This press release is what police NEWS used to be about! It appears that kidnapping lizards is a felony rather than simple shoplifting when the lizards are of high value. WHO carries a lizard in their pocket?

The official police account:
This afternoon the Boise Police Department’s Organized Retail Crime Unit worked with the Caldwell Police Department to arrest Christopher Garcia,49, in Caldwell on two counts of felony Grand Theft.

Boise Police had been investigating the theft of multiple lizards from local retailers since July. Evidence indicates Garcia entered multiple retail locations in Boise and in each case waited until employees were not around, removed a lizard from their cage, and walked out with the lizard in his pocket.

Local retailers were an integral part of this investigation and helped BPD’s ORC unit identify Garcia. Garcia has been booked into the Canyon County Jail on the listed charges. Additional charges are expected.

Fellow commissioner, Democrat Kendra Kenyon, had expressed concerns of an open meeting violation over the appointment of former Congressman Raul Labrador to the Central District Health Commission. The matter was referred to Canyon County because the Ada prosecutor is the legal counsel for the commishes.

EXCERPT FROM TAYLOR’S LETTER

Looks like we are also in the top ten when it comes to spending to put away criminals.

But rather than tax the developers, bankers, mortgage brokers, or new businesses for housing the crooks, Idaho State Government dumps on the local counties by cheating us out of the cost to house the criminals sentenced to the custody of the Idaho Department of Corrections. Instead, the politicos offer tax breaks and advertise in California for folks to “Come To Idaho.”

It costs local counties about $100 per day to lock up offenders in the local slammer. IDOC has come up with a unique proposal to balance the state budget–screw the counties!

Under the current formula, the state pays $55 per day for each inmate for the first seven days and $75 per day for every day thereafter.

“A single daily flat rate is the way to go,” Idaho Department of Correction director Josh Tewalt told the legislative joint appropriation committee last week. IDOC is proposing a single daily rate of $60 for fiscal year 2021 and $65 for fiscal year 2022.

Ada County Sheriff Steve Bartlett called Tewalt’s proposal, “A terrible plan.”

Canyon Sheriff Kieran Donahue said, “If this proposal were to move forward, it would reduce our IDOC reimbursements by approximately 15% per year. That loss of revenue would have to be made up elsewhere, likely in the form of increased property taxes. In short, this proposal is nothing more than an insult to county taxpayers and county sheriffs across the state.”

Instead of offering tax breaks to businesses to relocate in Idaho, it would seem more logical to simply institute an “impact fee” on those newcomers including the developers who profit from all the increased population…and crime.

GROWTH CREATES MORE CRIMINALS AND NEED FOR PRISON BEDS

Most cities and counties in Idaho tell us the crime RATE per capita has gone down. So why the need for more jail and prison cells? Well, the “per capita” may have gone down, but there are more “capitas.” (Example: 10% of 100 is 10. 8% of 200 is 16. A 20% reduction in the rate, but a 60% increase in raw numbers)

Crappy. That adjective was used at a recent Valley Regional Transit (VRT) Board meeting by none other than the Leader of Team Dave (Mayor Dave Bieter) to describe the Valley Regional Transit System. At a later VRT meeting Hizzonor tried to walk back his comment saying he was referring to the financing available to VRT and not the actual operation of the system itself.

But the recently released VRT 2018 Annual Report seems to confirm Hizzonor– a system of extremely poor quality — one definition of crappy.

A few highlights.
• VRT spends about $ 10 million a year to provide bus service in the Valley.

• Passenger fares covered about 7 % of the cost in 2018. Possibly a new low. Most of the remaining 93% was borne by local and Federal tax dollars.

• Bus ridership is down, again, Valley wide despite all the population growth in the Valley.

• Even after adding service in 2018, Boise bus ridership declined about 4% from 2017- a new recent low. The 2018 ridership level, about 1.46 million trips, has not been seen since the 1980s when Boise’s population was half of what it is now.

• Nampa, Caldwell, and Intercounty ridership declined about 7% from 2017. Why is ridership down in the Valley despite adding evening and other services? Well, one reason could be riders like buses to be on time. Buses in the Valley aren’t running on time.

• Boise buses run late (more than 5 minutes) nearly 35% of the time.

• Nampa and Caldwell buses run late about 45% of the time.

• Intercounty service buses late about 45% of the time. Worse yet, buses pass their stops early. Nothing more aggravating than seeing the back end of the bus you were trying to catch because it passed the stop early.

• Boise buses run early nearly 6% of the time.

• Nampa or Caldwell buses run early 12% of the time.

• Intercounty service operates early about 10% of the time.

Bus riders appreciate clean, well maintained buses, which operate on time, or nearly on time, providing consistent service by friendly, knowledgeable, safe drivers. Those are key elements to building ridership and increasing passenger revenue. As usual, VRT is moving with glacial speed to address declining ridership and buses not running on time.

Rather demanding administrative cost reductions and better management of existing resources from VRT, the only answer Boise politicos seem to have for improving the bus system is to throw more money at it.

Certainly a crappy deal for local taxpayers who already pay more than $7-$8 in excess of the fare for every person who rides a bus.

The writer has extensive education and professional experience in transit issues.

EDITOR NOTE— here is a link to a BUS SOLUTION we posted 12 years ago…it got nary a nod from the bus folks, the council, or the mayor.

“It was amazing! On one page Chief Justice Roger Burdick is urging legislators to seek more parole officers and other alternatives rather than building more prisons. Turn the page and the (Canyon) Commissioners are announcing their new web site aimed at “educating voters” about the need for a new jail,” said Alldredge.

He sent the following request to the commishes.

“Dear Commissioners:
It was with great interest that I read the account of Chief Justice Roger Burdick’s “State of The Court” address to the Idaho Legislature. He made it clear the answer to our criminal justice problems was not to build more prisons.

He advocated increased probation/parole staff, alternative sentencing, etc. In the interest of fair and balanced “education” I would like to formally request you include his remarks and a link to his speech on your new Jail Statistics website.”

Canyon County has contracted with PR CONSULTANT Ysabel Bilbao at the rate of $3500 per month plus expenses to “educate” voters.

Seems the Commishes in 2C feel the voters aren’t very smart and need to get “educated.” While they give tax breaks to about any business willing to locate in the county, they are launching a promotional campaign at taxpayer expense to influence the outcome of a future bond election.

Canyon may or may not need a new jail, but the past and present commishes have been spanked repeatedly by voters when it comes to paying for the various jail proposals. Former commishes made an illegal land purchase that was overturned by the Idaho Supreme Court.

We find it disturbing that local governments refuse to honor the will of the people unless it conforms to their desires. In November the Ada County Highway District made a blatant attempt to influence the outcome of a proposed vehicle fee hike that exempted the heavyweights, but they at least avoided using public funds.

Perhaps its time to get some tax money to “educate” the politicos.

With the possible exception of Canyon County failing to post the mugshot of Adams, it looks to us like the incident is being handled in a proper professional manner. We await an explanation from the Canyon sheriff. The mugshot of Adams was posted on the IDAHO PRESS website at 4:44pm Tuesday, so discussion regarding the photo is now moot.

Adams was booked into the Canyon County Jail on a misdemeanor charge of DUI and released. Adams immediately contacted his chain of command at BPD. He was immediately suspended with pay pending further internal investigation and the results of his Canyon County Court proceedings.

A Canyon County Sheriff’s deputy arrested Adams, after responding to the call for service at 10:32 p.m. on 8/23/18 near Boehner Road and Fargo Road in Wilder. Adams was off-duty and driving a personally owned vehicle when he was contacted by the CCSO deputy.

Historically the Boise PD has not fired officers for DUI offenses on the advice of legal counsel. Many professional delivery services, trucking firms, and airlines immediately terminate employees convicted of DUI for insurance reasons. After all you wouldn’t want a pilot at the controls if he had a judgement problem like drinking too much. Same is true for an armed officer.

Growth is costly, especially when it comes to criminals. Regional jails sound better all the time, but not when a single county taxes its residents hoping to sell beds to other jurisdictions in the future.

Here is the lengthy letter from the CCCCC to the 2C commishes:

Canyon County Commissioners
Dale, White, Rule:

** Ron Harriman, Kathy Alder, Victor Rodriguez, Paul Alldredge, Chuck Stadick, Dale Pearce,
Darl Brunner, Bob Gaddis, Daryl Ford, Don Brandt, Ed Parnell, Hubert Osborne, Larry Olmsted,
Mila Wood, Ronalee Linsenmann, Sid Freeman, Tara Alexandra

The good news is the price of gas is down, so motorists are not spending so much to commute.

The bad news is the price of gas is down, so motorists are not spending so much to commute.

No matter how you cut it, ridership for both the Valley Regional Transit public buses and the Commuter Ride van pools has declined in the past few years. That has caused a bit of a scramble for public money and officials are looking for ways to find cash and riders.

We won’t even try to write a comprehensive explanation, but the Idaho Code which enables the VRT also gives the agency total control of ALL public transit in Ada and Canyon counties. That includes the buses, the commuter vans, and even the Boise Green Bike scheme.

There is a plan being bounced around to give the commuter ride to an Enterprise car rental subsidiary that contracts with local authorities to provide a “for profit” system similar to the existing ACHD Commuter Ride outfit. Of course that includes large doses of public money.

Like all things in government, politics is an issue. The VRT executive board seems to be leaning toward the Enterprise deal, despite a one year old deal in Canyon which has never carried a rider.

Ada County Highway District has 133 vans, mostly 13 passenger models, which are mostly funded through fares and subsidies. VRT wants to regain control of that system and has full authority to do it. One of their big selling points is eliminating the vans (which Enterprise would provide) and a claim that 32% of the current vans are unused. ACHD has sent a letter to riders in an effort to generate support for their service which they claim is viewed as a success.

The VRT board is comprised of local officials from each city as well as Ada and Canyon. The organization is so big and cumbersome that most of the decisions come from the Executive Board.

The bus people won’t let BSU’s shuttle use the new transit center, so they dump commuters at curbside near the Clearwater building downtown.

Meanwhile ACHD is in the midst of a scuffle over a “gentleman’s agreement” with VRT dealing with lane use in exchange for commuter ride concessions. Look for a lot more to come on the issue, including Boise City’s push for more bikes and fewer cars downtown.

It will come to a head August 7 when the VRT Executive board makes a presentation to the members. There is a split between Team Dave loyalists and the ACHD traditionalists. A final vote will come in September.

If you are looking for details, sift through the 57 PAGE REPORT.

Also, here is the ACHD LETTER sent to van pool riders. Keeping C-Ride at ACHD Message

At 12:49 am, an Idaho State Police trooper was stationary on the right shoulder westbound on I84 at mile marker 36 investigating a crash. A 2014 Nissan Versa, driven by Rachel Carter, 36, of Caldwell, was traveling westbound and sideswiped a 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan. Upon impact, Carter’s vehicle struck the guardrail and the rear left corner of the unoccupied patrol vehicle. Carter was taken into custody by the Nampa Police Department for suspected Driving Under the Influence. The driver of the Caravan, Jenna E. Morris, 35, of Fruitland, was not injured. The trooper was not injured.