Schaefer asks Al Lindsey to reconsider meeting, Councilman Jonathan Weaver calls on Lindsey to “Get on Board or Resign”

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Mayor’s Chief of Staff Steve Schaefer

On January 3, 2013 the Evansville Courier & Press reported the following

“The hotel project will be front-and-center early this year. Mayor Lloyd Winnecke said Tuesday that he has selected one of the three development proposals submitted for the city’s consideration. He will meet one-on-one with City Council members over the next few days to explain his recommendation. Winnecke then will present the choice to the Evansville Redevelopment Commission.”

Yesterday, January 8, 2013 Councilman Al Lindsey clearly stated in the CCO that he wanted nothing to do with any one-on-one meeting and called on the Mayor to make a presentation to the City Council at a public meeting.

Today January 9, 2013 Mayor Winnecke’s Chief of Staff Steve Schaefer asked that Councilman Lindsey reconsider the one-on-one meeting and made a statement in an email that absolutely counters the quotes attributed to Mayor Winnecke in the Courier Press.

“Councilman Lindsey, it is our hope that you will re-consider and be a part of the process.

As Mayor Winnecke indicated in his email to Council in December, it is his intent to keep City Council informed and engaged in the process to build a new convention hotel in downtown Evansville.

As you know, the authority currently resides in the hands of the Evansville Redevelopment Commission to select a hotel developer and drive this process. Mayor Winnecke took it upon himself to form an advisory group made up of community and financial leaders, including two members of City Council, to interview and evaluate the three development teams that were chosen from the RFP process. The Mayor, with input from the advisory group intends to make a recommendation at a public meeting of the Evansville Redevelopment Commission in the near future for next action.

Please feel free to contact us with questions.

Thanks.
Steve”

Jonathan Weaver

Then Councilman Jonathan Weaver felt a need to send the following email to the entire City Council call for Councilman Lindsey to “resign if he has an issue”

Al,

“This city needs us to move forward, stop the bickering and just get the job done. If you have an issue, resign.

Jonathan Weaver”

Prior to all of this Councilman Lindsey and Marianne Cox, the scheduler for Mayor Winnecke invited Lindsey to a meeting and he graciously declined.

“Good evening Al,

I’d like to get you scheduled to meet with Mayor Winnecke next week to discuss the status of the hotel project. Please call me at 436-4969 tomorrow (Wednesday) and we’ll look for a mutually workable date and time.

Thank you,
Marianne E Cox
Executive Assistant/Scheduler to Mayor Lloyd Winnecke
Office of the Mayor – City of Evansville, Indiana”

“Marianne

Thank you for the invitation but I must respectfully decline due to my stance on transparency on any and all public projects. I feel that any discussions concerning the hotel project should be done in public and during council meetings.

Al Lindsey.”

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52 COMMENTS

  2. hey weaver ,maybe you need to resign ,all you are is a used car salesman and the taxpayers arent buying it

  3. Let the political games begin. Mr. Lindsey wins hands down.

    If Councilmen Weaver only knew how the civic center employees felt about him he would just shut his mouth and do his job.

  5. If the Mayor is to make a recommendation to the ERC, why is he hiding the hotel details behind closed doors, with members of the Council who will NOT decide who builds the hotel?

    • Schaefer is a stand up guy. He got caught on the receiving end of some inappropriate stuff at the Chamber not of his own making. Looks like he went from the frying pan to the fire with this new job though.

  7. This sentence was taken down by Editor because of insulting remarks. That other poster was right. If you take away the arrogance from Weaver all that will remain is an empty suit.

  8. I think many of these comments are knee jerk and unfounded. How many of you have ever been in a meeting to discuss a project proposal with 5 or 10 other participants? It is rarely productive and normally the more agressive personalities dominate which leaves the more reserved persons out. I think a one on one discussion to exchange ideas prior to a public meeting allows the mayor to get information and exchange ideas in a relaxed atmosphere and is the prudent way to handle preliminary discussions.

    • That’s one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is that the Mayor wants to have each of the “aggressive personalities” outnumbered in the meeting so he can be dominant and get his opinion across instead of being dominated. It’s a way of telling them “this is the way it’s going to be.
      I think that Lindsey should introduce a proposal in council to disband the ERC. It would surely get defeated, but I’d love to see the look on the Mayor and his cronies face if it passed.

    • spike….I totally agree with what you are saying about productive meetings. It appears that 8 council members seem to be ok with getting the facts by meeting with the mayor while Mr. Lindsey is the lone councilman not interested in obtaining that information.

      • I think that the electorate prefers to see and hear the facts revealed in a public setting, and for real discussion to be held in the public meetings. Especially on projects that are likely to cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

        ___

  9. Mr lindsey is looking out for the taxpayer ,,,in other words he is doing his job ,,evansville people deserve honesty in government and we will win ,you sir will be a one termer ,like the 1/2arsed mayor we got

  10. Weaver, how about you act like an adult and mind your own business? I’m pretty sure that is a full-time job within itself, trying to keep all your lies straight!!! You have harrassed Lindsey from day 1, you have pushed and pushed the limits. One day people will FINALLY realize how you really are!!!

    Al Lindsey, I commend you on standing up for the taxpayers and following the platform you campaigned on!

  11. Is this the same Steve Schaefer that told all the lies concerning consolidation? With all the times he lied about consolidation, how can anyone believe him on this issue?

  15. Where is Rose Young when we need her?

    How would Rose Young handle this situation?

    We miss our former City of Evansville Chief of Staff, Rose Young.

  16. Mr Weaver”s statement reveals that he and the trait called “Character” have never met.

  17. So…..the mayor pitching this to the ERC, will the ERC also be ponying up the $20M+? or will the city council still have to approve the expenditure? If as I suspect the city council holds the purse strings then Lindsey has a valid point about being public/transparent as was promised by the mayor, ‘course Mr Obama campaigned on a promise of being the most transparent administration in history and lookie what we got!

    So who’s left? I see my ward representative is as usual AWOL with a public statement….I guess I got what I voted for huh? 🙂

    JMHO

  19. Weaver should represent his constituency or resign. Heis surely not doing that now. I say yet again, Little Al is smarter than he looks and consistently surprises me with his leadership.

    • jbyrd, Fully agree. Al Lindsey is smarter than appears and has very, very much surprised with his leadership, especially after the Maingate fiasco when he looked Weaver-Mosby like. His position for open government now explains why the Central Committee fought at the election office to keep Mr. Lindsey off the Democrat primary ballot. Thank Clerk Susan Kirk for her vote keeping him on the ballot. The Central Committee must have feared Mr. Lindsey would not be just another yes vote lackey on their council. Fortunately, they were right.

  20. We are not at all suprised by Al’s leadership skills. It is obvious now, that Messy and Beaver were trying to burn Al, early and often,because they knew Al would make them look, as they do.

  21. Weaver is an i—- and still is!!! Why the people of Evansville voted him in office, I’ll never know. But hopefully by now, their thinking the same thing.

  22. Weaver served on the same Roberts Stadium Task Force subcommittee that I served on. He fought the committee tooth and nail the entire way. His decision today reeks of hypocrisy.

    I’m glad all of this hotel sneakiness is blowing up in the mayor’s face. There is no justification for what he is doing or has been doing. This time last year I thought there was a pretty good chance he could be the next Hank Roberts. Now I’m almost convinced that he is the next Vandeveer.

        • Love it-
          Keep giving those sneaky thieves headaches, Al. Winnecke is blowing a little smoke up our rumps right before he spends MORE money we DO NOT HAVE to take his husband to Germany. (ouch!=Germany/sign ze papers)
          We have not forgotten that Jenny Collins STILL makes $$$$ for evidently nothing more than hushing up to give sneaky thieves more time to cover the messes they’ve already made-we STILL haven’t seen any accountability-just more goofy plans (Winnecke wants a new dog park downtown in the post-apocalyptic cee-ment pond that was once was the Executive Inn)-and the McCurdy still rots before our eyes…Roberts is now the pile of rubble that the Executive Inn has become. And they think they’re going to drag Al Lindsay kicking and screaming to “sign ze papers”?(hey Winky, didn’t YOU promise to ruin him for x-ing off Peroxide Mosby?) And you sure OWE favors to turncoat Dems who saw to it that, instead of getting a productive mayor like Rick Davis, we got Dog Park Winnecke. Your dumb answer to everything is: Build a Dog Park/Blow it up—then what?
          No money? No problem! We can swipe it from somewhere else.
          And where are my trashcans? Bet I get charged for them, yet they never show up-Voila!!! Money suddenly appears in the budget!! It’s off to Deutchland for Winky!!!

          Somebody thought we had another Hank Roberts? (He’s spinning in his grave if he can see these shenanigans)

          Al, don’t let them drag you into the dark little chamber all alone. Tell em you took your shower at the Hosehouse, you don’t need a shower.
          Oh, Weaver: nobody listens to you-hush up.

  25. “As you know, the authority currently resides in the hands of the Evansville Redevelopment Commission to select a hotel developer and drive this process.” (Steve Schaefer, Chief-of-Staff to the Mayor.

    The ERC may propose a plan and send it along, with their approval, but they do not have a budget for the projects they endorse. That financing takes an affirmative vote of the city council.

    Weinzapfel was able to get away with anything he wanted because he owned all the council members. All of them understood that their political viability and ability to keep their elected offices rested on their playing ball with mayor Weinzapfel. We all witnessed what happened to Rick Davis.

    So I would ask all city council members to do some real soul searching and ask yourself just who you are serving.

    Thank you again councilman Lindsey for raising issues that run much deeper than just this single hotel project.

    ___

  26. “Marianne

    Thank you for the invitation but I must respectfully decline due to my stance on transparency on any and all public projects. I feel that any discussions concerning the hotel project should be done in public and during council meetings.

    Al Lindsey.”

    * * * * * * * * * * * * *

    Al,

    “This city needs us to move forward, stop the bickering and just get the job done. If you have an issue, resign.

    Jonathan Weaver”

    * * * * * * * *
    * * * * * * * *

    Weaver is such an embarrassment. He truly believes that ethical behavior is an “issue” that can be merely discarded to suit the circumstances. Imagine asking someone to resign because their ethical behavior is causing you problems.

    ___

    • Mr. Lindsey…When you were in school did you only learn what was taught during class…or did you do your homework to prepare for class.
      Get your facts before the meeting so you are prepared to ask relevant questions.

      • If this was simply a one on one meeting and nothing else I agree with you. The trouble with the meeting that Al was invited to is that the Mayor said in the paper that he would be meeting one on one with each member of the City Council.

        Such a series of meetings for a singular purpose may very well violate the Sunshine Laws that Winnecke so artfully danced around when helping Weinzapfel try to steal the homestead tax credit. Winnecke is famous for being sneaky. Why should Al or any other member of the council be party to circumventing the spirit of the law?

          • I beg to differ. When series of meetings is held for the sole purpose of getting around Sunshine Laws the laws are violated. There are cases where officials did a series of planned meetings intentionally designed for a single purpose and to avoid being subject to Sunshine Laws that were deemed to have violated the law. Now if Winnecke meets with Al to talk about fishing, then Connie to talk about grandkids, and Doc Adams to discuss his health there is no violation at all. Twisting arms in private until 5 votes are secured MAY violate Sunshine Laws but clearly undermines their purpose. What the CP reported Winnecke is up to is nothing but sneaking.

          • ETphonehome….please review this before coming to a legal conclusion. According to this statute the mayor is definately not in
            violation of the Sunshine Law…

            3. Meetings between a mayor and a member of the city council
            If the mayor is a member of the council or has a voice in decision-making through the power to break tie votes, meetings between the mayor and a member of the city council to discuss some matter which will come before the city council are subject to the Sunshine Law. AGOs 83-70 and 75-210. Cf. AGO 92-26 (discussions between the mayor and city administrator, who are members of a personnel committee responsible for making recommendations to the city council, on matters which foreseeably will come before the committee for action are governed by s. 286.011, F.S.).
            Where, however, the mayor is not a member of the city council and does not possess any power to vote even in the case of a tie vote but possesses only the power to veto legislation, then the mayor may privately meet with an individual member of the city council without violating the Sunshine Law, provided the mayor is not acting as a liaison between members and neither individual has been delegated the authority to act on behalf of the council. AGOs 90-26 and 85-36. And see Inf. Op. to Cassady, April 7, 2005 (mayor who is not a member of the city council and cannot vote even in the event of a tie, may meet with an individual council member to discuss the mayor’s recommendations to the council concerning prospective appointees).
            If a decision falls within the administrative functions of the mayor and would not come before the city council for consideration, discussions between an individual member of the city council and the mayor are not subject to the Sunshine Law since such discussions do not relate to a matter which will foreseeably come before the city council for action. AGOs 83-70 and 75­210. See s. B.10., supra. Cf. City of Sunrise v. News and Sun-Sentinel Company, 542 So. 2d 1354 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989) (since mayor was responsible under the city charter for disciplining city employees, mayor in carrying out this function was not subject to s. 286.011, F.S.).

          • I’ll give you that push come to shove the courts would probably rule that this doesn’t violate the Sunshine Laws so long as he is only doing this one by one.

            But let me ask you this. Surely you too are tired of all these sneaky and bush league tactics. I mean no matter what it is, it always involves the mayor trying to circumvent the council and/or city. If what he is doing is so popular with city residents, why is he acting like certain mayors from the past?

  27. Can we find out exactly which of the city council members did agree to a meeting one on one with the mayor to discuss this matter?

  28. Stay the course, Mr. Lindsay. Keep shining that light into the corner of the Civic Center.

    Maybe some of the other council members will realize representation of our wishes is exactly why we elected them and start doing some researching on their own and asking questions about projects brought for their approval.

    Some “leaders” encourage a “united” vote on issues. They don’t want us to know how much support is really behind a vote. The public wants to see WHO is for or against everything that comes before the city or county council and hear WHY they have taken that position. Let us hear your questions and the answers you receive.

    Keep the lights on.

  30. Way to go Al!! Very proud to call you my city councilman!!! Weaver I hope you realize that you just committed political suicide. Trust me we are glad. Back to the weather channel for you my friend and PLEASE take Mosby with you!!!

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