The Wrecked District

2010-10-29T12:25:00.000-06:00

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery:

Really.

FINALLY!

2010-10-25T07:29:00.001-06:00

FINALLY! A new post! Yes, but more important: FINALLY- something is actually being done, other than carping and whining and complaining and wringing and singing and betching and.... you get the picture.
An exciting time is at hand for the Wrecked District- a chance to pick up the pieces and move forward with recreation rather than engage in four more years of meetings, planning, planning meetings, meetings on plans, and the occasional unplanned meeting, where they plan the next meeting. This November 2, the voting public will have a chance to show the two appointees what it means to be on the hook for everything they have or have not done since they were selected for their offices by fellow appointee Mollie Marsh. Just in time to help Alert Readers make an informed choice, here is a list of their actions and inactions, over the last two years. Alert readers should not be tempted to give these two a pass for the failures of their predecessors; they have warmly embraced every single action and failure over the last ten years as well, which is why they were chosen for their seats by the incumbent director: they are strict adherents to the status quo and will tolerate no dissent. They have underwritten and continued every bad decision made by past boards and therefore deserve to face the blame for them. They have consistently refused to disavow those very bad choices, and it's far too late for them to do it now; after all, politicians will say and do anything to keep their phony jobs.
Enough! On to the List:

Bookmarks-Check
Tassels- Check
Photo of selves-Check
Retouch- Check
Pick Up Trash on Lot- Nope
Redo Sign on lot- Check
Leave blank space on sign for their own campaign signs- Check
Hire impartial election officer- ~~check~~ whoops.
Take sign down after minor uproar about using public property to keep selves in office- check!
Spend money on recreation- Nope
Buy just, like, once, one soccer ball for even, like, just one kid?- Nope.
Collaborate with city on walking path- Nope.
Collaborate with any entity, anywhere, to provide recreation-Nope
Collect four times amount needed for current operations from taxpayers during worst recession in like 1000 years- You Betcha!

Planning to Meet; Meeting to Plan, Repeat as Necessary Until They Go Away

2010-01-30T08:24:00.001-07:00

Reports from the Wednesday meeting have been coming in bits and pieces. According to witnesses, those who did not die of boredom may already have been dead. Public comment was accepted, at the end of the meeting, but no questions were answered.
Apparently they will be hiring a bookkeeper and a Special Chief Deputy Underassistant To The President. Silence will be formulating the new organization chart.
There was some discussion of tech support, but no one seems to know what was said, asked, or decided. Surprise!
The building (mis)use policy is (still) being (re) worked. Surprise!
The document policy was discussed, but still needs work and revisions. Surprise!
Silence needs a tally of things brought forward from prior meetings (October and prior), how long they have been languishing in la-la land, and how many got settled at this meeting. We suspect the answer to the latter question is zero, or at most, one. More to follow after a review of the minutes.

Recreation? I'm A Frayed Knot!

2010-01-26T22:18:00.002-07:00

This needs no explanation- other than, yes. Yes, it is what you think it is. 600 of them. I don't know what else to say. Words escape me. Wow.

Website Updated!

2010-01-26T07:02:00.001-07:00

The Western Elmore County Recreation District's $3800 website has recently been updated. It no longer refers to holiday closures, reminds readers of the new location and announces the upcoming meeting this Wednesday, the 27th of January, at 7PM at their office.
Seems their website is updated once per month, and at $3841 per year for web maintenance, that's $320 per monthly update. Here is what is new:

Meeting Reminder

The regular January meeting of the WECRD Board of Directors at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 27, 2010. New Location!

245 East 6th South, Mountain Home

That's 142 characters of typing, not including spaces. Since the update cost $320, that amounts to $2.25 per typed character. Good work, if you can find it.

Here's a suggestion: Scrap that website, and go to Blogger. It's free. And so simple, even a Western Elmore County Recreation District Director could use it. (well, maybe)

Your Office, Your Records

2010-01-24T08:54:00.003-07:00

An Alert Reader's comment under the photo posting caught my attention:
"I have been to their office. I reviewed the Green Play document and another report. I was asked why I wanted to see these things. I did not know that this was part of the records request policy."
That sure isn't part of their written records request policy, and for good reason: It's a violation of Idaho Code 9-338(4): "The custodian shall make no inquiry of a person who applies for a public record..."
That's very clear. No inquiry.
There seems to be a pattern to the Western Elmore County Recreation District's response to information requests- a very disturbing pattern of discouraging the examination of Your public records. Here an Alert Reader reports one more example to add to the ones we have already seen: Unnecessary copy and research charges, incredibly inconvenient hours, less than timely responses to questions, and now, (or whenever it occurred), questioning the purpose of the requestor. Another way to look at it: A body truly interested in open, transparent government would never engage in such conduct.
This pattern of conduct has the effect of denying access to information voters and taxpayers need to make informed decisions about how they will vote and how public tax dollars are spent. It is patterns of conduct like this that made the Public Records Law necessary- because a government body immune from scrutiny is a very dangerous thing.
Kind of chilling, isn't it?
Update: Embedded a link to an article on certain characteristics which seem to be present in this District.

Providing Adequate Recreation Facilities? Really?

2010-01-23T09:44:00.003-07:00

The first sentence of Idaho Code on the purpose of a recreation district: "Providing adequate recreation facilities for public use.."
In order for an expenditure of your tax dollars, also known as public funds, to be legal, it must provide a "public benefit, use, or purpose". Idaho Law makes it legal for Recreation Districts to collect a tax, in order for that tax to be expended on "Providing adequate recreation facilities for public use", and further clarifies with the statement that recreation facilities "enhance the quality of life and materially assist(s) in the correction of many social ills, such as delinquency, crime, excessive use of alcohol, drug abuse, and discrimination."
In other words, if you are going to forfeit your hard-earned tax dollars to the recreation district, well, then, at least, you will be provided with "adequate recreation facilities for public use", right? And you ought to be getting some material assistance in reducing many social ills, right? You agreed to be taxed, in exchange for receiving the public benefit of recreation- and even if you didn't directly participate in the recreation provided, your quality of life is enhanced because the recreation you pay for reduces the many social ills of your fellow citizens, right?
Nope. Not in this case.
Not so much as a soccer ball.
Nine years of nothing.
Well, then what do we have?
An empty field of weeds, mud and garbage.
An old warehouse office-to be used only for the administration of the district-open only four hours per day, three days per week- adorned, of course, with that inspirational photo and bookmarks with tassels.
That's all, folks. That's what is provided.
Nine years and counting. No adequate recreation facilities. No reduction in juvenile delinquency.
That can't be legal, can it?

In Times of Need

2010-01-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

For nine years, your family has been tenaciously saving for a new sailboat. You have accumulated about 1/10th of what you need, and hard times hit. Your income is reduced drastically. It is time to reevaluate and reallocate your family's spending and saving priorities. This month, expenses exceed revenues. But to some extent, this is self inflicted- you are choosing to put $75 toward a sailboat that (1) you may never get, and (2) you will rarely use. Since you have to pay for shelter and food, any rational analyst would suggest, at least temporarily, halting the monthly contributions to the sailboat dream fund, especially when not doing so would result in homelessness and starvation. Further, if the financial problem worsened, that accumulated fund would serve to help carry our distraught family through until the situation improved and they could continue on the path to future sailboat ownership.
The average homeowner in the Western Elmore County Recreation District is contributing about $75 per year toward a dream center, which is no closer to building than the day it was formed. They are not using the money for anything, let alone something arguably useful like recreation (which is, incidentally, their purpose). An absolutley critical government function, that of education, is in a severe financial crisis, unprecedented in severity. It's probably not even close to legal for the Recreation District to outright transfer their funding to the school, but here is a way they can help, legally and ethically. The responsible course is for the Recreation District Directors to contact the school board, and arrange the following:
The Recreation District will immediately cease its levy for this year, freeing up $75 worth of taxpayer funds previously allocated to nothing at all. The recreation district operates on only $116000 per year and has 1.3 million in the bank- they will be able to operate on what they already possess.
The school district could then simultaneously ask the taxpayers for $75 worth of an emergency supplemental levy- and since the Recreation District just turned theirs off, it would not cost the taxpayer any more than what they are paying now. Both entities could talk to the taxpayers simultaneously about the switch, helping the levy to pass.
Presto- $440,000 of new money for the school, and no additional cost to the taxpayer.
Further, the Recreation District could offer to temporarily lease from the school some of the district's property, like ball fields and such. The Recreation District could then assume the maintenance responsibility for those items, by using part of the on-hand 1.3 million, further alleviating the financial burden on the school.
Leasing and maintaining items like ball fields is legal, and well within the mandate of recreation.

Just till times get better, then we could go back to saving for our sailboat.

R is for Recreation, and if E is for Effort, F is for Fail

2010-01-19T07:12:00.002-07:00

From the $3,800.00 website(when working): "...in an effort to lessen the tax burden.." Doesn't look like much effort was put toward that end. The district collected over $416,000 in tax revenue last year, but they only "needed" $116,000 to run a 3-day per week office, buy inspirational photographs, utilities, and bits of string. What do they do with the rest? They "tenaciously" save it. They are taking money from you and doing nothing with it. They take it out of the economy, where it might have been spent by you on something you liked, and keep it until they make up their minds on how to proceed. They could have built two Pentagons and the Transcontinental Raildoad by now. Your tax bill could have been considerably less if they only had taken what they "needed". When you approved this, did you know you would be "saving" money, without recreation, for longer than it took to build the Transcontinental Railroad? I didn't.
Here- let's look at a little chart which illustrates it nicely:

But, Big Projects Take Time, Right? v.2.0

2010-01-18T19:04:00.001-07:00

The Transcontinental Railroad was built with Shovels and Wheelbarrows. By Hand.

But, Big Projects Take Time, Right?

2010-01-18T16:06:00.000-07:00

Compare with planning and constructing the largest office building in the world:

Office Hours and the $64.57 Question: What would you say you "do" here?

2010-01-18T08:30:00.004-07:00

According to the Western Elmore County Recreation District's $3,800.00 Website(when working), the District office will only be open Tuesdays thru Thursdays for only 4 hours each day(10 AM to 2 PM) . Since the office is occasionally closed for Christmas or other calamities , it's fair to guess they operate about 50 weeks a year. Probably less, but, hey- they deserve a break. Three days a week, four hours a day (assuming they take no lunch- Alert Readers will have to help- is it closed for lunch? Let Silence know). So the office is open about 50 X 3 X 4=600 hours per year. There is a paid Board Secretary there 50 X 2 X 4=400 hours per year.
So- what are we paying for this office to be open while we can't get there smack in the middle of only three days per week? Turns out, it's an average of $64.57 PER HOUR. To be fair- it's only(!) $50.00 per hour on Wednesdays, (30k/600) but it's $71.81 per hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and that averages out to $64.57 per hour it is open. Here is the cost breakdown:

Setting The Example- Really?

2010-01-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

Straight from the Western Elmore County Recreation District's $3,800.00 website (when working):

"Tax dollars were saved from revenue generated. Methods: First, the Directors set the example of volunteer service and as such receive no pay or reimbursement from the District." (emphasis added)
The Directors use their taxpayer-paid website to tell us they receive no reimbursement.

Then the Directors turn around and receive reimbursements for expenses, including bits of string, for a total of $639.50 paid to Directors, out of District funds in the 2008/2009 fiscal year.
So- do the Directors "Set the Example of Volunteer Service"? as they describe on their own website?
You decide. Then, let them know. They are representing you.
They will be hosting some sort of Chamber Open House on Thursday the 21st at their office. They also have a board meeting, open to the public, at 7:00 PM on Wednesday the 27th of January. Be sure to go!

Tenacious Savings

2010-01-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

In approving the formation of the district, the voters were led to believe they would get a 12 million dollar recreation center. After nine years of churning through about $100,000 per year on overhead like photos, utilities, and bits of string, without providing any recreation, here is where we stand today:

Anatomy of a Tassellated WECRD Bookmark

2010-01-16T11:52:00.002-07:00

Total price: $208.00
The taxpayers of the Western Elmore County Recreation District reimbursed Director Marsha Sellers $78.50 for the tassels on these bookmarks. Still unknown is how many were made.
UPDATE: An Alert Reader pointed out a website that shows just how important tassells can be. From the site:
"It has been said that tassels served no real purpose, but I disagree. First and foremost, I think that there is purpose in decoration. That said, tassels can be functional on a more practical level. The tassel you hang from a skeleton key or a pair of embroidery scissors is there to ensure that the small, but very important item, is not lost in the clutter of daily living. "
I think our lives are all a lot richer now.

WECRD Sunshine Time!

2010-01-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

The taxpayers of the Western Elmore County Recreation district paid $725.00 for this photograph of Marsha Sellers, Mollie Marsh, and Jana Borgolthaus.
A little sunshine now and then prevents the buildup of smelly mildew.
UPDATE:
Photo obtained from www.wecrdgov.org
It was purchased with public money, it is public property, was posted by that public agency and is still available on their website.