McEuen vote? Don't think so

Precedents, like presidents, can be pretty tough to live with.

The City of Coeur d’Alene is struggling with a precedential specter right now.

Several years ago, when Duane Hagadone proposed building a memorial garden in his parents’ honor in the heart of downtown, city officials raised the prospect of putting the proposal to an advisory vote of the citizens. Since the vote would not have been binding, skeptics concluded that city officials were hoping voters would take the hot potato off their hands.

The potato never made it to the oven. Hagadone pulled the proposal because he was concerned public safety and library bonds going before the public at the same time would be jeopardized by naysayers of his plan, and the garden idea never blossomed. But the precedent did. And just like some pesky perennial, it’s popped up again.

That’s why critics of the expansive vision for McEuen Park have at least the semblance of a hook to hang their argument on. If the city would consider an advisory vote back then, when Hagadone would have footed the entire bill, why would it not do at least the same now, when millions of dollars of urban renewal funds most likely will be committed to the McEuen project?

In our view the mistake is not being made now, when the council is denying a public vote; it was committed back then. There are ample methods of determining public popularity on any issue besides putting it to a vote, and one of those alternatives should have been employed before.

Today, through written and online surveys, every citizen, even those beyond Coeur d’Alene’s municipal boundaries, has had the chance to be heard on the McEuen proposal. We find that extraordinary, something an advisory or binding vote could not provide: Voice to users and other interested parties whose addresses lie outside the city. It also speaks to the sense of ownership so many county residents feel for the heart of Coeur d’Alene and acknowledgment of that affinity by city officials.

We believe the vast majority of those demanding a public vote now are performing an encore presentation of what the city planned several years ago. These members of the public, like their city leaders before them, don’t like the plans for various reasons and want to find a way to poke a stick in the wheels that are rolling faster and faster.

Sorry, but that’s another precedent that can be tough to live with. Coeur d’Alene citizens elected the public officials who today are refusing to put the McEuen particulars to a public vote. If the citizens don’t like the way this one unfolds, they can go to the polls in November and participate in a more binding survey.