IS IT TRUE that we were just wondering about the status of a few projects from the past that have gone largely unnoticed during the pothole blitz, the litter eradication, and the 3rd Strike on the City of Evansville and its surrogates for inept VETTING that have taken place this spring?

IS IT TRUE that going back to the days of the downtown Convention Hotel, the demolition of the Executive Inn hotel, and the Mayors Memorial Rock Pile we do not seem to remember hearing about whether the local demolition company was ever paid the $385,000 or so that they were owed for the hard work they did?…that we wonder if they were paid if that cost was allocated to the Ford Center as it should have been or swept under some other well hidden rug?…that we surely hope that the City of Evansville under the Weinzapfel Administration did not really find a way to stiff a local business while spending $125 Million on the Ford Center?

IS IT TRUE that we are also curious about the timeline for the new privately funded effort down at the convalescent home for bats, pigeons, snakes, and rats formerly known as the McCurdy?…that as of today the public record still shows the McCurdy to be owned by City Centre Properties of Carmel, IN and that delinquent taxes of about $13,000 including penalties are still due?…that we wish the private partners who have announced the intention to assume this project and move forward the best of fortune as the limp hand of local government has proven that it is not capable of brokering a realizable project either with the McCurdy or with the convention hotel that isn’t?

IS IT TRUE that despite all of these shortcomings that VenuWorks is very open that the Ford Center is exceeding all expectations and already profitable?…that this very fact if it is sustainable going forward would cause one to question whether a dime of public money should ever be put into a downtown Convention Hotel?…that with the Ford Center doing better without a hotel than it was projected to do with one that Mayor Winnecke is doing the right thing by sitting on that pot of money as opposed to rushing to start slinging hammers that may not be needed at all?

IS IT TRUE that we hear from Moles on the Ground that some of the witnesses that were quick to point fingers at City Councilman Al Lindsey and to turn his life upside down are squirming on the witness stand under subpoena while their own lives and judgments are being examined for all to see?…that we have faith in due process and hope to see justice done with respect to Councilman Lindsey’s dilemma whatever it may be?…that in all fairness the Evansville City Council should be held up to the same behavioral standards as Captain Lindsey as they are the stewards over a $230 Million budget?

IS IT TRUE that it has taken longer for Captain Lindsey to face his fate that it took for GAGE and Ms. Debbie Dewey to come to the conclusion that the whole Earthcare Energy deal was worthy of a $4.8 Million loan?…that is because the Evansville Fire Department actually went through a process of vetting and discovery as opposed to the Ready, Fire, Aim or just Ready, Fire decision process that went into the vetting of the whole Earthcare deal?…that the EFD did their job right?

IS IT TRUE that Ball State University has just released a study on the economic realities of all of the individual counties in Indiana and that Vanderburgh County stacks up fairly well in some categories when compared to the rest of Indiana’s counties but lags in one very important category?…that the category that Vanderburgh County lags behind other counties in is EDUCATION?…that the score earned by Vanderburgh County in the EDUCATION category was 35.3 on a scale of 100 and was awarded a D because the bell curve put such a rotten score in the D range?…that our neighboring counties of Warrick, Spencer, and Posey all got grades of A with scores of 83.5, 86, and 89.3 respectively?…that only 9 counties in the entire state received a grade of F and the highest scoring F was a 31?…that the highest D was Elkhart County that scored a 40?…that the most important indicators of whether or not a place is capable of growing and prospering are EDUCATION and POPULATION GROWTH?…that given that scenario it is apparent that Vanderburgh County and particularly the City of Evansville are not poised to be able to meet the needs of high value opportunities from a Workforce perspective with either the quantity or the quality of workers that will be needed?

IS IT TRUE that every school in the country has a grading system and most of them would give an F for a score of 35.3 when the highest grade awarded was 96.8?…that if Vanderburgh County doubles its score to 70.6 it would still only be a low B on the Indiana bell curve but a low C on a realistic grading scale?

IS IT TRUE that in the category of ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT, and RECREATION that Vanderburgh County scored a 95.8 that was good enough to get a grade of A and high enough to be #1 in the State of Indiana?…that this ranking corresponds to being able to claim bragging rights as “the best place to go in Indiana to enjoy the arts, to be entertained, or the participate in recreational activities”?…that is a pretty significant bragging right that we expect surprises a lot of people?…that this verifies what the CVB Chairman Bob Warren has been saying about Evansville having plenty of quality things to do but not recognizing it?…that this distinction also sort of blows the need for new entertainment venues out of the water?…that Mr. Warren was right and his CVB is on track to start marketing Evansville as a vacation destination for people all over the region including Evansville itself?…that perhaps the reason all of the nice ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT, and RECREATION opportunities are not recognized locally has to do with the 35.5 score that our county got for EDUCATION?…that maybe a bunch of us are just too dumb to recognize such things?

IS IT TRUE that the other grades for Vanderburgh County are for the most part all C’s except for the category of “PEOPLE” in which Vanderburgh County received a grade of 76.4 which slipped under the scale as the lowest A of the 9 Indiana counties that got an A for “PEOPLE”?…that it was Vanderburgh, Gibson, and the perimeter counties around Indianapolis that got the A’s?…that this category is a hard one to get a handle on as it includes things like population growth, poverty rate, unemployment, and gifts to charities?…that we suspect that if the City of Evansville were pitted against Vanderburgh County in the PEOPLE category that Vanderburgh County would get an A+ and that the City of Evansville would be down at C level or lower?

IS IT TRUE that studies like this are a call to improve and a metric to use on what it is that we need to work on?…that it is clear that EDUCATION is the big black eye on Vanderburgh County’s report card and that “RECREATIONAL DISTRACTIONS” are what we do well?…that this is sort of like a kid that gets the gift of a D on math for a grade of 35.5 but aces PE and PARTYING effortlessly while skating by with a gentleman’s C in everything else?…that if being the party animal that has difficulty with academics is who Evansville wishes to remain that we should just tap another keg and keep the party going?…that if Evansville wants to become a player in the thinking world that this change needs to start at home and it needs to start now?

IS IT TRUE that maybe if these kinds of poor grades in the cognitive skills would have been addressed years ago that maybe our City Council, our Redevelopment Commission, and GAGE would have the ability to VET proposals as other places responsible for public dollars do?

Link:

http://asset.cberdata.org/#Human_Capital_Education

IS IT TRUE that last night after the regularly scheduled meeting of the Evansville City Council, Tim Eckels, the publisher of the City County Observer approached Debbie Dewey, the president of GAGE to inquire when she was planning to answer the questions that he had asked her via letter regarding the due diligence process that she was in charge of in the Earthcare Energy vetting period?…that much to his surprise, Mr. Eckels was verbally assaulted by Ms. Dewey and was informed that she did not have any obligation to answer questions from a blog that is not a legitimate news organization?…that she also let Mr. Eckels know in no uncertain terms that she is not obligated to answer questions from anyone but members of the Evansville City Council?…that for a person whose very job depends upon the sponsorship dollars that come from local government in an amount of over $350,000 per year she is subject to open door laws, sunshine laws, and is as much of a public servant as any other local government official?…that as a reminder the questions posed to Ms. Dewey by the CCO are as follows?

1. Did you or anyone else at GAGE conduct a credit check and a background check on Ervin Washington, Ken Haney, or Stephen Geldmacher?

2. When did you become aware that a member of the management team of Earthcare Energy specifically Erwin V. Washington, plead guilty to the charges of reporting to pilot a commercial airliner with an alcohol level that was almost 3 times the acceptable limit?

3. Did you provide Mayor Winnecke and/or the Gage Executive Committee, or entire Board of Directors with this information before recommending Earthcare Energy for a $4.8 million loan to the Evansville City Council?

4. Did you include this information in the Evansville City Council packets or make sure that all of the Evansville City Council members were aware of this fact before they voted to approve the loan on Monday March 26, 2012?

5. In your testimony before the Evansville City Council you referred to 6 or 7 loan applications made by Earthcare Energy that were declined. Did you make these rejected applications available to Mayor Winnecke, the Gage Board of Directors, and the Evansville City Council prior to the vote?

6. Do you think that information such as credit, background, and loan application history are material in making a decision with respect to a $4.8 Million loan?

IS IT TRUE that those 6 questions are very simple to answer, have relevance to the VETTING process and do not have the potential to compromise any competitive positions for the Earthcare business model?…that Ms. Dewey is free to redact any words in any documents that would compromise any deals but would be free to answer simple questions like these as she wished?…that question #1 is a simple YES or NO answer, “did you do a credit check and background check of the officers of Earthcare”?…to banks, angel networks, and venture capitalists this information is important and no one will get a loan approved without these things being answered?…that Mr. Eckels did not even ask for the credit checks or the results of any background investigations, he simply asked if they had been done?

IS IT TRUE that Ms. Dewey’s hostility and refusal to answer simple questions just feeds the suspicions that the answer to the Vetting questions are all NO?…that if Mr. Eckels had wanted to craft 60 minutes style “gotcha” questions he could have?…that the CCO continues to call for caution and for the City Council and its surrogates like GAGE to conduct their business like a bank as opposed to writing a $4.8 Million check on insufficient vetting?…that the CCO has never attacked Ms. Dewey but that we have asked legitimate questions of her that other Evansville media seems unconcerned with?…that our purpose in these questions is to help the Winnecke Administration make informed decisions as opposed to delusional decisions that lead to things like the Executive Inn dilemma, the McCurdy debacle, and the Homestead Tax Credit secret meeting all three of which were exposed for the calamities that they became by the City County Observer?

IS IT TRUE that Ms. Dewey, the GAGE Executive Committee, and by their silence the entire GAGE board of directors can maintain their position of obstructionism with pertinent facts regarding the use of public money but that obstructive position is about to be tested by virtue of FOIA requests?…that the CCO is recognized and treated as a legitimate news source by the Winnecke Administration and all City of Evansville Departments?…that the CCO has traffic of over 1 Million page views per year from over 50,000 unique readers?…that snubbing an entity that has a history of doing whatever it takes to expose poor public policy is a first punch that Ms. Dewey threw last night?…that we still just want to know the facts about GAGE’s vetting of this deal and will leave no stone unturned to find them?