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Mayor Hotline February 7 to 13

 February 16, 2009 ⋅  Post a comment

TENTH ST. TRANSIT FOR AND AGAINST, COPS AND TICKETS, NO GAS TAX

Toni Newman
1404 N. 24th St.
Boise, ID 83702
Transit Center: I was just reading in the paper this morning, in fact a couple of days ago when I
first read about this plan, I though you guys had lost your minds, and I’m starting to think you
really are. I’m calling about the buses being put on 10th St. That’s a bad idea; they need to stay
on 11th St. As somebody who walks downtown and uses downtown, I don’t think it’s fair to
Gallery 601, people going to the Fix, Trip Taylor’s bookstore; none of us want to walk by a
bunch of buses and the bus garage there. Plus, if we are going to have all this traffic downtown,
I don’t see what sense it makes to close off a street. Another point I would like to make, this is a
last-minute change at the last hour with the threat to us, and if we don’t support this, we’re going
to lose funding. You guys need to stick to the plans you had; we’ve attended transportation
meetings and none of this was talked about until the last hour. It’s bad enough I have to have a
homeless shelter in my neighborhood (R-1CH), even though the neighbors have repeatedly
asked you guys to enforce zoning codes, you refuse to do so unless we sue you which is where
we’re at now. But now this; what are you trying to turn our city into. The Boise we all grew up in
and love, you know I’m a Boise native; I grew up here, not some transplant. You aren’t keeping
the integrity of our city and it’s getting a little bit old. Thanks for listening.
M/CC

2/12/09
Roddy Yazdanpour
4818 Shirley St.
Boise, ID 83703
433-0312
Transit Center: I would like to give you my comments and opinions on the alternative site for
the transit station; I understand that it was earmarked for 11th St., and now you’re looking at 10th
St. I just want to tell you that being a former business owner there on 10th St., I was at 222 N.
10th St. from 2005 to 2008, being there for 3 years, I can tell you from first-hand account it was
dead. There was hardly anybody in that part of the country; it was completely deserted from
about maybe 1:00 on until 5 or 6 in the afternoon. There was nothing going on in the street. I
think that’s a terrific alternative space for your new transit station; I think that it would really
expose a lot of businesses there, like Trip Taylor’s book store, Roots Hair Salon, Sturman’s
Tobacco Shop, the coffee shop that’s on the corner. I think it would be a boon for those
businesses. I can’t think of a better location that you or ACHD could have chosen for this
wonderful new green thing that you’re trying to usher into downtown Boise, this new transit
station, bike racks and everything. I would love to be able to give my testimony, deposition, or
my inside view in any upcoming hearings. I would like to be notified; I would like to speak
positively about this new location. I would like to give you my input, my observation and try to
help this get moving as fast as possible. Again, please notify me. I understand there was a
hearing today and I’m not privy to what the outcome was, but again I know there’s going to be
some nay-sayers, but I just want you to believe in yourselves that you made the right choice and
that ultimately the businesses there will benefit for several reasons and like I said there’s not
going to be any conflict of interest because unfortunately that part of 10th St. is dead and I can
testify to that, and there are all kinds of parking spaces; there’s not trouble at all whatsoever, I
don’t care what you hear from the owner of the building. So there you have it; I appreciate it
very much and I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.
M/CC

Richard Rogers
1066 Saratoga Dr.
Boise, ID 83706
338-9614
Budget Shortfall: I’m calling to comment on the article about the budget shortfall in Saturday’s
paper; I think it was $3.4 million, I don’t remember exactly. I really don’t think there’s a problem
with the city’s budget this year or next year because there’s so much money being spent on
Capital Improvement projects, and that’s where the cuts need to be made instead of city
services or staff. There is no emergency as far as I’m concerned at Boise City in the
administration of the city’s duties or responsibilities. I would like to remind the Mayor and City
Council that this Capital Improvement project list is something that is renewed every two to
three years with expenditures for projects throughout the city, whether it be parks, libraries, or
money going out to Boise West, the new police station. None of these projects have ever been
voted on and approved by the public as required by law. There are things that the city is
skimming underneath the law for a year or so, by increasing property taxes to cover these costs.
So, my solution to this shortfall is to delete several of these Capital Improvement projects for
this year and next, and with the money, go ahead and continue running city government. This is
a very simple solution; it doesn’t even warrant being brought to the public, just do your jobs and
be frugal with taxpayers’ dollars is all that is necessary.
M/CC
2/11/09
Kris Demeray
True Grocer Federal Credit Union
385-5273
Community Projects: I’m calling because the Treasure Valley Credit Unions are looking for a
community project, and I had caught last year in the paper, I think it was in October, that the
Boise City Police Department was looking for volunteers to paint over areas that have graffiti. I
would like to get more information regarding that project. I would greatly appreciate a phone
call with that information.
BPD

2/11/09
Jay Yost
375-7888
BPD: I’m calling concerning the Boise Police issuing tickets to raise revenue. I don’t believe
that a police officer’s job is to raise revenue; their job is to protect and serve. I understand that
there are speeders and people doing wrong things and that they should be caught doing it, but
to go out and try to raise revenue is the wrong idea. They should be catching meth addicts and
drug dealers and burglars and people like that rather than trying to raise revenue. That’s
exactly what we called about two or three months ago when this recession thing started
happening. We said this will be the next thing they do. Why not lay off a few of the officers;
we’ve had too many anyway. There are a lot of ways to save money; we don’t raise money, we
don’t tax the citizens more; that’s just a tax on the citizens. Let’s do away with a few of the
wants of the police and deal with just the needs. That might be the better idea. Their job should
not be to raise revenue; that is ludicrous. It’s to protect and serve, and Boise PD don’t really
protect and serve, they terrorize. Thanks.
BPD

2/11/09
Anonymous
BPD: For the Mayor, as well as the Police Chief: I have read that the Police Chief is going to
order his officers to write more tickets in order to increase his revenue. Say, a novel concept for
you guys in the Police Department, I believe it says some place, sometimes on the side of the
car, it says “to serve and to protect.” If you guys are having a revenue shortfall, it might very
well be because everybody in the community is having a revenue shortfall. It might be the
appropriate thing to do since you are a government entity that supposedly serves the public,
that you guys just cut back a little bit rather than applying more pressure to the public in order to
feather your own nest. If you’re having a revenue shortfall, everyone else is too and you should
get used to it and you should be working with us not against us. Have a nice day.
BPD

2/11/09
Robert Getzin
Boise, ID 83704
BPD: I’m calling about the Mayor telling the police to pick up traffic enforcement, give out more
tickets because you need the money. That’s not the purpose; the ticket fees are punishment
not for revenue. It’s a discriminatory tax basically anyway. If you really want people to obey the
traffic laws, you should send everybody to classes instead of fining them. The little people who
don’t have money can’t pay the fines very well and the rich people don’t care, they’ve got plenty
of money to pay the fine anytime they want. It’s really discriminatory, and this time when people
don’t have money already, it’s disgusting that you want to do this because you’re just making
some sort of a tax and it makes me feel very disrespectfully of the police force and you guys.
Goodbye.
BPD

2/11/09
Delbert Coon
1911 Spaulding St.
Boise, ID
Fuel Tax and Registration Fee Increase: Apparently the Mayor is in support of raising
licensing fees and fuel tax fees to carry additional revenue for our roads. I am diametrically
opposed to that and here is why. Number one – we don’t know what the bail-out is going to
produce until we find out what revenues we will be ???, and I think it is kind of silly to raise any
taxes. Number two – problems in the current fuel tax system in the state is it is not fair and it is
not equitable. I lived in rural Idaho for a number of years and I hear about all these farmers that
routinely dump tractor gas or diesel fuel into their vehicles and they do not pay tax on that.
Currently, as I understand the situation, Idaho does not have any provisions to enforce this tax
violation to identify and find these people. There are no provisions, although other states
around us do. The key to any taxing system, Mr. Mayor, is fair and equitable.
M/CC

2/11/09
Jolene Sterling
4015 Christine St.
Boise, ID 83704
409-1119
BPD: I want to know why our city police officers are directing traffic for the Calgary Chapel on
Franklin and Cole every Sunday afternoon when church lets out. I seem to not agree with our
use of funding doing that when they could be doing other things. I would appreciate knowing
why they’re doing this on our time. Thank you.

BPD
2/12/09
Toni Berry
6424 Cassia
Boise, ID 83709
Street Lights: I’m calling concerning a street light at the corner of Cassia and Aurora. It blinks
off and on, off and on, and it is off more frequent than it is on. I have already reported that today
to the street light outage number, but I just wanted to follow-up with this. It concerns me quite a
bit because the park is dark, and I understand the Parks Department doesn’t want it to be lit, but
with this street light being the only one on the corner and near the park, things go on there that
shouldn’t. So, if that could be corrected as soon as possible, I would appreciate it and my
neighbors would as well. Thank you very much.
PW

Lady from Sacramento called: 2/7/09 am, 2/7/09 pm, 2/8/09 am, 2/8/09 pm, 2/9/09 am, 2/10/09
am, 2/11/09 am, 2/11/09 pm, 2/12/09 am, and 2/13/09 am

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