Tony Evans\u2019 article on \u201cPetitions Challenge Fees Charged by Hailey\u201d is shoddy reporting at best, and an inappropriate attempt to influence an election at worst.<\/p>\n
Stating \u201cmetal worker Bob Wiederrick\u2019s past petitions failed\u201d while technically true, has no real bearing on my current initiatives. This subtitle sends the message, \u201cWe did not pass this before. Why is he bringing this up again?\u201d<\/p>\n
Had Tony actually interviewed me before writing this article, he would know how these initiatives differ from the ones I attempted eight years ago. Not everyone will hit a homerun on their first time at bat, so I hope I will be forgiven for my tenacity in trying the initiative process again.\u00a0My goal is for our city to be the best it can be \u2013 for Hailey to establish a business-friendly environment that will attract new businesses to our town and support the businesses we have here now.<\/p>\n
Tony cites Ned Williamsons\u2019 opinion that the refund of the development impact fees is illegal. This implies that if Ned says it is so, then it must be so.<\/p>\n
Speaking of past failures, Tony didn\u2019t mention Ned Williamsons\u2019 failures on the Old Cutters annexation agreement.\u00a0That agreement had provisions that were proven in court to violate several state laws and even the Constitution!<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t recall ever seeing a final tally on the legal fees and staff time spent on the Old Cutters legal battle being reported in the paper. I know the city had to pay nearly $100,000 of John Campbell\u2019s legal fees. I would imagine the city\u2019s own cost to be at least that much and could perhaps be much more. Wouldn\u2019t it be nice to know what the taxpayers\u2019 final cost was?<\/p>\n
I often wonder why the city retains Ned\u2019s services after such an epic failure. Ned has been the city attorney for a long time. Anyone who can give poor legal advice on one matter can certainly have the same problem on another. Such is the case with the development impact fees on commercial and light industrial development. I believe these fees to be illegal for the simple fact that the city makes more money on these types of development than it costs the city to service them. Idaho state law prohibits cities from making a profit on fees \u2013 that was proven in court with Old Cutters. I maintain that these fees are nothing more than an illegal revenue-raising scheme that sets up barriers to new business coming to Hailey.<\/p>\n
I do not have the financial means to challenge these fees in court. The City of Hailey has shown that they are willing to spend large amounts of our money to defend their mistakes. Thankfully, the initiative process only costs me my time, some paper and some ink. The only other thing required is an abundance of like-minded voters willing to support my efforts by signing a petition.<\/p>\n
I also wonder what purpose Tony would have to include the Economic Stagnation Awards presented to the Hailey City Council that he terms \u201csculptures of dead fish\u201d in his article. They have no relevance to my initiatives. He makes me appear to be some kind of crackpot.<\/p>\n
Actually, the Economic Stagnation Awards were given to the Hailey City Council for promoting and maintaining policies and ordinances that harm the economic viability and vitality of the City of Hailey. The awards are meant to serve as a reminder that much more must be done to improve Hailey\u2019s economic environment.<\/p>\n
Councilperson Martha Burke seems to be especially appreciative of the awards\u2019 unique appearance. I hear the awards reside in the mayor\u2019s office. It is a shame they are not on public display. I suppose the awards came about as the physical manifestation of the frustration I felt in my dealings with the City of Hailey. I am fortunate to have a creative outlet to show my disapproval of the city\u2019s actions. Perhaps the thought of earning another Economic Stagnation Award compelled Martha Burke\u2019s \u201cinterest in discussing the business license initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n
We will not be seeing a rerun of the last time the initiatives were voted on. Since 2015, the State of Idaho now runs initiative procedures taking away the inconsistent processes cities had in place. I will be fighting hard to see that the City of Hailey does not get to use their considerable resources to lobby against my initiatives as happened in the last election. Now if I can only get fair reporting from the press, I think we can make Hailey \u201copen for business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert \u201cBob\u201d Wiederrick<\/b><\/p>\n
Hailey resident<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tony Evans\u2019 article on \u201cPetitions Challenge Fees Charged by Hailey\u201d is shoddy reporting at best, and an inappropriate attempt to influence an election at worst. Stating \u201cmetal worker Bob Wiederrick\u2019s past petitions failed\u201d while technically true, has no real bearing on my current initiatives. This subtitle sends the message, \u201cWe did not pass this before. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-letters-to-the-editor"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}