Business

City Seeks $110,000 Lobbyist In Washington Despite Claims Of “No More Earmarks”

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Boise’s City fathers and mothers are willing to shell out $110,000 for a “Federal Government Relations Services” contractor (lobbyist) according to a pending RFP–request for proposal. However word from Congress as we creep toward the so-falled fiscal cliff is “no more earmarks” (pork barrel grants).

Among the bidders are the mayor’s friends Brian Cronin and former U.S. Congressman Walt Minnick who was two ousted in 2010 by Raul Labrador. Minnick has a consulting firm in Washington. Interesting the mayor is willing to spend $110K for a Washington insider after getting a salary hike to about the same amount. Unfortunate the city elected officials are unable to take care of city politics without expensive outside consultants.

The city has done all the proper advertising and posting of the RFP which seeks someone to:

“PROVIDE COMPREHENSIVE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RELATIONS SERVICES APPROPRIATE TO A GENERAL PURPOSE MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT SERVING OVER 200,000 RESIDENTS, INCLUDING IDENTIFICATION AND TRACKING OF CONGRESSIONAL AND FEDERAL AGENCY ISSUES AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES, CONGRESSIONAL SESSION MONITORING AND ADVOCACY.”

The bid has not been awarded and is awaiting evaluation by a committee. The RFP comes from the office of the mayor.

Comments & Discussion

Comments are closed for this post.

  1. Do you s’pose we’ve become what the Founding Fathers envisioned? Is this “representative governance” at its finest?

    How do I become one of Romney’s 47% who don’t support the Machine?

  2. How else is the Democrat Mayor and Council suppose to support their buddy’s?

  3. Bob Neugebauer
    Dec 13, 2012, 10:38 am

    This is just the same old cronyism that has integrated itself into politics for years and Boise is no different. The problem is getting the Crony’s out of office. It all come down to “Complacency”. If the voters don’t go to the pols on election day and get rid of these free wheeling spenders they will continue to rob our public coffers and raise our taxes to pay off their pals. At the last Mayoral election in Meridian only 30% of the eligible voters went to the polls and the councilman who spoke to our homeowners association said that was the best showing in many years. If only 30% of the voters go to vote than they will make the decision for the other 70 that don’t seem to care until their taxes get raised. Having been the president of our Home Assn. Owners here in Meridian for 6 years I can tell you from experience about complacency. In that 6 years we could only get a quorum in one year for our annual meeting and election. A quorum was 66 out of 184. Until people change and get engaged we are going to see those same cronies and big spenders elected year after year. WAKE UP AMERICA YOUR COUNTRY, STATES AND CITY GOVERNMENTS will not come under control until you get your butts off the couch and change the system.

  4. Unnecessary and truly disgusting move.

  5. Rod in SE Boise
    Dec 13, 2012, 12:25 pm

    I hope none of you actually believe that “no more earmarks” stuff. LOL

  6. My Two Cents
    Dec 13, 2012, 1:29 pm

    OK, so the City of Boise has cash to give the Mayor and City Council huge raises, and apparently has another $110,000 hanging around to to hand to the likes of Walt Minnick. However, today’s news about the new task force to assist Boise Police in handling mental health issues in the community noted there are inadequate funds to keep the the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline open 24/7: “The Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline is only open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The hope is to get more volunteers and funding to make it a 24-hour hotline.”

    EDITOR NOTE–Right!

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