FBI, Idaho AG investigating Eagle over purchase of community center under former mayor
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Idaho Attorney General’s Office are investigating the city of Eagle for its purchase of the Eagle Landing community center last summer and its contract with an Idaho lighting company.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho issued subpoenas to the city on Dec. 10. One required officials to provide any documents relating to the purchase of Eagle Landing by Jan. 14, former Mayor Stan Ridgeway’s last day in office.
It also required the city to produce general accounting records for the city, including for any committees, commissions and the urban renewal agency. And it asked for records of “assets and liabilities, monetary transactions, ledgers, journals and any supporting documents.”
The second subpoena, filed Jan. 21, required the city to provide any documents pertaining to transactions with Heliodon Lighting, of Garden City, or its officers, John N. Sullivan, Alicia Baptiste, Dan DeVerona and Kelsey Baptiste.
In a phone interview, Ridgeway said he was aware of the first subpoena and the U.S. attorney had asked city officials not to discuss it.
“As far as the second subpoena, I have not seen that,” he said, adding that he had tried to reach out to the city attorney. “I think it’s interesting that the public knows about this … when neither I nor other City Council members involved had (any) clue about it.”
Eagle’s new mayor, Jason Pierce, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Ada County Prosecutor’s office was also made aware of the allegations. In a statement provided to the Statesman, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office wrote: “Our office is contracted to handle Eagle City’s misdemeanor prosecution. In order to avoid any appearance of a conflict, the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office requested the Office of the Attorney General handle this matter moving forward and the Attorney General’s Office agreed to do so. Our office also coordinated with the FBI.”
In response to a records request submitted by the Statesman, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden’s spokesman Scott Graf wrote that the records could not be provided because they were “part of an active investigation.” In an interview, Graf said he could not comment further.
Both subpoenas were requested by Assistant U.S. Attorney Darci Crane. FBI Special Agent Ryan O’Neil, who is based in Boise, was listed as a contact if the city had any questions. Both the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s offices around the country are part of the Justice Department.
Cassandra Fulghum, a spokeswoman for the Idaho U.S. Attorney’s Office, said she could not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.
Under Ridgeway, the city bought the 1.5-acre Eagle Landing property, 175 E. Mission Drive, for $1.1 million from brothers Mark and Ed Priddy through their company, TLCC LLC.
Workers spent about $600,000 to renovate two buildings: one for the community center and another for an office for the city Parks and Recreation Department. Work is still underway on a third building, a church built in 1938, which will be the new home of the Eagle Museum of History and Preservation.
But Pierce, who beat Ridgeway in November’s election, closed the community center within a week of taking office in January because of code compliance issues, including missing emergency exit signs and a lack of crash bars, which are used to open doors in case of an emergency.
While the community center has since reopened, Pierce and the two new council members, Brad Pike and Charlie Baun, have cast the Landing’s future into doubt.
At a City Council meeting last week, Pierce questioned whether it was worth spending $165,000 to fix drainage in the parking lot and add security features, or whether the city should instead sell the property and build a community center attached to City Hall.
The council voted to conduct an analysis comparing the cost of maintaining the Eagle Landing project to the cost of building an addition to City Hall.
Pierce has also said he doesn’t like the way the city purchased the building. The owners of a private school in Eagle, the Innovate Academy and Preparatory School, had sought to buy it from the Priddys before Eagle made a better offer.
“It just doesn’t set a good example for how your city works for you,” Pierce said in a phone interview with the Statesman on Tuesday. “The big thing is just the trust. When anybody comes in to talk to the city about a property, we can’t say we’re going to take this from underneath you.”
Council holdovers who helped Ridgeway to open the Landing have protested the new council’s attacks on the project.
“We now have a place where we can have classes,” said councilman Kenny Pittman at a meeting in January. “Same with the offices — we were overcrowded. People were in closets here (at City Hall). We doubled the size of the museum. Now have 2,400 square feet in a historical building. It was one of the things I’m proud of that we passed as a council.”
This story has been revised to correct the spelling of Heliodon Lighting LLC. A subpoena filed by the FBI misspelled the name.
This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 8:03 PM.
