In combative meeting, Eagle City Council votes to sell The Landing community center
In a decision that surfaced the animosity between its old and new members, the Eagle City Council voted Tuesday to sell a just-opened community center property.
Just one week earlier, council members had decided to form a committee to consider their options. The new vote cast that plan aside.
The two council members elected with Mayor Jason Pierce in November voted in favor of his proposal to sell Eagle Landing, formerly called The Landing. The two holdovers from the council that bought the property voted against. Pierce cast the tie-breaking vote.
The decision is intended to settle the dispute over Eagle Landing after nearly six weeks of meetings since Pierce closed Eagle Landing during his first week in office in mid-January. Pierce cited safety issues with the property. City officials had failed to obtain a certificate of occupancy before the center was opened in December by Mayor Stan Ridgeway, who lost his re-election campaign to Pierce.
More recently, the FBI and the Idaho attorney general have begun to investigate the city’s purchase of the property in May 2019, but neither agency will say why.
“I have a feeling this is the beginning of a resentment, disdainment and a plain dislike for the former mayor and council,” said Kenny Pittman, who has been on the council since 2017. “We see other items that were done for the benefit of this community are now turning upside down. ... You guys have the numbers and you’re going to get what you want. You’re going to appease those individuals that backed your campaigns.”
Councilman Brad Pike, who took office this year, said he took “offense” at Pittman’s statement.
“I didn’t even know anybody until I started running for office,” he said. “It wasn’t like I had some ax to grind with the past council.”
Tension between council members
That was just a sample of the barbs traded between the council members.
As Pike was speaking about decisions made in prior meetings, Miranda Gold, the other holdover, looked away from him.
“Ms. Gold,” Pike said. “I would appreciate it if you didn’t shake your head every time I talk. That’s getting old.”
Later, Pike interrupted Pittman, saying he was speaking over Pittman because he had been interrupted at last week’s council meeting.
Later in the discussion, Pittman asked, “Can I speak now?”
“That’s inappropriate,” Pike said.
“I’m trying to ask a question,” Pittman responded.
“You’re not going to do that to me, Kenny,” Pike responded.
How Eagle bought The Landing
The 1.5-acre Eagle Landing property includes three buildings. Two of them opened in December. One houses the community center, the other offices for Eagle’s Parks and Recreation Department. The third, a former church built in the 1930s, is being renovated to be the new home for Eagle’s historical museum.
At a council meeting last week, Pike proposed selling Eagle Landing and creating a new civic center near Eagle City Hall, 660 Civic Lane. Under that plan, the city would keep the renovated church for the museum property but move it next to City Hall. The city would build additions onto City Hall for new office space and a community center.
But after community members urged caution, Councilman Charlie Baun, the other newcomer, proposed that the city instead form a committee to compare the cost of moving the community center from Eagle Landing to City Hall, and make a decision later based on the committee’s findings. He argued that a cost analysis would make the council’s decision “as objective as possible.” The council voted unanimously in favor of his proposal.
Then, two days later, on Thursday, Feb. 20, at his State of the City address, Pierce announced that Eagle was looking to expand City Hall — a decision the council had not voted on.
“We can do this for about the same amount of money we have budgeted for the Landing, and achieve so much more,” he told the crowd.
Community center reconsidered
At Tuesday’s meeting, Pike requested a reconsideration of the council’s prior decision. Baun reversed his earlier position, agreeing with Pierce and Pike that Eagle Landing needed to be sold once and for all.
He said Eagle Landing, at just 4,500 square feet, “wasn’t a community center.”
“If we have a library, museum, City Hall all downtown ... If you look at an analysis between those two, I don’t see how there’s any way we could pick The Landing.”
Pierce estimates it would cost about $1.9 million to move the museum property and build the additions onto City Hall.
Pittman said that was a “false statement.”
“It will be interesting to watch the financials of what you’re going to spend when you add onto” City Hall, he said.
City staff members are beginning to set up an auction for the Eagle Landing property. The city can specify the minimum amount it is willing to take. Pierce previously told the Statesman that he’d received expressions of interest from three parties.
Parks and Recreation’s future
The Eagle Parks and Recreation Department will remain at Eagle Landing until the property is sold. No further events will be scheduled at Eagle Landing beyond April, but the center will remain open until it is sold. Summer programs previously scheduled there will be moved, according to the council’s vote.
“We’re still anticipating we’ll have a full set of programming,” said Eagle Parks and Recreation Director Brandon “Beej” Johnson.
Expanding City Hall will put all the city’s staff under one roof again, an advantage that Pierce has cited several times.
Johnson said there are “pluses and minuses of being onsite and offsite.”
“The mayor’s philosophy is that it’s the camaraderie at City Hall that’s available at City Hall when we’re all under one roof, which we miss,” Johnson said. “We’re excited to be around all of our colleagues again.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 2:12 PM.
