[Vision2020] Four Moscow councilors deny power play against mayor

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (June 23, 2012) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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Four councilors deny power play against mayor

Several Moscow city councilors deny using stall tactics to convince the mayor to step down from her position on the Latah Economic Development Council at the end of the month, but Nancy Chaney argues otherwise.

Councilors approved 10 appointments to various citizen commissions at their Monday meeting as recommended by Chaney. She concluded her appointments by nominating Councilor Tim Brown to take her place on the LEDC, but not before stating she did so because a majority of councilors refused to approve her nominations, one since Feb. 15, until she gave up that position.

"Certain council members made it clear that they will not approve my reappointment to that board," she told audience members Monday.

She later clarified in an email to the Daily News the councilors she was referring to were Brown, Wayne Krauss, Walter Steed and Council President Dan Carscallen.

Councilor Wayne Krauss on Monday denied any bargaining took place to get Chaney to step down from the LEDC, and discussion about replacing her on the council started at a January reorganization meeting.

"It is our contention that the (City) Council should be the one appointing someone for LEDC," he said. "It was a difference of opinion, mostly as to who gets to appoint the liaison."

But Steed and Carscallen both indicated bargaining had indeed occurred, claiming Chaney broke the agreement that had been reached. Councilor Tom Lamar, who often sides with Chaney, said emails behind the scenes support the mayor's interpretation and called the actions of the others "childish."

Steed said while bylaws with the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Pullman-Moscow Airport boards call for the mayor to be a city representative, there is no language in LEDC's bylaws to that effect.

The mayors of Potlatch and Bovill currently serve as elected board members on the LEDC. Moscow's mayors have historically served as appointed members with Mayor Marshall Comstock putting City Supervisor Gary Riedner in his place when he was in office, said B.J. Swanson, LEDC executive director.

"Always before we've always sent a request to the mayor," Swanson said. "We've sent it to the mayor because we look at the mayor as being the highest elected official that we know. ... How they deal with that internally within their own organization, we don't get involved in that."

Swanson said the desire to serve on the economic development council has grown from an early point when serving wasn't seen as that important.

"I guess it just makes us feel good that they're fighting over who gets to go," she said.
A bylaws committee within the LEDC had formed this year, but decided not to change them, Swanson said.

"We looked at our bylaws because I know that Walter and I think Nancy questioned how our bylaws read," she said, particularly in regard to who can serve. "There was a request to clarify our bylaws because that was wide open."

Carscallen said he and councilors who opposed keeping Chaney on the LEDC did initially refuse to approve citizen commission appointments until the issue was resolved, but he had worked out a deal with Chaney to let her term expire June 30 in exchange for passing appointees through.

"It was just a misunderstanding," he said. "She wasn't putting any (appointments) forward, so I assumed she didn't have anything. Perhaps she was trying to make a point, I don't know. I can't speak for her."

Steed said that deal didn't seem to work as Chaney later came forward with 10 recommendations for various commissions still hoping to have herself appointed to the LEDC.
"Then she brought forth that whole raft of commission appointments with herself listed as the member of the LEDC," he said, adding she gave in when the majority of the council opposed. "It was primarily because we thought it was time for a change. ... I'm unaware that it had anything to do with anything in particular she had done or not done."

Councilor Tom Lamar said there had been several email discussions among councilors and the mayor where it appeared no commission appointments would pass until Chaney stepped down from the LEDC position.

"In other words they were holding back their support for other citizen commission appointments until that issue was resolved," he said. "It's just as childish as the U.S. Congress. It's silly. We're better than that here in Moscow. That's what they had to say and they have the majority."

The longest-waiting appointee was University of Idaho employee Alexiss Turner, who interviewed for a position on the arts commission Jan. 11. Chaney states in her email she vetted Turner's nomination with councilors on Feb. 15, but was unsuccessful because of the unresolved LEDC issue.

Turner's appointment, along with nine others, was confirmed by the City Council on Monday. Turner said Friday that Chaney had told her in February she couldn't appoint her at the time, and she was surprised to receive a call from the city last week asking if she was still interested in the position. She added she had assumed she'd been passed over.

Sustainable Environment Commission Chairman Scott Fedale said he had a few vacancies filled Monday and had been told by Chaney months ago why he'd waited so long.

"There was basically a little war zone behind the scenes," he said, adding he didn't understand the deal. "They're a volunteer commission. Why are we being held up because of that."

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown


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