EDITORIAL: Deep roots provide strength to city councils

The most recent city council appointees in Kootenai County’s largest cities share a number of similarities.

They’re politically neutral, deeply entrenched community servants known and respected in wide circles.

They’re diligent, hard-working and intelligent men with extensive leadership and management experience.

They also happen to be two of the most humble people you’ll ever meet.

We’re talking, of course, about recent Coeur d’Alene City Council addition Kenny Gabriel, whose new counterpart on the Post Falls City Council, Ryan Davis, was named to replace Councilor Kenny Shove on Nov. 26.

Like Gabriel in the Lake City, Davis is a known commodity in the River City and beyond. 

A longtime chairman of the Post Falls Planning and Zoning Commission, Davis became one of the county’s most appreciated leaders through his work with the Boys & Girls Club in Post Falls. Under Davis’s outstanding supervision as executive director, the Jordan Johnson Club in Post Falls became a model well worth emulating. 

With plenty of help from his friends, including top-flight citizens Ron Nilson, Duane and Lola Hagadone and others, Davis helped make expansion into Coeur d’Alene possible and then expanded his duties to cover both properties. The Jordan Johnson Club and Duane and Lola Hagadone Club today are not just models of excellence on a national scale; they’ve got Ryan Davis’s fingerprints all over them.

After 14 years as Mr. Boys & Girls Club in our region, Davis shifted gears to banking. For most of the past five years, he’s been a commercial banker with bank cda in Post Falls. What he might not have known about finances as Boys & Girls Club top administrator he certainly has learned as a professional banker, helping further bolster his bonafides as someone citizens can trust with their hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

Like Gabriel, who as chief oversaw a multi-million dollar fire department budget in Coeur d’Alene, Davis can match his fiduciary muscle with putting the well-being of citizens above any personal or other agendas. Through their selections, both cities have bestowed great responsibility on devoted servants with deep roots and unbridled passion for their communities.

Let’s hope that trend continues. Post Falls is expected to name a Council replacement for Josh Walker on Dec. 17. If Mayor Ron Jacobson and his colleagues can find another councilor like Ryan Davis, this will indeed be a holiday season to celebrate.