For the week of November 12 - 18, 2003

Boand, Renick are elected to SV Council

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By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

Planning and Zoning Commissioner Blair Boand was elected Tuesday, Nov. 4, to fill Seat 1 on the Sun Valley City Council, while incumbent Lud Renick narrowly secured enough votes to retain Seat 2 on the panel.

By a margin of 355 votes to 213, Boand won the race for designated Seat 1 over businessman Matthew Colesworthy. "I am pleased, to say the least," Boand said Friday, Nov. 7, after the results were certified by the current City Council.

Renick was victorious over challenger Milton Adam by a significantly smaller margin. Renick earned 299 votes while Adam garnered 265.

Vacationing on the island of Maui, Hawaii, Renick this week said the race for Seat 2 was closer than he anticipated. "I’m pleased that I won," he said.

Boand and Renick will be sworn into office for a four-year term at the City Council’s first meeting in 2004. The meeting is currently scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 15.

The two contested City Council races—paired with a competitive race for mayor—prompted nearly three out of four registered Sun Valley voters to participate in the Nov. 4 election.

After a final tally late Nov. 4, city officials determined that 594 voters cast ballots in the election. The city has approximately 810 registered voters.

With an abundance of ballots to count the night of Election Day, election officials did not complete a final tally of votes until 11:45 p.m. The polls closed at 8 p.m.

 

Boand prevails

Boand, 54, is a partner in Sun Valley-based Mountain Estates Property Management. He has served on the Sun Valley P&Z since January 2000.

In his aggressive two-month-long campaign for Seat 1, Boand told voters he wants to manage growth in a manner that respects property rights and enhances the city’s quality of life.

Boand said he believes his experience on the P&Z might have helped him earn the victory. "I ran the best campaign that I could," he said. "I think that the people appreciated my experience."

In taking Seat 1, Boand will replace current City Council President Latham Williams, who decided to vacate the post to run for Sun Valley mayor. Williams lost his bid for the mayor’s seat to retired physician Jon Thorson.

As one of his first duties as mayor, Thorson will be asked to nominate a replacement for Boand on the P&Z.

Colesworthy, a 49-year-old associate vice president at the A.G. Edwards investment firm in Ketchum, had a strong showing in his first bid for city office. "My opponent won, and I wish him well," he said this week.

Colesworthy campaigned on a platform quite similar to Boand’s, but might have been hampered because he had no formal experience in city government.

 

Renick takes Seat 2

Renick, 74, a 16-year resident of Sun Valley, said he spent a significant amount of time before the election campaigning for mayoral candidate Williams. At the same time, he said he spent less energy campaigning for his own re-election to Seat 2, which he gained in an uncontested election in 1999.

"I suppose the harder I worked for Latham, the more I gave to Milt," he said, adding that he is "disappointed" that Williams did not win the mayoral election.

During his low-profile campaign, Renick stressed to voters that he is an experienced councilman with a hard work ethic and a solid record of attending council meetings.

Adam, 68, a retired mechanical design engineer, for the second time in four years lost in a bid to earn a seat on the council. In the race for Seat 1 in 1999, he lost to Williams.

In a letter to the Mountain Express editor this week, Adam said he feels he had "achieved victory" in the election by giving voters a choice to incumbent Renick.

"It takes a lot of courage to run for public office, especially in a city as special and complicated as Sun Valley," Adam wrote. "I am pleased to have been able to participate in the process."

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.