Welcome to our Live Wire chat with Idaho Falls City Councilman Larry Lyon. My name is Kortny Rolston and I'm the city editor at the Post Register. I also will be moderating this chat.
We ask that you have some patience with us. Mr. Lyon can only answer as fast as he can type. We also ask that you play nice and refrain from personal attacks.

Actually Toaste, we had Police Chief J. Kent Livsey on in December and I made the same comment.

You seem to assume someone would attack Larry! Did not see that discaimer for other guests! ;-D

Thank you. Actually, it was probably a poor attempt at humor.

Not a problem! We just didn't get that many people to participate in the last one. This is my last comment for a while.

Welcome to the Post Registers Live Wire Chat. Even though I don't have an office I have an open door policy and try to make myself as available as possible. Please bear with me as I am not very fast on a keyboard.

Hi Larry! Given your comments in the PR today, what steps are you taking to fix the imbalance in power between the "good old boy" network and the elected officials? Who do you see as the good old boys?

I have visited with other council members on this issue. Right now I appear to be the only one who is even willing to work for a change. Any long term reforms will likely require more reform minded people to be elected to the city council.

Larry, you seem to be the local City Council rebel. The PR article referenced your feelings of lack of honesty, integrity and accountability in City Hall. Can you give some examples of this?

I think the most obvious example is the Kimball Mason scandal. Another example would be the Ed Turner case. For more info on that case I would refer you to the website dedicated to it. responsiblecharge.com

Larry, if the grievance process for city employees that you are proposing had been in effect when the airport employee charged Mike Humberd with sexual harassment, do you think the investigation would have turned out differently?

That is an excellent question. The woman making the accusation was not an employee of the city, but worked for another company located at the airport.I think a reformed greivence policy would have worked in her favor because it is a template for handlling any kind of complaint whether from a citizen or an employee. It might be a good idea to have a seperate policy for citizens complaints.

Larry, can you explain the history of the problems between you and the chief that you continue to refer to?

That is a good question. The answer is too long for this forum. I will try to give a short answer and let me say that I an willing to sit down with anyone who would like to visit about any question or concern. My short answer is this. The first distress call I got complaining of harassment by city bueracrats was complaining about Chief Livsey. If you want to get together in person I will be happy to tell you the whole story. It unfolded over approximatly ten months.

Nothing to take action on then? That's a bit depressing...

Can you give some more examples of the changes you want to work for?

Auditing the city divisions. Auditing the city code for outdated or unnesseccary ordinances. Making city council meetings available on cable TV or streamed over the internet. Reforming the city greivence policy. Ending city monopolies over fleet mantenance and commercial garbage pickup. Stop destroying recordings of counsel meetings and either file them indefenatly or donate them to the reference department of the library. One of the most important reforms is for the council to appoint its own committees rather than leave it to the Mayor. It is not dificult to imagine the mess that would be created at the state or federal level if we had President Bush appointing congressional committees in a Democrat controlled congress or if Govener Otter chose to disolve the senate state affairs committee without telling the chair of that committee.

Also, did your above answer mean to say you believe Mike Humbard was guilty of sexual harassment?

The woman brought her story to me initially. I refered her to the Mayor. I asked myself if it had been a close relative or friend telling me this would I be offended at how they had been treated. For me the answer was yes. I believe the investigation arbitrarily defined "sexual harrassment" so narrowly that it made it unfair for the woman.

Kimball Mason: as has been stated in multiple ways in all of the local media, this was a case of an individual being way to trusted and that trust was broken. It is NOT a case of corruption at City Hall. Ed Turner: This is a case of an employee not willing to perform their own job (including managerial duties) and the job was redefined so that the taxpaper would not be cheated by someone not willing to perform. The engineer who followed him did not worry about the line of authority and supervsion in that department.

I have to respectfully disagree with your assessment of the Mason and Turner cases. It makes no sense to me that Kimball acted alone without at least some passive help. I know there were complaints about Kimball that were ignored. Ed Turner won his case against the city once he got outside of the policically correct bubble of local politics. His case is even featured in a college textbook; "Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases"

Does it seem like more than a coincidence to you that after Robert Wright got rid of all the employees making waves for the library board and city concerning an unethical library director that he got himself a 29% raise in pay by the libray board the next year?

I does seem like more than a mere coincidence. There is a sying that nothing happens by accident in politics.

I am trying to type faster. Please forgive any splling errors.

I have heard that you rarely attend Council Committee Meetings. Please explain how you are an effective Councilmember without attending the meetings where you are able to learn about issues and have meaningful dialogue with other Council Members?

During the three yrs I was chair of the airport committee I believe my attendance was almost perfect. On all the committees I have been on I have made my work schedule known and the chair of those committees has chosen to schedule committee meetings on days that I work. This certianly makes it more difficult.

Larry, will you run for office again?

I plan on running for office again this fall.

Larry, Council is obviously a demanding job, especially when you have a primary job at the site. Just based on the minutes, it looks like last year you were able to attend about 12 of the 30 or so Electric and Airport Committee meetings and 1/3 of the Council work sessions. Do you think that contributes to your being perceived to be an "outsider"? I know you fight hard for your constituents, but does that affect your ability to perform the oversight you (very rightly) call for from our elected officials? Are there ways to mitigate that?

When I was put on the electric committee last year I asked for committee meetings to be scheduled on a day I didn't work. The answer from the other committee members. NO. I asked for minutes of the meetings to be posted on the city web site so I could review them. You can check the city web site to see how many were posted. I think this underscores the point about the council appointing its own committees. The council could discuss amoung itself the work schedules and other committments of its members and arrange assignments accordingly.

"Making city council meeting available on cable TV or streamed over the internet."

I really like that idea!

Thanks John. If you go to the webs sites for the cities of Boise or San Diego you should find some good examples of how this works. I think it is pretty neat.

Do you think the mayor has occasionally overstepped his authority? If yes, when?

Kortney - you're not using my questions - why?

Harry,
We're taking these as they come in. This is Corey Taule, by the way, subbing for Kortny who had to take her son home.

Just to update, we've got 15 questions in the hopper and Larry is typing as fast as he can. Thanks for your patience.
corey

I do. Two examples. Last year the Mayor arbitrarily cancelled a Airport council committee meeting. He is not even a member of the committee. Apply that to the state or federal level and you can imagine the chaos if congreeional committee meetings were cancelled by the President simply because he didn't like the agenda of the meeting. The other example. The name and number of Council committees are set by city ordinance. They can only be changed by the authority that created them. The legislative authority of the city council. I believe the Mayor acted outside his authority when he folded the Airport Committee into the Municipal Services Committee.

Privatization of City services has been discussed on a regular basis for probably 50 years or more. If the City can show that it is providing or receiving a quality service at the best price, then why should it be privatized, just for the sack of competition? As a citizen, I feel my tax dollars should be watched over by good stewards. That is why I am glad the City has good accounting principles in place and follows proper accounting guidelines.

Don't get the wrong idea. I don't believe all city sertvices should be privatized. I think the way to prove that taxpayers are getting the best value is to allow some city services to compete in the free market; not stifle competition by policy or ordinance. A good example of the government competing with the private sector providing a better value is the US postal service

Community Leader: I have a different read on the Turner case - he was being asked to sign off on plans that required his credentials, but for which he was not approving in his professional judgement.

That is basicly my understanding also. Ed was placed ina "catch 22". Violate his professional ethics or disobey his supervision at the city

Larry, Since IF has become a regional shopping and business center, it has grown, as has the city budgets to cover this growth. A good deal of that is paid for by the property taxes. Meanwhile, non-IF residents make up a substantial fraction of the business and the demand for city services. Is it not more reasonable, to give the lowly homeowner a break and go for a local sales tax option. I know that State law prevents that now, but if IF City Council were to pass a resolution for the Legislature showing the need more clearly to them, it might become a higher priority for the State.

This is a issue that I would like to have discussed by the city council. I think there is a good case to be made for both sides of the issue. I would like to hear input from all sides. Thanks for bringing this up.

Larry, people bring their stories to you, because you will listen and attempt to take care of the problem. I initailly brought the information about the library director and her shinanigans to councilman Mike Lehto and it was almost 6 months later before anything happened. I was told to be patient! How many more examples do we need of individauls being trusted too much! You are not afraid to let the public know what is going on in their backyard and for that you are termed a rebel, and someone not willing to get along. More power to you!

Thank you for your kind words.

Do you think there are still others involved in the Kimball Mason investigation after all the hours the AG's office put in?

Good question. The AG's office was tasked with a criminal investigation. I don't know if others were involved to the degree their involvment could be defined as criminal, however I certianly think that at the very least incompetance on the part of people that should have been providing oversight for Kimball was key to him successfully eluding detection for so long.

"One of the most important reforms is for the council to appoint its own committees rather than leave it to the Mayor."

That seems pretty worthwhile to look at - do you know if any other cities in Idaho do that? Have you written an ordinance to change city code?

I don't know of any other cities off hand. The ordinance is easy to change. Simply change the word "Mayor" to "City Council" and add it to the Council portion of the city code, deleting the old ordinance.

Why as the Post register pointed out were you not put on any grievance panels in almost four years of city service?

Larry says he's willing to keep going, at least until 9:30. We've got eight questions in the hopper and will try to get them all answered.
thanks,
corey taule

Good question. I think if I had been appointed I would have been fair and impartial.

Larry, As for the Kimball Mason situation, would you agree that more severe penalties for "betraying the public trust" are in order? Perhaps a mandatory doubling of all penalties otherwise assessed would help deter some wrong-doers from using political office for personal gain and corruption.

I think that Kimball's behavior that landed him in jail is symptomatic of deeper problems with city administration. If a harsher sentance for Kimball would help get to the root of those problems it might be benificial.

Mr. Lyon: I can tell that you have only the benefit of the "Turner side" of the story. I had the experience of listening to and observing BOTH sides of the story.

I appreciate your perspective. I hope you can appreciate that there were others who heard both sides of the story also. I am thinking of the jury that awarded Mr. Turner allmost $300,000.

Does that mean you have a job that does not mesh well with the demands of local government service?

My job actually meshes pretty well with community service. It is local. I don't have to travel. I only work four days a week. If I was a long haul trucker or in the military on deployment it might be a different story.

I want to know if you have to be a housewife or retired to serve on the city council?

You shouldn't have to be. That is why it is so important for elected city officials to work together to accomodate each others work schedules.

Are you sure city residents would get better service and prices by a privatized garbage company?

I don't think I clarified this before but I see residential and commercial garbage pickup as two seperate issues. There certainly would be details that would have to be worked out. To give a brief answer to your question I would say that I am not sure if the government or a private company would provide the better value. I would say let them compete and let the consumer decide.

Do you support the IPPS power thing that was put to the voters last November?

I did support buying into the IPP3. I belive it will be in best interest of the city long term and help Idaho Falls maintain energy independence.

My time is about up. I appeciate your interest. The questions have been great. I would be happy to sit down with any of you in person to answer any questions or address any concerns you may have.You may also contact me by email at Laro463@aol.com. I am sorry I was not able to get to all your questions here tonight. I would be happy tocome back and do this again if the Post Register would like. Thank you again. Good night.

Thanks to everyone for participating. We left several questions in the hopper, but it would have been extremely unkind to ask Larry and his cramped fingers to remain hunched over that keyboard for much longer. A transcript of this chat will be available tomorrow morning at chat.postregister.com
corey taule