Boise Guardian » City Government

City Councilor And Mayor Create “Conflict Of Interest”

dave — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:27:09 +0000

Ever since TJ Thomson got elected he has kept a low profile with regard to his city council position–until now.

The GUARDIAN has learned the quiet councilor will be featured in a local version of “Dancing With The Stars” Saturday at the Boise Centre on The Grove, but one of the judges is Mayor Dave Bieter. We know politics makes strange bedfellows, but having a judge who needs to suck up to a councilor for funding pet projects seems “irregular” at best–and probably a conflict.

Since it is a fund raiser for MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY, we can give them a pass on the obvious conflict. The legacy media needs to investigate who his dance partner is.

A Dirty Little Boise Secret?

dave — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:17:37 +0000

A reader sent us a story he found in a national magazine about Boise. “We didn’t read it ma, the big boys showed it to us.”

We haven’t had a press release from city hall– or even heard of one being sent to the legacy media–about another “National Magazine Poll,” but MEN’S HEALTH rated Boise just one slot off the TOP TEN rank for smuttiest cities in the USA.

If they get us up there with “most livable” and “bike friendly,” there may be some socially redeeming value.

Boise To “Upgrade” Council Chambers For Only $1,300,000

dave — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:35:41 +0000

UPDATE Tuesdy 5/8/12–Councilors passed the expenditure on a 4-2 vote. Councilors TJ Thomson and Ben Quintana stood up against staff and four of their colleagues to cast the no votes. Thomson noted it was hard to justify the expense in the face of the current budget crunch. The GUARDIAN was asked by one wag if the council chambers would now have thrones.

Couched as a routine budget transfer of funds, the Boise City Council will be asked Tuesday to pony up $1.3 million of tax money for what amounts to a three room upgrade–the council chambers area. It will be an INCREASE to the code upgrade previously approved.

Like most things “on sale,” the upgrade will actually save $200,000. Right!

Here is how it is presented in the Council work agenda:

Public Works (Capital Fund) – City Hall Building 1, 3rd Floor Public Space Upgrades: $1,300,000 (one-time)
Public Works is requesting approval of a $1.3 million increase to the City Hall Code Upgrade capital project, funded by a transfer from the Capital Facilities Contingency. The additional funding will be used to improve the functionality and configuration of the public-use areas of Building 1, 3rd Floor, which have not received any significant enhancements since the building was constructed in the 1970s. Completing these enhancements now is advantageous because the 3rd floor is being significantly impacted by the current Code Upgrade project; the upgrade work can be incorporated into the overall project with minimal impact to the overall schedule. Postponing this work to a future date would result in a $200,000 increase to the overall project cost as well as increased inflationary costs. Improvements will be focused on the areas used by the public when participating in government activities, including the Council Chambers, lobby / reception area, Bonneville Room / City Council work space, as well as associated utility / storage areas. Staff has worked with the design team to develop a conceptual plan to resolve long- standing issues such as lobby noise / acoustics, limited flexibility, outdated audio-visual capabilities and inadequate Americans with Disabilities Act access.

The GUARDIAN reported in December that no local artist’s work made the final cut for inclusion in the new City Hall makeover.

City Seeks Ice World Hockey Director

dave — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:19:14 +0000

Boise’s recreation department is looking for a new director for the hockey program at Ice World, following the departure of the former director amid some controversy.

Here is a link to the rather lengthy advertisement for the JOB.

We have been told by an insider, “The applicant will work for the city only. No outside camps, coaching, or lessons. Nothing connected to his primary duties for the city.”

That’s good news. We understand the figure skating director has also come under scrutiny, but has retained her job and will work under stricter guidelines as well.

The city gets kudos for responding to concerned parents, the public, and others who have expressed their concerns on the GUARDIAN. When it is all said and done, it looks like there may be some smooth skating at Ice World.

Downtown Boise Continues Crime Spree

dave — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:54:38 +0000

While the politicos like to tout downtown Boise as a “family friendly” and a vibrant safe place to enjoy dinner and drinks, the area has a history or alcohol related violent crime that has become apparent the past two weekends.

Last weekend it was a gang-related SHOOTING, this week it was a MELEE which resulted in arrests and assault on Boise coppers.

Boise PD has a “bar team” which works Wednesday through Saturday with a Sgt. and at least six coppers assigned to the area in an effort to keep the peace. Without question the area is the highest concentration of booze vendors and resulting booze-releated crimes.

In the past we recall murders, near riots prompting coppers to call for firemen to hose down the crowd (firemen refused), and street clearing displays of force with coppers from throughout the Valley assisting. Taxi restrictions, private parking lot policies and petty theft all compound the problems faced by coppers.

Of course there were the two incidents with the Ada Sheriff’s Deputy getting popped for drunken escapades and the two drunks who peed on the passed out homeless guy.

EDITOR NOTE–Expect to see crime reporting stats soon that will show downtown is the place to visit without regard to shooting, stabbing, assaulting coppers, etc.

Bikeboy Says Two Wheeler Plan Off Balance

dave — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 05:35:46 +0000

Our long time two wheeler expert, Steve Hulme (aka Bikeboy) offers up his views on a new government spending spree for Boise bikes.

By Steve Hulme

The CCDC, in cahoots with the Central District Health Dept., are hoping to start upa bike-sharing program in Boise.

On the surface, it sounds laudable… 140 bikes at 10-15 different secure”stations” around town–mostly downtown extending out around BSU, and to the North End. You swipe your membership tag, or bankcard in the case of out-of-towners, and you release a shared bike. You ride and ride, and then turn your bike in at any of the 10-15 stations to release yourself from liability for the bike. Depending on how long you’ve used it, you pay rent.

In big cities, “members” get a half-hour of use for free, and then it’s a few bucks per hour. Members pay a $55-85 annual fee. Visitors would just be charged the per-hour fee for the time they had the bike out.

Fantastic, huh? Promotes health… cements our reputation as being “bike friendly,”gives tourists an easy way to ride the Greenbelt.

But here’s the rub. The startup money is likely to be $650,000. And that kind ofmoney doesn’t grow on trees… but it might as well; they’ve asked the federalTransportation Department to give it to ‘em. And of course, it would go onto the backs of the taxpayers. Or doesn’t it count, if it’s our federal taxes?

Here’s another point of interest… they did a study to determine the viability and decide where the bike stations should be located. They looked at 6 cities with existing bike-shares: Montreal, Minneapolis/St.Paul, DC Metro, Boston, Denver, and Miami.

What makes Boise different from them? Well, the comparison cities range in size from 400,000 (Miami) on up, and the metro populations range from 2.5 million(Denver) on up. I question whether Boise has the population base or density to
realistically compare with those places, or support a bike share program, even if we are “a bike-friendly city,” as stated by Karen Sanders of the Downtown Boise Association.

I’m not confident that my grandkids and their grandkids want to pay for a bike-sharing program for us, today.

It’s like nobody “in power” gives a rip about the $15 trillion debt – let’s just spend more!

EDITOR NOTE–Paris was the first place to start the bike vending program and it has caught on worldwide.

Big Brother Bieter’s Meters Monitored

dave — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:55:57 +0000

Inquiring minds have asked the GUARDIAN about credit card security on the new parking meters being tested in the downtown area–thank goodness they haven’t put them on the Bench yet!

MODERN PARKING VENDOR IN PARIS

Our sources tell us the credit card is swiped and the info goes via radio signal–like a cell phone–from each meter to a bank processing center as the card is swiped. The new meters being tested count backwards for the free 20 minutes which causes some confusion among motorists. The technology is similar to those devices carried by the rental car attendants in large city airports where they print a receipt in the lot upon return.

We hear the “multi space” parking vendor machines tested previously at City Hall didn’t pass the public acceptance test. Folks just weren’t ready to go to the kiosk and return to their vehicle and display the receipt on the dash.

Some even newer machines will soon be tested in the BoDo area that will cover multi car spaces. These solar powered devices will rent individual spaces by the numbers–like some of the private lots downtown. Instead of a meter maid (or butler) being forced to check the spots or look for dash displays, they will have a hand held “app” that will tell them which spaces are expired. Those machines could be more profitable for the city because they eliminate the need for individual meters and allow those friendly meter monitor people to make a single stop without checking an entire block.

If we can just get an “app” to track a GPS on the bicycles peddled by the meter monitors and sound an alert, it could save everyone some cash (or credit card) money.

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Coppers Cap Canine, Same Old Story

dave — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:32:53 +0000

It’s like watching cable TV–same story over and over. Such was the case with a local event reported Tuesday by KTVB.

Police approach a house, dog appears (usually a pit bull) “the officer says the dog ran at him growling, with his teeth bared, and the officer actually feared because of the actions and the attitude of the dog that he was about to get bit.”

Neighbors say the dog is friendly, cops justify the shooting. No reason to doubt any of the players. From what we can gather, the dog was owned by a party not involved in the original incident. No doubt the matter of a license and allowing the dog to roam will be part of the various reports that will follow.

But the GUARDIAN asks once again, how come mail carriers, meter readers, and delivery drivers never have to use deadly force to kill dogs? Surely these people come into contact with dogs more often than coppers.

By his own account, the copper was scared and that’s why he shot the dog three times. Turns out this is a long standing trend nationwide. A reader sent us a link to a site called PUPPYCIDE which details the national trend in police killing dogs out of fear.

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Ice World Policies Skating On Thin Ice

dave — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:57:29 +0000

After the fiasco over 11-13 year old hockey players being forced to use the lobby of Idaho Ice World to change instead of a locker room as punishment for the action of a single player, the GUARDIAN has been flooded not only with comments, but more news tips.

We have “done our homework” regarding the issue of Boise City’s paid “skating director” who also gives private skating lessons at Ice World. One camp says it is a conflict of interest for her to receive payment for private lessons using her city job as the basis for the instructor role.

The city’s ethics panel is driven primarily by the “pecuniary interest” rule of an employee making money from their position or while on duty. We think she is skating on thin ice.

Officialdom tells us the matter has “been discussed in the past” and an arrangement has been agreed upon which requires her to give lessons only when she is not on the clock working for the city. The problem as we see it is this: She can log in and log out on her city computer to accommodate her private business.

Discussions with managers, both within the city and at other government agencies, indicate such a liberal “punch in-punch out policy” is unique to the Ice World skating director and would not be tolerated by most employers.

Other staffers at Ice World say they would not be able to run a business while on duty by simply clicking their computer time clock on and off. Morale is not good out there.

EDITOR NOTE: Keep the comments civil and factual please. We will not post comments regarding the thoughts of a third party, intentions, etc. This director may be a wonderful person, adored by all who know her. The question is about the policy–NOT the individual.

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A New Month Brings Hope For Future

dave — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 23:51:55 +0000

This morning we awakened to all sorts of good news.

First it was Team Dave announcing they have abandoned plans for not only a downtown baseball park, but they also promised to not use any public money to further the desire named Streetcar (also known as the Trolley Folly).

Next thing we heard was the legislature realized how much impact they put on cities with the Land Board going into business against those who actually pay taxes. Plans are afoot to discontinue owning tax exempt businesses that would otherwise be private and pay taxes.

The new Urban Renewal director said it was simply wrong on too many fronts to continue to divert tax money to the agency at the expense of schools, cities, counties, and the highway district. He also noted citizens need a voice in long term debt issues.

With the tourist season upon us, we were thrilled to learn the Boise Depot was actually going to be open to visitors on a daily basis with tours to the bell tower to view the city.

Boise officials actually started talking to taxpayers and the media instead of hiding behind costly public records requests and claims of “personnel matter.” The new transparency is expected to cut down on costly records requests and lead to better understanding of all parties.

Then we realized today is APRIL FOOLS day. It doesn’t hurt to be positive, but sometimes it makes you feel like a fool.