City Government
Petition To Dissolve GB Could Circulate
August 23, 2011 
The latest round in the battle of the GBAD boys (and girls) is a potential petition drive to dissolve the Greater Boise Auditorium District. IT would require 3,000 valid signatures to get it on the ballot.
The two players who say they may circulate the petition (copy below) are a couple of losers in last November’s election, Mike Sullivan and Steve Schmader. They are supporters of the Boise Visitor and Convention Bureau which is a private non-profit ad agency dedicated to promoting tourism. It is funded almost entirely with public funds.
GBAD Chairman Hy Kloc has sent a memo to the board asking for consensus to get Boise City to pay for a mediator to settle various conflicts. Boise City has no dog in the fight as the district is an independent taxing body funded by the local hotel-motel room tax.
Use of that tax to fund the private BCVB is the major controversy at hand. A court ruling in Pocatello banned using auditorium district funds for the general tourist promotion, limiting expenditure of the auditorium money to promoting the auditorium.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Aug 23, 2011, 3:21 pm
We should dissolve BOTH GBAD and the Boise Visitors group and start over. Both are broken and the voters are the ones getting a raw deal.
Nuke them BOTH!
Aug 23, 2011, 4:37 pm
Please tell me these people are not really going to circulate this petition in its current form. The document is proof that everyone needs an editor. Do the authors not see how these semi-literate ramblings undermine whatever credibility they may have started with?
Of course, such writing could probably qualify them for work in the local media, specifically TV.
Sheesh.
Aug 23, 2011, 7:42 pm
In an attempt to gain an explanation as to why he would try to (obtain) money from the GBAD board during contract negotiations, BCVB board member Steve Schmader states, “They are not giving us enough money. If you can understand my petition, it says it all.” In an interview with BCVB Executive Director Bobbie Patterson, “We want that money and no law or lawyer is going to stop us.” She ran me off as she was trying to schedule more back room meetings. In response to this petition GBAD Chairman Hy Kloc says, “I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on; I’ll call the mayor’s office tomorrow.” I made several attempts to contact Mike Fitzgerald in Idaho Falls but failed. He’s been difficult to reach since he moved there two months ago. I did contact Gail May who said, “Uhhh….. I need to talk to Bobbie Patterson and John May before I make a comment.” My last attempt for a sensible comment was with the attorney for most of the GBAD board, Nick Miller, he quietly said, “This is a difficult case for me. These are my friends and conflicts of interest, I can’t do anything to hurt that.” That, my friends, is the news as it happens.
Aug 23, 2011, 8:50 pm
Neither one of them are worth the powder to blow them to hell! Ben is right! Dissolve them both!!
Aug 23, 2011, 10:27 pm
So Ben and Cyclops,
You want these nutjobs to shut down the Boise Centre and have Ada County sell the building?
Do you have any idea what you’re saying?
Aug 23, 2011, 11:25 pm
The News: well said and well done.
Patterson only cares about herself. She doesn’t care about Boise or her loyal staff. Otherwise she would go away, stop instigating the fight and let our community move positively ahead. SHE’S THE PROBLEM. Go away Bobbie, we see you for who you are and that’s NOT a compliment. TO her followers: you are being used. Walk away before she causes you any more damage.
Aug 24, 2011, 6:13 am
C’mon Betty (Gail), support your local BCVB now. I suppose even you think this is a great tactic.
Fitzgerald, May, Schmader, Sullivan, Patterson…..they are all in the middle of this charade. How bad can this mess get with these fools.
I don’t know Hy Kloc, so I will assume he has a reasonable intelligence level. Some would say that isn’t the case based on how he has conducted GBAD meetings as the “Chairman”, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.
If Mr. Kloc doesn’t tell the BCVB, Patterson, Schmader, and Sullivan that the relationship is now OVER and there will be no money at all ever given to the BCVB, then he is a complete fool.
He has to understand that Bobbie P. and Mike F. are behind this latest tactic. He has to understand that the BCVB Board in it’s entirety has carefully orchestrated all this mess with Mike F. and Gail M. in tow.
If Hy Kloc signs the $24,500 check to the BCVB after this threat and the comments Schmader has made in the Statesman, then he deserves to have the GBAD dissolved.
C’mon Mr. Kloc, show us all whether you are a MAN in charge, or a silly little pawn being pushed around by Bobbie and all her minions (Mike F and Gail M included).
End this entire problem now. Doesn’t this Board have other things it needs to accomplish besides fighting with the BCVB.
Tell the BCVB to go away once and for all.
Aug 24, 2011, 8:03 am
Agreed Muck Raker. Juvenile indeed.
Aug 24, 2011, 11:11 am
You guys know how I feel about local government – abolish it all, starting with GBAD and BCVB.
Aug 24, 2011, 12:35 pm
Point of clarification Rod:
The BCVB is not a form of local government. It is a private non-profit corporation. It is managed by a Board of Directors, but operates under its own by-laws.
That is precisely why Bobbie has never had to be responsible for her expenditures.
There will be no dissolving the BCVB. At least by using a public process. The best we can all hope for is their funding to completely go away. Then and only then can the community be rid of Bobbie Patterson. Once she is gone, Mike F and Gail M will have no reason to stick around.
Stay tuned folks, this ought to be a fun ride. At least it will all be played out in the public eye.
Aug 24, 2011, 5:33 pm
If Bobbie Patterson ever comes to sudden halt, Schmader and Sullivan will come halfway out her mouth!!!!
Aug 24, 2011, 5:53 pm
Karen, what in your fondest dreams would lead you to believe that getting rid of these two entities would, in any way, bring about the closing and sale of the Center??
An events promotion company could be in place within 24 hours. The only memory of GBAD and BVCB would be ” Oh yeah, I remember them! Weren’t they the clowns that almost ran this into the ground?”
Nate, Kloc lied through his teeth to get elected, so lump him in at the top of the “trash” that needs thrown out!
Aug 24, 2011, 7:13 pm
Karen – a group of Brownie Scouts could do a better job running the converntion center and the visitors group.
The fact is that both groups are broken and both should be desolved and new individuals elected and or appointed. In addition legislation should be changed to dis-allow the money laundering that occurs between these two groups.
As for the Convention Center it could easkiy be run my a manager that works for the City or County…. Which would be a welcome change from this idiot circus we currently have.
Aug 24, 2011, 10:34 pm
Nate, a.k.a Eric / Chuck / Robert of Eagle,
Quit wasting your bait. The BCVB is nothing more than a pawn and a pathetic side story to your real agenda. What’s interesting is how your pac k goes on attack whenever there’s a post calling for transparency, accountability and responsible governing by GBAD.
And as for the petition to dissolve GBAD, yes at this point it is a better alternative since you boys couldn’t manage a lawsuit if you tried.
The center would make a nice library or community civic center instead.
Aug 25, 2011, 1:00 pm
The deed is done on the $24,500 contract. The GBAD board amended its rules so that the chairman could sign the check, which he did. The check has been delivered to the BCVB, according to today’s DAILY. So much for the court’s and the AG’s opinions on the subject. That leaves the other bid for $288,000-plus yet to be decided.
I’ll stick with the reputable and respectable Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce for any promos of Boise, even though I don’ live in Boise any more.
The City of Boise now has to overcome Jay Leno of the Tonight Show who recently told a nationwide audience that “there’s nothing to do in Boise” in reponse to the state Sen. John McGee DUI fiasco. There are things to do in Boise — get with the program someone, promote your town, help solve economic woes, and leave the pettiness behind! This is one member of the public who is sick of this nonsense.
Just some observations from Meridian.
KTA