OpenCDA

May 24, 2013

Good News, Better News & BREAKING News!

Filed under: The City's Pulse — mary @ 11:05 am

Mary Souza’s Newsletter    -1

Tuesday’s school board and hospital board elections are over now, and there is good news to report: The citizens of our community got to vote, and we had solid options from which to choose.  The candidates were all responsible, motivated people who got up off their couches, probably made themselves uncomfortable at times but got out there and offered to represent us as part of our local government. My sincere thanks go to each and every one of them.   (more…)

May 19, 2013

Dirty Tricks vs Honest Integrity

Filed under: The City's Pulse — mary @ 5:35 pm

vt_butMary Souza’s Newsletter  

The Balance North Idaho group has sent out a letter filled with twisted, manipulative information that amounts to nothing but campaign trickery.  And they’ve done it at the very end of the school board campaign, when there’s no time left to respond by mass media before the election Tuesday.  (more…)

May 6, 2013

Bend’s Vision seems Murky

Filed under: The City's Pulse — mary @ 11:32 am
McEuen 4/27/13

McEuen 4/27/13

Last week, Chief City Attorney Mike Gridley held a second breakfast meeting of “stakeholders” to discuss his new visioning project called CdA 2030. You might recall that I was invited to attend the first meeting of this group but declined, detailing my reasons in an Open Letter published in the Press.

Since the introduction of this concept in CdA, the city of Bend, Oregon has been held up as a model of success in the visioning process.  Even Bend’s visioning consultant, Mr. Steven Ames, is now part of the package being developed for CdA. So let’s take a closer look at Bend, Oregon and their visioning.  According to Bend’s local newspaper, the Bend Bulletin, their process started in late 2005 and, over the next two years, the city of Bend spent more than $300,000 on visioning. (more…)

April 22, 2013

Woody is “Freakin’ Out”

Filed under: The City's Pulse — mary @ 5:24 pm

Mary Souza’s Newsletter   -1

It’s Spring, so let’s talk baseball.  And let’s start with the American Legion’s “equal or better” promise from the City of CdA.  But that’s not all, we’ll also mull over the scuttlebutt that Memorial Field is being targeted for redevelopment. (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…)

April 4, 2013

Our Grads Aren’t Ready!

Filed under: The City's Pulse — mary @ 6:48 pm

Mary Souza’s Newsletter   Photos

I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, especially after a lovely Easter weekend, but we have some very serious problems to discuss.

You may not be aware of the terrible performance of our area grads, I certainly was not, so let me give you the facts:

I was shocked to learn that, for the students graduating from Lake City HS who apply to North Idaho College, more than 60% will have to take remedial math before they can start into regular community college classes.  More than 60%…oh my! And these are new grads from high school.  If they’ve been out longer than a year before starting back to school, the numbers are even worse.  (more…)

March 22, 2013

“Balance” is Off-Kilter

Filed under: The City's Pulse — mary @ 4:01 pm

Mary Souza’s Newsletter   -1

We are seriously out of balance in North Idaho.  The City has reached new heights of dysfunction and is teetering on the brink of self-made chaos, and a new political action committee has announced their intention to bring more “balance” to  our local school board, hospital board and city council elections.  The problem is they are not as balanced as they’d like you to think; they seem to lean heavily in one direction. (more…)

March 15, 2013

They’re Not Listening

Filed under: The City's Pulse — mary @ 4:43 pm

Mary Souza’s Newsletter  -1

You’ll want to read the interesting follow-up on the City Attorney’s insubordination, but I’ll save that for the end of this newsletter because I’d like to start with the blatant disregard from some of our area’s State lawmakers.  (more…)

March 6, 2013

“Confrontational & Rude”

Filed under: The City's Pulse — mary @ 5:07 pm

Mary Souza’s Newsletter   -1

“Disrespectful, unprofessional, confrontational and just flat out rude.”  That’s how CdA City councilman Steve Adams described the behavior of City Attorney Mike Gridley last night, because Mr. Gridley called Steve an “ignorant shit”.  And the Mayor just sat there and said nothing.  (more…)

February 18, 2013

Not a Done Deal

Filed under: The City's Pulse — mary @ 1:17 am

Mary Souza’s Newsletter   -1
I’ve been out of the fray for a while but have been watching and listening as many important issues are coming to the fore in our community.  You might be interested in some updated info, so here’s the first of my priority topics, because you will need to know this one for Tuesday night.  Then, later this week, I’ll tell you about more of them. (more…)

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