Great editorial on the Education Corridor project in today’s CDA Press. From the editorial:
Confusing? Well, that’s the point. While nobody’s suggesting there’s a big hidden agenda or special interest scheme going on here, clearly, the many parties involved in this need to get their stories straight and share them with the public.
There’s an interesting juxtaposition between what’s written above and with what Bob Paulos writes just across the page. Mr. Paulos opens his column with an anecdote about how newspapers need to be careful about what they say lest they be sued for libel. So I believe that the Press might, just might be understating a teeny bit.
I’d like to be positive and believe that “nobody’s suggesting there’s a big hidden agenda or special interest scheme going on here.” But that goes against what I know about the project. Specifically, what I ask for and what I’m being told and what I’m not being told.
I did a public records request from Mayor Bloem about three weeks ago. I asked for the minutes from sessions where obtaining a federal earmark for the Education Corridor was discussed. Her response was that no minutes were taken because the meetings were not in public. Not in public. Is there a way to interpret that other than hidden?
Consider that government officials casually discuss things all the time. They plan and decide things outside of meetings. Well, that’s against the law. Decisions cannot be made away from the public eye. Yet, according to what Mayor Bloem told me, discussions to request a Federal earmark for the Education Corridor have taken place over the past 10 years or so, long before she was even Mayor. How could they make such decisions legally?
Oh, but nothing is hidden.
Let me go even further: Suppose that everything is clean and above board. Suppose that there isn’t a list of folks lined up, businesses who’ve been promised to benefit financially from the construction and development of the Education Corridor. If that’s true, then doesn’t it imply that the Education Corridor is backed by public officials driving forward without a clue? Is that better?
I only want to know what’s going on. There are two groups who are going to suffer if the current path continues to be taken: taxpayers and students. For the sake of open government, and $10,000,000 (plus millions more over time), I wish that someone would have the guts to come forward and clear the air: Tell us what’s really going on. Tell us now. Tell us before you’ve cemented the deals and it’s too late for anything to be done about it.
Education and vocational training are secondary (or tertiary or lower) to many of the “stakeholders” involved. The Education Corridor is about concentrating a somewhat captive audience (students, faculty, staff) in an area that will first and foremost benefit downtown Coeur d’Alene business. Traffic and parking issues, though looming huge, are incidental. Mayor Larkin’s idea was a good one – which is no doubt why our Mayor, our City Council, our Lack of Clarity Development Corporation (LCDC), NIC’s administration and trustees, and of course the financially interested developers, want no part of Mayor Larkin’s suggestion.
Comment by Bill — March 30, 2008 @ 12:18 pm
Dan and I were both at the Post Falls meeting last month when Mayor Larkin suggested the area Mayors should be involved with this regional higher education decision. Mayor Bloem and President Bell of NIC, both also present, did not respond. They have made no public attempt to include any other regional leaders. And certainly NOT the public.
Now the CdA Press Editor is calling for the inclusion of other elected leaders as well as the public. What does it take to get Mayor Bloem to listen?
Comment by mary — March 30, 2008 @ 2:36 pm
An election?
Comment by Dan — March 30, 2008 @ 2:42 pm
Yeah, but that’s not until 2009. They’ll have this thing signed and sealed well before that, and the taxpayers of Kootenai County won’t realize what hit them–we’ll all be paying top tax rates for decades to come.
Comment by mary — March 30, 2008 @ 2:51 pm
Remember there may be nothing going on, as the newspaper suggests. Either way, I believe it would benefit our Mayor and all Education Corridor partners to tell us what’s making them so excited. If all this is for good and right reasons, then they have nothing to fear.
Comment by Dan — March 30, 2008 @ 2:58 pm
I’m not sure I’d use the word “excited”, Dan. Maybe “mysterious, covert or concealed”…or all three.
Comment by mary — March 30, 2008 @ 5:48 pm
Dave Oliveria goes POSTAL on Hagadone in his HBO blog in a reaction to the Ed Corridor editorial in Sunday’s edition of the CDA Press. Shaking my head, side to side, with amusement and pity. He is so blinded with vindictiveness that his rantings of rage totally eliminate any hope he will ever recover and become a legitimate observer and commenter of things important.
Comment by yabetcha — March 31, 2008 @ 12:55 pm
Who is Dave Oliveria?
Comment by Dan — March 31, 2008 @ 1:33 pm
Yabetcha–some people are just limited by the blinders of their anger. The Press editorial was well done and asked for public meetings and open information before any decisions are made about the Education Corridor. But our elected officials are not embracing the idea, that’s what surprises me–they are supposed to work for us!
Comment by mary — March 31, 2008 @ 2:45 pm
I want more information! Let’s develop a list; complete with contact information for all elected officials and other key individuals involved in this process. I for one will make contact with everyone I know. As a taxpayer, I really shouldn’t have to plead for important information concerning University Place. When information is concealed, the appearance of under the table deals and political corruption seems to be evident. It may not be that way at all, but that is how it appears. What happened to engaging the public?
Comment by doubleseetripleeye — March 31, 2008 @ 3:56 pm
A number of years ago a request to eliminate the Harbor Center PUD ostensibly to expand the wastewater treatment plant. A few weeks later I received an invitation to attend a function hosted by the University of Idaho at the Harbor Center site. The sale/lease of that property with an eye for development was not mentioned at the hearing. With the history of secrecy on this project in the past, I question the city’s lack of candor relative to this issue.
Comment by Susie Snedaker — March 31, 2008 @ 4:36 pm