Mary Souza’s Newsletter
I hope you are having fun in this wonderful sunny weather. This is what makes the winter worth enduring!
Just so you don’t lose touch with what our fair City is doing during the summer, I thought you’d better be aware of a law they have just altered. One of my alert readers sent this info—thank you–which I then confirmed on the City’s web site. The changes to this law were approved by the City Council and signed by the Mayor on June 1st.
The law, quoted below, controls the use of alcoholic beverages within the city. You can see from the first paragraph that it is illegal to have an OPEN container of alcohol on any public property. Now read the second paragraph. It states that it’s illegal to have ANY container, whether open or not, on public property. Notice that they took out the term “public park” and substituted “public property”. (more…)
Madison Leonard, a wonderful young woman from our community, has just won the NATIONAL Junior Miss competition, which has been renamed the Distinguished Young Woman Award. Congratulations Madison! This 18 year old has been an active part of the Tea Party Patriots of North Idaho, speaking and singing at our events. She is deeply dedicated to the founding ideals of this country and clearly articulates her concerns about large government taking over our freedoms. Madison is outstanding and her win of this national title, and the college scholarship that comes with it, are great accomplishments.
Meanwhile, Ironman is done, Hoopfest is over and the summer moves on. Any comments, questions or ideas?
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My December 11, 2008, post titled “… a duty of honest services …” led off with this question: Do public officials owe ”… a duty of honest services…” to their constituents? Most of us think they do. So if they do, what does that duty entail? Are there penalties for public officials who ignore such a duty?
Yesterday’s unanimous US Supreme Court decision in Skilling v. United States made it clear that while the Court agreed with the legislative intent of 18 USC 1346, the Court would not expand that statute’s interpretation beyond Congress’s intent to confine its application to bribery and kickback schemes. In Skilling the Court held that public officials do have a duty of honest services to their constituents, but until Congress revises the law, failure to perform that duty is criminally punishable only in conjunction with bribery and kickback prosecutions. The Court’s decision includes a very good discussion of the issue of “unconstitutional vagueness.” Here is the Wall Street Journal‘s assessment.
It is now left to Congress to address that issue which the Supreme Court properly left to it: the very amorphous issue of undisclosed self-dealing by public officials.
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At the local level, “undisclosed self-dealing by public officials” refers to state, county, and city officials as well as independent officials such as urban renewal commissioners and others who have decision-making authority to spend public money and who allow their decisions, in whole or in part, to be influenced by those officials’ potential to benefit directly or indirectly from their own decisions. Thus, Skilling needs to be considered by our own legislature in examining Idaho’s conflict of interest laws. Don’t hold your breath.
Apparently there’s a notice in the Legals about someone named Rick Souza owing Mt. West Bank almost $150, 000. A friend called me to see if it was us…NO, it’s not. Surprisingly, the name Souza is fairly common. It’s a Portuguese name and is like “Smith” over in Hawaii, where my husband was raised. We’ve heard there’s a large family of Souzas in our general area, including another Mary Souza and another Rick Souza, but we don’t know them and are not related. Thanks for the concern.
What’s on your mind as we start into the first week of Summer? The weather? Ironman? How about the City leasing out its parking lots?
Here’s that story: On the 4th of July, the City will lease its downtown parking lots to the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber plans to DOUBLE the price of the parking in these lots, to help pay for the fireworks. What bugs me is the posturing at last week’s City Council meeting, where three council members question the decision, saying it will set a dangerous precedent and that this type of lease will be used by all kinds of fundraisers now…then they ALL voted in favor of the measure!
You can read my abbreviated version of the city council meeting minutes below: (more…)
The City has insulted one of its own. Apparently the City of CdA has named the $50,000 bunker in city park, “The Christie Wood Safety Building”.
Can you believe it? When did that happen?
According to this morning’s CdA Press, in an article about police on bicycles, the reporter referred to “The Christie Wood Safety Building” in city park. Since when does the city name buildings, or even sheds, after a living person? And since when to they name anything after a current city employee? (Christie is a Sgt. in the police dept. and is their Public Information Officer)
This is a slam against poor Christie because the “building” named after her is really a utility shed! It’s a small, cheap, concrete structure that looks like a hot dog stand. It is rarely used, has no heat, no bathroom, no telephone, no amenities and it’s closed most of the year, except around Ironman. What are your thoughts?
We were down at the car crusin’ parade of gems last evening. The turnout was great! Spectators lined Sherman and all along the cruise route. The cars were terrific and the weather was beautiful. It felt like the first day of the summer season. Were you there?
Any comments about this or any other thoughts, ideas or questions?
Only New York could come up with this type of convoluted thinking: Give every voter 6 votes in the County Commissioner election (they call them Trustees) It was a FEDERAL judge who ruled that this “one person, 6 votes” method was not only valid but essential to FAIR elections!
“(Voters) cast multiple votes on the instructions of a federal judge and the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a new election system crafted to help boost Hispanic representation.”
Maybe Kootenai County was ahead of its time with the last election?
Here’s the link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100615/ap_on_el_st_lo/us_voting_rights_election
From an article in today’s Wall Street Journal:
One favorite scheme for muni debt is giant and risky development projects.
Nice to see that Coeur d’Alene city government is at the head of this frightening national trend. Read the entire article here.
Here is a humorous video on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It underscores what I feel is a major problem with our elected officials and our culture: A lack of leadership. No, make that a fear of leadership. Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/v/wJ42aPoh55A
WARNING: The video contains adult language.
