I'm reading all of your key points and personally feel the pain. The Mayor has pushed hard for his agenda; even when there is legal precedents set and case law that says they should not pursue something. I'm afraid the residents of Ketchum will end up paying for this whole mess and want to know what our options are with a legal investigation.
Regarding mail, it's amazing that "Ketchum decided" in 1990... Who? Why? And how does that have any impact anyway? Federal law is that you get mail delivery or you get a free PO box. We get neither. Mail delivery or not, it is bs that we pay a fortune for a tiny PO box when it's supposed to be paid by our federal income taxes. And btw the law says that there has to be an ordinance on the city books saying the city doesn't want mail delivery in order to not get it. Neither SV nor Ketchum has that ordinance.
In general, I agree with all your analysis. Before I understood all this, I thought the rumblings I heard from people like you who spoke up were just people who are anti-growth and wanted to keep things as they used to be, which is not realistic. I'm sure you are pegged as that by others. But in reality you are not anti-growth at all, you are just pro smart growth and good governance.
I don't know how to help, and don't even know if I can help because I just moved outside the city limits so technically I guess I'm a Blaine County resident, not a Ketchum resident. You have gotten a big following in a short time. I can only hope it will continue to grow until the people can influence elections. But like everything these days, where there's big money involved (and there's always big money involved), it's hard for the regular people to win out.
Thank you for the plug. I just call it as I see it. I am trying to get people to wake up to how the Troika has sold out Ketchum so they can take their town back. You can't turn back the clock and, you can't stop time, but you can do your best to make a town that works for its inhabitants. Seems basic, but it's not what has been going on since the Troika took over.
Hi Julie. I'm a big fan of the Council-Manager form of government.
There are two ways to get this issue on a ballot. Either by resolution of the council or an initiative petition by the registered voters. (Idaho Statute 50-802)
A petition requires "...at least twenty percent (20% )of the total number of qualified electors voting in the last general city election..." (Idaho Statute 34-1801B). There were 1191 voters in the November 2023 election, so a petition would require at least 239 signatures.
In 2011 I ran a campaign to change the form of government to Council-Manager. With 8 petition carriers, we were able to collect the signatures needed to get it on the ballot. At that time it was 213 signatures and we collected 233.
It was a tough campaign run by a grassroots group of citizens with opposition from the mayor, city council, Idaho Mountain Express and the development community. It drew a large turnout at the polls, more than 50%. The measure failed with 440 vote for and 582 against. While the results were not what we wanted, we were very encouraged by the numbers we got, about 43%.
As the article in the IME said after the election: "Advocates for change left their mark with their vote totals."
I still believe it would be the best form of Government for Ketchum and would welcome anyone who is interested in it to contact me. My number's in the phone book.
This is a good time to put the Council-Manager form of government on the ballot.
I'm reading all of your key points and personally feel the pain. The Mayor has pushed hard for his agenda; even when there is legal precedents set and case law that says they should not pursue something. I'm afraid the residents of Ketchum will end up paying for this whole mess and want to know what our options are with a legal investigation.
Regarding mail, it's amazing that "Ketchum decided" in 1990... Who? Why? And how does that have any impact anyway? Federal law is that you get mail delivery or you get a free PO box. We get neither. Mail delivery or not, it is bs that we pay a fortune for a tiny PO box when it's supposed to be paid by our federal income taxes. And btw the law says that there has to be an ordinance on the city books saying the city doesn't want mail delivery in order to not get it. Neither SV nor Ketchum has that ordinance.
In general, I agree with all your analysis. Before I understood all this, I thought the rumblings I heard from people like you who spoke up were just people who are anti-growth and wanted to keep things as they used to be, which is not realistic. I'm sure you are pegged as that by others. But in reality you are not anti-growth at all, you are just pro smart growth and good governance.
I don't know how to help, and don't even know if I can help because I just moved outside the city limits so technically I guess I'm a Blaine County resident, not a Ketchum resident. You have gotten a big following in a short time. I can only hope it will continue to grow until the people can influence elections. But like everything these days, where there's big money involved (and there's always big money involved), it's hard for the regular people to win out.
Thank you for the plug. I just call it as I see it. I am trying to get people to wake up to how the Troika has sold out Ketchum so they can take their town back. You can't turn back the clock and, you can't stop time, but you can do your best to make a town that works for its inhabitants. Seems basic, but it's not what has been going on since the Troika took over.
How many peoples signatures do we need to execute that?
Hi Julie. I'm a big fan of the Council-Manager form of government.
There are two ways to get this issue on a ballot. Either by resolution of the council or an initiative petition by the registered voters. (Idaho Statute 50-802)
A petition requires "...at least twenty percent (20% )of the total number of qualified electors voting in the last general city election..." (Idaho Statute 34-1801B). There were 1191 voters in the November 2023 election, so a petition would require at least 239 signatures.
In 2011 I ran a campaign to change the form of government to Council-Manager. With 8 petition carriers, we were able to collect the signatures needed to get it on the ballot. At that time it was 213 signatures and we collected 233.
It was a tough campaign run by a grassroots group of citizens with opposition from the mayor, city council, Idaho Mountain Express and the development community. It drew a large turnout at the polls, more than 50%. The measure failed with 440 vote for and 582 against. While the results were not what we wanted, we were very encouraged by the numbers we got, about 43%.
As the article in the IME said after the election: "Advocates for change left their mark with their vote totals."
I still believe it would be the best form of Government for Ketchum and would welcome anyone who is interested in it to contact me. My number's in the phone book.