City Government
Links To Mayor Runoff Race
November 12, 2019 
KTVB Channel 7 has video of the City Club CANDIDATE FORUM with Lauren McLean and Dave Bieter. Bill Manny does a pretty good job moderating the questions from the audience as well.
Don Day at BOISEDEV did a nice interview with incumbent Dave Bieter. Bieter refused to say if he would repeat his letter in support of former priest convicted on kiddy porn charges.
IDAHO PRESS reporter Margaret Carmel covered the City Club forum and offers her account of the action.
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Comments & Discussion
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© 2019 Boise Guardian. 
Nov 12, 2019, 6:11 pm
Bieter is like a dirty diaper, it is time for a change. He has been acting like a Trump Republican thinking he can do whatever he wants without consequences. I’m surprised he didn’t call the election rigged due to bused in voters.
He is going to get his butt kicked Dec 3. He should concede and save the city the expense.
Nov 12, 2019, 9:23 pm
Tom, if hizzoner concedes, Lauren has to run against Arnold, which could be more entertaining.
Nov 13, 2019, 8:49 am
I watched the first few minutes of the forum yesterday. I’m more convinced than ever that Bieter has to be “term limited” out.
First topic – homeless. Bieter patted himself on the back for discouraging on-street homeless camping. (Is McLean in favor of homeless camps?) The solution? Taxpayer funded apartments. (Thank you, taxpayers! My question that goes unanswered: Will that result in an influx of homeless, expecting lots of handouts?)
Second topic – library. Bieter seems to think the only problem is that he didn’t do a good enough job of “selling” it to the public during his outreach sessions. (He may think lots of people are opposed because it’s not palatial enough – he seems that out of touch with his middle-class taxpaying citizens.)
Unfortunately (for us fiscally-minded people, at least), McLean also seems to believe that the main challenge for City Hall is to “sell” all the big-ticket bling, and we’ll eagerly ask them to spend our dollars for us.
(Perhaps both of them belong in Congress, rather than in local government.)
Nov 13, 2019, 11:21 am
It will be up to us, all to hold the City Council accountable on the library and stadium projects. The voters were not confused and sent a very clear message that they weren’t happy about these projects. Homelessness is going to be long tortuous issue. At least we have winters so a few will move on. Unfortunately yes, the taxpayers will have to subsidize the solutions as they come to light. Or we can ignore the problem and watch it get much worse.
Nov 13, 2019, 2:22 pm
Please stop calling it homelessness. That misinformation is the largest part of the problem. The misidentifying of the problem keeps the focus off the core cause.
They got nowhere to live because they are NUTS and everyone they know to include their own family has kicked them out. We are looking at a pandemic of untreated mental illness. Most are addicted from self medication with available drugs and alcohol. There are open beds in Boise now, but they require the person be sober. Everyone who thinks this be resolved with a cheap place to live is either motivated by profit (TeamDave) or is horribly ignorant. TeamDave wants taxpayers to pay for housing even though they know full well it’s not a solution. TeamDave and developer friends profit from building, any building for any reason.
Nov 13, 2019, 10:59 pm
Homeless- You hit the ball out of the park! Best post on Boise’s urban outdoorsman (homeless) I’ve ever read. There are many resources for these people in Boise but they choose to under utilize them.
Bikeboy- Building housing for them will not solve the problem. It will exacerbate the problem 10 fold. If you build it they will come. We will have a huge influx of these types if we coddle them with housing and other services. What’s next? We buy cars for them? Bieter has the right idea with the no camping ordinance. If we allow this our streets and parks will look like San Francisco and downtown will resemble skid row in no time. McClean is against the ordinance and said she would stop the litigation if she was elected. She has said that Bieter was wrong for dismantling Cooper Court.
Weather Bieter is elected again or McClean is voted in, we must make sure our city leaders are doing what’s best for the city as a whole and not 500-1500 people who want to trash the place.
Nov 14, 2019, 10:25 am
McLean did not say she would stop the litigation. There is too much forward momentum to just stop it. It could be rejected, or COB could lose, but it is not McLean’s doing.
jh
Nov 14, 2019, 10:40 am
For the 3 above commentators:
So what is your solution for homeless people?
Nov 14, 2019, 2:08 pm
There are lots of subcategories of homeless. Vets – the VA should help them. Abused women – they are a category. Drug addicts – another specialty. Teenagers – another category. There is not a one size fits all.
But it does take someone to care about someone else.
People have always lived on the fringe. If all the busses did not go downtown maybe there would be more problems and answers in the north end or east end. (lol)
Businesses pay those taxes to run the city. Please don’t let the homeless run my customer away.
Nov 14, 2019, 3:31 pm
A Bieter campaigner left a flyer at my front door this morning, interestingly asking me to vote for D.B. on November 5th.
The young man told me how important every vote is, since the Bieter campaign is expecting very low turnout on runoff day, in the area of 30%.
The true enemy of democracy is voter apathy. Please make the effort to vote.
Nov 15, 2019, 8:36 am
I just read a letter to the editor in one of this weeks issue of the Idaho Press this morning which indicated that if re-elected mayor Bieter was going to challenge in court, over the wording, the initiatives that passed by 2/3 of the vote in Boise.
I am waiting for Bieter to claim the election was rigged.
Nov 18, 2019, 11:21 am
Didn’t Ronald Reagan, as President, change how and the criteria for patients at mental institutions?
Instead of people with mental disabilities being taken care of at institutions now they can get a gun and live in the streets. How did we get here!
Nov 21, 2019, 9:34 pm
Just where is the lapdog City Council during all of this rambling? Let’s get new blood on the Council in addition to running Dave out of office.
Boise Needs Better!
Nov 23, 2019, 7:07 pm
The comments on homeless must be addressed. I totally agree with those concerned that if we install any policy that encourages MORE influx of homeless, that will put us where Commiefornia is right now.
I worked at a homeless shelter and there are many issues driving homeless causation. A functioning economy with a proper monetary base will solve most of the economic borne causes. The mental based issues are the hardest. The vomit on canvas claim by the above poster reveals willful ignorance about mental institutions. Read Dr. Bruce Levine’s work on the Psyche industry and YOU will NEVER want to see a shrink for anything, either.
We can’t leave them on the streets but you just don’t stick them in a mental ward and expect a solution. It’s like what happens in retirement homes, people are lost in a tortuous system. Oh, the gun comment betrays a hoplophobic sentiment….noted.
The fact is, Commiefornia looks like a place that doesn’t WANT to solve the problem, it looks like a place that wants a chaotic atmosphere to drive sane people out of the state. Well, it’s WORKING! The Big Tech firms can count on the cops to keep the street people away from their homes and properties, while the politicians wax endlessly on problems that THEY all created.
The same will happen here unless people get out of their tribal igloos and smell the coffee.
Oh, and comparing Bieter with Trump is laughable and indicative of a serious cognitive dissonance problem. Someone is watching waaaaaaay too much Mockingbird Press. #FakeNews