For better or for worse the Pocatello City Council is back to full strength. Hopefully the former, rather than the latter, proves to be the case. In either case, a very large group of Pocatello citizens have been disenfranchised by the mayor’s lack of adequate management skills and will remain so for several years.

Two thirds of the council members are now serving by the mayor’s appointment rather than election by Pocatello citizens. One third of the council members are directly tied to prominent city management personnel: Mr. Mansfield is the son of the Pocatello Public Works Director and Mr. Nichols is the husband of the administrative services manager for the mayor and council. We hope the old political maxim “who I appoint, I control” proves not to be the case, although the optics could hardly be worse.

When votes are taken, we will watch for appropriate recusals.

The new city budget provides for a 3% tax increase (supported by Cheatum, Bray, Stevens & Ortega) having been whittled down from 7% proposed by Blad, and supported by Leeuwrik and Mansfield. The proponents of lowest possible taxes have now been replaced by the mayor’s appointnees. We’ll see where their loyalties lie. Thanks are due to P.A.G.E., the citizen watchdog group, who spend countless hours scrutinizing city budgets and operations for all of our benefit.

The 3 council members forced out by the mayor and his cronies had the temerity to question thousands of dollars in unidentified city expenditures and insisting on tight fiscal controls and oversight. That was an irritant to the mayor but should be continued with the new council members. A worthy goal would be to knock Pocatello out of first place in Idaho for highest property taxes.

Weak leaders surround themselves with sycophants who support the leader without question. The best leaders recognize the value of alternative views and hard probing questions to reach the best possible decisions. Since his tenure began, Mayor Blad has shown a proclivity for poor judgement, intolerance, and vindictiveness, making a thoughtful city council of utmost importance.

We’ll hope for the best, but maintain a firm grip on our wallets.

Roy Miller,

Pocatello