” document?…that if this plan would have been crafted in a way that the sacred cows were actually examined and tangible benefits were proposed that the opposition would have very little of substance to stand on?…that if this plan fails at the ballot box that the failure to muster the courage to really look for large savings will be to blame?…that the budget of the City of Evansville is roughly $1,000 per person more than the budget for the City of Henderson?…that these cities are not materially different with respect to services offered?…that we wonder just what we are getting on this side of the Ohio River for that extra $1,000 each?…that if Evansville’s per resident budget was equal to Henderson’s that it would be about $117 Million less?…that given that fact there has to be more places to find substantial savings by consolidation and rightsizing?

IS IT TRUE that some members of the Evansville City Council that have to vote on this tonight have asked time and time again for a definitive and correct tabulation of the cost savings?…that the documents requested have been withheld from our elected officials who are entrusted to cast an informed vote?…that if a COMMITTEE withholds information from a VOTING OFFICIAL that the only informed way to vote is NO?

IS IT TRUE that the streets of Henderson are in about the same kind of shape or better than the streets in Evansville?…that the parks of Henderson are much better kept than the parks of Evansville?…that the crime rates of Henderson are comparable to those in Evansville?…that the City of Henderson to a person unfamiliar with the area would look nearly identical to the City of Evansville?…that given all of this we wonder what the $1,000 per person extra that we spend is going for?…that it can’t all be gasoline and electricity which are always more expensive on this side of the money saving bridge?

IS IT TRUE that the silence is deafening when it comes to an update on the VETTING of the proposals to build a new downtown Convention Hotel adjacent to the Ford Center?…that time is creeping forward and that this decision may just be delayed long enough for this dilemma to be tossed onto the inauguration dinner plate for the new Mayor of Evansville?

IS IT TRUE that Mole #27 tells us that there is some backroom arm twisting going on with the newly appointed members of the Board of Directors of the Evansville Convention and Visitors Board?…that there are several pet projects of politicians that are in the consideration loop at the CVB and that we are not surprised that some “last days of the administration” jaw-boning may be going on to spend the last available funds that the old guard will have any say over?