<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1">
<title></title>
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff">
R/S-<br>
I want to thank you for your efforts to ensure fair and equitable
taxation for all of us who pay Latah County taxes.<br>
I salute you for the guts to put yourselves out front in this and for
the brains to make this challenge correctly and accurately.<br>
BL<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:DonaldH675@aol.com">DonaldH675@aol.com</a> wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid145.2da52add.2e1cce4c@aol.com">
<meta charset="US-ASCII" http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html; ">
<meta content="MSHTML 6.00.2737.800" name="GENERATOR">
<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></div>
<div><font lang="0" face="Verdana" size="2" family="SANSSERIF"
ptsize="10"><br>
</font></div>
<p align="left"><font lang="0" face="Verdana" size="2"
family="SANSSERIF" ptsize="10">"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>
</font></p>
<p align="left"><font lang="0" face="Verdana" size="2"
family="SANSSERIF" ptsize="10">- Daniel Berrigan </font><font lang="0"
face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2" family="SANSSERIF" ptsize="10"><br>
<br>
</font></p>
<pre wrap="">
<hr width="90%" size="4">
_____________________________________________________
List services made available by First Step Internet,
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a>
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
</pre>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>