OpenCDA

October 26, 2013

Tutorial: How to Inflate Your City Salary

Filed under: General — Tags: , — Bill @ 9:02 am

pile-of-cash[

Today’s Los Angeles Times reporting about the public corruption trial of Bell, California’s former Deputy City Administrator explains how DCA Spaccia and City Administrator Rizzo allegedly inflated their own salaries.

This is the kind of detailed, how-it-was done news reporting that educates voters and helps make it more difficult for corrupt public officials.   One of the best courtroom exchanges reported in today’s Times story could have applied here in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho:

 [Bell’s former Financial Officer Lourdes] Garcia said she assumed the city attorney had reviewed the council resolution that contained the vacation increases and that Rizzo told staff members that he would discuss changes with council members.

Did you assume the City Council was voting on things they never read?” Garcia was asked by Spaccia’s attorney, Harland Braun.

“Probably,” she said.

May 30, 2013

ACTION ALERT!

Filed under: General — mary @ 10:14 am

DSCN1096Dear OpenCdA Readers,

City Councilman Dan Gookin has called a Press Conference for tomorrow morning at 10:00am at the 3rd Street Boat Launch.  He will speak about the upcoming city elections, particularly the position of Mayor.  Please join us at the boat launch, which closes Saturday and will not open again until October.

Hope to see you tomorrow if you can get there,

Mary

May 5, 2013

Registering to Comment on OpenCdA

Filed under: General — Bill @ 10:01 am

Registration is required only to add a comment to a post on OpenCda.  Registration is not required to read either posts or comments.

To reduce the dramatic increase in automated (bot) registrations, OpenCdA is going to a manual registration.  Here are the steps to follow if you want to register initially or if you want to change your username or email address. (more…)

April 12, 2013

Here They Go Again

Filed under: General,The City's Pulse — mary @ 2:54 pm

Mary Souza’s Newsletter   -1

It’s been a long time since we talked about LCDC, and I know you’ll be thrilled to hear what they’re doing with your property tax dollars.  Our County Clerk,  Cliff Hayes, just released the yearly report of Urban Renewal money, so let’s look at LCDC’s portion:

More than $540,000 dollars in property tax that would normally have gone to NIC, went to LCDC instead.  And if you include all the urban renewal districts in Kootenai County, the total diverted away from NIC was almost $1million.  My, my, I bet the college would like to have that income right now.  Oh, wait, they do get their whole income because you and I and every other taxpayer in the County pay more on our NIC taxes to help make up for the million that goes to urban renewal.  (more…)

March 18, 2013

Open Session, Monday

Filed under: General,Open Session — mary @ 1:50 pm

220px-Goldkey_logo_removed“Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t”…remember that advertisement?  I’ve been watching the Press coverage of the CoinNuts mess.  And now, finally, the Prosecutor is going to step up and take action.

What do you think?  Anything else on your mind on this almost-Spring Monday?

February 21, 2013

More Important Things

Filed under: General — mary @ 12:49 pm

Mary Souza’s Newsletter    -3

Well, the CdA City Council showed their true colors once again Tuesday night. They approved the purchase of Person and Bryan Fields, but not before taking about 20 minutes to bash the School Board and Superintendent who were all sitting in the audience.  It was incredibly unprofessional.  Dan Gookin did not participate in the attack and Steve Adams was not present, but the rest of them went at it.  And this was all to do with a land purchase deal that they verbally agreed to last month. The details did not change, but now we witnessed the obvious political posturing of the Mayor and most of the Council.  I’ll delve into their possible motives at the end of this newsletter, but right now we have far more important things to discuss.  (more…)

January 3, 2013

6 ½ Hours of Fun!

Filed under: General,The City's Pulse — mary @ 4:48 pm

Mary Souza’s Newsletter  -1

6 1/2 hours of fun.  That’s what you missed last night if you didn’t attend the CdA City Council meeting or watch it on Channel 19.  The Agenda was way too heavy— poor planning by the City Administrator—the meeting didn’t end until about 12:30 am.

I was present until after Public Comments, then watched from home until I had to leave for the airport.  Here are the highlights, including some you won’t see reported anywhere else:  (more…)

December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas!

Filed under: General — Bill @ 12:26 pm

OpenCdACard

December 14, 2012

Excellence in CdA

Filed under: General,The City's Pulse — mary @ 1:40 pm

Mary Souza’s Newsletter  -1

Ready for a good news story with a frustrating twist?  Our local Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy has been ranked the #1 public high school in Idaho by US News.  It was also named #67 in the top 100 public high schools in the nation by Newsweek.

And the competition was not even close. No other Idaho school made the national top 100 list, (two southern Idaho schools were ranked 853 and 876) and the school second to Charter for state rankings was significantly behind Charter in Math and English proficiencies, which the Charter kids aced at 100% for each category. (For local comparison, CdA High was 89% for Math and 79% for English, Lake City was 77% for Math and 74% for English.)  (more…)

November 19, 2012

Open Session, Thanksgiving Week

Filed under: General,Open Session — mary @ 7:16 pm

Thanksgiving is coming this week and here’s a photo of some of our kids hamming it up for the camera back in 2003.  All four plus our son-in-law will be home for this Thanksgiving. I’m incredibly thankful for our wonderful family, and I thank God every single day.  I’m also thankful for our country, our state and our city, because, no matter how glum it seems at times,  we can definitely make a difference it our own futures.  What’s on your list this year?

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