Bonners Ferry Special Meeting RE: ARPA Funds

Bonners Ferry Special Meeting RE: ARPA Funds

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES

By Donna Capurso, Patriot Journalist

The Bonners Ferry City Council is blatantly ignoring the citizens as to the issues involved by using ARPA (the American Rescue Plan Act) money which has been allocated to Bonners Ferry in the total amount of $567,208.

A regularly scheduled City Council meeting was held on Tuesday, January 18^th. that was well attended. The public was allowed to make comments and ask questions regarding using ARPA funds to purchase a 2014 loader mount snow blower. Instead of voting on this issue, the City Council decided to table this issue until the next scheduled City Council meeting which would occur on February 1^st, 2022.

The Bonners Ferry City Council decided to hold a “special meeting” on Friday, January 21^st, at 3:00 pm. I attended this meeting as a member of the Redoubt News press and wore my press ID. The meeting room filled up quickly and every chair was filled, including extra ones being brought in, and everyone else came in and stayed standing in the completely over-crowded room. The Council members present were Rick Alonzo, Ron Smith and Brion Poston. Valerie Thompson participated via Zoom and there was no mention of why the mayor, Dick Staples, was nowhere to be seen or heard from. The meeting was called to order by Councilman Alonzo and the public was immediately told that the public would NOT be allowed to ask any questions and would NOT be allowed to make any comments.

The public was advised that this “special meeting” was to decide on the purchase of a 2014 loader mount snow blower, and that the meeting time had to be moved to this date or the Council would lose the option to purchase the particular loader that they wanted. The Council advised the attendees that Idaho District 1 House Representative Sage Dixon advised them to accept the money as well as their City Attorney Andrakay Pluid. Pluid mentioned on more than one occasion that she did NOT see any issues why the council should NOT accept the funds.

There was absolutely NO DISCUSSION by the Council members regarding this purchase, and a call for the vote was made by Alonzo. Brion Poston voted “yes”, Valerie Thompson voted “yes” via Zoom conferencing, Ron Smith voted “yes” and Rick Alonzo voted “yes”. It was noted that the vote had now authorized the Council to purchase the snow blower with “ARPA” funds and that the special meeting was concluded.

At this time, the public became incensed that no comments during this fiasco of a “special public meeting” were allowed by the public and made their feelings abundantly clear about the shenanigans the Council members had just concluded. Councilman Ron Smith stood up, slammed his hands on the table in front of him, and with a beet red face yelled at the public that he “was a duly elected official” which only made the people in attendance angrier and their voices were loud. Alonzo, a previous Bonners Ferry police chief, yelled to get the police in the room, and one police officer magically and immediately appeared which only made the public attendees more disgusted than they already were. The crowd started chanting “SEND THE MONEY BACK” a number of times.

The City Council members of Bonners Ferry are an embarrassment to not only the city of Bonners Ferry, but the residents of Boundary County as well as the State of Idaho, and to shut out “We the People” from expressing our concerns goes to their characters, or rather lack of character as well as patriotism.

I had a short presentation that I would have liked to present that was only 3 ½ pages with very important information that the Council should have considered which would have been eye openers for them as long as they had the best interests of the public in mind. The full ARPA law was signed on March 11, 2021 and it is 628 pages that allocates $1.9 trillion in stimulus to supposedly aid in the COVID-19 planned-demic, which impacts all jurisdictions, cities, counties, school districts as well as states, creating an indebtedness to the Federal government never seen before!

By using these funds, specifically COVID-19 Mitigation and Prevention, a broad range of services are “supposedly” needed to contain COVID-19 and are eligible uses, including: vaccination programs, medical care, testing, CONTACT TRACING, SUPPORT FOR ISOLATION OR QUARANTINE, support for vulnerable populations to access medical or public health services, PUBLIC HEALTH SURVEILLANCE, ENFORCEMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH ORDERS, and there is more on page 3 of the Idaho Report 03-21. Hmmm..I wonder how a front loader snow blower fits these parameters, or any other mandates?

For example: Rule 9. Compliance with Applicable Law & Regulations.

1. Recipient agrees to comply with the requirements of section 603 of the Act, regulations adopted by Treasury pursuant to section 603(f) of the Act, and guidance issued by Treasury regarding the foregoing. Recipient also agrees to comply with ALL OTHER APPLICABLE FEDERAL STATUTES, REGULATIONS, AND EXECUTIVE ORDERS and Recipient shall provide for such compliance by other parties in any agreement it enters into with other parties relating to this award.

Let me repeat in case it hasn’t registered what the Bonners Ferry City Council has done to the citizenry: RECIPIENT ALSO AGREES TO COMPLY WITH ALL OTHER APPLICABLE FEDERAL STATUTES, REGULATIONS AND EXECUTIVE ORDERS. This simply means that any entity that receives the money must agree to ALL of Joe Biden’s executive orders, even if they are unconstitutional, including demands for vaccine passports, mask mandates or anything the diabolical Feds come up with. What about gun confiscation, arrests of anyone protesting the federal mandates or parents at school board meetings regarding what their children are being taught? And heaven only knows what the far, far left U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland will come up with to violate our Bill of Rights, in particular our First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Heck, you don’t have to look any further than what happened at the “Special Meeting” on Friday, 1-21-22 that took place in the Bonners Ferry Council Chambers regarding abridging freedom of speech as well as freedom of the press!

So, let’s move on to Rule 14, which are the consequences of not following the government’s demands:

14. DEBTS OWED THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:

a. Any funds paid to Recipient (1) in excess of the amount to which Recipient is finally determined to be authorized to retain under the terms of this award; (2) that are determined by the Treasury Office of the Inspector General to have been MISUSED; or (3) that are determined by Treasury to be subject to a repayment obligation pursuant to section 603(e) of the Act and have NOT been repaid by Recipient shall constitute a debt to the Federal Government.

b. Any debts determined to be owed the federal government must be paid PROMPTLY by Recipient. A debt is delinquent if it has not been paid by the date specified in Treasury’s initial written demand for payment, unless other satisfactory arrangements have been made or if the Recipient knowingly or improperly retains funds that are a debt as defined in paragraph 14(a). TREASURY WILL TAKE ANY ACTIONS AVAILABLE TO IT TO COLLECT SUCH A DEBT.

So, what could possibly go wrong by accepting this so called “free money”? Let your imagination be your guide:

1. A lawsuit filed by the Feds which would cost the city of Bonners Ferry untold $ by a federal government with all the money, time, and federal attorneys at their disposal. Perhaps Alonzo, Smith, Poston and Thompson can all chip in to cover the city expenses to fight the Feds since they were the ones who refused to listen to their constituents and all voted for this “free” money! And I am sure Andrakay Pluid, the Bonners Ferry City Attorney could fight the Feds, as she said during the Council’s “special meeting” that she advised the Council that she does NOT see any issues with spending this $567,208….REALLY?? Hey, you know who else can chip in? Our Idaho Rep. Sage Dixon! After all, he advised the Bonners Ferry City Council to take the money and he gets lots and lots of money from Big Pharma and his Slime Ball buddy Scott Bedke.
2. Perhaps the Feds will come and arrest the elected officials who signed off on this fiasco or at the very least remove them from office!
3. Think the Feds won’t come in and replace the council with their own “people” if you want to call them people instead of Demoncrats?

By the Feds saying that they will collect the debt “by whatever means they decide” can mean anything at all. And who will suffer because of the decision made by the City Council? “We the People” of course, because the Feds don’t have to prove that the Council “mishandled” the money; they just have to DECIDE that in their opinion it was “mishandled”.

Make no mistake, that all of this has been planned for a long time by the “Deep State” and if we don’t stand up and fight for our freedom, our country, our state and where we live, then our children and grandchildren will be the final recipients of our lack of action and due diligence!

Related:

Boundary County Commissioners Are In A Pickle

ARPA – The Path To Socialism

Feds Begin to Make Their Move To Socialism Through ARPA Funds

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