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Sandpoint council rife with conflicts of interest

The Sandpoint City Council has hit a new low — they have absolutely no ethical rudder with respect to conflicts of interest.

Perhaps we could arrange for an outsider to teach them about ethics in other places, where they have newspapers and other media to keep politicos straight — it really works.

Simply put:

No, Shelby (and his sycophants), you shouldn’t secretly nominate and appoint your buddy Jeremy to a commission that is currently being solicited for a tax break for Jeremy’s employer by Jeremy. That is unethical.

In fact, Jeremy himself stood before the council asking for these tax breaks that were apparently a condition of his employment — might that be unethical as well?

At what point do questions start forming in your minds? You know, “Why is this guy acting like he still runs the city, when he left in 2015?” and “Why does Kochava deserve to pay less in taxes than any other downtown business just because they hired Jeremy?” and of course, “Since Jeremy hired Mr. Qualls from the Sandpoint City Council over a multitude of more qualified applicants, can we expect Mr. Qualls to object to anything Jeremy wants?”

Any person who can’t quickly identify this as conflict of interest, should resign from the council and never again speak about the South (or anywhere else) with respect to crooked politics — this is a labyrinth of corruption in its most basic form and standard operating procedure in Sandpoint.

You are making a mockery of public service.

CAL OGLE

Sandpoint

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