The Fraternal Order of Police’s political action committee has long opposed attempts to streamline government through consolidation, and their statement released Thursday reaffirming that position should come as no surprise. In fact, the group organized to oppose the referendum has for weeks been meeting at FOP headquarters.
While the FOP’s political action committee has taken this stance for quite some time, its full membership is made up of hundreds of members with very diverse views and opinions. Sheriff Eric Williams, the community’s top law enforcement officer, has consistently extolled the benefits of the plan. “Unification is a fantastic tool for our community to use when it comes to new business recruitment, job creation, and youth retention. What’s good for Evansville is good for the FOP.”
Notably, the Plan of Reorganization does not affect the separate functions of the police and sheriff’s department. While the plan does unify many aspects of local government, the police and sheriff’s department will continue just as they are today. The plan also keeps the city boundary as a service district so that taxes, including taxes for law enforcement, aren’t changed or impacted.
Mayor Lloyd Winnecke added, “I have great admiration for the FOP, but on this issue I respectfully disagree. Unification will reduce duplicative city and county services and offers the best chance to contain costs of local government over a long period of time. While I remain a staunch supporter of government unification, I must point out that the plan up for a vote in November includes language that specifically prevents the consolidation of the Evansville Police Department and the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office at least until after the 2024 election.”
The Plan of Reorganization will 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. Visit www.YESforUnification.com for more details.
Source: YES for Unification
taken down because post was acceptable
This post did not come to me from Mr. Clayborn. It came from an email address from YES, without a person’s name attached to it. The CCO as is our practice posted this without edit or bias just like we did with the FOP statement.
Whats the point? Mole #22?
unapproved because post was personal
The council can give and the council can take it away. Question: Would this vote make it Law? No Would the transition team make it law? No
So, the new common council could ignore the 10 year part and combine Law enforcement and make it law. Correct me if this is not right.
Oh, I am so sure that we could do, in nothing flat, what it took UNIGOV 36 years to accomplish.
You are really grasping at straws here.
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There’s a trust issue here. Would we really want to give the current local politicians more power? Sneagle is the single most defining word for most of the current batch of elected officials.
“However, taxes, zoning, and law enforcement would remain separate according to current city and county boundaries.” [Lloyd Winnecke]
Sorry, Mayor Winnecke, but you are wrong. Please read the plan more carefully.
Under the Plan of Reorganization, the combined government annually, beginning no later than July 1 of each calendar year, MUST review the territory outside the Urban Taxing District to determine what urban district services have been or are planned to be provided.
And then when a neighborhood or area outside the Urban Taxing District is determined to currently have or is planned to receive “SOME” of the urban district services, the combined government MUST insert the costs to service that area into the following years budget, AND proceed to incorporate (annex) the area into the Urban Taxing District in no greater than 18 months.
Since the Plan of Reorganization specifies certain services (fire protection and regulated drain service) to be among those qualifying an area to become part of the Urban Taxing District, I think you will quickly see that all Knight Township that currently remains outside the city limits would be incorporated (annexed) into the Urban Taxing District within 2 years of the start date for combined government solely on the fact that the Evansville Fire Dept. now serves all of Knight Township, and the township outside the city currently enjoys regulated drain service. That constitutes “SOME” of the services qualifying an area to be incorporated (annexed) into the Urban Taxing District.
There are substantial areas of the unincorporated county that also receive “SOME” of the services that the Plan specifies or alludes to as qualifying an area for incorporation (annexation) into the Urban Taxing District.
As to zoning issues, the Plan requires the consolidated government to immediately proceed to unify the zoning code, and while the Plan speaks to preserving “fire arms use” in the General Taxing District outside the Urban Taxing District, a unified code will nix that status immediately when an area is incorporated (annexed) into the Urban Taxing District, which as I have shown above will happen to a substantial part of the unincorporated county within the first 2 years under Unification.
Furthermore, under a unified zoning code, all areas incorporated (annexed) into the Urban Taxing District will immediately feel a negative impact on their former property rights with regard to agricultural zoning becoming R1 residential minimum as now is the practice inside the city limits, and this alone will adversely affect the rural culture of Vanderburgh County.
Higher taxes follows incorporation (annexation) by no less than one year.
Please read the plan, YES! people, before misrepresenting the facts.
Thank you for providing detail on this issue. It doesn’t inspire confidence when the mayor is pushing this plan and doesn’t understand what the plan says. Or maybe he does, and is using a smokescreen. Either way, the votors will decide NO is the choice.
This is not the plan, and this is not the time. No one doubts that it would be city government that would dominate under this plan.
The problem with that is, based on performance, there is nothing to recommend the current government of the City of Evansville for that dominant role.
I believe that there is still a lot of information on the city’s finances over the last 8 years that the public needs to see and understand before they asked to buy into this effort to combine governments.
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The plan has the “potential” to make great changes, it also has the “potential” to be a giant train wreck, that can’t be righted. Vandi-gove was defeated during the mistrusting time of Watergate, does anyone trust the present crop anymore than then? Don’t count on a reply from the yes crew.
We are going about this right-sizing of local government bass ackwards. Vanderburgh County is not broken, sick or dying; it’s Evansville that is killing southwest Indiana. Let’s hold a referendum to tear up the charter of the City of Evansville and Fed Ex it to the Secretary of State in Indy. Then we won’t be plagued with crazy ideas like building arenas we don’t need and tearing down perfectly sound buildings that have many more decades of life in them. The longer Evansville continues to exist the sooner we will bankrupt the citizens of this blighted mess that too many people think of as “E-vil.”
As long as the Police and Sheriff are not included in the Consolidation…….I vote NO!
As long as they don’t identify a substatial savings, I vote no. I don’t want to consolidate just to give more fat cats bigger teats to suck on.
From C&P website:
“If this referendum can be on the ballot, why weren’t the people of Evansville allowed to vote for building the Edsel Center downtown?” (jimbo2)
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You have to admit, that would make an excellent T-shirt or bumper sticker.
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