Boise Mayor McLean selects nine finalists to interview for City Council vacancies

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After receiving more than 50 applications to fill two vacancies on the Boise City Council, Mayor Lauren McLean has settled on nine finalists, including Lisa Sánchez, who is trying to reclaim her seat.

For District 3, which represents the North End and Northwest Boise, McLean plans to interview Sánchez; Suzanne Bergmann, a real estate agent; and Latonia Keith, a lawyer and administrator at The College of Idaho, according to a Monday news release. The District 3 vacancy occurred when Sánchez accidentally moved out of her district in January.

The other vacancy is for an at-large seat. McLean plans to interview:

• Grant Burgoyne, a retired legislator.

• Kathy Corless, who has worked for Ada County and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

• George Haaland, the co-founder of Valley Rock Capital, a real estate investment bank.

• Jordan Morales, a department manager in Boise State University’s Department of Computer Science.

• Colin Nash, a West Boise legislator and lawyer.

• Patricia Nilsson, a retired city planner who ran for the Ada County Commission last year.

The second vacancy happened because longtime Council Member Elaine Clegg plans to resign soon after becoming CEO of Valley Regional Transit, the local public transit agency.

The new appointments will bring residents from different parts of Boise to the council. Most applicants to the at-large seat live in west or southern Boise, while most current members live in the northern portions of Boise.

McLean accepted applications for the open positions until last week.

“Narrowing the pool was incredibly challenging,” the mayor said in the release. “I’m looking forward to the interviews and hope to discuss other opportunities in the city, as they come up, with others who expressed an interest in serving.”

McLean plans to announce her two choices in early March, according to a previous news release.

District 3 applicants

• Lisa Sánchez

Since Sánchez lost her seat on the council, her lawyer, Wendy Olson, has asked the city to reinstate her “immediately.”

In a letter to McLean as part of her application to be re-appointed to the council, Sánchez emphasized that she has been twice elected to the council.

“Since the evening of Jan. 10, 2023, I have been unable to represent District 3 as a recognized member of the council,” she wrote, referring to the date the council abruptly announced that it had learned that Sánchez had moved out of her district. Sánchez has since moved back into District 3. “To fulfill my oath of office and the will of the District 3 voters, I request that you reinstate me to my duly elected seat on the Boise City Council.”

• Suzanne Bergmann

In Bergmann’s application, she emphasized her experience on the board of the Idaho Humane Society, which she wrote had taught her about “the power of compromise.”

“Popular sentiment seems to be that the process has not been smooth as of late, that Boise may be losing its way,” Bergmann wrote. “That needs to change. And even if not true, that perception needs to change because it is corrosive: It shreds the fiber of what has always made Boise its strongest, its sense of shared community.”

• Latonia Keith

Keith’s application described her administrative positions at Concordia University School of Law and her move to a position at the College of Idaho after the Concordia law school closed in 2020.

Keith is also chair of the city’s urban renewal agency board and served on McLean’s housing and homelessness transition team, the letter said.

She said her work in urban renewal and with the city has allowed her to “think through issues related to affordability, urban design and economic growth.”

At-large applicants

• Grant Burgoyne

In a letter to the council, Burgoyne said he wants to serve because “Boise is now an unaffordable city for far too many. The resulting social and economic costs degrade our quality of life and are unacceptable to me.”

Burgoyne served in the Idaho’s House and Senate before retiring last year. He is also a lawyer and previously was an adjunct professor at Boise State University and the University of Idaho College of Law.

• Kathy Corless

Corless wrote that she has started two small businesses in the past 10 years.

“Negotiations require respect for all parties, valuing differences of opinions, not afraid to compromise for the greater good, same skills I witness in Tuesday’s City Council meetings,” Corless wrote.

• George Haaland

In a letter to McLean, Haaland wrote about time spent living in Austin, and the growth and zoning-code challenges the Texas capital has faced. He moved to Boise in 2020 and said the city has time to inform its future redevelopment patterns as it faces “the unrelenting forces of change.”

“This gives our community the chance to directly inform Boise’s future development patterns, using the updated Zoning Code as the template,” Haaland wrote. “Importantly, how we communicate with each other throughout the Zoning Code update process, and in the face of continued development in general, may be as impactful for our community’s intangible health as it is for our built environment.”

• Jordan Morales

In his letter, Morales talked about getting interested in politics when a proposal to replace the library’s main branch became a major political issue in the 2019 city election. His letter focused on accessible housing through accessory dwelling units, water, climate issues and transportation.

“I will always be interested in supporting projects that are economically diverse in nature as I believe there is tremendous value to our immediate neighborhoods when we have economic diversity and housing of all types mixed together,” Morales wrote.

• Colin Nash

Nash stressed his experience in the Idaho House, where he serves on the Appropriations Committee.

“I have worked hard to bring people together to develop innovative solutions to complex problems and look forward to leveraging my talent and experience to address Boise’s most pressing issues,” Nash wrote, “including the need for affordable housing, protecting critical municipal services through fiscally prudent budgeting, and managing relationships between state and local governments and the private sector to mitigate negative effects of growth.”

• Patricia Nilsson

In a letter to McLean, Nilsson wrote that while she did not win her Ada County Commission race last year against Thomas Dayley and Tony Jones, she received a majority of votes from Boise residents. Dayley, a Republican, won that election. She said serving as a council member would be like working as a community planner to improve living conditions for residents.

“To be a ‘city for all’ I want to work with the everyday heroes in city government and local organizations who strive to make every day a good day for all Boiseans,” Nilsson wrote.