With 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. (more…)

Yesterday’s OpenCdA post entitled Nice Sentiment, Bad Idea disagreed with the City’s plan to honor the memory of Coeur d’Alene Police Sergeant Greg Moore with an artificial “water feature” in the park by the lake. We offered an alternative.

At the April 25th Coeur d’Alene General Services Committee, both Parks and Recreation Director Bill Greenwood and Mayor Steve Widmyer evaded questions about the cost of the water feature.  From today’s Coeur d’Alene Press skews paper article headlined  Building the thin blue line:  Proposed McEuen water feature to honor Greg Moore, we learn that “Coeur d’Alene Mayor Steve Widmyer wants to memorialize the officer with a $750,000, privately funded, natural waterfall feature between the confluence of trails at the Fourth Street entrance to the park.”

Our opinion expressed in our April 26th post has not changed.  Now that we know the Mayor is going to personally “… hit up businesses and ask for donations as well”, we feel even stronger that $750,000 in a fund to enhance the professional performance and development of Coeur d’Alene Police Department employees (not just sworn officers) would be the better alternative.

There can be fewer genuine honors to a police officer than to have his memory and name attached to something that improves the safety and quality of professional services delivered by his fellow employees.   We’re pretty sure we know what SGT Moore’s response would be if asked, “Which would you prefer? A monument to collect pigeon poop in the park or training which might make it possible for your fellow employees to perform more professionally and safely while policing their community?”

Training and professional development help retain good employees.  Training is a strong motivator.  It builds both confidence and professional pride in their chosen occupation.  In particular, interagency training builds interagency alliances which leads to the exchange of ideas that benefit all participants and their communities.

Instead of building a water feature, we would like to see a non-profit foundation started to administer the application and continuation of the initial $750,000 the Mayor has promised to raise.  It’s goal would be to effectively increase the professional competence of Coeur d’Alene Police Department employees so no more memorials to fallen employees would ever be necessary in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

According to the Coeur d’Alene General Services Commission’s agenda and packet for its regularly scheduled meeting on April 25, 2016, Coeur d’Alene Parks & Recreation Director Bill Greenwood will report that the City’s Parks and Recreation Commission will recommend that General Services approve the concept and location of the McEuen Water Feature.

It is only when readers look at the drawing accompanying Greenwood’s staff report do we learn the proposed name of the water feature:

Sergeant Greg Moore was a Coeur d’Alene police sergeant who was shot and killed on duty in May 2015.

While OpenCdA thinks this is a nice sentiment, we also think it is a very bad idea. (more…)