Commenting on the post titled The Czars Among Us, “doubleseetripleeye” said, “I watched the latest LCDC meeting and heard Finance Committee chair [Rod] Colwell (shown left) refer to spending LCDC cash using the words OUR CASH. Hey Rod, it is taxpayer cash.”
What do you think? Was Colwell just speaking carelessly, or did he repeatedly commit a Fraudian Slip?
It is taxpayer money! I hope he doesn’t treat deposits made at Idaho Independent Bank with this same cavalier attitude.
Comment by doubleseetripleeye — July 20, 2009 @ 9:54 am
My biggest concern with LCDC and their use of the PUBLIC’s money is the apparent lack of any oversight. The mayor and city council are supposed to be watching over LCDC and protecting the public’s interests; the mayor and city council are in charge but have done nothing to rein in or limit LCDC in any way.
Quite the contrary, they seem to consider LCDC as their separate “pot of cash”, as Councilman Woody McEvers called it.
Comment by mary — July 20, 2009 @ 10:24 am
If Woody knows enough about LCDC’s tax increment to call it a “pot of cash”, he should be working to protect the taxpayers from this ripoff. Instead, he just hopes it will all work out as he trusts government to do right for the folks. He’s just a non confrontational guy who rolls his eyes, says it’s weird, drifts off into a fog and votes for whatever his cohorts on the council think is good stuff for the folks. Local govermnment. Ya gotta love it..
Comment by Gary Ingram — July 20, 2009 @ 10:56 am
Another weird thing, Gary, is that city council members Deanna Goodlander and Al Hassell, who both also sit on LCDC, never give updates or information to the council and public about what LCDC is doing. Even when questions come up, they often just sit there and appear to know nothing.
Comment by mary — July 20, 2009 @ 8:22 pm
Brad Jordan, the Planning and Zoning Commission liason, discussed LCDC activities only when questioned by another commissioner. This was a rare occurrance.
Comment by Susie Snedaker — July 21, 2009 @ 7:57 am
City council should have a monthly report from Tony Berns, the LCDC frontman. Considering his salary, it’s the least he should do.
Comment by doubleseetripleeye — July 21, 2009 @ 8:12 am
Absolutely, DoubleSee. A monthly report from LCDC to City Council at one of the council’s regular, televised meetings would be a good step in the right direction. But the mayor and council would have to ACTUALLY ASK PERTINENT QUESTIONS and clarify what Tony is really saying because he uses spiraling descriptions with generalized verbiage to paint a rosy picture.
Comment by mary — July 21, 2009 @ 8:50 am
Maybe the council or mayor would respond to direct questions from the public on this issue of reporting URD activity as outlined in posts 4,5,6 and 7. I suspect they are avoiding this at all costs so as to pretend there is no connection between LCDC and the city. I’m sure that it is not lost on them that the Supreme Court decision pending on the Hart case in which the pleading is that URD’s are connected to the cities as an alter ego extension of city government.
Comment by Gary Ingram — July 21, 2009 @ 12:30 pm
Post 8 should read…..Supreme Court decision is pending….
Comment by Gary Ingram — July 21, 2009 @ 2:13 pm
What if the findings of the pending Hart case decide the URD’s are not an extension of city government; does that mean that cities will have no oversight of the broad powers granted to urban renewal?
Comment by doubleseetripleeye — July 22, 2009 @ 8:46 am
2C3I,
We just got back from the lake.
Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly what issues have been presented to the Court for its consideration. The only information we have ready access to is newspaper reports, which are notoriously incomplete and inaccurate and highly subjective.
The short answer is that we won’t know what the Court rules on and how its rules until we read its ruling. We should be under no illusions that we have any input the way the Association of Idaho Cities and the states’ urban renewal agencies have. Money talks, judges listen to money.
Comment by Bill — July 23, 2009 @ 1:30 pm