Councilman Deanna Goodlander
Well, once again Coeur d’Alene City Councilman and urban renewal agency (LCDC) Commissioner Deanna Goodlander has assumed the position of posturing for the sake of posturing.
In this morning’s skewspaper article headlined Out of bounds?, Goodlander once again feigns concern that her being a city councilman and an urban renewal agency commissioner might be some sort of conflict in deciding about the proposed joint venture event center between the LCDC and North Idaho College.
The issue is not a conflict of interest; the issue is incompatibility of office. Almost a year ago OpenCdA explained that in our post titled Undivided Loyalty. As we explained in that post, the offices of City Councilman and Urban Renewal Commissioner are incompatible, but it simply doesn’t matter. Why not? Because when it wrote the urban renewal law, Idaho’s Legislature said it didn’t matter. Will it ever? Yep. When a municipality sues or is sued by its urban renewal agency and there are one or more city councilmen on the city’s urban renewal commission, then it will matter. That’s what was explained in our August 2012 post. Until the Legislature fixes the law it carelessly wrote, the incompatibility of office will continue.
She also had a vote, as a council member, to hire Tony Berns. Tony has stayed very faithful to the Mayor and Council and his first office was paid for and supplied by the City.
Deanna ran for council to have a voice on the Appleway, Ramsey Rd. and N.W. Blvd interchange decisions. Once she was on the council the new interchange was quickly completed. Funny how gaining a little power works to get things done!
Comment by LTR — July 25, 2013 @ 3:32 pm
LTR,
Too often, elected officials stay on too long and develop a feeling they are indispensable.
Comment by Bill — July 25, 2013 @ 7:26 pm