City Government
More Dirt on The Poop Farm
June 9, 2005 
Looks like the folks at Boise City don’t communicate too well when it comes to problems down on the farm. We were promised “transparency in government” with these new elected officials, but it seems the view is a bit clouded.
To make it worse, we hear a disgruntled employee has blown the whistle to what so far have proven to be deaf ears. We have it from two elected officials they are aware of “personnel problems” at the site, but unaware of anything more.
Both the Human Resources Department and City Attorney have been told of the suspicious nature of financial events and they seem to have forgotten to let the Purchasing Director in on the situation. The GUARDIAN passed along some details with the hope this mess will get straightened out.
We have documents which point to what appears to be total lack of financial controls for long term lease/purchase agreements for at least two tractors at the Twenty Mile South Farm where the city plops the poop–officially called a “Biosolid application site.”
Two tractors worth a total of $143,000 were purchased through long term leases to include an interest component at 5.75%. So far no one can find ANY documentation or even recall approval of the city council in any manner to authorize the purchases.
The incriminating evidence is the monthly invoices from the tractor company for “monthly rental” and the city finance department tagging the payments as “equipment rental.”
It was just this type of activity that brought down the Coles administration. We suspect the city employee acted just like his superiors thinking, “We need this stuff and the most expedient way to do it is without all the bureaucracy.” That may work in private business, but when dealing with public money, accountability is the watchword.
The citizens of Boise as well as those honest and dedicated people working within the city government need to see some OPEN ACCOUNTABILITY when it comes to public money and how it is spent.
You guys at city hall should have another “meeting” and discuss how to identify and cure some of these financial quagmires. What ever happened to the ethics committee and auditors? Sewage is dirty business in Boise any way you slice it.
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Comments & Discussion
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Jun 13, 2005, 7:47 pm
Believe me, this only touchs the tip of the iceberg at the city’s 20 Mile South Farm.