Against Process But Not Project?

In the comments section, Councilman Mike Kennedy posts that someday Mary Souza, Dan Gookins and Steve Adams will work hard to re-invent their past opposition to McEuen Field, which he predicts, as I do, will become very popular throughout the region. I suspect that the naysayers of today will use the tactic that Gookin did when he ran unsuccessfully for City Council against Ron Ednger in 2007 — you know, he supports the project but not the process. A SR story from 2007 gave us an early glimpse of Gookin’s skilled side-stepping of issues that he didn’t directly oppose:

Gookin is part of a vocal group of citizens concerned about the urban renewal agency. He questions how the city helped fund the Salvation Army Kroc Community Center being built in Coeur d’Alene. He said the center is “awesome” but that the city should have allowed residents to vote on whether to use $3 million to prepare the site for construction. His group also alleges that the city violated the law by spending the money, because it was never appropriated in the budget. City officials, including Edinger, deny the city did anything wrong. The Kootenai County prosecutor also reviewed the claim and found no “criminal conspiracy” with how the city used the money. As for extra money in the city budget, such as the $3 million used for the Kroc Center, Gookin said the city should use it for property tax relief, unless residents vote to spend it on special projects. Full SR story here.

Question: So where would the community be today if we’d listened to Gookin and provided $3M in property tax relief rather than using that money to prepare the old dump site at Ramsey & Golf Course Road for a Kroc Center?