Comments on: Boise Councilors Rotate, Reader Questions

By: western guy

western guy — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 16:34:22 +0000

Wanna make city council, CCDC, ACHD or county commissioners and staff super paranoid: attend one of their meetings, sit quietly in the middle or back. Take copious notes. Never speak. agenda doesn’t matter.

Attend another meeting a couple of weeks later. Do same thing. I *guarantee* you a staffer will wander over to you at a break and chat you up, wondering who you are and why you are there.

If you are sitting and taking notes, and someone walks behind you, slowly close your notebook (or turn it over so writing is face-down). That way the visitor does not see what you are writing about. In fact, you are not writing about anything… just notes to yourself to make it look like you are writing!!

Do this a third time and I *guarantee* you one of the elected/appointed officials will come up to you and chat you up. This tactic only works if you are not personally recognizable to any of the staff or officials in the room.

Have fun messin’ wit dem!!

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 03:17:37 +0000

When your at a meeting if you don’t get Dave Bieter or a council member’s attention tell them you’re a developer from Alabama and you want to build a mall, with a food court, by the Capitol. That’s in the CCDC area isn’t it? I think citizenry stopped involvement has more to do with apathy as opposed to a fear of having the BPD follow them. However, if you are driving east on the interstate near mile marker 15 and are being followed by a law enforcement officer there could be some fear levels running HIGH!

By: Story Idea

Story Idea — Sat, 27 Jan 2018 23:23:27 +0000

If you show up there more than three times a year they’ll claim harassment and have the police follow you around until you do something wrong. This is the reason why the citizenry stopped its involvement many years ago. If you think you are going to change the way they do things you got to expect they will push back. Just too much money involved to let the citizens control it.

However, it is the best actionable idea I’ve heard to solve this problem of ignoring the general public within the current system in a long time.

Yes, do it but carefully. I strongly suggest you loosely organize and watch each other’s back. You will be infiltrated on the first day by the police, so immediately distance from the goofballs who want to be obnoxious. People sitting on government councils need to feel special and powerful so remember to stoke the ego while telling them no. That’s why they have a big elevated bench. (We should change to have them sit on a folding chair at a folding table in a rented warehouse but that can come later.)

By: westernguy

westernguy — Sat, 27 Jan 2018 19:14:19 +0000

I like the suggestions from ‘To all Neighborhood Assn.’s’. All politics is local. Good government requires diligence of the citizenry, not abdicating to the elected and appointed officials.

I’ll be there Monday after next. Pengilly’s first (haven’t been there in 30 years), then City Hall.

Westsider

By: Story Idea

Story Idea — Sat, 27 Jan 2018 06:26:06 +0000

I do not feel represented by the mayor or city council. I also do not see how the idealism of the new members will change this disconnect. I read an interview in the Boise Weekly and was alarmed and offended by the echoing of DIVISIVE political crap produced by the national liberal agenda machine.

By: To all Neighborhood Assn.'s

To all Neighborhood Assn.'s — Sat, 27 Jan 2018 03:13:23 +0000

There is a zoning meeting each Monday. There is a council meeting each Tuesday. There are over 30 associations. It would behoove you (us all) to be at each and every meeting, sticking up for each other. Just go out on those nights and do something useful. Hey, there are good bars and restaurants down there, and night parking is free. Really, this could be a more persistent presence if it could be made to be more fun. I challenge 5 of any NA to go to PZ on Monday this next week, and council on Tuesday. In fact, great interest could mean better meetings. Better jokes, more sarcasm, more calling out the half-truths and the non-starters. Pengilly’s at 5, and PZ at 6. One drink minimum, one drink maximum. Sit near the front. . .

By: CJ Petrovsky

CJ Petrovsky — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 21:20:31 +0000

I have high hopes for Sanchez…definitely not a prisoner of the business class as well as smart and feisty. The question is: Will she be the lone voice?

By: Richard Llewellyn

Richard Llewellyn — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 17:08:48 +0000

From the perspective of the North West Neighborhood Association, I can only echo the concerns of Kris. Our neighborhood, having been recently annexed in a process guaranteed to make us feel powerless, now under a Comp plan that was written before we were part of the city, and without an active neighborhood association, has simply been an easy mark for developers, or a ‘land pipeline’, as some commercial interests put it.

But, we are changing that. We have a very active neighborhood association now, and Boise at large is starting to wake to the realization that we aren’t special just ‘because’, but due to our quality of life, natural beauty, and small town friendliness — traits that can so easily be bought and sold to leave us like any other strip-malled city of sprawl.

I know to those with long memories this is just another battle in a long war. But there have been victories — some foothills protection, some river protection — that have helped to make Boise so ‘livable’ and desirable to those who have squandered such gifts. Now we need to realize we have the last farmland to foothills connection in all of Boise on the chopping block here along Old Hill Road (check us out on FB!).

By: Matrix

Matrix — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 07:50:51 +0000

Constitution of the State of Idaho

Article 1

Declaration of Rights

SECTION 2. POLITICAL POWER INHERENT IN THE PEOPLE. All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal protection and benefit, and they have the right to alter, reform or abolish the same whenever they may deem it necessary; and no special privileges or immunities shall ever be granted that may not be altered, revoked, or repealed by the legislature.

By: Dave Kangas

Dave Kangas — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 21:18:26 +0000

Maybe it i time for the state of Idaho to pass legislation requiring cities of a certain size to have district representatives in their city council. This would require representatives from West, SW Boise, NW Boise be on the council. Current law does not require representation by district.

EDITOR NOTE–If memory serves correctly, I think citizens can propose a referendum via petition to get such a measure on the ballot. It is important to retain city vote while having district resident requirement. Generally speaking, Idaho Code allows cities and counties to create their own form of local government.