How many votes can a million bucks buy?

Someone on the Coeur d’Alene City Council may end up getting an unexpected — and perhaps unwanted — Christmas bonus this year.

Resident Tonya Mahoney said she grew tired of what she sees as a lack of accountability in her hometown’s council decisions. As a solution, she started a GoFundMe campaign Wednesday as a testament to unabashed transparency.

Mahoney’s goal is to raise $1 million toward the purchase of a Coeur d’Alene City Councilmember.

“It was started as a lark,” she admitted to The Press, “a poke in the eye to City Council — performance art, if you will.”

Mahoney stated in her GoFundMe post that she has no intent of actually raising funds, but rather raising awareness and inspiring community action. That said, she’s organizing documentation if people decide to contribute.

“... I realized that if the funds were raised, we’d need to have a vehicle to distribute them that [Federal Election Commission] wouldn’t have an issue with. So, we’re looking into starting a [political action committee] now, whether or not we raise funds with the [GoFundMe] account,” she said.

Mahoney posted during the campaign launch that her fundraiser was a response to what she perceived as a self-interested government body gone astray.

“For too long, our City Council has ignored the will of their citizens,” the post read, “while padding their professional and personal agendas — under the false agenda of city progress.

“As their tactic has seemed to work for some time now, it would be prudent for us, the citizens, to get on board with it. For the sake of progress, of course!”

While the tongue-in-cheek bid for a two-comma solution started in jest, not all involved find the humor in Mahoney’s campaign.

“[It’s] a bit discouraging that so much of the national division and strife keeps streaming down to the local level, as well,” Coeur d’Alene Councilmember Dan English said. “I get it that it’s a joke, and I have a pretty good sense of humor, but it does get old when [it’s] a constant personal attack trying to be disguised as something else.”

While fellow Councilmember Woody McEvers said he laughed when he originally saw the GoFundMe page, he admitted it cuts him to hear accusations of impropriety at City Hall.

“The council I know and the people that work for the city, they’d be devastated for someone to [imply bribery]...” he said. “I don’t think it’s about gaining access; I think it’s about gaining agreement. Just because I or someone on the Council might disagree, that doesn’t mean we’re crooks, and I think if people took the time to educate themselves on why we each vote the way we do, I don’t think they’d come to the same conclusion.”

While English rejected Mahoney’s assertion his vote could be bought, he did say it should be legislatively incumbent on all elected officials to be as transparent as possible.

“One other practical option I believe would help the situation in general is to have all elected officials who run for office in Idaho have to submit financial disclosures including tax returns for the most recent three to four years,” he suggested. “That could settle, once and for all, if elected folks are financially gaining in a corrupt way from their public position.”

English conceded, however, that legislating this idea into existence is easier said than done.

“I don’t hold out much chance of that happening, as it has been offered on many occasions and in different forms to the Idaho Legislature,” he said. “But they refuse to pass reforms to have more disclosures if you are going to run for public office. This is another case where Idaho is way back in the pack, and I don’t believe this is good for the public interest or their comfort and trust levels. That would be an easy but major improvement to our system.”

English said he still ultimately resents the implication he was for sale simply because he does not always agree with certain constituents.

“I think the real issue is that when some people give their opinions but that doesn’t happen to be what ends up being decided, their response seems to be, ‘They are not listening,’ instead of, ‘Well, I got to say what I think, and even though a different decision was made, at least I was listened to.’ There is a big difference.”

Those decisions include approval of the new Health Corridor district, a 5-1 decision despite a late surge of online comments, letters to the editor and an in-person push of dissenting voices at the Tuesday night council meeting. That vote, Mahoney said, was the last in a culmination of choices that finally broke her silence.

“The straw that broke the camel’s back was the passing of the Health Corridor,” she said. “Previous to that (just this year) was the favoritism afforded Diamond Parking, art removal in Riverstone, [the] pernicious blessing of real-estate grabs in the name of innovation and tacit support of an Airbnb economy. None of which appears, with any research, to be for the benefit of the citizenry of North Idaho, and is arguably counter to our culture and values.”

Councilmember Dan Gookin, a self-described fiscal hawk who often champions English’s sentiment for more transparency in government, voted against the Health Corridor to the cheers of a distrustful portion of the Coeur d’Alene population. After Mahoney launched her GoFundMe site, Gookin said he wasn’t insulted by the presumption his votes could be bought, but rather by the assumption council votes needed to be bought in the first place.

“It’s insulting that the perception is, you must offer a bribe to get your own elected officials to pay attention to your concerns,” he said. “I believe the first job of all elected officials is to represent the public. Yet, too often, you see officials who believe their first job is to obey the will of [City] staff.”

McEvers added that obfuscating his council responsibilities because of a mob mentality would do a disservice to all who voted him into office.

“In my experience, when the people who are representing a particular point of view are in a group or a bunch or show up in a Council meeting, I think if they show up with 60 or 80 or 100 other people who agree, they think they’re right ... If I just went along with what they wanted, you could call me ‘Woody Gookin.’”