OpenCDA

October 19, 2012

Save Person Field!

Filed under: The City's Pulse — mary @ 10:03 am

Mary Souza’s Newsletter 

Tuesday night’s CdA City Council meeting was high drama, complete with last minute add-ons, sudden teamwork and surprising unanimous agreement.

It also contained frustrations, accusations, dirty looks, calls for staff dismissal and much, much more. But let’s start with the positive stuff: 

Immediately after the meeting began, Councilman Dan Gookin added an Agenda item that may well end up saving Person Field, a neighborhood park loved by many in this city. Dan’s motion was to discuss possible City acquisition of the School District’s half of Person Field. The City already owns half of the field and has always promised to get the other half when the School District was ready to let it go.

Well, at last Monday’s School Board meeting, the Trustees voted to put their half of Person Field up for sale to the highest bidder on the open market because representatives of the City of CdA stated that the City can’t make a deal happen.

The incredibly important problem here is that the City Council never knew anything about it. Meetings between the School District and the City have been going on since last June, we discovered Tuesday, but the City Council was never in the loop. They were not told.  So who kept the information away from the Council?–Mayor Sandi Bloem and City Administrator Wendy Gabriel. (pictured above)

Dan Gookin was frustrated, he said, when he was phoned by a citizen telling him of the school board’s action. Both Ron Edinger and Steve Adams learned about it for the first time in the newspaper Tuesday morning. They were not happy. Mike Kennedy said he got a text message and Woody and Deanna didn’t say.

We elected our City Council to make the decisions. How can they be kept away from important information like this? By law, the Mayor’s job is administrative: To run the meetings, supervise the staff, and break any voting ties. The law also allows her “any authority conferred by the city council.”  Mayor Bloem’s job is not to make policy decisions on her own. City Administrator Wendy Gabriel’s job is to keep the City Council informed at all times. And a reminder sign outside Wendy’s office door at City Hall reads, “Have we informed the Council?”

Ron Edinger said he hates to read things in the newspaper that he, as an elected official of the City, should have known about already.  And he said this is not the first time it has happened.  Ron went on to question why Wendy says the City can’t buy Person Field, when they came up with money to buy the Cherry Hill property from the Eagles and they found more money for McEuen. Later in the meeting, citizen Susie Snedaker added to that list when she recalled the City recently came up with money to buy parkland on Fernan from the Mayor’s step brother and his partners.

Susie also reminded me of 2005, when the School District wanted to build a new middle school on Person Field. Mayor Bloem then signed away the City’s half of the park in an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) that was improperly completed in Executive Session, without public notice, knowledge or comment.  The school project fell through for different reasons, so Person Field was saved, no thanks to the City of CdA.

Speaking of which, where was our ubiquitous Parks Director, Doug Eastwood, last Tuesday night?  I was sure he’d be there, championing Person Field just as vigorously as he has McEuen, the Cherry Hill semi-pro baseball field and the CdA Lake Drive waterfront area. Nope.

Person Field is in an older part of town off of 15th Street near Lakes Middle School. It’s not fancy. It’s a plain, grassy but beloved green space. The people who live nearby are not high-rollers or political heavies. They are regular folks who have banded together several times in the past to protect their park. (I recall writing a column several years ago, warning that developers were salivating over Person Field. The City was not happy with me, so here we go again.)

Tuesday’s Council meeting also had several important public comments.  First was Tom Hamilton, Chairman of the School Board, who graciously attended the meeting after he learned that the Council had not been included in the City’s decision.  Tom said, “To be frank, it never occurred to us that this decision would be made without Council approval.”  He went on to offer the City a 60 day extension, pending approval from the whole School Board.  Tom said the Board wants the park to stay a green space for the neighborhood and will work with the Council toward that goal.

School Board Trustee Ann Seddon spoke to underscore the need to keep the area a park.  She said it is the “heart of the neighborhood” and Person Field activist Jody Teeter gave a heartwarming testimony on the value of the park.

School Superintendent Hazel Bauman spoke as well, on two topics.  She supports keeping Person Field as a park and hopes for better communication with the City Council.  But then Hazel reported her deep concern that information from an unrelated, confidential, unfinished negotiation between the District and the City was leaked to a local blog, which in turn used the inaccurate info to bash the School District. (She was looking right at Mike Kennedy).

Which also reminds me that Kennedy did the weirdest thing at the meeting: He was talking about the City and the School District working together on the Person Field deal, then he blurted out that “3 out of the 5 school board members supported the Recall” in CdA, but that he would “try to get beyond that” and work with them. How unprofessional to bring up a personal grudge in a City Council meeting!

Bruce MacNeil was especially concerned. He lives near Person Field and cited the past commitments made by the City.  He said it’s about trust and transparency. Mr. MacNeil went on to talk about the city employee’s embezzlement of $365,000 dollars.  He said it was the responsibility of the city’s Administrator and Finance Director to supervise and prevent this problem.  Bruce said, “I’ve been in both of those positions at the Federal level, and if that had happened on my watch, I would have resigned or been fired.  I expect you, as my elected representatives, to call for accountability.  I really think these two folks should no longer be employed here. I wish I didn’t have to say that, because I like them—they are nice people–and I wish this hadn’t happened, but it did.”

Wendy Gabriel quickly implored, “Madame Mayor, I have to request that any further berating of city staff should occur in private, not in public.” To which Sandi responded, “I agree.”

Berating?  I don’t think anyone was disrespectful or angry. Mr. MacNeil is a citizen standing up to voice his concerns about the apparent lack of accountability at the city.  He is not allowed to go into the council’s Executive Session to speak; the  Public Comment section of the meeting is the only forum available to citizens and I think he did a very good job. I quoted the direct record of his words, above, so you can judge for yourselves.

Accountability has been sorely lacking at the City, in my opinion.  With any problem or error, they circle the wagons and spend a great deal of time and energy defending each other rather than learning from their mistakes and making changes to improve their service to the public.  (Which, by the way, should be their number one mission.)

So what’s the message in all of this?  The Recall was important.  We need to clean house.  Keep a close eye on everything for one more year.

Next week I’ll write about the proposed administration change at the County, which I don’t support.  Then I’ll describe how much I do support the education reforms provided in Prop. 1, 2 & 3 on the ballot.  Please vote Yes, Yes and Yes.

If you want to watch the City Council meeting on your computer, it’s well worth your time, and the Person Field section is right near the beginning.  Just click here: http://www.cdaid.org/index.php/online-services/tv-channel-19/168-video-player-page?movieID=64

Have a great weekend!

Mary

11 Comments

  1. Mr MacNeils comments are spot on. In the real world managers are held accountable and should resign or be asked to leave under similar circumstances. In this town they are promoted and given merit pay increases to triple the average private sector salary. Today the Police Chief was named Citizen of the year. Nothing against Mr. Longo but aren’t we on the hook for 3+ million dollars under his watch? Where are the court transcripts for us to read? Where are the depositions? Transparency?

    Comment by jayhump — October 19, 2012 @ 12:09 pm

  2. Councilman Adams was also spot on with his comments when he stated that Mrs. Gabriel usurped her authority. Staff reports to the council. Perhaps her position could be eliminated since we have a deputy city administrator in place. The comments made by Mike Kennedy about the school board trustees supporting the recall effort were totally inappropriate. I thought the mayor promised no intimidation for anyone involved.

    Comment by doubleseetripleeye — October 19, 2012 @ 1:01 pm

  3. Deanna Goodlander said she “takes offense” at the October 16th City Council Meeting then the next day she wrote on Snuckleberries Online about bullying. Really? She never once has spoken out against bullying when Mike Kennedy has bullied and berated Dan Gookin and Steve Adams during council meetings. Speaking of being offended, I was offended when a few days ago I saw Deanna Goodlander in Fred Meyer and she gave me a very dirty look, she doesn’t know me and had never seen me before that day.

    Comment by Fiftysmtg — October 19, 2012 @ 1:18 pm

  4. Very good point, Jayhump, about the police dept employee lawsuit for wrongful termination, and might cost the city up to $4 million.
    (here’s Bill’s informative post on that topic: http://opencda.com/?p=10770)

    The city likes to give awards and throw parties for those within their ranks who make mistakes.

    Comment by mary — October 19, 2012 @ 1:40 pm

  5. I agree that Wendy Gabriel’s actions warrant her being removed. By intentionally withholding time-sensitive information about the Person Field transaction deadline, she exceeded any discretionary authority which allows her to present items to Council when those items are ready for presentation. Her actions allowing a deadline known to her to pass without alerting Council are inexcusable. She intentionally withheld time-sensitive information from the City Council.

    In my opinion, as an unelected member of the executive branch of City government she unlawfully usurped the authority of Council, the City’s elected legislative branch. The potential consequences of that are significant. First, her action may result in the loss or use of part of a City park to the detriment of Coeur d’Alene taxpayers. Second, she is not an elected legislative official. Her interference with the City’s lawful legislative process deprived me and others of the efforts and honest services of our elected legislative representation on City Council.

    Comment by Bill — October 19, 2012 @ 3:01 pm

  6. Nothing to see here folks, move along.

    Comment by up river — October 19, 2012 @ 4:09 pm

  7. If Person Field has been saved as a City park after Bloem’s and Gabriel’s apparent efforts to let it slip away so they could blame its loss on the new School District trustees, then an immense amount of credit is due to Council members Dan Gookin, Steve Adams, and Ron Edinger; to citizens Susie Snedaker, Bruce MacNeil, and Jody Teeter; and to School Board Trustee Chairman Tom Hamilton, Trustee Ann Seddon, and Superintendent Hazel Bauman. Their presentations Tuesday night were remarkable, all the more so because Bloem’s and Gabriel’s nearly-disastrous failure gave them just a few hours to put together an informative and effective presentation.

    The excellence of their combined presentations effectively backed Kennedy, Goodlander, and McEvers into a corner. They could hardly vote against the combined effort and desire of the School District and the nearby residents to “Save Person Field!”

    Comment by Bill — October 19, 2012 @ 5:21 pm

  8. Keeping the Council informed of pending non-routine matters has always been a simple email or phone call away. Communication improvements has always been top priority. So what has changed? And why? Who did we elect to make final decisions that impact the community? It certainly wasn’t the city administrator!

    Comment by LTR — October 19, 2012 @ 8:53 pm

  9. I watched the presidential debate instead of the Council meeting, but watched part of the meeting today on your video link. The video kept cutting out so I still haven’t seen it all, but will eventually. Sounds like a lively meeting!
    At one point, the mayor called on Wendy Gabriel, and after a long delay Jon Ingalls went up and made his presentation. Did Wendy ever make her presentation or was she too upset to speak?
    Another question: at one of the previous council meetings, Mr. Edinger asked Wendy about removal of certain trees in McEuen – whether the banding meant they were marked for removal? Wendy “didn’t know” but would get back to him.
    Did she ever get back to him?
    Last remark: The appraisal price for the school property was over $600,000. The recent embezzlement case was over $300,000. Hey, the City could have half the payment price if they had been aware of what was going on. Yes, Mary, I agree some house cleaning is needed.

    Comment by reddy — October 19, 2012 @ 9:38 pm

  10. Mary, Before anyone attacks you for an error in reporting, I want to clarify something. I did state that the city purchased property on Fernan Hill from Pat Acuff. As I sat down, I realized that I said Fernan when the property purchased was actually on Potlatch Hill. I apologize for the incorrect referral.

    Comment by Susie Snedaker — October 21, 2012 @ 12:31 pm

  11. Thanks for the correction, Susie. You know that I’m directionally challenged so, even though I knew you were talking about the hillside across the lake from Fernan Village, I wrongly called it Fernan Hill too, several times. Glad you clarified it as the backside of Potlatch Hill.

    Comment by mary — October 21, 2012 @ 1:48 pm

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