The Recall CdA Petition has been accepted and certified by the City Clerk, so now the forms can be printed and then the signature gathering can begin!
April 5, 2012
Game On!
March 21, 2012
Press Release from County Commissioners
Remember the Press headline yesterday about a Parking Garage for the County? Commissioner Dan Green (pictured) told me they issued this press release to clarify their intent. The Press reporter apparently didn’t tell the full story. Here’s what the County just sent us:
Kootenai County Commissioners
W. TODD TONDEE
DANIEL H. GREEN
JAI K. NELSON
Ph: (208) 446-1600
Email: kcbocc@kcgov.us
Press Release
Date: March 21, 2012
Re: Clarification of Facilities Master Plan Article
The Board of County Commissioners has received several calls regarding an article in the Cd’A Press on Tuesday regarding the development of our Facilities Master Plan. There appears to be some confusion as to the development of the Plan and the eventual implementation of the Plan. (more…)
March 20, 2012
Parking $$$$ for County too!
What a surprise! We all woke up to a big headline about the County announcing a major facilities plan for a 7 story parking garage, a $20 Million dollar “Justice Center”, expansions to the current Administration building, and an additional parking garage on the south side of the building. Commissioner Jai Nelson says she’s “determined to implement it”.
I looked and looked through the article to find some sort of saving grace, but it was not there. I wanted any/all of the commissioners to say this is just a long-range facilities plan and that they realize these are difficult economic times and they will not raise taxes nor will they ever do any major capital improvement without putting it to a VOTE of the people.
But those statements were not to be found. I’m very disappointed.
How do you think the county employees, who had their pay and/or benefits reduced due to budget woes, feel after reading this in the paper today? What do you think of this whole thing? Why would they announce this right now, with two commissioners up for re-election this November?
March 12, 2012
Press Release: Mack will Speak
Below is the Press Release sent this morning by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee. My thoughts will follow.
Mack to headline Lincoln Day Dinner
Vote rescinding former Arizona sheriff’s invite tossed due to forgery
COEUR D’ALENE – Former Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack will be the featured guest speaker, as originally scheduled, at the March 24 Lincoln Day Dinner at The Coeur d’Alene Resort. Mack was slated to headline the event, a fundraiser for the Kootenai County Republican Party, but his appearance was canceled following a vote during the February 28 meeting of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.
It was later determined that the deciding vote for disinviting Mack was a forged proxy ballot. The Kootenai County Republican Party has referred the alleged forgery to the Coeur d’Alene Police Department for further investigation.
The Executive Board of the Kootenai County Republican Party met on March 8 and the majority voted to once again invite Mack to be the speaker for Lincoln Day. Mack, who is scheduled to speak at Spokane’s Lincoln Day event a day before Kootenai County’s celebration, has accepted and will headline the event.
Contact: Tina Jacobson, Chairman
Kootenai County Republican Party
(208) 765-8259
February 16, 2012
Jon Mueller Responds
Jon Mueller is the Landscape Architect who stood up at the last CdA City Council meeting to present NIC’s plan for the Ed Corridor and ask for a zone change. During that meeting, and even on the blogs beforehand, there was much discussion about commercial development on the property for which we were all forced to pay $10 million dollars.
At the council meeting, Jon Mueller assured everyone that there would be no commercial allowed within the PUD he was asking to be zoned C-17.
After reading some of the blogs, especially my questions here on OpenCdA, Jon called me yesterday to be sure everyone understands that his statement about no commercial ONLY applies to the PUD area, not the whole Mill site property. Jon said he has no knowledge of the college’s plans for the rest of the land. Thanks, Jon, for taking the time to clarify. We appreciate it!
February 8, 2012
Uh Oh…Trouble in Post Falls
In an excellent letter to the Editor in this morning’s Press, the retired chairman of the Post Falls URA, Len Crosby, complains about the agency’s current plan to use $1.6 Million dollars for a “Road to Nowhere”. Len was in charge back with the Post Falls Urban Renewal Agency was worthy of public compliments–mine included–for the careful and responsible way it was using taxpayer money. It seems that method has changed. Maybe they are “learning” from our CdA urban renewal, LCDC. Please check out Len’s letter and tell me what you think…
February 7, 2012
Ed Corridor Pushes Again
In a pleasant article today in the Press, reporter Tom Hasslinger writes of a zone change that will be requested at tonight’s CdA city council meeting. He doesn’t refer to any of the controversy related to this land, the zone changes or the funding process. What a shame. The public should be aware of how this fiasco has been shoved down their throats, but the Press is keeping it nice and pretty. Here’s the comment I put under their article online…what are your thoughts?
“Several years ago, I attended a meeting about the Ed Corridor. It was at SD271’s Midtown Center and the little meeting room was packed with people. A fancy, full color booklet, which was called the plan for the Ed Corridor had just been made public. So, during the meeting, I asked NIC Pres. Priscilla Bell, how much of the 17 acres (at $588,000 per acre) would be used for commercial purposes. She answered, “None”. Then I asked why the “plan” showed almost 7 acres (40%) as designated for commercial development? She balked, stuttered, started to deny it, but I held up the booklet and read directly from the page that detailed that use. NIC’s Treasurer was sitting next to Priscilla and told her I was correct. (more…)
February 3, 2012
Open Session, Weekend
Here’s a photo from a warm but blustery day out on at Sunset Beach on Oahu in Hawaii. It’s near where my husband spent many of his growing up years. It looks the same as it always has and we loved returning to see it again last month.
We don’t want CdA, specifically McEuen Park, to stay the same without some reasonable upgrades and improvements, but the Mayor and previous City Council’s reluctance to listen to the citizens is upsetting to many folks who have emailed me. How do you feel? Has City Hall been responsive to public appeal?
Do you have any other ideas, problems or questions to bring forward?
January 31, 2012
Legislators finally say “Enough”!
In a hope-inspiring move, the House State Affairs Committee has unanimously passed a bill that keeps their own from gaming the system and raking in a huge retirement at our expense.
Here’s how it works right now: Starting back in 1990, they passed a bill that made a “special” rule for themselves. They can boost their retirement way up by taking a high-paying state job right at the end of their career, and they’ll get the PERSI retirement at the high level, as if they had been working that job the whole time. Ridiculous! How did this ever get passed? I guess WE, the People, were not watching.
Anyway, now there’s a bill to correct that “special” rule and make their retirement payment based on exactly what they actually earned…what a concept!
Here’s the link to Betsy Russel’s article on this topic.
December 22, 2011
Can’t Happen Here? Think again…
One of our alert readers sent this link about a New York trial for election fraud. Our reader’s comment was this: “Mary, it does happen and we shouldn’t think it can’t happen here.” The article, titled “Officials Plead Guilty in New York Voter Fraud Case”, was dated yesterday and includes info like this:
Former Troy Democratic City Clerk William McInerney, Democratic Councilman John Brown, and Democratic political operatives Anthony Renna and Anthony DeFiglio have entered guilty pleas in the case, in which numerous signatures were allegedly forged on absentee ballots in the 2009 Working Families Party primary, the political party that was associated with the now-defunct community group, ACORN…
Numerous voters told Fox News that they were stunned that their signatures were faked on absentee ballot applications and ballots, which were cast as real votes in their names in the 2009 primary election.
Brian Suozzo’s absentee ballot application claimed that he was “at home recovering from medical procedure,” which he told us was not true. “Someone took my signature and voted with it and I feel extremely violated,” Suozzo said when Fox News first broke the story nationally in 2009. “The whole thing seems dirty to me.”