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<DIV>Visionaries,</DIV>
<DIV>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? </DIV>
<DIV>Our statement was placed on record Friday morning when I emailed it in. Saundra read the statement following the BOE meeting. </DIV>
<DIV>Hope to see lots of you Friday night. </DIV>
<DIV>Rose Huskey.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Verdana size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><FONT face=Arial>
<DIV>Gentlemen:</DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV>Respectfully,</DIV>
<DIV>Rosemary Huskey and Saundra Lund</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Statement for the Record</DIV>
<DIV>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. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Respectfully,</DIV>
<DIV>Rosemary Huskey and Saundra Lund.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Verdana size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
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<P align=left>"One cannot level one's moral lance at every evil in the universe. There are <BR>just too many of them. But you can do something, and the difference between doing something and doing nothing is everything." <BR></P>
<P align=left>- Daniel Berrigan </FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><BR></P>
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