City Government
Kushlan Salary Based On Faulty Data
April 30, 2007 
A story in this week’s Idaho Business Review makes it clear you shouldn’t bluff reporter Lora Volkert with numbers.
Last week she talked to CCDC (Capital City Development Corp) chairman Cheryl Larabee about the salary for director Phil Kushlan who makes about $128,000 a year running the Boise urban renewal agency.
Larabee said “peer cities” were surveyed in the West to help determine a fair salary for Kushlan. The bench mark was the “similar budgets” of the urban renewal agencies the consultant surveyed. This week with a little help from an alert GUARDIAN reader, Volkert followed up with hard hitting facts and figures.
Larabee said these cities are peers of Boise because their urban renewal agency budgets are about the same size as CCDC’s. In fact, the other agencies’ budgets range from six and a half times to more than 16 times CCDC’s budget.
Total revenues budgeted:
• Boise Capital City Development Corp., 2006 -$13 million
• Anaheim Redevelopment Agency, 2007-8 – $84 million
• Denver Urban Renewal Authority, 2005 – $112 million
• Portland Development Commission, 2006-7 – $176 million
• Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, 2007 – $233 million total revenue, $93 million specifically for redevelopment
• San Diego Redevelopment Agency, 2007 – $177 million
• San Jose Redevelopment Agency, 2005-6 – $191 million
Hopefully the Boise Adutior looking into the CCDC will take note of this as an example of “due deligence” exercised by the CCDC board.
To insure more advertising-free Boise Guardian news, please consider financial support.
Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Apr 30, 2007, 4:50 pm
So when has faulty data every stopped an agency, mayor or city council from going ahead and doing what they want anyway?? Like increasing the density of Boise by factors of 4 or 5 so we can be more massivly urban!
ACHD, the City Council and the Mayor operate this way every week.
Based on this info the “average” size of all the other agencies is 12.5 TIMES LARGER than Boise’s CCDC.
It looks like the same people who figure out salaries reviewed the finacial statements of those that want to develop the PIT!!!
Apr 30, 2007, 5:40 pm
P. Kushlan is a member of the economic elite that think they run boise and have very little regard for the taxpayer as evidenced by his outrageously corpulent salary. This total misuse of taxpayer funds for a local fat cat demonstrates the control the ” Boise good ‘ole boy” system has over local govts. who have refused to rectify CCDC’s financial waste.
The citizen is the only loser here as local govt. creates huge , self aggrandizing bureaucracies so a small group of idaho political fat-cats can become even more obese at tax payer expense!
EDITOR NOTE–This is a good example of a GUARDIAN story (Arid Club membership for Kushlan) prompted a good reporter (Volkert) to do an expanded story (about salaaries) which a GUARDIAN reader questioned and prompted Volkert to expand her reporting. A good time was had by all!
Apr 30, 2007, 11:18 pm
The key is: Business people are conscientious about where they put the decimal point in numbers. In governement, it just doesn’t matter.
May 1, 2007, 12:32 pm
Are these the same “peer” cities the police union cites when it argues for higher salaries?
May 1, 2007, 11:05 pm
I think this is a great story similar to the King Coles/Lyman fiasco and the reporting by Channel 2. But in the rush to get the story out, maybe some statements made for publication should get some further review or checked for accuracy, instead of publishing a second article. A good reporter always checks the facts.
EDITOR NOTE–Good point Clancy. However, from a practical standpoint if you want to keep something from getting published, just toss enough “facts” out and publications like the Daily Paper will chase a story to death and NEVER get it in print in a timely fashion.
Coles/Lyman, Poop Farm, Public Works Tool Lending, Kushlan Arid Club, C. College, Kushlan Salary, all came from TV or GUARDIAN.