Secretly taped conversations bug people
Christie Wood’s allegation that former Coeur d’Alene planner Mary Souza secretly taped their conversation during a coffee chat continues to reverberate in the local blogosphere. In case you missed it, Wood, a North Idaho College trustee and CPD Blue spokeswoman, accused Souza of taping a lengthy conversation they had to discuss disagreements over a variety of issues – and their families, too. Not that there’s anything legally wrong with that. In Idaho, unlike some other states, it’s OK to secretly tape a person without her consent. It’s just something that’s not done in polite society. In a long comment posted on Huckleberries Online and a Coeur d’Alene Press letter to the editor, Wood said she was bugged most about being caught on secret tape talking about her family: “I am a very private person in my off time, and I do try to shield my family from local politics. If Mary had asked if she could tape our conversation I would have said yes and dispensed with the private conversation.” Meanwhile, Souza, who writes a Sunday column for the Press, refused as of Thursday afternoon, to confirm or deny that she secretly taped Wood, despite persistent questioning from commenters on her OpenCDA.com blog. Which says a lot in itself.
English: Not right
Dan English, the respected, longtime Kootenai County clerk, shared his thoughts on secretly taping a public official at Huckleberries Online: “It may be legal to secretly tape record private conversations, but that doesn’t mean it feels right or is right. I wonder how members of the public would feel if elected officials made a clandestine recording of every individual conversation they had with us and then put it out for everyone else to hear? I also wonder if those who say something like ‘if you have nothing to hide then you should have no problem with it’ really believe that if it were applied to them. So I suppose secret recording of their conversations are OK, too? Do they really have so little expectation of personal privacy and boundaries any more? I think the public interest is best served when honesty and transparency between elected officials and the public is a two-way street.” Bingo.
Huckleberries
In a Calgary Herald article lauding Gozzer Ranch earlier this month, GRep Don Breidenbach said: “I think John Gozzer would be pleased with what we’ve done” … A Berry Picker who knew Gozzer didn’t agree. Commenting at Huckleberries Online re: the allegation that Gozzer Ranch hand Andy Holloran punched Harrison’s Pat Stroud in the throat, he posted: “(John Gozzer) was a simple man who spit tobacco around his small house which had no indoor plumbing. He carried his water in buckets from a nearby pond. How ironic that the ultra exclusive Gozzer Ranch is named after a man who stated the last thing he wanted to see his land become was a golf course!” … In her informative North Idaho Real Estate blog (which has a Huckleberries Online link), Christina Ethridge has posts of three stories from the July 5 Calgary Herald that’ll gray the hair of anyone already bothered by the influx of people, praising Gozzer Ranch, Marshall Chesrown’s Black Rock Development and the area in general … No, there isn’t any mention of alleged underage drinking in Discovery Land Co. CEO Michael Meldman’s guest house. Or the Holloran punch. Seems Calgary Herald reporters didn’t bother to check the police reports while gawking at the area.
Parting shot
One of the rumors swirling around the Coeur d’Alene School District last week was that new Superintendent Hazel Bauman had ordered that her office be painted. And that she had it repainted and then re-repainted when she wasn’t satisfied with the color. All of which would be fairly embarrassing in this time of financial belt-tightening, if it was true. Hazel offered S-R reporter Meghann Cuniff a much simpler explanation for the, ahem, repainting. Seems she first planned to paint the room two colors. One wall was painted one color, but when painters began painting the other area, they painted just a small section. Which Hazel thought was too pink. So they got a darker color. Hazelgate? Not so much.