[Vision2020] RE: Is the NLC Highway District wasting money or commiting crimes

[Don Lazzarini]

Vision2020,

The North Latah County Highway District has been paying an attorney to
sit in on the rock pit hearings for Flannigan Creek Road according to
the Lewiston Newspaper (I am guessing $190 an hour). In addition to
having a couple of their Highway District Commissioners show up, they
have had their secretary and maintenance foremen show up (foremen and
secretary are $46,000 a year positions give or take a few cents) at
these hearings along with other employees (overtime?). The highway
commissioners have promised to take care of Flannigan Creek Rd " if they
use it they will take care of it" and indicated if they don't get the
rock pit they won't. I kind of smile at quid pro quo organizations until
I see their 3 million a year budget. I also drove out to Spence Road
about 1.3 miles off of highway 8 near Joel and checked out the road to
their "Jensen" Pit. The pot holes looked very familiar so I know what
they mean when they testify they will take care of Flannigan Creek, too.
The Jensen and Shattuck/Nagle Pits are not close to uninvolved houses or
not very far from Highway 95 or 8. This pit on Flannigan Creek is very
different than these others, much more detrimental to nearby residences
and small children.

The Highway District pays their "operators" $19.20 an hour plus paying
for their benefits. This is exceptional county level pay for a
commercial drivers license and nothing else. If you want a job there,
you are going to be out of luck unless you know someone because they
don't advertise or encourage a diverse application pool. It's a word of
mouth system which helps keep it all in the family, so to speak. I
believe nepotism is illegal in Idaho but then whose looking. I also
believe since they received federal money they are supposed to meet
certain affirmative action percentages with minorities and females, but
again who is counting?

An interesting aspect of the highway district is how they refuse to pay
more than 35 cents a ton to a landowner for the basalt they have in the
ground. If they did, they claim, they would have to pay all the other
pits the same amount and that would be too expensive. This is so
backwards it is scary. In the case of the pit on Flannigan Creek, the
highway district responded to the opposition by creating a map showing
their current hauling routes and how they plan to use this new pit to
save money for the public. A local radio station has been playing
highway district quotes helping to ensure the public thinks this is good
for the public. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The highway district has not opened a bid to the existing rock pits in
and near Potlatch. They have not done the math on how much a round trip
from Joel (the Jensen Pit) to Davis Road costs them or has cost them for
the last 10-15 years (my source couldn't tell me how long they have been
using the Jensen Pit). 

The math on cost per truck is very telling. If a local pit in Potlatch
bid 55 cents a ton that would increase a 15 ton truck load of gravel by
$3.00 per load over the 35 cent price. Instead of paying $3.00 to save a
2:30 hour 52 mile round trip for the highway district truck driving to
Joel, the highway district commissioners proudly state in a public
hearing "35 cents a ton take it or leave it". Cost out the driver
($19.20 an hour), diesel fuel, tire wear, truck maintenance and safety
issues with driving the thousands of extra miles versus choosing the
existing pit's 5 to 10 mile round trip in Potlatch and it should be a no
brainer. 

Did the highway district figure the mile savings from the existing pits
on the maps they produced? NO, of course not. The difference would not
be worth talking about and the Board of County Commissioners might see
through their scam. That would hurt their chances of getting Lisher his
own conditional use permit next to families with small children in a
quiet little valley where the diesel exhaust will hang in the air. The
key to remember is any money they save on a project they can use to vote
themselves a pay raise, extra benefits and even paid medical once they
retire. The sky is the limit and nobody is watching.

If the highway district wasn't so closed minded they would notice that
Davis Road and Flannigan Creek Road from Davis to Matson are much closer
to Potlatch and could be maintained at a great savings to the highway
district if they were shifted from the Moscow area to the Potlatch area.
Paul Stubbs foreman for Potlatch doesn't want any more road area
according to what he told the Board of County Commissioners. Sorry Paul,
it just makes such logical and economic good sense but then if it saved
money and time you would change it right? No, I guess you wouldn't
because it is all about what you and Verle want. The concept of public
service doesn't really live in the Highway District and our Board of
County Commissioners have zero control over the highway districts.

When a person starts asking specific questions of the Highway District
on how and why they do what they do, it becomes apparent it's based on
opinion and their perception of need. In the hearings the highway
district was amazed to find out heavy trucks damage roads at a ratio 600
times greater than a car. They were amazed to find out how many people
live and drive on Flannigan Creek and Four mile roads. Actually they
denied those things were possible in a discussion with me even though a
civil engineer and a mailing list were the evidence source and the
highway district hasn't done a traffic count since 1991. The highway
district isn't used to gathering or presenting evidence or research or
numbers; in fact they are not used to justifying anything they do. If
you want a real piece of education read the minutes from their highway
district meetings. The process doesn't require anything more than 1.
Bring up a concept  2. Let Commissioner ask a question 3. Nobody has any
factual data to support or deny 4. Commissioners vote to pass or deny.
You can see how their salary and vacation package would get so sweet.
You can see how they get used to doing whatever they want without any
data or fact finding to back it up.

What it means is during this entire hearing process the highway district
and Lisher have failed to provide any information that rises higher than
uneducated guesses and speculation. If the Board of County Commissioners
can't figure that out they don't deserve to be re-elected. If they
ignore all the evidence and fail to follow the comprehensive plan they
don't deserve to be re-elected, either. I would ask all visionaries to
hold their respective County Commissioner responsible for their vote on
this rock pit. It will tell you if they can follow the comprehensive
plan or not.

The highway commissioners are so busy according to Commissioner Verle
Brown that it would be a waste of his time to go out and do speed
surveys to reduce a 55 mph speed limit on the back county roads to 35
mph so that law enforcement could enforce 35 mph or slower speeds to
protect the children and residents. He stated as much in front of the
Board of County Commissioners. It should have drained the last ounce of
credibility out of anything he said but who knows when it comes to
politics. I am told Verle Brown's son Don is a highway district foreman
and someone else with the same last name of Clyde, one of the other
commissioners is employed there. How do they get around Nepotism laws
and how deep does this hole go?

The last road they chip-sealed out of Moscow at a price tag of $90,000
for 1.6 miles was Chaney Road off of Four Mile Road. If you ask how they
decide what to chip-seal you are told it is based on vehicle counts,
complaints, number of houses served and how it fits into the greater
road system. When you ask for any written evidence of how they came to a
decision on Chaney over any other road in the county, you are told there
is none. If you ask for a traffic count on Chaney you will be told they
don't have one. If you count the houses on Chaney at night you will see
roughly 7. If you ask for a complaint log or any documentation of that
type you are told it is pretty much in their heads. 

If you look at who lives on Chaney you will see Carl Mickelson, who I
think is the Chairman of the Zoning Board and the man who leads hearings
on if a rock pit gets a Conditional Use Permit at the zoning board
level. It you look at who lives off Chaney a short distance up Presby
and on Abbott roads you will find Dr. Rich Bailey, Potlatch Dentist,
famous millionaire inventor of the Billy Bob Teeth and George Lishers
good friend and silent partner in the Flannigan Creek Rock Pit debacle.
This last part evidenced by Attorney Charles Graham stating during the
zoning commission hearing on the CUP that "Dr. Bailey" will be selling
gravel to private parties out of this pit. It only gets better when you
find out that George Lisher, the listed Rock Pit applicant, worked for
Dale Stubbs Logging, Inc. (I don't know how many months or years or if
he still does) but I am told Dale Stubbs is Paul Stubbs brother and
doesn't that make all the expense to the highway district to get George
Lisher a Conditional Use Permit while ignoring existing pits just a bit
suspect? 

It gets even more interesting:

Under the Constitution of the State of Idaho, Article XI Corporations,
Public and Private, Section 18. Combinations in Restraint of Trade
Prohibited.

"That no incorporated company or any association of persons or stock
company, in the state of Idaho, shall directly or indirectly combine or
make any contract with any other incorporated company, foreign or
domestic, through their stockholders, or the trustees or assignees of
such stockholders, or in any manner whatsoever, for the purpose of
fixing the price or regulating the production of any article of commerce
or of produce of the soil, or of consumption by the people; and that the
legislature be required to pass laws for the enforcement thereof, by
adequate penalties, to the extent, if necessary for that purpose, of the
forfeiture of their property and franchise." 

This fits in with the Highway District being a Public Corporation and
Walser Ranch Incorporated, the rock pit location land owner combining on
a verbal contract to fix the price of gravel at least according to
public statements made by highway district personnel about if they paid
more to one pit they would have to pay more to all. I am confident
without the Highway District's influence, testimony and letter in
support the applicant, this rock pit hearing would have been over a long
time ago. I hope someone is connected to the Attorney General's office
or has enough juice to get them to take a look at this. I know I don't
have either.

The more you know about the NLC Highway District the worse it gets. They
don't construct roads, they have no engineering component, no accident
review or safety component, all they do is gravel roads and chip seal a
few miles of road a year, plow snow and spray weeds. Funny what over a
million in just salary a year will buy you for 23 employees. The Highway
District needs to keep a close accounting of how much this Lisher gravel
is going to cost them by the time the hearing process and the appeals
process and the public or private nuisance actions keep piling up and
they keep paying their attorney's fees.

There is a Petition To Dissolve the North Latah County Highway District
that will be presented to the Board of County Commissioners in the near
future. It would be poetic justice if the true cost of their
unreasonable support of George Lisher and Rich Bailey was to expose
illegal practices and incompetence resulting in the loss of their
control of the Highway District and their jobs. I wish ill of no one.
You reap what you sow. 

Don't worry about them this will not come as a surprise. I told their
Secretary this was coming. Having grown up next to a railroad track I
learned when a train is coming you need to get out of the way. 

Don Lazzarini, M. Ed
Champion of the County Comprehensive Plan
Retired Criminal Investigator