IGNITE: A fiscal rush

The urban renewal agency’s July 31 bank statements show it has five accounts at Washington Trust totaling $11,595,578 — two checking accounts totaling $3,159,797 earning 0.0 percent, and three cash accounts totaling $8,435,781 earning 0.1 percent. With $843,335 in two savings accounts, it has $12,438,913 in cash, earning less than 0.1 percent, just sitting there. Yet, on Sept. 14 at a rush-rush, special meeting, which did not allow public comment, it voted to replace the $8.7 million Washington Trust bond with a new $8.7 million loan, leaving all that cash untouched. So the urban renewal agency gives Washington Trust $11.5 million at less than 0.1 percent, and Washington Trust loans $8.7 million of that back to the agency at 1.25 percent. At the agency’s August meeting, Mr. Berns said there was no hurry to refinance — the interest rate didn’t reset until Sept. 30, and even that “is not a drop dead date, there is latitude.”

But after a citizen requested documents about this, the very next day he arranged a special meeting for a few days later (Sept. 14) to approve the $8.7 million re-borrowing. Why the rush? Why not wait until its regular meeting on Sept. 21, which is televised and videorecorded, and allows public comment?

The rush was to prevent public scrutiny and debate about the unnecessary $8.7 million re-borrowing. Tax dollars are being wasted paying interest on a huge loan that’s unnecessary. With no prepayment penalty in the new loan, the agency can still do the right thing — use its mountain of cash to pay off the new loan.

DAVID LYONS

Coeur d’Alene