Comments on: ACHD Candidate Critical Of Budget

By: Remember _ differently

Remember _ differently — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:07:09 +0000

Also, this is the same Sara Baker who lives on Ustick and whose bushes were in the public right of way for years and was using public land as her own before ACHD widened the road for the public and its safety.
You’re right she didn’t use public funds wisely when she was in office and no doubt wouldn’t if she were elected again.

By: Remember _ differently

Remember _ differently — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:02:53 +0000

If this is the same Sara Baker then she should remember that ACHD presented on 3 different occasions to Ada Planning Association the plan to widen Curtis Road to 5 and told Boise City that 3 lanes weren’t enough. Only Sherry Huber and two others voted against the 3 lanes. SARA BAKER and Mayor COLES INSISTED that it be 3 lanes much to the “experts” at ACHD disapproval because Sara and Brent weren’t willing to “go against” the neighborhood. When the road opened it was ACHD who collected the numbers and took them back to the BOISE CITY COUNCIL within two months and begged them to change their minds. They even asked them since they were responsible for the 3 lane decision to pay for the difference to fix it and were told “NO” by Sara Baker in no uncertain terms.

By: Yossarian_22

Yossarian_22 — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 17:03:10 +0000

I think Ms. Baker is a bit out of touch with just what kind of costs ALL highway agencies are facing. If she asked an ACHD M&O employee (as I have) about, for instance, the rising cost of concrete, she would have been told that it was $45 a yard in 2006 and jumped to $100 a yard in 2007! Add to that the cost of gas & oil which are staple elements of road building. Her CPI vs ACHD per lane mile comparisons are bogus.

Pretty soon, highway agencies are going to go into the dumper without new funding mechanisms and peak oil is going to make that VERY difficult, if not impossible.

By: Sara

Sara — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:14:19 +0000

Yep costa, that’s the same Sara.

We went along with ACHD’s and Compass’ (or maybe it was Ada Planning at that time) numbers on the Curtis Rd model and ACHD’s idea to make it 3 lanes then 5. Our mistake for agreeing with the “experts”. And it was ACHD’s decision after all.

Regarding Ustick, I was against it and I would do it again. Also against it were the City of Boise, 2 neighborhood associations, hundreds of property owners, and thousands of residents in the area. Ustick didn’t just costa pretty penny, the 2 miles of five lane road blasted through existing neighborhoods cost $20 million if you include engineering, ROW, construction and all the “communications” work. And let’s not forget that this 2 miles is just a sausage, since at one end it goes down to 3 lanes and at the other it goes down to 2 lanes.

By: costaprettypenny

costaprettypenny — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:11:05 +0000

If memory serves, wasn’t this the same Sara that was on the Boise City Council (along with Mr Coles) who insisted the Curtis Road only be one lane each direction? That ACHD (the public) had to finally fix to the tune of a miliion extra bucks along with an additional year of construction delays!

Also, isn’t this the same Sara that was against the Ustic Road project?

Whew, can we really afford this kind of thinking?

By: Sara

Sara — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:28:30 +0000

Actually erico49, I was the only Council Member to ever propose budget cuts.

By: erico49

erico49 — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:56:35 +0000

I don’t remember Ms. Baker as being much of a budget cutter when she was on the City Council

By: Transparency

Transparency — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:42:36 +0000

Paul brings up a good point. Many (most?) politicians like to keep things as secret as possible. One way they do it is by requiring a FOIA request for all but the most mundane data, and charging copying costs.

To get enough budgetary detail necessary to learn much, people risk getting stung with outrageous copying bills. For many people, this is a deterrent to getting the information they need to ask meaningful questions of their elected leaders.

Worse, the whole concept of dispensing government information via hard copy is outdated. There is no need for copying fees. All the records are kept electronically and dispensing them should be done electronically. The various agencies should be required to post the detailed data on their web sites. Let people download the files and print the pages they need if they really need a hard copy.

It is an election year. Is it too much to hope that some of the candidates will pick up on this idea?

By: paul

paul — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:50:05 +0000

Public budget hearings are like getting the chapter titles in a very large book. They tell you the totals dedicated to a particular account heading. You want the “detail” under each heading.

All you have to do is file a freedom of information request and ask to see the “detail” under each heading. Most public agencies are happy to comply with this request. If not, then the issue of transpanrency gets called into question.

The other request you may want to make is for the auditor report of the public entity.

Lastly, put a dollar limit on how much you are willing to pay for copies. You will get charged about $0.10/page for copies.

By: Cyclops

Cyclops — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:31:18 +0000

On a filter down level of corruption, I would agree. However, at the local and especially at the commission type jobs,I believe there is a genuine desire to serve. Of course there are exceptions, but how much can a candidate be “ego driven” on the ACHD? Ideally, there will be 1/2 of the citizens angry with you all the time. Not a good atmosphere for a fun trip to WINCO or a restaurant. I will be very interested to see the candidate’s position on issues other than the budget. We have an opportunity to change the direction of “growth at any cost” mentality,and we better take advantage of the opportunity.