Well, turn me over, I am done! Is THIS an example of the excellence in planning that our county uses? I don’t really care a whole lot about the money, because I am very old and very jaded about the lengths to which these yahoos have gone to line their own pockets and those of their already well-to-do cronies; but the sheer ineptitude of their actions is overwhelming. Slimy, scuzzy, low-life pond scum! Damn it, why do we never DO anything about these travesties, do we really have the government we deserve? Good candidates can’t compete with the money that the good ole boys and girls produce to buy their way into office. Pah~ several poxes upon each of their houses! Begone foul creatures, begone!

There are several offices in the courthouse that are busting at the seams…the public defenders have attorneys sharing offices or parked in corners, etc…there’s no more room. Same with the prosecutors.

And both agencies are hiring more attorneys. Courtrooms are at a premium. New judges are being hired due to caseloads and not employment vacancies. So, agencies expanding into the empty storefronts really isn’t that sinister…

I will do any thing to stay away from the Ada County Building and from Barister. I have started going to Idaho City ( Boise County) to get my drivers license, and I register my cars there.

No lines, no problem parking, no attitudes and a beautiful drive. And the same price.

Why deal with the parking and attitudes in Boise?

The County has used eminent domain to take over the retail space in the courthouse and neighboring buildings. In at least one case, they apparently paid more than fair market value. Despite the use of eminent domain to force a deal, it sure looks like a bailout of the developer.

By using eminent domain, the County not only PAID for the retail facilities, but will now NOT receive the benefit of income from Civic Partners, the developers, who had faithfully been making payments to CCDC for use of the ground. These payments to CCDC had been used to offset part of the cost of the courthouse bonds, which will now shift to taxpayers. The County also plans to spend additional big bucks remodeling the retail space. It’s all very complicated, but the bottom line is that, once again, taxpayers get skewered.

Development Services is scheduled to move out of the Courthouse and into either the neighboring retail space, or to Meridian. Given the downturn in housing starts in the local market, the folks in the Development Services department ought to be more worried about losing their jobs than moving to fancy new digs.

Pretty much everyone, including me, agreed that a newer, larger courthouse was needed. But now that the move to the new courthouse has been made, some people there seem to think that they are entitled to more and more new space. The County has added hundreds of thousands of square feet of space in the past five or six years, and yet continues to expand its facilities.

There are some service-oriented aspects of County government that must expand and add people when the population increases, such as EMS. Other jobs the County does, however, are made easier with technology. For example, record storage can be done digitally now, saving tons of space. The public should be able to access more services online, which would cut down on the need for additional facilities and waiting in long lines, as well.

My point is twofold: 1) the County has enough space in the new courthouse and other facilities, if they would utilize it properly, and, 2) County spending continues to be out of control.

One of the reasons they have no more space left is that the righteous of this state bust everyone for every crime possible. My son got busted for smoking cigarettes near the Greenbelt. Actually he was with some other boys who were smoking cigarettes even though he says he was not partaking. He refuses to plead guilty because he still believes in justice. Most people just pay the fine rather than clog the court house. Regardless, our legal system (not justice) is having a heyday extracting money from so called crimes that in our day, parents and cops would handle with a reprimand and a phone call. But where is the profit in that?

How many of these guys worked for Enron?

And why was the new courthouse complex so underplanned that it’s overfilled already? Did the planners have *no* idea that the county’s population would increase? How drunk and/or brain-dead were they?

Or do the county agencies just look around the new building and say, Hey, we’ve got room for 100 more people in here, so let’s hire 500 more?
The growth there makes no more sense than the legislators needing new wings on the Capitol for the same number of lawmakers we’ve had for many years.

It’s said that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Guess these folks (city, county, state) think they have absolute power! And it seems they’re right — they just keep on doin’ stuff with apparently no concern whatsoever for what the citizens want or need.

EDITOR NOTE–I don’t recall who said, “Power corrupts and absolute power is really neat if you’re the one who has it.”

Why wasn’t the courthouse built to accommodate current and future needs of the county? Wasn’t there enough “funding” to do it right the first time? What happened to the needs assessment(s)? Is this the public-private deal that was “sold” to the public?

Treva- You’re a bit late on that news. The courts need the Development Services’ office space, which again is being funded by DS, not by taxpayers. Real estate markets go up and down, I’m sure they know it’s all cyclical. But additional staff is probably not needed, the previous Director handled things much differently and oversaw DS as if it was a private company.

It’s not, there is a strict budget determined by applications, permits, and whatever fees are submitted. The Development Services staff still has to uphold the Ada County Code and Zoning Ordinance when dealing with an application, they don’t get to choose whether an application for development is submitted and they don’t make the final decision.

Boise/Treasure Valley will still grow over the long run. The planners don’t just handle applications, but have work on revising the ordinance and Comp Plan. And applications for planned communities are still being submitted or considered, those take close 12-18 months for entitlement too.

Development Services may be funding its enlarged office space but since they’re in the hole and borrowing from the County’s general fund, guess what? Taxpayers are funding this move.

A move that doesn’t seem necessary now that 10 people will not be hired. If the money has just been budgeted, then unbudget it. If it’s been paid for, then an investigation needs to happen regarding why it was paid for in advance.

I despair of ever seeing a government official care about the bottom line and maybe saving taxpayers some money.

EDITOR NOTE–The Daily Paper also claims some of the planned community boys are behind in their payments…what does that tell us?

Remember the old courthouse? The courts weren’t expanding every couple of months when they were in there!

Have you been in the new courthouse and looked in the courtrooms? Much of the time, they are empty. It is time to better utilize the space that is already there and stop the costly expansion.

Tex, you seem to be in the know. Does Boise City lawyers pay Ada County rent for their courthouse space? If there was any long range planning, DS wouldn’t have been allowed to spend, what $1.4 million within the past 1+/- years, then move to a new location.

Tex wrote: “In the building quite frequently. And the old courthouse didn’t house all the departments, did it? The County has grown a bit more and has to serve more people.”

Correct. However, NOT including the Meridian campus or the retail space being taken through the use of eminent domain, the County has ALREADY ADDED about 200 thousand square feet of space. Enough is enough!

Tex wrote: “I don’t disagree that space could be used more efficiently, but the Building Dept. and Boise City lawyers shouldn’t have to share office space either.”

I didn’t know that they were sharing office space. Perhaps you will be kind enough to clarify your comment? When the new courthouse opened, Boise City approached Ada County, seeking a small amount of space in the courthouse in which to house their legal folks when they were working there. The two entities signed a lease agreement, the City paid to finish the then-unfinished space, and I haven’t heard that the agreement has been altered since that time.

Murphy wrote, “If there was any long range planning, DS wouldn’t have been allowed to spend, what $1.4 million within the past 1+/- years, then move to a new location.”

The cost of remodelling Development Services was a minimum of half a million dollars, although that might have gone up by the time the project was complete. I couldn’t agree with you more about the need for better long-range planning.

Curious George wrote, “As an Ada County resident, I would like to call for an audit of how existing space is utilized.”

I believe there were claims that an audit was done. If it did not report that the commissioners’ individual offices (which grew by a factor of perhaps four times when the County moved to the new digs) are significantly larger than necessary, figure the rest of it is questionable, at best, as well. It seems to me that oftentimes paid consultants find what they are “expected” to find, rather than what they ought to find.

Blazing,
I could not agree with you more about special interest group teet weaning, and it needs to happen pronto, no matter how much Ada County Development Services bawls for the good ol’ days of developer grease. As a taxpayer, I would rather pay for ACDS to do their job and evaluate applications objectively and legally than have them be funded by developers and behave as the developers’ advocate and cheerleader, no matter how incomplete a development application is. At least some members of P&Z are fed up with this as well… though some have already been castrated, vaccinated and ear-tagged. Time to cull the herd, yes?