A question of conflict of interest
COEUR d'ALENE — An awkward silence punctuated an otherwise fiery debate early Friday morning as incumbent Hayden City Councilman Tim Timmins stood his ground against accusations made by his opponent, Matt Roetter.
"Were you ever in attendance at a Hayden City Council meeting where you voted to go into executive session where there was a lawsuit discussed?" Roetter questioned Timmins. When Timmins answered "No," Roetter said he has documents stating otherwise.
"Not where this lawsuit with (North Idaho Building Contractors Association) was discussed," Timmins said.
Both men came prepared to the North Idaho Pachyderm Club meeting at IHOP, where more than 20 people attentively listened to the debate, which included opening statements and rebuttal after rebuttal.
The hot issue was the ongoing class action lawsuit against the city of Hayden. NIBCA claims a sewer capitalization fee is being used to generate revenue for the city's sewer system, when it should only be used to pay for operation and maintenance of the existing system. The fee was found legal by district court and NIBCA appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court, which said the city of Hayden needs to find a new methodology for justifying the fee.
Roetter challenged Timmins on the topic regarding his position as a city councilman for Hayden, the defending side, as well as being a member of NIBCA, a plaintiff in the case. Timmins owns Eagle Ridge Builders, a business that is a member of the organization.
"How can you be voting and suing at the same time?" Roetter asked.
"I'm not 'suing,' I'm part of that only because I belong to the organization," Timmins replied. "That doesn't mean, when it says, '50 John Does' on that lawsuit, I might have said that I don't want to be one of those."
"The newspaper quoted you as saying you had a conflict of interest, is that true or false?" Roetter pressed.
"It's true, because I belong to the organization," Timmins said.
The room was quiet for a moment as everyone absorbed the dialogue, then Pachyderm Club president Bob Brooke opened the discussion to questions from the audience.
"It was exciting," Brooke said. "During the election season, we try to get people to come that are in contested races and then we have this back and forth situation. We've done that before. Sometimes it's just people talking about their position on city or county items, or even Idaho. But this was a little more exciting. We had a real direct back and forth with rebuttal."
While Timmins and Roetter do not see eye to eye on the lawsuit topic, they both expressed their dedication to the health and happiness of Hayden and its citizens and pledged to work toward the betterment of their city.
Timmins said he is battling the stigma that Hayden is difficult to work with.
"We want to take the stigma out of there," he said. "We still have a lot of work to do, that's why I'm running again."
Roetter said his "special interest group" is the people of Hayden.
"I want the best for the citizens of Hayden," he said. "That's where my heart is."