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!
April 4, 2012
Recall CdA Qualifying Petitions Delivered
Between 70 and 80 supporters of the movement to recall four Coeur d’Alene city officials demonstrated in a springtime snow storm in front of Coeur d’Alene City Hall today. Three apparent supporters of the Coeur d’Alene Mayor and council members targeted for recall held up signs as a counterdemonstration. At 10 a.m. Frank Orzell and Jim Ballew delivered the prospective petitions to City Clerk Susan Weathers. She will examine them to determine if they meet the prescribed format for recall petitions. The Kootenai County Clerk will then determine the validity of the 20 signatures on each of the petitions. Weathers will notify Frank Orzell of the outcome of the examination.
In the meantime, here are a few photos of the event this morning at Coeur d’Alene City Hall. (more…)
What a Recall Election Is — and Isn’t
The formal process to recall Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Mayor Sandi Bloem, Council President Mike Kennedy, Councilman Deanna Goodlander, and Councilman Woody McEvers has begun with the submission of prospective petitions of recall to the Coeur d’Alene City Clerk.
A local recall election in Idaho is just that: an election. It is a political process in which the registered electors in a jurisdiction petition for the right to hold a special election to recall one or more officials. (more…)
Process to Recall Coeur d’Alene Mayor, City Councilmen Begins
The formal process to recall Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Mayor Sandi Bloem, Council President Mike Kennedy, Councilman Deanna Goodlander, and Councilman Woody McEvers has begun.
Recall CdA, Inc., a local community action organization, announced in a news release that on Wednesday, April 4, it will file prospective petitions to recall the four City officials. The reason given for recalling each official is, “By the power granted to the people in Article I, Section 2 of the Idaho Constitution, we the voters of Coeur d’Alene deem it necessary to recall [Mayor Sandi Bloem][Councilman Mike Kennedy][Councilman Deanna Goodlander][Councilman Woody McEvers].” (more…)
April 3, 2012
Mary Souza’s Newsletter
Let’s DO Something About It: RECALL
This is it, dear Readers, it’s finally time to stop the begging and pleading with our City Council. It’s time for action. It’s time for a Recall.
The Idaho State Constitution puts the power of government directly in the hands of the people. Article 2, section 1 says this: “All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal protection and benefit, and they have the right to alter, reform or abolish the same whenever they may deem it necessary.”
Over and over again the people of CdA have asked the City Council for a vote. Large groups of citizens have attended meeting after meeting pleading for a voice in the major decisions and massive spending projects undertaken by our city. Respectful, intelligent, informed citizens have spoken out to implore the Council to listen the will of the people. But time and time again our Mayor and the same half the City Council have chosen to ignore the public’s requests.
We, the people of CdA, now deem it necessary to reform our local government for our protection and benefit. (more…)
Good Book Worth Reading
(click image to enlarge)
I’ve just finished reading Tim Weiner’s most recent book, “Enemies — A History of the FBI.” It is by no means an easy read, but it seems to be a fair minded treatment of the Bureau from its inception to the present. Weiner seemed intent on supplying historical context to many of the Bureau’s actions, including those which resulted in the violations of some individuals’ civil liberties.
The book is not a biography of the FBI’s longest serving Director, John Edgar Hoover, although it would have been impossible for Weiner to recount the Bureau’s history without including the social, political, and economic philosophies of the man who shaped the FBI and led it for 40 years. The presidents whom Hoover’s FBI served under were in many instances perfectly willing to violate civil liberties to achieve their own social, political, and economic ends. So were some US Supreme Court justices with whom Hoover regularly tangled and whose decisions he on occasion ignored for what he believed, rightly or wrongly, to be the greater good of the country.
Author Tim Weiner summarized his book succinctly in an April 1 Politico op-ed post titled FBI’s Historic Tug of War – Security vs. Liberty.
The book is available on loan from the Hayden Branch library or for purchase from major booksellers.
April 1, 2012
New Website Looks At Kootenai County Republican Party Factions
There is a new website, Chuckle Berries Online, that focuses on factions in the Kootenai County Republican Party. The website’s tagline is “… because liberals make us laugh!”
In February we pointed OpenCdA readers to another website, Disclosure Kootenai County.
Weblogs like Chuckle Berries Online, Disclosure Kootenai County, and OpenCdA exist partly because our local news/views/skews media fail to deliver information that people want and in some cases need to be better informed citizens. The dead-tree journalists are whistling past the graveyard replete with headstones of deceased newspapers. Weblogs do not represent a threat to the socially acceptable J-school journalists. Many are an effort to nudge dead-tree journalism away from its death march.
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