What Has Happened In The County Building?
It has been well publicized and is widely known that our Board of Commissioners is dysfunctional, lead by the two “men” who only want to hear you talk about lollipops and puppy dogs.
Bradshaw tries to control the public’s voice, professing he will not allowing derogatory comments (How dare you bring your grievances to your elected official.) All the while he labels the people of Bonner County reprobates, bacteria, and lame served with a side of his “Kiss my a**” attitude.
On the other hand, Omodt will not drop his air of superiority and or the hollow campaign rhetoric.
His actions contradict his words. He complains about decorum but can’t stop making snarky comments. He wants to follow Robert’s Rule but only some of them. He claims he does not want to grow government, and yet votes to spend your money on pet projects and unnecessary items like employee bonuses.
Secrecy is another one of the tools this board chooses to use wield under the majority of these two “men”.
The most recent example are the FY 2024 budget workshops.
The manner of noticing the budget workshops appears to have changed this year.
Looking back at the meeting notices in 2020, 2021, and 2022, there was a lot of information provided of when each department was scheduled to be discussed. One notice was published describing the schedule for the full two-week process.
• SPECIAL MEETING NOTICE BUDGET WORKSHOPS – 2020
• SPECIAL MEETING/EXECUTIVE SESSION NOTICE BUDGET WORKSHOPS – 2021
• SPECIAL MEETING/EXECUTIVE SESSION NOTICE BUDGET WORKSHOPS – 2022
This year the budget workshop notices were much different. Couched in executive sessions with little detail provided as to when each department would be discussed, they create the perception of deception. If you wanted to attend the budget discussion for Solid Waste – good luck. It might have been buried within “Other Departments As Needed”. If you had interest in the Coroner’s budget, that could have been covered in an executive session. Examples of this year’s notices:
• BUDGET WORKSHOP SPECIAL MEETING EXECUTIVE SESSION BUDGET WORKSHOPS
• BUDGET WORKSHOPS SPECIAL MEETING
Top that off with the meeting noticed for August 2. 2023, 1:00-3:00PM, General Budget Workshop, again with a possible executive session. This meeting was recessed to be continued on another day which did not require further public notice. How would you know?
Don’t fall for the feeble excuse that this is a new board and there are growing pains. Bradshaw (chairman) sat through several years of budget hearings. Why not just follow the past procedure of how workshops were scheduled and noticed. Some might say this was incompetence. Others see it as contrived.
There is no excuse. What we have is Tweedledum and Tweedledee. These two have a track record of using executive sessions to keep the people from seeing. These two repeatedly restrict discussion to prohibit the people from hearing. These two censor public comment to stop the people from speaking.
It appears that Bradshaw and Omodt would be happy to turn the county building into their own private club or is it more of a safe space for snowflakes?
Plan to attend one of the public hearings on August 21st at 10:00AM and 6:00PM for the final consideration of the FY2024 budget.
Theresa Parker
Sandpoint
