BUTT

REBUTTAL

BID Meeting With MCA

I've posted the jist of last night's meeting of MCA concerning BID.

A couple thoughts. First, Barbara Richardson Crouch was straight shooting and plain speaking last night. Moscow cannot have it both ways. You cannot be a bed-and-breakfast community in a university town (!!!) and expect to have a tax base that will support anything that supports a Quality of Life (QoL). You cannot have it both ways. As Moscow will find out on 26 April, you cannot continue to raise the local property taxes forever -- especially in an economically depressed area. Duh!  If you get a chance, read thru everything Barbara said. She knocked some home-runs and was forthright when others speaking last night were more guarded.

Second, the facilitator for MCA (Melinda Huskey) was showing her true colors last night. Joan Opyr asked a question that was completely off-subject and had nothing to do with Business Improvement District topic -- why the Moscow Chamber of Commerce doesn't explicitly have wording for non-discrimination for homosexuals? The question was a) completely irrelevant to the discussion of BID, b) should be brought to the Board of the Chamber of Commerce, and c) there's no way Kimmell could speak for the Board of the Chamber on this matter. Why didn't the facilitator call that question “out of bounds” or “irrelevant to the BID discussion” or “take it to the Moscow Chamber Board”? Well, because the facilitator/moderator is Opyr's lesbian “partner”. And Huskey's own agenda got in the way of being a moderator. No surprise there, given the real agenda of MCA...

Submitted by Joan Opyr

On Monday I attended a Moscow Civic Association meeting about downtown development in Moscow.  Dale was there, tippy-tapping away on his laptop, and my partner, Melynda, was facilitating the meeting.  She’s a trained mediator and facilitator.

Anyhow, the executive director of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce, Paul Kimmell, passed out a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Chamber and the Moscow City of Council.  Naturally, I was interested in this document because it’s related to the City’s decision to fork $10,000 dollars over to the Chamber to help pay for operations there and presumably for the Chamber to use in promoting Moscow as a tourist destination.  Look out, Sun Valley ! 

We have no skiing.  We have no lake.  We just have some fairly pretty wheat fields and a rather nice farmer’s market.  I don’t think that Hawaii need fear us.

Anyhow, back to this memorandum of understanding thing – I read through it until I came to Section 6:  Employment Practices and Non-Discrimination.  Naturally, this interested me, as Paul Kimmell has been accused of hiring only fellow Christ Church members to work for the Chamber of Commerce.  Now, as you know, Christ Church is not exactly gay friendly.  Several years ago, back during the 1994 battle over the anti-gay Proposition One, Doug Wilson’s attorney – and Moscow’s Public Defender – Greg Dickison declared that he approved of the Biblical method of dealing with gays and lesbians: stoning. 

Christ Church certainly hasn’t changed its tune over the years about gays and lesbians – if anything, they’ve grown more strident – so I was interested in this Non-Discrimination business.

The CHAMBER agrees that it shall comply with all federal, state and local laws, rules and regulations relating to non-discrimination in its employment practices.

So, I waited until the question and answer period.  I raised my hand like the polite Southern girl that I am, and I waited for the facilitator, my partner, Melynda, to call on me.  And I asked Paul Kimmell and the two Moscow City Council representatives who were present, Nancy Chaney and John Dickison, if that Non-Discrimination policy would include sexual orientation.  Easy question, right?  There is no federal protection at the moment, and God knows Idaho doesn’t offer any protection on the state level, but I wanted to know what the City might do about it and if the Chamber would abide by the City’s decision or forego the ten thousand clams.

I asked my question, and Paul punted.  He said he couldn’t possibly speak for the Chamber of Commerce board as he was only the executive director.  The two City Council members did considerably better.  Both Nancy Chaney and John Dickison said they’d be pursuing just such protection for gays and lesbians in City hiring.

I think we should note here that the word partner, as in lesbian partner, is in quotation marks.  I have no idea why.  Do you think Dale would prefer it if I called Melynda my old lady?  Or maybe my squeeze?  The old ball and chain?  The trouble and strife?  She Who Must Be Obeyed?  I’ve never used the term lover because I think that’s over-sharing.  Melynda and I have a joint checking account.  We share a sock drawer.  I tell her how to drive and she tells me to shut up or drive myself.  That’s all the information Dale or anyone else needs.

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