Lisa Sánchez kept fighting over Boise council seat. Here’s latest court ruling
Former Boise City Council Member Lisa Sánchez has run out of options in her quest for compensation over losing her seat two years ago when she accidentally moved out of her district.
The Idaho Supreme Court issued an opinion Monday rejecting all of her arguments in the case, which revolved around whether Boise leaders unfairly ousted her and denied her due process rights.
What happened in the City Council case?
Sánchez was elected in 2021 for District 3, which covered the North End and part of Northwest Boise. She then moved to a new rental home located two blocks outside of District 3 at the end of her lease in the North End, according to previous Idaho Statesman reporting.
The city sent Sánchez a letter in January 2023 informing her that she had vacated her seat by moving outside of her elected district. She then quickly moved back inside the District 3 boundaries after having lived outside for just 13 days, according to the Idaho Supreme Court opinion.
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean chose Latonia Haney Keith, the board chair of Boise’s urban renewal agency, to fill Sanchez’s vacated seat. McLean said she did not reappoint Sánchez to the seat she won because she did not believe there was enough support from other council members, who had to approve the mayor’s choice, the Statesman previously reported.
Sánchez responded by suing the city, alleging that officials had wronged her on multiple grounds. She lost that lawsuit in District Court after 4th District Judge Derrick O’Neill ruled that elected representatives must keep their residence in their district, per Idaho law.
She appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court in November 2023 and presented oral arguments in April this year. Sánchez’s attorney, Wendy Olson, said the former councilor didn’t expect to get her seat back, but was seeking compensation for lost wages and benefits.
Idaho Supreme Court says Sánchez vacated her seat
In an opinion written by Justice Gregory Moeller, the Supreme Court disagreed with Sánchez on three essential points surrounding the Idaho law cited by the City Council.
Idaho statute 59-901 states that a seat should be considered vacant if the elected official “ceas(es) to be a resident of the state, district or county in which the duties of his office are to be exercised, or for which he may have been elected.”
Sánchez argued that when Idaho lawmakers wrote the legislation in 1890, they were not referring to city council districts, because Idaho didn’t have those yet. The justices flatly rejected that claim, saying “state, district or county” is a “non-exclusive geographic reference for designating an area of jurisdiction, not a specification of the political subdivisions to which the statute applies.”
The Idaho Supreme Court also upheld the lower court’s ruling that “Sánchez’s intent to remain a District 3 resident was irrelevant.” Sánchez argued that because her move was temporary and unintentional, she never actually ceased being a resident of the proper district.
The justices said that the only thing needed to trigger the statute was an official moving out of the district in which they were elected.
“Once that happens, a vacancy has occurred and the elected official no longer holds the seat,” Moeller wrote. “The short or inadvertent nature of Sánchez’s residence outside of District 3 does not change the result.”
Sánchez further claimed that the council wrongfully denied her due process when it failed to notify her or provide her an opportunity to be heard before deeming her seat vacant. Idaho’s high court pointed out that due process applies only when someone could be deprived of life, liberty or property rights.
“Even if we assume arguendo that Sánchez had a property interest in her elected office — which examination of (Idaho Code) gives no indication of — she forfeited that interest when she moved outside of her district boundaries,” according to the Supreme Court ruling. “Thus, any potential property interest in Sánchez’s elected seat was lost on January 1, 2023, as a result of her own actions.”
Sánchez did not respond to the Idaho Statesman’s request for comment.
