Archives for December 2007

From the Idaho Statesman

Bitter dispute pushed Foothills resident to consider filing a lawsuit, but instead she’s trying to change Idaho law
BY KATHLEEN KRELLER

June Sparks says better communication equals less conflict and harmonious neighborhoods.

So Sparks, who lived through a bitter dispute over landscaping in her own Foothills subdivision, is pushing for the state to require open meetings between homeowners associations and residents.

Boise Democratic Sen. Mike Burkett plans to take the idea to the Legislature this winter. He’s hoping to prevent disputes at meetings of the nearly 2,500 registered homeowners’ associations across the state.

“It makes sense that HOAs adhere to simple rules about open meetings and public information and some of the same rules we want our other bodies of government to subscribe to and abide by,” he said.

In Sparks’ case, the homeowners association wanted to remove view-obstructing trees and a trampoline, among other things. She wanted to address the board in person, but said she never had a chance.

Sparks said she considered suing and even hired an attorney, but decided it wasn’t worth the fight.

“I realized I didn’t want to put my entire neighborhood through a lawsuit that would be costly,” Sparks said. “Instead, I decided to find out what the laws were and look into those laws. ”

Sparks found that Idaho doesn’t have any laws requiring homeowners associations to comply with state open meetings laws – something she said her research showed at least 40 states require. She contacted Burkett to help.

Burkett, an attorney, said he’s worked on many neighborhood disputes exacerbated by a lack of communication. The legislation he’ll propose next month will go a long way toward preventing animosity between neighbors, he said. The topic is especially timely in the Treasure Valley, given an increasing number of new associations as subdivisions and homes multiply.

“Homeowners associations have grown up around our developing economy,” Burkett said. “It’s an important part of many people’s lives these days. It’s a quasi-governmental activity created to represent people.”

Idaho’s open meetings law regulates how government bodies ensure public access as they meet and make decisions. The laws dictate when meetings must be open to the public, how to notify the public of a meeting, when the public can testify and under what circumstances officials can meet in private. The presumption under state law is that the public has access to all government meetings except special “executive sessions” on issues such as personnel or pending lawsuits.

Burkett said he’s not likely to face much opposition during the upcoming legislative session. Other growing areas, like Coeur d’Alene, Pocatello, Twin Falls and Idaho Falls also have a growing number of associations, he said.

In Idaho, homeowners associations are classified as private, non-profit organizations. The Idaho Secretary of State’s Office reports roughly 2,426 registered homeowners associations across the state and 739 in the Boise area.

“I think there is some real benefit to the homeowners and knowing what is going on with the HOA and being aware of this quasi-governmental entity and its impact on them,” Burkett said. “Having a more public meeting environment could go a long ways toward diffusing disputes.”

Mark Richmond, a member of the board for a large homeowners’ association in unincorporated Ada County, doubts the bill will do much to get more people involved in their neighborhoods.

Richmond, a hearing examiner for the Idaho Transportation Department, said his subdivision’s board opens its meetings now, sends out regular newsletters and invites participation. At the association’s annual meeting, 20 people means a “big turnout” out of 486 homes, he said.

Richmond said he got letters from the Moon Ridge association about a boat in his driveway and felt harassed. Until, he said, he was elected to the association board, which is a time-consuming, difficult position. Board decisions are made in the open and are not capricious or unilateral, he said.

“It does get frustrating at times,” Richmond said. “We are a volunteer board. We are there because we have an interest in keeping our neighborhood nice. We are all there to get on the same sheet of music and not fight each other. The fights happen and that’s just human nature. I don’t think open meetings are going to solve that.”

Sparks said she’s resolved all of her neighborhood conflicts, but wishes she could have resolved the problems by talking to her neighbors in person.

“All this false information was getting back to these board members. In this age of e-mailing, we get away from face-to-face meetings,” Sparks said. “Had they just talked to me in the beginning, had they agreed to meet with me at that time, everything would have been taken care of. It never would have gotten to the point where I considered litigation.”

Kathleen Kreller: 377-6418

From the Idaho Statesman

From the Associated Press

By JOHN MILLER
Associated Press Writer

BOISE, Idaho (AP) _ The Idaho State Board of Education held a four-hour closed meeting last week to discuss eliminating a statewide ninth-grade test due to a cash crisis, despite a state law requiring most of its sessions be open to the public.

The Spokesman-Review newspaper, which first reported details of the executive session, on Wednesday filed a complaint with Attorney General Lawrence Wasden.

Following the executive session Dec. 6 in Pocatello, the board this week opted to cut the Idaho Standard Achievement Tests for ninth-graders because the agency didn’t have $826,000 to pay Data Recognition Corp., a Minnesota-based testing service that administers the tests.

High school students must pass the 10th-grade version of the test to graduate. Ninth-grade tests were another chance to practice.

The closed meeting was questioned by some lawmakers, including Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, the chairman of the Senate Education Committee. He told the Spokesman-Review that dumping the ninth-grade test was “not one of those items that’s allowed in executive session.”

Carla Savalli, a senior editor for the Spokane, Wash., newspaper, said it filed the complaint as part of its government-watchdog role.

“We vigorously defend the public’s right to know,” Savalli said. “We take that role very seriously.”

Mark Browning, a Board of Education spokesman, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Deputy Attorney General Jeff Schrader said the executive session was appropriate.

“I was assured that it was within the bounds of the open meetings law,” Browning said.

When asked by the AP, Schrader declined to provide his rationale justifying an executive session.

Bob Cooper, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office in Boise, confirmed it had received the complaint. He declined further comment.

Knowingly violating the law carries a maximum $150 fine per person for a first offense.

The Idaho Open Meeting Law requires 24-hour meeting and agenda notice be given before holding an executive session. The notice must give the reason for the closed meeting.

The law allows closing the meetings to cover such things as hiring new employees, disciplinary action, labor negotiations, plotting legal strategy, and preliminary trade negotiations where the government is competing with other states or nations, among other things.

“The state Board of Education is violating the Idaho Open Meeting Law by not specifying under which exemption it is holding a closed session; by not keeping minutes of executive sessions that include ‘a specific reference to the statutory subsection authorizing the executive session and sufficient detail to convey the general subject matter;’ and by discussing public policy issues including student testing and the board’s budget in closed session,” according to the Spokesman-Review’s complaint.

The complaint also alleges that board members communicated illegally prior to this week’s decision to eliminate testing.

ISAT testing-related budget problems began earlier this year, when former Board of Education Executive Director Dwight Johnson ordered second-grade and ninth-grade ISAT tests, but failed to see that Data Recognition Corp.’s contract didn’t include those tests in the price of federally required testing for third- through eighth-graders and 10th-graders.

When bills started arriving from the company, the agency realized the mistake, Browning said.

“We said, ‘Wait a minute, we’ve got bills coming in that are more than we can pay for,'” he said.

In September, Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter ordered the board to eliminate voluntary second-grade and ninth-grade testing. The board cut the second-grade tests, but its staff tried to find money for the ninth-grade tests.

That failed, Browning said, forcing current Board of Education Executive Director Mike Rush to cut the program on Monday following discussions with board members, including board President Milford Terrell.

“Mike Rush made his decision in consultation with Milford,” Browning said. “He said, ‘We cannot find funding for this, there’s no way to pay for it, we’ve got to pull the plug.'”

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

From the Associated Press

Board president cites cost savings

From the Spokesman-Review

Betsy Z. Russell
Staff writer
December 12, 2007

BOISE – Idaho ninth-graders won’t take the state’s standardized tests this spring because of a budget shortfall, the state Board of Education announced this week.

However, the board hasn’t taken a vote to make that change, and discussed the matter during a closed session at its Pocatello board meeting last Thursday in apparent violation of the Idaho Open Meeting Law, which allows closed meetings only for specific purposes.

The testing change is controversial because students must pass the 10th-grade version of the Idaho Standards Achievement Test to graduate from high school.

“It seems kind of ludicrous when as sophomores the test starts to count in earnest, they give them a year off as freshmen,” said state Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, chairman of the Senate Education Committee.

Goedde added that eliminating the ninth-grade test is “not one of those items that’s allowed in executive session. … It would have been much better if the discussion had been held in open session and the public would have had a chance to hear.”

Idaho will save $826,320 this year by not testing ninth-graders this spring, the board estimated. Annual testing of third- through eighth-graders is required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, though Idaho chooses to test those students twice a year, in spring and fall. The state board voted in September to eliminate second-grade testing, and some educators are pushing for the elimination of the fall tests for all grades.

Board spokesman Mark Browning said the board’s contract with an outside vendor for the testing included third- through eighth-graders as a central part of the contract, with ninth-grade testing as an add-on.

Browning said the board discussed various options in the executive session, but he said no final decision was made there.

The public announcement, however, was clear. “The Idaho State Board of Education announced today that they have eliminated the 9th-grade test as part of the Idaho Standards Achievement Test in both the spring and fall testing windows, effective immediately,” it said, adding later, “The change is due to unforeseen contractual costs associated with the test.”

Even discussion of the matter in executive session – whether or not a final decision was reached – would have violated the Open Meeting Law, since it doesn’t fall under any of the law’s exemptions from open meeting requirements. Those exemptions include hiring, firing or disciplining a public employee, conducting labor negotiations and plotting legal strategy in litigation involving the agency.

“All I know is that I have been given every assurance that nothing was discussed in there that was outside the bounds of the law,” Browning said.

The board’s attorney, Deputy Attorney General Jeff Schrader, declined to comment, referring questions to Browning.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Browning said the press release he sent out Monday might have mischaracterized the status of the decision, and that the board still might discuss the ninth-grade testing issue at its next regular meeting in January or in a special meeting before then. Current state board rules require the ninth-grade testing.

“I should have written that to say that the executive director of the office of the state board has announced that he has ordered work on the ninth-grade test to be stopped,” Browning said.

The board took no action on the ninth-grade testing issue following Thursday’s four-hour closed session, nor did the item appear on the board’s agenda for the meeting.

Four board members didn’t return a reporter’s calls Tuesday. A fifth board member, Sue Thilo of Coeur d’Alene, declined to comment on the executive session.

Bob Cooper, spokesman for the Idaho Attorney General’s office, said he couldn’t comment on whether the board had violated the law. “We have a law enforcement responsibility with regard to state agencies, so if there is a complaint, it would be our responsibility to investigate and thus inappropriate for us to comment prior to receiving any complaint,” he said.

Goedde said there was “a mess-up in the budget this year” that led to the shortfall for testing, and that he doesn’t fault the state board for canceling this spring’s ninth-grade test. “What I’m hoping is they’ll find a way to put it in the budget for next year and continue it in the budget thereafter,” he said.

Thilo said she, too, hopes ninth-grade testing can be restored in future years. State Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna, who serves on the state board, issued a statement, saying, “This is unfortunate. We understand the importance of ninth-grade testing, but like any state agency, the state Board of Education must be fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars and spend within its budget. We are hopeful we will start testing ninth grade again in future years.”

The ISAT tests students on reading, language usage and math. Fifth-, seventh- and 10th-graders also are tested on science. The computerized test, which takes students about 90 minutes to complete, is used to determine whether each Idaho school is making “adequate yearly progress” under the No Child Left Behind law.

Luna’s spokeswoman, Melissa McGrath, said he missed part of the board meeting and wasn’t there when the ninth-grade testing was discussed.

From the Spokesman-Review