Sara Baker, ACHD Commissioner

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2010-04-19T09:23:00.001-06:00

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The Law of Unintended Consequences

2010-04-09T08:48:00.004-06:00

At ACHD's regular meeting on April 7, 2010, we had an issue that would generally be considered terribly boring, but which shows how governments can focus solely on the here and now and totally ignore the future and unintended consequences.

A developer came to us with the architect for a church building site located on Ten Mile Rd just south of Chinden Blvd. Ten Mile is classified as a principal arterial and will, over time, be five lanes and carry a lot of traffic. Eagle Rd and Fairview Ave are also principal arterials so you get the idea of that. The proposal was a preliminary plat: whatever is approved at that level gets vested with rights. In other words, you can't allow something on a preliminary plat, approve it and then at the final plat stage change your mind.

The church site is directly south of a road leading to a future subdivision. The church will have access to this subdivision road, but the church also wanted an access to Ten Mile. The parking lot was designed to have these two accesses. However, ACHD doesn't care what the internals of a project are, just what the impacts of the project are on the public roadway system. It is up to the city, in this case Meridian, to determine whether the site plan is appropriate or not.

ACHD staff disagreed that there should be an full access directly onto Ten Mile, but compromised with the developer/church by proposing that the direct access to Ten Mile be a right in/right out access and that a median be placed in the middle of Ten Mile to prevent left hand turns across traffic. This would have the effect of prodding drivers who want to go left, to first have to go right for a ways south on Ten Mile and then make a u-turn somewhere.

Anyway, this configuration of church/subdivision is identical to another that I saw many years ago when I was on the Boise City Council. It was on Eagle Rd, south of McMillan and a church came to us wanting an access, their own access, to Eagle Rd. Directly abutting their property to the south was the entrance to the Mahogany Subdivision which, of course, also directly led to Eagle Rd. At that time Eagle was nothing like it is today, but it was always envisioned to carry a lot of traffic and we were always aware that too many cuts onto Eagle would not be a good thing. I vividly remember stating that the subdivision and the church should share an access point. We were told by ACHD that this was impossible, that both uses were allowed their own access. Well, at the end of the day, there are now two access points, within a few hundred feet of each other, on Eagle Rd., one of the most, if not the most, heavily traveled state roads in Idaho.

When I first got on the ACHD commission, I was assigned to participate in the Fairview Ave access study. This study is looking at the hundreds (maybe thousands?) of access points onto Fairview Ave between Orchard St in Boise, to Linder in Meridian. The goal is to limit the number of accesses to one every 1/4 mile or so, increase cross access easements and in the end have a principal arterial that flows and is safe. This is going to take decades and perhaps quite a bit of money to buy those accesses back from property owners.

So back to Ten Mile.

We were being asked to create on Ten Mile what we know doesn't work on Fairview and Eagle Rds. While the recommendation to have a right in/right out access was proposed to be accommodating, and it wouldn't have that much impact today, the unintended consequences, which are readily forseeable, were kind of ignored.

In the end, common sense prevailed. I made the motion to approve the plat with access only off of the subdivision road to the north. If this requires a replatting of the internal parking/circulation, so be it. The motion passed with Sherry Huber and Carol McKee agreeing. John Franden and Rebecca Arnold wanted the limited access option for some reason.

To me the decision was very easy. If we know that mistakes were made in the past we need to make sure those mistakes are avoided in the present and the future. If we have a policy, we need to stick to it. Circulation is bad enough in Ada County that we should not add to the problems.

Want to see the meeting? Oh you know you do. Go here and click on the video for Item #4 on the regular agenda. And enjoy.

UPDATE: We've been asked to reconsider our vote. I will make that motion and if it passes we can discuss the matter again. Seems that there was an error in that the staff said it was a principal arterial and it is actually a minor arterial. Anonymous commented this. Perhaps if they had given their credentials...... However, I still may not vote for the right in/right out, but since there was an error, the developer can remake their case.

At Long Last Construction

2010-04-05T16:36:00.002-06:00

The number one project for the City of Meridian has long been widening the intersection of Eagle and Victory Rds. This project was actually bid in October 2006, came in at $4,685,495 for construction, and was rejected. This week, the ACHD Commission will award a construction bid for the same project which now will cost taxpayers $2,612,333.96, substantially lower than 3 1/2 years ago, actually almost one half lower. Additional costs of $231,000 include utility work, traffic materials and some engineering costs.

The Eagle/Victory intersection will be widened to 5 lanes with new curb, gutter and sidewalks. Eagle Rd from Victory north to Copper Point Dr will be widened to 5 lanes as well, the Eagle Rd bridge in this vicinity will be replaced and new sewer and water system upgrades will happen at the same time. Eagle Rd and Easy Jet will also have a signal installed.

This area of Ada County has seen tremendous growth during the last decade. It's unfortunate that the project didn't happen sooner, but sometimes good things do happen to those who wait.

Odds and Ends

2010-03-25T10:57:00.003-06:00

The interesting bits about ACHD seem to be few and far between these days, at least in my opinion. We'll be having a lot of asphalt hit the ground this summer and hopefully even some permissive left green signals may go in. But nothing really exciting is happening and since we have no meeting next week, things are really thin on the ground.

Some things you won't see covered in the media.

We're going to auction off a whole lot of used vehicles and equipment on April 22 at the Idaho Auto Auction. If you're in the market for a 15 passenger van or a 1957 small Ford tractor, here's your chance to pick one up at a great price. Lots of 1/2 ton pickups as well from the 1990's.

Ten Mile Rd from Franklin to Cherry in Meridian will be closed from March 25 to April 2 for pipe work. There will be business access at Ten Mile and Cherry Lane and signage directing how to access businesses. Hopefully, the impact to those businesses will be minimized as much as possible.

Bus ridership in the Ada/Canyon County area is down 2.7% from October 2009 thru February 2010, which surprises me that it is not more because of our unemployment rate. Ridership is down 3% in the Boise area but up 2.7% in Nampa/Caldwell. Even with this latest downturn, ridership is up tremendously over the past two years.

May in Motion will occur again this year. Valley Ride will be distributing 7000 bus passes to partipating businesses and agencies. VRT hopes to have 82 businesses involved this year so if you're interested and have a business that wants to be involved, contact Mark Carnopis at 208-846-8547. Last year's May in Motion was very successful and the hope is this year will be as well in introducing people to the wonders of bus ridership and carpooling.

Over and out.

You Can't Get There from Here

2010-03-17T13:50:00.002-06:00

There's going to be a lot of construction going on this summer in Ada County including roadway overlays, a few road and intersection widenings, pedestrian accesses, and chip sealing of roads that were overlaid in the last 1-2 years. It's going to make for some frustrating travel. However, ACHD is committed to providing information on what the scheduling will be. The best information will be on the website ACHDidaho.org since you really can't count on getting detailed information into the Idaho Statesman anymore (well, actually not for a long while now).

However, what we hope to have on the website are the time frames which the projects will encompass. Last year I suggested that we upgrade the chipsealing page to include not only what areas will be done during the season but more of an idea of what time smaller areas within the larger area would be done. So instead of seeing chipsealing parts of Eagle from June - August, you would have seen a finer delineation of what was happening.

For example, this year, if all goes well, you might see that Cole Rd from Fairview to Franklin will be overlayed during the weeks of June 21-July 2. We are also going to insist that contractors start and finish a segment rather than tear off the top of the road, go work somewhere else and then weeks later finally finish. Since there will be so many projects happening this summer, there might be a few glitches in the delivery or posting of the information. Apologies in advance.

Roads that were resurfaced a year or two ago will be chipsealed. This is not done to irritate the heck out of people, but actually because it adds many years of life to a road and is a cost effective use of your dollars. As as we all know, or all should know if they still taught civics/government in schools, that tax dollars don't come from Obama or ACHD or the money fairy, but they instead come from all of us individuals.

If there's something you think is missing on the website, contact us with your suggestions. It's there for you.

New Roadwork Coming Your Way

2010-03-10T09:47:00.002-07:00

There will be a lot of overlay road projects happening within the next few months. This is the "stimulus" money - you know, the money that was voted on, oh like a year ago. Anyway, no idea how many jobs were "saved", but here's a heads up on where the work is going to be.

The following include pedestrian ramp upgrades:

Overland from Five Mile to Maple Grove
Fairview from Milwaukee to Cole
Franklin from Five Mile to Maple Grove

Cloverdale from McMillan to Savage Dr
Ustick from Meridian to Locust Grove
McMillan from Locust Grove to Eagle
Meridian from Ustick to Lava Falls

The following are Thin Lift Overlays which will lay a nice surface on the existing roadway:

State from Pierce Park to Collister
Victory from Five Mile to Maple Grove
Orchard from I-84 to Overland

Ustick from Locust Grove to Leslie
Cloverdale from Camas to Franklin
Cloverdale from Ustick to Meadowwood Dr

Apple from Boise to Parkcenter
Lake Hazel from Cloverdale to Five Mile
Latah from Alpine to Americana

Franklin from McDermott to Black Cat
Boise from Gekeler to Apple
Ustick from Black Cat to Ten Mile

13th from Jefferson to State
Floating Feather from Edgewood Dr to Hwy 55
Lake Forest Dr from Quamash Way to Flax Place

And my personal favorite

Cole from Franklin to Fairview

I'm sure the traffic disruptions won't be too long and the result will be like driving on glass.

Notes from the Statehouse

2010-03-03T09:18:00.003-07:00

Last week, I trekked over to the Statehouse, twice it turns out, to testify on HB 568 which would return all surplus property tax funds from urban renewal agencies to the real taxing districts. Right now urban renewal agencies collect property taxes within their boundaries and use them to service bonds for various projects like parking garages, streetscapes, water systems, roadways, whatever. They use the property taxes, or revenue allocation area revenues in tax speak, to pay off the bonds. What HB 568 does is target the excess.

I argued that highway districts still need to service the roads, cities still need to provide police and fire and school districts still need to educate the children living in the urban renewal areas. While we're speaking of only a small portion of overall tax valuation in the State of Idaho, nonetheless the urban renewal agencies have access to the taxes which flow from almost $4 billion in valuation. In Ada County alone, the tax valuation available only to the urban renewal agencies is over 3/4 of a billion dollars and in Canyon County it's over 1/2 of a billion dollars. It's unclear how much the surplus would be from year to year because of a number of factors like assessments, bond requirements, etc., but the issue is one of fairness.

I'll report on what the disposition of the bill is when something happens.

This was the first time I had seen the new and expanded Capitol. I was very impressed with the lower level. It's very warm and inviting. The hearing rooms are finished with rich looking woods and golden curtains and paint. The rooms are spacious, the seating comfortable, the acoustics grand. The lower level just bustles with energy.

The first floor - not so much, and the second as well. I was struck by the cleanliness of the spaces, but it's all marble. Very cold, almost like a mausoleum. There is very little in the way of decoration. All the statues the place used to hold have been exiled to somewhere with the exception of the gilded statue of Washington on his horse and the Nike of Samothrace, both of which are on the third floor. The first and second floors now seem superfluous which is sad. Hopefully, they will put some historical things out to draw people to those floors. Like where's the miner statue memorializing the Sunshine Mine disaster of May 2, 1972?

The Senate and House chambers have been refurbished and are nice, as they always were. The project was well done, as it should have been for $120,000,000.

Five Year Work Plan and the Shamrock Decision

2010-02-25T14:51:00.003-07:00

Last night we had a very large public hearing on Shamrock and the Ustick Corridor Concept Plan. Too bad the media wasn't there, but then they very, very rarely are.

Shamrock will not be punched through. Sherry Huber proposed a compromise that was agreeable to everyone. Shamrock will not go through until Cloverdale and Five Mile are completed. However, during the construction of Ustick, conduit will be placed at the intersection of Shamrock and Ustick (Bryson was later included) to forestall the need to dig up the road if a signal is to go in sometime in the future. It is likely, however, that some type of pedestrian crossings including ped activated signals will go in along Ustick between Five Mile and Cloverdale and Cloverdale and Eagle Rd. In any event, the concept plan is just a concept providing the framework for more detailed drawings for construction. The public, on this part of Ustick, will be involved all the way through.

Congratulations to the neighborhood for getting the people out and involved. It makes a huge difference. If the East End/Harris Ranch had 1/4 the number of people at the roundabout hearing, it's likely the developer would be putting in the roundabout as we speak.

The Five Year Work Plan, sounds vaguely soviet no?, was passed last night. John Franden stated that this was a plan and not set in asphalt (road pun) and I absolutely concur. I voted for the FYWP even though I thought we should have paid more attention to the wishes of Meridian and Boise, the two largest cities in Ada County, and to Garden City.

Garden City's 36th St project was basically deleted which I didn't think was appropriate. And both Boise and Meridian had concerns about in what sequence Ustick Rd would be built, west to east, vs. east to west. We had a joint letter from the cities asking that we go from west to east as was envisioned for the past few years up until last week when we changed it. My fellow commisisoners were miffed that the letter showed up on the day of our hearing. However, since our meeting was on a Wednesday and Meridian and Boise meet on Tuesdays, there really was no other way of getting us a letter any earlier unless they invented a time machine. We really have a way to go before our relationships with other local governments are repaired and well functioning.

However, as I said, there is opportunity for the plan to be changed, the earliest being during the budget later this summer. We'll be having a joint meeting with Boise soon. Perhaps this could be a discussion topic.

Crazytown Redux

2010-02-17T17:54:00.005-07:00

A while back I wrote about how crazy things were at ACHD. Since then, there have been times when it seems like ACHD is kind of a normal government agency. Other times, it's back to being Crazytown. Today was one of those days.

The issue at hand was whether ACHD was going to allow a developer, at their expense, to build a roundabout on Warm Springs Ave near Harris Ranch. The roundabout would be a one lane roundabout since for at least 20 years that's the size that would be needed. If the road needed to be expanded around 2030, there is enough right of way to convert it to a 5 lane regular intersection with a signal. (Remember the date 2030, remember the number of years - 20, it will come in handy later.)

The ACHD Commission already had said, "No, we don't want a one lane roundabout" in December but then agreed to let the City of Boise and the developer and ACHD staff work it out. Consequently, we saw the issue again on February 17, 2010.

The City of Boise, the Boise School District and the Ada County Paramedics (for emergency access comments) all said they wanted a one lane roundabout. The Idaho Parks and Rec Department, whose land abuts the roundabout said they wanted a one lane roundabout but would not accept a two lane roundabout. The developer has already platted and built on the adjoining land so there is no more land available there and in any event they made it pretty clear that building a $220,000 roundabout with their own funds was all they were going to spend and they would NOT build a two lane roundabout. Oh, and the public weighed in in a number of meetings and said that they wanted a one lane roundabout.

We talk on the Commission a lot about roundabouts and how good they can be at moving traffic continuously. So here was an opportunity to put the developer's money where our mouth is.

And the upshot? There will be no roundabout because as Commissioner McKee so eloquently put it (and agreed to by President Huber), (and I'm paraphrasing but you can watch it on our website here) "our citizenry is going to get used to the roundabout and in 20 years when we have to expand the intersection we'll have to change from a roundabout to a regular intersection and it will be a PR nightmare because they'll be upset." Yep, we are worried that drivers 20 years from now might complain about a decision 20 years from now that may or may not have to be made but, woe is us, someone might be mad at us for a perfectly defensible decision. Oh, and to convert from a roundabout to a regular intersection (in 2030 or so - maybe) would cost taxpayers a whopping $10,000 to $20,000. Meanwhile we couldn't possibly let people enjoy the roundabout for 20 years.

Commissioner Arnold really didn't care about the issue so she voted no roundabout. Commissioner Franden agreed with me that we should go ahead and let the developer build the roundabout.

All in all, another day in Crazytown.

See, ACHD Can Change

2010-02-16T15:32:00.002-07:00

It may not be much, but it did take me raising the issue a few times over the past year. Once the other commissioners agreed to go forward, it took staff all of 2 weeks to make it a go.

ACHD has a new web name. No longer is it the dumb and old style achd.ada.id.us. I think we are the last governmental agency in the country to use this configuration.

It's now the much easier to remember ACHDidaho.org. Over the next six months you'll see the change on the equipment and the website and the literature. Both web addresses will work until the old one dies completely in August 2010.

RIP achd.ada.id.us.

Busiest Intersections in the Boise Area

2010-02-12T10:02:00.003-07:00

It used to be that the busiest intersection in Boise was at Cole Rd and Fairview Ave. Now it doesn't even make the top 10. Since it's still seems busy, even with Cole School closed and torn down, this says something, although I don't know what.

The following are the top 10 busiest intersections. The data is from 2008 and includes traffic from all directions at a peak (rush) hour.

10 - Curtis & Fairview 5246 cars
9 - Gary Ln / Glenwood / State 5458
8 - Eagle & I-84 WB Ramps 5467
7 - Eagle & Franklin 5552
6 - Cole & Overland 5574
5 - 13th & Front 5576
4 - Chinden & Glenwood 5602
3 - Chinden & Eagle 5680
2 - 9th & Front 5811

and the winner is
Number One - Eagle & Fairview 6702

Now you know which areas to avoid at rush hour, as if you didn't already.

Shamrock and other items

2010-02-08T14:54:00.003-07:00

Kind of a round up today.

* The ACHD Commission will be discussing the Shamrock/Ustick issue twice this month. Remember that ACHD wanted to punch Shamrock through to Ustick over the objections of both the neighborhood and the Boise City Council.

We will be "reviewing" the staff report, for lack of a better description, on February 17, 2010 at 10:30am. Then we'll be holding a public hearing on the issue February 24, 2010 at 6pm. Both meetings are open to the public so anyone can come and listen and speak.

The staff and the website boldly indicate that if you can't attend the meeting on the 24th, then please have your written comments in by February 15, 2010 so that they can be included in the staff report. You have to read further in regular type that if you wish to submit comments after that, well, that's still allowable. Personally, I thought this was wrong and I said so. Anyone should be able to submit written comments to the Commission even up to the day of the hearing. In my now 17 years of elected officialdom, I've never had a problem reading a letter on the day of a hearing. I can't imagine any of the other Commissioners wouldn't be able to do that as well.

If someone wants to submit comments to me on this or any other item, here's my e-mail. sbaker@achd.ada.id.us

* If you live on or use the dirt road part of Dry Creek, there will most likely be a public hearing in your future on how to continue to maintain this section, continue graveling, chipsealing or paving/rebuilding.

* The fund balance (loaned from the general fund/property tax) for impact fee projects improved a whole $200,000 from the last quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010. I think there's going to be a major discussion on this issue in the near future. Have impact fees lived up to their hype? Doesn't appear so.

* There may be a glimmer of hope on the horizon for ACHD and the Cities and Ada County having a Memorandum of Understanding for the Growth Management Alliance. You may remember the expense ACHD went to many years ago having the Urban Land Institute come in and present some suggestions for playing better together. Well, at long last that might happen. We'll see.

* Obviously, there's a lot of "future" stuff going to happen. You know the old government adage, never do today what you can put off til tomorrow.

ITD Funding Same as ACHD!

2010-02-02T11:07:00.005-07:00

I've been watching, with interest, the kerfuffle over the $70,000 PR groundbreaking expenses that the Idaho Transportation Department spent this last year or so. Apparently they used a "consultant" to great expense over their own PR apparatus to stage some of the more expensive groundbreakings. I was invited to the Vista groundbreaking but decided not to go, I mean how interesting would it have been? Now I regret not going - must have been some really good refreshments!

I was most struck by the numbers of PR staff ITD has and the cost of that department. They have 9.5 people and the budget is $640,000. Hey, it's just like ACHD. We have 7 people with a budget of $693,000. We're like the same!! Now the Idaho Department of Transportation does have a total budget of $511,666,100 with 1833.50 people. But, of course, that pales in comparison to ACHD's total budget of $77,700,000 with a total staff of 300 people.

An Offpoint Rant

2010-01-29T07:09:00.008-07:00

This blog was set up to discuss issues at ACHD most especially to get my point of view across but also because the media doesn't bother to cover ACHD to any great effect. I will admit that sometimes it's hard to find a topic that one, interests me and two, would also interest a reader. A lot of what ACHD does is stupifyingly dull.

But today I'm going to digress.

There has been a lot of talk in the greater land about jobs - where are the jobs, how do we create them, who creates them, etc. Mostly it's coming from the area of our country with huge geothermal, wind and natural gas reserves - Washington DC. Unfortunately, the people there create their own hot air through being windy gasbags and have never done any real energy exploration or created any real jobs in their lives.

You see - we need jobs that are created by the private sector and that produce something. We don't need jobs that are "created" by government. Those jobs just rob money from the private sector because government jobs don't create anything. I'm not saying some aren't needed. We have government to provide the things for the common good that individuals either couldn't do themselves or couldn't do economically. For example, road building (see it does have a relevant ACHD angle) or the common defense or even police and fire protection.

But government also overreaches. And I think with the AIG fiasco, the GM and Chrysler takeovers, the command and controlish central economy to which we seem to be getting closer, we've more than exceeded that overreach point. When entities like ACHD chase money from the Feds like 24 replacement vans in order to not "leave money on the table" instead of having the ability to spend it on real infrastructure, we are jumping to DC's tune and not to the needs of our community first.

So what should be done to create jobs? I actually have created jobs in the private sector. My husband and I created, nurtured, grew, operated and sold our own business. It wasn't easy and it was risky but the most irritating thing was when we sold it, even after having created jobs and paid the FICA, the Medicare, the FUTA, the income tax, the unemployment tax, the worker's comp and oh yes, health insurance, the feds and the State swoop in and say, you've made all this money and 15% (thank goodness for the Bush capital gain tax cut) is ours.

So again, how to create a job? All I know is someone has to have an idea for a niche in the marketplace. They have to have access to capital, either through their own savings or borrowing because there will be operating expenses before revenue. There needs to be a tax structure that doesn't take a good share of profit so that someone who might have been willing to take a risk says why should I if I don't get to keep the fruits of my labor?

What I don't think a lot of people in this administration or Congress get is, even if a business owner doesn't hire anyone else right off the bat, they have still created a job - their own. And if they are going to hire someone else one thing is very clear. That person must make the owner of the business money. Not just break even, but make a profit and certainly, definitely never have to subsidize that position.

That's what's laughable about the proposed $2500 tax credit for businesses which hire a new employee making more than $35,000 per year and with health insurance. That $35,000 is really more like $38,500 or more with additional government mandated taxation plus whatever the health insurance portion is that the employer would pick up so a pathetic $2500 tax credit doesn't even offset the tax portion of the wage. If the total salary package is $40,000 that means that the employer needs to have at least $60,000 in revenue to cover the overhead of the employee plus make a little profit.

I think the way to create an environment so that people will take risks on starting businesses or expanding businesses is to take a lot of the uncertainty out of the system. And that starts in Washington DC. Stop the blather about cap and trade which will just add costs to everything anyone does. Stop this stupid healthcare redo and concentrate on health system reform which means only incorporate items which either reduce costs and/or increase efficiencies. Stop spending so much on trying to create winners and losers by "targeted" tax cuts or subsidies or whatever and just lower tax costs on everyone. Stop "stimulating" our children's and grandchildren's future debt load.

Perhaps this is the answer. Let's just pay Congress to go home and campaign for the next 9 months - no legislating allowed. Let's let Obama take Air Force One wherever he wants to go but no more speeches or proposals for spending allowed. We can have the certainty that nothing will happen to screw things up anymore for the next 9 months. Maybe that will be the catalyst for growth and optimism in our economic system.

Continuing Budget Saga

2010-01-26T13:35:00.003-07:00

On January 27, 2010, the ACHD Commission will be reviewing the budget changes which come out of the first quarter (October - December 2009). We will be asked to accept a budget $1 million less than originally approved. Some projects are added and these are the major changes.

Original Capital Project Budget $ 37,400,000
EPCB Notes Payable ( 3,500,000)
Ten Mile, Franklin / Cherry Lane ( 2,500,000)
Maple Grove, Franklin / Fairview ( 370,000)
Franklin, Touchmark / Five Mile ( 500,000)
Eagle, Victory / Ridenbaugh Canal - construction 2,409,000
Victory and Eagle Intersection - construction 1,067,000
SH-44 / State / Ballantyne – r/w acquisition 713,000
Ten Mile, Old to New Overland - design 250,000
Pedestrian Countdown Heads 200,000
Various Adjustments 430,000
Proposed Capital Project Budget $ 35,599,000

The Ten Mile, Maple Grove and Franklin projects are still being accomplished just with less money.

What is annoying about the budget change is an addition of $13,000 to the PR budget which already is at $680,000. This is purportedly for blinking safety reflectors given out at schools and at the YMCA. I don't have a problem with giving out the blinkers, I have a problem with increasing a bloated PR budget even more. They seriously can't find savings of $13,000 out of $680,000?

I'll be bringing this item up at the meeting. We'll see how it goes. (I can surmise how it will go, as I'm sure you can, but let's inject some suspense here.)

Jobs a Million, but not a Million Jobs

2010-01-20T13:39:00.005-07:00

Today at our ACHD pre-commission meeting, sorry no video - no audio, we discussed the son of stimulus bill and our list of projects. The son of stimulus is actually called the jobs bill I guess because the first stimulus which was supposed to create jobs really didn't so now there might be another stimulus bill which will actually create jobs. (However, with the election of Scott Brown in MA to the Senate, this latest bailout might not even happen.)

Actually, I raised the topic. You see, in our various project submissions, like thin lift overlays and sidewalk construction and intelligent transportation systems we are supposed to state "how many jobs are to be created". Guess what folks - it's all phony! The most egregious is found on page 10 of the pdf file. We are proposing to buy 24 replacement commuterride vans and that will create 9 jobs!

The question I had was how? How does buying new replacement vans create one job in Idaho? Maybe it keeps a UAW member on the Ford assembly line working for more than 6 hours a day for a week or so, but seriously 9 jobs?

Commissioner McKee stated that she thought any job created anywhere was appropriate. I pointed out that this "stimulus" money was supposed to create jobs in Idaho and that buying vans was not creating any jobs anyway.

People are getting fed up with stuff like this. It's all smoke and mirrors. Maybe buying commuterride vans is a good thing but in that case it should rise or fall on its merits. And we certainly shouldn't be dummying up numbers of "jobs created". People aren't that stupid.

Oh well, like I said earlier, this may all be moot.

Tax Policy

2010-01-16T09:47:00.005-07:00

Yesterday, Dan Popkey wrote, with incredulity, about Republican legislators working towards tax cuts in this time of economic woe. The woe he referred to was the woe of the State with declining revenues rather than the woe of the taxpayers with declining revenues.

I'm not going to weigh in on the good or the bad here, but I am going to relate some facts.

We have for years been treated to the adage that Idaho has a "three legged stool" that gives us a balanced revenue collection at the state and local levels and this "three-legged stool" gives us balance, stability and low taxes overall. (The three legs are property tax, income tax and sales tax.) This stool may have delivered on the promises at one time, but it's now just a rickety piece of furniture.

Of the states surrounding us, Idaho has the highest state and local tax burden - all figures are 2008 and you think it got better in 2009? We are the 13th highest taxing state in the nation. Idaho's per capita income is 82.5% of the national average. Idaho has ranked lower than 18th and that was in 2006. Seems we've been a high tax state forever, we've just been told otherwise.

How are the states around us doing?

Washington with no income tax ranks 35th.
Oregon with no sales tax ranks 26th.
Wyoming with no income tax ranks 48th.
Montana with no sales tax ranks 40th.
Nevada with no income tax ranks 49th.
Utah, a three legged stool state, ranks 22nd.

Utah's per capita income is lower than Idaho's while Montana's is slightly higher. Washington, Oregon, Wyoming and Nevada's incomes are substantially higher.

Clearly, Idaho's tax burden is extremely high which does put us at a competitive disadvantage to our neighbors. Even Massachusetts, long thought to be a highly taxed state, has a state/local tax burden of 23. Massachusetts is less taxing than Idaho!!!!

As a taxpayer, I just hope the answer to high taxes isn't to raise them higher.

The Truth Will Out

2010-01-13T08:13:00.004-07:00

If there is one certainty in this world, it is that the truth will always come out in life, in government or in politics. Sometimes it takes a little longer than one would like, but in the end, the truth arrives.

A number of years ago, ACHD made the decision to ream out the West Bench by installing a five lane road on Ustick where only three had been. The area between Cole Rd and Five Mile Rd was, and remains, substantially residential with some mixed use - an eclectic area. No one, except ACHD, really wanted the road. At that time, ACHD did not listen to the community, in fact, there was never one public hearing on the project - it was rammed down the public's throat.

One of the suspicions the residents had was that the reason for widening Ustick was to forestall the widening of Fairview Ave. Fairview had been in the plans for many, many years to be widened to seven lanes from its current five lanes. You can see as you travel down Fairview that there are currently places where there is room for extra lanes. Well, it would be much more expensive to acquire land on commercialized Fairview than to just sucker residents along Ustick (and sucker some they did.)

And that suspicion, when voiced to ACHD staff and ACHD Commissioners, was pooh poohed. "We wouldn't do that, that's not true, we would never do that, that's not the plan" blah blah blah. I mean really, how could anyone think that ACHD would actually lie to citizens?

Well, as I said, the truth will out.

Under Draft B of the FY2011-2015 Work Plan ( list of future projects), on page 2 under Fairview Avenue, it specifically states "Although Fairview Avenue scores high in the prioritization for widening to seven lanes between Meridian and Cole, staff recommends delaying any programming of these projects until the widening of the Franklin and Ustick corridors is complete. Once these corridors are complete, it may delay the need to widen Fairview for some time." (emphasis added)

Now many of the staff members working on this years Five Year Plan were not involved way back when statements were made to the contrary. But four Commissioners were and they were called on it today by me. The wording will be amended to reflect that Fairview is still in the works. I'll be interested to see how it looks in the final draft.

I understand that things change. But honesty should not be mutable. Government can only survive with the consent of the governed. When those who are governed are lied to, we are doomed. And the truth always is uncovered.

Happy New Year

2010-01-04T17:59:00.004-07:00

Here's hoping 2010 is a good one for all of us and our community.

As you are no doubt aware, I haven't posted over the holidays. In fact, I was away on vacation. But sometimes on vacation, one can see good ideas that perhaps should be replicated.

Here's one that fits the bill.

How many times have we passed construction zones and haven't a clue how to access businesses in that area? Or how many businesses have suffered greatly in a construction zone because it's difficult to get to them?

Daytona Beach Florida has a great idea. Put up signs that actually tell the driving public how to get to a business.

Sometimes, they even put the business name on the sign.

What a concept - and one we should adopt.

UPDATE: Turns out ACHD does put signs up on request that indicate that businesses are open. I'm going to be asking that we do this on a universal basis in any construction area that involves a business.

Idaho Open Meeting Law

2009-12-10T19:42:00.002-07:00

Yesterday the ACHD commission had a visit from an Assistant Idaho Attorney General to give us what in essence was a primer on the Idaho Open Meeting Law. There have been a few changes in the last legislative session or two, which quite frankly I think were prompted by l'affaire Judy Peavey Derr and the $35,000 tax bill to Ada County taxpayers so she could fight a $150 fine for violating the open meeting law.

Two important components of the Open Meeting Law are notice and review. Citizens need to be informed of when and where the meetings are and what's on the agenda and this should be done in a timely manner. There will be times when this is not possible and the law allows for that. This constitutes the notice.

Review is providing minutes of the meetings so that the public, who may not have been there (may? let's be real and call it weren't) can review the actions taken at the public meetings. There is a bare minimum of what is required in the minutes like which members were present and what actions were taken. This is pretty bare stuff. But it is just a minimum and a public body can go beyond the minimum as much, or as little, as they want. (I believe this is an area of the law which is deficient, but that's a fight for another day.)

What struck me about his presentation were the questions from the ACHD commissioners.

As you know, I have been advocating since January 2009 for more transparency in ACHD dealings. I think we should tape all our meetings, not just those at the dais, because those pre-commission meetings are where we give direction to staff and truly make our decisions in the giving of that direction.

One of the questions was do we have to tape the meetings? The answer was no, of course, but the attorney also pointed out that more transparency and information given to the public was better than less. I don't think that answer was greeted with much regard or happiness.

Another question was, if we decide to tape all our meetings and "forget" to tape a meeting, is that a violation? The answer, no because it's not required under the law.

The winner of the most patently obvious question designed to put a shiv in one's back (mine and Sharon Ullman's) was thus, "if someone writes something in a blog and it's not right (read doesn't give glowing paeans to ACHD) is there some recourse? Remember the incident with Sharon Ullman's blog that I previously detailed? Well, there was a very strong letter that followed, although the final draft was less inflammatory than the second draft. You can read the ACHD "response" on Sharon's blogsite.

I think some on the ACHD Commission forget that we have a First Amendment right to free speech under our Constitution, the same Constitution that the ACHD Commissioners swear to uphold. Sometimes things get written or things get said that one doesn't agree with. Sometimes you just have to live with those and sometimes you fight free speech with more free speech as the other commissioners did with responding to Sharon Ullman's blog. In this case, the free speech wasn't really free to taxpayers since the ACHD attorney was tasked with writing the letter(s) and he's the highest paid person at ACHD. But you get my point.

Anyway, the answer to that question was as public officials, the rules of libel are different than for an average person. But simply having an opinion is not libel. And reporting on what happens in a public meeting is certainly not actionable and is certainly not libelous. And sometimes the reporting that happens in a blog is the only reporting on public meetings that occurs - which is sad but true in so many cases.

Items of Interest

2009-12-02T15:12:00.004-07:00

Here is a small compendium of things ACHD followers might find of interest. Certainly you will never see these reported in the media.

Remember the Blueprint for Good Growth? It's moving again, somewhat, and one figure that may shock you is that a review of all the comprehensive plans from the 6 cities and Ada County show a buildout of population in Ada County of 2.7 million people. Of course, that's in 75 years, however, since we are now at a little over 400,000 population, we're talking 8 times as populated. If you want to see what's happening with Blueprint go here and click on the update in the Work Session.

Construction projects bid by ACHD are coming in vastly under what was estimated. This is obviously due to the economy. Construction firms are hungry and there isn't a lot of work in the private sector for them to do. For example, the Ten Mile Rd project from Franklin Rd to Cherry Lane came in $2.5 million under estimate/budget. The savings will be put to the project on Eagle Rd from Victory Rd to Ridenbaugh to accelerate that construction. A lot of people will be happy about this, I'm sure.

Earlier this year, I told you that we had some surplus property for sale. The auctions on those properties are now a go. (You must understand that the wheels of government grind exceedingly slow.) This is a great deal for taxpayers since currently, the land creates no income for ACHD, has to be maintained and it's off the tax rolls meaning every other property makes up for it. UPDATE The properties are offered by silent auction from December 21st thru January 4. Good luck if you're bidding.

ACHD uses the Community Work Program inmates from the Ada County jail to help keep weeds down and pick up leaves from the sidewalks and gutters. This is really a win/win. If you know of a public location that needs attention, give ACHD a call at 387-6100.

I've noticed that the Statesman does not include the ACHD agendas in their "what's happening in government" section. You can easily access our agendas. This page also gets you to the archives where you can review documents presented at the regular meetings, view video of the meetings, and now can view documents presented at the work sessions or pre/post commission meetings. Anything not at the dais alas, is not officially recorded or taped - yet. Someday, someday ACHD will see the wisdom of transparency. Now I know that ACHD meetings seem dry as dust, but don't tell me you don't find this column pretty darn interesting!

The Cliffs and the Non-vote Vote

2009-11-23T08:39:00.004-07:00

On December 9, 2009 (I believe this is the date), the Ada County Commission will address the request of the Cliffs Planned Community, to extend the preliminary plat of the Adelaide North Subdivision for two years. You see, since the original approval of this preliminary plat in July 2006, the economy has kind of tanked for new houses and the developers wish to keep this application alive for two more years in the hopes that something might happen.

The bigger issue however is that the Cliffs has no road access and has never had any access. How this development ever got approved by either Ada County or ACHD is beyond me. In fact, that is precisely what I said on November 18 when ACHD staff gave an update on the extension. Apparently, ACHD just follows along granting extensions if the land use agency does.

I argued that this planned community/preliminary plat is different. ACHD should never have approved the application without access and currently, ACHD should not approve an extension because there is no access. If the developer's ever get their request approved by the State of Idaho Department of Transportation for access then they could come back.

By approving this extension, ACHD and Ada County will be codifying the rights established and vested in a preliminary plat. By denying this extension of the preliminary plat, both ACHD and Ada County could return this area to sanity by requiring an access before anything happens.

Alas, my arguments did not win the day. But what was most illuminating was that in this pre-commission meeting, which is not taped, we actually had a vote and it came out 4-1. President McKee may not have thought she called for a vote, but she said who's in favor of doing what staff recommended and it came out 4-1.

Now it's been evident that that real work of the commission gets done in the "pre-commission" and "post-commission" and "work session" meetings and these meetings are not taped or recorded for posterity. I have asked over and over that we tape these meetings. Oh no, is always the answer, we don't take votes in these meetings.

That fiction has now been definitively shown to be just that, a fiction. Why the heck are the other members of the commission afraid to tape the meetings?

Fairmeadow Redux

2009-11-16T11:22:00.004-07:00

UPDATE: It does pay to persevere. The ACHD Commission went with the neighborhoods recommendation (see below).

In March, Winco wished to get permission to expand their store at Fairview and Milwaukee. At the time, ACHD staff (for the 3rd time) wanted to have Winco's parking lot drain to Fairmeadow St. instead of Fairview Ave. The neighborhood (for the third time) rose up and defeated that idea.

But what the neighbors also said was that there is a lot of cut through traffic which goes from Fairview to Maple Grove via Fairmeadow St. The neighborhood wanted to make that cut through less easy. In fact, the original staff report stated that there would be stop signs placed along Fairmeadow.

Well, here we are in November, 8 months later, and we are still talking about where the stop signs should go. There was a meeting in August between the neighborhood and the ACHD staff at which the neighborhood unanimously voted on installing 4 way stop signs at Fairmeadow &
Stonehaven AND at Fairmeadow & Wilmington and 2 way stops at Fairmeadow &
Springhurst AND at Camden & Middlefield.

The staff is trying to avoid stopping Fairmeadow at either Stonehaven or Wilmington. The neighborhood feels these are the most crucial stop signs to solving the traffic problems in the Fairmont Park Subdivision.

The ACHD meeting on November 18 has this item on the agenda. The neighborhood should be out in full force which is a shame, because this issue should have been resolved much earlier and without the commission having to intervene.

We need to get to a point in government when the citizens don't have to continually feel they must be ever vigilant - that when a decision is made, the decision is implemented.

I Agree With Dick the Butcher

2009-11-10T14:30:00.002-07:00

Yesterday, ACHD and Settler's Canal Co went before Judge Wilper. At issue was ACHD's motion to force Settler's to follow through on their acceptance of a settlement agreement to end the lawsuit that has been filed and counterfiled by each party against each other. ACHD lost the motion.

This dates back to the construction of the Maple Grove Rd extension - it's been what? 4-5 years?

You know, it doesn't much matter what the issues are in this whole talkfest. Oh they're important to be sure, but what has become apparent is the colossal waste of money spent on lawyers.

Literally millions in legal fees have been spent on both sides, and guess who's pockets they come out of? Pity those poor souls who live in both Ada County and the Settler's Canal Irrigation assessment area. They get to pay both sides of the lawsuit - they're suing themselves and countersuing themselves and defending against themselves.

So now we go to trial in June 2010 unless something happens and those from both sides realize that spending legal fees is ridiculous. Unfortunately, or fortunately for the lawyers, spending other people's money on legal fees is easy for the boards of Settler's and ACHD.

We had a settlement agreement. Both sides should accept it, sign it, get over the bad feelings and move on. If we can't do what Dick the Butcher recommended, at least we can do that.

So That's Why

2009-11-04T13:43:00.008-07:00

Today at our meeting, we had a citizen stand up at the public communication portion of the meeting and ask that the Commission essentially find a way to tape the pre and post commission meetings as she so rightly indicated that that is when most of the real work gets done. Just so you'll know, our officially taped meeting began at noon, the public communication is at the end of the agenda and we got to it at around 12:02pm. We spent the previous 1 1/2 hours talking about the five year work plan and a few other items.

Once the "public" finished her "communication" the meeting was adjourned without any discussion of what she had asked. Apparently public communication only goes one way - from the public into the ether. Will we ever tape these meetings, will we even discuss taping the meetings? If I had to bet real money, I'd say no because.....

We adjourned from that meeting into a post commission meeting where we discussed Ada County Commissioner Sharon Ullman's blog posting of October 29, 2009 "Say It Ain't So, ACHD". From the tenor of the discussion, one would think Commissioner Ullman advocated drinking the blood of children under the age of 2. What she did instead was report on a Valley Ride Transit employee bringing to the VRT Board of Directors what she (the VRT employee) felt was a demand by ACHD's attorney to force VRT to spend money on ADA requirements.

If you read the blog entry, you'll see it was first straight reporting of what happened at a public meeting and second her opinion that the project was not cost effective.

The real issue of ADA compliance is a moot one, since things have been worked out between ACHD and VRT. No, what the commission discussed was how awful Commissioner Ullman was to even report this. She should have come to the ACHD President if she had any concerns. She shouldn't (and I guess by extension anyone who blogs, even or especially yours truly) even blog because one would surmise from the tone that it's irresponsible to report on what happens in public meetings and besides she didn't have all the facts. She attacked a staff member and that is just out of bounds. She went behind ACHD's back and spoke to ADA activists who work with ACHD and that makes ACHD look bad.

Let this be a lesson to anyone who says anything bad about ACHD.

Really the whole thing was stunning.

PS Commissioner Ullman, strong letter to follow.