GOING NOWHERE FAST.. sums up the one hour we spent at the Caldwell Budget Workshop held at the Caldwell Police Station 7-8-2009. THE GUARDIAN stayed for about an hour and not a single number, handout or budget item was discussed in numerical terms. We are not sure how long the meeting lasted but the purpose of the "workshop" seemed ...well pointless for lack of a better description.
These meetings must be some part of a nice statute tucked away somewhere in the Idaho Code. Mayor Nancolas was asked if we were going to get to the numbers at this meeting or not and the short answer was NO. The "NUMBERS" will be served up for public consumption on August 11th, 2009 at the Caldwell Chamber of Commerce lunch.
One interesting point that did come out was that 99% of the fire alarm responses the Caldwell Fire Department respond to are false alarms. The discussion by Chief Wendelsdorf was to eliminate CODE 3 responses to these alarms. The Chief wisely pointed out that running code responses (lights and sirens blasting all hours of the day and night) put citizens, fire personnel and equipment at substantial risk. A decision to respond but sans sirens and lights will certainly be appreciated by people trying to get some sleep at night along response corridors.
Let's hope the next meeting is agenized and a point to the time a trouble of holding a budget workshop. Caldwell is a $59 million dollar corporation and as citizens deserve to know ahead of time the Agenda. This would require some advance thought to what is going to be presented and the agenda adhered to during the meeting. Hand outs for the members of the public would also be appreciated.
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