City Council - Regular Meeting

We call the meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge. I pledge allegiance

to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible and justice for all. Welcome everybody to the January 6, 2026 uh city council meeting. Great to see such a good crowd. Exciting night tonight. Uh Mayor Jacobson is not here. He is excused. Um so I'm Council President Joe Mallaloy filling in for him. Uh first of all, roll call of uh council members. The clerk will note that all council members are present with the exception of uh councelor Ryan Davis who is excused and Mayor Ron Jacobson who is excused. Uh do we have any amendments to the agenda?

We have none tonight. Uh do we have any declarations of conflict, exparte contacts, or site visits? No. Seeing none, uh moving on to the consent calendar. Uh items on the consent calendar. Item A is minutes from the December 16th, 2025 council meeting. Item B, accounts payable 121725 to 1726. And item C, request to surplus a Rio copier. Any discussion? Take a motion. Move to approve the consent calendar as presented. Second. We have a motion in a second. Clerk, please take the role. Stickle leader. I Malloy. I Ziggler. I

Weslin. I.

Motion passes. Uh before we get to ceremonies, announcements and appointments, I want to one clarification uh on a agenda item uh action item three says meet and greet for council seat number five and council president election. Just to clarify those are two separate things. Meet and greet is for seat 5 only. Council president election is a different deal. So just to clear that up. Uh for ceremonies, announcements and presentations. I got one announcement. City Hall and city business offices will be closed Monday, January 19th in observance of Martin Luther Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Emergency police and fire services are available by calling 911. The police department will remain open to for walking emergencies. For water related emergencies, please call 2087733517. And for the next uh part of the agenda is a swearing in of Randy Weslin as our new mayor. Head down front.

Elliot, come up.

Hold this for me. Right here.

A little higher. Do you solemnly swear to that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the con constitution of the state of Idaho and that you will faithfully discharge the duties of mayor of the city of Post Falls, Idaho, according to the best of your ability? I do swear. Here's your certificate of election. Thank you.

Congratulations. It's all yours, Mr. Mayor. All right. Next item. Swearing in of Aaron PL, Nathan Ziegler, and Mark Luca to the city council.

Raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Idaho and that you will faithfully discharge the duties of city councelor for the city of Post Falls Idaho according to the best of your ability? I do.

And you may take your seats. Okay, next item up is uh filling the council seat that I just vacated. And before we get started, I want to address the process for filling the council seat because there's been some confusion. I got a few emails from folks who were led to believe that there would be no public interview or that I was somehow bypassing the council. Whoever spread these rumors has no idea what they're talking about and is clearly an unreliable source of information. State law tells us exactly how to fill a vacancy on the council. The mayor makes a nomination and the council votes to confirm. I just took an oath before God to carry out the duties of this office and this is my first one. My duty is to bring forth a nominee. We're holding an interview so that the council can make their own determination as to whether the nominee is competent and qualified. They can then fulfill their duty to vote according to their best judgment. For the first time ever, we are recording and live streaming this interview during the regular meeting so that everyone can see the process unfold. This is maximum transparency and it's exactly the process that Trump used with his nominees that needed Senate confirmation. Some mayors have chosen to make a show of the process by bringing forth multiple candidates, having the council interview each one, and then only revealing which is the nominee afterward. Perhaps one candidate is the secret nominee, and the others were merely contrast candidates there to make the nominee look good. I believe it would be disrespectful to waste everyone's time putting on a show like that. The mayor has an executive role. To be a competent executive, you can't be afraid to make decisions that are your responsibility. I will not burden others with having to do my job for me. When I look for a nominee for any appointment, my focus is on finding the

best candidate for the job. There will be no nepotism or backroom political deals. None of the nominees I'm bringing forward today are politically controversial or involved in the infighting that damages our community. I value professionalism and competency. I consider the background and experience of current members and look for complimentary skill sets. I consider the challenges we will face and what kind of team we need to successfully navigate them. Post Falls is going to be an exciting and forward-looking city. We will reward innovative thinking, find new ways of doing things, and set the standard for what it means to be a conservative city in Idaho. Doing anything of substance requires navigating difficult legal waters. To that end, I'm nominating Jack Mosby for council seat 5. You've already seen his application and impressive resume in the agenda packet. Not only is he one of the most professional and competent men I know, I believe his legal mind will be a key asset on our team during the coming years. Mr. Mosby, please come forward.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right, we'll start with uh just intro. You can tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're interested in serving here. Then we'll have the council ask questions.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh members of council, uh thank you for letting me speak today. I appreciate that. Uh I'm an attorney in civil practice. I practice in Cordelane at Ramsdarfus Elen Dismmet, formerly Rams Dearfus Elen Harris. Uh I have been practicing at that firm uh since I graduated law school in 2019. I work in Celane, but I am a resident of Post Falls and I have been for most of my life. However, I've not always lived in Post Falls throughout that entire time frame. Uh my family moved up from California to Liberty Lake in 2003 and quickly realized Post Falls was the place to be. So since 2005, I've been a resident of Post Falls. Uh but like I said, I've not always lived here. I went to an outofstate boarding school. U I graduated that in 2010. I did a year of college after that. I spent a semester at Gonzaga and then a semester at NIC. Uh after which time I quickly realized I was not going to be a great dentist or any other medical professional like my dad. Um some of you may know him. Uh but instead I didn't know what I was going to do. So I spent 5 years in in the Marine Corps. Uh where I was a life support equipment technician. Uh my MOS was a 6048 aviation life support systems specialist. Basically I was a maintainer. I worked on life support gear and search and rescue equipment that was used on rotary wing aircraft. Um, at the time I was stationed in San Diego at Marine Corps Air Station Myimar. I also deployed to Afghanistan. I went to, uh, Okinawa, Japan. I was on the USS Bonum Rashard for a little bit. Uh, while I was enlisted, uh, I also got married to my wife Elizabeth. That was in 2015. Uh, we now have five children. My oldest was born in 2016. Uh at that time I was nearing the end of

my enlistment and so I decided to bring my family home to Post Falls in 2016. I also graduated from American Military University. Uh I did that while I was on active duty. Got my bachelor's in legal studies because I knew I wanted to go to law school. So I did. Uh in 2017 after my enlistment was over. I went to Gonzaga University for my MBA and for my jurist doctor, my law degree. Uh I graduated from the law school in 2019. I graduated from the business school in 2020. Uh during my uh time in school and graduate school and law school, I had a number of different internships including at the Kney County Prosecutor's Office. Um but then after law school, I've been at my current firm where I now practice uh in civil practice, mostly in litigation, but also in uh real estate transactional work as well. Uh most of my litigation work is real estate related uh boundary line disputes and easement disputes uh CCNRs, land use etc regarding property owners and um the various uh disputes that they face with regard to their property ownership. I also do a little bit of construction litigation and um uh general contract disputes. Uh like I said, my wife and I, we have five children now. Uh we live in Post Falls. My siblings and parents, we all live in Post Falls except for actually one of my siblings just moved to Celane. Uh suffice it to say, we have a lot of roots in Post Falls and the Postf Falls community even though I wasn't born and raised here. My kids go to school in Post Falls. Uh we go to church in Post Falls. Um this is home. I have a vested interest in seeing Post Falls thrive. That's why I'm here today. When Mayor Wesland asked me if I would

accept his nomination uh for appointment uh for his seat on city council, I thought to myself that he and I have the same interests in city of Post Falls. We largely have the same motivations to see the city of Post Falls thrive. And so when he asked me, I agreed. I agreed because I think we have the same vision and I think that I can carry on his work.

All right, questions from council. Yeah. So, Mr. Mosby, you obviously have a solid background. Um, you've got good success in your endeavors. Uh, you have a great trajectory in your the career path that you're on right now. Um, in uh some ways, you're almost overqualified uh in comparison with some of the qualifications that existing council members might have. nothing against them, but um what compels you to uh put your time and effort into the city of Post Falls? Thank you, Councelor Blue. Um I I think that it's important for those of us who can to contribute where we can. I've admired what Mayor Wesland has done on city council. I've liked what I've seen from the city of Post Falls in the recent years. This is home. I like to see it thrive. And when Mayor Wesland asked me if I would take his seat, I gave it some serious consideration. I talked to people in my family, people I trust, my wife, and I I did my own um soulsearching. I prayed about it and I thought this is a good service that I can provide to my community. I think service is important. You know, obviously I served in the Marines, and now I think uh in my time as a a lawyer, a lot of that is in service to individuals, but service to the public is no unfamiliar calling to me. And I think it's important that those of us who can uh contribute where we can.

Yeah. And thank you for your service. I should have mentioned that at the beginning. U just one followup then. uh when you look at um some of the issues the city of Post Falls is facing uh what stands out to you as the biggest area of concern and maybe if you can uh give us some ideas how you might like to deal with that. Thank you for the followup question. Post Falls has historically been a rather boring town and I think in recent years great strides have been taken to change that. Um, I've I've talked with Mayor Wesland about his vision and that I I agree with. I think that one of the one of the several biggest issues that Postf Falls faces is housing. It's expensive. There's a short supply. Not a lot in the area of homes for young families to to acquire first-time buyer home ownership.

I think that's a big issue. you know, I just uh had to get a new house myself because now that we have five children, I had to size up in order to make some space. And I know that that was difficult even for me in my profession. I'm looking at my five daughters and thinking to myself, what what kind of postfalls are they going to grow up in? Mhm.

How am I going to make this a fruitful place for them to be able to have their own families, their own, you know, have spouses to to raise uh, you know, have many children of their own, hopefully, uh, to be able to stay here instead of having to leave or to have, uh, a husband that has to travel for work in order to make enough money to afford a home here. I don't want it to be like that. I want them to be able to live here, to have a life here. And I think that that's one of the the biggest issues is housing. And I mean there's plenty of expensive housing but not a lot in the area of of affordable housing. However, there needs to be a place for these people to work. So attracting good jobs, attracting businesses that will employ these people, especially young people who are starting their careers so that they don't have to leave and find experience out of state or at some big uh company that your Amazons or Microsofts and all this talent leaving the the area. I think having that attracted locally is very important so that these people can in turn then afford better houses. So it's kind of a two-fold issue of supporting local job development and then also affording uh starter homes. I think largely to answer the second piece of that question, what ideas? Well, I'll admit I'm I don't know the answer, but I think some of the developments, particularly looking in along the Seltis corridor, along these older places that haven't haven't updated in many years or particularly around um areas where home development can be fruitful. um working on supporting businesses in

those locations, particularly businesses that employ lots of people, and then building the starter homes nearby to those businesses so that these employees who are working there are near to their homes. They don't have to travel a long ways. I don't know where that takes place, but I think that that's going to be uh one of the ways to to support both affordable houses and bringing job development to the area. Thank you. Are we going in a specific order here? Whatever order you. Okay, great. Just jump in.

All right, cool. Um okay, so hi. Thank you for accepting the um request to come and sit before us. I appreciate that. I know it takes a lot of um prayer and thought and general guts to just stand up in front of everyone and have questions asked of you. Um, one of my first goals was to ask you if it had been a goal for you to be on city council and if so, why you didn't run in the first place? But it sounds like perhaps the thought wasn't put in your mind until you were specifically asked, just yes or no. Would that be an accurate summarization? No. No. Okay. So, you had thought about being on council before? I had. Okay. And why was it that you didn't run in our most recent election? I hadn't concluded whether or not I wanted to do it.

Okay. So, this was just like um maybe a encouraging sign to be part of it. I think it was providence. I think it was what I needed to realize that I had a calling for this particular position. I was interested in city council. Like I said, I liked seeing what this council had been doing. particularly I've been I've been watching what Randy has done, what Mayor Wesland, excuse me, has done uh while he was in city council

and I thought that I I like the direction that Post Falls has been taking. I like some of the changes as much as you know, being here for a long time, I'm a little sad to see some things changing. You know, it's it's home so some of the big projects that have changed the landscape a bit. You know, I think Mil Works for example, I'm a little sad to see some of these changes, but I understand the need for them. And so to me, I think participating on this council is something I've been interested in but hadn't yet committed to. So I think it was more of a calling. The time was right and when I was asked, I thought yes, I can do this.

Okay. So aside from the first and third Tuesdays of the month and being up here to be participatory in a meeting, what do you feel like the roles of a city council member are? I think it's important that city council understands what the needs of the community are and listens when they're hearing from their constituents. It's not just councilors putting their opinions out there and using their opinions to create policy or to influence change. We're responsive to those who we represent. And how how would you be in communication with them to listen to what they're saying?

How do you see that? I'll admit I do not know the answer to all of these questions, but I expect that some of it's going to be paying attention to uh for example letters to the editor and the quarterly press. That's one place where people get to say what they want to say, listening to the Idaho news or or uh I'm sure I mean Mayor Wesland identified that there he received emails from the public about the process of nominating me as only one candidate. I'm sure I and others of this council um I don't want to be presumptuous. I apologize for the implication there. Uh I'm sure that if I'm confirmed for this seat, I too will receive emails from my constituents. I also have a lot of family in the community. I work in the community. I have a lot of people that I communicate with through my profession. I will be listening and I think that that that's how I can contribute um to sharing the voice of the needs of my constituents with this council.

Okay. Sorry, I know I might be peppering you. I have just a few more if you'd be so kind. Please. Um, given that we are in a comprehensive review cycle as we were last year when we interviewed um, other appointees, what would you say is the biggest change that you see that needs to be made in our comprehensive plan?

I'm going to admit I am not familiar enough to give you a concrete answer. I will need to study more before I can give you a a concrete decision as to what I think is the most important thing. I think I've already answered the question as to some of the areas I I believe there needs to be improvement with the city, but which is most important, I don't think I'm yet well informed enough to answer. Okay. Um All right. Just a couple of more questions. What would be your response to a resident that says that they actually like postfalls being boring? I agree. Okay. But your answer was that we were going to make changes to make it not boring and that was one of the things that we needed to change about postfalls.

One of the functions that I see is important for this council as a governmental body is fostering growth. Growth is inevitable. It's going to happen whether we like it or not. Making sure that it's sustainable and not trampling over property rights is also important. One of the areas of growth that I see that this city needs in order to be sustainable is particularly in the downtown area. Okay.

Postfalls in order for it to be sustainable can't just be where everyone stays uh where everyone lives and then we go to Spokane or we go to Celane or up to Sandpoint and we all work out of town and then we come back home and we just leave our family here all the time. like this. It has to have something, for lack of a better term, something to do, something that makes it what where people commune, where people I mean, we go downtown in Celane all the time. I mean, we go downtown Sherman and we go to all the the shops and the resort and whatnot. Bose Falls needs an element of that. That's the part that I think needs to change in the the boring aspect.

I like the clarification of that. I think that that's really helpful, especially for a public perspective. Um people have a lot of feelings about what is allowed and what happens here. So which is great. To that effect, we have a very involved public. Um we do receive emails, phone calls, conversations when we are at church or in line at the grocery store. Um happens all of the time. So um I'd ask I' I'd like to ask you a more personal question that has come up in private conversations for me, people calling me. Um it seems that perhaps you are a part of a group and if I get the acronym pronunciation right Sacker and I'm curious if you can speak to um what that group is about and how perhaps the fundamentals of that group could be useful in the city of Post Falls or if that is totally irrelevant to what we're talking about.

I'm not a part of Sacker. I've read the website and that's about it. Then that's the easiest answer to that question and I will hand over my time to someone else. Darn it. Oh, sorry. Thank you, Councelor Steler.

I got a couple. Uh, as you are probably aware, we've had an inordinate amount of vacancies on the council and in the last year and a half. Uh, last two vacancies prior to this one were for were from members leaving for, you know, out of state or uh other opportunities, etc. And, uh, as a result, the group we have up here is really green. Um, so it's it's weird that when I was first elected, I was by far the youngest person on this council. Uh, everybody else had 12 16 years experience I had none. And now I'm the grizzled old man telling people to get off my lawn. It's pretty bizarre. But, uh, anyway, uh, if you're to be confirmed, and I know we can't hold you to anything, do you fully intend to serve out the rest of the term?

Yes.

Thank you. uh in terms of you you've asked your questions about what the uh issues facing the city are. Uh what do you believe the city of Post Falls has done well and you would like to see continue? Watching what this council does and particularly I want to compliment staff. I think this city has has employed excellent staff that ensure that this council is well informed and well equipped to make educated decisions that help to balance u the the responsibilities the council has. In particular, I want to focus on what I mentioned before the balance between ensuring the development is reasonable and sustainable. It's not going to cause the city to shut down balanced with the Idaho's public policy of supporting private property ownership rights. I think that staff for this city does an excellent job at supporting this council and balancing that particular consideration, allowing the public to speak and hearing what the public has to say and making decisions consistent with those two goals and balancing them carefully. I think that this council does an excellent job of that. I think that some of the decisions as much as personally, you know, like I said with particularly mil works when the the lumber yard went away, I was personally sad. Like I said, you know, I've been a resident of Post Falls a long time, but I've been in and out quite a bit from whether it was boarding school or from the military. So coming back home, seeing kind of landmarks change is sad for me, but at the same time, I recognize it's very important. I think that that was a underutilized area that that this city has taken advantage of uh through its various projects whether it's an urban renewal project or something as simple as just an application from a developer. I think that they're well handled by this

council.

Yeah. Speaking of sad, my family founded and ran that mill for 75 years. So I was really sad when it went away. But uh such is life. Um, so you have no experience in any public board, council, any anything like that, which is fine. Uh, there's a lot of people I didn't have any when I started. Well, I had been on the central committee for 10 years. But, um, it's a lot to wrap your head around. Um, I think your legal background will benefit you greatly, and I think it'll benefit the city greatly if you're confirmed. U, but it it takes a lot of effort to really understand everything a city does because it's it's really in-depth. um to the credit of the people sitting around me um they were all new when they started and they've really really really put in effort and time uh to get up to speed and be able to make productive contributions fairly quickly. You're a busy dude. Um you're a lawyer, you have five kids. Um, how how much time do you expect to be able to put into this, especially up front, uh, to be able to understand all the things that go on uh, and be able to contribute meaningfully from uh, in a in a reasonable period of time?

I'll be honest with you, I don't know the answer to that question because I don't know what it takes to do a good job and I'm only going to do a good job. Talking with Mayor Wesland, he's largely in a in a similar situation to me just with regard to family responsibilities. him. He's I He's the example that I know because on this council, he's the one I've spoken to most. Uh I think that that's my understanding with respect to the what he did while as city council was, you know, you're putting in probably at least a full day's work a week at that should be a minimum expectation. I don't know what that looks like yet, but I think with my background, I can learn and I believe that I can carry out carry it out even though I am a busy person.

Well, you have a reasonable expectation, so I I appreciate that answer. That's all I've got.

Okay. Okay. First of all, thank you for your service and your and your uh obviously very professionally adept at at even your presentation here tonight. The way you speak is is impressive. So, um I think I want to thank the rest of our council members for stealing all my questions first, but I I think because of the similarity of questions, it does point to some of the similar concerns that we all have perhaps of your qualification. Um, the main question that I have for you to kind of add to that is much of what we are presented with in front of the city council is not specifically laid out in the letter of the law. It's kind of a gray area, maybe perhaps up to interpretation. So could you speak possibly to your kind of your personal conviction or philosophy or guiding principles in those areas that may not be very clear a black and white decision or answer meaning for example in uh growth or development or in what area? I'm I'm not sure what field you're talking about. as a hypothetical perhaps, you know, we we do have

quite often some annexation requests that come forth to us that that um there is a bit of an interpretive dance in even our own master plan of whether it's going to be beneficial and uh and to the perhaps the residents around does it fit well with the development that's surrounding that. So maybe not the best example, but but there are gray areas that we need to address. So, I'm trying to get a little bit of insight to how would you address that within the the law when it's not specifically laid out. There's some an some answers with ordinances and things like that that are just they're kind of a slam dunk like we you know we know what it will do, the effects that it will have, whereas others specifically with land use and neighboring uh residents that you know there's there's a middle ground there that we need to find. So, how how in you in in your life perhaps give me some insight on how do you find that middle ground?

Well, thank you for the question. First of all, I do not plan on taking Mr. Field's job. I don't think that Mr. Harrington would appreciate that very much if I'm trying to act as legal counsel for this board. I that's not what I'm trying to do. Uh so, with regard to interpretation of the law, I'm going to defer to what Mr. Harrington says. When it comes to the areas that are not a matter of legal interpretation and whether it's an absolute yes or no, I don't think there's a single way forward for analyzing all projects. Every single project, every application has to be reviewed in isolation. It has to be considered with the facts and circumstances that pertain to that particular application. That's going to involve reviewing the staff report, getting their recommendations, hearing what the public has to say. I I think what you're driving at is generally speaking, is it going to be a support or opposed development? I don't think it's as clear-cut as that. I don't think it I think that every single application requires its own due diligence to determine how that specific project affects the whe whether it's the properties around it or whether it's a the greater post falls depending on uh where it's located in relation to critical infrastructure. I I couldn't possibly know of a a a guiding principle that says generally approve or generally not approve. I don't think it's as clear-cut as that. I think every single one needs to be given its due diligence and that the public needs to be heard on each application.

Okay. And perhaps I didn't word my question well enough because I'm not asking you to say yay or nay, you know, as a blanket statement. Sure. I think it's more I'm more interested in in your process of how do you arrive to that conclusion in a fair and balanced way when the answer isn't black and white. I appreciate that it is an individual basis so I will accept that as an answer. Thank you. That's all I have.

Thank you for your service, Mr. Mosby. Um I have never hired a marine and regretted it. And so I suspect that if you were successful in this that we probably would be in the same vein. Uh I appreciate the resume that you have um collected for yourself over uh a short relatively short period of time and um and it's impressive. Um I have a few general questions about philosophy of government. Um what do you view as the proper role of government? Not throwing an easy question, are you councelor Luca?

Well, well, in my 18 minutes of experience as a counselor, I find very helpful.

Well, again, there's no onesizefits-all answer to that question. It depends on what the role of that particular governing body is. This body has several functions, you know, both in the legislative, the quasi jud judicial, you know, there's a there are functions that have their own particular roles depending on where they fit in society. I don't think the government should be big government, so to speak. I don't think it should be telling people how to live, but it should be governing the social contract among the various citizens in their jurisdiction and as minimally invasive as possible. That's the general theory that I can give how that applies to this particular board. I I think I've alluded to that. I think balancing that burden I think largely it as it relates to this council I think that's largely in the area of land development. I mean that's seems to me like the largest concern is um is development. Well balancing those two concerns of how do we preserve the private rights of owners and not prevent them from doing what they want with their property as long as it's in accordance with applicable law of course with the impact that it has on everyone else. And I think striking that balance in as minimally invasive a way as possible while reducing as much unnecessary harm to everyone else. I think that's one of the key functions of this council. Does that answer your question?

Um almost I mean it definitely talks about the proper role of city council and postfalls but I'm talking broader

like um government um you know what is its what is its proper what does it do well and what does it not do well? like when government wades into things that it doesn't belong in, what do you have any thoughts on what those things might be? Um, and and I'll I'll give you a little background about the question is I'm sure you would would agree that particularly in conservative politics, we have a problem with people saying one thing uh saying that they're going to hold the line on a certain set of principles and then like Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana says, he's like, "Well, if you don't like those principles, I have other ones." um once they get into office they they change and um and they start to get um u kind of baptized by the system. And so I'm curious um because you don't have a track record in politics or a voting record or anything like that that we can look to. How can you assure us that you're not like that? like what are your core conservative or or uh political principles that you know where's your line of of u this is where you don't cross I hesitate because that seems like a bit of an ambiguous question to me and again I may be overthinking it I am a lawyer um Government is about service. It's about service to its own constituents. And if you're not serving them, if you're serving yourself, you're doing it wrong. I think at its core, that is what the role of government is, is to serve not itself. As it relates to my own core principles for where I think government is overstepping versus not, I think it's a a case- by case basis. Like I said, I think government is supposed to be smaller and as least invasive as possible. without an example to give you. I'm not sure how to best answer your

question. Maybe you could give an example, something that I can apply. Sure.

Um I think that that the government that governs least governs best. Um as you mentioned, the very I think rightly the very least invasive um that government can be then that's the better government. Um, government should not be trying to do for people what they can and should do for themselves. For example, um, I I think if we ask the people of the city what's important to them, very few of the electorate in in when I was knocking on doors asked me about potholes or the number of parks. Do we have the right ratio of parks to citizens? These are the decisions that we're going to make as counselors. That's not what's on the mind of the people. They want to know what is your stance on the right to life? When does life begin? Um they want to know what is your philosophy of crime and punishment. Um they want to know um what about growth? It's the number one issue on everybody's mind. We can't have no growth and we also can't have the explosive growth that we've seen over the last five years. So we have to make some sort of a coherent decision about what's our philosophy that we use. If it's a case- by case basis, then I I have real genuine concerns because the case by case, there's always a good reason to go uh against what the citizens want when it comes to these things. There's always a there's always that one angel on the ear that's going to whisper and say, uh, hey, this is really good for me because and please vote yes. So, I want to know, you know, what are those what are those values of yours? like do they I think everybody every door I went to they asked me what I think about boys being in girls locker rooms and you know are we going to make decisions on that I don't know um it's not typical you know it's mostly land use and planning as you know but people want to know the person who's making that land use decision what is their core value that they're using in order

to make that determination like for me it comes back to does this further the goals of the constitution for example um is it in line with the United States Constitution, the founding fathers, and what they envision our country to be, or is this some sort of UN agenda 2030 um overlay that they're trying to put on our on our uh town. So, these are the sorts of of things that I'm using in order that in order to make the decisions that I've made over the last 25 minutes now as a counselor. So, uh what what are your philosophical views um about those types of things? Thank you for the clarification. Well, I can tell you certainly with some of those issues that I don't think I've seen this council have to ask about or make a decision about. I think that I think that there how best to say this obvious I think obviously boys should not be in girls locker rooms. I don't think that that is an issue that our society should ever have been having to answer. I think that is axiomatic. It's self-evident. I've been a Roman Catholic all my life. I adhere to traditional Christian principles and that includes creation. That includes natural order designed by God, our creator. And I think anything out of alignment with God's design, I think that's that's not right. And that is how I make decisions is in alignment with what I understand to be how God designed the world. That said, I think uh just to hit a couple of the hot button examples that you gave, I think that life begins at conception. I think that I already answered boys do

not belong in girls locker rooms. Are there any other hot button questions you'd like to ask me?

Uh I can tell you you're probably good in a courtroom. There's no sweat right now. So, um I I would say uh certainly growth. That's the number one issue on people's mind here and that will come up every single council meeting. What type like what how how should this city look in 20 to 30 years? People are saying by 2040 the city's going to have 100,000 people in it. um this this council and the planning and zoning committee and and a lot of state and federal laws are going to have something to say about that. So what is your philosophy about that and what are your thoughts on postfalls having 100,000 people in it in you know 10 or 20 years? My initial instinct is that it scares me. I've seen it change. I've seen the the amount of the population growth. It has been substantial. But again, I I also understand that and I and I appreciate and acknowledge and I'm supportive of the private land ownership, the private rights of land owners. You know, owning my own property myself, I value that significantly. I haven't developed a property myself, but I think that that's it's important that we foster that, but we have to facilitate it as a council in a way that is sustainable and reasonable. It can't be unchecked. I mean, you've already identified you can't allow explosive growth, which would happen if the council was simply rubber stamping uh applications as they came through, which and I I want to be clear, I don't think that that's happening at all with this council. Um, but in if that were allowed to happen, I think that would be very problematic. So, there has to be a careful balance. And I and what I meant about the each individual application has to be considered in isolation. It's with respect to how that application not just impacts the neighbors around it but also in alignment with the comprehensive plan for postfalls. It has to be sustainable. There has to be infrastructure that can

support it. It can't cause so much congestion that all the other property owners rights are just they're they're gone. they can't get to work anymore or now their uh access to the freeway is now quadrupled in time overnight just because a development was allowed in without proper infrastructural support. Like there has to be sustainability in that growth. It can't just be allowed unchecked. But that said, there's a careful balance to be struck between ensuring that sustainability and not just denying private property owners the right to reasonably and rationally develop their land. I think that that's a careful balance that this council does well that I think is needs to continue and I think I can contribute to that.

Right. Thank you for your thoughtful answers and your willingness to serve. Thank you, Councelor Luca. Any further questions? All right, deliberation. You can take a seat. Thank you. I would move to approve the appointment of Jack Mosby to the city council. Second. We have a motion in a second. Please take the role. Flu I. Malloy. I. Ziggler. Nay. Stigler. I. Luca.

Hi. Motion passes. Thank you. So, I was waiting for my name and realized, okay, this is I don't get to do that anymore. You only have about 17 minutes of experience now. Yes. If everything goes right, you don't get to do it anymore. All right. Please come forward. Swear in.

Please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Idaho and that you will faithfully discharge the duties of counselor of the city of Postfalls, Idaho according to the best of your ability? I do swear.

Take your seat. Okay, next item up is the election of a council president. Now that we have a full contingent here, any motions to come forward? I move to elect Joe Malloy as council president. Second. A motion in a second. Further discussion. Please take the role. Who second the motion?

Oh, me. Sorry. Stigler. Stigle leader. Hi Ziggler. Hi Luca. Hi. Flu. I Malloy. I guess Mosby I. Motion passes. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you.

Okay. Next agenda item is um appointments to the urban renewal agency. Um Joe Rodriguez, please come forward. So you have all seen Joe's um application in the packet. Let's start off with the same thing. Tell us about yourself and why you're interested in serving on urban renewal.

Okay, Mr. Mayor, thank you for having me. Council members, uh pleasure to be here. Uh Joe Rodriguez, I'm originally from New Mexico. My wife and I, we moved up here in 2009 and we fell in love with the area. Uh our primary impetus for moving was we fell in love with the people here. We we thought that this would be a place where we could raise our kids. Uh I've been in business my whole life and I thought that this would be a place where our business could thrive and it has thrived uh thankfully since then. Uh my background uh I went to school for economics and finance and um I started my career uh some brief stints in corporate finance with Konico Phillips and oil and gas and uh some time at Los Alamos National Laboratory. I was a budget analyst for the nuclear weapons division there. I held a Q clearance which is the highest clearance allotted by the department of energy. I started a business in 2009 uh which I currently run and am president of um and we operate that here in Post Falls. Uh we employ um people here in Post Falls and we're happy to be here. Um very plugged in with the business community here both um in the Celane Chamber of Commerce, Postf Falls Chamber of Commerce as well as the Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce. Um, for what it's worth, small business of the year in Cordelane. We're still working on Post Falls. Give us time. Um, but in the last several years in particular, just really plugging in with Post Falls and taking a a vested interest more in our community and what it means long term to be plugged in with this community. Um, I also have five children and you wonder, okay, what is the future uh for us here as a family in Post Falls? more importantly for my my

children. Um thankfully I feel very secure in our financial and position with our our company and what we're doing and excited to be seeing that grow and exciting to grow and we just hired another local resident from here Gonzaga grad and um excited to do that and what that means for the families. I don't see that as a hire. I see that as an opportunity to support another family in this area. Um, as that pertains to why I'm here today and why, you know, I'm excited about what Urban Renewal does is it would just be an expansion of that role and what I've already been trying to do with my company. And it's providing opportunities for young families, providing opportunities for people who want to stay here. Uh ensuring that this region doesn't become a bedroom community for Spokane, ensuring that this region does not become uh simply a retirement community for California. and um using this I think a unique opportunity that we have in time to adjust the trajectory of postfalls and what we are going to do if we're going to ride our own path in our own economic future or if we're just going to be second fiddle to Spokane and Celane or really take the opportunity that we actually exist in between the and we're in the in the center of this metro corridor a growing corridor and we have some unique unique opportunities that we have here in Post Falls. Um, obviously many challenges, but in so much as we can affect that through urban renewal and through TIFF, I uh I look forward to exploring that. Um, and so I look forward to any questions you guys might have for me today.

I'll start again. Um, Mr. Rodriguez, thanks for being here tonight. Um, how much do you know about urban renewal? Well, go ahead and ask me. Uh I so I I actually my office is actually right next to uh Joseph John's who's a director. So uh over the last year or so um this this is usually kind of the topics we we've talked about just collegially. Good.

Um and then you know recently in the last few years um I'm sorry in the last few months rather uh I've I've taken the the opportunity to meet specifically with um a lot of the leaders of CDAC. So, their current and former chair, a lot of the the board members there. Um, I just had Nick Swain come up to my office um at the end of the year and just talking about what what these different players see as the challenges for this area specifically as it pertains to um economic development and then how urban renewal can tie into that and also just researching you know different strategies. So every every city has some leeway and and states for that matter in how they deploy urban renewal and tiff funds. Um you know postfalls in particularly has you know relatively a more conservative approach which I think is is prudent um and probably welcomed by uh the cont the constituents here. I mean we have three active districts right now. um it's not apples to apples, but Chicago, for example, has, you know, maybe upwards of 130 and so probably a lot more room for funny business uh going on there. So, I I appreciate the conservative approach at least that we've taken here with u urban renewal and uh the deployment of of tiff funds and and how we're approaching that. Um, and I think with the primary goal of creating jobs, which aligns really well with my personal goals for my family, my business, and you know, how I see the deployment of my time and strategic connections and resources.

Um, so that's good. It's it sounds like you're plugged in and and um have a have a good uh head start on it. What would you say? Can you give some examples of what would be like good merits uh or compelling reasons for opening a new urban and renewal district and some reasons that you know no that's that's a no-go.

Okay. So um I would think most people in Post Falls would are not clamoring for more apartments. So that would be a pretty easy example of what we don't want to deploy those funds for. Um, I don't think it's a good look and I don't think it's frankly what we need right now and a good use of uh, you know, of those funds and resources. Um, I think we the districts that we have now. So, um, for those that don't know, we have the downtown district uh, which is here and in Mil Works. um anywhere that's blighted in general or uh in need of development. Across the street from us, we have a development four-story structure going up 50,000 square feet that that is sitting over several sites that were basically poisoned ground. And if you can imagine from a finance perspective, who would want to touch something like that? And which is why it sat blighted for so long. I don't know the specifics of that project, but that that's the general framework. If you have a property that's blighted that would otherwise be very high risk to develop, you can come in and help to derisk that project a little bit uh particularly there because that's that that's a cornerstone of our community and to have it just be a you know a boarded up uh building. It's just not a good look for postfalls. I don't think long term that's what we want. And so economic development and the use of tiff funds are one way where we can kind of um you know help move the needle in in addressing some of these blighted areas and the other would be on just like uh e economic opportunity side. So um you know we have the the pleasant view district and so there hasn't been a lot of action there but you know in the future that could be a zone with a lot of potential. We have a rail spur coming in there. We're going to have the overpass that's going to be completed soon. Obviously, it's strategically located by Spokane and in between

Celane. And so that that region has a lot going for it. So, you know, in the future, if if Urban Renewal is partnering and and communicating a lot with uh CDADC and groups like that, we can use that as a real selling point that otherwise wouldn't be it would be really hard to get someone to go out there because there's so much infrastructure. You know, we probably need a lift station. It might be a $6 million lift just to get sewage out there. But how much of a benefit would it be for that city rather than that site just lie lying empty? And meanwhile, right across the road, we have all this development going in and they're dumping straight in over the aquafer into their septic systems. If we had uh septic or sewage out there, for example, it would make it a lot easier to tap in for those properties. So, it's kind of a a bigger strategic picture. you're looking at things like that and um you know how we can use these fund it's it's one of the few tools that we actually have that we can address this um and then working with the private sector to uh make projects more financially attractive. Yeah, if I can just steal one more question, guys. One of the biggest criticisms in this area and and I frankly if people are awake, I think it should be a criticism anywhere and I don't know if you know a way or a lever that urban renewal could uh pull to um as far as concerning a lot of the the criticism is that it's outside developers, you know, from outside of Idaho um that are coming in and making all the money and walking off with it. Is there is there a lever in urban renewal that can be pulled to make it more of an Idaho centric project?

Well, if if that is the goals of the council, we can take that into consideration when evaluating these projects. So, I mean, Mill Works, if you look at um we got kind of a a gem, you know, one of the few beautiful buildings that has exists in Post Falls was built there and the the gals that are running that are are local. So, that's not certainly the case with all of them. I think all things considered, we would want investment to be from local and for those funds to to stay local. But um you know if outside investment comes in, I mean Cisco came in into one of the projects and they brought in 200 jobs. Um, so, you know, am I going to look down on those 200 jobs, uh, you know, talk to those 200 families that that's directly affecting and just, well, you know, of course not. You know, all things considered, we would rather have Cisco there. And they're they're talking about expanding that another 200 jobs potentially um in that area. And so, that's a direct result of uh TIFF funds that have been deployed. And, you know, they're not local. they're a big national company and and you may not like that, but um we do like the jobs and if we're balancing that off with any other uh you know there's always going to be some externalities that need to be taken into consideration, but we're looking at all of that and you know if that's something that the council feels is important then then we can you know we can weigh the scale more on let's try and encourage local businesses, local development. I know personally there are a lot of sleeper companies in Post Falls and in the county that you wouldn't have never heard of that are doing amazing things in our community and that actually have a lot of potential to to blow up. Um maybe and I think we need to be supporting those um but also not to leave because that that's another thing we can't take for granted that the companies that we have now are going to stay here and so that's also part of the conversation.

Excellent answer. Thank you. Well, I don't I don't want to steal Nathan's questions, so I have questions. I have no questions. Oh, okay. Cool. Well, uh, what do you see as the biggest risk for the community in having URDS open or utilizing like TIFF funding?

Uh, so I alluded to it earlier. I think a big one is with uh projects like apartments. So, um, and then you know balancing those externalities. So anytime you bring in new development, it's taxing our services. So the benefit and I think why the uh urban renewal has focused more on job developments which which I agree with in bringing in businesses rather than housing projects for example like in some areas in some cities municipalities they'll use them specifically for housing projects. Um the problem I can see there um is that you're you're taxing fire particularly apartments because any any of these highdensity housing you're taxing fire you're taxing uh police obviously you're taxing the schools and and you're not bringing any additional revenue to coincide with that. Ideally in the long run if implemented properly these tiff programs are going to be a huge tax windfall once everything comes to a close. So the goal is actually to create more revenue for this. I I know that's uh a big thing talking with police and fire is that we need higher salaries for police, fire, school, and more funding for that. Okay. So what are our options? It's raise taxes or economic development. Okay. So we have to choose uh between those two and most people don't want higher taxes. So this is one way of addressing that without raising taxes uh but yet uh being equitable to our our teachers, our firefighters, our police. We all want those services when we pick up the phone in in the case of an emergency,

right? So then the risk would be during the development when the funds are still

the risk would be the risk would be not uh deploying the funds towards projects that are going to tax these entities through externalities at a higher rate as opposed to like a business. So if a if a business opens up that's going to impose less taxes and I'm using tax in in in in the burden term. a business isn't necessarily specifically going to add more kids to a school district like an apartment would per se. And so we want to be strategic in how uh we're we're deploying these new districts um and making sure that we're doing it in a way that is not putting more burden on the taxpayer and is actually going to be a windfall for the taxpayer in the long run. U the other the other obvious concern is just transparency too. I mean these are very convoluted uh processes. They're very confusing to most people. almost most um you know people that live in Post Falls would have never heard of urban renewal and they they don't know what tiff or tax increment financing is or how that works. So just making sure we're very transparent about the process and that making people sure people don't know that we're not just it's not money in cash that the city is handing out to these businesses to these developers. So then perhaps succinctly, how would you respond to the many residents that we have in Post Falls that are not confident that URDs are something that we should be utilizing? Um there there are a lot of people that kind of find them a little bit hinky and not particularly trustworthy and maybe not something that we should be utilizing whether it's for the specific project and a what for test. What but for I'm going to get it someday. But for so,

but like succinctly, what would your answer be? Not to a council that deals with these things all the time, but a resident who has reasonable concerns for something that they don't understand all of the paperwork of. Sure. Step one is invite them to the meetings. I think I'm the first person to Okay.

one of these meetings. So, uh, yeah, that would be step one. These are these are open meetings. They're transparent. I went to the just as a regular resident. and I went to one of the the the finance meetings and they welcomed me and I could ask questions and and so that would be simple if there's someone truly concerned about that. I would uh I would u obviously have an open door policy but also just those those meetings are open. They are transparent. Um to the general question of people that don't like uh development in general. Um you know based on the laws and the constitution of the United States and the state of Idaho, we can't control people doing what they want with their property if they're doing it legally. So if someone's going to build something, they're going to build it. And so we don't have control over that specifically, but we can help like I said with blighted areas. Um there there are there are people that in our community that suffer from living by blighted areas or areas that are lacking infrastructure and development. Um and these same type of people might not want higher taxes. So again, with government, there's no perfect solutions. There's only trade-offs. And so it's finding the balance in that.

Okay. No, I appreciate that answer. Thank you. So, you're a Thomas Soul fan? A Yeah. Uh you did mention that you met with uh you know current former members in Celane. Have you met with the any current or former Post Falls or New Commission members? And uh how were those discussions uh with urban renewal? I have I have not other than Joseph John's who I just end up I talked to him an hour today just just passing him in the hallway. So I I see him pretty regularly and so we um just collegially had these kind of conversations just uh for fun, you know, over the last year or so.

So if you're interested in being on this board, why did you not feel compelled to reach out to the current uh board members to see what's going on, what their feelings are, what their direction is? Uh, so I didn't even know this was going to be frankly an open position until like a few months ago. Um, so yeah, I I probably would have benefited from some of those conversations. Okay. Other than that, they already they already got my questions. So further questions, Mr. Rodriguez, it's uh I according to your resume here, you have principally uh fed your family with your uh small business since 2009. Is that right?

Yes, sir.

That's very impressive. And and I don't think anyone who hasn't done that doesn't really understand that um what it takes to run a small business. I have done it. I've done it well at times and poorly at times. and uh since I went back to work for a corporation, it feels like a vacation compared to owning my own business. So, uh I just want to commend you on that and I think it's it is a qualification certainly and shows your um your stake in this community. So, I appreciate that and what you bring to the community through that and the very impressive award that you and your business was awarded as a CDA small business of the year. So, congratulations on that. Um I did want to ask you uh kind of along the same as what I asked uh councelor Mosby like what is what do you view as the proper role of government? Uh so I don't think there should be boys in girls restrooms for but yeah generally um limited government limited government um you know I'm a business owner so I I tend to hold views of a lot of small business owners and in that regulation unnecessary red tape um it can be a real hindrance to to doing business. I'm also a property owner and so um you know anytime you you do something on your property and and and you have these government regulation things that you have to deal with. I can however appreciate the role in government. Um I I do appreciate then uh you know we have a responsive fire department that if there's an emergency at my home I know we can expect people to arrive that our our our roads are plowed and things like that. And so I I appreciate the role that government serves in that. I think um particularly local governments, they need to focus on on the real meat and potatoes of government. So public safety, uh public infrastructure, and as much as possible staying out of the way of res residents that aren't

doing anything illegal.

Great. Thank you. Um, following up, one of the questions that I've had as I look at our URDS, they're there to um to help rehabilitate blight. And then I look at Prairie and 41 and say, is this field blight? Um, you know, some of these URDs that we've had in the past, like these don't really look like blighted areas. These look like areas ripe for development that maybe somebody wants to have the taxpayers, as councelor Stigler uh referenced, some people believe that we're having the taxpayers subsidized developers in areas that aren't really blighted. Do you have any thoughts on that of like what is what is blight and what should this URD be used for or not used for? Yeah. And I I believe blight actually has a technical definition um in in state law. So I'm not sure exactly what that is. I think we all know it when we see it kind of a thing. Uh but that is one of the risks with uh with deploying tiff funds towards you don't want to cannibalize um development that would have happened anyway. So that might be one way to look at it is like, okay,

if we had just let this lot alone, would someone eventually in a reasonable amount of time come in and done something with it? Or is this lot uh toxic waste, maybe sometimes literally where it's just, hey, no one's going to do anything with this. This is kind of a Keystone uh uh lot in our city and we need, you know, it's in a strategic location or it's right off the highway or something like that. Um I don't have a lot of history on all the closed districts but I know for me personally that would be something uh at least a personal test is you know again it goes back the technical but for you know would this have existed but for urban renewal and so you know that is uh going to be a strong thing on the scale at least for me personally is yeah we don't want to cannibalize something that would have happened already. We want to look for opportunities to create something that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

Thank you. I appreciate that answer. Um I'd also say that the the majority of people that I've talked to during the campaign, they don't know what a URD is. Um but the people that do know tend to be very concerned about the fact that if you look if you look at uh about the cannibalization of funds from other services and if you look at the fact that the fire department uh just had to have a levy that that didn't uh pass that could partially be blamed on the fact that URD funds are used for for um particularly residential and they don't have access to those funds and certainly there are other city departments that would fall in that same category, the fire department. Now, through state law has some mitigating um ability to back out of that, but other departments don't. So, when URDs come up before you, if you're confirmed to this, do you have any thoughts on um I know that you said something that was very dear to my heart, which is that it shouldn't be used for residential um because that does add a lot of stress on the system, and I appreciate that. Um but do you have any other thoughts on that about how it does it does take funds away and um th that can lead to tax increases on citizens to pay for things because as you said would this be developed now we've funded the developer but we've pass the tax burden on to the taxpayers because the show has to go on.

Yeah. Yeah. And then just as a point of clarification and maybe even for uh people in the audience, the funds that are going to the developer are actually funds that are generated by taxing the actual developer themselves. So it's a it's a new pool of funds. You can imagine a vacant lot generating very little in tax revenue and now you put a building on it and now there's there's a higher tax revenue base uh for that. So those all those funds from that um new construction new development will eventually go back to the city once the once the development zone closes. So at some point the the city the fire and however we divvy up those funds will go um to all the various entities but there is an initial period to entice that uh investment for them to go back. So, so part of that comes to a little bit misunderstanding on how those um funds are allocated or and even generated to begin with. Some of it too um might be um the perception some of our peers um u maybe in Celane or in other municipalities or if people have come from other markets where it really is uh abused quite a bit more. Um uh particularly I think the danger is specifically with residential and if we're funding apartment complexes, those are those are really going to tax uh uh fire and police and and schools for that matter at a higher rate. So I think that that would be um a pretty easy thing to avoid in general. Um but so yeah, I think part of that will will come down to just educating on like where those funds are actually coming from because the the money comes from the new development. it's not uh coming from the taxpayer unless it's done improperly and the and like I said we we're bringing in a bunch of new u tax on the services without revenue to go alongside of it.

Thank you. Further questions? All right. Thank you, Mr. Rodriguez. You can take Council Council, how would you like to act? I move to approve Joe Rodriguez on the urban agency. I lost the verb there in the middle. Sorry. Second. Thanks. Motion in a second. Further discussion. Please take the role. Sigleer I. Luca I. PL I. Malloy. I. Mosby I. Ziggler I.

Motion passes. Thank you. Um next is um Dominic Paranteer. Dominic could not be here today. He's out of the country um traveling and and so just briefly about him, he has almost 30 years of experience in big infrastructure projects. He's a licensed civil engineer in Idaho. He's currently the VP of engineering at Condan Johnson. Um he knows exactly how much big infrastructure projects cost. I've seen him look at projects and he can tell you how deep something needs to go, what kind of foundation it needs, what the amount needs to be. Um, and I I think that's very valuable when determining what is reasonable to reimburse and in planning out these districts. Uh, and so I think that experience is very valuable. He's also um currently on the East Green Acres Board and has served on the um county aquifer protection board. So he already knows how these boards work. He has that experience. He can kind of hit the ground running and and jump right into infrastructure u projects like this. Um he's also a as a as a family guy, he's a farmer um here on the outside of town and he has a honesty box where he sells corn from you know from his land in front of his house. Um so cares a lot about the community and protecting the soil and the aquifer as well. Um the reason I'm asking for his um for his confirmation in absencia is because while we could push this to the 20th and do an interview with him then the urban renewal board has a meeting on the 15th where they have to elect officers for the new year and I would much prefer the board is fully constituted uh especially with someone of of Mr. Ponteer's caliber who I think would make probably an excellent officer on that board. And so how you would like to act with that is is up to you. We can either have a motion to u to confirm him now or a motion to um defer this to the 20th. So I I'll leave that to you guys.

I move to confirm uh Dominic Parintter to serve on the urban renewal agency commission. Second motion in a second. Further discussion. I have concerns that we don't get to talk to him especially with a background in so much development which concerns me slightly. I appreciate that he's very good at it, but then you keep doing the things that you are good at and sometimes that's not always the right answer, but in lie of what you're saying that they need to be functioning quickly and it just didn't work out. I don't know how you change an out of the country trip. I don't get to go on them, but I'm sure it's very difficult. Um I could be convinced by other council members if you feel like it is necessary that we do this in absentia.

Well, I just feel bad for Joe Rodriguez. He had to go through all that and this guy gets off with nothing. No, I I understand what you're saying, Sam. Uh, but I mean, it's tough because you know what you're making a compelling case for this for this guy. He seems to have a good background. Um, looking over his stuff, he looks solid and we don't want to miss out on that talent being deployed as quickly as possible with these um pending changes coming up. So, I would support it. Okay.

I would I would argue that Mr. Pomonte has the kind of resume that's exactly what you look for for this kind of position. Also, I understand your concerns as well. The the good news is that uh we as the elected folks up here, if there's going to be any new urban renewal district proposed, uh it has to have the the projects laid out in advance before we ever vote on it. So, it's just because he's a developer doesn't mean that he can slide stuff in there because it's what he does. We have to approve that first. So, okay. Uh, I think his experience in public service and in in civil engineering would be invaluable to that board and I would I would uh propose we move forward now.

Yeah, I would agree. I have my I have my concerns about putting my name on approval of someone who isn't here, but at the same time, as as councelor Malloy mentioned, you know, we do provide direct oversight over any proposals that they would bring forth. So, I'm comfortable with with confirming.

I also agree with councelor Malloy. I have a real problem with voting for him in absentia. Um I think that this resume is impeccable and I really trust your appointing ability. Um and having vetted somebody like this, but I I do have a problem with that. Um the only thing that could mitigate that for me is if I knew what is the danger of if they're if he is not seated on the 15th, what will happen on the URD? Um are they unable to complete their their work or he just won't be able to vote on the officers? the the officer election is a big one. I think someone of his caliber is a really good fit for an officer. Um and I would like him to be at the board and have it fully constituted so that we don't have just just like what we did here. We seated everybody and then we had an election for an officer on the board for council president. And I I would like to have that same process play out there. Um, I would also like to get that board up and running um as soon as possible. Do the orientation for both new members at the same time and um kind of wrap up this Pleasant View urban renewal district because that's been something we've talked about shutting down with no plan. We have an urban renewal district that doesn't have anything going on in it. Um, and we had talked about shutting that down, but right now we've had changes to council and changes to urban renewal and and that discussion should be refreshed and make sure that this is still the plan and everybody's still good with it. no other objections or other reasons and then we can move forward and and kind of get that cleaned up which I think would be good and I don't want to delay that more than we need to. I think getting that cleaned up sooner is better

and if I understand the process correctly any decisions they make other than officers or internal are going to come before the council. Right. Okay. In light of that I will uh I will give a pass on this and and I will vote I Okay, we already have a motion and a second on the floor. So please take the role. Stigler leader. Hi, Luca. Hi, PL. Hi, Mallaloy. Hi, Mosby. Hi, Ziggler. Hi. All right, motion passes. Thank you. We have a fully uh functional board.

Um, next up is uh citizen issues. This section of the agenda is reserved for citizens wishing to address the council regarding city related issues that are not on the agenda. Is there anyone who would like to speak to bring any issues to our attention? We have one. All right. Do we have the timer? All right. And state your name for the record, please.

Okay. My name is Jasmine Reid. Thank you for having me. Um, council members and mayor. Um, I'm here to address our issues with our homeowners association. I am um member of the homeowners association on Harmony Place, which is Pleasant View and Idaho Street. And um just a little bit about the background of our homeowners association. Uh it was developed in 1995 and there were uh several homeowners that have talked to me that said they weren't aware that it was an HOA when the when it was developed. Um, since then when I moved into my house, I bought property uh in uh 14 years ago and I received a letter from a lawyer saying that we did not have a board and that we needed to have a meeting to elect a board. And so, um, I attended that meeting and, uh, it was quite messy. A lot of homeowners didn't really understand what was going on. And uh there at that point was one uh lady who was running the board. She was an exclusive uh board member and she had passed away and so the city had appointed this lawyer to come over because we weren't paying our bills. Um since then the struggle to maintain a board for the HOA has been very difficult. It's caused a lot of contention in our neighborhood. There are several um there have been death threats to board members. There have been uh we made a a movement to start dissolving the HOA. We got 70 votes out of the hundred houses that want to dissolve the HOA. um about 20% of our homeowners attend meetings and so it made it almost impossible to ever reach a quorum and

vote out officers or vote to change CCNRs or anything like that. Um 35% of our homeowners are delinquent for paying dues. There's several houses who have had leans on them because we had lost the one president previously. There were absolutely no records for the first, you know, 20 years of our development on on delinquency or leans or anything like that. And she kept everything on her personal computer. So that was that was nothing that we could ever retrieve. Um, so the there has been a recent lawsuit against the HOA and in that lawsuit there was a settlement that the board wasn't did not agree with and the um uh there because of because of that we lost the lawsuit. There was a settlement. the person um we ended up losing our our uh landscaping company that we had had for like 20 or 30 years. And after that he there were there was some issues with finding another one maybe because of word of mouth or because of word had gotten around about the unstable HOA and this this person that had property there and um they and so the company that we ended up hiring charged three times more. So, uh, I just wanted to present this issue to the board and to the council members about the struggle that we're having there. Anybody who has been on the board is ineligible to be on the board due to our CCNRs and most people have zero to little interest on being on the board. Right now, we have two people that are active on it. Definitely will have one foot out the door and probably nobody to

take over. um the area that we have, it's a very small HOA and the city already maintains the area surrounding our HOA and we would really be interested in dissolving this and not having this be part of our legal obligations. We've had issues with um defunct HOAs in the city before. It's a it's a sad thing to see that happen and I understand the pain from that. Uh Mr. Harrington, have we had any interaction with this particular one? Not to my knowledge, I don't have anything uh from uh but I believe uh director Seal has had some interactions.

Okay. So, um perhaps we can have the staff get back to us um shortly with more information about it from our side and then we can see if there's anything we can do to help. Okay. I'd appreciate that. And I know that um we have talked before about how it's difficult if you allow one HOA to dissolve and other ones are having issues, but I just feel like it's these are extrenuating circumstances and it's incredibly difficult for us. We're looking at operating on a budget that might be bankrupt in six months. And uh right now we're just looking for some support so we don't have so many so much conflict within our neighborhood because it's it's causing a lot of stress.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you. We'll get back to you and see if there's anything we can do. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else who would like who would like to come speak? Okay. Um seeing none on to mayor and council comments. I'll just say thank you everyone for coming out. It's been great to see the seats filled. These meetings are usually very empty. Um and it's really great to see the community come out like this. I think we've got a bright future ahead. There's a lot of energy now and I'm excited to see where we can go with it. Um and also a blessed feast of the Epiphany. Um council comments.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um politics as we know can be kind of an ugly business sometimes and I think in the last week we saw an attempt to frame the appointment process in a way that was um that was uh trying to I believe uh color the the um administration that was incoming with uh unfairly. the process was followed the state law uh to the letter and um I was just disappointed to see that some disgruntled uh political activists might want to cast shade on that. Um but it but largely in this business of of governing most of us on the big issues of you know is barbecue good or um are parks fun to sit in on a sunny day or whatever. like we agree on most of the big things. Like we want our families to thrive and all that and we disagree in a town like this who's largely politically conservative. Most of us sort of agree on the fundamentals and that is great but where we disagree we can sometimes um make opponents and even enemies out of people that if we weren't in politics we would uh we would be friends and and all of that and and get along just perfectly. And so, um, where I'm going with this is that I could have moved my family anywhere when I moved to Post Falls, um, you know, for the most part. And I chose this city in this area for some very specific reasons. And it it is because of the work that those who sat on this body um, in the past have done. Um, and so I just wanted to publicly thank as this is the first meeting that we've had without councelor Davis and without uh now ex-meor um Jacobson that I wanted to thank uh both of them for their service. Uh Ryan and Jamie Davis both have put a lot of work into this community and raised uh some what all accounts say are fine children here and I think that they

deserve a lot of credit for that. uh as well as serving on the uh the board for the uh planning and zoning for 10 years and this council. And then as far as Mayor Jacobson, I was in high school when he joined this board and I am not young. Um so that's a lot of Tuesdays and a lot of other days and all that. And I think that um it's just worth mentioning that that u that's a lot of service that made this city the place that I wanted to relocate my family and thousands of other people who have made this the 70th fastest growing city in the United States have felt the same way. So I just felt that that needed to be said. Uh and finally, I'm just excited to join such a distinguished group of perhaps now younger uh uh talent on this board and um hopefully to contribute and to uh to see the values of the people that put us here uh put into action. So, thank you and congratulations on your election, Mr. Mayor.

Further comments? Yes. Oh, you go. Just real quick, I just wanted to say uh councelor Luca, councelor Mosby, welcome. Councelor Ziggler, councelor PL, welcome back. Thank you, mayor. Congratulations. I'm excited for the next two to four years. That's all I got.

Okay. Well, mine's of a very different tone. And so, Mr. Mayor, I appreciate the comment that you made earlier about the process. Um, I feel like you were very positive and very vague about many of the comments that were made about what we're doing here, but um, my intention is to not be vague. So, my comments are regarding the letter to the editor that were made on January 2nd in the CDA press. Um, there was a comment and I'll just go claim by claim and how they are factually untrue and how I don't think that it's appropriate that these are the things that um all that we're allowed to hear. And so, the claim was made that there's no call for public applications. And the truth of the matter is that on December 16th, around the five minute mark of this meeting here that's available on YouTube for you to review, the former mayor Ron Jacobson actually asked the public to come down to the city council uh city hall and fill out an application. So there was in point of fact a very public call for applications to be submitted. Um the candidate quote was chosen solely by him. I can only assume the him was you, Mr. Mayor. Um, but as you've all seen, it was not solely chose by him. Five of us got to vote on who was going to take that seat. And quite frankly, we all could have voted no. Three of us could have voted no and he would have had to pick someone else. So, it's not truly solely chosen by the mayor as it wasn't the last two times and as it wasn't any time prior to that. Um, the no opportunity for citizen input on the appointment of a city council seat, right? because that would be an election. And while it would be ideal that we could have a public election for every vacated seat, that's just quite frankly not reasonable if we want to keep running a city well and judiciously and to the liking of our residents. Um the other comment was unlike Cordelane, thank goodness, Post Falls has offered no transparency. As you can all see, that's categorically untrue as well. We interviewed both of these candidates publicly and recorded and all of the information that I had prior to this meeting was available to every resident

on the city's website at the same time that it was available to me. So, I don't know that we could be more transparent than what we were. I'd also like to speak to some of the comments that were made in another article where some people that were sitting up here were quoted and some people that were no longer sitting up here were quoted. Um, there was uh I'll just read what I wrote. So, while former memory mayor Jacobson suggests that interviews, resumes, and council involvement were historically required, the standard was not consistently applied even to his own appointments. In December of 23, multiple appointments were approved. And applications in that packet that you can go look at were actually entirely blank other than saying what seat that they were applying for and the date and signature at the bottom of that application. In March of 21, there were three there were additional appointments made. Neither applications nor résumés were available in that packet. um my on the packet itself it says that there is limited seating. I don't know if that's true, but during that time we all know that people weren't meeting as much. So it seems as though you would actually want to have more written transparency in a time that we were not all coming down here to ask questions publicly. Um I'll skip that paragraph for brevity. As for the some of these are planning and zoning seats and I would argue that planning and zoning has just as much influence over land use and development as this elected board but it should be noted that none of the planning and zoning seats are ever up for public election. They are only appointed seats. So if you want transparency and questioning and resume planning and zoning is a place where we really need to be diligent about that which is something that when the two counselors that caused the current problems as it was alluded to in this article pushed for in the last two years very heavily I might add. Now some of these examples demonstrate that problems did exist and that the so-called two new counselors were not attempting to obstruct but rather secure the blessings of good governments by seeking improvement. And while the three candidate process was by no means perfect, we are continuing to work for a format of a more perfect

process, which I think is important and something that we would all agree with. Um, it's clear what we're doing now is clearer, more consistent, and worthy of public trust. Efforts to undermine the work through factually inaccurate commentary and letters to the press do not strengthen civic confidence, but they make it harder, not easier, to arrive at a process that reflects the transparency, accountability, and respect for the public that we serve. Sorry, I know we were having such a fine meeting, but um I just don't think it's appropriate. My email is on the website. Many people have contacted me over the phone. I'm always happy to talk about these issues, but I really don't think that it does our really wonderful city any favors with this infighting and being upset about something when it's not going the way that you want it to be, but having no input for the last since Mr. Luca was in high school when it was done a different way. So, congratulations, Mr. Mayor. It was a really fun evening.

Thank you. Further council comments. All right. Do we still need the executive session? It's on the agenda. Okay. No, we do not need an executive session. Okay. So, not doing executive session. So, is there any other business to come forward before we adjourn? All right. Hearing none, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you, everyone.