Who is in charge at NIC? According to an article in today’s CDA Press, apparently the board is not making decisions. For something as vital to them as the Education Corridor, this seems strikingly odd.
From the article:
In a letter to the editor of The Press, Rolly Williams, who chairs the college’s board of trustees, wrote that “while the board was informed of this decision, it did not require a vote of the board nor did any individual board members make a recommendation in order to influence which firm was hired.”
Huh?
I’ve already accused the NIC board of not representing the taxpayers or students. When you watch their meeting, you see the same kind of “deer in the headlights” inaction from the lot that you see at the Coeur d’Alene City Council and the SD 271 Trustees. It’s frustrating to see such apparent lassitude.
A friend of mine says that all three boards lack something fundamental: leadership. If the Trustees are not making decisions then who is?
Why, the trustees, of course. But not out in the open, I suspect. Does anyone really believe the so called trustees don’t know every single element of activity on the purchase of the Stimpson Millsite for the Education Corridor?
Comment by yabetcha — September 7, 2008 @ 2:10 pm
If they know and they’re not telling us, it’s disgusting. If they don’t know, it’s disgusting. They have backed themselves into a corner.
Comment by Dan — September 7, 2008 @ 3:04 pm
Patronizing seems to be the word for the day.
Comment by Susie Snedaker — September 7, 2008 @ 8:32 pm
Here is an interesting tidbit from the September 29, 1999 NIC Trustee board meeting (emphasis added):
You can read the meeting minutes here.
Comment by Dan — September 8, 2008 @ 11:59 am
Dan,
Your link to the meeting minutes needs repair.
Comment by Bill — September 8, 2008 @ 1:21 pm
When does the opinion of legal counsel weigh in?
Comment by Susie Snedaker — September 8, 2008 @ 7:38 pm
Susie,
Whenever they need a high-paid mouthpiece to intone those magical, mystical words, “No, you don’t have a conflict of interest.” If a lawyer says it, it must be so, right? Never mind that every schmuck in federal prison was represented by a lawyer and that some of those same said schmucks are lawyers themselves.
Comment by Bill — September 9, 2008 @ 6:38 pm
What in the heck is with this county and local city governments? You’ve got CdA with all of THIER BS, the LCDC, NIC, holland in Bayview, Powderhorn in Harrison, Hayden Canyon and that fiasco. I do not understand these people not working for the very people that provide their paychecks.
Comment by concerned citizen — September 11, 2008 @ 7:42 am
concerned citizen,
We have some genuinely dishonest people in our local governments and on the boards of some taxing entities. These are predators, not people making innocent mistakes based on their own professional inadequacies. Some of our public officials, both elected and appointed and in city and county, have learned it is easier to get forgiveness than permission. That’s a nice way of saying they’ve learned that too many members of the public neither pay much attention nor really particularly care what local government officials do as long as it doesn’t involve public sex or too many illegal drugs. By the time the public awakens to the damage some of our officials are doing, those same officials will be long gone. And the apathetic, indifferent public will ask, “Why didn’t someone do something?”
Comment by Bill — September 11, 2008 @ 8:32 am