JEERS ... to Lewiston Mayor Dan Johnson.
Remember all that heartburn about an unelected city manager system imposing a face mask mandate in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic? Voters followed up by transforming city government into an elected, strong mayor to run things in a responsive manner — and elevated Johnson to the job.
From the way the city is handling its current water crisis, responsiveness is hardly the word that comes to mind.
It was left to Lewiston Public Works Director Dustin Johnson Monday to outline a lawn watering ban throughout much of the city, beginning Tuesday. That’s because the city’s damaged High Reservoir can’t meet much more than a third of the typical demand during the summer irrigation months.
It all may be necessary and legal.
But the city did not implement a strong mayor system just to have an unelected city administrator — however well-meaning — begin the discussion with talk of bans and $300 fines for each violation.
Why doesn’t Mayor Johnson do what any accomplished politician would — engage the public?
Outline the problem.
Seek out affected parties, including homeowners and businesses, such as lawn sprinkler firms, landscapers and nurseries, that will suffer an economic loss.
Sort through the alternatives. Is there any path to mitigation such as even severe watering restrictions that would mean brown, dormant lawns that still might recover later in the year? Do any circumstances warrant an exception to the ban?
Is there a timetable? Will repairs to the reservoir come in weeks or months?
Perhaps the discussion will end up precisely where it began — with the inescapable need to sacrifice in order to preserve the community’s firefighting capacity.
At least, however, people would know they’ve been heard and that every option was considered in a public forum.
Isn’t that why Lewiston overhauled city hall in the first place?
CHEERS ... to Idaho Gov. Brad Little.
After the GOP-led Legislature sought to put a $2,500 bounty on librarians who did not knuckle under to the morality police, the governor was deluged with comments.
He listened.
Through a public records request, Idaho Education News established:
* During a two-week period, from March 22 to April 5, Little’s office received nearly 2,000 emails. They ran 44:1 in favor of a veto.
* Little’s office received 800 telephone calls, running almost even between those who opposed and supported the bill.
* Criticism of the measure resonated.
“PLEASE PLEASE don’t sign (House Bill) 314,” wrote Riggins city librarian Susan Hollenbeak.
“We do not want to lose our jobs because we disagree with the public about ‘literary merit,’ ” added Moscow High School English teacher Cora Irelan. “Thus we are left only with the option of not teaching most of what is in our curriculum. Our students will not be exposed to ancient Greek and Roman epics, nor to Shakespeare, nor even to Mark Twain.”
Even with this public opinion on his side, Little still was taking a political risk by vetoing HB 314. The House came within two votes of overriding his veto.
JEERS ... to Idaho Freedom Foundation President Wayne Hoffman.
He’s taking a victory lap over the Legislature’s failure to protect the lives of pregnant women.
Before leaving town, the GOP-led Idaho Legislature disbanded Idaho’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee.
That makes Idaho one of two states that will not look into maternal mortality — in order to determine how to prevent more deaths in the future.
In 2020, Idaho recorded 11 maternal deaths — up from five two years earlier. The review team determined all of the deaths were preventable with more information and medical care, according to the Idaho Capital Sun’s Kelcie Moseley-Morris.
For the cost of $10,000 from federal sources to cover its administrative costs, the panel equipped Idaho’s medical community with knowledge about preventing future deaths from ailments such as preeclampsia or post-partum infections.
And it could become even more vital in the years ahead, given how Idaho’s draconian anti-abortion laws are compromising medical treatment and driving physicians out of the state. As the Huffington Post reported Wednesday, four of Idaho’s nine maternal-fetal medicine specialists have either left the state or plan to. And the inability to recruit or retain health care providers in this post-Roe environment is part of the reason Bonner General Health in Sandpoint shuttered its maternity ward.
But a bill continuing the review team languished in House Health and Welfare Committee Chairperson John Vander Woude’s desk from Feb. 3 to April 6.
No matter, says Hoffman, whose organization would have penalized any lawmaker who supported it with the loss of two points on its freedom index.
Besides, Hoffman wrote, the review committee “was basically puzzling over 10 or 11 deaths out of 22,000 live births per year — in other words, not a lot.”
Isn’t that a hell of a thing to celebrate?
JEERS ... to freshman Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle.
Thanks to him, the state risks losing more people to opioid overdoses.
As the Idaho Statesman’s Ryan Suppe reported this week, Tanner used his perch on the Legislature’s budget-writing committee to limit who receives free supplies of naloxone, marketed under the brand name Narcan, to first responders.
“I just wanted to make sure that it’s actually going out to the right people, people that we can actually educate and give training,” Tanner told the Statesman.
But here’s what a chief critic of that move says:
“We know that most naloxone administrations in Idaho are by people other than first responders. ... In fact, of the 1,238 reversals reported to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, 94% were not administered by first responders. ...
“This significant policy change may result in fewer naloxone doses available to administer in Idaho and, tragically, fewer lives saved.”
And the name of that critic — Gov. Little.
Little went ahead and signed this one into law but you can see he was in a bind. The measure was attached to a must-pass $149.5 million budget for Idaho’s mental health program. — M.T.
