A new Eagle councilman faces a ‘RINO’ backlash in a fight over the mayor’s power
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Eagle City Council newcomer proposes strengthening the mayor’s hiring and firing power.
- Opponents say proposal would erase Eagle history and create instability for city staff.
- Newcomer Robert Gillis faces accusations of being a RINO, but says he’s not intimidated.
Less than six weeks after taking office, Eagle City Council Member Robert Gillis says former supporters are reaching out to tell him that they feel like they’ve been “duped.”
The retired California cop and self-described lifelong Republican was elected in November on a what-you-see-is-what-you-get campaign that highlighted his experience working corruption cases and lobbying for tougher crime legislation in Idaho.
Three months later, Gillis, now in his first elected office, has run into a familiar headwind in the Eagle political scene: He’s being accused of being a RINO, a Republican in name only, or even a Democrat.
“I even had one person yesterday tell me I need to repent,” the 55-year-old told the Idaho Statesman in an interview.
The source of scrutiny, in this case: Gillis’s bid to strengthen the mayor’s hiring and firing power by reversing a 2023 restriction proposed by the then-outgoing Mayor Jason Pierce.
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At a City Council meeting on Jan. 27, Gillis urged his colleagues to revoke the ordinance, which requires the mayor to get the City Council’s blessing to hire or fire employees in three positions in the mayor’s office: city spokesperson, economic development specialist, and director of long-range planning and projects.
Gillis said that voters raised the issue with him during his campaign and that, after looking into it, he agreed that the move had been made in bad faith. He argued that it handcuffed Mayor Brad Pike and prevented efficient management of the city’s day-to-day operations. He asked the city attorney to draft a new city code reversing the change.
The backlash, Gillis said, has been swift.
City Council members criticize ‘excessive’ mayor-power proposal
On Tuesday, Feb. 10, the new ordinance was presented, drawing criticism from City Council Members Craig Kwamme and Mary May.
“This is not a restoration to the status quo of the last election,” Kwamme said. He said the proposal went further in removing existing language from the city code, which he said “would wipe away lessons learned or codified by previous mayors or councils in our city’s history.”
“That would be a mistake,” he said.
As written, the proposal would remove the requirement of City Council consent from staffing decisions for several positions, not just the three outlined in the 2023 ordinance, Kwamme said. He raised concerns about retaining staff if employees think their positions could be threatened during a mayoral transition, and about opening the city to possible termination lawsuits.
“It is quite literally the job description of any mayor to come to City Council and get consensus or buy-in,” he said, noting that nearby cities require City Council approval for similar staffing decisions. “It is not some blurring of separation of powers as was implied in our last meeting.”
May likewise called the draft ordinance “excessive, broadly reductive and frankly ill-advised” and said it would be “damaging to the very fabric of our city.”
The acting city attorney present at the meeting explained that the draft was designed to revert city language back to the state code and to give the council and mayor a “blank slate” to determine what positions would need City Council consent.
Gillis told the Statesman that he wasn’t involved in writing the new ordinance and did not get to review it ahead of other council members. Gillis said it “could have been done better” but that he would rather pass it, then amend it if needed.
Newcomer Gillis not backing down to ‘power play’
Since proposing to undo the 2023 ordinance in January, Gillis said, he’s received threats and had supporters turn on him.
Why? Guilt by association, according to Gillis. “The perception in the (2023) mayoral race was that Pike was a Democrat,” he said in an interview. “That was the narrative.”
Now Gillis, too, is being labeled as a RINO or Democrat, he said, despite the fact that he voted and campaigned for Pierce. (Pike is also a longtime Republican.)
He said he believes that restoring mayoral powers — regardless of who the mayor is — is “the right thing to do” to make the city government run efficiently.
“I think the mayor should be allowed to manage City Hall as the CEO,” said Gillis, noting that the position is a full-time one, while City Council members are part-time.
At the City Council meeting on Feb. 10, he likened the debate to those over executive power at the federal level.
“We see what goes on nationally with our president, people undermining our president at every turn,” he said. “This is just on a much smaller level.”
Gillis said that the opposition to restoring mayoral power to what it was before Pike was elected is a continuing political “power play” — and that he’s not intimidated.
“Everything that I do speaks for itself as being more conservative,” said Gillis, who moved to Eagle roughly six years ago. “However, I’m also very reasonable, and being reasonable somehow translates into, (for) some of these people ... you’re not really a Republican. You don’t belong.”
“I think that it’s unfortunate, but I am not somebody who will cower down to being bullied,” he said.
“I’ve sat at tables, like you and I are right now, with murder suspects, rapists, with cartel members ... the worst of the worst,” he told the Statesman. “Do these people here really think that they’re going to intimidate somebody like me?”
Pike told the Statesman by phone that the 2023 ordinance has been “a cloud” over him as he’s made decisions since taking office.
“There’s too much out there to do without having these distractions,” he said.
After further discussion, the City Council voted unanimously to rework the ordinance and consider a new version at a future date.
This story was originally published February 18, 2026 at 4:00 AM.
