Administrative Incompetence

October 26, 2013

Tutorial: How to Inflate Your City Salary

Filed under: General — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, Public Corruption — Bill @ 9:02 am

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Today’s Los Angeles Times reporting about the public corruption trial of Bell, California’s former Deputy City Administrator explains how DCA Spaccia and City Administrator Rizzo allegedly inflated their own salaries.

This is the kind of detailed, how-it-was done news reporting that educates voters and helps make it more difficult for corrupt public officials. One of the best courtroom exchanges reported in today’s Times story could have applied here in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho:

[Bell’s former Financial Officer Lourdes] Garcia said she assumed the city attorney had reviewed the council resolution that contained the vacation increases and that Rizzo told staff members that he would discuss changes with council members.

“Did you assume the City Council was voting on things they never read?” Garcia was asked by Spaccia’s attorney, Harland Braun.

“Probably,” she said.

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May 17, 2013

Not Reassured — Not Even Close

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, Public Corruption — Bill @ 6:59 am

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“Ineffective management.”

That’s the official reason given in the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration’s report for the Internal Revenue Service’s use of “inappropriate criteria” for evaluating applications for certain tax exemptions.

But instead of focusing on what’s in the report and then accepting it as the end-all-and-be-all, look at what’s not there. (more…)

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April 3, 2013

Not the First Time…

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, Disinformation, Mike Kennedy, News Reporting — Bill @ 8:34 am

This morning’s Coeur d’Alene Press published a letter to the editor by School District 271 Trustee Tom Hamilton. Hamilton’s letter was a response to a My Turn opinion column written by Adam Graves published in Saturday’s Coeur d’Alene Press.

In his opinion column, Graves criticized School District 271 trustees for not sending even one trustee to a fund-raising auction for one of the local schools.

In his response to Graves, Hamilton observes, “Knowing that formal invitations (likely printed by your firm) were mailed to several District Administrators, the board [SD 271 Board of Trustees] is left to assume that your failure to extend the same invitation to the trustees could only be an act of omission, deliberate or otherwise. Could it be that an opportunity to slander the board was your intent all along?”

Hamilton reasonably asks if Graves was trying to manufacture a situation that would result in an opportunity for them to attack elected officials. This scheme has been tried before here in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. (more…)

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March 5, 2013

The Buck Stops … Where?

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, Coeur d'Alene, Public Corruption — Bill @ 7:57 am

If you believe Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem, Coeur d’Alene City Administrator Wendy Gabriel, Deputy Finance Director Vonnie Jenson [sic], and others cited in US Attorney Wendy Jo Olson’s Response to Objection to Impact Statements filed for the March 4, 2013, sentencing hearing of convicted former City employee Sheryl Carroll, the aforementioned Mayor, Administrator, and Deputy Finance Director were all victims themselves of Carroll’s larcenous cleverness.

Quoting character Al Borland, comedian Tim Allen’s reserved and always skeptical straight man in the 90’s television series Home Improvement, “I don’t think so, Tim.” (more…)

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March 1, 2013

Is Sandi At It Again?

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, Coeur d'Alene — Bill @ 12:08 pm

Read this Legal Announcement from today’s local skewspaper. Pay particular attention to the highlighted portion of the Announcement. Now, compare the wording of that Legal Announcement with the wording of this particular item in the online agenda for the March 5 Council meeting. If that agenda item is for the Legal Announcement item, and it’s certainly not clear that it is, then it sounds to me as if the decision to approve the Supplemental Ordinance has already been made!

If you had only read the agenda item and had not read the Legal Announcement, would you associate the agenda item with the content of the Legal Announcement? I don’t know if they are associated or not. If they are not associated, then the $12,149,284 item from the Legal Announcement is not even on the Tuesday meeting agenda!

ADDENDUM AT 2:19 p.m. on Friday, March 1, 2013: The City has just posted online this Agenda Addendum and this Council Packet Addendum addressing the deficiencies noted in my earlier post.

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February 20, 2013

Welcome to the 21st Century

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, Sandi Bloem — Bill @ 8:22 am

Describing the diligent, business-like approach taken by the School District 271 Board of Trustees in selling some unneeded land to the City, Couer d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem (shown left) was quoted in this morning’s Coeur d’Alene Press article as saying, “I’m saddened it came to this. In all good faith, we gave [a portion of Person Field] to the district.”

According to the Press article, “…the city gave the school district its half of Person Field in a ‘good faith’ deal roughly 20 years ago so the school district could receive land near Lake City High School while keeping enough property near Lakes Middle School to keep accreditation. Now, the city said, it will be more diligent in future deals, instead of counting on ‘good faith’ ones to pay dividends in the future.” (more…)

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September 9, 2012

“I’d Follow the Law”

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, Coeur d'Alene Election — Bill @ 7:59 am

On September 19 when the Idaho Supreme Court convenes in Coeur d’Alene to hear oral arguments in the election contest lawsuit Brannon v. City of Coeur d’Alene et al, it will have been exactly 1024 days (2 years, 9 months, 20 days) since the lawsuit was filed to try and restore integrity to the Kootenai County and State of Idaho election processes.

Due in large part to an undisguised effort by our local and regional news media to avoid reporting just how badly the November 2009 Coeur d’Alene City election was administered by the City of Coeur d’Alene and its contractor Kootenai County, most people still have only a vague idea why the election contest was filed. Many voters accepted the propaganda line spewed by the City and County: “Sour grapes by the loser.” That’s a convenient and easy excuse for lazy minds to accept and even lazier election officials and “journalists” to promote, but it is wrong. (more…)

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August 4, 2012

Undivided Loyalty

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, McEuen Field, Public Corruption, Urban Renewal Money Abuse — Bill @ 1:29 pm

Public policy demands that an officeholder discharge his or her duties with undivided loyalty. When an official is elected by her constituents to a position of public trust and responsibility, those constituents have every right to assume that the official will put the duties of that office ahead of those duties required of any and all other offices the official may hold. Indeed, the official’s constituents have every right to assume the official will voluntarily and even automatically vacate any office whose duties are incompatible with those of a position she already holds. This is the common law doctrine of incompatibility of office. The Idaho Legislature and the City of Coeur d’Alene have chosen to ignore this. (more…)

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July 30, 2012

2009 City Election Contest Lawsuit Update

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, Coeur d'Alene Election, Dan English, Mike Kennedy, Voter Fraud — Bill @ 3:42 pm

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The Idaho Supreme Court has notified the parties’ attorneys that oral arguments in the 2009 election contest lawsuit appeal (Brannon v. City of Coeur d’Alene, et al) will be heard Wednesday, September 19, 2012, at 11:10 a.m. at the Kootenai County Courthouse.

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June 23, 2012

Let’s Play Make-Believe…

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, McEuen Field, Recall Election, Sandi Bloem — Bill @ 5:21 pm

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Let’s play make-believe. Let’s make believe that Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Mayor Sandi Bloem is able to be honest when talking with citizens. (more…)

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