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City Government

“Three Musketeers” Of City Council Run As Team

 October 3, 2013 ⋅  Post a comment

Three incumbents on the Boise City Council are triple teaming challengers and sending out a single joint flyer to voters, encouraging them to vote early.

“Keep Boise moving forward” is the motto Ben Quintana, T.J. Thomson and Maryanne Jordan have adopted in their effort to hold off a total of five challengers–all political unknowns for the most part.

In a brochure that all three re-election campaigns paid for, the incumbents stress their achievements in vague terms of “safe, enjoyable, profitable, sustainability, diversity,healthy, education.” None has accepted the GUARDIAN offer to act as a forum for statements and announcements during the campaign.

In fairness, none of the challengers has checked in either, except Paul Fortin who opposes Jordan.

It would be nice to hear the views of ANY candidate regarding annexation without permission of those annexed, the policy of extending services beyond the city to encourage development, the practice of endless surveys and consultant contracts for $24,500 to stay below the bid requirement of $25,000. Use of public funds to promote F-35 fighter jets, trolley, deny vote on airport debt, and other public opinion issues are also important.

We haven’t heard anyone opine about extending fire responses outside the city where no tax base exists–clear to the Elmore County line. While all the incumbents voted to place a bond proposal on the ballot costing $51,000,000 in debt, we would like to see at least a little public discussion.

Quintana is the new kid on the council with two years under his belt and Jordan is without question the institutional memory of the council and often keeps members out of trouble when it comes to procedural matters.

THE GUARDIAN DOES NOT ENDORSE CANDIDATES AND OFFERS SPACE TO ALL ON AN EQUAL BASIS.

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