OpenCDA

October 9, 2011

Stall Tactics?

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

Mary Souza’s Newsletter

Did you hear that George Sayler declared, in a public forum Friday morning, that he does not favor a public vote on the McEuen Park remodel and thinks the city should “move forward” with the project?  George has said in the past that if he was on the city council he would second a motion so the council could discuss a public vote, but Friday he clarified that he is not in favor of an actual public vote, advisory or other wise. At least now we know where he stands.  Sayler, pictured above, is a former State Representative, now running for the CdA City Council.  

Mr. Sayler also said Friday that he is a big supporter of President Obama. He claims Obama has been great for Idaho! George plans to vote for him again next year. I know Mr. Sayler has never been a business person, but he must be aware of the never-ending recession, the many local businesses closing their doors and the continued high (11.6%) unemployment rate in our area.  I don’t think the Obama economic policies have been good for Idaho.  And I certainly don’t want someone on our City Council who is so deeply out of touch with the problems of our community.

Speaking of the upcoming local elections, I’m going to be part of a public presentation this Tuesday on, “What You Need to Know Before you Vote!”  The event is free and starts at 6:30pm at the CdA Senior Center.

Sharon Culbreth, long time area realtor, will start the presentation by talking about  LCDC. She has some big information that will surprise you.  I will be addressing taxes and the city’s spending, including some jaw-dropping info about public salaries and raises.  You won’t believe it!  Then Kathy Sims, our State Representative will wrap things up by discussing upcoming legislation to fix some of our problems.

Please plan to join us for this informative presentation, before you make your election choices.

I just have to share with you the customer service nightmare I encountered while researching information for our upcoming presentation.  I emailed  Tony Berns, asking for an updated digital copy of the LCDC’s project sheet. Many people have told me they’ve had trouble getting information from LCDC, sometimes to the point of ridiculousness like the time LCDC gave someone info in an encrypted format that could not be opened.  But I’ve asked for their project sheet multiple times in the past, and have never had a problem getting it quickly and in the format I requested.  This time things were quite different.

Tony insisted that I use the specific LCDC public records request form on their web site. The problem is that their form does not allow online completion and return, and I wanted a digital version of the LCDC’s project sheet, so I included every bit of information required by their request form and put it all in a very polite email which I sent to Tony.

LCDC’s own policy on public records requests says this: “LCDC will accept a completed public records request form submitted in person, by U.S. mail, by email or by facsimile.”

Notice it says a form, not our form or only this form, so I thought I was on safe ground.

It took 10 days of hassle, including an email I sent to LCDC’s attorney in Boise, to finally receive the information. But it was not in a digital format, as I had requested, it was a piece of paper with tiny print that is difficult to scan into a computer.

LCDC is a small group of unelected individuals who control Millions of taxpayer dollars.  Tony’s job, as the Executive Director earning $120,000/yr plus golden benefits, is to facilitate relationships with the community.  By dragging his feet on my request, he basically stepped on our Idaho law which specifically allows emailed public records requests and calls on public agencies to “extend reasonable comfort and facility to the individual requesting public records.”  Additionally, the Idaho Attorney General’s manual on public records requests demands “public agencies should not delay three days to provide information that is readily available.”

Could this all be a stall tactic because of Tuesday’s presentation?

Do you remember the $35,000 in taxpayer money LCDC spent several years ago to hire a Public Relations firm to teach them how to make citizens like them more? (see the cartoon above)  I don’t think they’ve learned much.

Please come to Tuesday’s presentation.  You will be amazed.

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4 Comments

  1. Jimmy Barona might want to update his caricature of Bernsie. Too much hair in the caricature.

    Also, to avoid confusion, Mary’s newsletter refers to a photo of “Sayler, pictured above” in the header to her newsletter. Here is the photo to which she referred. Sayler is the one on the far right.

    Comment by Bill — October 9, 2011 @ 4:43 pm

  2. That’s what stress will do!

    Comment by mary — October 9, 2011 @ 4:56 pm

  3. Mary refers to a comment attributed to Mr. Sayler. Was it reported by either the Press or that other “news” entity? If that disclosure was not reported by the local ‘hard news’ media, in all fairness to the voting public, it should be…and quickly. Given this information I will have to add one point to the reasons why he should be on the city council for his coming clean. That change now makes his total a NEGATIVE 99. Mr. Sayler should have stayed in the Idaho Legislature where the public spotlight was not on him and he could muddle about in relative obscurity. His campaign slogan this time around should be ‘Well I Fooled Them For A Bit.’

    Comment by Joe Six-Pack — October 9, 2011 @ 7:32 pm

  4. George’s political-speak amazes me, Joe Six Pack. He can use so many words to say absolutely nothing.

    At a candidate forum last Wednesday at the CdA Inn, with all the candidates up on the dias, it was almost impossible to tell the difference between John Bruning and George Sayler. I’m not kidding. They both had their lines down perfectly, and were reading off the same invisible script. “Everything is wonderful, the city is fabulous…” Those two really represent more of the same, if that’s what people want.

    Comment by mary — October 9, 2011 @ 8:42 pm

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