Ketchum Mayor Ed Simon this week put the brakes on a plan to provide a parcel of city land for the proposed Wood River Community YMCA, alleging that an evolving lease agreement between the two parties has been "shoved down his throat."
That and other allegations came Tuesday, Jan. 18, as the Ketchum City Council considered giving final approval to a so-called "housekeeping" ordinance designed to allow the city to move forward with negotiating a lease with YMCA project leaders.
Simon said he would veto the new ordinance, sparking a feud with two council members who now believe the city is unnecessarily delaying the YMCA's plans.
"I feel like that lease agreement has been shoved down my throat, and you can quote me on that," the mayor said.
Simon suggested that information submitted to Ketchum voters before a city advisory vote on the YMCA in November was incomplete. He also alleged that the local media is partially to blame.
"I'm concerned about how it was sold to the public," he said of the Nov. 4 election.
At issue is how the city will move forward with finalizing a $1-per-year lease to provide the Ketchum-based YMCA group with approximately 1.5 acres of the city-owned Park and Ride lot, at the corner of Warm Springs and Saddle roads. The YMCA is in the throes of raising $16 million to build a new 84,000-square-foot recreation center on the 5.8-acre site.
On Tuesday, the City Council agenda called for issuing a third and final vote to repeal a 2004 ordinance that mandated the city to—among other things—conduct an advisory election on whether it should provide any public land for the YMCA project.
The ordinance was adopted by the council after a citizen-led petition demanded that the city appraise the Park and Ride lot, inform voters of its value and hold a special election to determine if a majority of citizens support using a portion of the parcel for the YMCA.
The petition also demanded the city prohibit any contract that would outsource city recreation services to the YMCA and declare that the public will not be responsible for any operating costs of the YMCA.
City officials determined that the city ordinance adopted to honor the petition must be repealed in order to move forward with finalizing a proposed land lease. At the same, they determined the 2004 ordinance was essentially moot because an advisory election on the YMCA was held in November, with voters endorsing the project by an approximately 40 percent margin.
Simon—who controls the city agenda—hinted in late December that he would veto the new ordinance to repeal the 2004 petition ordinance, but did not elaborate on his reasons.
This week, after Simon stated outright that he would veto the new ordinance, Councilman Baird Gourlay asked for an explanation. Gourlay noted that the council in December passed a resolution that states the city "will make a good-faith effort" to finalize a lease with YMCA, which has been negotiating a partnership with the city for years.
Immediately, Councilwoman Terry Tracy said she has reservations about repealing the initiative ordinance, largely because she believes some of its mandates were "never addressed."
Then, Simon took his turn.
"I'm concerned we're putting the cart before the horse," he said.
The mayor explained that he believes the city has a "fiduciary responsibility" to ensure the Park and Ride lot—in its entirety—is developed in a fashion that provides the best use and greatest public benefit. He suggested that the city needs to acquire more information on several development proposals for the Park and Ride lot—including the YMCA—before finalizing the YMCA lease.
"I think there's been a general lack of leadership in concern to this (YMCA) proposal over the last 10 years, and I'll take responsibility for the lack of leadership in the last three years," Simon said.
In his response, Simon recited the ongoing objections of several YMCA project opponents: that the information provided to the public before the November election was flawed.
He suggested the public was deceived by reports that the YMCA project would cover approximately 25 percent of the Park and Ride lot, a figure that was consistently used for the footprint of the YMCA building but did not include any landscaping or parking areas.
The mayor then lashed out at the Idaho Mountain Express, stating that if the newspaper "had spent as much time analyzing the Y" as it did criticizing his administration, some citizens' questions about the validity of the election results might not have surfaced.
The allegation came despite the fact that the newspaper has published dozens of articles about the YMCA, and seemingly without recognition that the "approximately 25 percent" figure put before voters on the November 2004 ballot came from Simon and the council.
Notwithstanding, one Idaho Mountain Express article about the election—published Oct. 27, 2004—included a large-format diagram illustrating that the YMCA complex would occupy some 2.6 acres of the Park and Ride lot, with landscaping and open space included.
Gourlay and Council President Randy Hall finally faced off with Simon, questioning why the mayor was suddenly seeking to delay finalization of the lease at the eleventh hour.
"Why didn't you bring this up months ago?" Gourlay asked the mayor.
Hall said the city's delay in approving a lease pursuant to the election has hindered the YMCA's fund-raising efforts, which depend on securing a project site.
Ketchum attorney Tom Praggastis, a YMCA board member, finally shot back at Simon.
"Nobody's shoving anything down your throat," Praggastis said. "Perish that thought. That's just not accurate."
Praggastis said the election came after numerous public forums about the project and was not "sold" to the newspapers or Ketchum citizens. He asked the council to avoid "picking us apart" with delays that might cause the project to "fall apart."
In the end, council members voted 2-1 to delay making a decision on repealing the initiative ordinance until their next meeting, on Monday, Feb. 7. Hall opposed the motion. Councilwoman Christina Potters was absent.
