[Vision2020] BOE Hearing.

[bill london]

R/S-
I want to thank you for your efforts to ensure fair and equitable 
taxation for all of us who pay Latah County taxes.
I salute you for the guts to put yourselves out front in this and for 
the brains to make this challenge correctly and accurately.
BL

DonaldH675 at aol.com wrote:

> Visionaries,
> Saundra and I thank all of you who were able to come to the BOE 
> meeting today. Those of you who were there know that we were not 
> allowed to present our complaint based on advice given the BOE 
> counsel, Mr. Doug Whitney.  Indeed, we were not allowed to speak at 
> all.  The hearing is continued until Friday night, 6:00 in Room 2-B, 
> Latah County Courthouse.  (The basement conference room directly 
> across from the commissioners offices).  If you have the time, I urge 
> you to come. The following statement was mailed to the BOE early this 
> morning prior to the hearing.  As usual, I will share all public 
> communication between the country officials and myself.  I can not 
> state strongly enough, that we object vigorously that the hearing did 
> not proceed as scheduled.  Following the closing of the hearing some 
> questions were directed to BOE members from the audience.  In 
> particular, I was struck by Mr. Whitney's response to a question from 
> the audience.  When asked if he could explain a procedural issue his 
> response was to direct the woman to a code number, and then added "you 
> probably couldn't understand it anyway."  I hasten to add, Mr. Fiscus, 
> and the BOE members have been courteous, helpful, and professional at 
> all times, and I am confident that we will receive a fair hearing.  
> Nonetheless, Mr. Whitney made Saundra's and my point far more capably 
> than we ever could.  How are two lay persons going to prevail when 
> they are placed in the position of arguing law to lawyers? 
> Our statement was placed on record Friday morning when I emailed it 
> in.  Saundra read the statement following the BOE meeting. 
> Hope to see lots of you Friday night. 
> Rose Huskey.
>  
> Gentlemen:
> If the July 6th hearing is continued we will ask to read this 
> statement into the record.  We are sending it to you so that you will 
> be aware of what we intend to say.  We hope that if will encourage you 
> to go forward with the hearing as originally planned.
> Respectfully,
> Rosemary Huskey and Saundra Lund
>  
> Statement for the Record
> On June 22, 2004 we filed an application of appeal to the BOE for 
> reconsideration of the property tax exemptions granted to Anselm House 
> and New St. Andrews in May 2004.  We were assured that this action is 
> between petitioners and the BOE.
>  
> Christ Church is not a party to the appeal and consequently has no 
> standing in our petition.  The failure of the county to provide 
> official notification to a Christ Church representative five days 
> prior to the hearing (if they did fail to do so) does not affect our 
> right to proceed as scheduled.  We disagree that there are, in 
> fact, any legal grounds to prevent the hearing from proceeding as 
> scheduled.
>  
> To date, (July 5th, 2004) we have not been officially notified that 
> the July 6th hearing will be continued on the advice of BOE counsel, 
>  Mr. Doug Whitney.  Indeed, if we had not stopped by to observe a 
> Board of Equalization hearing on Friday, July 2nd, and were 
> subsequently directed to Mr. Whitney's office for further information 
> regarding our hearing, we would be unaware that he intended to 
> recommend a continuance.  Mr. Whitney characterized this hearing as 
> adversarial.  On what legal ground does he declare this hearing to be 
> adversarial?  It is a citizen's right to appeal a property tax 
> exemption.  How can it be adversarial when the BOE has yet to hear and 
> act on our petition?  We do not view this hearing as adversarial.  We 
> are challenging the perviously granted exemption in order to provide 
> the BOE with relevant information that may or may not impact their May 
> 2004 decision.
>  
> If the BOE allows this proceeding to be structured and conducted as an 
> adversarial hearing petitioners will be denied equal protection under 
> the law.  A BOE hearing that requires petitioners to present a 
> petition through counsel (if they hope to prevail) deprives them of 
> their due process rights under the 14th amendment of the Constitution, 
> and the concomitant provisions of the Idaho constitution.  Without 
> counsel, petitioners (who are lay people) will not have a meaningful 
> opportunity to be heard.
>  
> It is no small challenge to obtain counsel on the Friday afternoon 
> preceding the 4th of July holiday.  Moreover, the obvious power 
> inequity when lay people are placed in the position of arguing the law 
> against two opposing attorneys (assuming that Mr. Whitney intends to 
> support the status quo) is too great a hurdle for ordinary citizens to 
> leap.  Lay people, regardless of the merit of their petition, are ill 
> equipped to argue the law against two practicing attorneys.
>  
> We oppose on principle the notion that an appearance before the BOE 
> necessitates an attorney for a petitioner to prevail.  An adversarial 
> hearing presumes that the petitioner must enjoy the privilege of 
> wealth to be confident that her position will be effectively argued.  
> It is our very deep conviction that it is neither the purpose nor the 
> intent of the BOE to reward a petitioner if she can pay for counsel or 
> penalize a petitioner if she can not.  We affirm that whether a 
> petitioner is affluent or poor, the BOE has a duty to preserve a 
> climate of equity.
>  
> We acknowledge the authority of the Latah County Board of 
> Equalization, acting under the advice of counsel, to continue the BOE 
> hearing scheduled for July 6, 2004 concerning Anselm House and New St. 
> Andrews.  However, we urge the BOE to give full consideration to our 
> arguments and proceed as scheduled with these hearings.
>  
> Respectfully,
> Rosemary Huskey and Saundra Lund.
>  
>  
>
> "One cannot level one's moral lance at every evil in the universe. 
> There are
> just too many of them. But you can do something, and the difference 
> between doing something and doing nothing is everything."
>
> - Daniel Berrigan
>
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