Open Session, Weekend

February 28, 2009

Open Session, Weekend

Filed under: Open Session — mary @ 3:20 pm

imgp3881 I’m pining for Spring. (pun intended)

We haven’t had an open session for awhile. There’s a lot going on, so any comments, ideas?

Comments (14)

14 Comments

Well, just last week we received our bill from Harrison Boat Storage & Repair telling us our spring payment was due and to give them two weeks notice to put the boat in the water. We were at Cave Bay last week, and I think we’ll have to wait for the ice on the lake to thaw between Harrison and Cave Bay before we get too enthusiastic about drowning worms. Still, the local snow does seem to be melting.

Comment by Bill — March 1, 2009 @ 8:40 am
“The housing part of the question is obvious. The subsidized development promoted by LCDC has accelerated the gentrification of Coeur d’Alene. The high-end residential construction causes corresponding increased property taxes throughout the area. This is by design as without increases in value there would be no tax increment. New development has reduced the supply of existing affordable housing in our area”.
Comment by Jim Brannon — February 25, 2009 @ 2:13 pm

This is the first time that I have ever heard of a public official admitting that LCDC is accelerating the gentrification of Coeur d’Alene and who would know better than the guy who heads our local Habitat for Humanity.Has LCDC ever helped to fund a Habitat project? Can anyone name one project where LCDC has helped to fund an affordable housing project that was actually completed? I can’t. It’s all talk and not much action right now.To be blunt, they helped to fund all those high rise condos, because that was going to put the most money into the LCDC coffers. While,increasing our property values and the eventual raising of our property taxes in Kootenai County in the process.
As far as this conflict of interest concerning Mr.Nipp and his being on the Mountain West Bank board, while being on the board of LCDC and it’s chairman and helping to procure loans for LCDC with MWB.That’s small potatoes compared to the conflict of interest of LCDC board commissioners owning property in URD’s IMO.There are at least two board members who own land in the Lake District.These LCDC board members could actually see the values of their properties rise, if they happen to be in the neighborhood of an LCDC funded project.The Idaho State Legislature needs to address this particular conflict of interest.

Comment by kageman — March 1, 2009 @ 9:46 am
Kage: it’s okay for an LCDC commissioner to own property in the district, but they have to disclose their ownership. The commissioners took TEN YEARS to do that, and even then I know that the disclosures were inaccurate when compared with the property tax rolls showing ownership. Yet the Mayor does nothing. So even if a board member were to purchase land in the district, where would the enforcement be? Or would it be a question of “intent,” as in the AG’s opinion against Mr. Nipp? Something like, “I bought property, sure, but I didn’t intend to benefit from it.” Sounds lame to me.

Comment by Dan — March 1, 2009 @ 10:28 am
I dont think it is so much a question as “do they own” property as to when did they purchase it. Did they purchase AFTER they knew the LCDC was going to expand in a particular direction.

CdA stakeholders and the LCDC determine just who they want to own property. Not much hits the open market to be fairly bid upon.

Comment by concerned citizen — March 1, 2009 @ 10:48 am
concerned citizen,

Both the “when” and “where” are important. The first part of Idaho Code 50-2017 says:

50-2017.Interested public officials, commissioners or employees. No public official or employee of a municipality (or board or commission thereof), and no commissioner or employee of an urban renewal agency shall voluntarily acquire any personal interest, direct or indirect, in any urban renewal project, or in any property included or planned to be included in any urban renewal project in such municipality or in any contract or proposed contract in connection with such urban renewal project.

As for the penalty, the same citation ends with:

Any violation of the provisions of this section shall constitute misconduct in office.

Comment by Bill — March 1, 2009 @ 1:43 pm
Bill,
SO, who owns the land that the new Holiday Inn Express sits on? When was it purchased and by whom? How about the properties in mid town? AND who will get the land that the NIC is wants to purchase?

Comment by concerned citizen — March 1, 2009 @ 4:02 pm
I don’t know who owns the land that Holiday Inn Express is on, nor do I know when it was purchased and by whom. Same for the properties in Midtown.

NIC will own the land after it completes the lease to buy payments. That depends entirely on the NIC Trustees approving annual budget appropriations to make the annual lease payments. If they don’t, then the land probably reverts to the NIC Foundation who could do whatever it wants with the land.

Comment by Bill — March 1, 2009 @ 4:34 pm
CC, the land under the Holiday Inn Express is owned by some LLC, which, when traced back, shows the strong likelihood that Charlie owned or continues to own the land. Many of the properties Charlie Nipp and/or Steve Meyer own are buried in LLCs owned by LLCs and are not easy to uncover, but their ownership has been established on some.

Comment by mary — March 2, 2009 @ 8:04 am
Mary,

So many “THINK” the peoblem is in our own minds.

That is what I wanted to establish with my question in #4 above. Didnt want to get BLASTED by regan for “false accusations” again.

No conflict here folks. Move along, move along!

Comment by concerned citizen — March 2, 2009 @ 9:07 am
What’s wrong with CDA today is there isn’t enough grassroots candidates who run and win in local elections.
Most everyone who gets elected is an insider;having been in local gov’ts or a stakeholder of some sort or a
business person in the CDA community.
Those are exactly, the type of people who want to see this CDA area grow by leaps and bounds.Most of these incumbents represent a small minority of people in the community,
yet they get alot of support from their base, come election time.

To summarize:this area needs more average grassroots citizens to come forward and run for office and win.
So,the average citizen can feel like they have a representative in our local gov’ts.Instead of a good ole boy,who represents the insiders.

A grassroots candidate can win.I
remember when Ron Rankin won a seat as a county commissioner back in 1996,which stunned alot of people.He never gave up running for office, until he won his first election at the age of 66 as a republican.

Comment by kageman — March 2, 2009 @ 5:43 pm
Yes, Kageman, it does hinge on new people in office. We know what the old ones will do…over and over again. Please look around and talk up the process with good people you know. If they aren’t interested at least they can support those who do choose to run. It’s a lot of work to run for office in this town, as I discovered in my unsuccessful bid for city council in ’05, but I learned so much about myself and our community, it was well worth the effort.

Comment by mary — March 2, 2009 @ 7:48 pm
The land that the Holiday Inn Express sits on was on the market in 2003 before or around the time the boundaries of the LCDC were expanded. Doesnt that create a problem since Mr. Nipp was already on the board of the LCDC and now is connected to the Holiday Inn Express as well?

This is not a conflict?

Comment by concerned citizen — March 4, 2009 @ 7:59 am
Mary,
Were there other people at the meeting that were ready to talk when Mike Kennedy halted discussion?

Comment by concerned citizen — March 4, 2009 @ 8:00 am
CC, I could not tell if there were. Mr. Kennedy seemed quite uneasy about the discussion and wanted to move on as soon as possible.

Comment by mary — March 4, 2009 @ 10:12 am

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.