City Government

City Election: Many Candidates, Few Issues

We haven’t seen much in the way of controversy in the upcoming city election.

There have been plenty of calls for CHANGE, LISTENING, BE KIND, LESS ARROGANCE, RESPONSIBLE SPENDING, but little in specific allegations or cures.

Here are some issues we would like to see addressed:

–Increase impact fees to slow the growth and make developers pay for the issues they create.

–More than 150 coppers drive cars home every day. Are they all really that necessary?

–Fire academy ate up our bond money and CWI has just created a fire academy. Do we need both?

–Library spending is still in the budget. Doesn’t that assume the current administration is planning on winning the election?

–Why no discussion about the industrial park lease deal that favors the Salt Lake developer?

–Will Boise Schools have another “Kindness Carnival” for West Boise school students to hear Loren McLean or other candidates as they did for Dave Bieter in the North End?

–Totally legal, but any thoughts about firefighters wearing union firefighter shirts campaigning door-to-door for Bieter? Would coppers knock on doors for him or other candidates?

With seven in the race for mayor, we predict a runoff is inevitable. The real race today is for number two, assuming Bieter garners the top spot, but no majority.

Interesting how untrue the “non-partisan” portrayal is when it comes to the Boise MAYOR RACE.

Comments & Discussion

Comments are closed for this post.

  1. Bonnie Krupp
    Oct 3, 2019, 1:36 pm

    These are relevant questions but are you on the panel to ask questions?

    EDITOR NOTE–We would like to see candidates ask the questions or even make allegations of incumbents with the facts.

  2. E.B. Schofield
    Oct 3, 2019, 2:09 pm

    Editor: I hope your item on this post about the “coppers” is in direct relation to the issue of the cars they drive, and not the need for the personnel. I say this because I have seen comments on social media where some do not believe our expanding population needs more “cops”.

    For every person who is in an abusive relationship or situation, such as a domestic partner or elder abuse, for every female who is raped, for every child who is in an abusive environment . . . I say they might believe otherwise.

    Many of these types of situations are the female gender on the losing end of the equation and therefore many men fail to understand how this matters because they are not the ones in the majority group needing the protection and assistance.

    EDITOR NOTE–The issue is strictly cars. It has gone on so long that it is now pretty much accepted that 150 coppers need to drive to and from in a “company car.”

  3. Firemen stumping for the mayor, renewed top cob endorsing him… What could possibly be wrong with that?

    Daley occurrences in the once most LIVable city in America.

  4. So what else. . .
    Oct 3, 2019, 5:15 pm

    Hello? We’re all on the panel to ask questions. We just need some forums.

    Daley, vs daily occurrences? I would like more information about this..

    It is time for a change in administration. Bieter is not McLean nor Coles, nor the ACHD gal, what’s her name?

    So, get out there and campaign serious candidates. It is possible to prevail over the incumbents.

    I’ll vote against any candidate who has blown off my questions in the last four years. Not all of them, surprisingly. But they who have not are not up for reelection. Tired of the lawsuits, and tired of the idea that the public does not have a voice.

    I’ll vote for new blood, new money, new minds, new ideas, and I hope the community also sees this need.

  5. John Q Publique
    Oct 3, 2019, 10:27 pm

    A forum for Boise City Council Candidates will be held Wednesday, October 9, 2019 at South Jr High Auditorium, 3101 W Cassia St (W Cassia & S Shoshone Sts),from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm.

    A forum for Boise Mayoral Candidates will be held Thursday, October 17, 2019 at Boise High Auditorium, 1010 W Washington St, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

  6. David Gustafson
    Oct 3, 2019, 11:12 pm

    How about the city’s plan to coerce three oil companies into selling their tank farm to a fourth entity that will have a monopoly, and then passing the costs of building a new tank farm to the consumers with a new “withdrawal” tax of 2 cents a gallon. All this so a developer can get a sweet deal to develop some condos – smart growth they call it. I’m sure CCDC will also use tax dollars to sweeten the deal at the expense of schools, fire, ACHD and other priorities.

  7. David Gustafson
    Oct 3, 2019, 11:43 pm

    And what about the new zoning codes? How will they impact existing neighborhoods?

  8. Bieter Begone
    Oct 4, 2019, 7:48 am

    So if I’m a criminal and I see a cop car parked in front of a house, am I going to commit a burglary in that neighborhood? Or worse? Most likely not.

    Should Boise cop cars leave the county? No. Or maybe not go to Kuna or Star either, although low crime in the entire county would benefit Boise.

    But cars taken home ARE a force multiplier and we know from the City’s own commissioned studies, we are low on cops.

    We definitely need new blood in Boise. We will have three new council people if we vote in Debbie Lombard Bloom to take out Elaine “I’ve been in 16 years and still have soooo much to do” Clegg, who has never seen a program she wasn’t willing to throw money at, well except for the Humane Society. I guess she hates dogs and cats.

    EDITOR NOTE–Vast majority of the cars are unmarked. In the past I have suggested (tongue in cheek) real estate-type signs with BPD badge in the front yard of copper homes. Cheaper than a $40,000 car! Truth is the practice has simple gotten out of hand.

  9. Concerned Neighbor
    Oct 4, 2019, 8:26 am

    Police drive cars to and from home as extra time “available” yet unpaid. They can and will respond to emergencies as backup whenever needed. That’s a win-win scenario.

    What I’d like addressed is Bieter etc trying to turn police into half social media clowns and half social workers. They are neither. Boise traffic has gone from the best to the worst in the last 3 years because BPD has been told to stop issuing tickets. Traffic deaths have doubled. I’ve been hit 2x this year compared to 1x per decade previously. They are turning Boise into Portland or Stockton.

    BTW, the “kind” PR is common among cities our size now. It’s nothing original and only serves to hide a direction that is anything but kind.

  10. I would like to see impact fees based upon density and property value per acre. The cost for servicing low density development is exponentially higher, especially upfront for items like roads and sewer. Comparing different development types shows that box stores(Walmart) are worth 6 times less per acre than my office near downtown. Property values for housing in Eagle is worth about 3-4 less per acre than the Northend.

  11. Dave (not the mayor)
    Oct 4, 2019, 9:17 am

    Mr. Frazier, I personally do not mind my “copper” neighbor parking his squad car in front of his home just down from mine. I do not believe we have had a burglary in the subdivision of any type in years.

  12. I want to second Bieter Begone’s remark about Clegg and the Humane Society. At a summer City Council meeting, TJ Thompson gave a presentation on why Boise’s animal code needed to be updated. He had done a tremendous amount of work in preparing a detailed presentation. More work than I’ve noticed any of the other Council members do on an issue that is presented at a public forum at a City Council meeting. Clegg attacked it, and showed her heartlessness towards animals at the same time. In fact, the only thing that seems to warm Clegg’s heart is more sprawling development. Meeting after meeting she goes to great lengths to find ways to shore up even the most rapacious of developments. And prattle about minor tweaks in the bus system that no one wants to ride. With her at the helm, it’s no wonder the bus is such a failure. I liked Coles suggestion when he announced his candidacy – make the bus free. As it stands now, more and more money gets poured into something that’s a big failure.

    I think she was jealous. Everything she has worked on all these years has been a failure – especially her baby the bus system.

  13. What else . . .
    Oct 4, 2019, 10:40 am

    Maybe driving the police cars home is less expensive than paying for a storage facility, so this allows Bieter and his posse to sock more tax dollars away for the CivicCenter/Performance Center/Art Gallery – with a library attached, and its million dollar robotic book storage system.

  14. Foothills Rider
    Oct 4, 2019, 11:03 am

    …and no one is addressing Bieter’s highly paid part time “Office of Police oversight” hand picked Mendoza. Notice how there is no news at all now regarding citizen issues/complaints? Used to be we could read up on investigations and resultant findings in the daily papers. Today: whistleblower complaint on supposed selling of arms on duty; not a chirp from Mendoza. There is some $$ to be saved in eliminating this.

  15. Western guy
    Oct 4, 2019, 11:05 am

    Ref crime will move elsewhere if there’s a PD vehicle park

  16. Western guy
    Oct 4, 2019, 11:10 am

    Ref: PD vehicles parked in neighborhoods. Yes, criminals will go elsewhere but that’s just the ‘balloon theory’. Squeeze a balloon and it moves elsewhere. Why should neighborhoods without a home parked police car have to suffer.

    And bet me there are RARE instances when an off-duty officer responds to a problem. And if they do respond, it’s OVERTIME. With more PERSI to pay at the higher rate.

    Agree that traffic enforcement is non-existent, cept for motorcycle officers on sped enforcement.

  17. The mayoral election will be settled among one of two candidates. One has voiced little specificity on major issues or the handling of future issues. The Mayor on the other hand has been open regarding his stances on important issues. However, one issue the press and all others has avoided is the fact that no one is considering the Boise City Council races where no one from south of the Boise River has been elected since Moses was a basket case. A few Councilpersons have been publicly present at events and attempting to address needs south of the depot but that is all. an example is the time it took to give responsible treatment to the home park residents off Industrial Way and there are numerous other considerations that have gone by the wayside. such as access to desert lands and the hills south of town versus those residents having to drive to Hull;s Gulch to hike. It would be nice to see a reasoned advocate for the one-half or one-third of current and future Boise residents and taxpayers long since seemingly forgotten by the “north of the river” cabal.

  18. A Tageted Zoning Approach?
    Oct 4, 2019, 11:37 am

    What is concerning, and quite revealing, are the details that are hidden within other city documents.

    The 2020 Budget (p.76) refers to the zoning project as, “a targeted zoning approach” – so which neighborhoods are in the bulls-eye? Everyone should be asking this of those running for office.

    To me, this means the city has simply inventoried the land to see how much profit is left for the taking – to both continue the gravy–train for the development industry, and to feed the ballooning city budget via more rooftop revenue. Both a wholesale giveaway of the land and the City’s primary development tool; the power to zone.

    Why? In 2018, the new 300+ unit Kensington Apartment Complex at Glenwood/State Street made the top 10 of the list of Principal Property Tax Payers (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, p.131).

  19. More On Zoning Project
    Oct 4, 2019, 11:41 am

    The appendix of the City’s Strategic Framework – aka “Playbook” – says, “Once a draft ordinance is complete there will be extensive public engagement and amendments to the ordinance before it can be adopted.”

    So the other stakeholders, except the majority of the citizens, will continue to get first dibs at influencing the City officials? Kind of like designing a monstrosity of a Civic/Arts Center, with private invite only events to garner support (in the record), then revealing the project to the general public and calling it a library.

    Keeping the same in office will pretty much guarantee business as usual, as nothing changes if you change nothing. Your Vote Really Matters!

  20. Deep Midnight
    Oct 5, 2019, 9:37 am

    How about this recent headline: Boise Mayoral Candidate Denounces City Action In Homelessness Case; McLean.

    It would be awesome to have a discussion about it. In one regard she is right.

    But in another more pressing regard…in places where the homeless are allowed to camp out, it devolves into people pitching tents on storefronts, defecating and using drugs on those storefronts and no one can do anything about it. Its all over the news now and not hard to find. Its not a safe practice. On this one issue, I stand with the current mayor.

    I very much like the comments by Begone and Katie regarding Clegg. That woman is dangerous.

    I recently attended a meeting regarding property rights vs a dictator like city government. I made it my business, maybe just out of curiosity, to see where that (previously mentioned) cole and fairview property is heading. I view this as a very good test case to see what will happen in my own neighborhood when they come for us.

    Clegg wished and proposed to impose her own views onto private property owners in the form of dictating what they “should” build on their own land. Obviously this lot is one of her baby’s in regards to her failed buss system; it is a major road and she wants to force high density low income housing so they will use the buss since no one else will; of which she basically said during her rant.

    Mclean questioned as to why her motion was even necessary but then voted in favor of it; she seems like a flimsy sort of person whom is easily pushed over. Indeed, Mclean forgot she had a hot mic and at the end of the meeting said “oh, maybe I shouldn’t have voted in favor of the measure since it was a tie and I was the tie breaker”. At the very least, she appears to have no idea what she is doing, including how to turn a mic off, and I cant see her as mayor.

    Ludwig was the hero who voted against said measure strongly and frequently voicing his concern that the city should not be able to dictate to or bully a private property owner. In fact, if it wasn’t for Ludgwigs frequent inquires, the intent behind the measure would not have been discovered and it would have passed unanimously.

    TJ voted against it but said very little otherwise. Sanchez went on a 5 minute soapbox rant about why people should not dislike low income people, indicating she is one and therefore she takes great “offense” anytime someone mentions it; she of course voted in favor of the measure. Woodings was mostly silent but voted in favor; she seemed impatient and not really wanting to be there.

    The measure passed with McLean breaking the tie on a hot mic; and the city is now allowed to bully a private land owner on what he can and can not build; and to do so to force a loser issue (bus system) to maybe have two more riders at the expense of an entire neighborhood who will have no more than 30 ft from the proposed ‘projects’. The overall consensus was, and this is a shared view amount the neighborhood which was verified when I contacted my friend who lives over there, ‘screw the people who live there and how it might impact them, I want my buss system used and this is the best way to start forcing it to happen’.

    My point is, these people really sort of suck, and I will actually be extremely disappointed if Boise elects McLean; she is kind of a simpleton of whom a slight breeze would push over. Clegg is dangerous and needs to be voted out even moreso that Bieter. Sanchez is a social justice warrior forcing other people to shoulder her lifestyle in the form of taxes and low income housing instead of asking for charity or finding a community to belong to.

    Why isnt Ludwig running? I would vote for him.

  21. Question for Deep Midnight
    Oct 5, 2019, 11:33 am

    Deep Midnight: Please post the date of the Council Meeting you watched so that others, such as myself, can locate the video in the online City calendar watch it.

    Thank you

  22. Clegg shall always be remembered for her wise response to citizens bemoaning the loss of recently annexed ag land to high-density housing:

    “Let them have edible landscaping,” she proclaimed.

  23. So what else. . .
    Oct 5, 2019, 4:47 pm

    Maybe you are Ludwig, Deep Midnight.

    You can’t govern in a situation where no other council members understand or support the law. Or otherwise, Ludwig has said the job at the city is interfering with his law practice. It is good he is leaving after a time – they all should.

    The Cole/Fairview property was restricted, and the whole of them ignored that. It is a lost opportunity and it is greed.

    I will also not support Clegg. Whatever she has done, if only pass every crappy development, it is time for her to let someone else have that salary and those benefits and give it a go.

    McLean is not Bieter, and that is a plus. Coles is definitely not Bieter or McLean, and that is a plus. Nobody else is campaigning. Whose payroll are they on?

    I think that Ms. Sanchez is only expressing her experience. She has great understanding of peoples’ needs. She should stop talking about it though, and vote to uphold peoples values, such as they may be.

    About those cop cars, I don’t have enough information. But if they want to loan me some decals and some lights, my neighborhood might be well served.

    A beautiful home is not made beautiful by the status of the people who frequent it, but by the grass roots, and cleaning the dirt in the corners of every day people who are in it. Clean the streets and neighborhoods, and give us fire protection, police protection, and zoning compliance. Don’t make us guess if we have a good community, a residential neighborhood, or a bombing range based on who is in the house.

    Let’s clean house.

  24. Really Elaine?
    Oct 5, 2019, 7:09 pm

    “. . . the City of Boise in my time has been really committed to not expanding our footprint, except where it made sense . . . um . . . when it didn’t take up farmland, where there were services nearby enough, adequate enough, that you could extend them in a reasonably cost efficient way.” Elaine Clegg at October 1, 2019 City Council Work Session With Ada Co. Commissioners (video: 14 minute mark).

    I think the residents of the Northwest Neighborhood would fully disagree with this comment regarding both farmland and providing services, especially when only hours later, she voted in favor of a development that approved increasing density on farmland in their neighborhood!

    Reasonably cost efficient manner – really? You annexed the Northwest area of Boise in 2015 and did not secure an Automatic Aid contract with the Eagle Fire District. Boise paid zero for emergency response and allowed the Eagle Fire District to continue to provide fire response service to this area they use to control. The Eagle fire fighters continued to respond because it is the right thing to do – they care about safety first, not just the rooftop revenue. But the City of Boise’s actions have meant that the Eagle Fire District taxpayers have been subsidizing Boise services for nearly 5 years.

    When Harris Ranch was built, the City made sure to get a fire station built on the front end of development, then closed the nearby Whitney Station 22 off Amity Road. The people near this station who were annexed in 2003 now have a net loss of taxpayer funded municipal services. Another example of what “reasonably cost efficient manner” means to Clegg? Take from one and give to another?

  25. Deep Midnight
    Oct 6, 2019, 12:52 am

    ha. I just reread my first post; so many spelling errors. Sometimes I think the only purpose to technology is to make us all look more dumb.

    RE Question: The impression I get from a lot of folks is that what I saw in the meeting was pretty normal; any of the meetings would do. However, the meeting occurred on 9/17/19 at 6pm. CAR19-00014 Please let me know if you get the same impression. https://boisecityid.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?Frame=&MeetingID=3080&MediaPosition=3414.853&ID=12598&CssClass=

    RE What Else: Nope, not him. I do remember voting him in but I never followed him until now. Of all the folks up there who might uphold the American way of living, he would be it. I am sorry to hear that he is considering leaving. Regarding Sanchez, most social justice warriors do believe they have a great understanding of what folks need; they usually do not, nor do the recognize its really none of their business anyway unless they plan to give their ‘own’ money in the form of charity while leaving the rest of us the freedom to do the same.

  26. I noticed that the candidate forums go all the way to Cole Road! Wow!

  27. DM, Thank you for pointing this out. Here’s the video format link. Cut and paste if not showing as hotlink. The item starts at about the 50 minute point of the video and runs about an hour after that.

    http://boisecityid.iqm2.com/Citizens/SplitView.aspx?Mode=Video&MeetingID=3080&Format=Agenda

    The editor is correct. It’s a voter apathy driven love fest. The editor is the only local media who dare say so.

  28. Foothills Rider
    Oct 8, 2019, 2:14 pm

    To Deep Midnight and what he or she perceives as private property owners being told what to do on their land: The meeting in question was for REZONING. The original zone of parcel under discussion (parcel 3) was A-1. This allows 1 house on an acre of property. Before a rezone, the property owner was fully limited by that. Period. He/she could not do whatever they wanted on their land as you suggest.
    I am not pro or con on housing as proposed through Clegg’s motion. But I want to point out it is within her/council authority to make a motion requiring conditions more defined or stringent than standards. There is Idaho caselaw regarding such authority when rezone or CUP process is at play. There must be supportive evidence, of course. Clegg/Council quoted transportation studies, Smart Growth, Blueprint Boise. These are not code, just suggestions for future direction. Again, not that I agree, but it is within their authority.
    I think the quote from Council was “Zoning changes are a privilege, not a right.”

  29. Deep Midnight
    Oct 8, 2019, 9:29 pm

    RE Foothills Rider:

    A-1 actually means open land, which is some of the problem; the land was either supposed to always be a school or a park. Because of this, the developer and the neighborhood sat in several meetings to locate a compromise that would suit all affected; it gave the developer a good portion of what they were seeking, and the neighborhood a good portion of what they were seeking. Unlike a mandatory city meeting in which terms are dictated, these were totally voluntary and all agreed to the terms.

    While the city meeting was about REZONING, thanks for the all caps, the city is bullying the developer into low income housing by its motion instead of honoring a hard fought compromise between the residents and the developer; the compromise already agreed to by both parties. In fact, as I understand it, the developer was ready to go with these projects before Clegg began her demands.

    She specifically stated that the developer could only build 1 of 2 current projects until it submits its revised plan for the back 3rd parcel in question. The revision, of course, is entirely because of Clegg and entirely unneeded and unwanted; thus the City is actively preventing the developer from doing what it wishes on that land, chiefly to build something that works for both them and the neighborhood it may very well end up destroying.

    Anyway you slice it, except from the cheap seats, the city is preventing development on that land unless it gets what it wants. And while they can say all day that its not a demand, if you prevent someone from building on a mostly unrelated project until they submit an alternate proposal fitting only your requirements, tossing out what everyone else wants…well then it turns into a demand, doesn’t it. A bit like the mafia’s suggestions that you pay for their protection.

    While I appreciate the feedback, I find that you have some of your facts wrong, and you left out some important information which supports what myself and the neighbors believe. Additionally, your post leaves out entirely what she said about this lot always having been in the works to make her bus system work; specifically major transit hub.

    I agree, however, that they may have the authority, but that doesn’t mean such authority should be exercised, especially when the city becomes a roadblock unless it gets what it wants.

    EDITOR NOTE–Please try to keep the comments shorter!

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