In two weeks, Greg Nelson will step back into a job he thought he’d left behind a decade ago.

Nelson, who served as Kuna’s mayor from 1983 to 2003, defeated incumbent Mayor Scott Dowdy in last month’s election.

And he’s wasting no time cleaning house and mending fences. “We’ve already done it with Meridian,” he said.

The dust-up between Kuna and Meridian started when Kuna annexed land within Meridian’s planning area under the previous two mayors. Nelson said he met with Meridian Mayor Tammy de Weerd to tell her he wanted their planning staffs to get together and re-establish the planning boundary. “And I promised her we wouldn’t cross it,” he said.

“What created the ill will was not Meridian, it was Kuna. One of the first things we had to do was normalize relations with Meridian,” Nelson said. “There’s no reason why Kuna and Meridian, or Kuna and Nampa or Kuna and Ada County, should be fighting. So we will withdraw from all of those fights.”

De Weerd said she appreciated Nelson taking the time to talk to her and looks forward to the two cities working with each other.

TASK NO. 1: PLANNING AND ZONING

When it comes to cleaning house, the mayor wants to start with the planning department.

“The community has developed a reputation of being anti-business. I would say 90 percent of the dissension was directed at the Planning and Zoning Department,” Nelson said.

“We will be making it so our Planning and Zoning Department becomes friendlier,” he said. “Where we actually try to assist our people rather than throw up roadblocks.”

Nelson thinks he and the City Council can do this in two steps. One is simple — get a new planning director. The other is complex — revamp the city’s planning and building codes to make them less restrictive and complicated.

“I’ve got a committee that I put together that will take the planning and zoning rules apart because that is what has really created the anti-business feeling,” Nelson said.

The committee members include former Kuna planning commissioner Don Seeley, two City Council candidates, Ted Dunlap and Dan Johnson, and business owner Jason Ashby.

Nelson doesn’t mince words about his plan for P&Z Director Steve Hasson.

“There’s only one person I have in mind to get rid of,” he said. “The rest of the employees will be given plenty of time to explain to me what their jobs are.”

Hasson “has created enough ill will and what have you that I am going to ask him to resign,” he said. “But I won’t do that until I’ve got the blessing of the council.”

While the council may not be quite as ready to discharge Hasson, the new council members may back Nelson.

Two new council members, Briana Buban-Vonder Haar and Joe Stear, are joining returning council members Richard Cardoza and Doug Hoiland in January.

Buban-Vonder Haar said over the past few years, and especially while campaigning this fall, she’s heard a lot of complaints about Hasson and the planning department.

“I think it is important to have a planning director who accurately reflects the interests of the city government and the city residents,” she said. Hasson may be reflecting the current mayor’s wishes, she said, but that will need to change when Nelson takes over.

“If (Hasson) were able to change how he operates, it may be feasible to keep him on board, but I think there needs to be some drastic changes in the planning department,” she said.

Stear, too, said he wants to know more. “I am doing some investigating into that right now,” Stear said. “Personally, I have never had any bad feelings toward him. I am talking to others so I can make an informed decision. If he deserves to be removed, then of course that will be the way to go. If not, I will need to see some evidence as to why.”

Hasson, Kuna’s planning director for five years, said he has not talked with Nelson, and is not sure what the specific problems are.

“I am going to try and make it work with (the new mayor),” said Hasson. “He is here at the will of the public and if he doesn’t think I should be here, I won’t make a battle out of it. I will just gracefully resign and move on.”

TASK NO. 2: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

With growth grinding to a halt and businesses scaling back or closing during the recession, Nelson worries that the city has lost its few economic development opportunities because of onerous planning and zoning rules.

Last year, Best Bath, a manufacturing company, decided to put its new plant in Caldwell because it couldn’t get Kuna’s approval.

“A number of people had approached the city about locating here, but they can’t seem to get past our rules,” he said. “We treated Best Bath so poorly, that was an ill part of Kuna’s history.

“That’s not the way we do things in Kuna.”

Nelson wants to attract new businesses that keep residents from having to drive to other towns for everyday needs.

“One thing we really need is a department store where we could buy some Levis, some boots or some shoes,” he said.

“Granted we will probably always be a bedroom community, but there’s no reason we shouldn’t have full service here, too.”

TASK NO. 3: LEAVE IT IN BETTER SHAPE

When Kuna residents began lobbying Nelson to run for mayor this year, he agreed under one condition: He would serve only one term. “And then I am retiring — again.”

Nelson, 73, has already retired from three jobs — the Army, the Idaho Department of Agriculture, where he served as state veterinarian and department director, and the Idaho Farm Bureau, where he was public affairs director. He has owned and operated the Peregrine Steak & Spirits and Creekside Lounge in Kuna for the last six years.

Nelson is confident he and the City Council can work together to bring positive change to Kuna.

“Kuna is still a great little community,” he said. “We’ve got a lot more good things here than we’ve got bad things. It is just a matter of getting it straightened out.”

Cynthia Sewell: 377-6428