City Government
No City Audit Of CCDC
July 2, 2008 
Team Dave announced Wednesday the long ago promised audit of the CCDC, Boise’s urban renewal agency, will not be done by Boise’s internal Auditor.
Bieter called for the audit as well as a blue ribbon committee to review the agency’s goals etc. during the reelection campaign last year. He never appointed the blue ribbon committee, but announced in a PRESS RELEASE an outside auditor has been hired.
When pressed by the GUARDIAN about the role of Team Dave and the Council, it looks like the bottom line is that CCDC (Capitol City Development Corp.) has NO CONNECTION–at least officially–with the city or the mayor, on advice of their legal department.
Here is the official response to the query about the role of the Mayor and Council:
“The Mayor recommended this audit but it is being contracted by CCDC.
The original recommendation was for the City’s Office of Internal Audit to perform the audit, but we were advised by the City Attorney’s Office that it would be a conflict for the City of Boise to audit CCDC directly since they are an independent corporate agency.”
That tricky language is the result of a statewide move by city urban renewal agencies to appear “independent” because there are several legal challenges pending with regard to the relationship between urban renewal and city government. At issue is whether the urban renewal folks have to answer to ANY elected board–like a city council or the State of Idaho.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Jul 2, 2008, 3:23 pm
The CCDC (Capitol City Development Corporation) is a wholly owned and protected subsidiary of the City of Boise, that ostensibly oversees “Re-Development”; but more importantly, provides insulation and plausible deniability to the Mayor and City Council.
Additionally…
GBAD (Greater Boise Auditorium District) is a little known political fiefdom in the heart of downtown, a de facto extension of the CCDC, and the driving force behind the putsch to circumvent State Law and build another Convention Center downtown.
The DBA (Downtown Boise Association) is a “must join” de facto extension of the CCDC who’s main claim to fame appears to be the flower-pots-cum-ashtrays found downtown, and Alive-After-Five.
———————
“What’s the difference between the CCDC, DBA and the Mafia? The Mafia provides better service!” – A Downtown Merchant
EDITOR NOTE–Actually, for whatever reason, the DBA is a creation–by ordinance–of the City of Boise.
Jul 2, 2008, 6:34 pm
I understand that the CCDC is a supposedly an “independent corporate agency”, and that GBAD and even the DBA are also ostensibly “independent” entities of varying origin and construct.
However, the reality is that GBAD and the DBA are de facto extensions of the CCDC and its interests.
And as far as “…whether the urban renewal folks have to answer to ANY elected board—like a city council or the State of Idaho” is concerned…
The Board of Commissioners of the CCDC (which includes City Council Members Alan Shealy and David Eberle) are selected by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council.
Ipso Facto, the City and the citizenry have the reasonable expectation to expect that when they bark “Jump!”, for the CCDC and its brethren to immediately respond: “How High?”
Jul 2, 2008, 6:51 pm
Guardian, dude, give the CCDC a break. If you could do your own colonoscopy, save a buck and see what you want to see you’d do it too.
BTW, folks don’t try this at home. Extremely unpleasant for tightwads.
Jul 2, 2008, 8:49 pm
The crux of the problem, as I see it is the lack of – or confusing – definition of what these agencies are and what they are supposed to do. Do they have mission statements?
Boise Whiskey Tango, who sounds like he or she might understand these issues, uses words like “ostensibly” and “de-facto”. Can’t anyone write in plain English?
I’m thinking that this city needs some adult leadership – like maybe it needs to be Federalized (something like martial law) to sort out all these messes.
Jul 2, 2008, 9:35 pm
What a complete load of fermented Baboon dung!!
When will the citizens finally realize that everything the baboon and his chimps said during the campaign was a load of crap! “We would LOVE to do what we promised to do a year ago, but we can’t for two reasons.
1- We have to build plausible deniability into this mess because when ya’ll find out how crooked this CCDC bunch is, the dung will hit the fan.
2- We would have a tough time “covering up” all this junk if we did it in house”. And to top it all off, they want to expand the CCDC’s area of impact!!
It’s a heckuva way to run a railroad!
Jul 3, 2008, 9:09 pm
It might be intersting to go through the minutes of the CCDC and the Boise City Council and follow the money trail these guys leave behind. They have become inbred to the point they are starting to sound just plain stupid. Case in point is the trolley system aka fixed rail system for downtown Boise. Let’s hear it for high cost, no flexiblilty, and nobody getting to vote on this deal.
Urban renewal is a law that needs to be removed from the books. It is quite simply a leagal way to screw the voters by their local government. They may have served some purpose in years gone by but that just is not the case in 2008. They serve to remove up or down voting from taxpayers so that politicos can do legacy building projects with their names on a big bronze plaque.
Jul 8, 2008, 2:48 pm
I have never ceased to be amazed at the way CCDC got into a contract regarding the hole in the ground which apparently had no recourse for CCDC to take back the property if the developer reneged. Would somebody who knows tell me how that happened?
Jul 10, 2008, 3:12 pm
TJ-
Because the CCDC/GBAD/DBA is “…a shadow government that at a minimum appears to be inept, and at worst a collection of quasi criminal organizations…” “…that ostensibly oversees ‘re-development’; but more importantly provides insulation and plausible deniability to the Mayor and City Council”.
And since only about 9% (Forget that 67.4% nonsense) of ELIGIBLE Voters elected the Mayor (and even fewer still, for other elected positions) the powers-that-be ’round these parts know they have a free hand to do as they please.
THAT’S How.