Great post Annie. I hope Ketchum citizens will take you up on your offer to bring this governance style to Ketchum. All of you Ketchum residents reading this…Annie’s phone number is in the phone book. Pick up the phone and call her!
Thank you Anne, for bringing up this idea. I looked into this and can see the logic here in terms of the Council-Manager form of government being more responsive to residents in the long- and medium-term by providing continuity of the community's vision, versus that being upended every election cycle by the Strong Mayor-Council form of government.
Elected officials are simply conduits for the community's vision. They need to be able to have a way to know what that is in terms of both the long-term vision (i.e. Comprehensive Plans) and in terms of important issues that break through in-between long-term plans. That's where a Civic Assembly could come in as Perry suggested. A good administrator would implement the community's vision and a Mayor and Council would provide oversight and short-term adjustments based on inclusive community input.
I have not had it confirmed yet, but I heard Boulder, CO is going to hold a Civic Assembly to determine their next Comp Plan. They have a Council-Manager form of government. So does Bend, OR.
Annie Corrock is doing a good thing by floating the idea of shifting to a city manager, no a doubt. All credit to her and hopefully it will be put it on the table for consideration. I do think, however, that the idea is a second-order reaction to a first-order problem: the state’s restrictions on the ability of small resort towns to register and tax STR’s. There needs to be a cap on the total number STR’s based on the total number of dwellings in Ketchum.
Creating a maximum permissible ratio of the number of STR’s to the number of dwellings (adjustable every three years?) is another approach. Like any other category of business, there needs to be a codified permit process and tax structure put in place for Ketchum's STR’s. Nobody likes (understatement) the word “tax”, I realize, but tax policy gets at the core of the issue more directly than a city manager would. In that sense it is a first-order response that more effectively addresses the problem. A city manager would be a rational adjustment given the behavior and decision-making process of the current mayor and council members, sure, but it will likely end up being more of feel-good effort with results that won’t come soon enough.
By the time the change comes to fruition (which I would think is fairly likely), it will probably be less effective than hoped. A day late and a dollar short, to say the least. So the dust settles and Ketchum installs a city manager. In the meantime, Bluebird 2 is more than likely to be underway and a contract for Bluebird 3 possibly locked in. A statement in the latest anodyne “Mayor’s Missive” clearly suggests that Perry’s “Troika” (a valid term) is full-steam-ahead with the current approach: building modern worker ghettos that serve more to segregate working people (and retirees, apparently) than integrate them into the community…and all for a noble cause, no less. (We’ll hear a lot more of that kind of horseshit from our cretinous Dorito Boy while he squats in the White House and struts around town with his trademarked smirk and his trendy new Ozempic diet and his trophy wife like a peacock all hopped up on Viagra.)
A city manager will not address the problem at its core because of the outdated and myopic conservative political values codified into law by the Idaho Republicans. They prioritize minimizing government control and eliminating its interference based on a more or less blind trust in an “open and free market”. In complex, interconnected economies, Adam Smith’s “unseen hand” is really an iron fist in a velvet glove. What they’re actually talking about is closer to throttling resort towns’ ability to control their own socioeconomic destinies in a bid to maintain centralized economic control. Small communities have a right to avoid being rendered powerless by the state government; being made more vulnerable to the amoral vagaries of a ruthlessly competitive marketplace, not to mention existential externalities like climate change and pandemics. Their vulnerability is greatly exacerbated by the current inequality of wealth distribution.
The politicians in Boise talk out of both sides of their mouths on this issue: on the one hand they have a naive schoolboy’s belief in the inherent efficiency of a largely unregulated market and on the other hand, they enact legislation that undermines the quality of life in small Idaho towns**. This kind of political ideology is inimical to the long-term well-being, the resiliency and the adaptability of local communities, especially resort towns. Ultimately, climate change and the inevitable growing unpredictability of the snow pack will threaten the survival of the state’s resort communities (yes, with or without snow making) unless they have more control over worker housing and their general quality of life. Suicide is essentially a lifestyle choice with the right-wing economic thinking currently in vogue. In politics being deceived is no excuse*.
As an economy, a small resort town is a more specialized socioeconomic system and as such, it’s more “brittle” than a larger, more diversified community. Like a forest with just one type of tree, it is far more vulnerable than a diverse ecosystem. Ketchum, McCall and Victor aren’t exactly economically one-dimensional (thank goodness they aren’t a Vail), but they are a lot closer to being so than Boise or Twin Falls. They need to be able to regulate their STR’s. A city manager will still be hamstrung and essentially powerless to make a fundamental long-term difference on the ground unless there is a more fundamental change. It may be useful to keep this in mind: the Troika is not really the problem, it’s the number of STR’s and the number of second homes that's the problem. Neal is not a bad person, he’s just a tool who, like virtually all of us in developed societies, is largely a vassal of a much larger system that’s a kind of magnetic field we’re all caught up in to a greater or lesser degree, at least in highly developed societies that fancy themselves “evolved”.
The Covid diaspora pushed this issue to the level of a full-blown crisis in the WRV but the groundwork had long been laid for it by outmoded and inappropriate policy-making and exacerbated by the growing inequality of wealth. There is surely a place for the rational regulation of STR’s, especially when they pose a fundamental threat to the quality of life in a resort town like Ketchum. My sense is that a city manager would be a better way to go than the current arrangement, but unless the larger framework of state policies is challenged and modified, it will largely be an exercise in helping everybody feel better while being mostly ineffective in the long run. The Troika doesn’t care what Perry & Co think because it doesn’t have to. It’s the laws and taxation priorities in Idaho that encourage their largely myopic, incompetent and inefficient decisions.
If I had to sum up Annie’s suggestion, it would be much like the idea of civic assemblies, “necessary but not sufficient”. Getting a stay put on the construction of Bluebird 2 while a lawsuit is filed and argued in the courts would at least keep a few people awake at night, which is better than what’s being achieved at the moment. Basically, you’re failing to move the needle. There is enough money in Ketchum to fund the effort in the court system but maybe not enough people who think this way (sadly from my p.o.v.), as this is probably driven by values that are a little too “woke” for a lot of people. If you want to get right down to it, any society where the word “woke” is a pejorative has some serious, serous problems; but then, I’m probably a little too left-wing for the one or two people who might manage to read this far. Buckle your seat belts good people. Cheers.
* Leszek Kolakowsi (cf. On Tyranny, Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder)
** And in the same breath, Republicans tell women what they can and cannot do with their reproductive rights largely based on a personally subjective, arbitrary and childish idea of a white-boy “god”. There is absolutely NO room for the concept of god in contemporary public public-making; science yes, religion no, as it’s far too subjective and imprecise to be a primary driver of political priorities, and no, I don't give a damn what little Jim Little and his motley band of marionettes think about that statement.
Personally, I miss the days when you could walk over to the Western Cafe on Main St. and get a plate of Bisquick pancakes with Log Cabin maple syrup and a cup of shitty coffee for about $8. Be careful what you wish for, right?
If you have a way to change the Short-Term Lodging (STR) laws that the Idaho State Legislature adopted in 2017, go for it! The current Ketchum government is either not prioritizing that approach or striking out. They seem to be overly influenced by the special interest groups that represent real estate development and tourism. STR’s are good for their bottom line. So, for them, the answer is to build our way out of the problem and as we look around, that is exactly what the Ketchum Government is focused on doing!
So, back to which form of government will best serve Ketchum.
I hear your frustration, we all feel it, even some of the council members feel it!
So, can changing to the Council – Manager form of government improve the problems you have addressed? Yes!
Diffusing the power and influence of special interests is one of the strong reasons to make that change.
In the Council – Manager form, the policy making is the equal responsibility of all 5 elected officials, defusing the power of special interest groups and giving a better opportunity for the citizens to be represented. “It is easier for special interest groups to use money and political power to influence a single elected official, rather than having to secure a majority of the city council’s support for their agenda.” (ICMA and California City Management Foundation)
I believe the change to a Council – Manager government is a long-term solution for Ketchum. We are behind most of the country and the other small resort communities in moving forward to a government with professional management. The stakes are higher now. We can no longer hope that someone will step up to the plate and get elected mayor who has the skill set needed to run all facets of our city. But we can hire a nonpolitical, educated professional manager who does…
Annie, the underlying issue is the lack of time. Bill McKibben's view on climate change is relevant here: slow progress is the same as failing. It's likely that a transition to a city manager (I'd vote for it) will take several years to make an actual difference on the ground. Same with civil assemblies. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the WRV will continue on its inexorable march towards becoming just another paint-by-numbers-quasi-suburban-American-hell-hole in a pretty place with a highway running though it, a metaphorical Disneyland that generates carbon in the name of Having a Good Time. Suicide is a lifestyle these days, for sure...it's not "Aspenizing", it's "suburbanizing".
Sure, maybe it takes $100,000 to challenge the cretinous Dorito Boy's Kool-Aid swilling ideological primates in Boise. The odds of winning would be slim with a disingenuous dickhead like Raul Labrador. However, it just might succeed in taking a few Neanderthals down with it, or at least in embarrassing them enough to look in the mirror and think about their children. The effort, if managed well, just might raise this issue nationally: how small towns in the American West and all over the country are being exploited and their qualities of of life destroyed. Time, energy and money have been pissed away on a lot worse.
A fool's errand? Most likely. In the meantime, stay angry and keep that seat belt buckled. The pendulum will eventually swing in Washington but at the moment that fetid swamp of a town is looking more like Edgar Allen Poe's "pit". We saw it coming but we lacked the courage and the wherewithal to do enough. Climate Change is destined to become this little planet's Prime Mover while we dance with gravity like rubes in a mythical Ibiza, There are climate scientists who know what's coming and some of them wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, grieving. In many ways, we are just another a primitive animal species. We are expendable.
In the meantime, may people give this guy a little credit and be bold...
"I attended Trump’s inauguration yesterday. Here are my thoughts."
Annie, if you want to go on a speculative joyride with regards to a lawsuit, posit the idea that the principle of “states rights“ (Tenth Amendment) might be useful. Set aside for a moment the hypocrisy of the Republican mindset which has traditionally championed the idea that “less government is better government, that federal meddling in the affairs of the states is anathema and anybody who argues otherwise these days is a woke, left-wing radical socialist.
This couldn’t be more imbecilic but it’s being normalized into the current parlance by the Execrable Dorito Boy and his gaggle of self-serving, patriarchal, arbitrarily-god-centric, cretinous political whores. At the same time, the Boys in Boise are in lockstep, enacting laws that deny women (who may have been raped by their uncles) free and easy access to abortions. What was that you said about “government overreach?“
The principle of states rights is a cornerstone of the GOP’s rationale for creating public policy. If the states have a right to run their own affairs and decide for themselves and protected by the Tenth Amendment, you could ask why this doesn’t also apply to municipalities and their respective state governments. If it’s more efficient and cost-effective, you could argue that municipalities have the right to control key features of their local housing needs and that they are being unfairly/unjustly penalized by state laws and tax policies.
Tax policies can be developed (it’s not rocket science) to help the towns rather than out-of-state developers like GMD. Perry has charted a rough framework for measuring the ROI of the coats. His work could bet a LOT more granular if he had the time and/or help. He’s just scratching the surface in terms of an organized historical forensic analysis and he knows what he’s doing. There’s your ammunition.
If Ketchum has the right to require registration of STR’s as businesses, track their numbers and adjust them according to what is deemed a sustainable ratio with the number of available dwellings (reviewed yearly). You could argue this renders societal outcomes that are measurably more useful and economically efficient, and crucially, less destructive to their quality of life. A Vacancy Tax also makes eminent sense! Integrate people, don’t segregate them into expensive, architecturally out-of-scale housing projects destined to be seen as ghettos in 20 years.
A landscape of possibilities for getting some traction in the courts might open up with this approach, and its topography doesn’t appear to be very convoluted. You’d have your work cut out for you, I admit, but it would be an interesting project, right? That's IF you could find the money, the time, and the people with the necessary skills. It would take a core team of about five very focused people prepared to work for a year or so. Yeah I know, it's doubtful that kind of thing would ever happen in the WRV.
Your next mayor will not change things sufficiently because the larger legal and tax policy landscape won’t permit it, ultimately; same for a city manager, same for civil assemblies. It’s the law and tax policies that are the issues and the state's political heritage, ethos and legislative DNA. Those guys are dinosaurs and they don't know it; they are living in Plato's Cave. Put more succinctly, it's outmoded and discredited thinking. (Note how Bernie Sanders focuses on the laws in his video.) Personally, I think you need to take the gloves off and go for it but that’s a LOT easier said than done, for sure.
Annie, I don’t have the time to think about this right now but maybe there’s a spot in your inbox for it. I’ll meet you at the inbox for a strong coffee...I like it black. At least one thing has improved since the days of the Western Café, eh? Ciao and all the best.
Thank you Perry and Anne for your years of knowledge and work toward more transparency and political integrity.
There are so many of us business owners who don’t live in Ketchum but are affected by the decisions of the mayor and council. We pay city taxes without representation.
Do you have any ideas on how our voices can be heard. I have given up on going to council meetings. It seems the mayor and council are of one mind.
In order to reform present local government, election rules need revision, as well. I think Ketchum voter turnout would improve if four precincts were established and candidate residency required, thereby reflecting residents concerns in each district.
With the Council - Manager form of government, the 5 elected officials have equal voting power, giving more voice to the people they serve. Districts could further that. The question is: What would those 5 districts be and is the candidate pool in each district large enough?
Here I differ with you, as four precincts with another "at large" position, who would have the title of "Mayor," and oversee directly the City Manager is more protective. The Mayor would vote only when the Council ties. (Another possibility is for the elected council to choose the "Fifth Person," perhaps, for a 5-year term.) Additionally, Ketchum can abandon the two votes per voter system, which is easily manipulated. More generally, my concern for Ketchum is that given the new Comp Plan (proposed) over the next 10 years K's population will explode with new public housing for employees. Those employees will live in Ketchum and be employed throughout Idaho; they will also VOTE IN LOCAL ELECTIONS. Given assured and rapid climate change, I envision Baldy becoming less a winter activities location, but a preferred major biker-hiker destination -- and the new lift system will insure that (new trails on west and north flanks). Finally, with the completion of new large hotels and the assured sale of The Resort, continued expansion of Friedman, and widespread liquor and gambling licensing to attract destination tourists year-round (Wendy's crowd is already lobbying for additional liquor), Boise's growth - from the Oregon border to Twin (and north on Hwy #75) will also impact Blaine dramatically --along with millionaire migrants fleeing more California fires. Your thoughts re: 2035?
Great post Annie. I hope Ketchum citizens will take you up on your offer to bring this governance style to Ketchum. All of you Ketchum residents reading this…Annie’s phone number is in the phone book. Pick up the phone and call her!
Thanks Diane. Yes! Call me with your questions, ideas... You don't have to be a Ketchum voter to help.
Thank you Anne, for bringing up this idea. I looked into this and can see the logic here in terms of the Council-Manager form of government being more responsive to residents in the long- and medium-term by providing continuity of the community's vision, versus that being upended every election cycle by the Strong Mayor-Council form of government.
Elected officials are simply conduits for the community's vision. They need to be able to have a way to know what that is in terms of both the long-term vision (i.e. Comprehensive Plans) and in terms of important issues that break through in-between long-term plans. That's where a Civic Assembly could come in as Perry suggested. A good administrator would implement the community's vision and a Mayor and Council would provide oversight and short-term adjustments based on inclusive community input.
I have not had it confirmed yet, but I heard Boulder, CO is going to hold a Civic Assembly to determine their next Comp Plan. They have a Council-Manager form of government. So does Bend, OR.
"Elected officials are simply conduits for the community's vision". I like that.
I've noticed that the cities that use Civic Assemblies are more likely to have a Council - Management government... ;)
...and precincts enable the variable geneses of community visions See, my response to A.C., coming soon.
Annie Corrock is doing a good thing by floating the idea of shifting to a city manager, no a doubt. All credit to her and hopefully it will be put it on the table for consideration. I do think, however, that the idea is a second-order reaction to a first-order problem: the state’s restrictions on the ability of small resort towns to register and tax STR’s. There needs to be a cap on the total number STR’s based on the total number of dwellings in Ketchum.
Creating a maximum permissible ratio of the number of STR’s to the number of dwellings (adjustable every three years?) is another approach. Like any other category of business, there needs to be a codified permit process and tax structure put in place for Ketchum's STR’s. Nobody likes (understatement) the word “tax”, I realize, but tax policy gets at the core of the issue more directly than a city manager would. In that sense it is a first-order response that more effectively addresses the problem. A city manager would be a rational adjustment given the behavior and decision-making process of the current mayor and council members, sure, but it will likely end up being more of feel-good effort with results that won’t come soon enough.
By the time the change comes to fruition (which I would think is fairly likely), it will probably be less effective than hoped. A day late and a dollar short, to say the least. So the dust settles and Ketchum installs a city manager. In the meantime, Bluebird 2 is more than likely to be underway and a contract for Bluebird 3 possibly locked in. A statement in the latest anodyne “Mayor’s Missive” clearly suggests that Perry’s “Troika” (a valid term) is full-steam-ahead with the current approach: building modern worker ghettos that serve more to segregate working people (and retirees, apparently) than integrate them into the community…and all for a noble cause, no less. (We’ll hear a lot more of that kind of horseshit from our cretinous Dorito Boy while he squats in the White House and struts around town with his trademarked smirk and his trendy new Ozempic diet and his trophy wife like a peacock all hopped up on Viagra.)
A city manager will not address the problem at its core because of the outdated and myopic conservative political values codified into law by the Idaho Republicans. They prioritize minimizing government control and eliminating its interference based on a more or less blind trust in an “open and free market”. In complex, interconnected economies, Adam Smith’s “unseen hand” is really an iron fist in a velvet glove. What they’re actually talking about is closer to throttling resort towns’ ability to control their own socioeconomic destinies in a bid to maintain centralized economic control. Small communities have a right to avoid being rendered powerless by the state government; being made more vulnerable to the amoral vagaries of a ruthlessly competitive marketplace, not to mention existential externalities like climate change and pandemics. Their vulnerability is greatly exacerbated by the current inequality of wealth distribution.
The politicians in Boise talk out of both sides of their mouths on this issue: on the one hand they have a naive schoolboy’s belief in the inherent efficiency of a largely unregulated market and on the other hand, they enact legislation that undermines the quality of life in small Idaho towns**. This kind of political ideology is inimical to the long-term well-being, the resiliency and the adaptability of local communities, especially resort towns. Ultimately, climate change and the inevitable growing unpredictability of the snow pack will threaten the survival of the state’s resort communities (yes, with or without snow making) unless they have more control over worker housing and their general quality of life. Suicide is essentially a lifestyle choice with the right-wing economic thinking currently in vogue. In politics being deceived is no excuse*.
As an economy, a small resort town is a more specialized socioeconomic system and as such, it’s more “brittle” than a larger, more diversified community. Like a forest with just one type of tree, it is far more vulnerable than a diverse ecosystem. Ketchum, McCall and Victor aren’t exactly economically one-dimensional (thank goodness they aren’t a Vail), but they are a lot closer to being so than Boise or Twin Falls. They need to be able to regulate their STR’s. A city manager will still be hamstrung and essentially powerless to make a fundamental long-term difference on the ground unless there is a more fundamental change. It may be useful to keep this in mind: the Troika is not really the problem, it’s the number of STR’s and the number of second homes that's the problem. Neal is not a bad person, he’s just a tool who, like virtually all of us in developed societies, is largely a vassal of a much larger system that’s a kind of magnetic field we’re all caught up in to a greater or lesser degree, at least in highly developed societies that fancy themselves “evolved”.
The Covid diaspora pushed this issue to the level of a full-blown crisis in the WRV but the groundwork had long been laid for it by outmoded and inappropriate policy-making and exacerbated by the growing inequality of wealth. There is surely a place for the rational regulation of STR’s, especially when they pose a fundamental threat to the quality of life in a resort town like Ketchum. My sense is that a city manager would be a better way to go than the current arrangement, but unless the larger framework of state policies is challenged and modified, it will largely be an exercise in helping everybody feel better while being mostly ineffective in the long run. The Troika doesn’t care what Perry & Co think because it doesn’t have to. It’s the laws and taxation priorities in Idaho that encourage their largely myopic, incompetent and inefficient decisions.
If I had to sum up Annie’s suggestion, it would be much like the idea of civic assemblies, “necessary but not sufficient”. Getting a stay put on the construction of Bluebird 2 while a lawsuit is filed and argued in the courts would at least keep a few people awake at night, which is better than what’s being achieved at the moment. Basically, you’re failing to move the needle. There is enough money in Ketchum to fund the effort in the court system but maybe not enough people who think this way (sadly from my p.o.v.), as this is probably driven by values that are a little too “woke” for a lot of people. If you want to get right down to it, any society where the word “woke” is a pejorative has some serious, serous problems; but then, I’m probably a little too left-wing for the one or two people who might manage to read this far. Buckle your seat belts good people. Cheers.
* Leszek Kolakowsi (cf. On Tyranny, Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder)
** And in the same breath, Republicans tell women what they can and cannot do with their reproductive rights largely based on a personally subjective, arbitrary and childish idea of a white-boy “god”. There is absolutely NO room for the concept of god in contemporary public public-making; science yes, religion no, as it’s far too subjective and imprecise to be a primary driver of political priorities, and no, I don't give a damn what little Jim Little and his motley band of marionettes think about that statement.
"Every full-time [whole house?] Airbnb evicts a real family." from Jared Brock's excellent article "An Open Letter to Airbnb Users" https://survivingtomorrow.org/an-open-letter-to-airbnb-users-451ebd9ba4eb
Personally, I miss the days when you could walk over to the Western Cafe on Main St. and get a plate of Bisquick pancakes with Log Cabin maple syrup and a cup of shitty coffee for about $8. Be careful what you wish for, right?
We all miss those days.
If you have a way to change the Short-Term Lodging (STR) laws that the Idaho State Legislature adopted in 2017, go for it! The current Ketchum government is either not prioritizing that approach or striking out. They seem to be overly influenced by the special interest groups that represent real estate development and tourism. STR’s are good for their bottom line. So, for them, the answer is to build our way out of the problem and as we look around, that is exactly what the Ketchum Government is focused on doing!
So, back to which form of government will best serve Ketchum.
I hear your frustration, we all feel it, even some of the council members feel it!
So, can changing to the Council – Manager form of government improve the problems you have addressed? Yes!
Diffusing the power and influence of special interests is one of the strong reasons to make that change.
In the Council – Manager form, the policy making is the equal responsibility of all 5 elected officials, defusing the power of special interest groups and giving a better opportunity for the citizens to be represented. “It is easier for special interest groups to use money and political power to influence a single elected official, rather than having to secure a majority of the city council’s support for their agenda.” (ICMA and California City Management Foundation)
I believe the change to a Council – Manager government is a long-term solution for Ketchum. We are behind most of the country and the other small resort communities in moving forward to a government with professional management. The stakes are higher now. We can no longer hope that someone will step up to the plate and get elected mayor who has the skill set needed to run all facets of our city. But we can hire a nonpolitical, educated professional manager who does…
Annie, the underlying issue is the lack of time. Bill McKibben's view on climate change is relevant here: slow progress is the same as failing. It's likely that a transition to a city manager (I'd vote for it) will take several years to make an actual difference on the ground. Same with civil assemblies. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the WRV will continue on its inexorable march towards becoming just another paint-by-numbers-quasi-suburban-American-hell-hole in a pretty place with a highway running though it, a metaphorical Disneyland that generates carbon in the name of Having a Good Time. Suicide is a lifestyle these days, for sure...it's not "Aspenizing", it's "suburbanizing".
Sure, maybe it takes $100,000 to challenge the cretinous Dorito Boy's Kool-Aid swilling ideological primates in Boise. The odds of winning would be slim with a disingenuous dickhead like Raul Labrador. However, it just might succeed in taking a few Neanderthals down with it, or at least in embarrassing them enough to look in the mirror and think about their children. The effort, if managed well, just might raise this issue nationally: how small towns in the American West and all over the country are being exploited and their qualities of of life destroyed. Time, energy and money have been pissed away on a lot worse.
A fool's errand? Most likely. In the meantime, stay angry and keep that seat belt buckled. The pendulum will eventually swing in Washington but at the moment that fetid swamp of a town is looking more like Edgar Allen Poe's "pit". We saw it coming but we lacked the courage and the wherewithal to do enough. Climate Change is destined to become this little planet's Prime Mover while we dance with gravity like rubes in a mythical Ibiza, There are climate scientists who know what's coming and some of them wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, grieving. In many ways, we are just another a primitive animal species. We are expendable.
In the meantime, may people give this guy a little credit and be bold...
"I attended Trump’s inauguration yesterday. Here are my thoughts."
youtube.com/watch?v=vHH-KI2yk8s
PS. Enjoy the snow while it lasts, eh?
Annie, if you want to go on a speculative joyride with regards to a lawsuit, posit the idea that the principle of “states rights“ (Tenth Amendment) might be useful. Set aside for a moment the hypocrisy of the Republican mindset which has traditionally championed the idea that “less government is better government, that federal meddling in the affairs of the states is anathema and anybody who argues otherwise these days is a woke, left-wing radical socialist.
This couldn’t be more imbecilic but it’s being normalized into the current parlance by the Execrable Dorito Boy and his gaggle of self-serving, patriarchal, arbitrarily-god-centric, cretinous political whores. At the same time, the Boys in Boise are in lockstep, enacting laws that deny women (who may have been raped by their uncles) free and easy access to abortions. What was that you said about “government overreach?“
The principle of states rights is a cornerstone of the GOP’s rationale for creating public policy. If the states have a right to run their own affairs and decide for themselves and protected by the Tenth Amendment, you could ask why this doesn’t also apply to municipalities and their respective state governments. If it’s more efficient and cost-effective, you could argue that municipalities have the right to control key features of their local housing needs and that they are being unfairly/unjustly penalized by state laws and tax policies.
Tax policies can be developed (it’s not rocket science) to help the towns rather than out-of-state developers like GMD. Perry has charted a rough framework for measuring the ROI of the coats. His work could bet a LOT more granular if he had the time and/or help. He’s just scratching the surface in terms of an organized historical forensic analysis and he knows what he’s doing. There’s your ammunition.
If Ketchum has the right to require registration of STR’s as businesses, track their numbers and adjust them according to what is deemed a sustainable ratio with the number of available dwellings (reviewed yearly). You could argue this renders societal outcomes that are measurably more useful and economically efficient, and crucially, less destructive to their quality of life. A Vacancy Tax also makes eminent sense! Integrate people, don’t segregate them into expensive, architecturally out-of-scale housing projects destined to be seen as ghettos in 20 years.
A landscape of possibilities for getting some traction in the courts might open up with this approach, and its topography doesn’t appear to be very convoluted. You’d have your work cut out for you, I admit, but it would be an interesting project, right? That's IF you could find the money, the time, and the people with the necessary skills. It would take a core team of about five very focused people prepared to work for a year or so. Yeah I know, it's doubtful that kind of thing would ever happen in the WRV.
Your next mayor will not change things sufficiently because the larger legal and tax policy landscape won’t permit it, ultimately; same for a city manager, same for civil assemblies. It’s the law and tax policies that are the issues and the state's political heritage, ethos and legislative DNA. Those guys are dinosaurs and they don't know it; they are living in Plato's Cave. Put more succinctly, it's outmoded and discredited thinking. (Note how Bernie Sanders focuses on the laws in his video.) Personally, I think you need to take the gloves off and go for it but that’s a LOT easier said than done, for sure.
Annie, I don’t have the time to think about this right now but maybe there’s a spot in your inbox for it. I’ll meet you at the inbox for a strong coffee...I like it black. At least one thing has improved since the days of the Western Café, eh? Ciao and all the best.
Yes! Yeas to You!
Sounds like an interesting model. It seems an open forum for community to discuss the model would be valuable.
Thanks Perry and Annie.
Great idea!
Well done Annie. We definitely need a change. Hopefully it’s not too late.
Marilyn Hoffman
Grateful to have Perry and Annie in our community!! Xo
Thank you Perry and Anne for your years of knowledge and work toward more transparency and political integrity.
There are so many of us business owners who don’t live in Ketchum but are affected by the decisions of the mayor and council. We pay city taxes without representation.
Do you have any ideas on how our voices can be heard. I have given up on going to council meetings. It seems the mayor and council are of one mind.
In order to reform present local government, election rules need revision, as well. I think Ketchum voter turnout would improve if four precincts were established and candidate residency required, thereby reflecting residents concerns in each district.
With the Council - Manager form of government, the 5 elected officials have equal voting power, giving more voice to the people they serve. Districts could further that. The question is: What would those 5 districts be and is the candidate pool in each district large enough?
Here I differ with you, as four precincts with another "at large" position, who would have the title of "Mayor," and oversee directly the City Manager is more protective. The Mayor would vote only when the Council ties. (Another possibility is for the elected council to choose the "Fifth Person," perhaps, for a 5-year term.) Additionally, Ketchum can abandon the two votes per voter system, which is easily manipulated. More generally, my concern for Ketchum is that given the new Comp Plan (proposed) over the next 10 years K's population will explode with new public housing for employees. Those employees will live in Ketchum and be employed throughout Idaho; they will also VOTE IN LOCAL ELECTIONS. Given assured and rapid climate change, I envision Baldy becoming less a winter activities location, but a preferred major biker-hiker destination -- and the new lift system will insure that (new trails on west and north flanks). Finally, with the completion of new large hotels and the assured sale of The Resort, continued expansion of Friedman, and widespread liquor and gambling licensing to attract destination tourists year-round (Wendy's crowd is already lobbying for additional liquor), Boise's growth - from the Oregon border to Twin (and north on Hwy #75) will also impact Blaine dramatically --along with millionaire migrants fleeing more California fires. Your thoughts re: 2035?