Hearing question prompts debate

SANDPOINT — Swiftness in government and hearing taxpayer concerns clashed at this week’s City Council meeting.

Sandpoint Mayor Gretchen Heller sided with efficiency, while council member John Reuter advocated listening to a city resident who wanted to speak at an advertised public hearing.

The hearing to consider a local improvement district to pay for sidewalk repairs on four city blocks of Sixth Avenue, from Larch Street south to Main was scheduled during the city’s regular council meeting.

Because of a lack of support for the LID, however, the mayor opted to cancel the hearing at the time it was scheduled.

“There was no need to have a hearing,” Heller said.

It was more expedient to move on with other council business.

Reuter disagreed.

Since the city published notice of a hearing, the council was required to have a hearing, he said.

“Do we go with what is expedient, or do we say it is worth the time to go through the public process,” he said.

The hearing was supposed to allow council members to consider public comment before they voted on whether residents of the impact area may form an LID.

The city’s public works department plans sewage line upgrades in the neighborhood this summer that require digging under streets and curbs. Because walkways in the neighborhood are buckled and in need of repair,  city officials asked local residents if they wanted their sidewalks repaired per city code, during the time of the sewage work.

The process required a petition of support signed by 60 percent of property owners in the neighborhood.

Time constraints, however, required that the hearing be scheduled at the same time the petition circulated, instead of after the signatures had been collected.

There was no way of knowing that only 17 residents, or around 27 percent, were in favor of the LID — not enough to warrant a hearing.

Council member Carrie Logan, who lives in the neighborhood, held information meetings since November with her neighbors regarding the potential LID.

Logan blamed the LID’s defeat on a tough economy and the bulk of itinerant home owners in the neighborhood. She said many property owners are in favor of replacing their sidewalks, but cannot presently afford it.

She was going to suggest a smaller, block-by-block LID, but did not have time to develop the concept, she said.

“And quite frankly, I’m tired of the whole thing,” she said.

But, whether or not to proceed with a hearing ignited a spark that flared briefly as council member and mayor exchanged words.

“It was like having a public hearing on a bridge to nowhere,” the mayor said.

For Reuter, though, a hearing — even if it allowed the sole resident a chance to speak — was imperative.

“The public wants the council to act swiftly,” Reuter said, “and it wants us to listen to the public.”

He and the mayor, both spoke to different elements, he said.

“This was a clash of those two priorities,” he said.

After the hearing, Council voted against the LID.

And the mayor and council member settled their differences.

“We laughed about it,” Reuter said.