IS IT TRUE September 26, 2012

IS IT TRUE Mole 2.5 claims to be hearing strong talk that a group of Evansville City employees are talking about filing a formal complaint against Mayor Winnecke, the Personnel Director of the City and select members of City Council (John Friend, CPA, Connie Robinson, Dan McGinn, Conor O’Daniel and Jonathon Weaver) with the Human Rights Commissions of Indiana concerning wage discrimination? …these employees believe that when 11 political /patronage employees received 9.9% raise and they only received a 3% for 2013 violates State and Federal laws in the work place because they were by passed for a similar wage increase because of age, education, gender and political patronage is direct violation of State and Federal laws? …that they believe that these raises have merit because City Councilman and Budget Chairman, John Friend, CPA bypassed a public commitment he made to do a comprehensive wage and salary study but instead cut a back room political deal with the Mayor and select members of City Council to give special political treatment to 11 patronage employees?

IS IT TRUE Mole 2.5 has nearly a perfect record over the last couple of years so we put the previous paragraph up just like it came to us?…we do recognize that all of the ones who were referred to yesterday as THE GUILDED GROUP did not actually receive a 9.9% raise because they were not recommended for one?…the City Council limited raises to 9.9% so some got less than that?…the dust up over raises at the City of Evansville and the last play of the Monday night football game should serve to remind us that qualified people are needed in every position of any importance and that sometimes it costs more to attract the right talent or in the case of the refs the right team?…the failure of the NFL and the referee’s union to come to terms cost the Packers a win due to referee incompetence but also endangers players?…the high school chant: “We’ve got a rope, we’ve got a tree, all we need is a referee”, would play well among NFL fans right now?…similar chants apply to government performance at all levels?…that the sameness and the blandness that goes with the misguided belief that all employees are the same has nearly dumbed Evansville and other government entities back to the Dark Ages?…if there is something that we really can’t afford it is to have local governments performing at Dark Ages mental capacity?

IS IT TRUE Whirlpool announced yesterday that the final exit from Evansville will begin in November?…this has been a long time coming since the days of 10,000 people were working for Whirlpool and Evansville was known as the “Refrigerator Capital of the World”?…that there was no two day advance notice of a jobs announcement from GAGE or Mayor Winnecke?…there was no attempt by any elected official to call a press conference and smile for the cameras?…that negative job announcements are just as much worthy of explanations from local officials as positive ones are?…that the failure of 60 years of Evansville administrations to take the flight of manufacturing jobs to other areas seriously and identify then correct the problems identified by the Fantus Study from the 60’s and several others since has also contributed to the drift to the Dark Ages?…that the 200+ jobs leaving Evansville with Whirlpool cannot be replaced by even 2,000 phone bank or dispatcher jobs when it comes to prosperity and disposable income?…once again the Ostrich called government buries its head in the sand when something bad happens and celebrates the expansion of mediocrity?…the Fantus Study was right, the Next City Symposium was right, countless former residents were right, yet the latest in a long line of Sun Mayors (as in Louis the 14th, the Sun King) concentrates on the good of the few and the day?

IS IT TRUE that the City County Observer sits on pins and needles for the posting of the State Board of Accounts report on the finances of the City of Evansville?…this posting is confirmed to be ready and should be up any time in the next three days?…about the worst thing that could possibly be in an audit is a blanket statement that essentially says that “the books are in such disarray that we could not do an audit”?…we shall know soon if that will be said about Evansville’s finances?

IS IT TRUE raises were a hot topic at the Evansville City Council meeting last night with the head of the Evansville Department of Metropolitan Development using the Cost of Living as a justification for some very nice raises that he was recommending for a few of his staff members?…it seemed as though he was asserting that Evansville has a higher cost of living index than Indianapolis?…The Southwest Indiana Coalition for Economic Development has a very comprehensive study of comparative cost of living available online so arguing the price of gas, electricity, and haircuts is a moot point when we have the data readily available?…that in the table Evansville is calculated to have a COL index of 93.8 while metropolitan Indianapolis scores a 94.4 which is less that 1% more than Evansville’s?…the real cost of living in Indianapolis and Evansville are virtually indistinguishable but are the highest among Indiana cities sampled by roughly 4%?…for comparing government salaries Indianapolis, Bowling Green, KY, and Baton Rouge, LA are all good comps with similar costs of living?…the following link will allow one to overdose on cost of living data for over 300 American cities so have at it if you wish?

http://www.southwestindiana.org/sites/default/files/COLIQ22012.pdf

IS IT TRUE at last night’s City Council meeting the previously discussed 20%+ raises for a select group of 11 City of Evansville employees when the rest of the employees were recommended for a 3% raise fractured the members of the Council at a 5 – 4 vote?…Councilman Dan McGinn offered up a compromise that limited raises to 9.9% as opposed to the truly excessive raises that were recommended for the GILDED GROUP OF 11 who seem to have been singled out for great big increases without any real data to support such increases?…opposition to the large increases for the GILDED 11 even got Council members Missy Mosby and Al Lindsey to agree?…Mosby and Lindsey were joined in their opposition by Councilman Dr. Dan Adams and Councilwoman Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley?…Councilman Conor O’Daniel who changed his vote to ratify the Earthcare Energy loan of $4.8 Million earlier this year tried to sympathize with the opposition while voting to give the GILDED GROUP OF 11 the raises once again flipped, flopped, and commiserated with one side before voting as Mayor Winnecke wished for him too?…the City Council also voted to take no raise themselves and to give Mayor Winnecke no raise even though they were in line for a 3% increase as well?..that support for the raises was cited by Councilwoman Connie Robinson as a way to keep good employees?…the GILDED GROUP OF 11 were just hired so that argument while valid to open up salary brackets does not hold water in this particular instance?…the committee that recommended the raises in the first place included three members of the Evansville City Council named Robinson, John Friend, and Dan McGinn?…these three votes would seem to be in the bag for their own recommendation?

IS IT TRUE all governments including Evansville need to have talented people?…the current situation with the federal government where government officials have gotten annual increases that put them in standard non super-star positions at over $100,000 per year when their skill would not command even half that in the free market is a testament to government needing to continually adjust salaries?…that when a secretary working for the federal government makes over $100,000 while a similar position in the private sector is only making $40,000 we all have a problem?…that the City of Evansville does need to review all of the positions and make adjustments where necessary to be competitive without being excessive when it comes to pay?…that it is possible that the GILDED GROUP really were all underpaid but that is quite improbable?…it is possible that the entire remainder of the staff performs equally and are all paid correctly and that an across the board 3% increase really was the right thing to do?…for 700 or so human beings to all be exactly the same place in their performance and value is as preposterous as having a real GUILDED GROUP of 11 that are vastly underpaid?..the compensation packages at the City of Evansville after this fracturing exercise in favoritism is still as messed up as ever and that the City Council, Mayor Winnecke, and the Department Heads all get an F for letting this game play itself out without putting a lasting solution into place?…the CCO predicts that next year will bring another GUILDED SMALL GROUP and we shall see another fractured City Council?

IS IT TRUE we expect this exercise in fractured government and favoritism will play into how some people will vote in the upcoming consolidation vote?…the comments thus far do not look good for the YES group?…that when resistance to change is codified by the self proclaimed agents of change outsiders understand how Evansville continues to be governed straight into the Dark Ages?…this is no way to run a city?