Hayden lawsuit becomes campaign issue

HAYDEN — A Hayden City Council candidate is claiming the incumbent he is running against will see personal financial gain from a class-action lawsuit against the city.

Hayden City Council member Tim Timmins disagrees with his opponent, Matt Roetter.

“I would not benefit in any way,” Timmins said in a phone interview with The Press Thursday.

The lawsuit, filed in 1st District Court in Kootenai County in April 2012, challenges the legality of a fee paid in order to get a building permit. The North Idaho Building Contractors Association, a nonprofit trade association, claims in the lawsuit that a sewer capitalization fee is being used to generate revenue for the city and expand the city’s sewer system when the fee should only be used to pay for operation and maintenance of the existing system.

The fee was found legal by District Court Judge Benjamin Simpson, who dismissed the complaint. NIBCA appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court where the district court ruling was vacated. The case was returned to the district court to give the city an opportunity to provide information showing that the sewer capitalization fee can be justified using a different methodology than previously used. NIBCA is seeking a refund of the fees paid to date.

“Even if they said I got the money, it belongs to the people who bought the homes,” Timmins said, adding that the fees in question were passed along to the homeowners so any refunds would rightfully go to them.

Timmins, who owns Eagle Ridge Builders, Inc. and is a director on the NIBCA board, said he has no connection to the case and, as a Hayden City Council member, he has refrained from participating in any council deliberation regarding the case.

“If it did come forth, I would recuse myself because of a conflict of interest,” he said. “I just stay away from it.”

Timmins’ opponent in the upcoming election, Matt Roetter, said he requested Eagle Ridge’s building permit records and found the sewer capitalization fees to total $106,000, money he believes will go directly to Timmins if the lawsuit is successful.

“The people that he built houses for didn’t sign those papers,” he said. “He’s the one, based on the lawsuit.”

Roetter disagrees with Timmins’ statement that he has had no connection to the case.

“The first time he ever recused himself was a meeting the first of September, and that’s because I was asking him questions,” Roetter said. “That’s a bunch of baloney that he recused himself.”

Timmins said while he is affiliated with NIBCA and is a life director for the organization, he has no idea what is happening with the case because he is so far removed from it.

“If my opponent wanted to say something about a conflict of interest, why doesn’t he talk about Ron McIntire and Walmart?” he said. “He’s just doing dirty politics.”

Roetter said he feels the bottom line of the lawsuit is that the builders want to pass the fees to the citizens so they don’t have to pay them, and he is concerned that Hayden could go bankrupt.

Roetter said if Councilman Timmins is really interested in the welfare of the city and citizens of Hayden, he should move to have supporting organizations help pay the legal fees of the city for the lawsuit and have the lawsuit dropped. Hayden City Administrator Stefan Chatwin confirmed the city’s legal fees surrounding the case are around $400,000.

“There may be some ethics and some statute violations here,” Roetter said. “You can’t be on both sides of a lawsuit.”

Timmins said he is transparent about the issue and has no problem speaking to the media.

“I’m not hiding anything,” he said. “I’m not afraid to talk about anything.”