At about 6:30 AM today, OpenCdA spoke via telephone with Kootenai County Clerk Jim Brannon.  Our question was this:  Given the actions taken in the last few days by both the US Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, what guidance have Idaho’s county clerks received from the Idaho Attorney General and the Idaho Secretary of State regarding the implementation of the two courts’ directives on same-sex marriage?

The answer was shocking but given that this is Idaho, totally unsurprising.

Brannon stated that he had received no direct guidance from the Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney, the Idaho Secretary of State, or the Idaho Attorney General.  What he had received, however, were email messages from the Idaho Association of Counties, Inc., a lobbying organization.  Those messages represented that the Idaho Association of Counties was speaking for and on the authority of the Idaho Attorney General.

We then asked Brannon to cite the statutory authority of Idaho’s county clerks to take official direction to formulate administrative action from the Idaho Association of Counties, Inc.  Absent that, we asked him to cite any written directive from the Idaho Attorney General or the Idaho Secretary of State delegating that authority to the Idaho Association of Counties, Inc., a lobbying organization.  He was unaware of any such authority.

And that raises this issue:   Where have the respective officers of Idaho’s Executive Department specifically and formally directed Idaho’s county clerks to formulate policies and procedures based on  emails or other directives from the Idaho Association of Counties, Inc., a lobbying organization?   Put another way, on what legal authority would Idaho’s county clerks act solely at the direction of a lobbying organization?

It seems to OpenCdA that to the extent Idaho’s county clerks are charged with executing certain laws and court decisions, the guidance on exactly how to perform those duties should come directly to the county clerks only from either the Idaho Attorney General or the Idaho Secretary of State, possibly after consultation with the respective county prosecuting attorneys.   We believe that it would be the height of irresponsibility for Idaho’s Executive Department to rely on a lobbying organization to accurately communicate such important matters to Idaho’s county clerks.

Then again, this is Idaho …

The US Secret Service needs to be rehabilitated.  Just as with people most needing rehab, the first step is for the USSS to openly acknowledge it really does need it.  Failing to follow that with appropriate action rather than empty words will result in repeated starts followed by repeated failures.

In fairness to the agency and its employees, the need for rehab has been evident to many people for years.   It may now have reached the point that to be successful, if it can be, the rehab must be once again involuntarily imposed as it was with what the Warren Commission and its classified subcommittees did after President Kennedy was killed.   We hope it won’t take the burial of another assassinated President or some extremely damaging and enduring national security breach to stimulate Congress and the Executive Branch, but the indicators are that the Secret Service continues its cultural resistance to needed institutional change.  (more…)

In a press release issued September 30, 2014, and then again in a second press release issued October 1, 2014, after the resignation of Secret Service Director Julia Pierson had been accepted, U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, announced that he intends to introduce legislation to appoint a blue-ribbon commission or a panel of experts (depending on which press release the reader believes) to conduct a top-to-bottom examination of the US Secret Service.

And yesterday Homeland Security Secretary Jae Johnson announced that he, too, would convene a panel of experts to review the Secret Service.

Regardless of who convenes and conducts a review of the Secret Service, OpenCdA agrees that such an examination is needed.  In fact it’s years overdue. (more…)