Bieter rejected McLean’s request to quit urban renewal board. Here’s what happened next
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean and former Mayor David Bieter have waged a public battle over whether Bieter should still be on the board of the city’s powerful urban renewal agency. But you wouldn’t have known it from Monday’s board meeting.
Neither one mentioned the disagreement during the 90-minute session. In fact, they didn’t say anything to each other.
McLean, who defeated Bieter in the December runoff election, has said she wants him to step down from the board of the Capital City Development Corp. She couldn’t make him — the mayor lacks legal authority to do that. So she appointed herself when he wouldn’t step down, a move the City Council approved last week.
“If a Boise mayor is sitting on CCDC, it should be Boise’s current mayor,” McLean told the Statesman last month.
Bieter had told the Statesman in mid-February that if McLean wanted him to step down, she should give him a call. She did. He told her he wouldn’t do business over the phone. He later said that he had tried to set up a meeting in person, which she declined.
McLean appointed herself to complete the term of Scot Ludwig, a former City Council member who did not run for re-election last November and who resigned from the CCDC board. That term expires in April 2021.
She also expanded the board from seven members to nine, the largest size allowed by the state’s urban renewal law. She appointed Latonia Haney Keith, interim dean of the Concordia University School of Law in Boise, and Kate Nelson, director of economic opportunity for Jannus, a Boise nonprofit that operates several health and human services programs.
Another opening is coming soon. Commissioner Ben Quintana, a Bieter appointee whose term ends in May, took part Monday in his final meeting on the commission.
Bieter joined with other commission members at the meeting to vote unanimously to appoint McLean as the board’s secretary/treasurer. Bieter had previously served in the role.
Bieter told the Statesman after the meeting that he expects to complete his term, which ends in 2022.
“I’m here as far as I’m aware,” he said.
Urban renewal districts are tools that cities use to invest in economic development projects. In Boise, CCDC has funded street and sidewalk improvements and bike lanes downtown, in addition to subsidizing apartment buildings.
Over the course of an urban renewal district’s life, taxing entities — such as cities, schools and the highway district — continue to collect the taxes from within the renewal district’s territory at the time it was formed — but no more than that. Any new property tax revenue created by new development or rising property values goes to the district.
Boise has five such districts. Its first urban renewal area, which included central downtown, expired in 2018. CCDC has also been considering creating new districts on the Central Bench and along State Street.
Because of urban renewal agencies’ power, many mayors around the Treasure Valley choose to appoint themselves to the agencies’ boards, as Bieter did while mayor. In Meridian, former Mayor Tammy de Weerd sat on the board of the Meridian Development Corp. In Eagle, Mayor Jason Pierce recently appointed himself to the board of the Eagle Urban Renewal Agency.
A bill in the Idaho Legislature would require elected officials appointed to urban renewal boards to step down when they leave office. The bill, S1303, passed the Senate and was referred to the House Revenue and Taxation Committee last week.
That bill led to a quiet change to the wall of the room where the board meets. In the past, the wall had pictures of all the commissioners next to the CCDC logo. The photos have been taken down and replaced with a map of urban renewal districts in the city.
“We’re in transition,” CCDC Executive Director John Brunelle told the Statesman. “Rather than spend money on photos, we’re waiting to see what the Legislature does.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 6:39 PM.
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