[Vision2020] Ten Commandments activists still owe city of Boise more than $10, 000

[TIM RIGSBY]

http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/427122.html
 
What is really crazy is that these people are upset because a lien was placed on their property even though they have had 4-1/2 years to pay the court ordered debt.  Some people are just crazy...
Ten Commandments activists still owe city of Boise more than $10,000


    




 




 
 

Statesman file photoIn March 2004, the Ten Commandments monument was moved from Julia Davis Park to St. Michael's Episcopal Church.


Kathleen Kreller - kkreller at idahostatesman.com
Edition Date: 06/27/08
 


Local Christian activists Bryan Fischer and Brandi Swindell are asking for donations after the city of Boise slapped a lien on their property to collect a $10,131 bill from their group's failed legal effort to keep a Ten Commandments monument in Julia Davis Park.
Swindell and Fischer led a lengthy court battle to keep the monument in the park.
The Boise City Attorney's Office wrote the duo they had until July 15 to resolve the matter, or it would "proceed against you to collect the amounts due, plus interest and costs."
In his daily newsletter, Fischer, a former pastor who runs the Idaho Values Alliance, asks supporters for financial help.
“Ms. Swindell and I both work for small non-profit organizations and thus have limited means,” Fischer said. “The city of Boise, on the other hand, has an annual budget of $479 million, and thus is certainly in a position to waive this judgment.”
"The recent actions by Mayor (Dave) Bieter and the Boise City Council to go after a former pastor and single woman, who both run non-profit organizations, is deeply disturbing on many levels," Swindell wrote a press release, and went on to call the city's action "vindictive."
Adam Park, spokesman for Bieter, denied the city's action is vindictive.
A district judge ordered Generation Life, Swindell and Fischer to pay the city's fees in connection with the suit in 2004, Park said. At that time, an automatic lien was placed against the property when the order was recorded in the Ada County Recorder's Office, he said.
Bieter and the Boise City Council directed the attorney's office to collect the funds after recently finding out the money hadn't been paid, Park said.
"By requesting that the parties comply with the judge's order, we are simply fulfilling our obligation to taxpayers to pursue all money owed to the city by any party," Park said.
Park said the city is willing to work out a "payment plan."
Swindell and Fischer formed the Keep the Commandments Coalition after city officials moved the 40-year-old Ten Commandments monument from Julia Davis Park in March 2004.
The City Council removed the monument in 2004 to avoid a legal battle with a controversial minister from Kansas seeking to put an anti-gay monument in the park. The monument was donated to the city in the 1960s.
The coalition gathered more than 18,000 signatures in support of an initiative that would have asked voters to return the monument. The group filed legal requests to halt the move.
In April 2004, U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge ordered Swindell, Fischer and Generation Life pay the city's attorney fees after a request from the city.
Bieter refused to schedule an election, and a 4th District Court judge agreed. The coalition asked the Idaho Supreme Court to overturn the district court's decision and prevailed.
In November 2006, nearly 53 percent of Boise voters rejected an initiative asking the city to replace it.
 
 " 'Politics is the art of controlling your environment.' That is one of the key things I learned in these years, and I learned it the hard way. Anybody who thinks that 'it doesn't matter who's President' has never been Drafted and sent off to fight and die in a vicious, stupid War on the other side of the World -- or been beaten and gassed by Police for trespassing on public property -- or been hounded by the IRS for purely political reasons -- or locked up in the Cook County Jail with a broken nose and no phone access and twelve perverts wanting to stomp your ass in the shower. That is when it matters who is President or Governor or Police Chief. That is when you will wish you had voted." - Hunter S. Thompson
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