CCDC

Boise Is losing Its Sense Of Right And Wrong


The time has come for Boiseans to step up and CARE about what is happening at City Hall!

Dave Bieter won his first race for mayor with a campaign based on ethics. That was after the previous mayor lost his moral compass, traveled the world, abused his expense account, and forgot he had been elected by the PEOPLE of Boise. Brent Coles had little to no opposition and easily was reelected repeatedly.

Dave Bieter has also been elected repeatedly with little to no opposition at the polls. He is arguably the most adept politician in the state of Idaho. He has been able to stack the urban renewal agency (CCDC) with his people and even appointed himself. The Greater Boise Auditorium District has the president of the Boise firefighters union as a member and avid Bieter fan. Ada County Highway District has a former Bieter staffer. A candidate for the Ada Commishes is a Bieter staffer, and city contracts are funneled to Bieter supporters on a regular basis.

It’s all legal, and serves the “Bieter Agenda” well. That doesn’t mean it serves the citizens of Boise. The proposed grandiose library is a good example of how Team Dave’s machine works. The LIBRARY SURVEY is so biased it leaves no room for dissent.

The IDAHO STATESMAN offered an editorial Saturday questioning whether or not city officials are listening to the citizens. They are not!

The GUARDIAN has watched–and publicly battled–as Team Dave has worked tirelessly to avoid citizen approval for debt as required in the Idaho Constitution. The latest tactic is to use the CCDC to “launder” tax money diverted with the expressed intent to replace blighted unhealthy areas with PRIVATE buildings that will “stimulate economic development.” Public works projects such as libraries, parking structures, and sports stadiums to name a few, yield no tax revenue and should all be approved by those who pay the taxes.

Team Dave has also entered into several costly lease deals with private businesses to avoid selling public lands to the highest bidder. Leases don’t require competitive bids and are used to favor specific businesses. They can also result in added expenses and lost tax revenue. (Boise’s airport built and owns the SkyWest hanger at a cost of about $23 million. SkyWest pays rent, but we citizens lose more than $370,000 in tax revenue for the schools, roads, city, and county every year in perpetuity!)

Guess what? The library’s warehouse and parking area was leased away in one of those sweetheart deals. It would be the perfect location for a parking structure, even if built and owned by the CCDC. But we hear it will cost upwards of $1 million to buy out the lease to get use of the property we citizens already own. Same is true for a proposed low cost housing project in the area of 25th and Fairview.

When Boise’s City Council approved a $69 million library appropriation out of current funds, it was a slap in the face to voters. How the hell did they end up with $69 MILLION in loose change? We are being steam-rolled and bullied on the library and it needs to stop.

Comments & Discussion

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  1. Heated questions
    Jul 22, 2018, 6:57 pm

    Please create your own professional survey/q and a/comment page and distribute it widely. Especially the professional. (Get a pro to write it. Will be telling.)

    Why this, but why not this other?
    How come this, but why not that?
    Keep warehouse lease – kill Cabin.
    Outdoor balcony – where did you park.
    Clean the windows – clean the grounds – and where did you park.
    Staff the project – millions
    Professional management –
    on and on

  2. I 100% agree but how do we do it.

  3. Steve at Keep Boise Unique
    Jul 23, 2018, 12:31 am

    Thanks, Dave Frazier, for this excellent opinion piece, which represents the Guardian at its finest.
    I hope you’ll share more about such things as the city contracts that you say Mayor Bieter funnels toward his supporters.
    In 2019, Bieter runs for his fourth term (which seems too many for anyone). In any case, this election, which also includes three seats for the city council, seems a last chance to keep Boise unique.
    Good people can differ, but I hope the Guardian continues to issue such important pieces to provide information we need to be better voters — and that it gets in return lots of support from Boiseans.

  4. Tom Lorentz
    Jul 23, 2018, 7:41 am

    It is way past time for a change in Boise mayors office and have felt that way for several years.

  5. At city hall there is no such thing as “wrong”. Whatever they want to do is by their definition “right”.

    On many occasions all the members of our city government have indicated that they are much smarter than the voters and that they were elected to do whatever they want – and that they do not need to ask the voters anything or listen o them BECAUSE they were elected.

    So have they lost their sense of right and wrong? No, because they never had a sense of right in the first place.

  6. Who will run?
    Jul 23, 2018, 9:51 am

    Dave Bieter needs to go.
    Who will run against him?

  7. Dave Frazier for Mayor

    EDITOR NOTE–“I am not a candidate and if elected will not serve…” The GUARDIAN would lose whatever oversight it may have if I ever entered politics. Thanks for the vote.

  8. Guardian: One problem is that local politics are so dull, that they are ignored. (I’m guilty of that, were it not for you). You are uniquely qualified and informed to put together a issues-cheat sheet, or summary, that could be useful to inform would-be candidates for city council and mayor, comprising the top 15-20 crucial issues as you and Guardian readers, see them. This could function almost as a party platform, or “contract with Boise”, or set of core values that could shore up the knowledge of so many of those so hopelessly uninformed on the many issues that sit unrecognized right under our noses. Get this position statement out there, and improve issue-awareness. Stimulate conversation, and encourage opposition and the development of candidates for office. Just a thought.

  9. The real question that must be asked is why a new state-of-the-art library (or LIBRARY!) is even being considered? With the amazing evolution of social media and the Internet, more and more information is now available at our fingertips with an easy slide of the finger or click of a mouse. Who knows if libraries will even exist in their current form decades from now?

    Don’t think this is possible? Just ask Blockbuster Video how they fared after the evolution of online movie streaming.

  10. Tax increment financing is not money laundering. It is a viable tool for cities to redevelop. You do not favor urban renewal, and that is your opinion, but its use is not underhanded.

    I favor the proposed library and believe that such facilities provide 10 fold returns on investment. The fact that much can be done via the internet is a red herring. A library is a core public facility and cannot be replaced.

    If the funding can be paid from existing revenues that have been earmarked for that purpose over the years, great. It won’t be a specific tax added to the tax rolls for 20 years. (I believe I have lost a bet as to Boise putting the matter to a vote.)

    EDITOR NOTE–It isn’t a matter of “for or against” the library. The issue is the potential end run around the Idaho Constitution which MANDATES that no funding can exceed a single year’s revenues. No council or board can obligate a future board…only the citizens through a 2/3 vote can do that. My issue with urban renewal is that it was intended to rid a town of blighted unhealthy areas and create clean PRIVATE structures which pay taxes. Urban renewal through TIF is indeed money laundering because it skirts the constitution and NEVER produces the intended tax revenues. The auditorium district lost to me twice in district court cases, but prevailed in the Supremes when they got CCDC to own the expansion and “lease” it to GBAD. CCDC provided an unsecured loan to avoid a bond election and that is the ONLY reason it was done. Shouldn’t be allowed to happen with the library.

  11. As long as Little Seattle (north / east end) outvotes the rest of you by a wide margin, you get what you deserve. And it’s a bit unfair to ask Dave to run or do additional research that could be done by others.

  12. The process you describe is exactly what the mayor and council want – full control and no one questions it….just like a presidential candidate who lost the last election wanted.

    One key to solving this is exactly what the mayor will never, ever allow to pass – – city council seats with defined districts that includce non-democrat areas of Boise.

    They intend to continue to tax and spend – that is the motto of the party they represent. Do not expect anything less or different.

  13. It’s all in how you view right vs. wrong, and socialist are always right.

    About 30% of the nation has a religious loyalty to socialism and therefore views higher taxes and bigger government as progress. They foster the utopian goal of one big government controlling every detail. No free press. No free markets. No corporate or private business whatsoever. No freedom. No religion. They want two social classes, with 99.9% in servitude to the royalty. They are basically against everything our founding fathers won for us. They have palpable contempt for the founding documents and constitution (except when the cops find their drug stash).

    Socialism is a religion. Nothing has to make sense. Faith is all that’s needed. When pressed for details they become angry and irrational. They have erroneous explanations for why socialism has always failed, with total faith it will succeed next time. They are the definition of crazy.

    On the other hand the remaining 70% could stop this, but don’t. This is really the big mystery here. I think it’s really the behavior to be alarmed about. The socialist can be explained as religious like zealots. However, I cannot easily explain why the other 70% apathetically watches their country be destroyed while having the power to stop it. If one looks at the destruction of all the great societies in history, most were destroyed from within by a fairly small group of crazy fanatics while the majority sat idle.

    Don’t be fooled by the choreographed Dem vs. Rep production they present on TV each day. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are socialists too. We have a huge problem to resolve which no society has ever resolved ever before.

    Question of the day. How come a congressman goes to Washington flat broke but returns a few years later a multimillionaire? How is this possible? Same is happening at the state and local levels too. Are you a radio host? Why don’t you ask this of each politico you interview?

  14. Dear TFBoy, we are getting taxed to death by this cabal in city hall!!!!!

  15. I agree with Mike – city hall does not know what wrong is.

  16. My biggest beef with the elected officials of all stripes is they are making no effort to have growth pay for itself. Meanwhile, we get clogged streets and a freeway that is a royal pain to use.

    I will vote for anyone who says ENOUGH and is willing to make growth pay its fair share for the impact it has on all of us.

  17. Great post. The library serves as an ersatz day shelter for a LOT of Boise homeless, which is why I chuckle when people pay the $$$ for a condo colored baby poop brown (coughaftoncough) on River Street aka the homeless highway- so I guess this is Mayor Bieter’s way of helping the local homeless by greenlighting this new and improved structure?

  18. Do please give more details to the CCDC “laundering” of money with City owned property. Many people are eyeing and puzzling over the recent lease of the Biomark Property on 9th and River, when the Library scheme has been in the works for years. Why give a long term lease on the property needed for parking? Who was the lease given to and why? There is an important story there…

    EDITOR NOTE–We agree there is a story there. Efforts to interest the legacy media have so far gone unanswered. The GUARDIAN recalls the lease deal came about as an effort by Team Dave to keep BioMark in Boise (downtown?) when the firm either lost a lease or needed more space at another location in the River/Americana area. The GUARDIAN is too old, tired, and underpaid to chase the details. City Hall has an understandable aversion to sharing information with us as well.

  19. Steve at Keep Boise Unique
    Jul 25, 2018, 10:20 am

    Such good comments here — and it seems if just these people voted in the next local election of 2019, we could topple the political machine at city hall. Perhaps a slight exaggeration, but the possibility of ousting the current regime may not be as daunting as it seems.
    As a North Ender myself (and glad to be one), I’m hoping that people outside of my neighborhood and the inner core of the city will begin to take their rightful place as moderating influences in Boise. I’m hoping that even within the North End, and across all other neighborhoods, people are getting tired of being pushed around by a small group of radical progressive elitist Democrats (who for all of their political correctness and virtue signaling, don’t seem to mind living like rich Republicans).
    We do need to start getting beyond party politics and conventional ideologies to elect new people of integrity. I’m praying that a few moderates of common sense and common decency will emerge from the regular residents of Boise to seek local offices — and that the rest of us will support those who are worthy alternatives to our current disappointments.
    P.S. If there are any good researchers and investigators out there, perhaps Dave would be glad to have some help at the Guardian. I would be grateful for all those who step up to keep Boise unique. Let’s all do whatever we can, while encouraging others of good will who contribute to the cause of Good Growth in our hometown.

  20. Yossarian_22
    Jul 29, 2018, 4:54 pm

    I fully concur Mr. Guardian! I have watched this city’s government drive a special agenda that will socially re-engineer the populace into a robotic ChiCom like cultural hissyfit legion. There will be so many safe spaces of commie drum circles and pronoun crash courses, that Dennis Miller will need the entire cast of Baywatch to serve with, in his Safe Space Life Guard role that he has appointed himself as. I am witnessing my quaint little city transform into a Matrix nightmare of edicts for some utopian straightjacket with a Minority Report twist, and the eviction of simple living that is no longer cherished, but berated by the snotty patrols.

    The stench was so palpable, that it attraced the Divider in Chief to Boise a while back, to lay hands on Team Dave for his adherence to the great Smart/Strong Cities agenda. We are headed for trouble.

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