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Preparing a comment to add to Mary’s newsletter “Loyalty Oath?” post, I came across an Association of Idaho Cities publication titled Roles & Responsibilities Manual.

Its 45 pages serves as a pretty good introduction to the roles and responsibilities of Idaho’s elected and appointed municipal officials.  The manual includes references to Idaho statutes from which the manual derived specific content.  One caution, though:  The manual is undated, so some of the statutory citations may have changed with legislative amendments since the manual was produced.

The Idaho Statesman is reporting, “On Feb. 14, the Eagle City Council voted to terminate the volunteer seven-member urban renewal board and appoint itself as the replacement board to make the tax-collecting agency more accountable and transparent.”

Once installed, the replacement board looked at how much the urban renewal district’s attorney was charging the district to protect the  ousted urban renewal agency members from being replaced by the city council.  According to bills received from Elam & Burke, attorney Ryan Armbruster billed the URD approximately $17,000 in his failed attempt to keep the volunteer URA members in their jobs.

One wonders why it would be so important for volunteer URA commissioners to keep those volunteer jobs that supposedly are uncompensated.

Kootenai County Assessor Mike McDowell

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A reader of my March 1, 2012, post titled Is It Time?  attached a comment (see comment 134) disagreeing with some information concerning urban renewal districts and agencies posted on the Kootenai County Assessor’s Office URD webpage.  I provided the entire comment to Kootenai County Assessor Mike McDowell, asked him to respond, and assured him that I would post his response in its entirety, unedited.

His response arrived today via email, and as promised, here is a link to it.  I appreciate that Kootenai County Assessor Mike McDowell took the time to compose and send such a thoughtful response.  His response makes it very clear that he is working diligently with state officials to resolve differences and disagreements that may affect the interpretation and beneficial application of those laws.

My February 25, 2012, post titled Coeur d’Alene’s Ministry of Disinformation discussed the judicial confirmation process the City may use to force City taxpayers to pay the Dixon judgement ordered by the federal district court.  Omitted from the Coeur d’Alene Press news/views/skews article was an important piece of information:  There must be a public hearing before the Council decides to file a petition for judicial confirmation with the district court.  The judicial confirmation law provides that citizens may submit a letter requesting 14 days notification by certified mail of such a hearing.  My letter requesting the statutorily-required notification was sent to the Mayor on February 27, 2012.

Today I received this letter in reply from the Mayor.  The letter speaks for itself.

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Donald J. Gary, Jr.  , a principal in the law firm of Winston & Cashatt, has filed his declaration of candidacy for the position of Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney.  Mr. Gary lives in Post Falls.

OpenCdA’s post titled Planned Deterioration? published on February 17, 2012, included a video clip (with partial transcript) from the February 15, 2012, meeting of Coeur d’Alene’s urban renewal agency, the Lake City Development Corporation (LCDC).  The video clip showed LCDC Commissioner Dave Patzer admitting that the City had not spent money intended to maintain the City’s 3rd Street boat launch ramps.  The same video clip and transcript shows City Parks Director Doug Eastwood saying the boat launch ramp, “… is breaking up.  That launch ramp is not in real good shape.”  Eastwood was at that LCDC meeting to tell the LCDC to cough up about $11 million for the McEuen renovation plan, which then included removal of the boat launch ramps altogether. (more…)

IdahoReporter.com is reporting three of the four Idaho Land Board members have objected to House Bill 495 which, if passed, would stop the Land Board from purchasing and operating businesses that compete with private enterprise.  The three objecting Land Board members are Controller Donna Jones, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, and Secretary of State Ben Ysursa.

The website reports their outrage that the legislation would usurp the authority of the Executive Branch in violation of the Idaho Constitution’s separation of powers clause.  Quoting from the article:

“Each one of those respected bodies have to respect the powers granted to the other,” Wasden said of the clash between the legislative and executive branches he sees in the bill.

Hmmm.  Where were Wasden and Jones when their buddy Ben the Clown was for years telling county clerks it was A-Okay for them to open absentee ballots before the polls closed in direct violation of Idaho Code § 34-1005 passed by the Idaho Legislature and which explicitly forbids that?  Apparently to Jones, Wasden, and Ben the Clown, separation of powers only works in one direction.

Sunday’s Coeur d’Alene Press had a Letter to the Editor urging that “… an immediate recall campaign must be initiated against [Coeur d’Alene, Idaho] Mayor Bloem and council members Kennedy, Goodlander and McEvers.”

The 2011 Election Manual for City Clerks, at pages 48 – 55, describe the general procedures attendant to a municipal recall election.  Idaho Code, Title 50, Chapter 4 also includes some information about municipal recall elections.

What do you think?  Should the residents of Coeur d’Alene consider recalling those named officials?  Idaho law does not prescribe any particular justification necessary to recall one or more public officials, so what would you consider to be sufficient justification to recall them?