Commissioner’s vaccine fight, odd remarks, ‘bully’ tactics stir concern in Boise County
Robert Showalter, the Boise County emergency manager, began working with community leaders and public health officials in January to organize COVID-19 vaccine drives in Idaho City and Horseshoe Bend. They vaccinated more than 250 people in the rugged, sparsely populated county.
Then he hit a major roadblock: Robert Ted Holmes.
Holmes, a new Boise County commissioner, resisted attempts to bring a vaccine “strike team” to the community of Garden Valley unless the effort was coordinated with a private clinic, according to a tort claim, interviews and meeting minutes. The strike team for Garden Valley never happened, and Showalter was fired by the county.
The decision to stymie the strike team in a county with limited services and a low vaccine rate shocked Showalter, who has filed a tort claim over his firing as emergency manager. But what happened with the strike team was part of a pattern of controversial behavior by Holmes in the six months since he joined the Boise County Board of Commissioners, interviews, audio recordings and documents reviewed by the Idaho Statesman show.
Since taking office, Holmes also has been accused of threatening to take a 13-year-old boy’s dirt bike for riding near his property. The boy told police that Holmes, a former law enforcement officer in California, falsely claimed to be the sheriff.
Interviews and audio recordings show that Holmes has made remarks about white supremacy and questioned a county emergency medical technician about whether military personnel assigned to a U.S. base had undergone gender-reassignment surgery. A county employee has accused Holmes of intimidating another employee while wearing a holstered pistol in the office.
“He appears to have an anger issue. He is a bully for sure, and he’s tried to bully pretty much everyone that I’ve talked to,” the director of East Boise County Ambulance District, Melissa Potts, told the Statesman.
Holmes did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails asking for comment. A Navy veteran and retired police officer at the Banning Police Department and Riverside County Sheriff’s Office in California, Holmes also lived in Pahrump, Nevada, before moving to Idaho, according to property records and local news reports. He purchased a home in Lowman in 2017.
The accusations against Holmes in Boise County follow a pair of 2010 controversies that happened in Nevada, before he moved to the Gem State.
A decade later, Holmes won the Republican primary in 2020 for a seat on the board of commissioners in Boise County, beating the incumbent, Alan Ward. Holmes won in the general election in November. His term began in January — and conflicts with employees quickly ensued.
‘I WILL MAKE SURE YOU’RE TERMINATED’
In his tort claim, Showalter outlines accusations that Holmes tried to involve the private clinic in Garden Valley in the mobile strike team, which ultimately prevented expedited access to COVID-19 vaccines in the county.
Central District Health, the county’s governing health agency, provides mobile clinics operated by Albertsons/Sav-On that bring nurses and extra vaccine doses into a community. Having organized CDH-run clinics in Horseshoe Bend and Idaho City, Showalter tried to do the same in Garden Valley.
When he did, he received pushback from Holmes.
In a private conversation on Feb. 9, Holmes told Showalter that he needed to coordinate vaccine delivery with Garden Valley Family Medicine, Showalter alleges in his tort claim and in an interview with the Statesman. He alleges that Dr. Michael Koenig — who runs Garden Valley Family Medicine — is Holmes’ physician.
Holmes threatened his job, demanding that he coordinate with Garden Valley Family Medicine, Showalter said in his tort claim.
“If you back door me one more (expletive) time, I will make sure you’re terminated,” Holmes told Showalter, according to the tort claim.
At a public commissioners meeting a few weeks later, on March 2, Showalter said: “I’ve run into some resistance from some folks over (in Garden Valley) because there is a clinic that has been giving vaccinations. There’s more demand than supply for the vaccine, and the family clinic in Garden Valley is only allotted so many vaccinations. I am bringing in additional vaccines, above and beyond what is allotted to the clinic,” according to meeting minutes published in The Idaho World, the local newspaper.
Holmes, who is one of three county commissioners, interjected: “I want you to work with Dr. Koenig’s office. … I understand that you’re trying to get them to everybody, but right now you’ve kind of stepped on Dr. Koenig’s toes, and I’ve had to hear about it.”
Showalter said he became concerned about access to vaccines in Garden Valley after he met a woman at a Central District Health clinic Feb. 4 in Horseshoe Bend. She was from Garden Valley, a half-hour drive away.
When he asked her why she hadn’t gotten vaccinated at Garden Valley Family Medicine, the woman said she hadn’t been able to get an appointment because she wasn’t a patient there.
After hearing the woman’s story, Showalter said, he reported the incident to Central District Health.
And that wasn’t the only such case.
Another Boise County resident, Rick Kuemin, who lives in Lowman and also has a home in Boise, told the Statesman that in February he also tried to make an appointment at the clinic in Garden Valley. He left a message, and a nurse later called him back to ask if he was a patient. Kuemin said no, and the nurse told him she was canceling his and his wife’s appointments.
In an email to the Statesman, Central District Health spokesperson Christine Myron wrote that her office received complaints that the clinic was denying appointments to non-patients.
“This information was relayed to our health care liaison, who followed up with our GVFM contact,” she wrote. “Shortly thereafter, they established a hotline to make appointments for all interested and eligible community members, whether they were patients or not.”
Koenig declined to comment for this article. In a letter sent to the county commissioners in mid-March, he denied that his clinic had limited vaccine access to his own patients or to those with insurance.
“We have heard from numerous residents of Boise County that they have heard that GVFM is restricting the vaccine availability … which is false,” he wrote.
Myron told the Statesman that it was acceptable for clinics to restrict vaccine doses to their own patients while supplies were limited. Vaccine eligibility widened on March 5, when certain essential work sectors also became eligible.
In the same March letter to the commissioners, Koenig alleged that Showalter had deliberately left Koenig’s clinic out of his Facebook posts detailing where vaccination appointments were available, and that he had engaged in “slanderous and libelous behavior” toward the clinic, which caused there to be a “strained relationship” between the clinic and Central District Health.
Koenig wrote that Showalter encouraged residents to get vaccinated at “his personally set up vaccine clinics,” referring to Central District Health’s strike teams, instead of at Koenig’s clinic.
“If Boise County residents go to his Facebook page, it appears that the only way to receive a COVID vaccine in Boise County is through his personally set up vaccine clinics,” Koenig wrote.
Showalter denies deliberately leaving the clinic out of his posts. In a response letter to the commissioners dated March 17, Showalter wrote that the clinic “has not once reached out to me about any of the clinics they’ve had nor asked me for any support in spreading the word on my (Facebook) page. I would have of course promoted their vaccination days if they would have reached out to me.”
Showalter added that he had advertised the clinic’s vaccination services in one particular posting, but later deleted it.
“I did remove this post because of the negative comments being made and the fact that the GV clinic was trying to shut down any additional doses coming into Boise County,” he wrote. “Why should I support a business who’s trying to get me fired by saying things that are not true?”
VACCINE DOSES ARE DELAYED TO GARDEN VALLEY
Had a strike team been sent to Garden Valley in February or March, it would have brought extra vaccine doses to the area.
Ryan Stirm, one of the Boise County commissioners, told the Statesman that Holmes was “resistant” to bringing a vaccine strike team to Garden Valley.
“The unique position Boise County is in is we’re fairly remote, and a lot of services that we need, we don’t have, so we rely on outside agencies,” Stirm said. “Dr. Koenig is a small, local operation who does great business for our county, but he’s also limited in manpower. … Those strike teams were set up to be in addition to what he is already doing in order to help continue getting people vaccinations outside and above and beyond the people (Koenig) is able to vaccinate.”
He added: “Some folks are trying to treat it like an encroachment for Central District Health to come up there and give vaccines and take that business away from Dr. Koenig.”
After the commissioners instructed Showalter to work with Garden Valley Family Medicine, Central District Health set up a Zoom meeting for March 5 with Koenig and Showalter.
Shortly before the meeting, Myron wrote in the email to the Statesman, “Our team members canceled the meeting after determining that conflict between Boise County’s emergency manager and Garden Valley Family Medicine had reached a point that they felt it would interfere with the intent of the meeting.”
Until March 17, when a pharmacy in Garden Valley became a vaccine provider, the Garden Valley Family Medicine clinics in Garden Valley and Horseshoe Bend were the only permanent providers in Boise County.
In the middle of February, Idaho had a statewide seven-day moving average of more than 250 new COVID-19 cases per day, according to Department of Health and Welfare data analyzed by the Statesman.
“(The commissioners) inhibited me from doing my job for the people in Garden Valley at the most critical time in this pandemic,” Showalter told the Statesman.
As of June 17, only 27.5% of Boise County’s 12-and-older residents had been vaccinated. That’s the second-lowest rate in the state, behind Idaho County at 26%.
“My job as a county commissioner, I feel, is to use the taxpayers’ services, their funds, to provide for them and give them the things they desire,” Stirm said. The strike team was “one of the things the taxpayers desired and they didn’t get it at that time, and they should’ve been afforded that.”
The vaccine conflict was cited in the letter terminating Showalter’s employment, part of which was obtained by the Statesman. His tort claim, the first step before filing a lawsuit, seeks his reinstatement to his position and asks that he be reassigned to oversight by the Boise County sheriff, in addition to financial damages.
Showalter was terminated April 22 in a special meeting of the Boise County commissioners. Holmes did not attend, according to meeting minutes.
“Your conduct has resulted in a significant complaint from a medical health provider in our county alleging that you have negatively impacted a community private business,” the commissioners wrote to Showalter. “… Regardless of the accuracy of the allegations, this business owner and community service provider raised significant concerns about your conduct as a representative of Boise County.”
Stirm declined to discuss the circumstances of Showalter’s termination with the Statesman, as did the county’s third commissioner, Steven Twilegar. Commissioner decisions are made by a majority vote.
In the tort claim against the county he filed in May, Showalter alleges that Holmes repeatedly disparaged public health measures.
After a commissioners meeting on Jan. 26, Showalter asked the commissioners that the mask mandate for county employees remain in place. The policy had been instituted by the previous commissioners, which included Stirm, in July 2020.
At the meeting, Holmes told Showalter “that he believed Mr. Showalter was a ‘left-wing traitor,’ ” according to the tort claim.
By a unanimous vote, the commissioners, including the newly elected Twilegar and Holmes, repealed the policy.
On Feb. 9, the tort claim alleges, Holmes told the county’s assessor that “only liberals and pussies wear mask(s).” The assessor, Chris Juszczak, confirmed that account to the Statesman.
At the commissioners meeting on March 2, Holmes said, “I’m not going to get the vaccine, but I’m not going to tell anybody they can’t,” according to minutes of the meeting published in the Idaho World.
‘ARE YOU KIDDING ME?’
Other incidents with Holmes have raised eyebrows about his behavior since becoming a county commissioner.
On March 16, Boise County EMT Shawn Smith was attending a commissioners meeting when, during a recess, Holmes struck up a conversation with him. Members of the public were in the room, according to Smith, and after saying that he had been in the Navy, Holmes asked him where he had been stationed.
Smith said that he had been at Diego Garcia Navy base in the Indian Ocean and Holmes “proceeded to ask if I had gender-reassignment surgery, because he knows a lot of people who left that island who had that done,” Smith said in a phone interview.
“It kind of hit me off guard,” Smith said. “I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’… I’m a big supporter of (the LGBTQ) community. … (That comment) was nonsense, especially coming from our commissioner who’s a representative, a fellow veteran. It was horse crap.”
Camille Wassom, assistant director of the East Boise County Ambulance District, told the Statesman that she was present during the conversation and confirmed Smith’s account.
Holmes shocked people again during a conversation a couple of weeks later. After a commissioners meeting on March 30, Holmes spoke privately with multiple people. The Statesman obtained a recording of the conversation.
After describing a heated conversation he had with a “left-wing Democrat” constituent, Holmes noted that, as perceived by the left, “I’m a right-wing extremist, white supremacist, and that’s what they call me.”
Moments later, Holmes lowered his voice and said, “I’ve been a white supremacist my whole life — I shouldn’t say that, but no, I’ve been a conservative Republican my whole life.”
Potts, the director of East Boise County Ambulance District, was present during the conversation and heard Holmes’ comments about white supremacy.
“The second time he said it,” Potts told the Statesman, “there was no reason for him to say that again in jest. It was not in any context other than him just making a statement about himself.”
Dr. Murry Sturkie, the medical director of the East Boise County Ambulance District, also participated in the conversation and understood the comment differently.
“I did not take it as somebody who was declaring himself a white nationalist,” he told the Statesman. “The context of the conversation was still along the lines that somebody labeled him as such — it’s a label they’ve placed on him.”
Potts, who also heard Holmes’ comments about gender-reassignment surgery, said that her emergency medical services agency is mostly volunteer, and that some of her EMTs are not white or are LGBTQ.
“It was kind of shocking and worrisome knowing I have all these volunteers that work under me as part of the county who are obviously not (people) he really respects,” she said. “I am conservative myself, but I don’t agree with any of that white supremacy.”
Potts said that Holmes’ pattern of behavior indicates to her that he is unfit to be a commissioner for the county.
“He’s got a few screws loose,” she said.
HOLSTERS AND DIRT BIKES
On April 6, an employee of the county, Todd Wolf, told the Statesman he saw Holmes berating Showalter while wearing a holstered pistol, “talking to him aggressively” and telling him “one more thing and you’re fired.”
Showalter confirmed that conversation to the Statesman. It occurred in the commissioners room at the county office in Idaho City, he said.
“He’s an intimidating foe,” Wolf said. “It was threatening and unprofessional. … Why would you bring a department head in with your gun on, not concealed? It was just crazy. It’s not the Old West up here. It’s still 2021.”
On April 24, a 13-year-old boy was riding his dirt bike on a road near Holmes’ property in Lowman. The boy was returning to the home of his grandparents, who live in a cabin off the road, when Holmes pulled up in a Jeep, got out and approached the boy.
“You know I’m the sheriff, right?” Holmes said, according to an account of the conversation given by the boy to the Idaho State Police and obtained by the Statesman. He flashed a badge, according to the boy, and said, “I will impound your bike if you keep riding on this road.”
Impersonating a police officer is a misdemeanor in Idaho, according to the state police.
When the boy got to his grandparents’ house, he told them what happened. They were confused, according to the boy’s account, thinking that Holmes was a commissioner of the county, not the sheriff.
The boy’s grandmother called Holmes, and during their conversation, he told her that he was a retired law enforcement deputy, according to the boy’s mother, who told police she heard the telephone conversation.
The complaint, which was initially reported to the county sheriff’s office, was “conflicted out” to the state police “because of an existing relationship between an individual involved and members of the Boise County Sheriff’s Office,” according to the state police.
The boy’s mother told police she did not want to pursue criminal charges against Holmes, according to the police report. Instead, she requested that the actual Boise County Sheriff, Scott Turner, “talk to Holmes to prevent any further problems.”
In March 2010, while Holmes was running for sheriff in Nye County, Nevada, he was accused of similar conduct when he was arrested on suspicion of impersonating a police officer, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
An out-of-state police officer visiting Pahrump, a town in southern Nevada, said that “Holmes flashed some sort of ‘deputy’ badge at him and advised him he was committing a crime by having his gun visible with a badge from another state,” according to the Sun.
The sheriff’s office “obtained a search warrant for Holmes’ badge and wallet and recovered those items, but only after he obstructed and resisted those efforts,” according to the Sun.
Holmes denied he had impersonated an officer, according to the Sun, and filed suit against the sheriff’s office over his arrest.
According to Holmes’ lawsuit, he “identified himself by name and showed the unknown man his retirement badge and identification. … (Holmes) at no time ever identified himself as active law enforcement,” according to the Sun.
The Pahrump Valley Times reported that the local district attorney declined to proceed with the case.
A search for the records from the case yielded no results, according to the Nye County Sheriff’s Office, which said they “most likely” had been sealed.
In June of that year, Holmes, a recently defeated candidate for sheriff, and two other candidates for county positions filed a court challenge alleging election fraud. The case was dismissed two months later by a district judge, who said the case lacked probable cause.
Editor’s note: This story was updated on June 20, 2021, to correct the type of meeting during which Showalter was fired. It was a special meeting.
This story was originally published June 20, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
