This city clearly has a lack of people running for city council that have the best interest of the citizens of Boise at heart. This is in “my personal view” because of the local newspaper that we have in Boise. If a person is running and is a solid and a sound person of abilities to do the city council job and has the voters best interest at heart. And not special interest at heart wanting to grow Boise city government larger and more costly to the citizens of Boise. That person will not get any decent or fair reporting because the local newspaper loves big government that grows itself and feels the citizens are not paying their fair amount of taxes to the city.

The local newspaper clearly by the words of what they print do (more often then not what they do not print) not have the citizens best interest at heart. There seemingly is a lot of back room dealings going on that need to have the light of truth spotlighted on them that never seems to get that needed and deserved light.

All of this “again in my personal view” leaves out decent folks wanting to run because they know that they not only have to run against a sitting incumbent but they stand a good chance of running against the local newspaper in addition. Many decent folks that could get Boise on the right tracks to lower the volume of that loud sucking sound we hear coming from City Hall draining our pocketbooks will not enter the races knowing they have to fight the local newspaper to win.

One last time, “in my personal view” the day the local newspaper goes out of business is the day Boise will become a much better place to live.

If you think Boise is bad try moving to Eagle.

Mr. Guardian… you contradict yourself!

First you declare that the race is more boring than paint drying… and then you say an “interesting bald guy” is on the ticket!

From what I’m observing, TJ is apparently capable… at least a multitude of supporters declare it so. But he’ll just be another guy for the big City Council Group Hug! I would love to see somebody in there who will “question authority” from time to time. Maybe rock the Boat of State a little bit. Your proposed questions might shed some light.

This I know… as citizens, we have the RESPONSIBILITY to know the issues and to elect good people who will conduct government honestly and with the interest of the taxpayers and citizens in mind. Anybody who can vote, but doesn’t, is shirking his duty and has absolutely NO grounds to complain about the government we end up with.

The Boise council races are the most partisan non-partisan elections I’ve ever seen!!!!

Thanks BG for finally asking the questions….I am still waiting for some candidates to answer them.

I would like one more question answered? How long have each of these candidates lived in Idaho and in the Boise area?

We need to know how they stand on:
–Allowing citizens to vote on long-term debt. -The Constitution of Idaho requires citizen’s approval for long-term debt. When the voters told the current council and Mayor NO to a library bond, they were able to find the money without the new debt. Were they lying about the need for more taxes?

–Dave Bieter’s trolley folly- How many people will benefit from this? How are they going to pay for it? This is a non-starter, political pet project that shouldn’t need further discussion. My opponent has been voting to support it.

–Spending city taxes on AMTRAK – Are you kidding me? There is a reason this part of AMTRAK was abandoned. Mr. Bieter moved forward with this before the feasibility study was out. Will the current council treat this like they treated the NO vote on the library tax increase? Back to the future! What next, stage coaches?

–Boise Fire Dept. ambulance plans –Duplicating services rather than seeking consolidation? Why would you look to expand and duplicate services?

–Annexation without approval of those being annexed – I was the president of Citizens for Annexation reform. Does anyone understand taxation without representation?

–Police and/or fire commission of citizens like airport, parks, library boards – A citizen board makes more sense than the current ombudsman system.

–Several HUNDRED “take home cars” funded by taxpayers for city workers (mostly coppers). This needs to be looked into. The goal of saving money is simple math. How many ‘take home cars’ save taxpayer money?

–Land speculation by the city – Government competing with private industry? Shameful. One of my first political battles was against the State Insurance Fund buying rentals and competing against private landowners, and not paying property taxes on the rentals.

–”Economic development” expenses to lure more people to Boise -Can any of these expenses be tied to actual success? Maybe the Chamber of Commerce would better handle this.

–Relationship with the special interest lobbying group at Chamber of Commerce – Shouldn’t even the appearance of impropriety be avoided? How transparent is the relationship? This needs attention.

–Number and duties of city PAID LOBBYISTS who try to influence lawmakers – Here again, wouldn’t this be handled better by the Chamber of Commerce? The Chamber and private business should be involved with lobbying the Legislature to make things better for the general population.

–CCDC urban renewal agency -How much more urban renewal is needed? There must be some way to end this. Is it a quasi-government self-perpetuating entity that soaks up tax dollars and really has out lived it usefulness? Seems like to me.

Unlike Sotomayer who spent three days running away from her record to be confirmed by the Senate, I am proud of my solid record of believing WE THE PEOPLE are in charge. I am for less waste, more transparency, and above all, citizen involvement. Our government is what it is because we have allowed it to be.

Its not as much how long a person has lived here. Its how long they plan on staying.
I believe the question of “how long a person has lived here”. Is code for: Are you a liberal from CA or WA that will say one thing or anything to get elected.
We have seen far too many people who come to this state because they want to leave a state that has the citizens working to support government employees, union or otherwise. Only to want to make Idaho just like the state they left.
Bottom line: The way to test a person who is running for office is to know the kind of work they have done in the past. If they have feed themselves at the tax feed slop buckets, they are not what we need. If they have lived off of bottom feeder jobs like, real estate, CPA’s and law. These people by far and large have big and heads and produce nothing in the big picture. If you see a person that is good at running a productive business, who is willing to run for one or two terms to try and make Idaho a better place. That is the kind of person that we need to serve and go back to their private life. Which is the key to the person running. Do they have a privete life to go back to? If not, never vote for such a person.