[Vision2020] Doug Wilson's complete conversation w/ BOCC

[Chris Maland]

THE COMPLETE COVERSATION:

Doug: I asked to be put on your agenda for 5 minutes just to make an 
appearance and express to you my basic concern about a situation in town 
involving Christ Church an associated ministries. And that basic concern 
would be summed up this way: If there are a number of tax-exempt entities in 
Moscow that are in the same situation that Logos School is in, Nuart, Anselm 
House, and New St. Andrews…If that’s the case, and if there are people in 
town who have had a very public vendetta against us for personal or 
ideological reasons of their own, my concern, that I wanted to express to 
you all face to face, is that that mechanism of the law not be used, or not 
be allowed to be used as a cat’s-call for fulfilling personal, settling 
personal scores. That sort of thing it appears to me would be a flagrant 
example of applying the law selectively. So, in other words, the “exclusive 
use,” the particular interpretation of “exclusive use” that y’all decided on 
in the last go-around that’s now on appeal—that understanding of “exclusive 
use” must apply to all tax exempt entities in Moscow or Latah County, and 
not just to those entities that have me sitting on the board. And my concern 
is with this second round of complaints brought against two other entities 
that I’m on the board of. And if Latah County is a position to sort of—only 
responding to these sorts of complaints—the defacto setup will be a 
selective enforcement of the law as you gentlemen understand it. In terms of 
your interpretation of the law, I think we should follow the procedure make 
our appeals do our—you know, do our thing. That’s one, that’s one level of 
concern. That has to do with interpretation of how the law should be 
applied. But, I think we should all agree that the law should not just be 
applied to those who are the brunt of the animosity of a handful of people 
in town, who want to run them out of town, and who want to use the zoning 
requirements, the Latah County Commissioners or the Board of Adjusters, the 
Idaho State Attorney General—there was a complaint filed against me there 
and another thing. I don’t think that should be—I think that should be 
recognized. And I wanted to appear before you face to face and just tell you 
that is my fundamental concern. I think it opens Latah Co. up to a great 
deal of exposure if the law is applied selectively in that way. And I simply 
wanted to tell you that.

Commissioner #1: Ok, well, we appreciate that. We were hoping the state 
board of Tax Appeals would make a decision on it because, you know, it is a 
big issue not only in Latah County probably, but certainly state-wide.

Doug: Yeah, we were hoping that too.

Commissioner #1: As you’re aware, they have not done anything with it at 
this point.
Doug: Well what they did was they handed it back to you all. And it came 
back here so with the decision you made, we can now appeal to district 
court, but enough time has gone by that you’re having to make the decisions 
on the next round with us, without any direction from the state. And I guess 
the thing that I wanted to say is that: Monsters don’t shrink when you feed 
them. And I believe that it is your responsibility to not just look at the 
letter of the law, what’s going on in the law, but also to look at the town 
and see what’s happening in town. The animosity, the ideological agenda 
that’s directed against us is open, public. The archives of V2020 are there 
for anybody to read. The last two year have been—our adversaries have been 
overt about what they want to do. They want to run us out of town. And they 
are using every device that they can get their hands on to do that. And so, 
whatever you do, I would implore you to do it consistently and across the 
board. That means, if—

Commissioner #1: I’m sure that’s our goal.

Commissioner #2: Well if I must, I’ve stated that I didn’t take this 
position to not treat everyone fairly and in the best interest of the 
overall. And I think my concern has been all along, and some of these cases 
I struggled very hard to follow the law, and what was right and equal. And 
so, I certainly am not going to change my position as far as equality and 
religious freedom and all those things that we all have access to.

Doug: I appreciate that, but we’re a year later and there are two entities 
that have had the tax-exempt removed and those are our two. And the next two 
that are on the docket are two more that I sit on the board of. And there is 
no action that has been taken concerning any other tax-exmept entity in 
Moscow. And I’m not going to file a complaint against all the entities 
because what’s been to us, I believe is unjust. So, I’m certainly not going 
to illustrate the injustice of it by filing a similar complaint against the 
Presbyterian Church across the street. I’m not going to do that. But the 
fact remains, there is a defacto situation on the ground where a year later 
the tax-exemptions that have been removed have been from our two entities. 
The next two that are threatened are the two entities that I sit on the 
board of. And I just wouldn’t want Latah County to make a very expensive 
mistake. And that’s why I wanted to appear—I didn’t want to necessarily—I 
know this is not the venue for going into all the details of it, but I just 
wanted to be on the record as having expressed my concern.

Commissioner #1: Well, I appreciate that. And I know, if somebody protested 
any other tax-exempt organization, I would treat it the same as I have this 
here, except that, unfortunately right now, you’re the only one that has 
been protested.

Doug: That’s exactly the point. And we’re not going to file complaints 
against these others because it would be wrong to do so. I would just like 
you to be aware of what’s going on in the bigger picture. There’s a reason 
why we’re the only entities coming before you. There is a reason for that. 
And it’s a publicly documented reason. So…

Commissioner #1: Ok.

Doug: Thank you, Gentlemen.

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