County
Defense For The Prosecution
July 21, 2005 
We recently noticed a little item in the Ada County Commission agendas for June 28 where the commissioners approved outside counsel for the prosecuting attorney.
It struck us as unusual to have the Ada County Prosecuting Attorney get a subpoena in the case of the University of Idaho Foundation v. Civic Partners West. However, our insider sources tell us the deputy prosecutor who wrote the controversial and convoluted agreement that covered the land purchase and 
eventual construction of the courthouse will appear with the massive document.
There may be a reasonable explanation, but why would a county lawyer need legal advice simply to appear as a witness in a civil case to present a contract?
We won’t even pretend to understand all the suits and investigations involving the courthouse and Water Resources buildings along Front Street, but it is a legal and financial mess to say the least.
Here is the line in the commissioners resolution that really got our attention:
“WHEREAS, the Board of Ada County Commissioners believes it is prudent to conduct a vigorous defense of the taxpayers…”
Defense of the TAXPAYERS?!! They are about the only group that had NOTHING AT ALL to do with the courthouse or University Place. As we understand it, the courthouse is owned by the CCDC, leased to a private firm called Civic Partners and sub leased to Ada County–all to avoid a bond election and public input.
When the commissioners recently declared they had renegotiated the bonds to save the taxpayers several million dollars we couldn’t figure out how they could negotiate payments on something they don’t even own!
This story will be in the news for a long time.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Jul 22, 2005, 8:32 am
Please don’t tell me that tax payers will have to pay the bill for an attorney…for an attorney…
The University Place, Courthouse, and the land beneath, are in question. When all of this unfolds some of Idaho’s most priviledged will/should fall. I am disgusted that this event has taken place in my state. Many individuals deserve to fall because of this issue. I look forward to seeing it happen. Idaho needs to set an example for white collar crime in our state.
Jul 26, 2005, 10:19 pm
PLEASE follow up on this story – – it may be the only way we know what is really going on. Maybe Dan Popkey should resume digging on this – Please. Please let us know what role our Commisioners played in this.
Ed note: we are just one reporter/editor/computer guy. Take a look at http://www.Free Market Duck which is in our links at the right of the page–he is writing a book on it!!
Jul 28, 2005, 12:23 am
In response to Pat: The current Ada County Commissioners had to pass a resolution in order to approve the hiring of outside counsel (spending our tax dollars) to represent the county Prosecuting Attorney, Greg Bower, and the head of his Civil Division, Ted Argyle. You can see a copy of this resolution if you go to their June 28, 2005 agenda on the Ada County website and click on the link to the resolution. Greg Bower and Ted Argyle helped orchestrate the unconstitutional property purchase for the Courthouse Corridor Project and the unconstitutional lease purchase agreement for the new Ada County Courthouse. A few of the other key players in these deals were former Ada County Commissioners Vern Bisterfeldt, Roger Simmons, Frank Walker, etc. Former and current commissioner Judy Peavey-Derr was instrumental in the whole courthouse financing scheme – in fact, she even chaired the committee that chose the developer for the whole project up to and including the University Place disaster. Since the University Place investigation is being done by an attorney from OUTSIDE of Idaho, it will be interesting to see how many of these people end up indicted for their involvement in the Courthouse Corridor/University Place debacle. I have talked with Dan Popkey on several occasions to try to get him to re-open his investigation to cover the University Place prelude, the Courthouse project, but so far he has chosen not to do so. The information on the freemarketduck website is outstanding and I applaud its author for having the courage and taking the time to do the complete investigation and for writing the explosive expose.