Saturday morning’s Coeur d’Alene Press skews paper article by staff writer Devin Heilman was aptly headlined Sanitation service showdown.

At its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, April 19 at 6 p.m., the Coeur d’Alene City Council is scheduled to consider Resolution 16-020 awarding a ten-year contract with two three-year option extensions to Northern State PAK, LLC, d/b/a Coeur d’Alene Garbage Service.  This is an extremely lucrative contract (several million dollars) with a guaranteed ten-year revenue stream.

OpenCdA thinks the public needs to pay very close attention to this agenda item at Tuesday night’s meeting.  (more…)

The Wednesday, April 6, 2016, Coeur d’Alene Press skews paper online published an article (likely based on a press release from the Community Library Network) headlined Library Network talks planned.

OpenCdA urges Kootenai County taxpayers whose Kootenai County Tax Statement includes Taxing Districts identified as 271 – Com Lib Net J and 272 – CLN Bond J to pay close attention to the content of today’s skews paper article.  We will also want to follow the plans and progress of the Community Library Network library expansion.

To help readers better understand how libraries are changing and why modern and progressive ones like the Community Library Network are even more relevant today, we urge you to read Biblio Tech – Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google.  (Mouse-click on the book cover’s image to enlarge it.)  It was published in 2015 and is available from the Community Library Network.

Biblio Tech would be a good book to read before attending any of the meetings listed in today’s Press article.

OpenCdA’s post on Saturday, April 2, 2016, titled Change in CdA Council Meeting Time? pointed out that the online agenda announing the Tuesday Coeur d’Alene City Council meeting contained a serious but easily correctable defect.  The agenda would, if executed as published, result in a violation of the Idaho Open Meetings Law.  The violation was not created by the meeting time change; it was created by the order of business as announced in the agenda.  The violation and lawful correction for the violation was explained in the post.

Today at about 5:59 AM, we went to the Coeur d’Alene City website and once again looked at the online Council meeting agenda.  It had been changed, perhaps in response to our post, but the change did not correct the original error.   Here is the new agenda as it appeared this morning.

The Idaho Open Meetings Law is clear about how public meetings must be announced and conducted.  It is equally clear about when and how Executive Sessions are authorized and what business may and may not be conducted in them. (more…)

Today’s Idaho Statesman published an opinion piece headlined Permitless carry bill ‘sets Idaho up for failure’.  The op-ed’s writer, True Pearce, identifies himself as “…  an Idaho attorney, professional competitive shooter and gun rights advocate.”

Our OpenCdA post on March 17, 2016, SB 1389: Did They Ask?, wondered if Idaho’s legislators had bothered to diligently research possible conflicts between Idaho’s proposed SB 1389 and the federal Gun Free School Zone Act.  Certainly the resources for doing the research were available to the legislators even if the legislative skill and political will to pass a state law consistent with the federal law eluded them.

Our recommendation is simple:  If you’re inclined to carry a concealed weapon in Idaho, lawfully obtain the appropriate level of state permit and put it with your driver’s license or identification card.  Having the state-issued permit does not allow you to violate either federal or state laws, but failing to possess one can result in a federal statutory violation where one would not otherwise have been.