Thoughts on Politics as Usual

George Will writes The Last Word regularly for Newsweek. This week is a particularly good article and I wanted to share some of Mr. Will's insights with you.

Emma Goldman (1869-1940) An American radical (yeah, they had them back in the day) said that if elections changed anything, they would be illegal.

John Mueller, an Ohio State political scientist in his book "Capitalism, Democracy & Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery" celebrates "the ascendancy, the curious and unexhilarating triumph, of the pretty good over the ideal. A pretty good institution "can function adequately when people are rarely, if ever, asked to rise above the ignorance and selfishness with which they have been so richly endowed by their creator".

"Democracy, is a from of government in which people are left (equally) free to become politically unequal." "Democracy functions not so much by rule by the majority as by minority rule with majority acquiescence."

James Madison wrote in Federalist paper 45 .."The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal government are few and defined." So, in 1887, President Grover Cleveland vetoed the Texas Seed Bill, which appropriated $10,000 to purchase seed grain for drought-stricken farmers. Cleveland said: "I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution."

Calvin Coolidge wrote in the 1930's.. "We save our money and take no chances in its investment. Yet in our political actions we go in an opposite direction."

"As usual. people are saying we must end 'politics as usual.' And as usual, few wonder why such politics are usual."

Commissioner Steve Rule Puts Foot In Mouth via Email

Commissioner Steve Rule is receiving a lesson in manners and why he should not use the county computer against what the written policy is for the worker bees. The Guardian has a copy of the email sent around on the county computer by the Commish for your review. Moreover, instead of standing out front and taking the heat on this deal, Commissioner Rule went into hiding and had the County Talking Head speak for him. We did not elect a spokesperson to do your talking Mr. Rule. We expect you to look us in the eye and tell us the facts eyeball to eyeball.

Meanwhile, pistol packin Commish Ferdinand awaits trial on a concealed weapons charge. And we have Commissioner Beebe and his racist comments on the help used by his contractor to build his new digs out in Parma.

Our elected County Deciders are working overtime to give Canyon County a black eye.

Also,noteworthy two longtimem female Sheriff's employees were terminated for alleged use of the county cell phone for personal use. THE GUARDIAN knows these two people and has always held them and their work in very high esteem. They are known by most people at the department for their professionalism in how they carry out their assignments. The real issue is they got sideways of Gary Deulen,the Chief Deputy under Sheriff Smith. Smith was called in on more than once and forced to pay for cell phone time he abused under Sheriff Nourse.

The email forwarded by Mr. Rule reads: (emphasis, punctuation and capitalization reproduced exactly):

The Black Widow….
This spider, one of only a few poisonous spiders in the USA, can be found all over the states of Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
The spider release a neurotoxin into the victim that, if not treated, can cause death!

The Black widow hooks-up with the male then sucks the very life out of him after mating!

She’s very easy to spot…

The female has a very wide backside is Black, and has a red hour glass shaped marking on her belly…

You can find this spider in:
Closets
Wood piles
Under Beds
And soon…..
THE WHITE HOUSE!!!!!!

Note to Mr. Rule, you need to follow your own policy on the transmittal of emails that do not have anything to do with your job or running our county. You guys need to work on building consensus with your constituents and quit trying to circumvent voters on your big dollar jail project. This email does nothing to build a reputation as a community leader.

We now have one Commish with "foot in mouth disease" and one up on a concealed weapons charge. Just another "low water mark" for Canyon County politicos and how they carry out their elected duties.

Positive Note on Illiniois Politics

By David R. Frazier

While the world is pointing fingers at a “tradition of corruption” in Illinois politics, the GUARDIAN takes a different SLANT on the news and offers a positive view–at least Illinois politicos get prosecuted for their misdeeds.

The FBI arrested Illinois Guv. Rod Blagojevich Tuesday. We would like to see a division of either the Idaho State Police or the Attorney General’s office devoted to monitoring and investigating OFFICIAL CRIMES. The FBI has a history of going after high profile offenders, so Idaho wouldn’t likely get much attention, hence the need for a state agency.

Idaho laws provide no easy mechanism to investigate OFFICIAL crimes. In fact, we have trouble defining an “official.” Authority to chase official crime in Idaho rests with the local county prosecutor. They habitually “conflict out” cases to the Idaho Attorney General, who has a meager investigator staff and is forced to ignore minor offenses.

For government at any level to claim they don’t have political corruption is the ultimate in naivety and denial. It’s like saying, “our citizens are all law abiding, so we don’t need coppers.”

We have coppers sitting along the road and in school zones watching for “potential and possible” speed violators. We have bank auditors and accountants looking for fraud. There are “security cameras” in every retail outlet to catch shoplifters. Yet, we have no oversight of government officials.

With priests and scout leaders preying on young boys, teachers engaging in sex with students, it certainly is not inappropriate to be ever vigilant when it comes to elected officials in cities, counties, and states everywhere–including the Gem state

Don't Worry Be Happy!

THE GUARDIAN received the cartoon in this post from a friend and wanted to share it with you. People are starting to question what is going on with their money. The IPT had an excellent Our View editorial piece on Urban Renewal and no voting on big dollar projects in their Sunday Edition. The following are my humble observations and opinions on Caldwell City Government. Thirty-one years of living here gives me license to make these comments and observations. Opposing views are welcomed.

We all know there are many aspects and problems in the daily operations of a city like Caldwell and for that matter any city or county. The point of this cartoon is no matter how dark it may appear to you or your personal finances right now city leaders are looking to the future and how they can spend all the cash they get without much thought or worry about paying future bills.

Caldwell has 21 subdivisions at a total stand still with give or take 12,000 empty lots or ground to accomodate this many lots for sale and no takers at any price. Three of them are in foreclosure and three of them are in bankruptcy. Mayor Nancolas and Team Garret spin this as an excellent position for our fair city when the economy turns around at some undefined point in the future. Cheap dirt will be the catalyst for the next gold rush in land and home values in the valley.

Meanwhile, Caldwell East Urban Renewal crew(Team Garret in disguise) don't get enough money to spend via our property taxes and other revenue streams and now want to sign us up for the EASY PAY PLAN. Urban Renewal is moving at warp speed to issue $8.5 million in revenue bonds for TVCC. Urban Renewal now rakes in $6 million a year in property tax money from Caldwell citizens. This is not nearly enough to fund all the big dollar goodies they want. (Six million a year will only go so far and their list is bloated with pork.) The list can be changed modified or anything they want under urban renewal laws.

It looks like a city hall project may have taken a back seat to TVCC given all the maneuvering by the Mayor and City Finance Director. City hall price tag is anyones guess depending on the meeting you attend. Figures from a high of $30 million (Oppenheimer Group number this past spring) down to $8 million (Caldwell budget hearings in August) and everything in between have been thrown out for public consumption.

Add to the city hall laundry list, (word is) they (Oppenheimer Group and the city) do not yet own all the property to start construction of a new city hall project as described at town hall meetings.

Mayor Garret has stated repeatedly in public meetings FEMA is the hold up for a new city hall project. The obvious question not getting answered is how can the good people doing the new D. L. Evans Bank project move forward at Blaine and 10th sans approvals from FEMA and City Hall is at all stop at Blaine and 7th? Team Garret and his merry men need to resolve this mystery for those of us who are more than a little confused.

Meanwhile, DON'T WORRY BE HAPPY as we move forward to our bright future and city deciders attempt spend our way into prosperity with your tax dollars.

The word on the street is NO MONEY for a new city hall at this point in time. THE GUARDIAN has attended almost every meeting on downtown and FEMA flood mapping has been the mantra of city politicos on this deal. Maps, PowerPoint presentations and words continue to flow from the downtown TEAM. Meanwhile downtown Caldwell has a very nice five block addition to the park system along Indian Creek and not much else to bring any economic activity to our city center area.

In the no money category, we must add both a new Caldwell Airport terminal building and police/fire substations that have been promised for over four years. This set of value added infrastructure projects have taken a back seat to funding TVCC and other goodies with urban renewal property tax dollars.

Another bit of bad news for downtown Caldwell has surfaced. The South West District Health Dept. offices will be moving out of town and taking 75 jobs with them when they leave. The previous director found it difficult to deal with Team Garret and he facilitated the purchased seven acres for new digs at Karcher Rd. and Florida Ave. (The mayor calls this moving from Caldwell to Caldwell.) The jobs leaving town will exacerbate the erosion of what little economic base that remains in downtown Caldwell. It may take a while to make the official move in this economy but there isn't any amount damage control that can be done to keep SWDH downtown Caldwell.

Mayor Namcolas rather pointedly said to a person close to THE GUARDIAN that "downtown Caldwell will never be a top priority". With all the stuff leaving downtown, will the last person out please turn out the lights. It looks like it will be the Sky Ranch area for the nerve center of "New Caldwell" envisioned by Team Garret and the Urban Renewal crew.

A tally of urban renewal money spent on downtown and blight removal in Caldwell has been a very minor amount of total urban renewal dollars spent to date. The bulk of urban renewl funds have been spent in areas that could hardly be considered blighted or in need of "renewal".

Last rants in this post are:

The matching streetscape money promised Mayor Garret at the Indian Creek dedication in April of this year is a rant with downtown property owners. While Mayor Garret verbally fantasized about the smell of fresh baked bread wafting along the banks of Indian Creek, downtown property owners have tried to cash in on his offer of matching money. Guess what? There is no money, nor does anyone on Team Garret know any thing about the mayors offer of matching funds to upgrade streetscapes and store fronts.

Finally, there is the long talked about bike trail from downtown to the YMCA. The bike trail seems to be in financial limbo as well.

DON'T WORRY BE HAPPY.

THE GUARDIAN is offering space to anyone on Team Garret who cares to explain anything not perceived as factual in this posting.

Dear City of Caldwell Citizens:

I am taking the Guardian author, Paul Alldredge, up on his offer to respond to many inaccurate and erroneous claims made by him in a recent blog entry. The City of Caldwell is dedicated to providing the truth to the citizens of Caldwell and we appreciate any opportunity to clarify falsehoods and educate the public on our many projects and priorities. I strongly encourage anyone interested in learning more about city issues to contact us at City Hall or view our website at www.cityofcaldwell.org. I will make myself or the appropriate city official available to speak with you. We are never too busy to provide information to those we serve. As we see it, the “Caldwell Guardian” blog represents the view of one private citizen with an obvious axe to grind and therefore, this will be the last time we waste taxpayer dollars and employee resources to respond to personal attacks and claims made without any basis in reality. We will outline on our website, paragraph for paragraph, the truth behind the allegations made by Mr. Alldredge and hope that his readers will take the time to research fact versus fiction. Please contact me at 455-3011 if I can be of assistance to you. Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you and yours!

Thank you,

Mayor Garret Nancolas

Caldwell and Nampa Aren't Alone in Abuse of Urban Renewal Property Taxes

by David Frazier

At a time when the economy is tanking and wasteful spending needs to be curbed, Team Dave at the office of Mayor Dave Bieter and the folks at the urban renewal agency are ready to spend $25,000 in public money for a Street Car Salesman!

In an effort to build public support, the CCDC (Capital City Development Corp.) and the City of Boise are joining forces to hire a public relations firm to get their one sided message out. Here is an excerpt from their request:

“The City of Boise and CCDC are collaborating to study the financial feasibility and to design and build the first phase of a streetcar in downtown Boise. CCDC is working closely with the office of Mayor Bieter in this effort, along with other agencies, elected officials, streetcar task force and others. CCDC is the primary client and principal to the contract.”

There must be something in the air at City Hall causing mayors to fall in love with trains and street cars. Brent Coles flitted around the globe and even acted as the point man for a German company wishing to sell Boise a “Regio Sprinter.” Ironically, Bieter recently signed a letter protesting Spanish/German firm even bidding on locomotives for Boston. For more details, revisit the GUARDIAN TRAIN STORY.

Street cars and trolleys are nothing more than novelty items for places like Boise. We don’t have the masses of people needed for MASS TRANSIT. The most recent proposal is for a “circulator” in the downtown area.

Team Dave wants to plant steel rails in the ACHD streets to ”encourage development.” All that will do is cost taxpayers millions of dollars for a downtown novelty ride. It will NOT decrease auto traffic or move people.

The GUARDIAN has offered up a simple bus route GRID MAP which has been ignored by officialdom at all levels. Even if we had a train from Caldwell to Boise, how do you get people to their destination? A decent bus system needs to be implemented before any rails are planted in our streets.

Editor note: Just when we all thought Caldwell and Nampa had cornered the market on urban renewal abuse. This one takes the grand prize.

Nampa Urban Renewal Bonding Decision Will Get Challenged

A recent court decision handed down in district court green lighting Nampa Urban Renewal to issue revenue bonds without a vote of the people is headed for appeal.

First step in the process will be a "motion for reconsideration". The motion for reconsideration will be filed in Third District Court no later than Thursday of this week.

If the motion for reconsideration is denied by Justice Trout it will clear the path for appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court.

The estimated time for the appeal process is 1-2 years to wind all of this through the legal process.

Urban renewal law allows cites to issue revenue bonds without a vote of the people and is in direct conflict with the Idaho State Constitution Article 8 sec 3. Most people do not understand where the money comes from to fund urban renewal. It comes directly from all county citizens property taxes by taxing districts handing over their tax increment to urban renewal.

Urban renewal districts are essentially "taxation without representation" when you clear away all the clutter surrounding the debate for or against.

Caldwell Urban Renewal To Bail Out TVCC Project Developer

THE GUARDIAN learned today Caldwell Urban Renewal board will be meeting to issue $8.5 million in revenue bonds to fund TVCC. (These bonds will not require a vote of taxpayers.)

TVCC Caldwell developer, Norfleet Development Company, may be having difficulty finding financing in today's credit market. Caldwell East Urban Renewal District will likely issue revenue bonds for the project.

Caldwell Urban Renewal is funded by $6 million dollars of property taxes (tax increment dollars) diverted to urban renewal. It represents one third of all property taxes collected each year in Caldwell. Your property tax bills went out this week from the County Treasurer.

Wednesday afternoon a message was sent to Caldwell City Finance Director, Eljay Waite for comment. We have not received a reply, probably due to the timing of the request late today and the Thanksgiving Holidays.

Nampa Urban Renewal court decision last week has opened the flood gates for revenue bonding all over the State of Idaho. Voters will be prevented from any approvals of the revenue bonding in their communities.

A meeting was held today to discuss funding an appeal of the Nampa Urban Renewal court decsion handed down late last week. Appeal organizers are getting their financial ducks in a row. A meeting with the attorney spearheading a Rexburg, Idaho urban renewal appeal is scheduled for next week.

If you are feeling abused by high property taxes and urban renewal laws in Idaho contact me at 208-459-9482 your help to end this abuse of taxpayer's will be welcomed by appeal organizers.


City Finance Director Eljay Waite sent a comment and the project will move forward with the move to issue revenue bonds at the Caldwell Urban Renewal Board meeting. Meeting will be held noon Tuesday 12-2-2008 at the Caldwell police station meeting room.

County Auditor Questions Sheirff's and DSD Employee Credit Card Use

12-2-2008
The IPT today carried a piece on a informal investigation by the AG's Office and the Canyon County Prosecutors office and have determined the Sheriff has not commited a crime with his use of a county credit card. No mention of the DSD employee use of the credit card for personal use was mentioned.

PA

If you read the Idaho Press Tribune today you know Top Copper for the county, Sheriff Chirs Smith and a DSD employee apparently used county credit cards for personal purchases. Clerk Auditor, Bill Hurst is calling for the County Prosecutor to look into this matter as is required by law. Mr. Hurst has turned his data and information over to Prosecutors Office for follow-up.

THE GUARDIAN did some further research, the following is taken directly from the Idaho Association of Counties Policy Manual on Managing Finances and Ethics..., page 8 of the manual reads....

"State Law:
Effective July 1, 2006, Idaho Code Section 18-5701 was amended to include use of a financial transaction card, financial transaction card account number or credit account for personal purposes or purposes other than a public purpose as a felony misuse of public money by officers. The definitions of these types of cards and accounts are found at Idaho Code Section 18-5703 and include credit cards, debit cards and telephone cards. The penalty for a conviction includes a possible prison sentence of not less than one year or more than ten years and the person is disqualified from holding public office in the future."


A read of the Idaho Code sections pertaining to this all hail back to misuse of credit cards by a former Mayor of Boise and other public officials and employees. Having one of these credit cards is a burden many officials don't want to put up with and simply don't have one.

THE GUARDIAN is calling for an outside audit of all Canyon County public credit card usage and expenses charged to these cards. If personal expenses charged to these cards is a problem, it will surface via an outside audit.

A public records request shows Canyon County has also been paying LATE CHARGES on county credit cards held by county employees. This is very troubling to find out taxpayers get stuck with credit card late payment fees.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Stay tuned for more.

Commishes Worked Hard to Circumvent Voters With Jail Project

You may want to read the previous posting below taken from the county website as well as the Sunday Idaho Press Tribune before you dive into this tome..

County Commishes have turned a deaf ear to voters for years with a "we are the Decider's attitude" on their new county jail project. It started with the constitutionally illegal lease-purchase of the Jerome property and failed bond election. No plan, no input and no approval has been the net result of their efforts to date from the public. They also have a citizen inspired lawsuit over their latest jail efforts.

Commishes have yet to figure out their job is to build consensus on big dollar capital projects and let the voters give their approval via a bond election. Their efforts have been met with opposition at every turn due in part to their heavy handed tactics and unchecked spending on just about everything.

Consensus building amongst the electorate has vanished with our County Deciders. For years they have been riding a wave of cash on new construction property taxes and have more or less thumbed their noses at voters. The economy is now at a stand still and their cash flow has dried up. The future looks bleak for all of us and tax funded major projects will have to reflect well thought out plans and voter approvals.

The Commishes look very much like the auto executives showing up in their private jets to beg Congress for a bridge loan and no business plan for success. THE GUARDIAN would like to offer the following as a guide (that has not been followed as yet) on seeking voter approvals for a new jail:

1. Define the problem
2. Define all possible solutions to the problem
3. Pick the best solutions that will satisfy price, value and quality limitations.
4. Implement the best solution by building consensus with those you are asking to pay for the project.

What has happened is a closed door approach to just about everything at 1115 Albany Street. "We are the DECIDER'S" and public input and opinion is not wanted or needed. This attitude was demonstrated in the IPT editorial piece in the post below.

To date taxpayers have paid for land, engineering services, plans for a 2,000 bed jail city and a "temporary holding facility", all at a cost of $3.5 million of your tax dollars. Taxpayers know nothing about projected total costs, how much it will take to staff, maintain, operate and transport inmates to the current project site, costs for additional vehicles and manpower to shuttle inmates from the courthouse and new jail site. We all deserve a whole lot more transparency than we have been getting out of the Bunker on Albany Street.

Additionally, Commishes took the fiscally brilliant step of raising work release fees to $25/day this past spring. This move resulted in the vacancy rate going up to around 150 empty beds. Fees have recently been reduced to $12.50/day in an effort to make it more affordable for sentenced people to exercise work release as a alternative to full time incarceration for minor offenses. They discovered rather quickly the laws of price/demand economics really do apply to this irresponsible move.

Empty beds in the Work Release facility should be used for short term non-violent inmates. How does this happen: by simply applying for a modification of the special use permit issued by the City of Caldwell. City officials have indicated they have no objection to this plan if asked to do so.

County Commissioners will quickly embrace the ACLU when it fits their agenda. The ACLU may declare the jail full and are concerned with Article 8 of the United States Constitution relating to cruel and unusual punishment. The fix is up to the commissioners whereby they need to embrace Article 8 of the Idaho Constitution when incurring long term debts and obligations. In short, they get to ask and we get to decide how our tax money is spent.

The public has every right to be informed and participate in everything the Commishes are doing when spending our tax dollars. Nobody elected them KINGS.

Kudos to the IPT for getting involved and sharing information with their readers.

County Commishes and Sheriff Editorial In Sunday Paper On Jail Needs

The following is the county's response to the Idaho Press Tribune's Editorial Board, after their editorial ran in the Sunday, Nov. 16 edition.

Your editorial on Sunday, Nov. 16, states that local authorities “need to bring all the parties involved to the table” on a solution to the jail overcrowding problem that has plagued Canyon County for the past 12 years. In fact, all the parties have been working together for quite some time to cut down on the number of inmates incarcerated, and to design a plan for a new jail facility. Perhaps the Idaho Press Tribune’s idea and our idea of who makes up “all the parties,” differ, but the sheriff, commissioners, police chiefs, judges, jail officials, prosecutors and many others have been involved in planning and preparation, brainstorming alternate sentencing, etc., for years.

You suggest working with the group of people currently suing the county to find a solution that is acceptable to them. It’s time someone pointed out that two of those people were on the Board of Commissioners which built the current jail, and that those commissioners were sued by the then-sheriff for building a jail that did not meet any of the standards of jails being built at that time. All of the things Sheriff Putman alleged came true, and now when the county officials are working together to find a solution that will last more than the three years the Dale Haile Detention Center was good for, those former commissioners are holding themselves up as beacons of wisdom for the new board to follow. Forgive us if we look elsewhere for advice.

You also state “county officials need to meet with the American Civil Liberties Union” to discuss how to avoid a lawsuit. Way ahead of you. Sheriff Chris Smith has been working very closely with the ACLU, and mentioned that to your reporter. So, here sits the IPT editorial board, coming up with all sorts of helpful suggestions to better govern the county, when the county has been implementing those steps for years. It seems to be a blatant attempt to make the elected officials look bad, and we can only hope your readers are too smart to fall for it.

To insinuate that the sheriff, judges, jail administrators, commissioners, prosecutors, police chiefs, etc., are each working in an individual bubble, with no cooperation or communication, is asinine. All of these people work very closely together to do what’s best for the people of Canyon County, and those people include jail staff, who come to work every day to deplorable conditions in which your editorial board, and most county taxpayers, would never consider working.

After the jail bond failed in 2006, we went out to the communities to gather input on a potential new jail, and jail site. We put together a citizens group from a cross-section of county residents, who worked with county officials to investigate every site suggested at those town hall meetings, and that committee recommended the current Notus site, which the county subsequently purchased. Now you are suggesting we meet with a different group of people to discuss a new group of sites. Please realize that after the last bond, the process has taken us two years to get to a point where we’re considering another bond election. If the voters were to pass a jail bond, it would be three more years before we could move inmates into the new facility. If we followed your suggestion, we’d be at least five years from moving into a new jail.

We always appreciate citizen input with positive solutions to county issues. However, going back to a plan that didn’t work is not in the county’s best interest. All of the ideas you suggest we explore have been explored. All this bantering back and forth has been and continues to be counterproductive toward the goal of public safety and justice in our community.

A group of very intelligent people, knowledgeable in sentencing, housing and caring for inmates have been working on this for years. Now, let’s make a deal: since we know about as much about running a newspaper as you know about operating a jail, how about the Press Tribune Editorial Board stops telling us how to run our business, we won’t tell you how to run yours.



Commissioners David Ferdinand, Matt Beebe and Steve Rule and Sheriff Chris Smith