The City County Observer kicked off 2011 with a reader’s choice of what the most important things that the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County need to get right in 2011. Well not all of the actions for 2011 are completed and the results are in. The private part of the public/private partnerships seem to be working but the public part left much to be required. Fortunately for Evansville next year will have a new Mayor and a new City Council.
On a College Scale the City of Evansville Gets a 0.70 on a 4.0 Scale for this Semester.
The Boar of the CVB, KEB, John Kish, the Winnecke Transition Team scored all of the points that lead to that rating or the City Government would have scored a 0.00 on its own merit matching John Belushi’s character in Animal House for academic attainment.
THE TOP TEN and THE GRADES
D: The 2011 City Elections: What we opined would constitute getting it right is for no more partisan voting block control of the City Council and a split party make-up of independent thinkers. After the primaries we had the potential for exactly what we hoped for. What we got is a continued 8 – 1 Democrat majority just like the previous City Council. Additionally every incumbent running was re-elected and there were 5 which makes a majority. The other item of concern with the City Council is that of the 9 members of next years council a majority have been strongly associated with the puppet strings of “The Machine”. The actions and votes of the newly elected City Council will need close scrutiny.
Mayor Elect Winnecke and his Transition Team have been a particular bright spot and are deserving of an A for their excellent choices to appoint to high profile positions of importance. His biggest challenge will be getting anything through a City Council that for all practical purposes looks very much like the outgoing one.
F: An Evansville for the next Decade Plan: Nothing has been done and not one our elected officials or candidates for office has mentioned such a plan. The outgoing Weinzapfel Administration not only neglected to do any planning they spent the last month obstructing any future plan from being comprehensive of nature even announcing a park without identification of a funding source or sharing an provision on who or how to maintain it.
B : Civic Beautification: We can thank Ann Ennis of Keep Evansville Beautiful for a great new fountain at Garvin Park and a northern Gateway beautification plan. There have also been several quite visible efforts by candidates for office and particularly Lloyd Winnecke for mobilizing private litter removal programs. NOTE: The City of Evansville’s Parks Department gets a big fat F for the year thus far for utter incompetence and for rudeness in dealing with the general public.
A+: The Hiring of a new Executive Director for the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau: Mission accomplished CVB Board and the plus is for doing the right thing with respect to the rotten circumstances surrounding the departure of Marilee Fowler. When a board commits or is strong armed into committing an egregious action it is commendable that the new board makes things right in very short order which this board did.
D: CSO Plan for EPA: The total of the disclosed accomplishment is the recent announcement that a judge had approved the consent decree. It is time for some real design work to be budgeted and done so we are not hit with fines again at the end of 2012.
D: The MLK Entertainment Complex: John Kish gets an A+ for his work in keeping the Arena on budget and on schedule. The City of Evansville and the Evansville Redevelopment Commission get a big fat F for the hotel fiasco. If there were anything lower than an F they would deserve that. We thought that there was nothing that could have possibly have been done worse and then the ERC, Mayor Weinzapfel, and the Evansville City Council jammed through a non-binding MOU with not legal standing purely for political resume building purposes. It is time for these guys to change their major as they have failed the core curriculum too many times to be able to take it again.
D-: Mental Health Services Improved: Coroner Annie Groves gets good marks for initiating an awareness campaign. The end result is still a D- because the suicide rate is still among the highest if not the highest in the country. This grade would have been an F but Mrs. Grove’s hard work in the first half of the year raised it.
F: Pay Scales: Not a darn thing has been done to make the pay scales of the City of Evansville competitive. As it is time to start the process of replacing some senior positions and transforming the City of Evansville’s attitude toward its customers the paltry state of the official pay scales will soon be quite apparent.
F: Consolidated Government: Every opportunity to craft a plan that demonstrates real efficiency from consolidation has been punted to later. The current plan does not save a dime, offers no tangible benefit to anyone, and relies on trust the government to do things right after passing it. This is no way to run a County.
F: Smoking Ordinance Revisited: The Evansville City Council has not even had the courage to bring this up in an election year even though it is now assured to pass if it is comprehensive.
The Inauguration of all City Elected Officials (Mayor, City Clerk, and City Council) will take place at 12:00 P.M. on January 1st, 2012 at The Victory Theatre in Evansville located at 600 Main Street. A reception open to all guests will immediately follow the ceremony. 
