Joe Kiefer Unification Opposition Disenfranchising Voters
Community leaders reacted strongly today at efforts to prevent Vandeburgh residents from voting on a Plan of Reorganization this fall. The plan would merge city and county councils, as well as the executive branches. However, taxes, zoning, and law enforcement would remain separate according to current city and county boundaries.
Opponents of the plan filed a complaint filed with the Vanderburgh County Election Board, contending that certain signatures needed to get the referendum on the ballot were invalid. Although the signatures were certified by the County Clerk in late 2009, today’s challenge was filed just months before the election in an apparent act of desperation.
“The opponents of unification do not understand the plan and its obvious benefits to our community,” said County Commissioner Joe Kiefer. He added, “It’s an effort to disenfranchise voters by not allowing citizens of Vanderburgh County a say in this important issue. Additionally, this challenge is an unnecessary expense for tax payers. Let the voters decide this issue on November 6th.â€
To trigger the referendum process, state law required the signatures of at least 5 percent of county voters who cast ballots in the 2006 Secretary of State race. Official election results put that number at 2,632.
Roberta Heiman and the organization she now leads, the League of Women Voters, helped gather many of the signatures. “I’m confident that County Clerk Susie Kirk did a thorough job and that we collected the required number of signatures. In fact, we collected many more than were required by the state law.â€
Over 3,300 signatures were collected across the community, and after a thorough review, 2,757 were ultimately certified by the Clerk’s Office. Supporters of the Plan of Reorganization have focused their campaign on educating residents on the tremendous opportunities that passage will bring. Said Kiefer, “We’ll continue to work hard communicating with every voter and making sure they have all the facts about how this important initiative will build a better future for each of us.â€
Coroner Press Release:
1:30 PM August 2, 2012
Given By: Wayne Parke
Chairman VCRP
Today I am pleased to announce that I have selected a strong candidate to run on the Republican ticket for Vanderburgh County Coroner. The person filling this office is of utmost importance not only to our County and City, but also the surrounding communities.
The status quo must GO! It simply cannot be tolerated any longer.
For 4 years now, we effectively have had a part-time official in what should be a full-time job. The incumbent does not have the professional background to properly work with local law enforcement. She does not seem to understand the coroner’s office requires a full week’s work. We cannot tolerate an officeholder who takes such a lackadaisical approach to this important office by spending way too much time socializing.
I am proud to announce the Republican candidate for Vanderburgh County Coroner will be
Mr. Gary Gulledge. Gary was born in Evansville, graduated from Central High School and attended USI and UE. After college, Gary worked in the construction industry for 13 years.
Gary joined the Evansville Police Department in 1988. While serving on the EPD, he was a Patrolman, a Field Training Officer, an Investigator in the Violent Crime Unit and was accepted into the FBI as a sworn Federal officer. He has received training in numerous fields both inside and independent of law enforcement, including Drug Enforcement, Ethics, Management, Death Investigation, and Forensics. He has received an immense amount of recognition during his distinguished career in law enforcement. He is very proud of his service to our community.
As Coroner, Gary will be able to work effectively with local law enforcement, looking for creative ways to find solutions and streamline the operations of the office. Raised right here in Evansville, Gary understands the needs of Vanderburgh County residents, and he will work around-the-clock to see that the coroner’s office is doing everything it can to ensure that those needs are being met.
I could not be more pleased to introduce to you the next Vanderburgh County Coroner,
We previously presented to the Board a request for a meeting which was scheduled for Thursday, August 2, 2012 based upon information our committee provided to the Vanderburgh County Clerk and member of the Election Board, Susan Kirk. Unfortunately, that meeting was cancelled by Ms Kirk and she requested we submit our information to her so she could distribute it to the Election board.
In response to Susan Kirk’s request as the Vanderburgh County Clerk and a member of the Election Board, we are setting out the basis for our request for a meeting and our request to have the public question which reads as follows “Shall the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County reorganize as a single political subdivision?†removed as a ballot question from the vote on November 6, 2012 because of the reasons set out below, which are the responsibility of the Election Board.
Insufficient Signatures to Place Petition before Voters of Vanderburgh County
There are not enough valid signatures on the petitions to meet the state requirements of 5% of the voters who voted for Secretary of State in the 2006 general election. The last election for Secretary of State before the petition was 2006 when 52,639 voters in Vanderburgh County voted for Secretary of State. State law requires five percent of that number which is 2,632 voters sign a petition meeting all the requirements of the Indiana laws. The petition was submitted to the county auditor with 2,676 valid signatures. However, in reviewing and researching the petitions that were submitted we have found more than enough entries that do not meet the requirements outlined by the State of Indiana at I.C. 3-10-9 to bring the number of valid signatures well below the number required to initiate a reorganization action. The failure of the Vanderburgh County Clerk’s office and its Election Board to adequately research and review the petitions resulted in over one hundred (100) duplications, triplicates, failure to have a printed name or signatures resulting in the valid number of signatures on the petition to be well below the minimum of two thousand six hundred and thirty-two (2,632) registered voters. The petitions were not checked against the Secretary of State bank of registered voters. The petitions are invalid and the question should not be on the ballot.
Failure to have Petition Comply with IC3-10-9-6
Indiana State law requires that in order for a petition presenting a question to be placed on the ballot to be a valid petition, the petition itself must state in clear and plain language the date of the election on which the ballot question will be placed. The language in the below referenced statute clearly requires that the petition regarding Vanderburgh Consolidation or Reorganization to have the date of the November, 2012 election on the petition. The petitions have no date and therefore should never been validated under state law by the Election Board as is clearly set out in the statute below:
IC 3-10-9-6: Petition for placement on ballot
Sec. 6. (a) If a statute requires the submission of a petition for the placement of a local public question on the ballot, the petition must:
(1) state the day of the election for which the petitioners seek the placement of the question on the ballot;
(2) contain the signature of each petitioner;
(3) contain the printed name of each petitioner; and
(4) state the residence address of each petitioner as set forth on the county voter registration record (or the mailing address if no residence address is set forth on the record).
(b) A petition is not valid for the placement of the public question on the ballot on any other election day.
As added by P.L.10-1988, SEC.98. Amended by P.L.3-1995, SEC.91; P.L.3-1997, SEC.240.
Failure to have Organization of Vanderburgh County Voters Initiate Proposal
The League of Women Voters of Southwestern Indiana initiated the petition for Vanderburgh County government consolidation and was instrumental in collecting the signatures for the petition. This is a violation of Indiana State Code IC 36-1.5-4-11 which states that “voters of a political subdivision may initiate a proposed reorganizationâ€. The membership of the League of Women Voters of Southwestern Indiana is not restricted to Vanderburgh County therefore they are not all inclusive voters of the Vanderburgh County political subdivision and are not eligible under state law to initiate a proposed reorganization in Vanderburgh County. Some of the signatures were from outside the county and outside the state.
IC 36-1.5-4-11: Initiation of reorganization by voters
Sec. 11. (a) The voters of a political subdivision may initiate a proposed reorganization by filing a written petition, substantially in the form prescribed by the department, with the clerk of the political subdivision that:
(1) proposes a reorganization; and
(2) names the political subdivisions that would be reorganized in the proposed reorganization.
(b) If the written petition is signed by at least five percent (5%) of the voters of the political subdivision, as determined by the vote cast in the political subdivision for secretary of state at the most recent general election, the clerk of the political subdivision shall certify the petition to the legislative body of the political subdivision.
As added by P.L.186-2006, SEC.4.
Petition Fails to Accurately State Issue for Public Consideration
The petition as written was misleading with regard to eliminating costly duplication and promoting efficiency. The plan that resulted from this petition does not identify any elimination of cost nor does it define any specific plans to promote efficiency.
PETITION REGARDING GOVERNMENT REORGANIZATION
We, the undersigned, ask that Vanderburgh County begin the process that will allow citizens to decide whether to merge the county with the City of Evansville into one countywide governmental unit that would eliminate costly duplication, and promote efficiency, in the provision of Governmental services.
Therefore, for the reasons stated above, we the citizens of Vanderburgh County respectfully request that the petition to reorganize the city of Evansville and Vanderburgh County be removed from the November 6, 2012 ballot.
We would expect a ruling no later than seven days (August 9, 2012) from the submission of this information.
Sincerely,
IS IT TRUE that our “Civic Center Moles” have just informed us that part of the proposed Johnson Controls project to include WI-FI may have been taken from the contract?… if this information is correct we must thank Mayor Winnecke and 5th Ward City Councilman and Budget Chairman, John Friend, CPA for encouraging Johnson Controls to dropped this part from the proposed contract crafted by the past Mayor and past President of the Evansville Utilities Board, Steve Titzer?…if this “MOLE” tip is correct the Mayor and City Councilman, Friend can be credited with saving the taxpayers of Evansville about $12 to $15 million of dollars?
IS IT TRUE that the Chairman of Vanderburgh County Republican party shall announce at a news conference tomorrow that he has selected a candidate to run for County Coroner?…that the Republican Party candidate for Coroner of Vanderburgh County shall be extremely qualified to become the next Coroner of this County since he once worked in this department?…we should all get ready to observe one he– of race to see whom the voters will select as the next Coroner of this County?
IS IT TRUE more people visit AZA accredited Zoos and Aquariums in the U.S. than attend ALL Major League Sports combined?… 175 million visitors last year went to Zoos and Aquariums?…you can verify this at (www.aza.org)? …if you type in “annual attendance†at the top you will be directed to lots of statistics?…cities start Zoos to attract tourists and that the Evansville Zoo has plenty of room to continue improving ?…Amazonia alone boosted annual attendance by over 50,000 per year?…that perhaps Mr. Bob Warren who once stated emphatically that “Evansville has many treasures and needs to market itself better†should concentrate more of his efforts on improving and maintaining what we have as opposed to getting sucked into the “gotta build something†vortex?…that we have several reports of Mr. Warren’s arm being twisted by local BUILDAHOLICS to build 8 ball fields at an exorbitant cost?…at over $1.5 Million per little league field the cost control is only slightly more earth based than the $245,000 apartments at the abandoned Safe House?…that for years Evansville has been using public works projects to overspend and it is time for the GSA type of behavior to stop?
IS IT TRUE that a decent number of our readers yesterday emailed to let us know that the Courier editor did not mean for the comparison between Fox and the CCO to be flattering?…we knew that but were flattered anyway because Fox is a financially successful company and is just as honest as any of the other channels on cable?…that is not meant to flatter any of them?…it was even suggested that the NBC stations were the only honest ones?…that we wonder if this is the same NBC that just this morning is in hot water for editing out a major mistake by a Russian gymnast and continued to pump people to stay up and watch after the outcome was obvious to people in the arena?…we wonder if this is the same NBC that edited out the opening ceremony tribute to the Israeli athletes who were murdered by terrorists?…we wonder if this is the same NBC that is owned by GE whose CEO sits on President Obama’s Jobs Council yet outsourced more American jobs in the last 4 years than he has created here in his entire tenure?…given the recent history of intentionally distorted programming to control the message by NBC we are okay with the Fox comparison?…when we reflected a bit on what we really do, we think that other than having lots of viewers the comparison was not very accurate either?…there was probably a message in that comparison anyway?
IS IT TRUE that what we really want to be is the voice of common sense for real people?
“Four years ago, Hurricane Ike swept through this island town on the Gulf of Mexico, flooding homes, destroying property and wreaking havoc on the economy.
Now, Galveston has become the center of a different type of tempest, as local officials battle the Obama administration over plans to replace 569 public-housing units ruined by the storm.
The issue has already cost Joe Jaworski his job as mayor of this port city. In June, Mr. Jaworski, a Democrat who supported rebuilding the housing as part of a mixed-income development, was defeated in a run-off election by Lewis Rosen, a conservative businessman who promised not to rebuild the units.”
“This election was a referendum on public housing,” Mr. Rosen said. “The citizens of Galveston did not want to build back the type of housing that was here before.” He said vouchers would allow residents to live “where they have job opportunities, which do not exist in Galveston.”
Irwin “Buddy” Herz, the newly named chairman of the Galveston Housing Authority, said mixed-income developments are “like communities of the poor. They destroy people’s incentives to do better.”
Mark Calabria, an economist for the libertarian Cato Institute, said “there’s a tremendous amount of research that shows that voucher programs are more effective than anything we do in building assisted, affordable rental housing.”
“The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which funds subsidized housing, is demanding that Galveston build 569 low-income units—as part of mixed-income developments, not old-fashioned projects—or risk losing more than half a billion dollars in storm-recovery funds the city needs to rebuild infrastructure, such as a water-treatment plant, roads and sidewalks. The agency has authorized $109 million in federal funds to replace the lost housing.”
Greg Wathen Breaking news – 175,000 Evansville metro communities and residents are without power bringing business and traffic to a screeching halt! Fortunately for us, it didn’t happen in Southwest Indiana. This tragic event did occur though in India with the recent blackout affecting an area encompassing about 670 million people, or roughly 10 percent of the world’s population. It trapped coal miners, stranded train passengers and caused huge traffic jams in India’s capital city. The blackout shut down businesses, hospitals, schools, waste treatment facilities, telecommunication systems; nearly collapsing the country’s economy, which in turn would have a global ripple economic effect at a time when it could be least absorbed. Just think how many financial, legal and technical sector services that have been outsourced to companies located in India from the U.S.
How important is infrastructure; how dependent are we on things like cell phones, clean water, sewers, and highways to carry out our daily lives? The 175,000 figure mentioned above represents one-half of the Evansville metro’s population and if power were interrupted for days on end to half of the region, how would that event change our lives. And, though we think infrastructure failure to the extent experienced in India couldn’t materialize in the United States there are still areas within the tri-state where adequate broadband capabilities don’t exist or insufficient water capacity is still a problem.
India’s power sector has long been considered a potentially crippling hindrance to the country’s economic prospects. Part of the problem is access; more than 300 million people in India still have no electricity. But India’s power generation capacity also has not kept pace with growth as demand regularly outpaces supply.
In many ways, Southwest Indiana has been blessed with an abundance of infrastructure capacity but there are still gaps that exist. As Interstate 69 becomes a reality with the opening of more than 70 new miles before the year ends, one of the foundation pieces of the transportation puzzle is finally coming clearer into focus. Other areas though such as broadband need a more focused, regional and collaborative approach to meet the challenge. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a disaster for change to occur.
Wayne Parke, Chairman Vanderburgh County Republican Party, will hold a News Conference at 1:30 PM Thursday August 2 to announce who he has selected to fill the ballot vacancy for County Coroner.
Purpose: Announce Coroner Candidate
Time: 1:30 PM
Date: Thursday August 2, 2012
Location: GOP HQ Office
815 John Street
Evansville IN 47713
Phone: 812-425-8207
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Jim Hightower, Progressive Syndicated ColumnistHallelujah and Holy Smokes! Wall Street has had a “come to Jesus” moment — the biggest sinner on the Street has repented!
He is Sandy Weill, the once-lionized dealmaker who turned our banks into financial “supermarkets” that tie us everyday depositors and Main Street borrowers to the profiteering schemes of unbridled Wall Street traders and the whims of global speculators. Thanks, Sandy — for nothing.
Beginning in the late 1980s, Weill went on a decade-long merger binge, taking over Travelers Insurance, Smith Barney, Aetna, Solomon Brothers and other powerhouses of high finance, culminating in 1998 with his grabbing of Citibank. The whole empire was named Citigroup, Weill was paid a king’s ransom, and his conglomerated entity was widely hailed as a work of genius. Only one problem: It was illegal.
After the financial collapse of 1929 led to the Great Depression, the Glass-Steagall Act was passed to protect people’s deposits from another system-wide crash by prohibiting banks from also owning stock brokerages, insurance corporations, hedge funds and other shadowy, high-risk financial operations.
Picky-picky, said Weill, who hired a hoard of lobbyists to demand that Washington legalize his illegal structure by simply repealing the pesky law he was blatantly violating. He even brought former President Gerald Ford and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin onto Citigroup’s board of directors to be bipartisan front men leading the charge to kill Glass-Steagall.
Sure enough, in 1999, Congress dutifully went along with Weill’s push for repeal, and Wall Street promptly rushed to amalgamate more Citigroups, thus creating the “too-big-to-fail” system that — only eight years later — did indeed fail. Weill’s “work of genius” forced a multitrillion-dollar bailout on us taxpayers (including $45 billion that went to Citigroup itself), and it wrecked America’s Main Street economy. By then, though, the genius had retired with so much money that he could afford to air-condition hell.
But now — approaching 80 and perhaps hoping to avoid that destination — Weill has suddenly become a born-again convert to the gospel of Glass-Steagall. Late last month, the architect of today’s megabanks called for them to be “split up” so they do not “risk taxpayer dollars” and are “not too big to fail.”
Wow — redemption! Note, though, that Saint Sandy is not returning any of the millions he pocketed from his devilish scheme — just in case he really does need to buy that air conditioner.
Of course, the system has not treated Weill like a crook, even though he not only violated the law but arrogantly flaunted it. No, no, the criminal acts of Street royals like him are countenanced as the unintended consequences of “financial innovation.” His problem, you see, is not that he has a criminal mind, but that he suffers from a rare and tragic genetic flaw called NAD — Narcissistic Avariciousness Disorder.
NAD is what caused Weill to create Citigroup in the first place, then drove him to use his clout to get Congress to legalize his illicit house of cards, which came crashing down on the American economy in 2008.
But having NAD means never having to say “mea culpa,” much less “I’m sorry.” So, while Weill now says from his luxurious retirement bunker that Glass-Stegall should be reinstated, he still insists that he was right to repeal it at the time — and that he’s not responsible for any of the painful economic and social consequences of the collapse that America continues to suffer.
Indeed, he’s even playing the victim, complaining recently on a TV show that “our world hates bankers.” No, Sandy, the world hates greed and self-aggrandizement. You are, after all, the guy who until recently kept a 4-foot-wide wood etching of yourself in your office, grandiosely titling it, “The Shatterer of Glass-Steagall.”
Yet the clueless bankster who shattered that glass so he could reach into the system and help himself to an immense fortune now wants us to remember him as a pious reformer cloaked in the sackcloth of ethical banking.
Who does he think he is fooling? You might remember that just weeks after American taxpayers ponied up the $45 billion bailout of his once-haughty bank, Weill commandeered a Citigroup jet — fueled with our dollars — to give him a free ride to a Mexican resort for a vacation! Reporting on this act of narcissistic avarice, The New York Post wrote Weill’s eternal epitaph in a two-word headline: “Pigs Fly.”
IS IT TRUE the editor of the City County Observer has yet another word published in the urban dictionary?…this word is “Plotiticianâ€?…the submitted definition that was accepted is “A person who seeks or uses political office for personal gainâ€?…that the example of the use of the word in a sentence is “The unscrupulous Plotitician who hatched this scheme has decided to run for office so he can make it happenâ€?
IS IT TRUE the Evansville Convention and Visitor’s Bureau is drastically looking for ways to spend the growing pile of cash at their disposal courtesy of the Innkeeper’s tax?…these dollars have lots of strings attached to them and that for some idiotic reason a certain portion has to be spent on brick and mortar projects?…that some of these dollars can only be spent to build something even if there is no need whatsoever to build anything at all?…that this may be one of the keys to the dogmatic drive to overspend to build 8 ball fields for over $10 Million that are routinely built in other locations for under $4 Million?…that whatever government entity agreed on the bricks and mortar requirement and advocate for overpaying for everything built have are so out of touch with reality that they could be deemed to have no common sense at all?…that if we have to build something that the most bang for the buck would come if we were to build some irrelevant shiny object that the federal GSA would run after?…that even after being berated, forbidden, and fired for wasting taxpayer dollars that the GSA is in Nashville at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel as we read squandering even more taxpayer dollars than they already have in Las Vegas and Hawaii?…the purpose of the GSA seminar in Nashville is to learn how to use a credit card?…this is an absolute outrage that if the government will not hold these irresponsible moochers responsible for then a group of people may be required to do so?…there are plenty of people in this country right now who are willing to work (not to be confused with professional moochers) that can’t afford the basics of life at a time when our federal government’s property management agency is living large in Nashville? UNACCEPTABLE!
IS IT TRUE that the Vanderburgh County Council approved the use of $300,000 to remodel the Pagoda where the Evansville Convention and Visitor’s Bureau is located and conducts their daily business?…in the very same meeting a request from Dr. Ray Nicholson for an infusion of cash less than $300,000 to continue operating a free dental clinic was tabled until a later date?…that sometimes governments and their surrogates make decisions that literally make one shake their head in disbelief?…the motto for this embodiment of the Vanderburgh County Council should be deemed to be “PAINT BEFORE HEALTHâ€?…that maybe this City and County are so blasted poor that we can afford neither of these things but if there is a choice to be made this was the wrong choice?…this is just another example of POOR PUBLIC POLICY?…that for those who are of the opinion that the braintrust of Evansville is in County government this sounds about par for the course for what the City has been doing for over 50 years?
IS IT TRUE that the estimate to repair the Combined Sewer Overflow problem has been released and the tab is expected to be only $227 Million over the next 20 years?…that this is encouraging as the expected cost was closer to double this amount even though there has already been $120 Million spent on sewer improvements?…that this $227 Million figure is eerily only $100 Million more than was just spent in a period of 2 years to construct the temple to games known as the Ford Center?…that we cannot turn back time but if the choice was posed honestly to the people of Evansville in 2007 on whether to spend $127 Million of the Ford Center or $227 Million to repair the sewers that the CCO is quite confident that the people of this city would have chosen the SEWERS BEFORE THE STADIUM?…this makes Andrew Smith who has since left town for entrepreneurial purposes look like a visionary that should have been elected rather than ostracized and run out of town on a rail?…things like this make one wonder what kind of mind altering substances that the government of this town was on during the period from 2007 to 2011?…there were so many reckless and irresponsible decisions and policies pursued during that time period that south Chicago would be envious.