Lisa Sánchez says other council member played ‘significant role’ in housing decision
As 2022 came to a close, Lisa Sánchez announced she would have to move to a new apartment. That set off a cascade of events that culminated in her losing her seat on the Boise City Council.
Sánchez, whose attorney has demanded that Mayor Lauren McLean reappoint her “immediately,” has also accused Council President Holli Woodings of having a role in the sequence of events that led her to move out of her district and become ineligible to hold her seat.
In a text message, Woodings told the Idaho Statesman she had raised concerns about Sánchez’s housing because of ethical considerations.
As previously reported by the Statesman, an attorney for Sánchez, Wendy Olson, wrote two letters in January to the Boise city attorney, Jayme Sullivan. The letters, which the Statesman obtained through a source, laid out arguments for why Sánchez, who says she always intended to stay in her district, should still be sitting behind the dais at City Hall on Tuesday evenings.
They also accuse city employees of being unhelpful, and even misleading her, about her district’s boundaries.
One of Olson’s letters, sent Jan. 27, accused Woodings of getting involved in Sánchez’s housing decisions.
On Nov. 29, at a council meeting, Sánchez announced that she would have to move. “I’m fortunate, I have somebody who lives within my district who has offered me housing,” she said.
A week later, on Dec. 8, according to the letter from Olson, “Ms. Woodings directly told Council Member Sánchez she could be subject to an ethics complaint if Council Member Sánchez moved into an apartment owned by a friend.”
Below are copies of the two letters from Sánchez’s lawyer. The Statesman has redacted mention of Sánchez’s addresses.
Woodings wanted to avoid ‘appearance of ethical concerns’
Sánchez’s residence became a problem after Boise began phasing in district elections for City Council members as required by a new state law. Before 2021, all council members were elected citywide, or at large. In the 2021 election, the three seats on the ballot were by district. In the 2023 election, all six council seats will be filled by district.
Sánchez was elected to District 3 in 2021, after first being elected at-large in 2017. Because of redistricting, the boundaries of District 3 have shifted for this year’s elections, and the new district covering the North End and Northwest Boise will be District 6.
In a text message, Woodings told the Statesman that, last year, she reached out to Sánchez “with some concerns about the way (Sánchez) was representing her housing situation in council meetings that could be interpreted as unethical. (Sánchez) shared that she would be in fact paying market rent, so I encouraged her to talk about it that way to avoid the appearance of ethical concerns.”
Idaho law prohibits public officials from using their positions for personal gain, and forbids receiving gifts related to public office worth more than $50.
Sánchez’s attorney wrote that the ethical concerns led Sánchez to change her plans.
“Relying on Ms. Woodings’ assertion regarding a possible ethics complaint, Council Member Sánchez decided at that time not to rent in that location, which also was within District 3,” the Jan. 27 letter said.
In emails to the Statesman, Sánchez first said, “Renting a home at a below market rate from a long time friend would not be a violation of the code of ethics. To be clear, I am paying, and have always paid, market rates on rent, which in Boise are very high.”
In a second email, she noted that “at no point” was the housing her friend offered her below-market rate.
“I didn’t rent this place initially because then Council Pro Tem Woodings warned me that I could be subject to an ethics investigation for saying that a friend had offered me housing in my district,” she said. “Council Member Woodings’ outreach on this point was the only proactive step anyone with the city of Boise took in regards to my moving, so I took it very seriously, and decided to search for other housing options.”
After terminating the nine-month lease for an apartment outside of District 3, Sánchez has now moved in with that same friend, at market-rate prices, she said.
Since Sánchez became ineligible for her seat, as the city’s attorneys have concluded, McLean has been accepting applications from residents who wish to be appointed for the remainder of her term — the rest of 2023.
A spokesperson for her office, Maria Weeg, told the Statesman by email that McLean and Sánchez have not had a meeting about Sánchez’s seat, but that they recently “(ran) into each other” at Boise State University. Weeg did not say whether they discussed her council seat.
Weeg added that she expects McLean to talk more about the appointment process after “she sees the full pool of prospective candidates.” The deadline for applications is Feb. 21.
Olson’s late January letter notes that on Jan. 13, Woodings had told Sánchez she “would need to move back into District 3 if she decided to apply for appointment and that she needed to obtain a ‘market-rate’ apartment. Apparently, Ms. Woodings was concerned that Council Member Sánchez, the City Council’s only renter, might run afoul of the city’s ethical rule related to gifts. Rest assured that at all times Council Member Sánchez has negotiated and paid market rates for her Boise housing. Ms. Woodings’ suggestions otherwise are simply unfounded and played a significant role in Council Member Sánchez temporarily and unintentionally being at an apartment that later was determined to be outside of District 3.”
In closing, Olson’s letter noted that Sánchez planned to apply to fill the District 3 seat by appointment.
“As the sole renter voted onto the Boise City Council, I am increasingly concerned about how this currently missing perspective is adversely affecting renters who depend on that representation,” Sánchez said in an email to the Statesman. “I am looking forward to returning to my seat, and to continue working on policy that is informed by my current experience as a renter.”
The Boise Ethics Commission declined a request from the Statesman for an interview, noting that the commission’s decisions are made in public meetings, and that “no individual commissioner is authorized to opine or advise on particular issues,” according to an email to the Statesman from a Human Resources employee.
Texts show discussion of district lines
Sánchez’s attorney has also asserted that Sánchez consulted with the Ada County Elections Office about moving, and was told she did not need to provide it with specific documents. An email exchange between Sánchez and the elections office, obtained by the Statesman through a public records request, does not show that Sánchez checked with the office about whether her new address was in her district.
Text messages between Amanda Brown, the City Council’s administrative manager, and Hannah Brass Greer, who helped oversee the city’s redistricting, indicate that Sánchez told Brown she had researched specific addresses with the county.
“Could you do me a favor?” Brown texted Greer on Dec. 9, according to public records obtained by the Statesman. “I need to know what new district this address is in. Lisa said she looked it up on what she thinks is the new map and it is in one district but the county told her it is in another. I think the county might be using the current, not new map.”
Later in the exchange, Brown notes that Sánchez had said the county said the address was in District 5.
Two potential addresses where Sánchez considered moving to — and which were noted in the Olson letters — were in District 5 on the current district map and in District 6 on the new maps. That indicates that the county elections office was displaying the current maps; the new maps were not formally adopted by the council until Dec. 13.
To keep her seat through 2023, Sánchez needed to stay in District 3, and not move into District 5.
One of those two addresses is the one she settled on, and which caused her to lose her seat.
“Do you know who she talked to?” Greer said.
“No clue,” Brown said.
A spokesperson for the county, Nicole Camarda, told the Statesman by email that Sánchez had a phone conversation with the elections office’s director, Saul Seyler, who then followed up with an email, as previously reported by the Statesman.
“Lisa did not provide an address during any conversation with the Elections Office,” Camarda said.
On its website, the county has a “County Mapper” feature, where an address can be searched to see which council district it falls into. That mapping feature now displays the new districts. Camarda did not respond to a question about when the county’s online maps switched from showing the current to the new maps.
Text messages unavailable
Olson’s letters refer to text message conversations Sánchez had with Brown. But a records request from the Statesman to City Hall for communications between Sánchez, Greer and Brown returned only the conversation between Greer and Brown.
On Thursday, Weeg told the Statesman that Brown no longer has text messages with Sánchez from that time. When asked if she had deleted them, Weeg said, “I expect that she probably did.”
She added, “It’s not unusual for folks to clear out any text messages they’ve received in the course of a day.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2023 at 12:18 PM.
