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by Free Market Duck

Ada County Commissioners condemn new Ada County Courthouse, then use Eminent Domain to confiscate their own property...huh?
(Jan 31, 2007)

Why does a government agency condemn it's own recently-developed property and then use eminent domain to confiscate it from itself?

What's next?  Is Ada County going to sue itself for $100 million to reimburse itself for taking its own property?

Is this just a clever method by which to dump previous University Place co-conspirators Cryptic Partners and take over their lease spaces?  Tricky, tricky.

Or, are the Good Ol' Boys of Boise who ran the University Place scam setting up previous partner Cryptic Partners as The Fall Guy for the upcoming civil and federal criminal trials, distancing themselves by pushing Cryptic out of Idaho and claiming, Oh hell no, we don't know anybody named Cryptic Partners and of course we didn't participate with them to fleece the Idaho taxpayers in the $100 million Courthouse Scandal OR the $136 million University Place Fiasco?

Boise, ID – Oh my God, it's a falling out between the Pirates of The Caribbean in downtown Boise.  Looks like the saga of Boise's $100 million Courthouse scandal and $136 million Watergate fiasco continues.

Brief history review:

1.  Ada County Commissioners, in 1996-2002, conspired with California outside development firm Cryptic Partners (Civic Partners, previously Wilmore Holdings) to purchase 14.25 acres unconstitutionally from Union Pacific Rail Road via a fake lease purchase agreement through a dummy corporation of leading lawyers and judges called The Friends of the Ada County Judicial System, Inc.

2.  Ada County and CCDC (Urban Renewal Agency) granted Cryptic Partners sole development rights of the 14 acres for 99 years, even after Cryptic's development partner Fluor (who was the only reason they qualified for the bid) mysteriously dropped out.  Judy Peavey-Derr, chair of the Committee that chose Cryptic, received a donation from Cryptic (then Wilmore) on the same day.

3.  Cryptic teamed with Boise Lawyers from Givens Pursley and Elam & Burke and all the perps listed in Boise's Watergate book, some of them currently awaiting civil and/or federal indictments, some already convicted of state criminal charges, in the failed $136 million University Place fiasco.  The book, Boise's Watergate, shows how the $100 million Courthouse Scam led the same perps to pull off the $136 million University Place Fiasco.

4.  Cryptic Partners is scheduled for a civil trial in April 2007 for allegedly issuing "questionable" predevelopment invoices of at least $7 million in the University Place scandal.

5.  A federal criminal investigation is still ongoing, conducted by US Attorney Allan Garten from the Portland, OR District Office.

  So now what's happening?

   Ada County owns the 14.25 acre land, having illegally "rented" it for $4 million over 4 years with County taxpayer money without voter approval and then "bought" it for $1.00, ONE DOLLAR, from the dummy corporation called The Friends of the Ada County Judicial System, Inc.  What a joke.

   But Ada County does not own the new Ada County Courthouse building (the County pretends to "lease" the building with 30-yr renewable annual "leases") or the parking lot next door or Civic Plaza or the only University Place building built (of 3-4 originally planned) called the Water Tower.  Retail space in the new Courthouse, which was supposed to pay for the Courthouse, has never been rented except for one small deli shop which closed last fall.  Civic Plaza low-rent housing occupancy oscillates from half empty to full with offers of free two month's rent for the last several years.

   With Cryptic ready to go to trial in April and an ongoing federal criminal investigation, Ada County is now proclaiming that it's own property with leased buildings, including the newly built 2002 Ada County Courthouse, should be CONDEMNED and then re-taken through eminent domain.  Condemned?  What, is it blighted already after only 4 years?  How can a government agency CONDEMN its own newly-developed property and then confiscate it from itself?

   Oh, now I get it.

   A fake condemnation and eminent domain is the only way the Ada County Commissioners can figure out -- with their buddies in the judicial system, as usual -- how to break all their previous leases with former Boise Watergate co-conspirator Cryptic Partners.

   Wow.  Good thing the Idaho voters voted down Prop 2 last November, the right to sue for compensation for eminent domain takings.  Otherwise, we might have to sell Boise Watergate tickets to the spectacle of the Ada County Commissioners suing themselves for $100 million for confiscating their very own property through eminent domain. -- Deep Throat II

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