Donahue: I wasn’t kept in the loop about an urban renewal district. I don’t support it

As the sheriff of Canyon County, I was quite surprised to read in the Nov. 18 paper that two of our county commissioners — Keri Smith and Leslie Van Beek — are touting their agreement with the City of Caldwell to establish a new Urban Renewal District (URD) as a means to build a new jail in Canyon County. There are several surprises in this revelation.

First of all, what little “infrastructure for a jail” the Caldwell Urban Renewal Agency is touting would be wholly inconsequential to the overall cost of a new jail. Secondly, and more importantly, as the sheriff, this is the first I was ever advised of this proposed plan, and I do not support it in any way.

The other elected officials (commissioners excluded) and I only learned about this new URD through an email dated Nov. 12. In that email, the commissioners informed us there has been “a great deal of work” put into this project and that they intended to have a whole one-and-a-half-hour workshop with the county elected officials on Nov. 15. This workshop was to be followed by a vote the very next day to pave the way for 1,000 acres of land (in the county) to be signed over to the Caldwell Urban Renewal Agency.

That sure seemed like a “rushed” agenda, especially knowing that the legally binding documents the county planned to sign were prepared by the city of Caldwell attorney and not by the prosecuting attorney (legal counsel) of the county. Further, these documents include a “Transferring of Powers” agreement signed by commissioners Smith and Van Beek, which amounts to giving away tax revenue for property located within this “new” URA for the next 20 years.

Of course, this loss of tax revenue will have to be made up by the rest of the county property taxpayers, but they either don’t understand that or choose to ignore it.

Another surprising fact, none of the elected officials besides the commissioners received the “Final” URD plan until the night before the commissioners voted on the matter. On Nov. 12, I wrote an email to the Board of County Commissioners asking them to put off a vote on this matter until more discussion could be arranged, including hearing input from the county taxpayers. Unfortunately, and even though County Assessor Brian Stender wrote to the commissioners the night before the vote, also imploring them to take more time to discuss this matter, our pleas were ignored.

It is pretty obvious that both the taxpayers and other county elected officials were left out of this discussion. The more important question is: why?

This new URD will only benefit the City of Caldwell. Canyon County taxpayers will have to make up the tax revenue loss for the next 20 years. And if you don’t think it impacts you, you better think again. The current Caldwell URD, which is set to expire, is currently subsidized by all county taxpayers to the tune of just under $3,000,000 annually.

Commissioner Van Beek stated she is voting in favor of the “transfer of powers necessary for the creation of an urban renewal plan and revenue allocation area” because it is “in the best interest of the citizens of Canyon County.” Commissioner Smith stated she “is committed to working with the City.” Obviously, these two commissioners should go to work full-time for the city of Caldwell. They certainly don’t seem to want to represent county government or the county taxpayers who pay their salaries.