We Need To Improve Curb, Gutter and Sidewalks, Here's Why

Lack of sidewalks in Caldwell and other cities is making our kids FAT!  Boomer kids grew up without seat belts, mothers who smoked and drank booze while pregnant and other things parents today consider "life threatening behavior".

One area of concern to THE GUARDIAN is we have produced a couple of generations of kids who can't or won't walk anymore to anything.  The family truckster shuttles kids everywhere, to everything you can imagine.

The subject of why kids can't walk to school is something in which all parents should become vested.  Some years back I asked school Supt. Roger Quarrels why kids don't walk to school anymore.  The short answer is LACK OF SIDEWALKS, AND STOP LIGHT CONTROLLED CROSSWALKS.

Taxpayers should be concerned about the costs of busing kids to schools when they live within walking distance.  The fix is simple.  Invest in sidewalks where they currently do not exist.  Kids should be expected to walk or ride a bicycle to school when the distance is less than 1.5 miles.  The challenge is to give kids a safe way to do this.  The benefits are enormous with money wasted on busing and kids and improving general health and activity of our community.

The following was taken off Caldwell School District website:

"What is being done to cut busing costs? Can off-campus travel (sports, music) be reduced? Can busing be limited to students living more than one mile away? What is the cost of busing ALP students? (ALP stands for students performing two years ahead of grade level)

Each year we look at every bus route and modify them so that they give us the best transportation for our children for the least cost. Our district does a great deal of safety busing, which means that the children cannot cross a major arterial such as 10th or Linden, they cannot cross canals or waterways that could prove hazardous, nor can they walk down roads that have narrow shoulders and no sidewalks. The bottom line is that we are required to bus the majority of our children to their schools. The cost of busing the ALP students is minimal when you consider what the cost would be if we had to hire three ALP teachers (3rd grade, 4th grade, fifth grade) for each school. We feel that the ALP program is an important part of educating ALL of our children and in meeting the needs of ALL children. Off campus transportation for extra-curricular programs can be limited and is considered when looking at these programs. Again, it comes down to what our community expects from the schools in the way of sports, music, drama, debate, etc., which we try to provide within our budget."

It is time for us all to figure out how to fix this with a city program to put sidewalks where they don't exist. We think nothing of spending millions on school bonds and override elections.  This is a health and safety issue for everyone to consider investing in for their community. 

Sidewalks are at best a piecemeal effort in Caldwell.  Caldwell is not a pedestrian friendly city.  This could change with some political will to make it happen via our elected officials.

Lastly, your kids don't need a security detail for every move they make.

Caldwell Mayor Nancolas "never received the messages", 911 Dispatch Issues Reach Emergency Levels

Caldwell Mayor Garret Nancolas is once again clueless in Caldwell regarding a pressing budget issue.

This time around it is over the terms and conditions in a letter sent to Mayor Nancolas on January 4, 2010 regarding County costs for  combined city/county 911 dispatch operations. Sheriff Smith appears to be going for the brass ring on this as well by billing Caldwell property taxpayers $518,633.19 for dispatch services.  Commissioners and the Sheriff finally gave up on trying to get a response from the Mayor. Mayor Nancolas was sent a formal letter dated January 4th, 2010 regarding County  911 dispatch costs and a proposal to share the $1.5MM costs of the dispatch center. (public records indicate Canyon County will receive on the order of $1.3MM for phone surcharges under e-911 collections this fiscal year)

Here's the deal gleaned from public records:

 Back in 2001 the City and County formally agreed to combine 911 dispatch services to the benefit of all city and county residents and taxpayers. When Caldwell built the new police station, the county would get all the e-911 surcharges from Caldwell you see on phone/telecom bills you get each month. The city would not build a new dispatch center and save money on the construction and costs of a new 911 dispatch center.

In the original agreement page 5, item #3, "If COUNTY seeks contributions from the users of CCSO's dispatch services, CITY shall negotiate with the COUNTY, in good faith, an amendment to this Agreement for contributions by the CITY to the COUNTY for the operation of CCSO"S dispatch services center."

A meeting was held with Mayor Nancolas, the CCBOC, and a cast of other 911 players on February 8th,2010. Commissioner Ferdinand said Mayor Nancolas was given a letter dated January 4th, 2010 regarding budget issues where the county hasn't been charging for dispatch services.

"Mayor Nancolas said the only time he heard anything about the budget issues was after receiving the letter. He also said he wished the board had not sent the letter. Commissioner Rule said he called Mayor Nancolas a couple of times over the last two weeks and didn't receive a call back. Mayor Nancolas said he never received the messages."

(The response from Mayor Nancolas is a pretty much stock answer when he is confronted with facts. He can plead ignorance of the topic and download this communication failure onto "the best staff Caldwell has ever had." If he, in fact, did not receive word of Commissioner Rule's repeated efforts to contact him, then he should consider replacing his secretarial staff for incompetence.)

Councilman and former Caldwell Chief of Police, Bob Sobba was at the February meeting. Mr. Sobba reminded everyone it was the county's choice in 2001 not to receive fees for personnel costs. A 20 year upgrade project on 911 communications equipment is now completed due to the agreement to combine 911 services.  Now the county wants to change terms of the deal per item #3 in the origianl agreement signed by all the parties to the resolution.

We are in an economy leaving all taxing entities scrambling to collect all the cash they can from every source possible. Dispatch personnel costs to the county are $1,524,047.00 for fiscal 2009.  Sheriff Smith and Commishes now want to download 33.3% of dispatch personnel costs onto the city of Caldwell over a three year period, despite getting all the e-911 cash from Caldwell.

Caldwell's decision in 2001 to not build a dispatch center was a good faith and very wise decision made by Chief Sobba and Sheriff Nourse. We don't know how much e-911 cash Caldwell generates for the County but with the upgraded dispatch center in place we don't think Caldwell should be on the hook for a full third of the operational costs. The cash generated by e-911 charges given to the county should be a consideration.  Sheriff Smith is reported to not share this view of the e-911 revenues received from Caldwell.

This could deteriorate to Caldwell making a break from the county and starting its own dispatch center again or combining with Nampa or Caldwell and the County coming to a reasonable agreement. In the meantime it appears the Commishes are about to embark on a fee for all services renedered to the cities by the county.  Sort of looks like double taxation from down here in the trenches.  City folks can look forward to tax bills from both the city and the county for stuff if your get what is happening here.

Caldwell residents should be asking why wasn't Mayor Nancolas paying attention to efforts to bring him into the discussions early on in this vital issue? His pleading he didn't receive notification on this matter is "weak sauce" at best and incompetence in discharging the duties and responsibilities of his office on the extreme end.

Mayor Nancolas says his door always open but he is never there and his staff can't seem to get vital information and communications to him in a businesslike manner.  (Meanwhile the city of Caldwell has not yet responded to our public records request in this matter placed earlier this past week.)

More to come as this unfolds and more info is received.

Watching Out When There is No Media?

Who's watching out when there's no media?

by Mike Reineck and Mike Silva

We suffer from the diminishment of mainstream journalism, both the loss of newspapers and the willingness of publishers and reporters to do more than just report the obvious. The causes really don't matter; there is nothing to be done. It is too late.

As journalism's business model collapses, Robert McChesney and John Nichols' book The Death and Life of American Journalism substantiates print's move to intensive care:

• Last year, 140 newspapers closed.

• In the last two years, more than 30,000 workers were laid off. There are real journalists losing their jobs, especially in midsize and small cities. For example, the Statesman's corporate owner, McClatchy, has laid off 30 percent of its workers.

• As beat reporters are lost, government at every level is no longer routinely covered.

• The more than 200 foreign correspondents who worked overseas in 2000 now number 100. The Washington Post announced in December the closure of bureaus in Berlin, Rio and Cape Town.

Newspaper circulation losses accelerated in 2009, falling 10.6 percent from 2008 and now have declined 25.6 percent since 2000. That pales in comparison to revenue losses. In the past two years, ad revenues fell 23 percent, from $49 billion to $38 billion.

In 1960, the ratio of public relations people to journalists was 1-to-1. In 1980, the ratio had increased to 1.2-to-1. Now, it is 4-to-1 and at the current rate could be 8-to-1 by 2014.

In a 2009 report, the Pew Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found that corporate, special interest and government PR machines use press conferences, controlled interviews or press releases to produce 86 percent of stories in Baltimore and, by extension, the country. What is featured as news is really the powerful dictating what's reported with little fact checking.

With the diminished role of newspapers as democracy's watchdog, who will protect the commonweal? Surely, we can count on the The New York Times, Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Los Angeles Times for a while.

Certainly the jury is in a locked room deliberating whether television or cable news will ever take up the cudgel. Doubtful. The FCC is currently trying to obtain bandwidth that might be used in the public interest.

There is NPR, but it is watched over with such a heavy hand that its attempts to be balanced make out-right propaganda sound reasonable.

The answer is closer to home. As Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Who will protect the commonweal? "We" is the answer.

We must wake up from the opiate of glee and entertainment that so fills our lives and focus on the real world and what is happening to it.

We must--absolutely must--continue to educate ourselves and absolutely insist that our youth receive first-class educations that teach them to think, to read, to analyze and to add two and two and come up with the correct answer.

We must stop believing every talking head from Limbaugh to Olbermann to Beck to Brian Williams and use our own heads to cut through what is an outright lie, what is a government push, and what might be the simple truth.

One of the problems is that the First Amendment allows speech that is outright lies that serve to damage someone or something--or get someone elected. When does such speech meet the test of shouting fire in a crowded theater?

In addition to supporting efforts like ProPublica and the Boise Weekly, proposed fixes include public funding for independent news organizations, tax credits for purchasing newspapers, and other measures not politically probable.

We repeat, the answer is "we."

( Mike Reineck has been an engaged Boise resident for 24 years. Mike Silva is a former longtime journalist, has been a community activist and observer of Boise and Ada County and has written about it for years.)

MSDS Safety Information Not Provided To County Employees

It has been reported to THE GUARDIAN an altercation (shouting match) between a county maintenance worker and another county employee over spraying an unknown chemical in the offices of the county clerks on the second floor of the courthouse today.  Employees are getting headaches, nausea and calling in sick from the usage of the unknown chemical spray.  Employees have asked to know what they are getting exposed to without success.  They have a federally mandated right to know this information.

Material Safety Data Sheets  (MSDS) are required by federal law to be on file and accessible to employees exposed to all chemicals used in the workplace.  MSDS records are part and parcel of any OSHA inspection.


A material safety data sheet (MSDS) is a form containing data regarding the properties of a particular substance. An important component of product stewardship and workplace safety, it is intended to provide workers and emergency personnel with procedures for handling or working with that substance in a safe manner, and includes information such as physical data (melting point, boiling point, flash point, etc.), toxicity, health effects, first aid, reactivity, storage, disposal, protective equipment, and spill-handling procedures. MSDS formats can vary from source to source within a country depending on national requirements.
MSDS (material safety data sheets) are a widely used system for cataloging information on chemicals, chemical compounds, and chemical mixtures. MSDS information may include instructions for the safe use and potential hazards associated with a particular material or product. These data sheets can be found anywhere where chemicals are being used.


There is also a duty to properly label substances on the basis of physico-chemical, health and/or environmental risk. Labels can include hazard symbols such as the European Union standard black diagonal cross on an orange background, used to denote a harmful substance.

Workers at the courthouse have been unable to get a direct answer to why they are getting sick nor are they getting any information about what was sprayed in their work environment while they working.

 We worry about workers getting treated as #2 pencils to be discarded and kept in the dark about potentially hazardous chemicals in the workplace.

"Greed Is Good", 2010 Tax Increases v. 2009

All the talk about cash strapped government entities may be just so much smoke and mirrors.  THE GUARDIAN has obtained a chart of the increased taxes to be collected and is sharing this information with our readers what the most egregious entites property tax bite will be in 2010:

City of Nampa                 +$1,025,456.00                 +3.34%   for tax year 2010

City of Caldwell               +$521,485.00                   +4.25%

City of Middleton             +$72,269.00                     +8.14%

College of W. Id               +$255,000.00                   +5.09%

Canyon Hwy Dist. #4       +$201,597.00                   +5.69%

Canyon County                -$1,344,308                     -3.35%  (WILL NOT TAKE 3% INCREASE ALLOWED BY STATE STATUTE)

Caldwell Rural Fire          +$53,762                           +4.88%

Nampa Hwy Dist #1         +$258,107.00                    +5.01%

Kuna Fire                          +$61,271.00                      +5.69%

There are other agencies taking increases but they are small for the most part.  No matter what they say about keeping taxes in check for us taxpayers these are the numbers at this point in time. Read their collective lips...they are going to take all they can get from us except for the County Taxes.

 Canyon County tax bite is the only one to show a decrease and any belt tightening.  The Commishes have acted in good faith with the taxpayers suffering in this economy.

Final note:  You are going to receive you 2010 tax assessment notices in the mail within the next few days.  Most of you will see a dramatic drop in the value of your property.  This does not translate to a lower property tax.  It looks from the above you will see a tax increase if you live in an incorporated city in Canyon County.

You May Be Paying Too Much For Homeowner Insurance

We all hate paying too much for stuff we hardly ever use and Homeowners Insurance falls into this category.  The prospects of a malady to the place we all hold near and dear is what prompts us to have adequate insurance to replace our homes and stuff should the need arise. It is also a condition of financing a home. Very few of us have the financial reserves to replace things and insurance fills this need.  Banks want their money if the place burns down or is destroyed by a force of nature or act of god.

I decided to check other companies as we thought we were paying a lot of cash  for homeowners insurance with falling values and lower replacement costs.  We checked three companies and they all use an estimator to figure the replacement costs of your digs.  All three companies we checked were pretty close on the replacement values except for the current insurer.  Their valuations were significantly higher. What was going on with the difference?

Here's the deal.  You need to initiate the process of having your home value reset and your insurance premium will reflect the new (perhaps lower) costs of replacement in this economy.  The insurance companies won't do this for you.  You have to ask..you don't ask, you continue to pay higher premiums.  This is how all the insurance companies can tell you they are lower in cost if you switch to their company. 

Replacement costs for homes and businesses have dropped dramatically in the past two years.  We were paying an insurance premium reflecting higher than estimated cost  to replace/rebuild our home.
A call to your agent will initiate the process.  Check your "DEC SHEET" aka declarations page and ask the value to be checked.  It could save you some cash come renewal time on your homeowners policy.

Meridian Also Has No Problem Abusing Urban Renewal Laws

We took this off the Idaho Freedom Foundation website for your information.  Urban Renewal abuse is not something unique to Caldwell, Nampa and Boise.  Meridian has become a full fledged member of the property taxpayer abuse program called Urban Renewal.  Idaho Code 59-514 (personal services) requires a 15 day posting of this intent in the legal ads in the local paper.  MDC, like other urban renewal agencies, operates in a blatant manner outside the laws of Idaho and get away with it.  There aren't any sanctions!

Meridian officials defend legislative candidate’s business contract MAY 18, 2010 | POSTED BY JAY HOWELL 

When the contracted administrator of an urban renewal agency (URA) is awarded a separate contract to operate a business venture owned, in part, by the same URA, is it a conflict of interest?  That’s precisely the question in the city of Meridian, where the administrator for the Meridian Development Corporation (MDC) also manages the Ground Floor business incubator.

Shaun Wardle is the owner of V&G Ventures, which was contracted by the MDC to serve as the administrator for the URA.  According to records obtained by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, V&G is paid roughly $125,000 annually.  “We do really everything, in terms of processing paperwork, records management, financial planning, strategic planning, project execution, acting as the team that administrates the overall operation of the development corporation,” said Wardle.

In addition to being the administrator of the MDC, Wardle is also the president and CEO of the Idaho Athletic Club in Meridian, and a Republican candidate for the state House of Representatives in District 20.

V&G was contracted to manage the Ground Floor business incubator, after the previous management company dropped out of its agreement with the city last February.  “It was a quick transition we were in,” said Larry Lipschultz, chairman of the MDC board of directors. “There was a period, over a couple of days, where the owners of Venga Works (the previous management company) fired the president of the company and decided they didn’t want to be in that business anymore.”   Crunched for time, the MDC offered V&G $3,000 per month to manage the Ground Floor until Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. 

In the meantime, Lipschultz said the MDC will decide how to handle soliciting bids to run the Ground Floor in the next fiscal year.  V&G employs an agent at the Ground Floor to manage and market the incubator, as well as do paperwork, and collect rent.

Legally speaking, one Boise attorney doesn’t’ think the MDC is doing anything wrong by contracting Wardle’s company to run the Ground Floor.  “I don’t know that you can necessarily assume there’s a conflict of interest by having one company administer two contracts,” said former Idaho Attorney General David Leroy.  “Merely having a single entity administer two public-related contracts doesn’t constitute anything.”  Leroy added that while Wardle’s company might have a competitive advantage when the time came for the URA to award the contract for FY2011, any incumbent company would enjoy that advantage.

But ethically speaking, was it right for the MDC to give the contract to V&G without giving other companies the opportunity to compete for the business?  According to Les Merritt, executive director with the Foundation for Ethics in Public Service, such situations have at least an appearance of impropriety.  “On the surface, it doesn’t sound like a good idea.  We’ve seen a pattern, when it comes to economic development commissions, of almost ‘insider trading’ so to speak.”

Wardle doesn't think there's a conflict of interest at all, that the arrangement struck between the MDC and his company was a quick reaction to a problematic situation that arose suddenly.  "The negotiation there was to get a short-term solution in place, then the board could re-evaluate what would happen."

But Merritt said when time is of the essence, that's precisely when public agencies should slow down and not make snap decisions.  "If it seems like you've got to do something today, or someone is putting pressure on you to do something, that's when you'd better back away and take a harder look.  Maybe bring in some more people, and get some transparency on the issue."

MDC board member and Meridian City Councilman Keith Bird said hiring V&G Ventures as a contractor rather than taking Wardle on as an employee was a cost-savings measure.  “We just give them (V&G) a set amount, which I like.  With an employee, you gotta pay benefits and everything that goes with it, this way we just have a set amount.”

But that could also open the door to impropriety, or at least the appearance of it, said Merritt.  “Every case would be different, but it’s possible that someone could structure it (a contract arrangement) so they would have an opportunity to get other contracts also.  That’s what you kind of have to worry about.”

Caldwell Override Election Tuesday May 18th

This is a reminder about the school override election for Caldwell School District.  Your polling place will be at a school near your home.





Here's the deal,  your vote will decide if the override will increase by 300% or not at all for the next two years. Nobody really knows what will happen two years out if the economy will pick up and return to better times or not.  What then will happen with the school district.  Will we face another override or will painful cuts be made due a stagnant economy?

We think making the effort to vote YES or No is the only voice you have in our form of government.  If your side wins you can celebrate and if it loses you can commiserate about it.  Those who don't take the time can't complain one way or the other.

Voting on this is taxation with representation by none other than those who take the time to actually vote.

Caldwell Urban Renewal Sucks Up Majority of UR Property Taxes In Canyon County

It has been reported to THE GUARDIAN by a reliable source $9.8 MM dollars are siphoned off the property taxes collected in Canyon County for 2009.  Caldwell East Urban Renewal received about $6 million of the money and the remaining $3.8 million went to Nampa and other UR agencies in the county.

What was really interesting is the data nailed down just how much each taxpayer outside of the urban renewal districts is getting charged by Urban Renewal county wide.  The total levy UR has on every $100K of taxable value in the county is $114.12 per $100k of taxable value.

The "high priests" of urban renewal keep telling us UR is money that is no cost to taxpayers.  We welcome these folks to explain how $114.12 per $100K of taxable value for of 2009 is not a cost to property taxpayers.

You will soon be receiving your new assessed values on your property for 2010 and can now figure out how much Urban Renewal is costing you personally.  Those inside the district pay even more money and they know how much via their tax bills.

The point of all this is UR is a $9.8 MM tax shift all county taxpayers get to pay for along with all the revenue bonding (debt) these agencies will take on with the "easy pay plan" for additional millions. Mayor Tom Dale in Nampa has to most ambitious plans with his new police HQ and library projects.  The principal will be around  $68 million if he holds the line where it was when the Nampa Development Corporation was formed.  You have to love the names given to agencies that are nothing short of taxation without representation.

No Wonder Sen. Crapo Doesn't Like Financial Reform Bills He Loves Bankers, Bonds And Debt

CITY GOVERNMENT

Crapo Seeks Law To Increase Local Debt Load

 May 12, 2010 ⋅  Email ⋅  Print ⋅  Post a comment

Idaho Senior Senator Mike Crapo is pushing to make it easier for Idaho’s local governments to get deeper in debt by making cash available to banks, but he fails to mention Idaho cities have to ask permission of voters BEFORE going to the banks.

Those loans from local banks have to be repaid through higher local taxes. Idaho’s constitution mandates that those whose pocketbooks will be picked have to give their assent.

Crapo and Senator Jeff Bingaman–a Dem from New Mexico–talk about “permanently extending a provision that helps small and rural municipal governments raise capital to finance local infrastructure projects – including school and road construction.”

Instead of “raising capital,” the new law would only serve to raise taxes to pay for increased debt. As the GUARDIAN sees it, Crapo’s bill would make “easy money” available to banks, but local governments still have to pay off the increased debt and the only way to do that is raise taxes.

There are three proposed constitutional amendments on the November Idaho ballot aimed at abolishing the rights of citizens to vote on such debt for public hospitals, airports, and power facilities.

A Crapo spokesman said the Senior Sen would respect all Idaho laws and not seek to influence the outcome of the proposed constitutional amendments.

Here’s more from the Senior Sen.

Before 2009, banks had incentives to purchase municipal bonds only from municipalities that issue $10 million or less in debt each year – a level that was unchanged since 1986. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act incorporated a provision pushed by Bingaman and Crapo to raise that limit to $30 million, but that measure expires at the end of this year. The Bingaman-Crapo Municipal Bond Market Support Act of 2010 would make the $30 million level permanent, and index it for inflation.

The increased level has so far enabled municipalities from across the country to place bonds directly at financial institutions, including community banks. When municipal governments work directly with community banks, they achieve considerable savings on interest and transaction costs.

“This provision has helped small communities across New Mexico and the country finance critical infrastructure needs and create jobs. The higher bank-qualified limit is a great success and deserves to be made permanent. We need to ensure that our small municipalities can continue to raise capital, particularly in periods of tight credit,” Bingaman said.

“As our small communities continue to struggle to secure financing for important infrastructure improvement projects, our efforts last year have proven successful in Idaho and throughout the country. I look forward to continuing to work with Senator Bingaman and my colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee to extend these important provisions,” Crapo said.

In 2009, the dollar amount of bank qualified issuances doubled to $32.7 billion, with nearly 6,000 issuances. Among the beneficiaries are New Mexico and Idaho counties, cities, and school districts in all corners of the states.

At least 13 organizations have expressed support for the Municipal Bond Market Support Act of 2010. They are as follows:

American Hospital Association
Council of Development Finance Agencies
Government Finance Officers Association
International City/County Management Association
National Association of Bond Lawyers
National Association of College and University Business Officers
National Association of Counties
National Association of Health and Educational Facilities Authorities
National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers
National League of Cities
Regional Bond Dealers Association
Securities Industry and Financial Market Association
US Conference of Mayors

The bill has been sent to the Senate Finance Committee; both Bingaman and Crapo are members of that panel.