Saundra McDavid

Does your vision for the riverfront along State Street near the Eagle Island State Park entrance include an RV Park? Mine does not. However landowner Ed Priddy, of the Rembrandt’s Coffee Shop family, and Ron Bath, developer of Winding Creek on State Street, think an RV Park is a fine idea. Mr. Priddy is attempting to get an RV park classified as corporate “temporary housing” for the newly approved tech center/sewage treatment plant along State Street. You may not have known the comprehensive plan was being changed in this area from residential uses to a business park because the zoning administrator of Eagle determined that the white notice signs that normally indicate a comprehensive plan change were not required to be used. So they didn’t use them. If you overlooked the legal notices when you scanned through the legal notice section of the newspaper you are out of luck if you wanted to voice your opinion. Mr. Bath testified that there was no opposition to his plans. This is such an outrageous concept both my husband and I spoke in opposition, in a nearly empty City Council room after midnight.

How can a person involved with the impressive renovation of the Rembrandt’s building even consider an RV Park in Eagle along our most scenic stretch of highway? It’s all about the money. The reason given by Ron Bath during his comprehensive plan change request was that the land purchased by Ed Priddy is in a flood plan and it would be less costly to develop it as a RV Park than building up the ground to rise above the flood plain. Why can’t that currently undevelopable riparian flood plain next to the river remain a flood plain? Does it always have to be all about the money?

The city council voted to approve the comprehensive plan change so that the sewage treatment plant and Priddy property are now zoned as a Business Park. What still needs to be determined is the definition of “temporary housing.” Is an RV Park “temporary housing?” We’ll need to watch this one closely, or we will end up with an RV park along State Street. “Welcome to the new Eagle Sewage Treatment Tech Center and RV Park.”

If you love barbecue and fun times don’t miss the Eagle Rib Cookoff this Labor Day weekend at Guerber Park in Eagle. Andrew’s Rib Shack will be there competing in the Kansas City Barbecue Society sanctioned event, as well as twenty other competitors from around the region. The event will have live music, food from Andrew’s Rib Shack and other vendors, a beer garden, a kid zone, classic cars and bikes, and a fireworks display Sunday night. There is free admission with the donation of a non-perishable food item, benefiting the Idaho Food Bank! Or if you can’t find an extra can in your cupboard, the admission fee is $2.00, with no charge for kids 12 and under. The event runs on Saturday, August 30th from noon to 10:00 pm; Sunday, August 31st - 11:00 am to 10:00 pm; and Monday, September 1st - 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.

Also for those near Meridian on Wednesday evenings, stop by Andrew’s Rib Shack for Blues and Barbecue. We feature live music showcasing the area’s best local jazz and blues musicians, happy hour specials and a relaxing atmosphere at the fountains and bandstand in Generation’s Plaza, adjacent to Andrew’s Rib Shack in Meridian, 112 East Idaho Ave. (Idaho and Main Street). Bring a blanket for the park, or sit at one of our tables under the tent or on our patio. This event runs every Wednesday from 5:00 - 9:00.

Councilmen Huffaker and Shoushtarian both campaigned under the Preserve Eagle “platform” with me. We had three key issues during the campaign which we promised to uphold:

1) Managing the growth

2) Having a more open and responsive city government; and

3) Committing to protect your quality of life

Both Councilmen Huffaker and Shoushtarian have voted along these principles during their term as Eagle City Councilmen. We saw a prime example of this last Tuesday when both Councilmen voted

· to publish the City budget online for all of the citizens to see;

· to approve the plans for a small retail store along Eagle road that had been needlessly hung up in the City’s design review process; and

· to deny a comprehensive plan change for a higher density development north of Beacon Light.

These are the types of situations that we wanted to change. We all ran for office because we wanted to make a difference.

Both of these gentlemen have different styles of deliberation. Councilman Huffaker has come under fire recently from some of the Eagle residents for keeping a neutral position until it is time to vote. I know he puts a great emphasis on citizen testimony when deliberating an issue and I also know he is empathetic towards those who find themselves testifying before the City Council. Over the last several years as an Eagle resident he spent countless hours testifying at meetings on the key issues of our campaign, and his principles have not changed since the election.

Councilman Shoushtarian has come under fire recently from Mayor Bandy and Councilman Guerber for voicing his opinions in a budget workshop meeting. Councilman Shoushtarian has made his position clear. He would like to see a fiscally responsible budget which includes savings for the future and a plan to get our City out of debt.

We need to support both of these Councilmen on Tuesday at the public hearings for the budget. I am confident that both of them will uphold their campaign promises on this issue, and on those in the future.

For those who are interested, I’ve re-posted the Preserve Eagle Platform on the Preserve Eagle website www.preserveeagle.com

Phil Bandy wants just the facts? Well so do the City Taxpayers, so here it goes:

The general revenues for the fiscal year 2007/2008 were budgeted at $7.8 million. The revenues budgeted for 2008/2009 are $7.2 million. Mayor Bandy is forecasting reduced revenues in the areas of building permits and fees and interest payments. Property taxes are budgeted to bring in additional revenue, because Mayor Bandy insists we need a property tax increase. What is alarming in the revenue number is the carryover from 2007/2008 was budgeted to be $1.4 million, however Mayor Bandy’s new budget dips into that carryover and lowers it to $377k. The reserve fund is likewise being cut. He is spending the city’s savings account at the same time he is claiming he is reducing his budget. Regarding my classification of “tax and spend;” Mayor Bandy is proposing to raise taxes and is planning on spending nearly all of the revenues, leaving a paltry level of savings for the next year. What more of a definition does he need?

For clarification, Mayor Bandy uses a $10.5 million dollar figure when referring to the budget in his rebuttal to my comments. This figure represents the $7.2 million listed above which is “General Revenue” plus around $3 million of bond and “fund” revenue which is additional money received from property taxes and allocated to the library ($1 million), as well as money generated from operating the Eagle City Water service (approximately $1.3 million, although $250k of that “revenue” is actually DEQ loan funds which is not revenue in the business world.) An interesting observation is that some of the “revenue” included in this $10.5 million dollar figure is actually general fund revenue which reappears as allocations to the Arts Commission and Historic Commission. So Mayor Bandy is counting revenue twice to come up with his $10.5 million calculation.

Mayor Bandy also claims that no employee earns more than six figures. What he failed to disclose is that those employees COST the city taxpayers more than six figures. Add in FICA, Work Comp, Insurance and the lucrative PERSI benefits to a base salary and the entire package jumps up significantly. The rest of the Treasure Valley is not receiving a cost of living increase. Many of the residents are trying their best to simply stay employed. What type of message is he sending to the people by increasing city government wages in a time like this? After the salary increase, whether it is a “raise” or a “cost of living adjustment,” the Mayor costs the city $104 k. In addition, he recently hired a new assistant which will cost the city an additional $75k. Does the Mayor really need an assistant paid for with the taxpayer’s dollar? The top City building official will cost the city $109k. The top planning and zoning official will cost the city $117k. The top planner will cost the city $106k. The City Clerk will cost taxpayers $106k. All of these are classified as six figures. And he again references a taxpayer-paid study by a “reputable human resources contractor” otherwise known as the Mercer Group, as justification for this raise, yet he has refused to release the study. It has been said that the report shows the top officials in the Eagle city government are receiving far more than comparable cities. Perhaps this is the reason Phil Bandy doesn’t want the study released to the public. Add to this the fact that city employee salaries were already raised last year, before the new administration came into office.

Mayor Bandy claims that building permits have increased in 2008 and that justifies staffing up for this number of permits in 2009. According to the Idaho Statesman, in an article dated August 4, 2008 the commercial building permits so far in 2008 have been only 14 compared to a total of 40 for the year of 2007. Unless he is expecting a flood of building permit requests in the next four months, the total number of commercial building permits in 2008 will be significantly down from the 2007 figures. Is he expecting us to believe that there will be a rush to develop more commercial property in Eagle when we can all see the multitude of empty commercial properties currently sitting on the market? Residential construction permits, according to the Statesman article number 66 so far this year compared to 88 for the year in 2007; not exactly soaring towards record breaking figures.

Mayor Bandy justifies his large City Hall staff by claiming that an unnamed article in a “late July edition” of the Idaho Business Review “shows increasing building permit activity relative to the same time last year.” Besides the fact that our Mayor is claiming the Idaho Business Review as his justification source, instead of actual permit figures from Eagle City Hall, one wonders if the article he is referring to is “Southwest Idaho Real Estate Market Sends Murky Signals” from the Review’s July 28^th edition. That article claimed that second-quarter home sales in 2008 were lower than those of second-quarter 2007. Or maybe it was the “Report: Commercial Real Estate Market Favors Tenants” from the July 28^th edition of the Review. That article states that a “slowing economy has Boise-area office and industrial vacancy rates rising and many retailers putting expansion plans on hold.” If one chooses to believe actual realtors in the real estate market, Eagle has an 18 to 24 month supply of homes on the market. (Team Boise, Realty Times, August 2, 2008) Does the Mayor expect that there is going to be a flood of building activity in 2009 to bring the permit numbers up to 2007 levels? Not according to the experts in the field. And not according to Bandy. Bandy’s proposed budget shows a lowering of building permit revenues in 2009, so even he is not forecasting an increase in building permits. Yet he still justifies the level of staffing with building permit forecasts? What kind of double-talk is that?

Mayor Bandy implies that since the City of Eagle’s budget is smaller than Ada County’s budget, Eagle should be immune from budget cuts. How ludicrous is that kind of reasoning? He also justifies the City property tax increase with a statement that Eagle has low property taxes already. So, he believes “low property taxes” are a bad thing and we should raise them? How ludicrous is that?

As for the two committees that received large budget increases, I stand behind my comments that they are committees headed by vocal campaign supporters of his. If it smells like a fish….

Here is another fact for the Mayor. An alarming incident occurred during the city’s recent budget workshop with City Council, now part of the Public Record. The fact that is disturbing is not so much that Mayor Bandy seriously lost his temper, but that he publicly demeaned and insulted an elected City Councilman in the process. The Councilman in question is not a hired city employee; he is an elected official not under the Mayor’s wing. Bandy’s behavior demonstrates his condescending attitude towards those who disagree with him, which is a disturbing quality in someone who is supposed to be a leader.

We now know where Mayor Bandy stands on fiscal responsibility. He claimed at the budget workshop that he is more fiscally responsible than any previous mayor. I disagree. His principles are not smaller government and lower taxes, and he does not give any indication that “growth is paying for itself.”

This was written by Idaho Statesman Editorial Board Member Kevin Richert in response to a reader’s question as to who sits on the editorial board. It’s rather interesting out of all of the citizens in Eagle the Statesman chooses Jason Pierce. What the Statesman did not address was why the newspaper feels it must continually campaign for Phil Bandy.
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Thank you for your recent e-mail.
Let me answer your question about the makeup of our editorial board. Jason Pierce is one of our five board members; he is our community representative. We ask one or two community representatives — from various towns, and of a variety of political backgrounds — to sit on our board and share their expertise. Perce started with us in June, and the terms usually run six months or so.

In one of our editorial board meetings, I asked Pierce to help us understand the Eagle budget debate from his perspective. Ultimately, however, I wrote the piece on which reflects the opinion of the five members of the board — which also includes Statesman President and Publisher Mi-Ai Parrish; editor Vicki Gowler; assistant editorial page editor Dave Bomar; and myself.

Again, thank you for asking.

My letter to the Idaho Statesman. Do they dare publish it?

The Statesman should have disclosed who was involved with the “unsigned” editorial published on Friday, April 8th in support of Eagle Mayor Bandy’s Tax and Spend budget; this being yet another effort by the Statesman Editorial Board to defend the actions of Phil Bandy; the candidate you endorsed for Eagle Mayor. The readers had a right to know that Jason Pierce was a contributor to your “Our View” editorial and that Mr. Pierce publicly endorsed Phil Bandy for Mayor and currently holds multiple committee positions in the Bandy administration. Mayor Bandy has previously admitted he is in favor of editing news articles (Boise Weekly, Bombarded with News, July 23, 2008). Having a Bandy appointee as a member of your editorial board and then publishing Bandy’s talking points guised as a neutral editorial calls into question your journalistic ethics, the credibility of your editorials, and your motives in your endorsement of candidates.

Yet again the Statesman comes to the aid of their chosen mayor of the City of Eagle. Why is it that the editorial board feels as if they have to repeatedly step in to defend him? Why is it that Bandy is engaging in so many controversial acts in the first place? Bandy’s budget is tax and spend. There is no defense to that. As much as the Statesman editorial board would like everyone to think that this difference in opinions on the budget is about me and the election, it is about the conservative principles that I and many others in Eagle represent, and that Mayor Bandy does not. It is about a mayor interfering in Council business and disrupting council meetings. It is about a mayor who refuses to listen to the residents of the city he represents.

For the record - when I post, which I rarely do on the Statesman comments, I use my real name. I put no credibility behind anyone who posts anonymously.

If more high school English classes would take a field trip to see an actual production of a Shakespeare play after reading it, we would undoubtedly have more Shakespeare fans today. The Shakespeare Festival’s actors brought the play to life and the characters and set were spectacular. My son was ecstatic when we had to wait to claim our seats because in them were actors practicing sword fighting. The green show was as entertaining as ever, but there is a lesson to be learned. A couple walked in late holding three boxes of pizzas and then mistakenly tried to stop Tom from taking a look inside the pizza box. Tom, of course, gained possession of the box and then graciously said he would be kind and not eat an entire piece. He then took a single bite out of three of the pieces and put them back in the box! The patrons didn’t look thrilled. When the Green Show guys ask for your food or drink - give it up graciously, or you probably won’t like what you get back!

Our favorite actors were back for last night’s performance; Sara Brunley’s portrayal as one of the “weird sisters” was unique and striking; Laura Perrotta did a fantastic job as Lady Macbeth, and Dougfred Miller played a superb Macbeth: Beware the pitfalls of a leader who takes his throne by questionable means!

Again I am surprised at the Statesman’s slant on news. This time it’s in an effort to put a positive spin on Mayor Bandy’s tax and spend budget. And to do this, the newspaper publishes questionable statements about one of the budget’s opponents. Typical.

The following is a letter from Councilman Al Shoustarian clarifying his reasoning and some of the events that occurred during the budget planning workshop. Shoustarian made an effort to lower government spending, which should have been met with accolades. The newspaper’s article should have been about an elected official actually carrying through on a campaign promise.
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I would like to share my response to some of the comments that have surfaced and to
explain our current situation with the proposed budget.
Based on my personal experience during the last few weeks, the City budgeting
process is in need of change. It must be more accessible for the Council and our
community. I was given information two weeks before the approval process after
requesting information since January. To provide an objective view, the community
will need to break items down line by line. Since I felt the $10,598,693 budget was
fiscally irresponsible, I came up with a draft to possibly cut some areas that seemed
excessive. Since I only had twenty four hours to do this proposal, I am certainly not
suggesting that it is the best proposed budget. However, it can serve as a good draft
for the community as we all go about looking at areas that need discussion and
reconsideration.
The controversy all started when Councilman Semanko and I came out opposing the
idea that we should burden our budget issues on the community in the form of higher
taxes. Higher taxes are the partial answer approved by rest of the Councilmen and the
Mayor to solve budget issues. I do not agree with this approach. I feel there are other
avenues to explore and options that should be discussed before we go after taxpayers
for more money. This may not be a luxury in the next few years as the economy and
other factors influence our area. I believe we should take the conservative approach
with foresight to the future.
My suggestions were not accepted by Councilmen Guerber and Huffaker for further
review and discussion. We have now been left with the proposed budget that was
prepared by the City Clerk with a 3% tax increase and the lowest carry over in many
years. I want you to know that my suggestions were presented with the hopes of
getting the council to have an open discussion about ways to tighten our budget since
most of you are having to tighten yours. Change is difficult, but needed in this
climate of economic uncertainty. I do not feel that this change means cutting the
things that directly affect the safety, health and welfare of our community as some
Councilmen are suggesting. I strongly support our police department and keeping our
community safe. I am a great supporter of our Library. I see the direct correlation
here between the services our community needs and the money spent. Nevertheless, I
see areas that can be tightened: for example Eagle’s Planning & Zoning and Building
departments have more employees (based on population) than any of our neighboring
cities. Are we to wait until next year to face this or do we need to understand the
make-up of economic times and realize the change is needed today?
We are paying $240,593 every year for leasing our City Hall, while the city has an
option to purchase the building for $2.5 million; no account has been established to
save the money for this purchase. The City of Meridian and the City of Star have both
recently built new City Halls. These facilities were paid by savings. No new taxes or
bonds were required. I don’t see why we can’t be fiscally responsible and start a
savings fund.
I encourage you to evaluate our budget and consider what is important for our City.
Please attend the public hearing on the proposed budget at Eagle City Hall on August
19th. Speak up and express your concerns. We would love to hear from you.
Al Shoushtarian

For what it is worth, here are my two cents based upon what I have read and heard about the budget workshop for the City of Eagle. In May the Mayor and the city department heads began meetings on the budget. In July, that budget was finished and presented to the City Council. The results were a disaster and clearly show Bandy is a tax and spend bureaucrat. Now it is up to the City Council to make the hard decisions and cut the spending in this time of economic slowdown.

According to a recent Eagle Informer article, Ada County voted to forego its allowable 3% budget increase, took it a step further, and actually decreased its budget by $1.3 million. By contrast, the budget Phil Bandy supported for the City of Eagle increased over last year. Ada County property taxes will not be increased. Mayor Bandy’s budget increases the property taxes for the City of Eagle residents. Ada County’s budget seeks to maintain county services. Bandy’s budget shows an increase in funds to selected committees, especially those committees chaired by members who were strong supporters of his during the election. Bandy’s proposed budget also includes an across the board pay increase for city staffers. These are the same staffers who have experienced a lull in activity and have now been seen shopping and recreating during work hours. One of the staff reportedly justified the inactivity as something along the lines of a “well deserved break” after a couple of hectic years in the planning department. The city residents shouldn’t be funding a break. Scrutinizing this line item closer, the budget shows that some of the department heads are already earning substantially more than similar positions in other cities. Yet these same staffers are receiving raises? Some of these staffers are already receiving over six figures!

Someone questioned on Voice of Eagle recently why the city hasn’t slimmed down its staff since development activity has slowed considerably. It’s ironic that in November 2007 Bandy and Guerber passed a “job protection” ordinance that prohibited the Mayor from removing city staffers without a majority of the City Council’s consent. This was done out of anticipation that I had won the mayoral election and a fear that I had plans on trimming down the city staff. What an interesting dilemma now that the city is overstaffed for the current level of inactivity. But Mayor Bandy has no plans to trim the personnel at City Hall; look at the budget he presented. He gave them all raises.

The budget workshop, which was supposed to take place over June and July but which was reduced to a single day during the last week of July (and a 4:00 pm follow up meeting the next day) was a disappointment. Any suggestions for reducing the budget were met with resistance and hostility by Mayor Bandy and Councilman Guerber. Not only did Bandy and Guerber publicly lose their tempers during the workshop and show their disrespect for a Councilman, they refused to consider suggestions on budget decreases when they realized some of the suggestions had come from an Eagle resident. Bandy actually demanded to know if that resident was a CPA, implying that only the Mayor, the Council and a CPA could understand a city budget. It doesn’t take a CPA to know that the residents of Eagle do not want to be burdened with another tax increase. It shouldn’t fall on deaf ears that the residents of Eagle demand a smaller government in a tough economy. And it should be obvious to everyone that the city staff was enlarged due to increased growth. So when growth has stalled and is no longer providing funding for Eagle city government, why is our Mayor now insisting that the residents pay the bill. Isn’t growth supposed to pay for itself?

The public hearing is on August 19th and the city calendar indicates that the Council has until September 3rd to finalize the budget. The draft that was finalized at the budget workshop is a disappointing baseline and an indication of the mindset of the Bandy administration. Tax and spend. It is up to our City Councilmen to fix it. Hopefully the budget that is presented to the public on August 19^th is one that reflects what the people of Eagle desire. Hopefully our elected (and appointed) City Councilmen will make the tough decisions that our Mayor was incapable of making.