URA has an opening - maybe for you

Here is the notice the city should now be giving to the public:

There will be a vacancy on the urban renewal board on Jan. 21, when a member’s term expires.

The public is encouraged to apply for this position.

Contact the city for an application form.

Send the completed application with a recommendation letter to the city well before Jan. 21.

The urban renewal agency (known as “ignite cda”) is funded entirely by your property taxes. It skims off the top taxes that would otherwise go to the city, county, NIC, and other public agencies to pay for important public services. Close to $6 million a year.

This powerful, but invisible, agency’s board members are all appointed ­— not elected. They never have to face the public — and be held accountable to them — at the ballot box. And each term is for five years.

So public involvement and oversight of what it does are important. When a board seat opens up ­— as one will on Jan. 21 — the public needs to know and apply, instead of appointments being handed out to the “well connected” behind the scenes.

In April 2017, the mayor announced a new procedure for appointments when a board member’s term expires. Even if the board member wants to continue, the seat is opened up for everyone in the public to apply for. Read the April 11, 2017, article about this in The Press (“Protocol broadens candidate pool for URA board”).

The public can contact Amy Ferguson at City Hall for an application form. Send her your completed application and a recommendation letter at least 10-15 days in advance of Jan. 21. If you applied before, do it again.

Everyone is affected by this agency’s huge project in the former Atlas Mill site along the Spokane River. And by what it does in Riverstone, midtown, and elsewhere. And there is talk about it expanding into East Sherman and the “health corridor.”

Coeur d’Alene’s recent growth has included many highly accomplished and skilled “seasoned citizens” relocating from elsewhere. Though not “born and raised” here, they’re full-fledged citizens of this community. This is an opportunity to put that lifetime of knowledge and experience to good use.

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David Lyons is a retired lawyer and a Coeur d’Alene resident.