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City Government

Mayor Hotline July 25 to 31

 August 3, 2009 ⋅  Post a comment

RUN AROUND, MISSING CHILD, STATESMAN TRASH, TRASH TALK, PANHANDLING, TASER INCIDENT
7/31/09 @ 2:33 pm
Anonymous Woman
Basque Event Safety Hazard: Hi, I’m calling to report a safety hazard on the corner of Grove
and 6th St. This is due to the Basque event. The vendors have their booths set up in the
crosswalk so there is no way to cross Grove St. unless you go out into traffic. I was almost hit
and I was watching very closely. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be tonight when there are
thousands of people and children that are in that situation of being pushed out into the middle of
the street in order to get across Grove St. I went up to the Mayor’s office to report this; they told
me to go to Parking Control; Parking Control told me to go to Code Enforcement; Code
Enforcement said the Mayor’s office is constantly complaining and pushing their issues off to
them, so actually nobody was willing to take responsibility or do anything about this safety
hazard, and it’s such a comfort to know that our tax dollars are being so well spent.
F&A

John Church
726 Pierce St.
Boise, ID
Statesman: I walk in the East End and they have these Statesman newspapers scattered all
over. Whoever delivers those is very careless; I counted four of them that were out in the street
and one in an alley. They stick them on the parking and that’s littering. I don’t think they ought
to be able to get a permit to do that. I would like to hear from you about what we can do
because I think they arrest other people for littering. Of course I’m an old cop and I kind of like
to see things neat and clean. Thanks.

7/26/09
Anonymous
Boise River: Good morning. I was wondering if you could do anything about trees growing up
out of the river bed and hanging over the road on Main St. and a bunch of weeds on up the hill
from there too. I know it’s probably not your job. Whatever, bye.
BFD PDS

7/27/09
George Robinson
10284 Poppy St.
Boise, ID
378-7378
Panhandling: I am really tired of seeing these guys standing on the street corners with their
cardboard signs begging for money; panhandling. These guys are littering our city. They get a
wad of money in their hand, in their pocket; people give it to them hand over fist and they take a
break and go running back over to their nice new vehicle or whatever and dump it off. This
needs to be stopped. These guys are ripping us off; it’s a disgrace. I don’t even like bringing
people around when there are people standing on the street corners with cardboard signs. All
they’re trying to do is bilk people out of money. Come on, Dave Bieter, you’ve done a wonderful
job for this city in the projects and everything that you’ve done. Let’s start enforcing the
panhandling and let’s get these guys off the corners. Let’s clean it up. Thank you very much.
BPD
Action Taken: left msj

7/27/09
Christopher Partridge
Excessive Force: I’m calling regarding the recent taser incident with the Boise City Police. I
just want to implore the Mayor to further investigate this. It seems from what I know about the
case, absolutely unacceptable for these officers to insert a taser into the man’s rectum and
threaten to tase him in the genitals. That’s absolutely unacceptable; there are cases similar to
this in the past where officers used a night stick in a man’s anus. Clearly that’s a violation of the
civil rights; clearly that is absolutely unacceptable in any form of police work and I’m not
comfortable having these officers on the force. I think that the termination question needs to be
looked at again and quite frankly I think this guy should file a significant suit against the City of
Boise and as a taxpayer, I’m not happy about that. Thank you very much.
BPD

7/27/09
Casey O’Connell
Resident of Boise
850-2791
Missing Child: I’m calling regarding the disappearance of the 8 year old boy, Robert Manwill,
and I’m extremely concerned about it not just for his own sake, but my daughter goes to a preschool
not too far away from the location he disappeared from. I’m concerned that the Boise
police media issued seems to be taking this very lightly that he’s just a missing child, that there’s
no possibility that he’s been abducted and that he will be found safe and sound. I don’t
understand how a child can be missing for as long he’s been already and that they’re ruling out
the possibility that this is an abduction. I’m very afraid that other children are going to start
disappearing from Boise and I’d like to be hearing that the Boise police department is
considering all the possibilities and that they’re acting very aggressively to find him and protect
the other children in the City of Boise. Thank you.
Action Taken: left msj

7/28/09
Anonymous
ValleyRide: I’m a bus rider on ValleyRide and I would like to know why a passenger, who
attacks a driver and caused him to be hospitalized and broke some teeth, is still allowed to be
riding the bus? I don’t feel safe as a rider and I don’t know who else he’s going to attack, and I
hope you investigate this. Thank you.
VRT

7/29/09
Matey Levinson
433-8707
Boise, 83705
Missing Child: I had a suggestion about this whole tragic Manwill child missing. Every time I
see a video of the New York canal, it just makes me shudder. I wonder if more emphasis
should be put on, as long as there’s all this media exposure, to once again warn people to be
more educated about the canals and maybe remind them about the nice city pools that are
local; I think Ivywild is near that area, and how children should learn how to swim and become
educated about the dangers of the waters. Hot summers and an 8 year old boy and just four
blocks away, I can’t help but wonder if the poor child got swept away. Once again we need to
be maybe having the head of the irrigation department on the news talking about educating
people, learning how to swim, and avoiding these rushing waters. Anyway, it’s just a suggestion
as long as we’re thinking about safety of the community. Thank you for listening.
M/CC
Action Taken: left msj

7/29/09
Lydia Justice Edwards
630-3913
Missing Child: This is a message for Dave Bieter. Mr. Mayor, this is Lydia. I’m so concerned
about the disappearance of this boy and the spirit of my question is – Who is in charge of this
family that has allowed this mother to be in touch with this boy unsupervised? Is it Health and
Welfare? Who in the world has made these decisions that have allowed this little boy to be in
peril? I am so outraged and upset. If there’s anything I can do, I’d like to help. Could you also
give this message to your Chief of Police. When I called the newspaper, they say there are so
many state, county and local agencies involved, it is almost impossible to untangle the decisions
that have been made that have placed these children in peril. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Mayor
Forwarded to Dept. of Health & Welfare per Chief & TH
Action Taken: Left Msg.8/3/09

7/29/09
Margaret Jones
9147 W. Woodlark
Boise, ID 83709
345-1913
Curb It: I have a very huge complaint on your recycling containers. We called the portion of the
Curb It or whatever it’s called per our notice before May 22nd and specifically ordered the 48
gallon because there’s no way my husband and I as senior citizens and he with cancer, can
possibly manage or even utilize a huge 95-gallon container. So, it was done; we’ve done our
job. Well, they dumped off 95 gallon containers. So I called the number back and they said
they can’t change it and to call Allied Waste. Allied Waste says they have no access into those
records so they can’t change it. We have to do an emergency pick-up work order to have them
come pick these things up because the best they can offer is maybe they’ll sit around our place
in our way until sometime in September. So, I’m letting you know, Mayor, that I completely
object to the very big huge misuse of our taxpayer’s money with such ridiculous service. There
certainly should have been better coordination with people as they were instructed to do, and
ordered 48 gallons or whatever they ordered, then that’s what should be in the records. They
shouldn’t have this dumped off and then have to go through all these steps. So if I don’t get
success, then I’m going to ask the city to dispatch someone from the city to pick these things up
and then we’ll get the proper 48 gallons that we ordered sometime in September. Anyway, I
hope I’m not one of multitudes and multitudes around this city and this community that are
having this problem; I suspect that I am. So, I would fire the whole lot of them and bring in
people who can get the job done. Thank you.
PW

Action Taken: spoke to her prior
7/30/09
George Robinson
10284 Poppy St.
Boise, ID
378-7378
Panhandlers: This is the second time that I have called the Mayor’s office with concerns about
these people standing on the street corner violating city ordinance by panhandling. Now, I have
just witnessed, I sat outside of Walmart and I sat outside of Winco for 15 minutes and I’ve
watched the police drive by and not do anything about it. I went up to one of these panhandlers
who was sitting in a wheelchair and told them that if they did not remove themselves, I was
going to call the police and have them reported. The person got up out of their wheelchair,
folded it up, and walked away. Even their sign said they were disabled. They got in a vehicle
that did not carry a disabled placard or a disabled license plate. They are defrauding the
government, both state and federal, and if these people are handicapped, they should be
drawing benefits from the appropriate agency. I want to know what Dave Bieter and the City
Council are doing about this, so I would like Mayor Bieter to call me personally at my phone
number and give me some type of assurance that he’s doing something about this. In the
meantime I am going to phone the City of Boise police as well as the Meridian Mayor’s office
and the Meridian police and I am notifying the news media and I am also going to start
photographing this and video taping this to bring to a City Council meeting and to the address of
the police. Now I see these police driving by talking on their cell phones on their car, so
obviously they’re engaged in other businesses, other than enforcing the laws of our state. Now
if you people can send me a letter saying I’m overdue on my sewer bill and threaten to put me in
the newspaper, then you’ve got time to start removing these disgraceful panhandlers, these
vagrants off our streets corners who bring nothing more than filth and crime, and get something
done about it. Now, as I said, as a taxpaying citizen, I expect to hear from the Mayor within 24
hours. Thank you very much.
BPD

7/30/09
Mike Black
Boise, ID
327-9847
Curb It: Ya, we just got Mayor Bieter’s new trash can; I’m sure he made a ton of doe on this
exchange for our old program when we had somebody in charge of the city. But any rate, I got
his cans and I grabbed the can and the first thing that happened is that it sliced my hand open
on the palm of my hand. You know these thugs you’re working with out of Chicago or New York
or Detroit or wherever they are, are a bunch of thugs and if you keep giving in to them, they’re
just going to take us out of our regular lifestyle in Idaho. Sorry, I just don’t care for the whole
frigging deal.
PW

7/30/09
Craig Henley
1465 Greensboro St.
Boise, ID 83706
389-2897
Eagle Scout Badge/City Policy: What my issue is, and granted it may not seem very huge to
you, however it is huge to me and my family. This is that my son is 14 years old and he has
been working on his Eagle Scout Award and all he has to do is to do his Eagle Scout project.
We have been working with Kristen Lundstrom who is the Environmental Educator at the
Foothills Learning Center, and she has called and said that the City of Boise has a policy that in
order for a young man to work on his Eagle Scout project, he as to be at least 15 years old. My
son is 14 ½ and I guess I’m at a loss to understand why 6 months or even a year would make a
difference between a young man, my son, who has earned 36 merit badges. He has been a
Senior Patrol Leader now for over 2, 2 ½ years and I just don’t understand why 15 is such an
important number. All he really wants to do is be of service to the City of Boise. I really would
like to know why you have that policy and why you are preventing my son from getting his Eagle
Scout Award, which you know is probably one of the most prestigious things that any young
man can earn. In fact only 2 percent of all Boy Scouts earn their Eagle Scout Award. This
gives an opportunity to help uplift a young man and give him service project hours and help him
to learn more about his life. I guess I really have issues with that, so feel free to give me a call.
Thank you.
P&R
Action Taken: Contacted

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