The Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization (KMPO) held their August board meeting before a large and boisterous crowd with roughly 350 citizens in attendance.
Chairman Rod Twete began the meeting with a request to amend the agenda to place the ITERIS® Facilities and Operations Plan Contract action item at the head of the agenda. He made it clear that it was the intention of the board to immediately address the issue which had been pending from June’s meeting. ITERIS® is the company KMPO engaged to build their proposed Traffic Management Center (TMC). Twete received unanimous agreement to amend the agenda. Vic Holmes quickly moved to terminate the contract with ITERIS® which then received a second from Angela Sieverding. The motion passed overwhelmingly with only Damon Allen of the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) dissenting. This decision effectively ended the process to continue development of a TMC. There was a roar of approval with cheers and a round of applause from the public.
There has been strong public engagement surrounding the proposed TMC. The opposition to implementing a TMC was widespread and reminiscent of the opposition to Panhandle Health District’s mask mandate from 2020. The public spoke compellingly against creating a TMC over the last couple of months. The main proponents for the TMC were government entities which included Cd’A city staff, KMPO, ITD and Idaho State Police.
Jim Kackman with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe wanted the public to note the TMC is not part of the 2024 Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP), which is essentially the compilation of projects managed by KMPO. Currently, their website lacks the update containing the 2024 information to the UPWP, so there’s no way for the public to view the document.
Later on the board addressed the issue of KMPO not recording their meetings. Director Glenn Miles suggested the board audio record all meetings with the recording posted online until the board approved the meeting minutes, at which point the recording would be overwritten by the next audio recording. This proposal received an objection from Sandy White. She strongly encouraged the board to adopt a policy to preserve the meetings with video recordings that are permanent in nature and accessible to the public. White further insisted that video recordings are needed for the sake of transparency and accountability. Both Bruce Mattare and Jeff Tyler agreed with White’s comments. The board adopted the director’s suggestion and will start audio recordings at their September meeting. However, they requested Miles look into the feasibility of video recording, even if a change of venue is necessary.
Readers can review the history and current projects handled by KMPO by visiting their website KMPO.net. The next KMPO board meeting will be held Thursday, September 14th at 1:30pm at Post Falls City Hall.
Watch the moment when KMPO votes to terminate the proposed TMC (48sec playback)
Original video was recorded by CdA Freedom Watch on Rumble
