That’s right. Boise City Councilors authorized $30,000 to be spent for a mere 500 responses to the survey–that comes out to $60 per interview. They use the answers to “guide the budget priorities” as they did with the $10 million windfall at Christmas.

The contract was awarded last month to an outfit called Northwest Research. Here are the duties outlined in the proposal:

Scope of Work:
1) Build on a previous citizen survey conducted in the spring of 2005 by developing and carrying out a 500 person survey lasting approximately 20 minutes, and deliver a report of the findings to the
Mayor and Council.
2) Facilitate focus groups on key public policy issues such as transportation, growth, etc.
3) Assist City departments with conducting additional customer surveys and feedback mechanisms.
4) Recommend and provide creative technology based tools to enable additional public feedback on
significant issues as they arise.

We would bet one of those “creative technology based tools” found in #4 includes the weekly Team Dave e-mail spam. Hard to criticize a mayor communicating with the public, but when the site has a picture of the candidate in shirt sleeves, it sure looks like a campaign tool to the GUARDIAN. If it had a picture of the entire council and the message–or even other pages on the city site–included other Councilors it may be less suspect.

Since ALL e-mails in the city are a public record, Team Dave–and those who subscribe–need to remember ANYONE can get those addresses for their own campaign spam.

It seems council president Elaine Clegg gave direction to lobbyist Lyn Darrington on how to testify on a bill that would impact Boise’s urban renewal agency, the CCDC. She told the GUARDIAN it was a “no brainer” on how the city should view the proposed bill which would have mandated election of board members by the public–she was against it.

She said there was “nothing nefarious” about the way things are being handled with regard to the Idaho Legislature adding, “We have taken measures to increase communication among council members with weekly e-mails from the lobbyist.”

She said councilors were welcome to attend a weekly Monday meeting to get further updates regarding legislative issues effecting Boise. We applaud the move.

The GUARDIAN did some further checking and finds that on January 16 Boise Councilors hired not only the local Gallatin Group and lobbyist Lyn Darrington for $45,000, but they also hired another firm, Ball Janik LLP for $66,000 to do their bidding with the Feds.

Each private lobbying firm is to be the “primary point of contact” between Boise and the Feds or State government.

We find this to be downright absurd!

We have ELECTED state and federal senators and representatives. We have ELECTED city councilors and a mayor. The system is dysfunctional if we need to BUY influence through lobbyists to be heard in the legislative halls of America. We are sickened at learning of this new practice.

Here is the job description in the city contract:
Scope of Work:
1) Serve as a consistent and effective primary point of contact between the City of Boise and State
agency officials and elected representatives.
2) Assist with development and execution of the City of Boise’s 2007 State legislative agenda,
including analysis, preparation, coordination, and filing of legislative items, whether statutory or
Constitutional in nature.
3) Identify, prioritize, monitor, and respond to State legislative and regulatory proposals that have
potential implications for the City of Boise and its operations, and report back regularly to City
officials regarding the status of these items.
4) Schedule and conduct frequent and regular meetings with State lawmakers, Legislative staff, City
of Boise officials, and representatives of the City’s governmental and community partners before,
during and after the 2007 State Legislative session.
5) Represent the interests of the City during the 2007 State Legislative session by regularly attending committee meetings, monitoring floor votes, preparing correspondence with key lawmakers, and providing relevant testimony when applicable.
6) Consult on a regular basis with City of Boise officials, including the Mayor, members of the City
Council, Department heads, and other City staff and advisers about the status of and strategy
regarding State legislative and statutory issues.

The BOISE WEEKLY did a story mentioning the lobbying contracts earlier and we expect a bigger one soon from the STATESMAN.

After visiting the favelas of Rio we can clearly see the benefits of “in fill” development advocated by some members of Boise’s city council. You can certainly create a demand for mass transit and eliminate automobile travel. Also no zoning, plat approval, or variances to consider.

City Hall in Rio is probably a bit much for our Idaho tastes and conservative voters here would never approve a bond to finance it. However, councilors may come up with some creative financing deals with CCDC and do it without voter approval.

We have been unable to stimulate any support for a viewpoint atop Table Rock–other than fond memories of illicit drinking. We do think the similar view in Rio might prompt some to visit our city for something other than a peek at the blue turf.

Finally, wouldn’t it be neat to have a cable car that runs off Warm Springs Ave.–perhaps near the East Park Center Bridge–up to Table Rock? The city could get a grant to study extending it all the way to Bogus Basin. That probably wouldn’t work because folks in the East End wouldn’t want increased traffic, but North Enders would have less traffic.

Just some random thoughts from south of the equator.

The bill was held in committee and effectively killed by a 10-8 vote, but the REAL story is WHO testified and WHY. Two non-elected people paid with citizen tax dollars urged legislators to prevent citizens from having the power to elect those who directly spend property tax money to subsidize developers downtown.

Lyn Darrington is a lobbyist paid by the city of Boise–but from whom does she get her orders? Phil Kushlan is director of the CCDC, Boise’s city appointed urban renewal agency–did he clear his testimony with the council?

The GUARDIAN sought to find out who authorized these hired guns to speak as representatives of Boise City. Councilor Vern Bisterfeldt categorically denied knowledge of any council meeting or discussion about the bill and didn’t even know it existed. Councilor Jim Tibbs also said he was unaware of any legislative proposal regarding urban renewal let alone any city position.

The GUARDIAN is very concerned that hired guns are purporting to speak on behalf of Boise City when the city council has not discussed the matter (any topic), arrived at a consensus on a position, or given direction on how they want to proceed–at a public meeting or otherwise.

The particulars on the proposed legislation are not important. We support public election of anyone allowed to directly collect taxes and spend them. Boise officials are consistent in denying citizens a vote on who spends their tax money and how it is spent. CCDC is an agency without significant oversight and direction from elected officials–like the city council.

It looks to us that at best it is a lack of communication, but we fear certain staff–or even council members have quietly taken it upon themselves to speak in the name of the “city of trees” when they may be a mere voice in the wilderness.

For the record, the Chamber of Commerce also testified against allowing citizens to vote for those who spend their tax dollars.

From the reports and quotes we have seen–especially the great reporting by Lora Volkert at the Idaho Business News web site–it is another story of government by the uninformed.

The proposal called for an ELECTED three member board with a countywide vote. The reason a county vote is appropriate is because the CCDC takes county taxes (as well as city and ACHD) and subsidizes the developers.

Let’s hope some common sense emerges on this issue. Boise City Councilors can–and SHOULD disband the current CCDC board and act themselves to run the urban renewal agency which is a city entity funded by tax dollars.

Rep. Dell Raybould of Rexburg had a great idea. VOTE OUT the mayors and councilors who appoint urban renewal boards if you don’t like the way they do business. Great idea Dell!

Public employees are EXPECTED to do a good job, be on time and not absent from work. Those who do good things and follow the rules should be fairly and adequately compensated for their efforts.

They also deserve some job security–unlike what county employees apparently will have under the new “at will” classification which will allow firing without cause.

Anything “extra” a public employe does should be compensated through overtime, promotions, salary increases, or compensatory time off. To use surplus tax money for one-time bonuses is merely redistribution of the wealth.

BONUSES should be awarded only to those who risk their lives “above and beyond the call of duty” or quantifiably save money for the taxpayers through:

–whistle blowing which reveals corruption, waste, fraud, and abuse.
–suggesting cost-savings procedures they are otherwise not paid to perform.

If all workers deserve more money, make across the board raises. It is hard to tell them they are worth an extra $200 this year, but next year they are not.

To simply “share the wealth” from tax collections is inappropriate use of public money in the GUARDIAN’s opinion.

KBCI TV-2 reports on Wednesday full-time employees got $200, part-time employees $150, and temporary employees $50. The council previously approved spending a $10 million budget surplus which included the one-time bonuses.

In real terms the budget “windfall” amounted to just about $100 per household.

Our concerns with the Mayor Bieter spending spree is that it is a one-time deal and came about mostly due to a healthy economy. In short, the city had some extra money from taxpayers and managed to spend it all.

We don’t have any specific opinions about “merit pay” vs “bonuses,” but in the private sector bonuses usually happen based on increased sales and profits–not as a result of more taxes being collected or fees related to growth.

Here are some others that we would like to know about as well.

–What is the status of the gas fired power plant the city council approved on public land south of the airport?

–How come the city has not scheduled a bond election for an airport parking garage as the Supreme Court said they had to to go into long term debt.

–What is the status of all the surplus land the city owns in the area of Fairview and 25 and Fairview and 29th?

–Did the second worker fired at the Poop Farm get convicted of any crime?
–Why no bond election for a police station and are there plans afoot for alternate financing?

If you have and answers to these questions, please let us know. You may also have questions of your own.

Reaction from Boise’s Team Dave was swift and positive.

“I know I speak for all of the members of the Mayor’s Detox Steering Committee when I say how thrilled I am that Gov. Butch Otter has included $865,000 in his proposed budget to assist in constructing a community detoxification facility in Boise,” said Mayor Dave Bieter in a prepared statement.

Bieter didn’t mention the BOISE GUARDIAN had previously called for the state to step up and obey the law as the legislature had mandated. He probably just forgot to credit us.

We broke the GUARDIAN STORY October 1, 2005. We took an unusual approach and quoted the law.

State auditors followed up with a devastating report two months later which took the Health and Welfare Dept. to task for not doing its job. Gov. Jim Risch followed later and appointed Jim Tibbs as the state drug czar.

The law has a total of 11 sections, 39-304 seems to be the most explicit detailing responsibility of the State to handle detox duties.

Now that we have the record straight, we too think it is nice for Guv Butch to kick in some state money for detox–it is badly needed.

J.R. is 98 today and recovering from a fall and bump on the head suffered outside the Fiesta Bowl. We wish him and the family all the best.

Butch appropriately had sideline seating befitting the governor. We hope that bumming rides on corporate jets isn’t a sign of the future.

Meanwhile Boise City’s Team Dave reports Mayor Bieter paid for everything out of his own pocket and sat in the stands with the orange and blue fans. Even a great football game has political overtones.