ACHD commissioners give director a golden parachute
By Scott McIntosh, Opinion editor
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Are you tired of fighting about masks, misinformation about coronavirus and hearing grim numbers of new cases and deaths in Idaho? Do you need a break from COVID outrage?
I have just the thing for you.
How about some local government outrage instead?
Ada County Highway District commissioners, one who will be leaving the commission and one who likely will be leaving when new commission members come on board in January, just voted to give ACHD executive director Bruce Wong a golden parachute.
Departing commissioner Sara Baker and potentially lame duck commissioner Rebecca Arnold on Wednesday got commissioner Mary May to go along with them to approve a three-year employment agreement for Wong that would give him one year’s salary ($164,798.40) plus a lump sum of health benefits and a lump sum of retirement benefits if he is terminated without “cause.”
In other words, if commission members at some point over the next three years wanted to simply go in a different direction with a new director, they’d have to pony up somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000 of taxpayer money to “release” Wong.
It’s a pretty outrageous move right after the election, in which Arnold lost to Alexis Pickering by two votes. That vote is subject to a recount, but if the result holds up, the two outgoing commission members essentially handcuffed their successors into keeping Wong on as director.
I wrote about the agreement before commissioners met, and you can read that column here.
Stay tuned for more on the subject from me.
Gov. Little’s lack of action is a failure in public safety
After last week’s newsletter came out, Gov. Brad Little held a press conference to announce that Idaho was moving back to Stage 2 — albeit a modified, watered-down Stage 2 — that sets very few restrictions or limitations.
Little, himself, set the stage for what seemed like a more urgent, much-needed response from his office.
“Alarmingly our hospitals are telling us it is only a matter of weeks at the current rate of spread before they must start rationing care,” Little said. “This means they will have to turn away people from the ER, or they will be unable to provide the best care for patients with COVID, heart attacks, strokes and other health issues. This is unacceptable, and more must be done.”
But then he didn’t really do more.
Our editorial board weighed in on this, calling this lack of action a failure in leadership and failure in protecting public health and safety, which is the highest and most proper role of government. You can read that full editorial here.
Mask mandates
Of course, this isn’t the first time the editorial board has weighed in on a statewide mask mandate. I went back and checked, and the first time we called for a statewide mandate was June 26. One of the main reasons back then was to give cover to businesses that were trying to do the right thing and keep people safe while still reopening and keeping the Idaho economy’s fire burning. It’s worth noting that it was right around that time that Washington and Oregon instituted statewide mask mandates.
You can read that first editorial about a statewide mask mandate here.
Idaho’s top business leaders speak out
This week, I received a guest opinion from the presidents and CEOs of Idaho’s top companies, including Micron, Albertsons, Idaho Power, Simplot, St. Luke’s, Saint Alphonsus, Kount, Blue Cross of Idaho, Cradlepoint, Boise Cascade, Clearwater Analytics and Lamb Weston.
“Idahoans are at our best when we join together against a common foe,” they write. “Let’s agree to unite against this virus for the good of our communities. The actions we all need to take are not hard, and they shouldn’t be political. Small sacrifices today can make for a much better tomorrow.”
You can read their full guest opinion here.
What you’re saying
Well, I guess it should be expected, but most of your letters in the past week have had to do with two main subjects: mask mandates and President Trump’s refusal to accept the election results.
Some of you took our Republican elected officials to task for not calling out Trump’s dangerous attack on our election system. On mask mandates, some of you called for a statewide mandate while others wrote to keep encouraging people to wear a mask.
You can read all of those letters and more by clicking here.
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