Things got a little tense at Tuesday night's Eagle City Council meeting.
Scott Nordstrom, a former Eagle City Council member and current member of the Eagle Urban Renewal Agency Board, had terse words for the council, which is considering restructuring the urban renewal agency board to partly or fully comprise city council members and the mayor.
"We have the highest qualified board you could put together in this town and you question our ability? I take offense to that," Nordstrom said. He said he was "absolutely stunned" to learn the council was considered terminating the current board. He chastised the city for not talking to the urban renewal agency before putting the issue on the council's Jan. 10 agenda. "The way you went about it is a little offensive," Nordstrom said.
About a half dozen people, most current or former urban renewal agency board members, told the council not to make changes to the board because it would be illegal, impractical or send a negative message to the community.
Council members Mark Butler and Norm Semanko said the issue is not the urban renew board's performance; the issue is how best to govern an urban renewal agency.
Urban renewal agencies, which receive property tax revenue and have the ability to issue bonds, have appointed, not elected board members. Other taxing districts, like sewer, school and highway district, have elected boards or commissions. If taxpayers are unhappy with their service, they can vote the board members out of office.
Semanko and Butler both said populating Eagle's urban renewal agency board with elected officials gives taxpayers more say and the city more oversight on how taxpayer dollars are spent.
The Council voted 4-0 to continue the discussion at its Feb. 14 council meeting, partly because the council needs more information from the urban renewal agency.
Three Eagle City Councilors -- Butler, Semanko and Mary Defayette -- each had to file public records requests to gain access to the urban renewal agency's bank statements and other financial documents. The urban renewal agency said it will comply with those public records requests by Jan. 30.
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