[Vision2020] Gang of four on Moscow Council strut their clout

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (June 25, 2012) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

-----------------------------------
Gang of four on Moscow Council strut their clout

One has to wonder whether Moscow City Councilor Tim Brown isn't crying crododile tears over the loss of the city's Community Grant Program.

Until recently, this program handed out about $20,000 annually in dribs and drabs to various community organizations, often ones involved in arts, recreation and human services.

A week ago in voting to end it, Brown reiterated his stance in favor of the program, but said that had changed after 2010 when, in the name of accountability, the process to get grants became more restrictive and complex.

He seemed to be saying he was opposed to what the program had become, rather than what it once was.

Yet, it was about three years ago that Brown and his cronies, Walter Steed, Wayne Krauss and Dan Carscallen, saw to it that the restrictive and complex, albeit more accountable, policies were enacted.

They stood by in amazement as this resulted in fewer applications. Very small organizations were not necessarily registered with the state or IRS as nonprofits, as the city now requires. Given the very small amounts of money sought, they found the process onerous.

And so now Brown is trying to be opposed to what his compadres started, but not enough to do anything about it.

Brown also was the front man for another scheme of the group of four this past week, as he replaced Mayor Nancy Chaney on the board of the Latah Economic Development Council.

The quartet and the mayor don't sing from the same songbook. So, for no apparent reason other than that they could do it, the quartet since March has held up all mayoral appointments until she stepped down from the LEDC board.

The mayor mentioned it during the City Council meeting. Krauss tried to claim that this was no conspiracy. But he was the only one. Steed, Carscallen, Councilor Tom Lamar and others talked freely about the agreements discussed, made and broken behind the scenes.

We think there is room for different views, tactics and strategies on how Moscow ought to approach civic issues. We think it's good for voters to be given and to make a distinct choice.

We don't think the use of political power, such as it is, to spite the opposition without accomplishing much of anything is helpful to the long-term development of Moscow.

-----------------------------------

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20120625/873f93de/attachment.html>