OpenCDA

May 20, 2016

The Shakedown Begins …

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: — Bill @ 3:51 pm

cpd-station-signWith the approval of the Coeur d’Alene City Council at its meeting on Tuesday, May 3, Mayor Steve Widmyer has officially been given the go-ahead to begin soliciting donations for a water feature in Coeur d’Alene’s McEuen Park.  Widmyer and  retired Coeur d’Alene police officer Christie Wood will co-chair the fund raising.  The water feature is represented to be a police-themed memorial to deceased police sergeant Greg Moore.

Council member Dan Gookin offered this motion:  “Mr. Mayor, I would like to make a motion to approve the preliminary design and to direct the Mayor to proceed with fund raising efforts and to report back to Council when fund raising is complete.” [emphasis ours]  Council member Edinger seconded the motion.  The motion passed on a voice vote.

In his eagerness our giddy Mayor Widmyer didn’t even bother to  ask if there were any ‘nay’ votes, declaring the motion passed after only asking all those in favor to declare ‘aye’.  However, given the comments by several Council members before the vote and expressing their intention to write donation checks themselves, we doubt many of them had the inclination to fulfill their duty to constituents to seriously and publicly question the project’s merits, let alone vote against it.

McEuen is a public park built on public land.  Public funds will be spent to maintain the water feature.  OpenCdA thinks the Council acted hastily and irresponsibly.  In spite of the emotional appeal and public sentiment to honor SGT Moore, there were and are nevertheless some legitimate questions that needed to be discussed publicly at the Council meeting.  Here are some we wish had been asked.

QUESTION:   Is this a sincere effort to honor SGT Moore’s memory or is it an effort by Mayor Widmyer and his downtown cronies who have businesses on Sherman and Front to exploit SGT Greg Moore’s untimely death to do something that could not be done before?

That’s brutally blunt, but it is a completely reasonable question given the history of the McEuen redesign project and comments made by Coeur d’Alene Parks & Recreation Director Bill Greenwood on April 25, 2016, at the General Services Committee meeting.

The McEuen redesign project started cutting back on amenities when the public pushed back over how much the project was going to cost.  That is confirmed in the General Services Committee packet for its April 25, 2016, meeting in the Staff Report for the proposed water feature.  The ‘History’ heading in that Report clearly states, “The original McEuen redesign had a modern type fountain as one of the elements for the park.  Due to cost restraints [sic] we were unable to provide that amenity at the time.”

Also at the April 25 General Services meeting, City Parks & Recreation Director Bill Greenwood said, “And in fact, McEuen had a water feature in the original concept. It was a more formalized fountain, so we thought this was an opportunity to go after that feature that we didn’t get in the park in the original design. And then also, um, recognize Greg.”

We recall the statement attributed to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel when he was President Obama’s White House Chief of Staff:  “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

QUESTION:   How did the Mayor determine SGT Moore’s family wanted a memorial in addition to SGT Moore’s funeral and commemoration by the City, State, and national cenotaphs to fallen law enforcement officers?

QUESTION:   Did the City openly and publicly solicit public input for a memorial to SGT Moore? If not, why not?  If so, how and when?

QUESTION:   How many other concepts and locations or ideas for commemoration were presented by the department and the City for the Moore family’s consideration?  Or was SGT Moore’s family presented with only the Mayor’s proposal?

Speaking at the General Services Committee meeting on April 25, Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said, “In speaking with members of the Association and, um, what I’ve heard from Greg’s survivors, that everybody absolutely loves this idea and supports it.” [emphasis ours]

Chief White’s language certainly suggests that the Mayor’s water feature proposal was the only one presented to SGT Moore’s survivors.  Under the circumstances, would anyone really expect gracious and grieving family members to reject the Mayor’s proposal?

QUESTION:   How much City (public) money has already been spent or obligated to this project?

At the General Services Committee meeting City Parks & Recreation Director Bill Greenwood said, “The funding for this will not come out of the Parks General Fund or its Capital Fund. It’ll be some private stuff that other folks are working on. “

Yet just ten minutes later, Greenwood was asked by Council member Miller, “Who funded the current design?”   Greenwood answered, “So the current design that Jon [Mueller, Architects West] did, it came out of my designer fees and Parks Capital.”

Greenwood contradicted himself, first saying the funding would not come out of Parks Capital Fund, then moments later saying money already had come from the Parks Capital Fund.

QUESTION:   At both General Services and Council meetings, Greenwood and the Mayor dodged questions about the cost of the proposed water feature.  If they do not have some estimate of completed costs,  what is the basis for the Mayor’s $750,000 fund raising goal?

QUESTION:   What happens if the public donations are insufficient to meet the expected costs?  Conversely, what happens to the surplus if donations exceed the actual cost of the project?

Greenwood and the Mayor represent that all the funds needed will be donated.  Prospective donors are absolutely entitled to know the disposition of their donation before they give it.

QUESTION:   Under the Mayor’s proposal, how will the “donations” be tax exempt?  If a third party (e.g., a 501(c)(3) foundation) will be involved, exactly what percentage of the gross donations will go directly to complete the project and what percentage will be used for other purposes (e.g., administrative fees and expenses to foundation)?  Will naming rights be involved for those especially generous donors who give more than the suggested $27?

The first question was asked by Council member Gookin at the Council meeting.  Greenwood said, “The Mayor and I spoke a little bit about this. We’re thinking that we would probably run the fund raising through the Parks Foundation?”  We presume he means the Panhandle Parks Foundation.

QUESTION:   At the April 25 General Services Committee meeting, Council member Edinger asked, “Ah, are we setting a precedent by making this one place, just say for Sergeant Moore?”

Mayor Widmyer responded, “The plaza isn’t going to be named. There’s, this is going to be a feature in the Park. And, and Bill [Greenwood] can correct me. There are, there are other features in the Park. This isn’t , this isn’t going to have a specific name to it. But we are going to have it, um, have Greg’s monument there, his likeness there.

And, and heaven forbid, we hope nothing ever happens.   If by chance something does happen, there will be another spot where we could honor that fallen person as well. There. So it, it’s not gonna be – this feature isn’t going to be named.   You’re not going to see it on a map. You’re not going to see. You’re going to see that it’s a feature in the Park similar to the other features that are in the Park today.”

QUESTION:   Why is this water feature design limited to honor only sworn police officers? What if a firefighter dies? What if a Street Department worker dies? Or a Water Department worker? Or any worker in any other City department? Don’t the lives of all City employees matter enough to honor them similarly if their life is taken from them while serving the City?  What if another jurisdiction’s officer (e.g., a Kootenai County deputy sheriff or an ISP Trooper) dies in Coeur d’Alene rendering mutual aid?  Who will make the decision to determine who is qualified to be memorialized, and what will the criteria be?

The theme and design of this water feature focuses exclusively on sworn police officers, “The Thin Blue Line.”  By theme and design it excludes all other City employees.    Thus, at the Council meeting on May 3, Greenwood was being disingenuous when he said, “And heaven forbid this should ever happen again to anybody, but I would like to see this be exclusively just for City of Coeur d’Alene. And so, therefore, there is room if that should ever happen again, heaven forbid, but it could be for fire and police. So, it wouldn’t be, it is in honor of Greg, absolutely, but again, it could be an opportunity for someone else.” [emphasis ours]

OpenCdA is disgusted by Coeur d’Alene Parks & Recreation Director Bill Greenwood’s characterizing the death of any other City employee, or any person for that matter,  as somehow being  “an opportunity.”

We are saddened and disappointed that the Mayor sees fit to single out only sworn police officers as worthy of recognition should they die while performing their duties for everyone in Coeur d’Alene.

QUESTION:  At the April 25 General Services Committee meeting, Council member Miller asked Greenwood for the discussion about this water feature versus SGT Moore’s name being engraved on the cenotaph at the Fallen Heroes Plaza in Coeur d’Alene’s Cherry Hill Park.

Greenwood responded, “Well, I think that some of that stems from more respect for Sergeant Moore and it was something that the Mayor had a vision about and wanted to do something to a grander design. And in fact, McEuen had a water feature in the original concept. It was a more formalized fountain, so we thought this was an opportunity to go after that feature that we didn’t get in the park in the original design. And then also, um, recognize Greg. That’s how it came together.”

Later in the General Services meeting, Mayor Widmyer added, “And the question about the Fallen Heroes Plaza is a very good one. But my thought was that, um, this situation is so much bigger than that. The Fallen Heroes Plaza is a lovely place, right? But it’s very passive, not many people go there.

My thought is that I, I want thousands of people every year to go by this memorial and be attracted to it by the water feature.

And, there’s going to be a, a, uh, uh, a stone, in my mind, if all this gets approved, with Greg’s likeness and a story there.

And this is so big that I want thousands upon thousands of people to go by this every year.

So that’s why the, the, the choice of this spot was mine. And it was for that reason.”

QUESTION:  At the April 25 General Services Committee meeting, Council member Evans’ only question was, “Um, is it designed to be interactive? I don’t want to say a play structure, but similar to the Independence Point stream there?”

Architect Jon Mueller responded, “Yes. It, it, we have that ability to, um, allow folks to get down, ah, inside, ah, the bases or the stream itself if we want. Um, I think what that does, though, it brings up a, a cost scenario where we might have to consider some different lining to be a little tougher and a little more long-wearing.

But certainly that’s an aspect, that’s part of what we have to take forward now. Ah, we have the idea. Ah, now we get down to the mechanics of it and, and, ah, what those costs relate to. So, long answer but the answer is yes.”

Is that what the citizens of Coeur d’Alene envision the Sergeant Greg Moore Memorial to be?  A wading pool?

OpenCdA is very disappointed that the Coeur d’Alene City Council was not more deliberative about the Mayor’s proposal.  The Council members represent and to some extent advocate for all the citizens who live and work here — or at least they are supposed to.  We citizens expect Council members to ask appropriate questions that ensure not only public money but private donations entrusted to the City will be lawfully and properly spent.

We wish the Mayor and Council would have been open-minded enough to seek public input.  We offered ours anyway in earlier posts on April 25 and 27.

But clearly the Mayor’s and Jon Mueller’s focus was on the design of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, DC.  That’s fine … for a start.

We wish while they were in DC, they had driven out the GW Parkway to suburban Virginia to see the CIA Memorial Wall and to better understand and hopefully feel the emotional impact of its simplicity and dignity.

Cia-memorial-wall

We wish they had gone south to the Eglin Air Force Base near Valparaiso, Florida, to observe the EOD Memorial Wall and understand how the US military services honor the memory of military explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians who graduated from the United States EOD School and died on active duty while performing an EOD mission.

And on their way home, we wish the Mayor and Mueller had stopped in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to see the Oklahoma City National Memorial.  Each of its chairs commemorates one and sometimes two people who died in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.  We wish our Mayor and Mueller had taken the time to stop there and learn about the careful and sensitive thought and preparation and planning that created the memorial “… to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.”

2 Comments

  1. Please understand I believe that a nice sober memorial to honor those that have fallen in service of the county the city and those from the area that died in service to the country would fit and be a welcome addition to the park. Something that was planned from the beginning for that purpose alone.
    However what the parks dept. and the mayor is proposing is just REMAKE of a failed attempt to put something back that was turned down in the original compromise to cut the cost of the park.
    I can see reintroducing the project as monies come available but to do so using the death of Officer Moore as a pretext is just about as reprehensible and dishonest as anything can be.
    As for taxpayer money being used, it already has and as expenditure, I don’t recall the council approving.
    What will happen next is after a set time and the full funding has not materialized the city bank/LCDC will step to the plate claiming that it is not city money and complete the project.

    Comment by Mike Teague — May 24, 2016 @ 10:38 am

  2. Mike,

    Thank you for your comment.

    Although we don’t know how much Greenwood paid Mueller for the design work done so far, I imagine Greenwood has some not-to-exceed figure in the Parks budget that allows him to spend up to that amount without Council’s specific approval. But if I heard correctly during the General Services and Council meetings, one or more City employees or officials traveled back to DC to look at the National Law Enforcement Memorial. If so, did those transportation and lodging expenses come out of the Parks budget or was it from a separate City fund?

    If for whatever reason our City’s representatives could only visit one memorial, I wish it had been the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum rather than the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in DC. I think it is very likley that representatives of the Oklahoma City Memorial task force, and particularly the Archives Subcommittee, would have been happy to enlighten and educate them about the history and mission of the Oklahoma City National Memorial. Our City’s representatives might have benefited from the “sensitivity training.”

    Comment by Bill — May 24, 2016 @ 11:50 am

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