'Expose' was case of trashing the messenger

Responding to the strategically timed and orchestrated comments from the ITD spinmiester in last Thursday's Daily Bee: What seems to be missing are pretty much the facts and the truth. But what should we expect since the facts and truth to our community, about a project costing millions of our tax dollars so far, has been a repeated casualty for years.

The great "expose'" was nothing less than trash the messenger because we cannot stand the message. To paraphrase Paul Harvey, "and now the rest of the story."

My professional ethics will not allow me to share information that I develop or review for my clients with others. Most of what I did say was not printed.

For over 10 years I have reviewed or evaluated environmental issues related to the environmental interests and liability of the railroad. I have 20 to 30 projects at any given time in Washington, Idaho or Montana, as well as projects and environmental policy issues throughout their entire system.

This has never been a secret. The ITD, as well as just about everyone, has known I am the environmental consultant for the BNSF for many years. Implying this was some kind of under the radar operation is just plain false. The railroad has always been completely aware of my concerns about the Sand Creek highway. They obviously find my work to be of high professional integrity and value, and recognize that I, apparently unlike some, keep personal issues separate from my professional services.

Whether an employee or consultant for the ITD, the railroad, the city, or the government, everyone has the right to express personal concerns or opinions like any taxpaying citizen of the U.S. and the state.

Are we proposing that every employee or relative of anyone working for the city, state, or federal government as well as anyone who has ever done work for any landowner near any highway project should be denied this right? How many degrees of separation are there between contractors who have done hundreds of thousands of dollars of work for ITD and then personally endorsed highway projects? Perhaps we should take a little closer look at the over 20 million dollars in tax money that has been lavished on the people involved with this project and start asking what we have received, and where, and on whom, that money has been spent.

All of my work is related to environmental issues that are part of the public record. Ms Babic's statement that I might obtain information that is somehow "secret" regarding environmental impacts, and then share them outside of my client confidentiality, implies there are environmental impacts not being disclosed by ITD. If that is the case, then she should disclose those secrets. I certainly do not have any.

It appears to me that there is an awful lot of effort to deflect the scrutiny of many of us who are interested in the misuse of our tax dollars away from this very real issue. To quote Shakespeare "me thinks thou protest overmuch."

PIERRE BORDENAVE

Sandpoint