ACHD
ACHD To Boise: “Paybacks Are A Bitch”
August 28, 2013 
Boise’s Team Dave has a history of bad relations with various cities as well as Ada County and the recent “Parking War” is just another example of not playing nice.
The Wednesday vote by the Ada County Highway District to deny the city permission to embed “hocky puck” sensors into streets to track vehicle use of parking meters is nothing more than payback for political DIRTY TRICKS the city played on ACHD by spreading nasty printed statements to legislators prior a tour of ACHD facilities last winter.
Mayor Dave Bieter has publicly advocated the abolition of ACHD in favor of each city running its own street department–a move not likely to create friends at ACHD. Boise’s city council has also failed in its duty to keep the mayor and staff in line. The result is bickering and costly use of staff time and talent at both local governments. Insiders tell us the worker bees get along just fine and aren’t particularly proud of the king and queen bees.
All Boise needs to do is be polite and say, “We were wrong about not needing permission. We will not rattle our saber threatening to sue. May we please put hockey pucks in the street to zero the meters so we can make more money?” To its credit, ACHD is also sending a message to the city regarding proposed increases in parking rates which seem to be opposed by everyone except the city council and mayor.
State law gives the city authority over parking and meters while ACHD has authority over the streets. The sensors, while linked to the meters were planted without permission or notification of the ACHD board. When they were discovered, the city–according to ACHD–mislead the the highway district regarding the number of sensors that had been installed.
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Comments & Discussion
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Aug 28, 2013, 10:47 pm
Having been a veteran of such government pissing matches- I can assure you this goes on everywhere. Ada County has no monopoly on turf wars.
Fun to watch.
Aug 29, 2013, 8:36 am
The problem is more one of government not keeping up with technology. Guardian pointed it out in the last paragraph.
Still no solution for the lion’s share of ACHD revenue coming from east of Cole/Glenwood and being spent west of Cole/Glenwood. For decades.
Aug 29, 2013, 9:15 am
Here’s an idea……….run that little ____ of a mayor we have out of town on a rail. He is a loud mouth, egotistical, self absorbed, ____ ____. He’s the little ____ that everybody kicks sand on, at the beach. Who needs him?
EDITOR NOTE–Please refrain from name calling so we don’t have to delete.
Aug 29, 2013, 10:18 am
Although pissing wars may be everywhere, I hope that the city council doesn’t allow parking tax hikes.
EDITOR NOTE–How do you feel about the bond $34 million bond tax hike?
Aug 29, 2013, 10:52 am
“Still no solution for the lion’s share of ACHD revenue coming from east of Cole/Glenwood and being spent west of Cole/Glenwood. For decades.” I am not sure that’s true over “decades.” Seems to me that I read that if you look at the long term, it has balanced out.
Aug 29, 2013, 11:05 am
Greed and paranoia are running rampant in this country. Someone must have put LSD in all the water.
Aug 29, 2013, 10:43 pm
I think erico49 is correct. Overall the spending in Boise compared with elsewhere is pretty balanced when looking at the bigger picture — mainly because of major projects like the Harris Ranch bridge crossing that took a substantial part of all ACHD spending while being built. Unfortunately, residents of Boise never use streets beyond Cole/Glenwood so spending to the west need not take place out of their pockets. Right?
Aug 30, 2013, 10:46 am
Mount the sensor on the meter
Aug 30, 2013, 1:21 pm
Just to clarify, the City Council has no authority over the Mayor or City staff. The Mayor is the executive branch, the Council is the legislative branch. City staff work for the executive branch. We tend to forget about the separation of powers in Boise City because there has not been much disagreement between the branches. However, Council has no authority to “keep the Mayor in line.” And with this group it is unlikely that disagreements will be aired publicly.
EDITOR NOTE–The city council is the SOLE SOURCE of appropriations. The mayor cannot spend much of anything without council approval–even weekly expenditures are approved by council.
You are totally correct there is no disagreement, but when city staff at any level–including the executive branch–conduct themselves in a manner bringing disrepute on the local government, the council has an obligation to speak out. A simple resolution to dissolve an “at will” staff position in the executive branch would do away with a salary very quickly.
We would welcome comments from any HR people regarding “who is the boss” at various levels within the city.