OpenCDA

October 2, 2008

It Feels Good

Filed under: Observations — Dan Gookin @ 2:25 pm

Last night, the LCDC held a “special call” meeting to discuss midtown redevelopment. It was one of the most amazing public meetings I’ve been to.

My hat goes off to Denny Davis who chaired the meeting. The entire thing was a refreshing break from typical civic meetings. In those meetings, the public may show up, but they mostly sit silently and watch. Last night, however, there was tremendous public participation and good things came from it.

The meeting agenda allowed two slots for public comment, one early and another at the end of the meeting. But public comment wasn’t limited to those times: At just about any any point during the meeting, people would stand up and voice concerns. The LCDC board would listen — and respond. It was amazing to watch.

Both the public and the board were very polite. The meeting went well and good issues were raised and respectfully addressed. I was very proud to be there and to see people participating in an honest, open manner.

True, not every issue was fully resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. But that’s not my point. My point is that when a member of the public takes time out of his schedule to attend a public meeting, I believe it’s the duty of the officials presiding to allow him to participate. I saw that happen last night and cannot be happier.

Thank you, Chairman Davis! I truly hope this type of interaction proves to be the rule and not the exception. Public input works. It’s a good thing.

6 Comments

  1. I’m impressed, Dan. Good to hear there was open dialog, that is indeed a step in the right direction.

    Comment by mary — October 2, 2008 @ 4:05 pm

  2. I agree with Dan. It was such a change from speaking with officials who respond with silence. I saw Denny this evening and tthanked him for the good meeting. I thought that the design was essentially set and that the meeting was to discuss LCDC funding. What happened was the picking apart the design that was a collaborative effort by Lori Eisenberg and Del Hatch and Larry Comer who spent countless hours assembling the thoughts of the participants.

    There are still many issues yet to be resolved. I was told that the city never has discussed the city’s intentions regarding the LID for their properties that lie outside the two blocks slated for enhancement, even though they were told they would be charged $55/foot for the improvements.

    Comment by Susie Snedaker — October 2, 2008 @ 9:38 pm

  3. Well, I’ll reserve my applause for the actions of the LCDC, when they quit using executive sessions for all, repeat “all”, discussions on real estate matters. It is clearly an abuse of the Open Meeting Law to use executive sessions in this manner. The execption for open meetings allowing an executive session is only for the acquisition of real property. “Acquisition” is the key word. Until they start opening up these discussions for public view the appearance of conflicting interests by board members enriching themselves will persist.

    Comment by Gary Ingram — October 3, 2008 @ 10:30 am

  4. It is amazing they haven’t had ALL of us thrown in jail. lol

    Comment by concerned citizen — October 3, 2008 @ 4:36 pm

  5. concerned citizen,

    I know your comment was intended to be humorous, but there is some reason to believe “they” might like to do just that.

    “They” have contacted employers to try and pressure employers to silence outspoken employees. That happened most recently when City Administrator Wendy Gabriel sent a copy of a letter to a US Senator’s office in thinly-veiled attempt to get the Senator or his senior staff to pressure a subordinate employee’s husband to back off on inquiries about the hazards posed by the City’s wastewater treatment plant.

    The City has used the Idaho State Police as a source for political intelligence about people who work for honest government. This little gem of information documents that. Keep in mind the Idaho State Police Captain mentioned in that post was the Region 1 Investigations captain at the time. The Region 1 supervisor was Captain Wayne Longo, now Coeur d’Alene’s police chief. When Longo retired to become chief here, Rollins was elevated to the position formerly held by Longo.

    I explained the consequences of Rollins’ unprofessional behavior in my Whitecaps post of February 26, 2007. It was appropriately titled Trust and Confidence Violated.

    I suspect that some people, notably Wendy Gabriel, Clark Rollins, and possibly Wayne Longo see nothing wrong with the Idaho State Police providing local politicians with purely political intelligence having no investigative or security predicate. If my suspicion is correct, then they’re wrong, and City Attorney Mike Gridley needs to tell them they’re wrong. On that last point, I had to laugh at this line in the October 3, 2008, Coeur d’Alene Press editorial: “City Attorney Mike Gridley, an advocate for free speech (emphasis mine), must know that his attempt to collect more than $25,000 in fines from the organization could have a chilling effect on citizens’ willingness to speak out in future political races.” Yes, he knows.

    Here’s a very recent article titled Surveillance was ‘misguided’ from the Baltimore Sun of October 2, 2008. The actual report is known as the Sachs Report. It is a strong condemnation of the use of Maryland State Police resources to discourage lawful, Constitutionally-protected activity.

    I don’t know if the Idaho State Police is still engaging in these kinds of activities that discourage the public’s constitutionally protected participation in lawful activities. For all I know, improperly providing political intelligence to local officials may be standard operating procedure for Idaho State Police troopers wanting to advance their careers. I hope it isn’t, but after my Whitecaps post, no one from the Idaho State Police Office of Professional Standards contacted me to follow up.

    One last comment: In its self-proclaimed role as government watchdog, The Spokesman-Review newspaper has been quick to jump all over even the smallest appearance of police impropriety. So after my Whitecaps post, I sent an email to the gossip columnist and Editor Steve Smith with the comment that if the columnist’s representation of Gabriel’s email was factual, then it should have been properly authenticated and reported as a news story. If the representation was inaccurate and incorrect, then it should never have appeared in his gossip blog. I did not receive a reply from now former editor Smith.

    Comment by Bill — October 4, 2008 @ 7:49 am

  6. To get back on the topic of the post, I hope you’re right, Dan. But I’m reminded that rattlesnakes are most dangerous and strike most indiscriminately when they’re shedding their skin. And what emerges from the old skin is still a rattlesnake.

    Comment by Bill — October 4, 2008 @ 9:16 am

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