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City Government

Mayor Hotline Feb 28 to Mar 6

 March 10, 2009 ⋅  Post a comment

TEN COMMANDMENTS, NO TO TRANSIT PLAN, IDLE FLEET CARS, IDLE VAGRANTS,  LONGER AND MORE INTERESTING THAN MANY HOTLINES

3/5/09

Ida Belle Fernau

Fleet Vehicle: Hello, this is just a question. We were out of town this last weekend and when we got ready to leave, there was a City of Boise vehicle in the parking lot at Cactus Pete’s. If it’s a city vehicle, what’s it doing in Jackpot? I can give you the plate.  It’s a white Escape the number is C15594. The number that’s also on it is 08W598. This was on March 2nd.

PDS

Action Taken: unsuccessful

2/27/09

Robert Kurtz

5404 N. Mendelson Ave.

Meridian, ID 83646

10 Commandments: My family and I moved to the Treasure Valley years ago and we came

here because of our belief in the 10 Commandments and value of family. We want to urge

Mayor Bieter and the City Council to reconsider the removing of the 10 Commandments from

Julia Davis Park and to place a new monument there that the city wouldn’t pay for, but private

donors would pay for it. We don’t understand why it was removed and we think it is an unjust

decision which was forced upon us and the public and those who really do want it was not taken into account. Please reconsider and listen to the voice of your citizens, not just some of them but all of them, that includes me and my family.

2/27/09

Sue Goffin

Owners of Michaels Furniture Showplace

623 Americana Blvd.

Boise, ID

344-8425

Vagrants: We just called the police department in regards to two men that are vagrants who are

walking through our parking lot taking things and stealing out of cars in our parking lot. The

police department has told us every time we have called them that we are supposed to be

calling the Mayor’s Hotline so they have an idea of what’s going on in this neighborhood in

regards to the homeless. Just wanted to let you know what is going on in this neighborhood.

Thank you.

Action Taken: contacted

2/27/09

Jeanne Simons

353-9010

Transit Center: I am a resident of Boise and Ada County. My last address was in Eagle, but

I’m in the process of moving now. At any rate, I’m calling about the10th St. versus 11th St.

Transit station. I would just like to say 10th St. is one of the few two-way streets downtown; it

would be a real pity to see it closed. The photos I’ve seen of the in-street transit station site had

much wider areas to work with; on the 11th St. site, there appears to be a lot more room. From

an outsider stepping in, it looks like bits and pieces of information, though sometimes that can

provide a fresh outlook. It looks like people with a lot of money have a lot of influence, so this

owner of three city blocks can speak louder than the owners of smaller areas such as the

people along 10th St. It doesn’t look good; it looks really bad. So what if they want to build it;

they haven’t done it yet. There are operating businesses on 10th St. that they feel this transit

station will damage. The bus gets almost no business and until that gets fixed, rather than

being an addition to the 10th St. site, it will be a hindrance to all of the businesses along there. It

will reduce parking; it will reduce traffic, and so on and so forth. Now if the bus system worked,

and if the bus system had tons and tons of people, it might be a boon to those businesses, but

it’s not fixed. The transit station might help it, but you’ve been saying for years that it was going

to be better, and it would be wonderful if it was, but it’s just not. I guess that’s everything I have

to say, and I’m sorry I can’t do better on the address.

RC

Action Taken: left msj

February 28 – March 6, 2009

3/2/09

Ethel Hess

10461 Wildrose Ct.

Boise, ID 83704

377-3493

Best of Boise: I am interested in getting a list of the Best of Boise; I think that’s the name of it.

It’s businesses that have been voted by the people, I don’t know how many months ago that

they liked and had good results with, and I don’t know if you mailed it out; it would be nice if you

did. Thank you.

Action Taken: contacted

3/2/09

Anonymous

Ann Morrison Park: I’m a concerned citizen; over here in Ann Morrison Park on Ann Morrison

Drive. It seems that every year when the college starts up, they’re parking more and more into

the park itself. As of today, I’ve been out counting vehicles and right now I’m up to 64 vehicles

that are parking in there, that I believe are college students walking to class. I just think it’s

become a real problem with them all parking over there. We would appreciate it if you would

please take a look at it and see what can be done. Thanks.

BPR

3/3/09

Ron Lowe

512 S. Hemmingway Ave.

Boise, ID 83709

344-7681

Transit Center: I am calling from the Masonic Building in downtown Boise; I am looking at the

newspaper display on your choices on downtown transit that’s in the Statesman. It’s an artists

drawing on both 11th and 10th Streets. It gives false impressions; it’s totally mis-advertised. I

certainly hope the Mayor and Council and the County Commissioners would look at these things

and see that it is not right, because it’s simply not right. It shows a way too wide of a street on

10th St.; there is no building on the other street site as it shows, and it will give the public a false

impression. It’s a terrible way to go about doing business. Thank you.

RC

3/3/09

Sue Goffin

Michael’s Furniture Showplace

344-8425

Vagrants: We just called the police today; it is about 10:00 and we have a vagrant teen on our

doors, our office glass doors, in front of our customers. So, I just thought I would call you to let

you know again that a vagrant in our area is destroying or maiming some part of our business.

If you would like to give me a call, we can discuss it.

BPD

February 28 – March 6, 2009

3/3/09

Anonymous

Parks & Recreation: This is a concerned citizen. I’m just wondering with all the city budget

woes – I read $9 million shortfall for the Parks Department in the paper, why you have two city

employees driving down Chinden Blvd. at 10:30 in the morning in a 10-wheel Mac dump truck

with Boise Parks & Rec. on the side of it. It looks like they could be spending my tax dollars

doing something besides two of them driving a truck that I know only one of them can drive.

Thank you.

BPR

Blake Williams

815 W Barrymore Dr.

Meridian ID 83646

412-8842

Budget Savings: I have a great idea to help with the city of Boise budget. They’ve been talking

on the news lately about the budget shortfall. How many days of the week are the city offices

cleaned? Me being in the cleaning business I know that most of my customers who are private

businesses, they do fine having offices cleaned just once or twice a week. They don’t need to

have them cleaned five days a week. I’m sure that would be a tremendous savings to the city of

Boise and all the government offices.

PW

Action Taken: contacted

3/4/09

Olivia Holly

343-7077

Parking: I have an office downtown. I’m calling about a parking ticket I received on Feb. 4,

2009. I called the parking department on the fifth about that and did not receive a response. I

wrote a letter on the 13th of February. I have never received a response. I called and let a

message with the parking department and have yet to receive a response. I’m concerned. The

violation number is 61725186. I’ve wrote a written protest to it because I didn’t think it was a fair

ticket. I can’t seem to get anyone to talk to me.

DFM

Action Taken: contacted

3/4/09

Fleet Vehicle: Hello, I have a message for the mayor and possibly the police department and

some of the city services I’m not entirely sure. Please don’t record the phone number or my

name on the message as I don’t want it released to the media. Its 7:45 on Wed evening and I’m

at the Fred Meyer on Overland and Five Mile. In front of the Starbucks Coffee Shop is a Boise

city vehicle, no one in it, it is idling. The license number is P1131 and it is a community service

vehicle of some sort. I’m trying to figure out why it’s sitting in the parking lot idling. It seems to

be just keeping itself warm and spending my money. Have a good day.

(no name or number was left)

PDS

3/5/09

Jason Smith

10675 W Hickory 83713

376-7724

Trash Service: I was calling concerning the recent increase in trash rates and what I need to do to opt out of the trash pick up service. I talked to Anna at the utility billing services and what she believes I can not opt out and that it’s like an ordinance. If I can get somebody to call me back

and chat with them a little bit I’d appreciate it. Thank you.

PW

3/5/09

Matt Lawrence

Masonic Temple Building

Transit Center: This is the second time I’ve called the mayors hotline on the issue of the transit

center and um this message is more specifically for mayor Bieter himself. Your honor, I was at

the presentation of the two alternatives yesterday and it became really obvious to me that there

is a profound irregularity in the process that led to Site H, the preferred site, ostensibly being

presented as equal to this new option. Site H has gone through a bidding process of sorts,

through a profound investigation process. It came out ahead of 6 other locations as a result of

that process. It is very, very, very clear that this site they are proposing to put directly in front of

our building hasn’t gone through that process. All the businesses that are most directly impacted

by this site were never consulted. In fact it looks like there were efforts to kind of keep us out of

the loop until the last minute. That just may be an appearance, but there are some profound

irregularities that lead to these two, to a reading of the rules that these two could and should be

presented as equals. Finally, the new site, this was really an unveiling of their new proposal,

which is to put the transit center directly in front of the Masonic Temple building and it wasn’t

presented as equal to the other one. Within that format the 10th St. option was preferred

because there were traffic studies and illustrations of traffic studies that had been done. The

people who were commissioned to do those studies and create those graphics were really

asked a very loaded question of how this could work and yet that site never enjoyed the bidding

process that the preferred site enjoyed. I’m beginning to suspect the entire process, and I

wonder if we don’t need to ask the FDA for a delay so we can redo this process. We would like

far greater inclusion in the process. I’m a little concerned personally that Jim Tomlinson’s name

comes up on these committees over and over and over again. The empire building is right next

door to us. He owns the parking lot right behind us. His business stands to gain from either

location. So my question for you your honor is, in regards to this process, how can we work

together to make it far more inclusive. The Masonic Temple business in particular and the

businesses on 10th St. in general. I believe you are the kind of mayor who believes in an

inclusive process and you’ve inherited processes that are not inclusive. This is a great

opportunity for many of us to work together and to make the process of selecting transit centers

more inclusive to the public in general and the businesses impacted in particular. Its interesting

to me that the particular site they are pushing, none of us have been involved in or even asked

about the location until yesterday and yet a block away is the Record Exchange and yet neither

one of these sites are either directly in front of or behind our building. The Record Exchange

was flown up to Bellevue and included in the process and we haven’t been invited into the

process nor have any of the business on 10th St except for Jim Tomlinson who is deeply

imbedded in every stage of the process. Perhaps we could get together and look for ways to be

more inclusive your honor. My name is Matt Lawrence.

(spoke to him last week)

RC

3/5/09

Signage: Hi I am strongly suggesting that the mayor’s office handle a rewrite to the city

ordinances that deal with what a business can and can not be named. Specifically, change the

ordinance to disallow businesses the ability to have an offensive name. Case in point is the new

bar/restrauant on Ustick Rd. called Boobies. It is right down the street from Ustick Elementary

and our young children our subjected to seeing this facility twice a day every day when their bus route takes them directly past it. If the cities ordinances had been more prohibited, this disgrace never would have happened. I am STRONGLY STRONGLY suggesting that this city ordinance be changed. Thank you.

3/5/09

Registration Increase: I had a question concerning the Department of Transportation and

taxes already going up. Last year, if I’m not mistaken, the taxes on our vehicle registration

increased around $20, depending on what kind of vehicle you have. They were talking about

increasing the fund taxes again this year. Well if everybody has already been taxed $20, why do

you need to raise it again? I will call tomorrow and try to talk to someone and see if that’s the

plan. I think that’s too much. Thanks bye.

3/6/09

Stimulus Money: I’m a downtown local business owner and I’m hoping that some of the

stimulus money will go towards the new downtown library project that’s on Capitol Blvd. This

library is totally inadequate and hopefully some of this stimulus money can go towards building

a new adequate library for all citizens of Boise. Thank you very much. Bye.

3/6/09

Skip Myers

Idaho City

Carpenter Picketers: I have a concern with the picketers, Carpenter fellows striking St. Luke’s

Hospital I have a concern they are bothering people who are sick and the elderly people that are

trying to get well and come back to our society as good people that they are instead of hearing

people harass them I have problems with a union putting picket lines up and having only about

10% of their employees are union people and the rest are paid Mission people and the Mission

people are the one s that are getting $12 an hour probably without benefits. I feel this is wrong I

need to get some action with this. I am going to do more action with this. This isn’t right to do it

this way in a Right to Work state and a fair and good state.

Lady from Sacramento called: 2/28/09 pm, 3/1/09 am, 3/2/09 am, 3/3/09pm, 3/4/09am,

3/5/09pm 3/5/09 pm 3/6/09 am

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