KMPO's July 13 meeting canceled

COEUR d’ALENE — People who attended Wednesday's town hall on a regional traffic management center were encouraged to take their concerns to the July 13 meeting of the Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization board.

But that meeting was canceled more than two weeks ago.

Glenn Miles, KMPO executive director, wrote that cancellation of the meeting was based on insufficient action items ready to go before the board.

“Longstanding precedent (20 years) of the board has been that based on concurrence of the board chair and vice-chair, meetings are cancelled when there is a lack of sufficient items to come before the board,” he wrote Thursday in a note to The Press.

The decision was made June 13, but board members, at least the four who attended the meeting at The Altar Church, had not been notified. An email regarding the status of a meeting with a board packet generally goes out a week before the date it is scheduled.

KMPO board member Dan Gookin, representing the city of Coeur d'Alene, said he learned of the cancellation Thursday. He said a vote on the transportation management center, and whether to continue with it, was on the agenda.

He asked if the July 13 meeting could still be held, with the transportation management center as the only agenda item, with public comment accepted, but was told no.

“They’re not going to do it,” Gookin said Thursday.

The KMPO board’s next meeting is scheduled Aug. 10.

At Wednesday's meeting, attended by about 200 people, Gookin and the other KMPO board members who attended, Sandra White, Bruce Mattare and Jeff Tyler, all said they opposed the center.

In general, they voiced concerns about how the data collected would be used, who would have access to it and expressed a general distrust of the federal government.

Some people said the center could be more of a spy hub, a government surveillance system to keep tabs on people and collect personal information.

Miles, in an email sent to board members Thursday, expressed concerns about what was said at the meeting, which he pointed out was not affiliated with KMPO.

A flyer indicates it was arranged by stopsmartcities.org.

"With regard to the ongoing mischaracterization about KMPO and the local jurisdictions' collective responsibility to jointly ensure a safe and efficient movement of people and goods on our regional transportation system is most unfortunate," he wrote. "It furthers distrust in this area's collective efforts to make Kootenai County a good place to live and work by providing more a safe, reliable and efficient transportation system."

KMPO has been working toward the development of a regional traffic management center for several years, with a goal to improve safety, efficiency and traffic flow in the growing area.

It awarded a $400,000 contract to Iteris, a California-based company, to create a plan for development of a traffic management center and how it could operate.

The contract was paid for by KMPO with federal funds.

Miles noted the KMPO board previously voted 6-3 to accept the Iteris report detailing plans for the traffic management center.

He said, at this point, the discussion is about the plan for the center and how it would operate, not implementation of it.

The center would have video cameras at key points to observe traffic and responses to problems.

Miles said KMPO and the Idaho Transportation Department are planning more opportunities for the public to provide input on management of the regional transportation system.

In a June 14 letter to the board, he wrote that “KMPO staff will be putting together up to three public workshops generally located in the geographic areas of Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and on the north side of the urbanized area. Each of these workshops will be held at public locations. The dates and locations are currently being explored."

He wrote that KMPO and ITD will also be developing an online survey focused on asking the public's priorities when it comes to managing the regional transportation system.

KMPO staff will report the results of the additional public outreach effort at the Aug. 10 board meeting, Miles wrote.