Caldwell council denies mayor’s picks for open council seat 3 times. Why? What we know

Caldwell Mayor Jarom Wagoner was elected in a runoff election in November that left his seat on the City Council open. Since January that seat has remained open. Three times, the council has rejected the new mayor’s attempts to fill it.

All five of the other members of the Caldwell City Council, including all three members elected in November, refused to support the mayor’s nominations at least once over the last two months.

The reasons weren’t fully clear Tuesday, though some council members seemed to think Wagoner’s nominees needed more scrutiny, and one new councilor said differences between the newcomers and the veterans over urban renewal and fees on developers played a role.

For council appointments, the city typically invites anyone interested to apply, and the mayor selects a committee of community members to go through applications and nominate two of them. This time, the committee was made up of eight local educators, health care representatives and business owners. Can we say

The committee went through 21 applications and conducted interviews with nine people and selected the top two. The first suggestion was Mark Wendelsdorf, fire district manager for Caldwell Rural Fire District and former chief of Caldwell Fire and Rescue.

Wagoner brought Wendelsdorf’s name to the council on Jan. 4. The appointment failed in a 3-2 vote. The three new members, Brad Doty, Diana Register and Chuck Stadick, voted no. The two veteran members, John McGee and Chris Allgood, voted for Wendelsdorf.

The three new members said the budget for the rural fire district was tied too closely to the city budget for Wendelsdorf to make unbiased decisions.

“A lot of the money for the rural fire district runs through the city of Caldwell,” Doty said by phone. “I think it is just too much influence for someone to make decisions from Caldwell Rural Fire.”

Wagoner tried a second time. He hoped that after the new council members met Wendelsdorf, they would change their minds about his ability to represent the city appropriately, without bias for the rural fire department.

They didn’t. On Tuesday, Jan. 18, the council again rejected Wendelsdorf along the same 3-2 lines.

“My intention was that my experience working with the city would be an asset to the council,” Wendelsdorf said by phone. “I thought that knowing how the city operated would be an asset.”

The three new members defeated three longtime city councilmen, Dennis Callsen, Rob Hopper and Mike Pollard. All three pledged to bring change to the council dynamic and city after they were elected.

Stadick said Tuesday by phone that the new council members differ with the old in part because the newcomers want to increase impact fees on new development and pull back from urban renewal. They also favor a closer examination of council nominees, he said.

“In the past, with the council that was in there for a long time, the way things went was to decide things quickly, and there wasn’t a lot of background checks,” Stadick said. “I can speak for the three new council members: We are doing our due diligence.”

After two “no” votes

Wagoner then suggested the citizens committee’s second choice in the application process: Matthew Lind, a business owner. Wagoner floated Lind’s name in the council meeting Monday night.

Lind is a former police officer and firefighter in Alaska and owns a number of businesses in Nampa, including Labyrinth Escape Games downtown.

Lind said he was “shocked” when Wendelsdorf’s appointment did not go through after two attempts.

Lind met with each council member, except Allgood, who was sick. He said most conversations went well, but some of the new council members seemed to have had their minds already made up about him before he could explain himself.

“I was prepared to be disappointed and personally, I was fine with getting a ‘no’ vote, because they all have the right to make that call,” Lind said by phone.

But Lind did not get a “no” vote. His appointment suggestion did not prompt even one council member to make a motion to appoint him.

“It was shocking and unprecedented,“ he said. “I don’t think it is respectful of the mayor’s prerogative.”

Little was said at Monday’s meeting about Lind. Only Councilman John McGee spoke. McGee said the situation was “awkward,” because the council members did not have enough time to consider Lind’s appointment, and three members are new to the council with little experience with appointments.

“The situation that we have here I think is a little bit unique,” McGee said.

Lind was taken aback by McGee’s comments, because, he said, the two had a great conversation when they met about the open seat.

McGee also brought up a concern that Councilman Chris Allgood, who was sick last week, did not have time to meet with Lind before the Monday meeting. Lind said he had reached out to Allgood with times throughout the day Monday.

Wagoner goes back to the application pool

Wagoner’s secretary told the Idaho Statesman he was not available Wednesday. Allgood and Register did not respond to phone calls from the Statesman.

Wagoner is scheduled suggest a third name at a special meeting at 12 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16, at the Caldwell Police Department community room, an email from the city clerk said.

Debbie Geyer, Caldwell city clerk, said there is no timeline to fill the vacancy.

Lind said this concerns him, as a Caldwell resident, because the law states that Caldwell residents have six City Council members on the council to represent them.

“I am entitled to that amount of representation by the council, but to recklessly block someone to that seat, they are blocking my ability to have representation on that level,” Lind said. “That angers me as a citizen and taxpayer.”

This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 4:00 AM.

Rachel Spacek

Idaho Statesman

Rachel Spacek is a former reporter covering Meridian, Eagle, Star and Canyon city and county governments for the Idaho Statesman.