Attorney General Asked To Investigate Caldwell Urban Renewal
Wednesday, February 17th
Canyon County Prosecutor John Bujak announced Today he will petition the office of Idaho Attorney General to investigate information revealed yesterday by the Boise and Caldwell GUARDIAN news blogs.
“Based on the information presented and the check register of the agency, the case certainly merits further investigation,” said Bujak.
Once the AG is on the case they will have the resources of state agencies as well as the FBI to determine if there are grounds for criminal prosecutions and whether or not certain agreements entered into by the Caldwell Urban Renewal Agency are proper use of public money.
Urban Renewal agencies in Idaho operate without oversight of any elected body. They are not part of city, county, or other local or state government. Members are appointed by the city, but the agency is not an “alter ego” (another face) of the city. The report to no one.
The exclusive GUARDIAN story (see previous post) detailed a pattern of using public Urban Renewal money to fund private memberships at the Caldwell YMCA for the mayor and other officials. Also noted were a variety of “fishy sounding” fees paid to property owners over and above purchase prices for land acquired for urban renewal purposes.
GUARDIAN Editors Dave Frazier in Boise and Paul Alldredge in Caldwell said, “We are pleased with the rapid response of Mr. Bujak investigating this matter. On the face of it there are obvious incidents of inappropriate use of public funds. Whether or not those incidents rise to the level of criminality will be decided by the investigators.”
Link to KBOI TV Story VIDEO
Link to KTRV TV Story UR Chairman Waite Video
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I found this all very intresting and went to the register to see where the payments were made. The one item that I was intrested in was the payments to Lambert Construction. A rough total brings payments shown to this company to be 3.9 million. Let me say again as I was shocked 3.9 millioon.I understand that construction of opening the creek is expensive but my question is, was there a competitive bidding process for this and for each phase. There is one entry of $112,000.00 shown as check 1159 to Lamber Construction for project drawings. Why was the contractor paid for this he is not an engineer. The register shows payment to engineers for this service.
ReplyDeleteLots and Lots of quetions. I hope this throws up lots of red flags. Citizens are required to be responsible with our money and govements should treat spending the same.
Good work Paul.
ReplyDeleteMy check book has checks and deposits in it. It would be very enlightening to see the deposits from that check register, and where that money comes from. Did any of the money come from the federal government grants that were to pay for uncovering of Indian Ditch, as promised by the Caldwell leaders some years ago at the beginning of Urban Renewal. Or did the money come from the Canyon County Treasurer, who got the money from from the Canyon County Tax Collector, who got the money from the Canyon County tax payer. Thats me and you folks!
Again, thank you for the good work Paul.
Hmmm, sounds like Urban Renewal is an awful lot like taxation without representation. Wasn't there a big war fought over that some years ago?
ReplyDeleteThat said, I would like to know where I sign up for a free membership to the YMCA courtesy of the county tax payers. Oh wait, that's right, I'm not in Garrett's crony club so I actually have to pay for mine, and Garrett's and crew as a county taxpayer.
Thank you Paul. Let's see if anything comes of this.
ReplyDelete