IS IT TRUE at last night’s meeting of the Evansville City Council line number 9 on the agenda was published without any description whatsoever other than Ordinance G-2012-9 to repeal Ordinance F-2012-1?…for those of you who do not recall what F-2012-1 is it is the ordinance that was passed to approve a $4.8 Million loan to Earthcare Energy?…every other item on the agenda of last night’s City Council meeting has some verbal description about what the particular ordinance was pertaining to?…this is just one more big middle finger of sneakiness in the face of the people of Evansville?…this Ordinance should have had a verbal description of what it was like every other Ordinance that has been brought before council this year?…if this is anyone’s idea of transparency that has anything to do with making the agendas then they all need a lesson in the definition of the word?

IS IT TRUE it was overheard at last night’s meeting of the Evansville City Council when all of the cameras were off and the microphones silenced that City Council President Connie Robinson apologized to Councilwoman Stephanie Brinkerhoff Riley for the way the Earthcare Energy deal was handled?…that Council President Robinson actually told Councilwoman Riley that she was right about Earthcare?…that at that moment some would say that an angel got its wings because this sort of behavior is not characteristic of President Robinson who as recently as yesterday was digging her heels in on Earthcare?…that it took a good long time (like 10 weeks) but President Robinson along with Mayor Winnecke finally seem to have had a Eureka moment that most of the town had long ago?…that at least they had their Eureka moments and this can be put behind us from a loan approval perspective?

IS IT TRUE the issue of the threat to bring a lawsuit against the City of Evansville still needs to be mitigated?…Earthcare Energy may not go as quietly as some would hope they would?…these guys came into the chambers of the Evansville City Council with claims of Billion dollar deals in New York and claiming to have been hailed as the next Google?…that Evansville may just be facing legal actions of a Google magnitude in any forthcoming complaint and that legal hoops will have to be jumped through to avoid a large settlement?…that as we all know by now, this could have been avoided with transparency and just a little bit of VETTING?…that we do surely hope that the Evansville City Council puts some VETTING process into place and includes the funds to do it in the budget so we are never again faced with a VETTING fiasco like the three in recent history?

IS IT TRUE the County Commissioners will be meeting tomorrow afternoon starting at 1:00?…that several Moles are telling us that some of the meeting will be taken up with questions regarding the Earthcare Energy deal and the role of Vanderburgh County in financing the insufficient VETTING that led down this primrose path of problems?…that we understand that some members of the Vanderburgh County Commissioners are not at all pleased with the whole timeline of this developing fiasco?…that we encourage our readers to tune in and watch?

IS IT TRUE the Evansville Redevelopment Commission will be meeting tomorrow and contrary to what was on the official agenda that was distributed this morning it seems as though the “powers that be” have leaked information to some of their preferred media sources that the new Hunden Study will be presented?…this is the study where we are supposed to learn just what the details should be with respect to the downtown Convention Hotel that has been on a stop-start cycle since the summer of 2008 when then Mayor Weinzapfel proudly announced that Browning would be putting up a 4-Star hotel with no public assistance?…that three deals and a rock pile fiasco later, the bridge to nowhere is still in place and connected to the Centre that continues to hemorrhage cash?

IS IT TRUE several well respected members of the MOLE NATION tell the CCO that the numbers in the NEW Hunden Study will call for a 250 room hotel where the old Executive Inn was demolished after John Kish’s epiphany that followed the Haitian Earthquake?… the MOLE NATION furthermore tells us that the study will support an additional 150 rooms in downtown Evansville to accommodate the runaway successes of the Ford Center and the much anticipated resurrection of the Convention Business in Evansville?… if there are 150 new rooms needed that the McCurdy Hotel should be given strong consideration as a candidate for as many of those rooms as possible?…Evansville is one of the only Midwestern cities of over 100,000 people that does not have a restored vintage hotel?…the McCurdy would be truly unique as a restored historic hotel but that as apartments it would not be unique in character?…the NEW Hunden Study may just change the direction of downtown development from anything goes and everything gets a handout to the right things go and handouts are strategic and focused?

IS IT TRUE we have learned through separate sources some of the details regarding the meeting where the Economic Development Loan Committee met to make a $200,000 advance on a not-yet-approved loan to Earthcare Energy?…we now know that at least two members of the voting members of that committee were appointed by Mayor Winnecke on February 28th just before the vote on March 1st?…we have also been told that a 2 inch thick packet was handed out 10 minutes before the vote was taken?… we also have been told that during that 10 minutes the voting members in attendance were told that two more approvals including the approval of the City Council would be required before a check was issued?… we also have been told that all of the voting members who were named last Friday were not in attendance?…we have also been told that Mayor Winnecke’s Chief of Staff Steve Schaefer, attorney Ted Ziemer, GAGE president Debbie Dewey, and City Council president Connie Robinson were lobbying for yes votes?…Dewey and Robinson were doing this prior to casting YES votes themselves?…this sort of thing is enough to make SNEGAL blush?

IS IT TRUE the City of Evansville website keeps an archive of videos of meetings of the Evansville City Council meetings so the public can view them after the fact?…the meeting where Earthcare executives made their pitches and the council voted loan approval is the only one in recent meetings that is not available?…every meeting under the Winnecke Adminsitration except the March 26th meeting is readily available?…we would love to knwo why this information is being suppressed?

IS IT TRUE May 14, 2012

IS IT TRUEthe deadline in the letter from the attorney for Earthcare Energy passed and that the pending litigation that Ted Ziemer, attorney for the Mayor’s Office may have become a little more closer to reality over the weekend?… the Mole Nation is telling us that Mr. Ziemer has been feeding information to other news outlets that he will be meeting with the Earthcare attorneys on Wednesday to discuss the letter’s contents?… the letter sounds more like a “seeking a settlement” letter than it sounds like a “want to do the deal” or a “want to go to court for a multi-year battle” letter?…that if the discussions are cordial, intelligent, and honest we may soon learn just how much it costs to have rotten vetting, vague contracts, and conflicts of interest as a way of doing business?

IS IT TRUE if this City Council does not adopt process of how to VET along with an ETHICS STATEMENT and a CONFLICT OF INTEREST policy that this fiasco will probably repeat itself?…it really seems as though a critical mass of elected and appointed officials in Evansville simply do not understand what the terms ETHICS and CONFLICT OF INTEREST means?… in the absence of such knowledge this history of foolishness and back room deals will continue?…this City and maybe even the State and Country are in a real quandary when the buck never stops and when clearly wrong things are successfully defended as legal?…that our laws seem to be leading the American people down a path of no accountability and especially the ones who find their way into elected or appointed positions of leadership?…that what has gone in Evansville during the last 10 weeks is a perfect example of fluff over substance and self interest over good public policy?

IS IT TRUE the path to rescinding the loan approval for Earthcare Energy will start at tonight’s meeting of the Evansville City Council?…that minimally the first reading of the Riley Resolution will be happening tonight?…that the Mole Nation tells us that City Council President Connie Robinson who cast a vote to fund a $200,000 loan advance before the City Council voted will not be allowing any discussion about Earthcare?…that President Robinson may control the agenda of the Council but she cannot control the 3 minute speaking opportunities available to the citizens of Evansville?…that based on this alleged attempt to MUZZLE THE DEBATE ON EARTHCARE by President Robinson, the City County Observer would like to encourage the people of Evansville to flood the Council Chamber and make statement after statement regarding what is thought about the way this deal has been handled?…it is important to have an official transcript that reflects the reality of what has happened and what the people of Evansville think about it?

IS IT TRUE we also wonder just what significance the loan approval by the City Council has and thus what effect rescinding it will have?…as long as we have a sneaky slush fund with people who have conflicts of interest that are willing to circumvent the will and authority of the City Council that this problem will not be solved?…that for the reason of conflict of interest, that we call for Connie Robinson, Debbie Dewey, Christine Keck, and Greg Wathen to resign immediately from the board of the Evansville Economic Development Loan Committee?…that with these people on this board it has no legitimacy?…we also call on President Robinson to apologize publicly for here roll in circumventing the authority of the Evansville City Council, the legal body that she is President of?…it would minimally be appropriate for Councilwoman Robinson to step down as President?…that this may be the second position of authority that she ends up being dismissed from in less than one year?…that first it was the Democrat Central Committee and now the City Council where to paraphrase Mr. Spock “the desires of the self were placed above the needs of the many or the few”?