IS IT TRUE? January 6, 2012

IS IT TRUE that the Mayor of Evansville has three appointments to the Evansville Redevelopment Commission?…that of the three Mayoral appointments to the ERC that two of them will not be reappointed?…that Sara Miller of Old National Bank who lately has been the voice of sanity and practicality on the ERC is being reappointed by Mayor Winnecke but that long time Chairman of the ERC Bob Goldman and recent old boss appointee architect and buyer of the $500,000 Idea Home for well under $200,000 Jody Phillips will not be coming back to the 2012 edition of the ERC?…that the two and only two votes cast to quick slam a deal with the newly formed McCurdy Development LLC are both history so maybe some sanity can return and last minute cram deals will depart forever?…that the final two appointments are at the whim of the Evansville City Council and the incumbents are Greg Elpers, CPA who was absent from the last minute cram vote and Jay Carter who has been very quiet but did cast what may be the most powerful NO VOTE seen on the ERC in a decade in deadlocking the cram through vote so that the cram through could not happen?…that we will be very interested in what happens with the City Council’s appointments?

IS IT TRUE that Mole # 33 tells us that there are concerns haphazard nature of the Evansville Water and Sewer Utilities financial records?…we are hearing that the newly appointed CFO-Jenney Collins shall find a real mess concerning the financial records of that department?…if these concern are valid that the past President of that Board of Directors need to come forward and explain why these problems are just surfacing because this person since is a CPA and should have assured that all of the accounting procedures were conformal and that each audit was comprehensive and competent?

IS IT TRUE you can expect to read that the Evansville City Council shall be electing 4th Ward City Council woman Connie Robinson as its new President and 2nd Ward City Council woman Missy Mosby as its Vice Chairperson.? …that 5th Ward City Councilman John Friend, CPA shall be elected Budget Chairmen?…we urge you to watch who gets the Board appointments handed down by Council President Robinson because it shall signal if we can expect that there will still be a 5 person group of Council members to continue to vote as a political block? …that you can expect that well respected attorney John Hamilton shall be re-appointed as City Council Attorney?

IS IT TRUE that the Vanderburgh County Commissioners shall elect Commissioner Marsha Abell as its next President and Commissioner Joe Kiefer as its Vice Chairman?

IS IT TRUE that each and every person should drive across this United States at least once in their lifetime and that doing so every ten years is an enjoyable exercise that is a good way to keep in touch with other parts of our country?…that driving through Joplin, MO serves as a reminder of the power of nature as the people of Joplin lost lives and property to a tornado much as the people of Evansville did on that November night in 2005?…that it is both humbling yet reassuring that the spirit of humanity pulls together in troubling times just as the people of Evansville and Newburgh did during our tornado?…that Joplin and Evansville are forever joined together in both struggle and rebuilding?

IS IT TRUE that about every 50 miles in Oklahoma there is a toll booth to collect $4 for driving on Interstate 44?…that Interstate 44 is a beautiful road that is free of potholes and has a speed limit of 75 miles per hour and a surface capable of handling speeds of up to 100 miles per hour without vibrating one’s car?…that this writer will gladly pay $4 for such a road and the privilege of speed any time it is offered?…that this writer would also appreciate no questions from the Oklahoma State Police about that Indiana car that has knowledge of how their roads respond at 100 miles per hour?

IS IT TRUE? January 5, 2012 “Kodak on the Brink”

IS IT TRUE that the Wall Street Journal headline “Kodak on the Brink” describes the once revered Eastman Kodak Company that much of the wealth of Rochester, NY was built upon as being near to bankruptcy and taking the action of liquidating its patent portfolio?…that a century of building things and the last remaining value is the intellectual property upon which the manufacturing dynasty was built yet collapsed when the inventing stopped?…that this writer was a young R& D engineer at Silicon Valley’s Verbatim Corporation when Verbatim was bought out by Kodak in 1985 and vividly remembers two experiences with the first six months under Kodak?…that during that six month period nearly every member of the R & D and Product Development staff of the former Verbatim left Kodak for reasons that lead to yesterday’s article?

IS IT TRUE that the first instance was in an orientation meeting with a Sr. VP of Something who was sent out via private jet to integrate our R & D team into the Kodak way?…that Verbatim was a very forward thinking company in which all employees had stock options, flex time, a sabbatical every 7 years, massages, free lunches, etc?…that it was sort of like Google is today as a place to work goes?…that all of that came to an end when Kodak took over and that we were actually told by Mr. Sr. VP of Something who travelled by private jet that “if you stick with us for 30 years you will retire with a gold watch”?…that this writer just happened to have been given a gold watch for a recent 27th birthday?…that the watch was offered to Mr. Sr. VP of Something that travelled by private jet as an advance against the accomplishments that he was sure to make in the waning years of his career?…that this went over like a turd in the punchbowl but that it did become a story told over and over as Kodak began its 25 year decline into “the Brink”?

IS IT TRUE that the other vivid memory came a couple of weeks later at a special meeting to review a rather novel patent disclosure that was written by this writer?…that during a particularly difficult incident during the debugging process of the focusing device for an erasable compact disk that the focusing mechanism focused on the substrate as opposed to the magneto-optic layer (where the bits are stored)?…that this guy was struck with the idea that if there were multiple focal planes in a disk each with a magneto optic layer that one could store the equivalent of many disks of information on a multilayer single disk?…that this guy wrote it all up in a patent disclosure only to be told by the Kodak tribunal that the idea was so far into the future that they did not want to pursue it at that time?…that 22 years later a multilayer CD Rom was successfully tested by the IBM corporation and published extensively as the next breakthrough in data storage?

IS IT TRUE that somewhere in the vault of Intellectual Property that will someday surely be auctioned off to pay the financial obligations of the Eastman Kodak Company is a two page description and 3 pages of drawings that predate the IBM work by 22 years, are signed an witnessed by the Kodak tribunal who decided not to pursue the invention, and bear the inventors name as this writer, Mr. Joe Wallace?…that there is a box in the attic with copies of that patent disclosure too?…that the real tragedy of this story is that a once great American company grew so large and fat that it put more emphasis on Sr. VP’s of Something and private jets than it did on innovation?…that Kodak essentially paid lots of money for Verbatim and proceeded to run off the only real source of value which was the talent of the people working there?…that this story has played itself out many times at Kodak and other formerly great businesses that forgot that it was innovation and ambition that lead to their successes in the first place?…that unfortunately many of these stories are rooted in the Midwest that just today was profiled for continuing to lose population?…that it is not just population that is migrating to the coasts, it is the very part of the population that has the potential to make profound positive differences?…that this is just a continuation of the brain drain?

Kodak on the Brink on the following Link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203471004577140841495542810.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

IS IT TRUE? January 5, 2012

IS IT TRUE that one of the most important things in a leader is to recognize not so much what one knows but what one does not know?…that by the quality of appointments in the Winnecke Administration it is becoming very obvious that this is a quality that Mayor Winnecke possesses and is putting into practice?…that the City County Observer is pleased to learn that the connections and knowledge of the Chief of Staff of the former Mayor will not be leaving the employ of the City of Evansville and that a productive place has been found for Rose Young to continue serving the people of Evansville?

IS IT TRUE that we are also pleased to learn that one of our Mole Awards has a prominent place in the Indiana Statehouse in the Office of Representative Gail Riecken?…that she has provided us with a wonderful picture of the Statehouse Mole standing guard and listening intently to the strategy sessions of the Democrat caucus as that rascally old Pat Bauer has already started making demands for the participation of the Democrat contingent?…that we soundly discourage any hooky playing trips to Urbana, IL or other runs for the border that may be contemplated?…that every legislator in the Indiana Houses of Congress was elected by the people of their district to do a job and that job location is Indianapolis, IN?…that we respect everyone’s opinion but that we call upon all of our elected state officials to do their job in the place that they have been elected to do it?

IS IT TRUE that Indiana is not a Right to Work state but this is a discussion that’s time has come to be had in our statehouse?…that Indiana is an at will state for employment and that regular Hoosiers that refuse to show up for work are summarily dismissed from their jobs?…that we hope that the use of fines and at will employment will grease the skids so that the truths about Right to Work are learned and discussed without bias or outside financial interference so that the State of Indiana can go forward with the right decision for the people of this state?

IS IT TRUE that the status of smoking laws in the State of Indiana are once again being brought up for discussion?…that last year there were so many exceptions to the statewide smoking ordinance that even the cancer prevention societies rejected the bill that excluded, rest homes, circuses, playgrounds, casinos, bars, back alleys, closed door meetings, coming to Jesus tent revivals, and nearly any other special interest group or place where people choose to use tobacco?…that if we as a state are to do this that the myriad of exemptions just can’t be a part of the equation?…that if there are any exemptions considered it should only be casino boats and only then if definitive evidence is presented to support the economic benefit of making and exemption?

IS IT TRUE that to advise those who have asked in the case of smoking it is the most stringent ban passed whether local or state that will be in effect in each local jurisdiction?…that if a county has a comprehensive ban and the state makes an exception for bars where cockfights are held on Saturdays that the county’s stricter law will prevail?

IS IT TRUE that Mole #7 tells us that Mr. Tom Barnett the Director of DMD for the last 3 and a half years is reported to be packing his boxes and heading to hopefully greener pastures to the west of Evansville and closer to his home?…that Mr. Barnett’s informative maps that tell a story of our city will be missed by all those who appreciate graphical representations and that we do wish him a prosperous future?

IS IT TRUE? January 4, 2012

IS IT TRUE that the City County Observer is encouraged and impressed with stands that have been taken by the Winnecke Administration during its first few days?…that yesterday Mayor Winnecke stood beside the officers of local law enforcement to express support to make pseudoephedrine (the active ingredient in meth) a prescription based substance at the state level and to demand that local governments be allowed to be made stricter than state laws with respect to pseudoephedrine?…that this was not Mayor Winnecke’s position early in his campaign and that his opponent Rick Davis stated support for this measure right from the get go?…that a mark of a real concerned leader is to always learn and to change positions when that change is merited and that the CCO is pleased to see this position from our elected leadership?

IS IT TRUE that as citizens who value freedom and who basically subscribe to the premise that less government is better that it pains us to support restriction of substances?…that in the case of pseudoephedrine and the damage that it has wreaked into the City of Evansville that unfortunately the element that abuses this substance has grown so large that the rest of us are faced with supporting restricting the source materials for making meth until such time that meth is no longer such a problem?

IS IT TRUE that there are those among us that are writing letters to editors that seem to be written with the purpose of minimizing some of the problems that are confronting the new administration?…that today there is a community comment that among some other informed solutions being offered seeks to minimize the problems of lack of maintenance and lawlessness in our city parks?…that an orchestrated series of revisionist letters to editors seeking to minimize the tasks at hand are the sort of thing that got our parks into trouble in the first place?…that problems are solved in sustainable ways by first promoting the awareness of the problem, and the acknowledging that solutions are required, and finally by allocation of resources and execution?…that the time is now the take the collective heads of would be revisionists out of the sand and confront the problems of Evansville head on?…that the Pollyannaish ways of the past have only exacerbated Evansville’s shortcomings?

IS IT TRUE that going forward the CCO would like to put forth the motto “EVANSVILLE, WHERE JUST BEING OKAY IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR US ANYMORE” as a slogan for the clean-up of our city including the parks?

IS IT TRUE that one individual attending the City County Observer Annual Award luncheon at Casino Aztar yesterday offer to purchase one of the CCO “Moles” for the sum of $500?..that his generous offer was rejected because the CCO has deemed its “Awards Mole” to be priceless?

IS IT TRUE that the next time the CCO shall award the “CCO MOLE” to an individual for “Distinguished Public Service” award shall be presented at the end of January-2012?…that the CCO shall award the coveted “Mole for Distinguished Public Service” award every month in 2012″