Mayor Blad and Members of the City Counsel:

Today  you must make a most crucial decision: whether to grant the appeal of the Pocatello School Board concerning the Pocatello Historic Commission's rejection of their plans for Phase Two of the addition to PHS or to deny that appeal and thus, return the process to the School Board and hopefully to the people. If you reopen the process, with the help of the Historic Commission, you can ask the School Board to include the citizens. This time do what is right. 
When I first chose to spearhead the effort to preserve the unique architectural beauty of PHS while still meeting the genuine educational and safety concerns, I thought that would be my entire focus. What I have sadly learned  over the last year  is a classic story of right verses wrong, of government malfeasance and mismanagement, of city and school officials abusing their power and authority simply to get what they want, often to the exclusion of those they represent. It is the elites against the average Joe who just wants a school that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing, blocked out of a process that is neither transparent or fair.
Arriving at this point has been preceded a long saga of twists and turns, of petty intrigues, disappointments, successes, hidden agendas, stonewalling emails, closed meetings, mischaracterizations, mismanagement and incompetence. This all has the stench of corruption.
The story includes a cast of unsympathetic characters: Legal advisors who misconstrue the law. Commissioners who do not seem to understand how their commission works, what they can or cannot do, and the laws and procedures they should  follow.  From the semi-blind bureaucrat that will never seek changes to a process they surely know is flawed but are unwilling to change because the they don't want to upset the status quo or because it makes their job easier. From the School Board PR spokesman and business manager who is willing to fight a large portion of a community to protect a district  that is used to getting away with doing what ever they want.
 We have already seen the approval of Phase One and the consequent maiming of  the front of a once glorious building. Now, the final drama, a repeat with Phase Two before you when no one in the community has had a say in what happens or should happen to the most important building in town.  The Pocatello Historic Commission, fortunately and wisely, voted in accord with their mandate as stewards of Pocatello's heritage.
This may be the final scene, the end of a very sad tale. You can add yet another mistake to the trail of mistakes and  chose to not do what, the audience, the citizens of Pocatello will know is right. Or you could initiate a much more moving adventure, of turning back, a redemptive tale of rectifying wrongs and doing what is right. 
Mr. Mayor and City Council, you can be the heroes of this story. You can correct the injustice, the abuse and the unfairness perpetrated upon a community and it's flagship institution --Pocatello High School.

The choice is yours. Do what is right. Open up the entire process to the citizens of Pocatello and the patrons of its school district.

Steven Robert McCurdy