This Boise-area city sued its own arts commissioner. Here’s what happened
The city of Eagle is no longer suing its former arts commission chairman, who had allegedly signed vendor contracts without City Council approval.
Eagle Mayor Jason Pierce told the Idaho Statesman by phone Thursday that the two vendors, Elle Phillips Design Inc. and Blue Chip Media LLC, decided to settle the lawsuit and would not expect payment from the city.
According to the city’s lawsuit, which was filed in December, Mark McAllister contracted the two vendors, agreeing to pay them a little over $9,000, despite the city code requirements that arts commission contracts receive council approval.
The vendors were expecting to work for the city for its Arts Stop program. In 2021, the program sought to add spoken or sung literary art to Eagle’s collection of public art.
“I feel terrible for the vendors, they are small local businesses and I hope that measures are taken so that this kind of thing never happens in this community ever again,” McAllister told the Statesman by phone.
The city sued to ask the court to determine whether it was responsible for repaying the invoices, but during litigation the vendors approached the city and asked to settle the matter, Pierce said.
The lawsuit between the city of Eagle and McAllister was dismissed June 29 without prejudice, meaning that Eagle could sue McAllister if a similar problem arose again, Pierce said.
The settlement was first reported by BoiseDev.
This story was originally published August 25, 2023 at 11:15 AM.
