In February 2008, shortly after our present sheriff announced his candidacy, I put up an OpenCdA.com post which invited voters to consider several questions they might want answered before making their choice and voting.
In November 2009 Coeur d’Alene’s mayor and three city council seats will be up for election. Here are similar questions, slightly revised, that might apply to them:
- What is your understanding of the job of the Mayor? What do you believe the Mayor’s duties and responsibilities are?
- What is your understanding of the job of a city council member? What do you believe a council member’s duties and responsibilities are
- What are your expectations for the persons elected to those positions?
- What do you consider to be the most and least important personal and professional qualifications for the Mayor of Coeur d’Alene? For council members?
- If you consider Bloem to be qualified to be Mayor, what are her strongest and weakest qualifications? Same question for each sitting council member.
- If you consider Bloem to be unqualified to be Mayor, identify a candidate who has the qualifications you believe to be most important? Explain why that candidate is more qualified than Bloem. Same question for each sitting council member and prospective candidates.
- Since she was elected, what has been Bloem’s greatest accomplishment and her greatest failure? Feel free to name more than one in either category. Same for each sitting council member.
- Over the next four years, what do you believe the most significant challenges for the Coeur d’Alene mayor and city council will be?
- If you could give the Mayor one piece of advice, what would it be? Same question for each council member.
All of these questions should be important to the citizen’s of Coeur d’Alene. I am glad that this forum exists for those who wish to debate local issues. Everyone should be free to express their opinions and I hope that some lively debate ensues. My question is whether each question might be discussed individually.
Comment by Jim Brannon — June 22, 2009 @ 11:48 am
Jim,
That’s a very good suggestion — that each question be discussed individually. I can put up a separate post for each question, maybe rewording the question(s) slightly to make them fit better.
Any suggestions from readers about the wording and order of the question / posts?
Comment by Bill — June 22, 2009 @ 12:09 pm
Bill,
These are great questions. The problem in this town is that very few are even willing to begin to peel the layers of this onion back. People need a perpetual connecting of the dots in order to move them away from this “city of names” mentality.
Comment by Interested Bystander — June 22, 2009 @ 8:44 pm
Question. Is it true that CdA extorts money from people to keep tarriff violations from being reported to the insurance companies, as asserted in the CdA Press’s Letters to the Editor on Sunday. This is the claim of Tela Richardson. She claims that by paying double the $85.00 original fine at the Court House her driving records would remain clean. I would like to hear our city politicans speak on this issue.
Comment by citizen — June 22, 2009 @ 9:58 pm
The key questions needing to be asked and understood are those of ethics. How should any elected official conduct themselves? Should they represent the people and allow the will of the people and not try to determine the will of the people? In whatever they do should their actions be completely known in advance of putting them into effect? Should any elected official treat any citizen with a minimum level of respect, especially in public hearings?
In other words it is not only what they do in office it is how they do it that also greatly matters.
Comment by Wallypog — June 23, 2009 @ 5:42 am
Interested Bystander,
Welcome! Thank you for signing up to comment.
It’s natural for people to vote for candidates whom they know and trust. Relying almost exclusively on acquaintance and trust without actually asking questions like, “Does Candidate So-and-So have the traits necessary to make appropriate decisions in a City with a multimillion dollar budget, a changing economic base, and a changing population?” is a seriously flawed process. Voting for an incumbent candidate based on slick mailers and name recognition without digging to find out what, if anything, the candidate has really accomplished is equally a mistake. Unfortunately, the people most able to do that digging and report it objectively, our local press, are neither digging nor objective.
Comment by Bill — June 23, 2009 @ 6:43 am
Citizen,
I read Tela Richardson’s letter, too. She could call or write a letter to the Kootenai County Prosecutor and ask about the legality of the practice. I’m not sure how Idaho law requires Idaho’s courts to report and disburse traffic fines. If the state takes a portion of local traffic fine revenue, then there is an incentive for local officials to underreport traffic fines and retain the unreported portion locally. That does not explain how the local court could lawfully make the ticket go away, though, except to report a “not guilty” or “dismissed by court” verdict. In that case, none of the $170 she paid would be reported by the court.
There was some significant information missing from her newspaper letter that ought to be included in any communication with the Prosecutor.
(1) What law enforcement agency issued the citation?
(2) Into what court was she cited (if she had chosen to go to court rather than pay the fine)?
(3) To whom did she speak at the courthouse?
(4) What, exactly, did she ask and what did the courthouse person tell her?
(5) Other than paying twice the amount of the ticket, what other conditions (e.g., traffic school) would she have been required to meet?
(6) She should ask the Prosecutor’s office to identify the state law which allowed the local court to taken the action it did.
Comment by Bill — June 23, 2009 @ 7:16 am
I have friends who complained about the way the city is run, then they voted for one of the incumbents. My friends claimed the person was one of the “good guys” or a friend. Then after the election went back to complaining and wondering about the terrible votes of their friendly councilman. Al may be your pal but he is not your friend when it comes to his vote.
Wake up! The deck need to be cleared and a new crew needs to be elected.
Comment by citizen — June 23, 2009 @ 7:19 am
Sandpoint cuts $100,000 from budget. Any word from City Hall on whether there will be cuts in the budget, or just hefty increases in our property taxes? Do we even need to ask that question?
Comment by Dan — June 24, 2009 @ 7:40 am