CCDC
CCDC, Ada Commishes Battle Over Parking
March 21, 2009 
The battle over who pays for parking and how much they pay at the Ada Courthouse has revved up as the Capital City Development Corp. appears to be changing gears for parking at the Courthouse garage and the Ada Commishes are not about to take it sitting in neutral.
In a nutshell, the CCDC has raised the hourly rate to $2.50, eliminated the first hour free policy, and generally tightened the screws with regard to making money off citizens who have business at the Courthouse. Even the coppers are getting hit up for parking. The commishes have been paying a monthly fee so courthouse visitors, jurors and coppers wouldn’t get whacked. That is about to end.
In a Feb. 27 letter tillman-letter-2-27-094 , CCDC told Commish Fred Tilman the $63,000 the county paid for four months amounted to a “partial payment.”
Then, Thursday CCDC sent another letter tilman-3-19-09 detailing intentions to implement fee hikes on April 20 for coppers, jurors, and the general public and even eliminate a 10 minute “free drop off” policy.
Commish Tillman was invited to attend the April 13 noon meeting at the CCDC office. That should be an interesting exchange for legacy media if they are covering local news at that point. No doubt there will also be some discussion of the series of invoices from CCDC ccdc-invoices0000 which include a demand for interest payments.
This is just the latest in the saga of the most convoluted financial arrangement ever perpetuated against the citizens of Boise City and Ada County. It all would have been avoided had the politicos simply allowed the voters to approve (or deny) bonds for a new courthouse and each parking facility requiring long term debt.
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Comments & Discussion
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Mar 22, 2009, 4:27 am
And the beat goes on…
Mar 22, 2009, 9:40 am
I could care less. When you get rid of your car, you find the pathetic whimpering of the car dependant masses to be so sad…
Getting around by bicycle is fast, you get to park next to the door for free, you get your excercise and transportation all rolled into one, and every outing is an adventure. …much less dangerous than a car as well!
Mar 22, 2009, 11:05 am
Hey, wait a minute here.
Urban Renewal Agencies like the CCDC and others in Idaho have told us taxpayers we’re not liable for bond defaults for any credit the get. Mr. Guardian tell us it ain’t so.
The Urban Renewal money wasn’t supposed to cost the “taxpayers” a dime.
Oh, the inhumanity of it all!!!!
Mar 22, 2009, 11:16 am
This is outrageous on the part of CCDC.
The functions in the County building are such that one HAS to go there. Parking for the first hour should be free. I hope Fred Tilman gives them hell.
As a former CCDC board member and former CCDC chair, I always thought an accounting of the surplus in funds should be done to see if there could be a return to the taxing entities that forewent the increased taxes under tax increment financing – those being the County, Boise City and ACHD (the schools at that time got a slice of the tax increment). Note that this was for the original 12 block are which was as big as CCDC was in those days.
Not only did the CCDC get the taxes from the 12 block area but they also got the parking revenue from the garages.
Until about 1995, there was not a surplus, but as more new buildings came on line, and the parking revenues became maximized, a surplus was and is a real possibility.
I don’t know if CCDC is using money generated from the original area in other areas to which they’ve expanded, but I would suggest that if they are that is a breach of trust.
It is now time to ratchet up calls for an audit. The City, the County and ACHD should all insist on this.
I’ll do my part with ACHD. Hopefully, the others will call for this as well.
Mar 22, 2009, 12:25 pm
The parking situation at the courthouse has always pissed me off.
Mar 22, 2009, 1:32 pm
C.C.D.C, all a bunch of crooks, but the people of Boise and Ada County let the crooks operate.Why not repeal the Boise city ordinance that created the monster to begin with? They have state powers but only after Boise City created them.Make the Boise City council clean up their own mess.Shove a Repeal down their throat.
Mar 23, 2009, 9:50 am
The simple answer is: If CCDC went bye-bye the city would have to seek voter approvals for all their capital spending follies. Urban Renewal and tax-increment financing allows government to circumvent bond elections for all the bells, whistles and toys bought with your property tax dollars.
Urban Renewal is quite simply taxpayer abuse and most people simply do not realize where the money comes from in the first place. Cities keep starting new urban renewal districts to fund all the non-voter approved stuff they have for projects. When was the last time you voted on a bond issue for anything besides a school?
Urban Renewal has taken your voter rights away. When people wake up to this fact things may change but for now the sheep move forward to the kill floor..
Mar 23, 2009, 9:56 am
Just like Gbad tells us it wants to build a new convention center that won’t “cost the taxpayers a dime”. What they and their ilk purposely fail to mention is that when faced with their bonds going sour they turn to their parent municipalities to bail them out. As has happened in many cities, including SLC I believe.
Financial institutions and institutional investors see right through the absolute B.S. that is “Quasi Governmental” and will flush a municipalities credit rating down the commode in half a heartbeat if they allow one of their fiefdoms like the CCDC or Gbad reneg on their obligations.
In about 950 Days we have the opportunity to bring about REAL change for a better Boise.
I propose…
* Stable city management by a professional, accredited City Administrator free of partisan politics
* Apportionment of the City Council for truer representative government
* Accreditation of the Boise Police Department and reconstitution of the Office of the Police Ombudsman’s Office into an “Office of the Citizen’s Advocate” for all of City Government. An office found in good government everywhere.
* Efficiency, transparency and control with absorption of the various components of Boise’s Shadow Government into City Government
* Inspiring, proactive infrastructure development and healthy, sustainable growth delivered by a City Hall more concerned with actual livability than with livability slogans
Mar 23, 2009, 12:10 pm
Sounds like taxpayers will get a double whammy. Paying to park so they can pay their property tax bill. Could be a triple whammy, if they go fight a traffic ticket and must pickup the police parking tab. We could have the making of the Boston Tea Party in Boise.
Mar 23, 2009, 12:35 pm
Death, taxes and now….parking.
So inconvenient, yet so inevitable.
Mar 23, 2009, 7:05 pm
I thought the new courthouse was to be self supporting….all rented out, all the apartments sold or rented and a real savings to the tax payers….or so that was how the “fancy financing” was sold to us.
The parking for City Hall is just as bad. Hard to understand why city leaders and ACHD continue to approve projects that have too little parking…..the city and ACHD are really to blame for the lack of parking they require. CCDC just knows how to take advantage of the lack of foresight.
Maybe the trolley we be just as successful? NOT
Mar 23, 2009, 8:10 pm
I believe it was May 2007 when mayoral candidate Tibbs called for an audit of CCDC. Mayoral candidate Mike Murphy also called for such an audit. Shortly thereafter, mayor Bieter responded to both those calls with one of his own. The city promptly “buried” the issue until somewhere around October when the good mayor sent out his little “minion” Mary Ann Jordan with the announcement that the audit of the CCDC would NOT be completed by the election. So the audit of the CCDC was, once again, “buried” by city hall. I am very please to report that there has been substantial progress being made on the issue. As of today, thanks to the Guardian, we no longer will call for an audit of the CCDC. We can now officially call for their freaking HEADS!!! Served on a platter of arrogance and ignorance of the citizzens desires!!!
Mar 24, 2009, 11:10 am
Does anyone know how much the debt is on the courthouse?
Mar 26, 2009, 8:10 am
There was not enough parking downtown 40 years ago.
Now it’s even worse and 10 times more expensive.
Boise P&Z and the CCDC have always a penchant for allowing facilities to be build with inadequate parking.
Nothing to see here, folks. Just business as usual, move along.
Mar 26, 2009, 7:29 pm
I’ve never really understood how they can charge us to park on our own property anyway — streets, parking lots, whatever; we buy the land, pay to put in parking, then get charged for parking there.
Hmmm ….
The only sane thing for anybody to do is stay the hell out of Boise!
Mar 29, 2009, 4:19 pm
Amen, Gordon. I worked in downtown Boise for about 30 years – parked in a parking garage and felt like I should be carrying a gun for personal protection, but didn’t. I never go there anymore.