Mary Souza’s Newsletter

March 7, 2014

True Colors?

Dear Newsletter Readers,

We have some news updates that might surprise you, and some observations to challenge your thoughts. 

Let’s start with the news:

Last week I told you about NIC and the proposed athletic conference change that is causing a huge quandary at the college…and all over town with the boosters and fans.  Well, the latest news is that the Board of Trustees, who, oddly enough, were the last to know about this proposal, voted last week to defer their decision until next week. They need more time to gather and understand the information. For those interested in attending, their special meeting will be Thursday, March 13th at 6pm in the Student Union.

If you recall, and I don’t want to take too much time on this, NIC’s newish Pres., Joe Dunlap, teamed up with longer-term Athletic Director Al Williams, and they went all around the campus and the town, gaining support for their proposal to downgrade the athletic conference for NIC teams, all except wrestling.  The Trustees were the last to be included in the info loop and they did not like it one bit.  All of this was to supposedly save about $600,000 per year in expenses.

Ok, I know that’s a lot of money.  And I don’t care which conference NIC chooses.  But lots of people do, and the backdoor process used by the President and AD has not been good.  So, here’s a big tidbit you might find interesting:

According to the Kootenai County Treasurer, who tracks these things, the number of taxpayer dollars that should have gone to NIC but were diverted to Urban Renewal was almost $900,000 for 2012.  The 2013 numbers are not finalized yet.

There’s the solution in a nutshell, right?  Just change the law to cut urban renewal out of colleges. Urban Renewal was cut out of taking the money intended for local school districts several years ago because of legislation by a senator from Post Falls. Now it’s way past time to do the same to protect NIC and the two other Idaho community colleges.

What other true colors are shining through?

In late February, the CdA City Council and LCDC held a workshop. The public was allowed to listen only; no questions or comments. It was boring much of the time but there were a few key moments of discovery, so to speak.  The most revealing, in my opinion, was when Councilman Dan Gookin spoke to the issue of LCDC urban renewal and job creation. Dan suggested it might have been more effective to use the taxpayer’s money for infrastructure like, for example, fiber optics, in order to bring in good jobs.

Our new Mayor Widmyer, who campaigned on exactly that kind of idea about LCDC using different methods to bring in better jobs, now vehemently disagreed with Dan. The Mayor declared a great example of LCDC creating jobs is McEuen Park because now Jack Riggs is buying the Coeur Bldg across the street from the newly remodeled park and will bring in his Pita Pit employees.  That’s job creation?  Pita Pit  headquarters is already in downtown CdA.  If Jack uses the Coeur building for Pita Pit, those people will just move 2 blocks.  (Jack Riggs and his significant other Sandy Patano, were the campaign management team for Steve Widmyer.  The Mayor’s new defense of the status quo for LCDC is disappointing, though not an entirely unexpected revelation about his true thinking.)

The other important part of the City Council-LCDC workshop was when, again, Councilman Dan Gookin asked the incredibly simple, yet obviously daunting question for LCDC:  “How do you measure success?”

They bumped and bungled around, trying to answer and never came up with anything worthwhile.  The CdA Press article the next day described it this way (and please remember LCDC has been in operation for 17 years):

“Davis said the agency is actually looking for new tools to do just that, which may even require hiring an economist, but he conceded measuring success gets complicated on certain projects. “How do you measure success in McEuen Park, or the Kroc Center or the new library?” Davis said. “We’ve added value – it’s there.”

“It’s easy to say that it’s there,” Gookin said. “Well tell me that it isn’t, Dan,” Davis responded. “Are those elements in the city that are not valuable to the community?” Gookin asked if they are returning revenue.”

Of course the Kroc Center and Library are wonderful. LCDC did not have a major roll in either of those projects.  But, along with McEuen Park, the Kroc and Library do not pay property taxes.  So the money from LCDC will never be paid back.

And why is Denny Davis, the Chairman of LCDC, asking Dan Gookin to prove anything?  Denny and LCDC should have a valid method for measuring their success with the public’s money!  This unelected group of people have controlled more than $45,000,000 taxpayer dollars, and over half of that total has gone to what they call “grants”, which do not have to be repaid.

The CdA Press article went on: “Davis explained how LCDC looks at success on those projects by using the midtown improvements that were made on Fourth Street. He said after all the improvements were completed, Theresa Capone, who owns Capone’s, told the agency that her business increased by 20 percent.”

Really?  One business owner.  No measurable method of evaluation, just one person’s experience.  Did LCDC go interview all the businesses along that section of 4th street and create a report showing the average loss of business during the construction phase of the improvements and the increase in revenue after the work was completed?  (cost-benefit analysis) No.

Other Urban Renewal Agencies around our state have methods of measuring their success.  It starts with a clear plan up front and specific goals.  Then they build in measurable milestones, so they know when the project is halfway to its goal, and so on.  LCDC does not have a clear plan.  They never have.  Their districts are not project-specific and their plans are vague and open-ended.  They admit this openly.  It was done on purpose.  That way they can use taxpayer money for anything they want, anytime.  No evaluation. No accountability.

Our youngest son is a recent grad from a top business university and works as an analyst for a large, international corporation.  He creates reports on in-depth business issues all the time, evaluating the success of a particular product or project.  Businesses large and small constantly rely on measurements of success or failure.  And our son makes half of what Tony Berns is paid.  Why can’t we demand a reasonable level of professionalism from LCDC?

So, when Dan Gookin asked the simple yet elegant question, “How do you measure success?”, LCDC showed its true colors.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Mary

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Mary Souza is a 26 year resident of CdA, local small business owner and was recently a candidate for Mayor.   Her opinions are her own.  To sign up for the free weekly newsletter, or access a free archive of past columns, visit www.marysouzacda.com  Comments can be sent to marysouzacda@gmail.com.  Please visit the local issues web site www.OpenCdA.com for more discussion.