Democrat Bill Rutherford earns Statesman endorsement for Ada County Commission
In the race for Ada County Commission in District 2, voters have two strong candidates from which to choose: Republican Rod Beck and Democrat Bill Rutherford.
Both said they want to focus on the county budget. Beck demonstrates a solid understanding of the functions of county government, and Rutherford is a bit of budget wonk who has extensive experience with large private sector budgets.
The Idaho Statesman editorial board endorses Bill Rutherford for Ada County Commission in District 2.
Beck and Rutherford do not diverge greatly on a number of issues, and we see benefits to electing either candidate.
Rutherford would do an excellent job as a steward of the county budget, which he said he would approach much as he would approach any big business’ budget. He’s also a civil and structural engineer by trade, which gives him a background in approaching problems analytically and practically.
Beck has political experience and connections, including endorsements from several state legislators. We could see county residents benefiting from those connections, for example, when state legislation is needed to allow impact fees to be collected for emergency medical services.
The risk we see with Beck, however, is as a partisan flamethrower. Beck was the 2016 Idaho chair of the Trump for President campaign, and his campaign material features photos of Beck with Trump, and Beck touts in his campaign such “play to the base” issues as “pro-life” and “Pro 2nd Amendment” — issues that commissioners generally don’t deal with.
The machinations of county government are primarily nonpartisan and involve making sure the trains run on time. We fear Beck would throw an ideological, partisan monkey wrench in the works. Beck also downplays the coronavirus, has said it’s dissipating and we’ve overreacted to it — which is an important note because the county commissioners appoint a member to the Central District Health board. County commissioner Diana Lachiondo sits on that board and has voted for a mask mandate and a reversion to Stage 3 for Ada County. Beck and Lachiondo clearly would butt heads on this issue.
Rutherford is in line with the current direction of the board, with Lachiondo and Kendra Kenyon, and we see him as being a better fit with the current board members than Beck.
“My first priority would be to continue what the present board did this year when they did the 2021 budget,” Rutherford told the editorial board. “They focused on controlling their costs and keeping property taxes low — in fact there’s no increased property taxes this coming year — and they did that without cutting the central services. So I do think you can do both, they prove that they can do both. And I would certainly support that.”
Rutherford also recognizes that the Ada County government is, essentially, in the service business, and it’s important to maintain services that taxpayers expect.
To that end, he lists recruiting and retaining good people to fill jobs in the county government. Rutherford also touts his background as a civil and structural engineer and said he would apply those skills to land-use planning decisions and their impact on transportation, and the use of impact fees to pay for improvements.
We share Rutherford’s concern about “rapid unchecked growth,” recognizing a need to increase housing supply in the Treasure Valley, but doing so in a smart way that pays for itself.
“I’m a professional not a partisan person,” Rutherford said. “I don’t have experience being a politician in the state Legislature, or working on a presidential campaign. My experience is managing large budgets, large businesses. … So I have a track record of making decisions about reducing costs, and also maintaining services. I think I can bring that experience to the county commission to serve our residents.”
The better bet for Ada County voters is a pragmatic problem-solver rather than a partisan pugilist.
This story was originally published October 9, 2020 at 4:00 AM.