ACHD
ACHD To Move Lines For Commishes
April 9, 2012 
Just like the Idaho representatives and Ada County Commishes, the Ada Highway District has to tweak boundry lines for commishes following the 2010 census.
They have posted a couple of proposed change options at the ACHD SITE, but there will be little noticeable change since no incumbents will be affected.
Option A seems to come close to the suggested “balance” of population (proportional perfection) per district and Option B has more straight lines.
Regardless of how it ends up, the fact remains that 80% of voters are disenfranchised because we get to vote for only one (20%) of the five commishes–despite the fact most of their decisions affect 100% of the populace.
It is the only countywide highway district in the state and the “district representation” got lobbied through the legislature by Boise City when the district expanded from three to five commish seats…it was a political move to oust a liberal ACHD member. Idaho Code 40-1404 (a) is the applicable law.
We would like to see the statute changed to allow countywide voting, but there is little appetite among incumbents to campaign countywide when they can do it on the cheap in their own neighborhood, but still influence the entire county.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Apr 9, 2012, 1:35 pm
Only voting for 1 of 5- is not that how most elections/politics works? I only vote for the representatives in my district.
EDITOR NOTE–Clancy, you vote for the entire city council, the entire Ada Commission and prior to the move to get rid of Gary Richardson, you voted for the entire ACHD commishes. You are correct of course with regard to legislature and congress. But in both of those instances, there is an overriding vote for Gov., Lt. Gov, President, Vice President. In the case of ACHD, those other 4 can have the final vote on spending our tax money. In the Case of congress, while our rep is only one of 435, the decision of others has to be approved by the Senate and signed by the President–all “checked and balanced,” unlike ACHD.
Apr 9, 2012, 4:16 pm
THe ACHD commissioners are by district yet their decisions affect everyone in the county.
True.
Yet, the same can be said for state legislators. By that logic shouldn’t we then just take the top vote recipients for all legislative offices and eliminate representation based on legislative district?
EDITOR NOTE–No legislator or group can impose taxes statewide. They have to get majority in House AND Senate as well as approval of Governor–who is elected by ALL citizens in the state. ACHD can spend countywide on approval of three members and there is no safeguard (like final approval by county commissioners, city councils or a mayor) . If you are happy not voting for 80% of the ACHD, enjoy it!
Apr 10, 2012, 9:52 am
Where I live I get to vote for one school board member. Likewise, if it went county wide for the highway district I see all the goodies going to one area v. a “big picture” effort.
Apr 10, 2012, 10:40 am
“…the ‘district representation’ got lobbied through the legislature by Boise City when the district expanded from three to five commish seats…….”
I do not recall the city of Boise being involved in the balkanization of the Ada County Highway District–Kuna, perhaps, but not Boise.
Expansion from three to five districts was driven primarily by the road-building/construction lobby and their Republican water-carriers in the legislature. They wanted to ensure that, should I win a second term, Susan Eastlake and I would no longer have a majority on the ACHD commission.
We had both won our ACHD seats as growth-management advocates and neighborhood activists. We oversaw and approved more road-building and conventional highway improvements than any previous commission. However, our outspoken support for alternative transportation and refusal to approve development without adequate transportation infrastructure, were seen as threats to the construction industry.
We passed an ordinance requiring additional pavement for bike lanes on all future collectors and arterials, for instance, and held Harris Ranch development to 419 units until the East Park Center bridge was underway so that the additional traffic would not ruin the Warm Springs Avenue area. I don’t think any previous commission had put such a requirement on a development.
The City of Boise gained nothing by its citizens being restricted from voting for commissioners in all five ACHD districts and being allowed only to vote for the commissioner in whose district they reside.
Apr 10, 2012, 1:52 pm
“ACHD can spend countywide on approval of three members and there is no safeguard (like final approval by county commissioners, city councils or a mayor)”
And when the City of Boise or the Ada County Commission levy taxes, where is the safeguard there? Boise has done more to raise our property tax than any other entity. There is no safeguard. There are rapacious liberals who never saw a dollar they didn’t think was theirs, but I don’t see a safeguard.
EDITOR NOTE–Nan, you guys are sure picking on me! All you say is true, but we get to vote for or against ALL the city councilors, commisshes, and the mayor. At ACHD we get to vote only for 20% of them.
Apr 11, 2012, 2:19 pm
I like the boundries for voters/commisioners, it prevents the core majority vote (Boise) from picking all the commisioners. But I think we have a long way to go to prevent the dead from voting (vote fraud), and I’d like to see a real focus on that problem. Right now at the end of the night, those names who didn’t vote can be used to cast additional votes.
I think DC should only be open for business 1 day a week, two weeks a month. Congress shouldd only meet for 6 months every 5 years.